Latest / Respec: Video Game Ramblings / Respec Ramblings 1: Arnold Schwarzenegger should be the next Doctor Who, and are we unhinged?

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Respec Ramblings 1: Arnold Schwarzenegger should be the next Doctor Who, and are we unhinged? · Respec: Video Game Ramblings

0:03
R -E -S -P -E -C -P, not quite what Aretha Franklin
0:08
would say, but welcome to the very first edition
0:13
of Video Game Ramblings on the Respec podcast.
0:19
So hello, thanks for joining us. I'm joined today
0:22
by a very familiar face to me, and I hope some
0:26
of you guys as well, the lovely Tom Ori. It's
0:33
a great first. Am I lovely? Well, you can be.
0:38
Yeah, that's fair. Okay, I'll take it. That other
0:43
voice, that other face you see if you're on the
0:46
video version is Rebecca. And we all have something
0:49
in common, right? We do. Video games? Is it video
0:54
games? It is video games. Broadly? Yeah, broadly
0:58
speaking, yeah. We've all written about video
1:00
games together in the past at various places.
1:04
I think most prominently VG247, but also Eurogamer.
1:12
And we recently left that operation and we've
1:16
decided to do Shock Horror, a website about...
1:21
video games tom are we are we unhinged are we
1:26
unhinged i don't know i mean i spent a long time
1:30
trying to get out of games media literal months
1:33
just trying really hard and then i was like i
1:37
give up alex just let's just do it let's do it
1:40
let's go for it i love how the real life version
1:44
that you said to me was much more like i've decided
1:46
i still This is where my passion is. I still
1:49
want to do it. And the audience version you present
1:51
is, I give up. One could never possibly emote
1:55
that hard in front of a camera. It's all an act.
2:00
Everything is an act. And you've got to play
2:03
your role. My role is this kind of slightly helpless,
2:09
depressed, sad individual. Well, if you want
2:21
more of that, you've come to the right place.
2:23
And Rebecca, obviously you've recently just departed
2:27
VG247 a little bit after us. Yes. And you're
2:31
going to be one of the faces that is going to
2:33
be appearing here, which I'm really excited about.
2:35
Me too. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I don't know
2:39
how much I want to get into it. But yeah, I decided
2:41
that independent games media was where it was
2:43
at. I decided to be here instead. And thank you
2:48
for letting me, basically. I guess that's a good
2:50
segue, right? In the sense that why are we doing
2:52
this, right? Are we deranged? Well, I don't think
2:55
so. I mean, obviously, so folk will know, you
3:00
know, some people will know me from Eurogamer,
3:03
from VG247. Other people might know me as like
3:06
one of the regulars on VGC's podcast, which is
3:10
something that I foresee continuing. Like we
3:13
want to work with those guys quite a lot, I think,
3:15
and just... create a cool ecosystem because um
3:19
i've been inside the very very big corporately
3:24
owned games media machine and you know i won't
3:26
speak for you guys but where i stand on it is
3:29
there's there's loads to love about it resources
3:31
and support and being able to send an email and
3:34
get a problem fixed relatively quickly without
3:37
having to fix it yourself perhaps not too quickly
3:40
um But, you know, there's a power to independence
3:43
and I've been watching what other sites are doing
3:45
and it's really excited me. And also, obviously,
3:49
I've had the element of all the time I was working
3:54
in the big corporately owned games media for
3:56
ReadPop, for Ziff Davis, etc. I also remained
3:59
the co -owner of RPGsite. And so a lot of the
4:04
vision of Respec as I see it, and I'm sure Tom,
4:08
you may have. thoughts as well, but it's very
4:10
much about continuing some of the stuff we loved
4:15
doing on VG247, on Eurogamer, on Videogamer,
4:19
in your case, Tom. And I'm sure, well, I can
4:22
promise you're going to see familiar faces from
4:25
those places on the website bylines and on the
4:28
pod and stuff like that, on videos. But also,
4:31
I'm really proud of what RPGsite is. If you have
4:34
never visited before RPGsite .net, it's a...
4:37
what it says on the tin it's a role -playing
4:39
game website and i want to bring some of that
4:41
energy to a website that covers everything rather
4:44
than shuts itself out of half the games that
4:46
come out um so yeah that that's where i yeah
4:49
independent i think it's the way to go um i think
4:53
we need more of it i think as these big websites
4:55
lay more and more and more people off um the
4:58
best thing you can do is be an independent small
5:01
ship that does something uh really well and we
5:05
want to do a certain type of coverage really
5:06
well i don't know how you you feel tom no i think
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that is it i think i mean we've both had years
5:12
working like you rpg site it's been around for
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a long time i was a video gamer for 12 years
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and like there's a different feel to those websites
5:23
than working for i mean as much as i love for
5:25
you 24 7 and you're a gamer and i was there for
5:28
nine years or so um There's just a feeling that
5:33
you can just be a bit scrappier, a bit more reactive,
5:36
a bit more kind of, let's do this thing. And
5:39
you have the idea in the morning and then you
5:40
launch it in the afternoon kind of thing, which
5:43
is very hard to do when there are multiple teams
5:46
working across every single idea. There are benefits
5:50
to that, obviously, but I think being able to
5:52
just do what we want, I guess, is the big thing
5:56
here. And just kind of... try to get back to
6:03
like why we kind of started doing this in the
6:07
first place like the reason i started a video
6:09
game website is because that's what i wanted
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to do i wanted to write about video games right
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and um as you stay doing a job for 20 years you
6:21
gradually do less and less of that thing and
6:25
do more and more of the stuff that you didn't
6:27
really want to be doing which is sorry for you
6:29
two but managing people like you two um so you
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end up writing less playing less games talking
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about games less and it's just more about like
6:38
the uh the numbers behind everything become the
6:43
more dominating factor and i'm sure like i'm
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saying this now in a couple of months i'll be
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like looking at google analytics in a depression
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every night but um I think that what I want to
6:56
achieve with Respec is that feeling of like we
7:00
all are doing this. Yes, we do want to earn money
7:03
and have a living from this, but also because
7:05
we just enjoy doing it. I'm being wary of using
7:09
the word passion because passion is often abused
7:13
as a kind of like do something for free, which
7:17
is not what we're about at all. It's about that
7:19
feeling of like when I was a kid. i was obsessed
7:22
with reading about video games i used to buy
7:25
as many magazines as i could all my pocket money
7:29
all the money i earned from my little side jobs
7:31
and stuff on magazines if i couldn't afford them
7:34
i'd read them in smiths um and i'd just be like
7:37
take this magazine would be like other kids might
7:40
take stuff on holiday with them like i know like
7:42
you might take your comfort bear or something
7:44
i used to take official playstation magazine
7:45
with me and read it over and over again um So,
7:50
I mean, that's the kind of thing I'd like us
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to get to is that feeling of like video games.
7:55
I mean, there's a lot of negativity around video
7:57
games rightly at the moment because things are
7:59
a bit of a mess. And a lot of stuff is happening
8:03
that is terrible, but I'd still like to be able
8:06
to celebrate the good side of it, which is games
8:09
are great, actually, when you ignore all the
8:12
other stuff, which is hard to do, obviously.
8:15
But it can be easy to get lost in the fact that
8:19
everything is terrible when actually some of
8:23
these things even like some of the stuff you
8:25
don't even know is released is actually really
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great i know rebecca is big in the on the indie
8:30
side of things um so yeah i think there's a lot
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to celebrate still without ignoring all the the
8:35
bad stuff should have really written a little
8:39
flyer for my podcast and just held it up at that
8:41
point that would have been yeah no plug plug
8:43
plug away yes please um podcast .co .uk We just
8:48
recorded episode 61, which is our mid -year check
8:50
-in. It's me and Liam Richardson and Rachel Watts,
8:53
who are also ex -Gamer Network people who are
8:56
awesome and even more talented, way more talented
8:58
than me and way funnier. So go listen to us talk
9:01
about indie games and get really sidetracked
9:03
every fortnight. Thank you. That's why I'm looking
9:06
forward to it, to be fair. Like having you joining
9:08
us, Rebecca, like, you know, so on RPGs, we love
9:12
a lost leader. you know because because because
9:14
so we you know in in too many to some degree
9:17
this is boring business stuff right but to some
9:20
degree you end up writing about so much about
9:23
final fantasy or persona or whatever Because
9:25
you want to, but also because that pays the bills
9:29
to write about some tiny Japanese indie that's
9:33
on Steam that is a really excellent genre piece
9:36
that no one's heard of. And I definitely want
9:38
to do a lot of that here. Yeah, I mean, that's,
9:40
you know, that's the sort of wonderful opportunity
9:41
that's kind of disappeared in sort of mainstream
9:43
games media over the last few years, even like
9:46
since I joined, what, seven years ago. That was
9:49
still kind of feasible. back in sort of 2020
9:51
2021 but now it's a lot more i mean i understand
9:55
why it has to be but a lot more results focused
9:57
a lot more numbers focused and yeah i mean i
10:00
i love specializing in all these stupid gacha
10:02
games that do ridiculous numbers but i also really
10:04
like to be able to talk about the one hour indie
10:06
that three people have played yeah i definitely
10:09
want to do a bunch of that i mean you know that
10:11
the whole idea of like you know um of Well, if
10:15
someone's got an hour to spare, they could spend
10:17
that hour writing about something that thousands
10:18
and thousands and thousands of people are going
10:20
to read that's less interesting or something
10:22
that perhaps less people are going to read, but
10:24
it's really going to interest those people. It's
10:26
always a difficult balance, but it speaks to
10:28
what Tom just said actually about, I mean, for
10:30
one time, you are my most enemy because I was
10:32
all about N64 magazine. I was never an IPM guy.
10:35
I used to buy that too. I was like, look, it's
10:38
just the one I remember because I had the issue
10:41
that had the official F1 game on the cover. and
10:44
as a kid i loved f1 don't know why but i loved
10:47
it it was on tv right um i used to look at the
10:49
screenshots in that and think this and go to
10:52
my mum look is this real or is this a is this
10:54
a game i used to do it all the time with games
10:56
like fifa on the mega dive look mum looks real
10:59
doesn't it and she's like yeah it does i mean
11:02
obviously now that that sounds ridiculous but
11:04
at the time that's what that's what you believe
11:06
right as a kid yeah it's i yeah i uh yeah i guess
11:13
i was a nintendo kid although the one i always
11:15
remember is the very first issue of um the official
11:19
dreamcast magazine and they clearly obviously
11:21
got us like now i'm in now now i've been in this
11:24
world for two decades more or less um i now understand
11:30
what probably happened there where they probably
11:31
literally had no assets for the cover and they
11:33
were like shit What do we put on the cover of
11:36
our very first issue? So they had like a model
11:39
posing where she represented the Dreamcast in
11:42
some ethereal way. And weirdly, that cover is
11:46
burned into my brain, even though it's just like
11:48
the most weird, esoteric thing. It's very much,
11:52
it's of an era and it instantly transports you
11:55
back to that era just to think about those, like
11:57
any sort of like game adverts as well with just
12:00
real people modeling in a very tenuous way. Yeah,
12:04
I mean, the ads, well, sometimes the ads, that
12:06
was a different, that was a different matter.
12:07
I mean, you know, that's one thing we won't be
12:09
able to do here. We won't be able to, I don't
12:11
think we've got the money to pay any models.
12:13
Or it'd be extremely cheap models. Or maybe we'll
12:15
just get YouTube. I was on a Bartlett's catalog
12:17
once. Oh, there you go then. So technically,
12:21
we can add model to your, to your resume. You
12:27
know, we can put that on the, on the site when
12:29
we, when. This is a pre -record, so the site
12:31
isn't live yet, but it will be when you hear
12:34
this. But we can add that to the opening post
12:37
to say, noted model, Butlin's model, Thomas Horry.
12:43
Can you remember the year? Because it looks really
12:44
good if you can put the year in. I want to say
12:47
1991. Wow. It was a long time ago. Is that Sonic
12:55
the Hedgehog 1 year? I think that's Sonic the
12:57
Hedgehog 1 year. It's just my hand as well. To
12:59
be clear, it was just my hand. Well, that's not.
13:02
Hand model. We get a lot of that. We used to
13:05
get a lot of those in video games because you
13:06
get, you know, people holding the Wii remotes
13:08
or whatever. These days, not so much. This speaks
13:12
to, you know, as you can probably tell, you can
13:15
expect some retro stuff from us. We do love a
13:18
little bit of a backwards looking name. Yeah.
13:21
Indeed. I mean, you probably see my in -progress
13:23
retro, mostly Sims shelf, but this is all retro
13:26
PC games. I can't go because it's quite small
13:29
on the thumbnail. But is that all like the old
13:31
big box Sims? Yeah, that's the whole top shelf
13:34
is the Sims 1 to 3. Next shelf is Sims 4, which
13:37
has fallen over, but also isn't complete because
13:39
they've gone all digital now. And then it's like
13:40
a bunch of random PC games all the way down.
13:44
And that's sad that you can't actually have a...
13:48
a complete sims collection anymore yeah well
13:49
i was buying codes in boxes but then i started
13:51
mostly getting them as review codes so also there's
13:54
like the trade -off of like i didn't actually
13:55
have to pay for a lot of them so it's a bit like
13:57
this shelf this shelf is like is is playstation
14:01
x playstation ps2 xbox ps1 game boy game boy
14:05
advanced ds but like there's just a tiny tiny
14:08
number of switch switch and switch two games
14:10
up there and a tiny tiny number of ps4 ps5 because
14:12
i have largely stopped which friends of mine
14:15
like you know um John Lennon on Digital Foundry
14:18
would tell me off because they're beating the
14:20
do not let physical die. Yeah, absolutely. I
14:24
mean, given the choice, I'll always buy physical.
14:25
Most of my console stuff's downstairs because
14:27
my partner is also a gamer. So it seems quite
14:29
unfair to steal it all and shove it in my office
14:31
when he might want it to. But yeah, absolutely.
14:34
Physical is where it's at. Love a limited run
14:37
on its emergence. Yes, shout out to those guys.
14:40
So what else are we going to say about this website?
14:43
I mean, you know, it's going to be, we want...
14:45
We want you guys to help us to shape it. Something
14:49
we're not doing is we're not doing like loads
14:51
and loads of paywalled content because my conclusion
14:56
is that times are pretty rough and pretty hard
14:59
economically for a lot of people right now. And
15:02
so, you know, some people just want to read about
15:05
video games and then maybe don't have the cash
15:07
to pay for that. However, people who do want
15:11
to support us, direct support really helps, you
15:13
know. the guys at vgc are very good at beating
15:17
that drum and um i shall try to be as uh to be
15:22
as brazen as they are with it said with love
15:24
by the way lads um but uh yeah you can you know
15:27
you'll be able to support us directly and there'll
15:29
be little bits and bobs but we want to have a
15:31
conversation with you guys about what this site
15:32
should be we've got some ideas you'll see features
15:35
and stuff which give a good idea of where we're
15:37
going with it but i suppose it's important to
15:39
say that bit and i suppose that's that's the
15:42
pitch for the site right and you can get on the
15:44
site and you'll hear more in future weeks on
15:46
the podcast about what we're doing and how you
15:48
can get involved and stuff like that and if you
15:50
were a fan back in the day of something that
15:53
we were involved with before whether that was
15:55
the websites whether that was something like
15:57
video 24 7 best games ever pod whether that was
16:00
the old video gamer shenanigans we should uh
16:03
we want to hear about what things you loved because
16:05
we want to consider how those things might be
16:07
transposed into the new royal purple respec era
16:12
um but i guess let's talk a little bit about
16:15
obviously this is a pre -record right and when
16:17
we're recording this we don't actually know launching
16:20
a website is a lot like you know that bit in
16:23
wallace and gromit the wrong trousers where gromit's
16:25
on the train and He's putting the track down
16:28
in front as the penguin chases him. I am currently
16:32
the grommet. And I suppose Tom, who he's keen
16:37
to get going, is the penguin. My nickname at
16:40
school was penguin. Okay, hang on. Let's take
16:45
this detour. Absolutely, no. I will not let this
16:49
continue. It's just because kids are mean, right?
16:53
And when I... I used to play football at break
16:56
and lunchtime in the playground. And it was claimed
17:00
that I ran like a penguin. Okay. That is it.
17:04
It's like arms to the side kind of style. Did
17:08
you? Deliberately. I don't know. I mean, I was
17:10
too focused on being brilliant at football to
17:13
notice. Fair enough. If it was your secret, then,
17:17
yeah. But, I mean, maybe. But deliberately now,
17:20
the amount of times I've run in the last... 10
17:23
years are like maybe once at sports day for my
17:26
son who wasn't watching um but i deliberately
17:30
make a big point about not having my arms down
17:32
to the side now like proper full -on like olympic
17:37
sprinting style that was it was a when i was
17:41
a child um you know when i was like nine ten
17:46
whatever um there was a period of time on the
17:49
playground where i absolutely did do the anime
17:53
slash sonic hands behind the back run because
17:57
i thought it made you know in my brain i was
18:00
like clearly it makes you faster um and this
18:03
was brought up in my uh in my best man speech
18:07
at my wedding and i have to say despite all the
18:10
other things they said about all the times i'd
18:12
got paralysically drunk and vomited everywhere
18:14
or whatever it was probably the most embarrassing
18:17
thing they said in the uh in the best man speech
18:19
and now i've just aired it on a podcast um So
18:22
there you go. I mean, that was a simpler time,
18:24
right? Now, these days, kids are doing the thing
18:26
from weapons, right? Where they run with the
18:28
arms to the side. Is that just the kids in weapons
18:32
or is that? Who let their kids watch weapons?
18:35
The amount of kids that are watching like stuff
18:38
you wouldn't believe. Right, yeah. As the only
18:40
one here who's not a parent, I defer to you entirely
18:43
on that one. I mean, my kids aren't. They're
18:45
like, are you old enough to watch? Are you 15?
18:48
No, you're not watching this then, are you? Very
18:51
strict. It's a slippery slope though, because
18:53
it's like my daughter's obsessed with K -pop
18:58
demon hunters. Of course she is. And she's obviously
19:02
not even at school yet. And that's a perfectly
19:05
appropriate film really for that age. But it
19:08
is all about, and I wasn't that bothered about
19:10
this, but I think it alarmed my wife a little
19:12
bit. It's obviously all about demons and killing
19:14
the demons. And so very quickly, she's then talking
19:16
about... I'm going to kill this. I'm going to
19:18
kill this demon. I'm going to kill that. I'm
19:20
going to kill the baddies. A lot of killing.
19:23
Yeah, you do want to be careful because I was
19:25
allowed to watch Buffy when I was around, like
19:28
maybe a little bit older than that, around that
19:29
age. And I grew up to be a games journalist.
19:31
So you want to keep an eye on that. But then
19:34
again, you know, a lot of six, seven year olds
19:38
or whatever are watching Doctor Who and watching
19:39
people get, well, not anymore, but were watching
19:42
people get exterminated or whatever. So I suppose
19:45
it's all the same. It's always been deemed family
19:47
appropriate, right? Yeah. Where does Doctor Who
19:50
get the pass? Doctor Who, The Predator, they're
19:52
basically the same in my mind. Well, that actually,
19:58
I would honestly, I stopped watching about five
20:00
years ago. I would start watching again if that
20:02
was the direction that they took with Doctor
20:04
Who in the next, if there's a next series. Maybe
20:06
Arnie should be the next. Let's start the petition.
20:11
Yeah, I can. Something really left field to launch
20:14
with the website, a petition. For that specific.
20:18
That's the big thing. About 15 years ago, websites
20:22
were all about campaigns. Campaigns to get stuff
20:26
happening. Like let's campaign to like reduce
20:31
the price of video games by three pounds in the
20:34
UK or get game to increase their trading prices.
20:39
Big campaign. I don't think that's going to work
20:41
anymore. Yeah, no, that's not going to happen,
20:43
but we could. Cast the next Doctor Who. I believe
20:46
in that. I could see Arnie. For me, it's Arnie
20:50
or it's Ben Starr. That's the options. There
20:52
you go. There's a plug. That's someone I'm sure
20:55
who will come and join us at some stage. Yeah,
21:00
it's... If you are famous and listening to this,
21:04
someone might be. Make sure you don't just...
21:07
It really bothers me when people do this, right?
21:09
And maybe you've done this, so I apologise, but
21:11
don't just like the post. on social media share
21:16
it properly yeah i don't i don't if you're just
21:20
a liker not a sharer i'm not i've got no time
21:22
for you you know that's uh i wouldn't say no
21:26
time we might want these people to give us something
21:28
if you're okay fine if you're paying us as well
21:30
fine do you remember that if you've made the
21:33
sensible switch to blue sky from the old awful
21:36
place then likes basically don't do anything
21:38
on blue sky so you do need to share on blue sky
21:40
exactly is that true i'm only on blue sky Me
21:44
too. I'm getting social media tips now. I'm only
21:46
on this guy. That's the limit of my knowledge.
21:48
Apart from when people shout at me about bugs
21:50
on the website and then I have to go on extra
21:52
reply from the brand account and go, we're trying
21:54
to fix it. Which, you know, you might be experiencing.
21:58
I'm sure I'll be experiencing some of that with
22:00
this website when it launches. Anyway, we should
22:03
probably talk a little bit about video games.
22:04
Like I say, this is a pre -record, but there
22:06
is some stuff. Oh crap, we have video games.
22:09
there is some stuff we can talk about one thing
22:11
i know i can talk about is um by the time this
22:14
goes out live certainly uh the embargo will have
22:18
lifted on starfox which i have been playing um
22:22
which i think is really good um it's really good
22:29
but it's in fact i'm dressed appropriately i
22:30
got a starfox t -shirt on which was not intentional
22:32
but there you go um but that probably speaks
22:35
to how much i like this franchise or some of
22:38
it um and starbucks 64 is probably it's certainly
22:44
in my top five games of all time um i think it's
22:48
amazing and so it's a tall order to remake this
22:50
game um and i guess what i'd say is there will
22:53
there'll be a review on the site by the time
22:55
this goes out but um i would sum it up as um
22:59
it's the best looking game ever released by nintendo
23:05
Now, there was a whole thing, obviously, this
23:07
wasn't technically developed by Nintendo, developed
23:09
by a US studio called Vellan Studios, and then
23:12
there was another... Did they do the... Not the
23:15
dodgeball game, like a multiplayer dodgeball
23:18
game. Is that them? I know they did some VR...
23:21
It was called, like, it was really good. My son
23:24
was obsessed with it. It was like a multiplayer
23:26
deathmatch dodgeball. No, they... I think it
23:28
was them. Let's, um... I've derailed this terribly.
23:32
No, it's a good... No, no, no. It's a good...
23:34
Let's find out. Knockout City. Knockout City.
23:37
That's it. Knockout City. It was really good
23:39
and it died because I think someone dropped support
23:42
and they just went independent and then it went
23:44
downhill. But it was a very good game. Well,
23:47
they did that Mario Kart as well. That was their
23:49
first brush for Nintendo. They did that crazy
23:51
Mario Kart where it was a physical kart you put
23:55
down and you raced it through your house. So
23:58
that was their first brush. um with nintendo
24:02
um so yeah so the velan and then the cut scenes
24:05
which are gorgeous as well was also done by us
24:07
studio called waterproof and they did sort of
24:10
like the cut scenes in mortal combat one and
24:12
and hogwarts legacy and things like that um it's
24:16
really good looking it's really cool i do really
24:17
like those character designs um now they've grown
24:21
on me um but there's challenges like the art
24:25
style um the feedback is much They made it less
24:31
gamey, I suppose, even though the game itself
24:33
is identical. And so the feedback the game gives
24:36
you is, I think, less potent than in the original.
24:39
To give the really obvious example of when you
24:41
do a barrel roll while a laser's hitting you
24:45
in the N64 game, it makes a very distinct sort
24:48
of noise of the lasers bouncing off. In this,
24:52
there isn't a noise like that at all. You know,
24:56
because I guess they've gone for this more grounded,
24:58
realistic look. Or similarly, like when you got
25:01
hit or when the bosses got hit, the vehicles
25:03
would like really heavily shake and flash bright
25:05
red, like arcade style. And all that sort of
25:10
gone, which that one actually has a weird consequence
25:12
because some of the bosses, it can be quite difficult
25:15
to tell if you're hitting them in the correct
25:18
space, in the correct place, because. When you
25:22
had that big, very visible feedback, it was really
25:25
obvious. And I was fine because I've played this
25:28
game hundreds of times. But I'm curious how someone
25:31
new is going to find it, if they're going to
25:34
find some of the bosses a little bit difficult
25:39
to initially puzzle out. But it's a really cool
25:43
remit. And let me just dispel as well, there
25:46
is no extra stuff. There is no hidden... extra
25:50
character no hidden star wolf campaign no extra
25:54
levels the multiplayer is completely different
25:57
so there is that and it is quite good um but
26:00
there's nothing new so you can dispel that thought
26:03
from your mind this is a one -to -one remake
26:05
the cut scenes are they are they new as in are
26:08
they is that there's new writing and stuff or
26:10
is it just exactly What was said previously?
26:13
No, it's new. It's new. It's been rewritten.
26:16
So before you started each level, you would have
26:19
like a briefing with General Pepper where it'd
26:22
just be like a static image of him where the
26:24
mouth would flap and a static image of Fox where
26:26
the mouth would flap. And they'd say one thing
26:28
to each other, maybe two things, and then it
26:30
would go to the mission. Now it's like... pepper's
26:33
on like a holograph table in the middle of the
26:36
common area of the great fox and the other guys
26:38
are like you know falco's getting something out
26:40
of the out of the fridge and chugging it while
26:42
while fox is talking and then you know the missions
26:45
get laid out the options when you've got more
26:47
than one option peppy will go well we could go
26:49
here we could go there they're not long um they're
26:52
probably like two to three minutes per level
26:55
but they're nice There's lots of little small
26:59
changes as well. So Star Fox Series 4 has this
27:01
thing going on. Obviously, you can take multiple
27:02
routes through the galaxy to get to the end.
27:06
And there's two versions of the final mission.
27:08
And then which one you do depends on whether
27:10
you get the true end or the normal fake end.
27:15
In the original game, you would roll credits
27:17
regardless of which you got. They've changed
27:18
that so you don't get credits on the easy route.
27:21
You only get a teaser which tells you that you
27:24
need to go. to do the harder route in order to
27:28
actually see the end of the story. So they've
27:30
changed things. And the story stuff is mixed.
27:33
I think the new voice cast is mostly great, but
27:36
it's just different, I guess. So a really good
27:43
example is there's a boss on Zone S, which is
27:47
like a polluted water planet. In the original
27:51
game, they give him a pirate voice and he's full
27:54
on, he's doing all that. And they just don't,
27:58
he doesn't have that in this. He's just more
28:00
of a generic bad guy. Or like the boss of Meteor,
28:04
halfway through that boss, he pretends to be
28:07
defeated. He pretends to surrender. And in the
28:10
original game, he sort of goes, you're no match
28:13
for me in this really like sarcastic voice. I
28:17
admit defeat. You can tell from the tone of his
28:21
voice that he's lying and he's going to do a
28:24
sneak attack on you. Whereas in this, they actually
28:27
turn this guy into quite a good actor where he's
28:29
like begging for his life with the line. It's
28:31
the same line, but the performance completely
28:33
switches it around. And it's like, it isn't one
28:37
that is specifically better, but you're going
28:39
to have a preference. And I think some of the
28:41
line reads for me, some of the line reads are
28:42
better. Some of them are worse. And Andross's
28:44
voice, I think is great in this game. But yeah,
28:49
I've really, really liked it. It's good. I don't
28:51
know if you guys have any particular questions
28:52
about it. Would you, if you were like, I'm going
28:56
to play through Star Fox 64, would you choose
29:00
to play through on the N64 version or this one?
29:04
Jury's out a little bit. What I'd say is this,
29:06
is I would, if it's casual play, I would choose
29:09
to play this. I've got, I'm going on holiday
29:11
in a few weeks and I'm quite looking forward
29:14
to like. I was like, I've got a two -hour flight,
29:17
and two hours is more or less two runs of Star
29:20
Fox if you skip all the cut scenes. And I was
29:22
like, I'm going to do two runs and see how high
29:25
a score I can get. However, if I was like seriously
29:27
score attacking, so this is actually, this is
29:29
the thing I suppose, important context to me,
29:33
is that I used to be super into this game. And
29:37
by which I mean like I literally... used to like
29:40
score attack it and had all the strats down and
29:43
all that sort of stuff and like would post scores
29:45
to websites that were like in the region of top
29:47
50 or 50 or 60 people in the world at scoring
29:51
in this game and if i was doing that i don't
29:53
know what it is i feel like somehow weirdly the
29:56
n64 version feels a little better i don't know
29:59
if that's because i miss the slowdown this is
30:02
beautiful silky frame rate but actually for a
30:06
score attack and stuff a bit of slowdown can
30:08
be quite nice i don't know if it's um the analog
30:12
stick on the switch to i really need to try and
30:14
play this with the nintendo 64 controller they
30:16
have for switch to should do that before i write
30:19
the review um but yeah so it's keep in mind i
30:22
guess they had a clear mission with this which
30:25
was that um they wanted to bring starfox to a
30:32
newer audience after the mario movie and stuff
30:34
like that and if you've never played one of these
30:36
games before or you've only tangentially played
30:38
it or maybe you played one of the newer crapper
30:41
ones like you had the misfortune to try and zero
30:43
on on wii u or whatever this is a perfect place
30:46
to just come in that's what i'd say fantastic
30:49
that was you've answered my questions really
30:50
already because yeah as someone who completely
30:52
missed starfox the first time around i was gonna
30:54
ask is this like a good place for me to start
30:57
but it sounds like that's a yes Yeah, it's good.
31:00
It's 100%. And I'm really curious because obviously
31:03
the rumors that revealed this game suggested
31:07
that there was another Star Fox game in development,
31:10
which also tallies with what I have heard. And
31:14
so I'm very curious about how quickly that will,
31:16
and that seems like it will be an original game
31:18
rather than a remake. So I'm very curious about
31:20
how quickly that might follow and what exactly
31:22
that game might be. Will it be... another rail
31:25
shooter? Will it be something more in the vein
31:27
of Star Fox Adventures, which is a bit of a Zelda
31:29
-like? Will it be something that sort of splits
31:31
the difference and does a bit of both? It's definitely
31:33
made me very excited for the future of the franchise.
31:36
And also, one other thing I'll say is, if Nintendo's
31:40
willing to do remakes like this, because I expect
31:43
Zelda might be a bit different, but if Nintendo's
31:47
willing to do remakes like this that are relatively
31:48
one -to -one, one has to wonder, like, are we
31:52
going to do F -Zero? Or, you know, Opens the
31:55
door for some old IP, I think. Punch out? You
31:59
could totally do those in this vein. This game,
32:05
like, Star Fox 64 was a very different era, right?
32:08
So, like you said, an hour to do a run -ish.
32:12
Is that how, for people hearing that and going,
32:15
40 quid or whatever, I don't know how much this
32:19
is, 40, 50 quid. What is the appeal of this?
32:24
Why are you getting your money's worth for this,
32:27
even though it is a short run game? So a run
32:29
is, how many levels is a run? A run is, I'm just
32:34
counting it in my brain. It would be one, two,
32:37
now I'm counting it out loud. One, two, three,
32:39
four, five, six. So a run is seven levels and
32:43
the game has like 16 levels, I think, off the
32:47
top of my head. Yeah, that's right. There's all
32:53
sorts of routes you can take through. There's
32:54
hidden paths to find. There's a difference between
33:00
mission complete and mission accomplished. So
33:02
if you do a level to the standard of mission
33:05
complete, you might be sent down one path. If
33:09
you do a level to the standard of mission accomplished,
33:11
you might be sent to another path. And also it's
33:14
an arcade style rail shooter. So the idea is
33:17
you do go through. over and over again and try
33:20
and get the high scores on levels try and score
33:22
medals on each level which is when you get a
33:24
certain score threshold which is relatively challenging
33:28
or in some cases very challenging to hit um so
33:32
there's a lot of replay value but you do have
33:34
to understand you are going to be replaying the
33:36
same some relatively samey stuff quite a lot
33:40
of times but that is sort of the beauty of it
33:42
it's a game that you want to master over time
33:44
and I wrote an article about this years and years
33:48
ago on VG247 saying like, and I think I wrote
33:50
it in the context of Star Fox as well, saying
33:53
like, it's time for everyone to admit that it's
33:55
okay for games to be short. Like, and I'm sure
33:59
you talked about this earlier, Rebecca, with
34:00
short indie games. 100%. Yeah. You'll never hear
34:03
me argue against short games. It's as long as
34:05
it needs to be. That's the important thing. Yeah.
34:07
Yeah. Like this doesn't outstage welcome. It's
34:09
fun. And actually when you finish a run, you're
34:12
going to finish it and go. I want to run through
34:15
that again. I want to see different levels. I
34:17
want to see different interactions. Oh, Pepe
34:18
got downed in that mission. I want to get through
34:20
that mission with him alive to see what he says
34:21
in the next mission, whatever, whatever. And
34:24
so you'll want to play it again. Whereas Star
34:26
Fox Zero was a game they paddied with loads of
34:29
crap in order to make it longer. And I finished
34:33
it and thought, I never want to play that again.
34:35
And so I think that's the difference. And I just
34:38
checked, sorry, it is actually, so on Amazon
34:40
right now, it's 42 quid, which I think is. pretty
34:44
reasonable to be fair um for what it is that
34:47
that's probably like i think i probably paid
34:48
70 for the n64 version back because it came with
34:52
the bloody did it always come with a rumble pack
34:54
yeah yeah yeah well i don't know maybe they released
34:56
it without after but i definitely had the the
35:00
the big box with the rumble pack in it i've still
35:02
got it somewhere um yeah it's it's it's it's
35:08
good um the rumble pack that needed batteries
35:11
for no reason so it's such a weird Do you know
35:14
that? It's true. No. I didn't know that. Well,
35:17
actually, it's not no reason. So I've actually
35:19
got a rumble pack, like a prototype rumble pack
35:21
that doesn't require a battery that I bought
35:24
off eBay years ago. But the reason the rumble
35:27
pack has a battery is because it would work with
35:30
one, with two, with three. But if you had four
35:32
controllers plugged into N64, all with battery
35:35
-free rumble packs, it would draw too much power
35:38
and it would damage the system. So that's the
35:40
only reason that they all have battery packs.
35:42
There's your fun retrofactor for the day. Sort
35:45
of a crazy, how much money did I spend on AAAs
35:48
for no reason? But yeah. What have you guys been
35:53
playing? Tom, would you like to go or shall I
35:57
jump in? I'm trying to think because when I had
36:01
my another midlife crisis without a job, I was
36:05
like... fuck video games i'm not touching them
36:08
for ages and i literally didn't play a game for
36:11
i don't know eight weeks or something and then
36:14
and then alex and me had the conversation i was
36:17
like please give me some work and then i started
36:20
playing so i played i played um pragmata which
36:24
i really enjoyed i played forza which is forza
36:29
good um i played um saros which again Like I
36:36
didn't, I could go on with a returnal because
36:39
it was just, just too hard. Like I couldn't dedicate
36:44
enough time for the amount of time I was doing
36:46
essentially nothing because I kept making no
36:50
progress. Whereas I think Saros, I think some
36:52
people don't like it as much because of this,
36:53
but I feel like progression in it is a lot easier.
36:57
So even though it is hard and I still am not
36:59
amazing at it, but it is a game that you can.
37:03
get somewhere with so I think if you are thinking
37:05
like Returnal wasn't for me as much like I see
37:08
why people love Returnal and I like playing it
37:10
in the moment like moment to moment it's a great
37:13
game to play but I don't like playing it in like
37:15
a I've put all this time into it and I've literally
37:17
got nowhere whereas Saros gets over that but
37:21
at the same time the story in Returnal even though
37:25
I didn't see all of it was far more interesting
37:27
like what they were doing with it was more in
37:29
game I wish I could have seen more of it rather
37:31
than looking at like youtube videos and stuff
37:33
um rosaros i didn't get that i didn't get the
37:36
same sort of desire to see where it was going
37:41
as much you you could see it because i could
37:44
progress better um yeah that's what i've been
37:46
playing mostly um and it's like yeah it's nice
37:50
to have games to play that like are good there's
37:54
a lot of good games around at the moment bit
37:55
of a lull june i think but i've obviously got
37:59
um starfox very soon or out now if you're listening
38:02
to this when it's been released but yeah i i
38:05
played a game recently that i i think it came
38:08
to switch or switch to it's called um parking
38:11
garage rally circuit or something like that but
38:15
it abbreviates to pgr um and it's it's like a
38:20
a retro style rally racer set in parking multi
38:25
-story parking garages i saw this it looks like
38:27
a saturn game doesn't it yeah and it's deliberately
38:29
styled like a saturn game you can obviously make
38:32
it look like a more modern sort of basic looking
38:35
pc game but it's much more interesting to look
38:37
at if you play it in like the low res wobbly
38:40
textures and all this kind of stuff and it looks
38:43
really authentic as much you can make those kind
38:45
of things look authentic on a modern display
38:47
or whatever um it's really fun like it just handles
38:50
like you expect an old school rally arcade game
38:54
to handle um and it's got a load of like far
38:57
more content than you'd get if you bought a sound
38:59
game like we've got three tracks whatever this
39:01
has got way more um there's a dlc pack out now
39:04
as well i think um it's really good and it's
39:06
cheap and it's fun and it nice soundtrack and
39:08
it just feels like that kind of you get a lot
39:11
of these like retro styled games that don't feel
39:14
exactly apart from the visuals, but this actually
39:17
feels like a proper, like if it'd been released
39:20
on the Saturn, you'd be like, yeah, it's a Saturn
39:21
game. Is it an indie? I forget who publishes
39:24
it. It's by like, what are they called? It's
39:28
not this, but something like Warble. Oh, okay.
39:30
Something like that. They made... Wallaber. Wallaber.
39:34
That's the one. That sounds Australian to me.
39:37
I can't remember if they made something really
39:39
like... notable like jelly car or something maybe
39:43
something like that jelly car worlds and replica
39:45
cube i played replica cube that was fun so yeah
39:49
it's um but i recommend it a lot if you're into
39:51
like arcade racing games it's i had it i've got
39:55
it on my steam deck it's the kind of game that
39:56
you just play and it works really works really
39:59
well yeah nice we I don't know. I feel like,
40:05
is there more to go or should I jump in? I'm
40:08
done. That's fair. Yeah, well, I kind of had
40:13
the great good fortune that the week off I had
40:15
between finishing at IGN and sort of starting
40:18
with Respec stuff was SGF week. So I, for the
40:21
first time in a long time, didn't have to pay
40:23
any attention or do anything for SGF. Took full
40:26
advantage of by not really watching any showcases,
40:28
except I watched Nintendo Direct because someone
40:31
told me Ace 27 was going to be announced and
40:32
I fell for it. It didn't happen. Maybe TGS. Feels
40:38
like it's time. Maybe. I've got a piece to go
40:40
up on the site about it. And honestly, I'm a
40:42
little bit terrified that between me writing
40:43
it and... the site going live, it will get announced
40:46
just to screw me over personally now that I've
40:48
made the whole point. Capcom like a show, man.
40:51
They like it. It feels like the sort of announcement
40:54
that maybe fits it because they're not going
40:57
to do the Game Awards, are they? The Game Awards
40:59
doesn't seem like they're at home for it, but
41:00
there'll be another Nintendo Direct in November,
41:02
I think. So there's a couple more opportunities.
41:06
I do kind of think that another Ace Attorney
41:08
game might be announced this year. I feel like
41:10
that it's around time now. Whether it will be
41:12
mainline or whether it will be a spin -off, I
41:13
don't know. On the topic of Capcom, I just want
41:16
to say I'm fascinated coming out of SGF because
41:19
I was really interested that they announced Monster
41:22
Hunter and Veronica, Resident Evil Veronica,
41:25
because Capcom always have something at the Game
41:29
Awards every year. That's a good point. What
41:32
could it be? I thought they'd announce Monster
41:35
Hunter at SGF and then have Veronica at the Game
41:41
Awards all the other way around. But now they've
41:44
blown both of those. I'm like, do you just have
41:46
a nice trailer for Monster Hunter or something
41:47
at the Game Awards? Or Veronica or whatever?
41:49
Or do they have another game up their sleeve?
41:54
And I was trying to think what it could be because
41:56
Ace Attorney is on that list. Maybe a Dead Rising
41:58
2 deluxe remaster. Yeah. I think we'll get another
42:03
remaster from them before we get a new Dead Rising.
42:05
I think they'll do DR2 because that one's so
42:07
beloved. So anyway, I'm curious. I've been thinking
42:10
about that a lot. My biases aside, I think that
42:14
Ace Attorney is more likely to show up at Gamescom
42:16
than at the Game Awards. I feel like that's more
42:18
of a... yeah oh yeah 100 % or like TGS like I
42:22
say yeah that's true it's just I know it's like
42:24
it's one of their top 10 franchises but it's
42:26
not in their top five I think so kind of in terms
42:28
of how they market them I think a mid -year announcement
42:30
for quite a rapid release is usually how they're
42:33
certainly with the um all the recent remasters
42:35
they've been doing it's sort of been like announced
42:37
a fairly prestigious showcase and then released
42:40
a couple of months later is kind of the rhythm
42:41
that they've got into largely with it so I definitely
42:44
feel like seven was announced so I definitely
42:47
feel like Seven was announced at TGS. I definitely
42:49
feel like that's what I remember. I really vividly
42:53
remember that trailer for Seven with the Seven's
42:55
cornered music in it, which was really good.
42:58
Oh, well, I'm just like super excited, but obviously
43:00
like it just keeps not happening to a hilarious
43:02
degree. So the funniest thing to do now would
43:04
be to announce it so that it really screws over
43:05
my launch coverage for Reese Bag. That would
43:07
be obviously good. Well, I hope not. Hopefully
43:09
not, but it would be quite funny. But in terms
43:12
of what I've been playing, I've taken the opportunity
43:14
to go back over the things I was excited for
43:16
earlier in the year that I've not really had
43:17
a chance to play because I've been too busy with
43:18
work. So I just finished Life is Strange Reunion
43:20
and I've started Dark Pictures Directive 8020,
43:23
which are very me games. Those are both franchises
43:27
that I have been deep into for a long, long time.
43:31
Life is Strange Reunion is like such a cursed
43:34
one to talk about in a lot of ways. I really
43:38
want to be generous, but honest. And I would
43:40
say that it's the one in the franchise I've enjoyed
43:43
the least. It's probably the first Life is Strange
43:45
game where I've got more bad things to say than
43:47
good. I think that the play for nostalgia was
43:51
misguided, but that the original stuff they're
43:54
doing is still really exciting. And I hope that
43:56
despite the last couple of games being a bit
43:58
divisive. To be generous. I hope that they get
44:03
funding to do more anthology style stuff like
44:05
they were doing with Life is Strange 2 and True
44:07
Colors because that I think is where it was always
44:10
more interesting. I don't think you can afford
44:13
to keep making the conclusion to Max and Chloe's
44:16
story every 10 years whenever you need to sort
44:18
of draw the original audience back in. Please,
44:19
please don't do it again in 10 years, please.
44:21
It's enough. Having them as pensioners. Oh, goodness.
44:26
Actually, I don't know. Maybe that, no, because
44:28
they would still act like teenagers, which is
44:29
one of the things that really bothered me in
44:31
Reunion is that they're meant to be like 30 years
44:33
old and they just have Max more so than Chloe,
44:37
I think, in the way that they're written, but
44:38
not really grown enough as people, in my opinion,
44:41
to sort of like, yeah, it was very, you liked
44:44
the teen romance, so they're still going to be.
44:47
teenagers when it comes to romance i'm like no
44:49
you're 30 stop being embarrassed like cringing
44:52
for you at this point like oh my god but it's
44:56
a shame because it really overshadows that that
44:58
the work that um deck nine who've taken over
45:01
from don't not obviously with the series are
45:02
they their new cast work you know the way that
45:05
they can build up a large ensemble with very
45:07
little run -up and make all those characters
45:08
that i really care about is so good and i think
45:10
that to see all those like you know a dozen or
45:13
so major characters overshadowed by like the
45:14
returning protagonists was a It was a real shame.
45:18
I've not played any of these games, but in my
45:22
head, I have played Mixtape, right? In my head,
45:25
they're like Mixtape. Are they like Mixtape?
45:28
I haven't played Mixtape yet, but from what I
45:29
understand, Mixtape is very much being given
45:31
the Life is Strange -like sort of label. which
45:37
I think you are now starting to see like smaller
45:38
indie takes on the sort of genre of this like,
45:41
oh, it's like quite a navel -gazy coming -of
45:43
-age story with like very nice music and sort
45:45
of like very pleasant graphics, but kind of some
45:47
hard -hitting emotional themes. That's like A
45:49
Life is Strange, right? It's been around for
45:51
11 years now as a franchise, so it's had time
45:53
to kind of spawn its own successes. I think so.
45:57
Is the difference between them that... Life is
46:02
Strange, especially when that first one came
46:04
out, it was really like of the moment. People
46:07
who were the same age as Max and Chloe saw themselves
46:10
in that game. Yeah. Whereas mixtape is more,
46:15
I think it's speaking to people right in Tom's
46:19
age in a weird way with this weird 90s nostalgia.
46:24
I don't know. Or is that speaking to young people?
46:26
I don't know. I really don't. I need to. I really
46:29
need to play Mixtape. That's kind of one of the
46:31
next things on my list of things to play. I'm
46:32
interested to see because I, you know, despite
46:35
my youthful appearance, we're actually quite
46:37
a similar age. So I'd be interested to see how
46:39
the 90s nostalgia of Mixtape kind of hits me.
46:42
I really like Mixtape. I know everyone loved
46:45
it. And then there was a wave of, actually, it's
46:47
not that good. Yeah, that was really, that discourse
46:49
was weird to follow as someone who hadn't gone
46:52
around to the game. I mean, I can't relate to
46:54
anyone in it, but I don't care. Like I can relate
46:57
to, I can. but i can see through their eyes how
47:01
they are experiencing the story i don't have
47:03
to relate to every single person it's something
47:04
i watch um that's definitely true like i just
47:07
i just like i enjoyed it it's a fun game with
47:11
a lot of like cool little moments in it and it
47:13
felt a bit like like it's it's a kind of like
47:17
if you go like this is a terrible comparison
47:20
but something like wario ware right where it's
47:22
a lot of mini games that are silly but make that
47:25
for people that are like into a bit more serious
47:29
stuff and it's like that's it feels like it's
47:32
just a it's like a a fun story about some teenagers
47:37
with some fairly interesting mini games and like
47:40
there's a bit where you just throw stones in
47:42
a lake and i probably did that about half an
47:45
hour yeah throwing these stones and you make
47:47
them bounce and you hit all the you can hit loads
47:50
of different stuff in this lake and it makes
47:51
something else pop up and i just i was like i'm
47:55
unemployed i might as well just do this all day
47:56
if i want i mean and it was fun and it's got
47:59
music in it that is good like i'm not like a
48:02
big music guy but it's got music that i recognize
48:05
some i didn't but it all sounded pretty good
48:07
it's got some music from the transformers movie
48:09
in it 10 out of 10 i mean what else do you need
48:12
i mean that is the question that is the question
48:16
i think came up with mixtape a lot is is the
48:18
idea of like is it meant to be nostalgia for
48:21
the audience or is it the devs enjoying their
48:23
own experience of nostalgia and then communicating
48:25
that to an audience so you know it's an invitation
48:28
to empathize without it needing to be your experience
48:31
which i strongly think i mean nobody can make
48:33
art without bringing their own perspective to
48:36
it right there's no there's no and there's no
48:39
expectation when i play life is strange like
48:40
i didn't grow up in washington you know i didn't
48:43
i don't have the amazing twin peaks like rural
48:46
mountain memories of childhood i'm from them
48:48
in leicester but you know that those the the
48:52
sort of like emotional core and and the ability
48:54
to empathize with the character and like the
48:55
invitation as well i think it's really interesting
48:57
that you mentioned the skipping stones minigame
48:59
like the invitation to do something quite contemplative
49:01
i would say is another big hallmark of this genre
49:04
of games and so yeah that that sounds like a
49:07
that sounds like a very life is strange like
49:10
to me i would say if you were looking to play
49:12
more in the same genre and you weren't sure where
49:14
to start particularly with life is strange if
49:16
you never played it Try The Awesome Adventures
49:18
of Captain Spirit. It's a free, short demo for
49:21
Life is Strange 2. I love it. It's one of my
49:24
favorite games in the series. It's adorable.
49:26
It's like two hours long. You play as a little
49:28
boy on a Saturday morning just trying to have
49:29
a Saturday morning slightly interrupted by superpowers
49:32
because that's what Life is Strange does. It's
49:33
a lovely game. Yeah, I'd give that a shot after
49:37
mixtape, I think, if you're looking for more.
49:40
Yes, and then, of course, Directivator 20, which
49:42
I've only got two chapters in, but I'm enjoying.
49:45
sci -fi horror it's weird that series isn't it
49:48
because i've i think like i think you said you
49:50
played all of those games i think i have as well
49:52
yeah and every time i'm like this is all right
49:55
but it's never like i'm all like i loved the
49:58
original until dawn right it was like and maybe
50:01
it's like of the time like it was it came like
50:03
slightly surprised that it was so good um but
50:07
i think back fondly on that and like as a really
50:09
like cool game that i really enjoyed playing
50:11
and then obviously these games sort of trying
50:14
to be like that but also not quite and they're
50:19
all like fine like i've enjoyed them mostly but
50:22
they've never quite been like i don't know what
50:24
it is but they haven't quite been as engaging
50:26
as that was and i can't really explain why maybe
50:30
you can because you are oh maybe i can maybe
50:32
i mean for me it's like one of the big complaints
50:34
i see about everything post until dawn is that
50:36
it's not really scary um and i was even though
50:39
i'm a big horror fan i'm kind of not playing
50:42
these games because i want to be scared i think
50:44
they occupy a different space in my brain um
50:46
and maybe it's the guides writer and me coming
50:48
back out because i just love the working out
50:51
all the paths i love the first run through the
50:53
story where you don't know what's going on you're
50:54
like playing a movie that you get to decide the
50:56
outcome that's just a nice one -off experience
50:58
but then for me going back and just trying on
51:01
and like really working out down to like this
51:03
point of like okay if i do this interaction five
51:05
hours later this will come up and the the sense
51:08
of accomplishment of kind of being able to deconstruct
51:11
A sort of narrative tree like that is something
51:15
that I really enjoy. And the character work,
51:16
again, I think is usually quite good. I think
51:19
they've come along quite a bit in how they kind
51:23
of write beyond this. Because until Dawn, they're
51:25
all like real stereotypes. And then they sort
51:27
of start to build into more interesting facets
51:30
of the characters as the game goes on. And I
51:32
think they've got a bit more confident and more
51:34
experienced in kind of fleshing out those characters.
51:37
So they're just entertaining to... to be around.
51:40
But yeah, with Directive H20 in particular, obviously
51:44
there's been like a huge break. The last dot
51:46
pictures game came out in 2022. So it's been,
51:49
I don't, I can't even do the maths on that. It's
51:52
just a different life entirely. Is that three
51:54
and a half years? Three and a half years maybe
51:56
since the last one. And they've clearly tried
51:58
to do a bit more broad appeal. They're kind of
52:01
leaning into the stealth section. I hate stealth.
52:03
Stealth is my least favorite thing to do in a
52:06
video game. Maybe, is it worse than dodge parrying?
52:09
It's hard to decide which is worse, but those
52:11
are the two. Those are just so bad. But yeah,
52:13
in terms of stealth, it's not like too punishing.
52:15
It's still very much focused on the story. But
52:17
all of these things that are massive pros for
52:19
me might be a massive... Like if you love a really
52:22
punishing stealth game and they've advertised
52:24
it on the stealth and then you play it and it's
52:26
really like stay behind cover and crouch and
52:29
they just never see you, then I can see why someone
52:32
would be like, well, this is kind of... This
52:34
is just another super massive narrative horror
52:37
game and you're either going to... gel with that
52:38
style at this point or you're not. I even like
52:41
the casting of Frank Stone which was their Dark
52:45
Pictures style Dead by Daylight tie -in game
52:48
which was quite divisive but I thought it was
52:51
really good. I just really like their style and
52:53
what they do. Hopefully it's really working for
52:58
those guys because like Maybe one of the reasons
53:01
there was the, because they literally did a game
53:03
a year, didn't they? Between like 2019 and 2022,
53:05
2023. They had a hugely ambitious plan that did
53:07
not come off at all, unfortunately. But also
53:10
then their publisher was Bandai Namco. And so
53:13
I don't know, but Directive is self -published
53:16
and I don't know, hopefully, that difference.
53:22
It'd be a question for Chris Drink to answer,
53:25
but hopefully that difference is giving them
53:27
the greater margins needed to take the pressure
53:30
off. Yes, I would be interested to see if season
53:34
two continues to be self -published, which it
53:35
probably will, because they kind of do them in
53:37
four game packets, right? And so they had the
53:39
four game deal with Bandai and then this one's
53:42
self -published. So I imagine that the next three,
53:44
fingers crossed that they can. pull those together
53:46
because I know that they were sort of like all
53:47
in development at the same time. Hopefully they
53:49
managed to get those out. But yeah, I'm interested
53:51
to see what they do with this season, especially
53:55
because now we've got an Until Dawn 2 that's
53:57
been enhanced that's not anything to do with
53:59
Supermassive. Which looks terrible. It looks
54:01
awful. It does, but I'm so excited. I mean, I
54:05
was just, I appreciate that it was just a trailer,
54:08
but it looked, for what is a Sony, it is a Sony
54:10
published game, right? Yeah, because Sony still
54:12
has the license to Until Dawn. It looked so...
54:15
cheap like i can't i mean that that's just a
54:18
bit judgy but i know maybe it's going to look
54:19
a bit trashy or whatever because of the setting
54:21
and everything else but it just looked like in
54:23
a showcase it had quite a lot of good looking
54:25
stuff in it it just looked a bit naff which i
54:29
was surprised by because the first game looked
54:31
for the time like cutting edge right it looked
54:34
proper good partly i think it's the choice of
54:36
like making it visually the the opposite of the
54:38
original until dawn which was all at night like
54:40
the darkness was part and i think that that covered
54:42
a lot of sins especially in the original The
54:45
2015 original, where it was all like the very
54:46
blue light filter and a lot of darkness. And
54:48
they've gone daylight horror with this one, clearly.
54:50
So like, you've got to be ready to bring a lot
54:53
more literally very visual scares to that. I
54:56
think, yeah, I do see what you're saying about
54:59
the trailer. I mean, I was just like, it looks,
55:01
I can't in all honesty say it looks any good,
55:05
but I am excited for it just because. I like
55:07
the premise. I like the idea of faking paranormal
55:11
guys, like a Derek Okora type, getting blown
55:16
up by something really horrifying happening.
55:18
That's what I'd say. Especially with Neil Newborn
55:20
in the cast as well, so you know it's going to
55:21
be fun. It could be like terrible, but there's
55:25
going to be some charm to it, for sure. I mean,
55:28
for me, even though I know the quarry was the
55:31
real Until Dawn 2 by the real... you know, like
55:33
the team that actually made Until Dawn and it
55:35
was pitched that way and then it was rejected.
55:37
So they changed the title basically, but still
55:38
made The Quarry. I'm there just at least, let
55:42
me have one thing where I'm just there for the
55:43
brand name, even though I know it's kind of a
55:44
tacky sideways move and just play it day one,
55:48
enjoy it for hell. Maybe it will be pleasantly
55:50
surprised. It's still got some time, I think,
55:52
left. It's next year, right? So they got half
55:54
a year at least to kind of put the shine on it.
55:58
Have you seen the movie? Yes. Until Dawn movie.
56:01
It's awful. Spoilers, spoilers. But I mean, if
56:05
you haven't watched it, this is going to save
56:07
you having to watch it. But the bit I didn't
56:10
get was how, why they just decided to make everyone
56:13
explode all the time. I thought that was the
56:14
best part because it was so stupid. It was so
56:17
stupid. It was so dumb. And it's weird for me
56:19
because I was watching, as part of my unemployed
56:22
watching films all day phase, I watched that
56:27
and I also watched a better film, which... abigail
56:32
which i think is like which is the the ballerina
56:35
vampire girl and that also has quite a lot of
56:38
exploding in it bizarrely and i also watched
56:41
a completely different film in terms of style
56:44
but it's i can't it's called it was it's about
56:47
teenagers and they suddenly start exploding i
56:52
can't remember it feels like i should have seen
56:54
that but i can't it was like it's like a very
56:57
dark comedy and i think it was like And then
56:59
suddenly they're in this classroom and someone
57:01
just explodes. And then gradually other kids
57:04
start exploding. All right. If you do find out
57:05
what that's called, please tell me because I
57:07
want to watch that now. It's called, I want to
57:09
say something like combustion, but it's not combustion.
57:11
It's like a word like that that means exploding,
57:14
I think. But the bizarre thing was, I watched
57:18
all three of these films within like a couple
57:21
of days because when you don't have a job, you
57:23
could watch the surprise of a lot of films. And
57:25
they all heavily featured exploding people. Exploding
57:28
teenagers. I didn't deliberately go out of my
57:31
way to do this, but that's just what happens.
57:33
The only exploding teenager movie I want to watch
57:36
is Battle Royale. Even though it did give us
57:40
Fortnite. I just read the book. I just read the
57:43
book, but I haven't seen the film yet. You haven't
57:45
seen the film? I haven't seen the film. I read
57:46
the book. I do think the film is actually, it's
57:49
one of those rare occasions where the film be
57:51
like. I can see that I liked the book, but it
57:55
was quite slow going. I can see how picking up
57:58
the pace for a feature film might improve things.
58:02
But yeah, I do definitely need to watch it now
58:03
that I've finished the book. But yeah, the Until
58:05
Dawn movie, the thing about me is, unashamedly,
58:08
I kind of love everything. If it's got anything
58:10
to do with something I love, I'm on board. So
58:12
to have not hooked me for the Until Dawn film,
58:14
I was like, this is low. That's how you know
58:17
you've screwed it. Yeah, that's how you know
58:18
you've dropped the ball. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
58:22
it was not great. And I'm a little bit worried
58:24
that the attempt to bring the film into the universe
58:27
of the original game will then tie into the second
58:30
game in a way that I will be sat there like grimly
58:32
disapproving of. Maybe because the film totally
58:34
bombed, that won't be. Maybe they're, I hope
58:37
they're wiser. Yeah, I mean, it's like, I don't
58:40
know. It just doesn't, I'm not going in with
58:42
like the idea that, oh my God, this needs to
58:44
be canon and this needs to be like a perfect
58:46
follow. I'm just going to go and enjoy it because
58:49
like I say, Neil Newborn, always a delight. It's
58:52
got a bit of a just cause sort of thing going.
58:54
I'm kind of interested, like you say, in the
58:55
setting and the premise looks fun. Whether they
58:59
can stick the landing, that's why you play it,
59:03
right, to find out. Yeah, and relatively new
59:06
studio, right? So it'll be interesting to see.
59:08
This is their first game on their own. I need
59:10
to look into the studio a bit because I know
59:12
that when the Until Dawn remaster came out, Ballistic
59:15
Moon was formed from a lot of ex -Supermassive
59:18
devs. And I'd be interested to know whether this...
59:22
So this studio, they did that Horizon game. They
59:25
did that Horizon VR game. Yes, I looked into
59:27
it the other day, actually. They have done a
59:28
lot of VR stuff. They've done a lot of Vita stuff,
59:30
but this is their first sort of... It's still
59:32
them taking an existing IP, but it's their first
59:35
time developing specifically for home consoles.
59:37
So that'll be an interesting... It's kind of
59:39
a bigger scope for them than I think they've
59:41
had in the past. But I'd be interested to know
59:44
if anyone formerly of Supermassive has joined
59:46
the project, because I don't know that at this
59:48
point. Because that could, but then again, people
59:50
really were like slating the remaster and I was,
59:53
it's the same people with a different name. I
59:56
don't know. I don't know. I think it aged less
1:00:01
well. And also the remaster, as I recall it,
1:00:04
I mean a long time, like suffocated a lot of
1:00:07
the atmosphere and stuff with the lighting changes
1:00:09
and stuff. Yeah. I mean, it's fine. I reviewed
1:00:13
it for VG at the time and I think they're both.
1:00:15
perfectly respectable versions of this story
1:00:17
and really it's it's like a matter of aesthetics
1:00:20
really as to which she prefers there are some
1:00:23
things that i thought were better in the original
1:00:24
there are some things i thought were better in
1:00:25
the remaster it wasn't a huge difference in my
1:00:28
opinion play both if you can would be my just
1:00:32
my feeling about it because they're both pretty
1:00:34
good so yeah Right. We're coming up on an hour
1:00:38
now, so we should probably let people go. I want
1:00:41
to give one more quick shout out to something
1:00:42
I've been playing because I talked about something
1:00:44
I've been reviewing, which I've loved. But there's
1:00:47
a Battlestar Galactica game on Steam, Battlestar
1:00:51
Galactica Scattered Hopes, which is, I mean,
1:00:55
it's technically indie because the studio behind
1:00:58
it, Alt Shift, is an indie. They did the also
1:01:03
really good strategy game Crying Sons. a couple
1:01:06
of years ago, more, five years ago. But it's
1:01:10
published by Dot Emu. So how indie can something
1:01:12
published by this giant corporation be? It's
1:01:15
Dad the Diver all over again. But I just want
1:01:19
to give a shout out. And also it's a licensed
1:01:20
IP, right? But I want to give a shout out to
1:01:22
it because it is absolutely excellent where it's
1:01:24
just, it is part FTL, part adventure, choose
1:01:31
your own adventure, story branching game. uses
1:01:34
the IP really well. You know, you're jumping
1:01:38
from system to system. The pressure is constant,
1:01:41
constantly ratchets up in a very similar way
1:01:43
to FTL. But then you've got these characters
1:01:45
you're getting to know. And if you know anything
1:01:47
about the Bachelor Galactica TV series, the reboot
1:01:49
version, a big element of it is the Cylons are
1:01:53
among the humans and they don't know actually
1:01:55
anyone could be a Cylon. And so that's an element
1:01:58
in this as well, where as well as fighting all
1:02:00
the fires, you naturally fight on your ship.
1:02:03
you are fighting fires of that we're fighting
1:02:06
literal fires that have been set by the hidden
1:02:10
Cylons and you're trying this so there's also
1:02:12
like a detective game element in there where
1:02:13
you're looking at clues and stuff to try to figure
1:02:15
out who the Cylon is it's really good I think
1:02:19
it's also really difficult it's proper nails
1:02:21
initially and then a lot like FTL as you unlock
1:02:23
more stuff and get more knowledge um it becomes
1:02:27
more manageable but i i've really really really
1:02:30
enjoyed it and it's something that assignments
1:02:32
pushed me off it came out um sort of about a
1:02:37
little over a month ago like around the second
1:02:40
week of may and so i quite quickly got pulled
1:02:42
off it to go and do bond which is also excellent
1:02:46
but i can't wait to play more of that and i just
1:02:48
want to recommend it to people because it is
1:02:50
mint Sounds rad as hell. Also, somewhere Jim
1:02:53
Trinker's neurons just activated and he won't
1:02:55
know why until he watches this podcast, which
1:02:57
you better do. But yes, so thank you everyone
1:03:01
for listening. This is a first little run out
1:03:04
and we've had everything from Impressions on
1:03:06
Games to Tom in Butland's catalogues to Arnold
1:03:10
Schwarzenegger as Doctor Who and beyond. So I
1:03:14
think that sort of sets the tone. So thank you
1:03:17
guys. I don't know if you guys want to say goodbye
1:03:18
to the people? I went really high pitch there.
1:03:21
We'll say bye. I think we should also point out
1:03:24
the patron page. Yes. It's got to be business
1:03:28
at some point. We do. I don't know what the URL
1:03:31
is, so I'll leave that to you. I'm looking it
1:03:34
up as we speak. This is the problem with having
1:03:36
a website that isn't launched yet. I'm pretty
1:03:38
sure it is just... I'm scrolling up the chat.
1:03:42
I'm stalling. I'm stalling. I'm in the wrong
1:03:45
chat. That doesn't help. It is... I'm pretty
1:03:51
sure it's patreon .com forward slash respecnet,
1:03:54
N -E -T, because the URL of the website is respec
1:03:57
.net. And if it isn't that, then it's going to
1:04:02
404 and you will find out next week. Because
1:04:05
I can't find it. We are so organized. This is
1:04:07
the beauty of being independent. They would never
1:04:09
have allowed this sort of stupidity at a big
1:04:12
brand. Well, they didn't allow it in the end.
1:04:18
True. Sure enough. Right. That's it. One note
1:04:22
to end on. Yeah, one note to end on. It's just
1:04:26
the pure incompetence. We will see you all next
1:04:28
week from whenever this is released. And once
1:04:31
we're no longer on pre -records, we'll actually
1:04:32
have some current affairs video games to talk
1:04:34
about, which based on what's been happening the
1:04:36
week that we're recording this, is probably going
1:04:38
to be grim as hell, but we'll cross that bridge
1:04:40
when we come to it. Until next time, everyone.
1:04:44
Bye -bye.