A look at gaming in April 2014

Remember that odd, exciting moment when the PS4 was new, the graphics looked familiar, and you wondered if you’d traded in your best games too soon? We revisit April 2014—the hinge between generations—through the titles, trends, and behind‑the‑scenes stories that defined it. We dig into why South Park: The Stick of Truth works beyond the jokes, how its timing‑based RPG combat and purposefully simple art style outlasted early next‑gen gloss, and why Dark Souls II’s pattern learning feels like modern Castlevania: tough, fair, and deeply rewarding once the loop clicks.

We also celebrate the Housemarque magic of Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition and the short, glorious era when PS Vita cross‑play and remote play made Sony’s ecosystem sing. On the sequel front, we weigh Infamous: Second Son’s stunning effects against the scrappy heart of the first two games, and unpack Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes as a perfect “playable prototype” that let players route, experiment, and master systems before the big leap.

Beyond the games, we explore currents that shaped the decade. GT Academy proved sim racing can lead to real‑world podiums, bridging Gran Turismo expertise with track‑day results. The Star Wars canon reset raised tough questions about creative freedom and continuity, trading scattered brilliance for tighter brand control—sometimes for the better (hello, Fallen Order), sometimes at a cost. And then there’s the Naughty Dog turbulence: Amy Hennig’s exit, Uncharted 4’s rebuild, and how a studio can lose leaders and still ship a modern classic with a more grounded, mature tone.

Plus, we shout out hidden gems, strange blue‑top PS3 cases, and the releases that defined the month. If you love smart design over raw horsepower, care about how studios navigate change, or just miss the Vita doing cool Vita things, this one’s for you.

If this trip down memory lane hit the spot, follow the show, share it with a friend, and drop a quick review. What was your most unforgettable game from early 2014? Tell us—we’ll feature our favorite picks in a future flashback.

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Transcript

April 2014 And Gen Crossover

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Hello and welcome to Flashback, the games you loved, the stories you forgot. This is episode 11, and this week we're in April 2014. It's RGT, and I am joined by the console connoisseur. The handheld hero. The sir of the simulation game. It is UCP George. How are you doing, George?

SPEAKER_09 0:59

I am well. Struggling to live up to the preambles, if I'm honest. 11 episodes in, you set me up as a console connoisseur. I'm the sort of guy that until very recently probably treated his uh limited edition mega drive like an ashtray.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Oh, no way would you ever do that. You're the man who plays a game and spricks it down and cleans it back to front.

SPEAKER_09 1:25

Use his snatcher as a coaster.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Because it's just a game. There'll be some comments now. Do you know how much that's worth? I'm sure he's joking.

SPEAKER_09 1:37

That's why I use it as a coaster. Um no, I'm good, mate. Glad to be here. This is this is a little sort of far forward for flashback. I have to say that I didn't realise this was retro. Uh, but here we find ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

We've never claimed to be retro, we're just saying we have a flashback into gaming history, so wow.

SPEAKER_09 1:58

Okay, that that's half the listeners walk out the door. You better you better strike your arm up at a 45-degree angle to the flag of retro, that's we're done. Your name's Retro Gamer Timmy, anyway.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

What the hell do you think? So is 12 years ago then not classed as retro then, or well that's I was just clarifying.

SPEAKER_09 2:18

I'm saying yes, I guess it kind of is. Time flies when you're playing games and having fun, but uh it just seems too soon. But here we are.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Oh well, that's the show ruined anyway, so great intro.

SPEAKER_09 2:30

Um right, we'll crack on with this is flashback. We're an equal playing field here. I don't think I've ruined the show, I've just sort of been a little bit honest.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

No, but anyway, this is not to say sure everyone's thinking that.

SPEAKER_09 2:44

Great.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Um, this is April 2014.

SPEAKER_09 2:48

Not in a bad way, mate.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Just getting a bit old, but because it's not retro.

SPEAKER_09 2:52

Um but no, they're going, oh my god, I didn't realise how old I was, I think is where we're going with this.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

And we were saying this is weird as well, because that was that crossover period, weren't it?

SPEAKER_09 3:01

Between the we did a flashback episode, yeah, recently, where it was a crossover between Super Nintendo and then into the sort of fledgling era of the Saturn and the PlayStation one. Yeah. And this feels very similar, and you know, it's only when you're in these I say early days, but uh I don't think we're in the early days of the current gen anymore. But um this is early days of a gen, and you certainly start to see maybe games that uh are on the console you may have traded that you're like, Oh, I kind of wish I hadn't done that so soon because I've got this one game from a new machine, and uh yeah, feel like I'm missing my library and this. And because of some new architecture, I can't even play those games on this thing anymore. So I'm a bit sort of hemmed in now. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

And also, because it's the new systems in its early days, it still looks very similar to the system that you've just traded in with all the games, the Bidis system with one.

SPEAKER_09 4:00

So and and if you're being honest, on some days this new tech probably doesn't look as good as the last best tech that you had. So you're a little bit nervous, Dad's gonna come in and be like, Yeah, but the last system was way better than this. I don't know why my dad's from Yorkshire, but we're here me out. I was a bit confused. The last system was way better than this. Look at that, look at those graphics, son. You're like, Oh dad, sorry about that, uh old bean.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Um yeah, I think I've been had.

SPEAKER_09 4:29

Yeah, you've been out. Let's get back now, Woolworths.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 4:33

PS4 more like PS no more, get it gone. Like, get bent.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

But yeah, it was that weird crossover period, so there's game.

South Park: Stick Of Truth Deep Dive

SPEAKER_09 4:43

Very much, yeah, still being released for the uh well, technically last gen, but still getting the newish sort of games coming out for the current gen, but yeah, and then those weird crossover games as well that are kind of running on the machine you just traded, but you didn't buy your new machine to play a game that you could have played on your old ones, so yeah, yeah, very true.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Well, I remember when I got the PS4 and for the second time, then bought GTA 5 again to play for, and I thought, hmm.

SPEAKER_09 5:14

Could have been Assassin's Creed 4 to be fair, so you should thank you, Lucky Stars.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Exactly. Um, but yeah, like I say, this is um episode 11, so it's April 2014. Um, like I say, interesting time in gaming, but let's let's have a look at what we uh we would have or could have been playing in this in this sort of era. This is most of these games are from the March in 2014, so we'd already had these hopefully running on our systems. Um there's a few here. First one I'm gonna pick out is SafePart Stick of Truth, as we've currently been playing a safe part game on over on our other uh channel, UCP Gen 7. Um and uh and that was I'm sure it was Sticker Truth, and we I played it on PS3. Um and what I thought about this game, I've never really been into sort of turn-based or safe park, I think. You know, I was I'd say I was a casual viewer of Safe Park, I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it. But um the game was really good. Um we commented a bit about it on the on the UCP, or rather show on the fish controller podcast. Um I thought it was very similar, it was just like plan the show itself. Graphically it looked just like uh you would literally plan an episode. Um it was f you know, it's fun it's Save Park humour, but you know, it's it's funny, you know, it's gross in places and you can do childish things, but that's what Save Park was about. Um but actually underneath was quite a good solid RPG return-based element. So you have to have that I know it's not at the same level, I'm thinking of like the modern game of Expedition 33, where you have to have that quick reflex as we have. That's exactly what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_09 6:59

It is like that though. I mean, you get that sort of damage multiplier in this if you nail the button at the right time. You don't have to, do you? Let's be honest, to the listeners or the viewers, whichever which way they are. But um it makes a difference. Like you can grind through it, but it's gonna take a long time if you don't. Uh I agree with you. I think the damage, the sort of battle system in this, it it sticks. It it's not a straight JRPG, it kind of has that more sort of we want to make sure you're you're watching kind of vibe to it, doesn't it? That sort of battle mechanic where it's like, don't take your don't take your half the screen. Animations are great, as you say. I think South Park's rather stilted animation style means that PS3 was probably this got a PS4 release as well, and on Xbox series uh consoles, but it's it is about the peak of when the crossover between the cartoon and the graphics were able to replicate each other seamlessly. I think the way you maybe in this one, the way you kind of move around the town, you know, could be improved. It's very side-on, isn't it, when you're going from house to house, which is kind of like the show, but I think that I feel like it's maybe the game feels like it lets itself down there a little bit, like there feels like could be maybe just one more dimension to enable a little bit more of enjoyment.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yeah, it's almost that single screen, and that you sort of go and then click to the next screen.

SPEAKER_09 8:31

It's very sort of Treasure Island Dizzy in that regard, in a way, if you don't want if that makes sense to anyone listening. Um, I'm sure at least one person just sat up and went Treasure Island Dizzy. Bloody hell, this old boy's done a paper around. Um, but no, I think I think South Park Sticker Truth is certainly one that people should check out. Uh one thing a note that I think it's infamous for now is the uh difficulty slider, uh, depending on the skin tone that you pick. Obviously, uh darker skinned gentleman's gonna f uh be the harder level, and the uh whiter skinned gentleman is the easy level, which bit of social commentary in the character select screen.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

But yeah, I think there's lots of that South Park humour in there, lots to be enjoyed, and I think fans show I might be wrong, but I think because of like you say, because of how the graphic style is, you're not pushing the system with light and an HD and high res, anything like that. So you could they probably got away with one a bit by porting it to the PS4 because it's literally probably just the same game, just on a PS4 disc, I would imagine, because you ain't really got to improve the graphics or anything because it's a safe part, you know.

SPEAKER_09 9:42

So yeah, no, I completely agree, and I don't think there really was much difference at all from memory. Uh maybe a little bit of some sort of weird texture thing. If Digital Foundry rocked up now, they'd be like, How dare you boys, you know, zoom in, count the pixels, you don't know what you're talking about. Well, you know what, to the layman, it's fine. And I think, as we said, it's the art style where you can get away with blue murder, let's face it. What other uh games uh were you gonna pick out from here, RGT?

Combat Systems And Art Style Talk

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Um probably uh what also came out on the 11th of March. Um, not a game that I have really got into, any of these games, because they scare me, not on a physical level, but on a difficulty level, and that is Dark Souls 2 came out on the 11th of March. Now I know you've dabbled with the Souls and you've dabbled with a bit of the uh Bloodborne.

Dark Souls II And FromSoftware Loops

SPEAKER_09 10:30

I think Bloodborne was always a bit more my cup of tea. I've dabbled with Demon's Souls on PS3, uh had an attempt at it on PS5, probably got you know most satisfaction out of it on PS3. Um but Dark Souls is the multi-format version. Obviously, they did Demon's Souls specifically for PlayStation, then brought out the Dark Souls franchise. This is a second iteration, more the same, uh slight improvements on the graphics. It it again, it's one of those games if you've got the patience for it. So rewarding. I think sometimes with these from software games as well, and this is what really clicked for me in Bloodborne, because I think the gameplay loops just a little bit more obvious and staring you in the face, and dare I say it, probably a little bit more dumbed down for the main a little bit, a more dumb a very small bit dumbed down for the mainstream audience, because I, you know, enjoy Bloodborne. But Dark Souls, Demon Souls, you just gotta have the patience to find the gameplay loop. Once you find that and you kind of reveal the mechanisms of the parry and the block and all that sort of good stuff, you're in for a we did an episode on it, I can't remember which way it was. Um it was about how to play a from software game. Basically, you can break it right down. That was on the obviously on the main show on Official Controller Podcast, search your podcast or YouTube's, you'll it'll come up. And you basically just got to treat it like an XL spreadsheet at that point, and I don't know, like the joy then does dissipate, but I do see why people would get the joy from like structurally breaking this game down. Um very rewarding to be fair when you get it right and everything flows. I don't know if you've got any from software experience, RGT, but really no. It's to me the window of operation for me to be able to feel like I'm doing well at Dark Souls kind of takes me back to the kind of maybe a euphemism that I would use for a Formula One car. Like you can't just rock up in a Formula One care car and just blast around the track the minute you get out of the truck, you've got to warm it up, and then it's really only operable for that two-hour race window, and then it's pretty much in the bin. And I feel like I rock up, takes me probably a good couple of hours to get myself zoned in for a from software game. I've got the routines down, I've got the block, I've got the yeah, I know what I'm doing, and then I've got this sort of two-hour window of operation before then my skill fade kicks in, and I'm just in the bin. So mileage may vary. So six hours effort to move forward, about two hours, I would say, is my from software experience. And and that does have enjoyment, but it does involve obviously retreading a lot of I mean, someone like you, RGT, you're a bit of a retro game, you you know, you've grown up more than me because I didn't get a console until I was, you know, in my later teens, but um on the just have one more go kind of arcade mentality, and I think that is really what the From Software games have got. They're like your modern-day Castlevanias. It's like, right, died, okay, the level starts again.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

That's actually a great comparison.

SPEAKER_09 13:46

Here comes the back boom dun, boop, boop, dun, here comes the guy around the corner, block, block, boom, boom, dun, next, dun, dun, dun, right, okay, I'm at this now safe spot, boom, sorted, move forward. And it's learned the pattern. Basically, I don't want to dumb it down too much, but it's like, here comes this guy, move back, move back, make him towards me, bam, bam, block, block, bam, damn. It's very obviously you've still got to be a very skillful player. I'm not denying that. In fact, it's very obvious you've got to be absolutely perfect with those games, but it is basic. Now, sometimes the game throws in a curveball, like two guys come round the corner because they've just sort of like grouped up each other on each other as they've come round the corner, or the the groups got broken up. That used to happen to me in Bloodborne a lot. I'd be like, right, here comes the first guy. Oh damn, it's two of them.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Panic.

SPEAKER_09 14:39

I mean you're perfectly capable, you know, especially in the early stages of just waltzing through them. But um, yeah, I think I've probably spoken enough about that, mate. Have you ever played any of them? And if if so, which one?

SPEAKER_01 14:52

No, I haven't. I have Bloodborne for the PS4, and I know you got into it a few years ago and thoroughly recommended if you were everything. And I was very smart tempted to have a go. And I watched a few YouTubers do play. Yeah, it does look stunning. Some of them, some of them developers on the PS4 did especially first couple of years in, done really well. Do you know what I mean? You know, like the Order 1886, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 15:17

They had a bit of special source, didn't they? A little bit like at this latest state of play, as of what are we, February 2026, depending on when and where and how you're listening to this. Um, we had Kenner had obviously partnered up this time round, Ember Labs had partnered up with PlayStation Studios, and I think once you get them on board or they decide to bring you in a little bit for a project, the secret source opens right up, and I think Bloodborne benefited from that sort of secret source coming out within the PlayStation Studio catalogue that kind of made it there was just something a little bit more about that game for me. Um you know, a lot going on on the screen, a lot busier than they normally are, um, you know, interest in vistas and and you know, a very unique um setting and then choice of style of um within that really. Not that we're here to talk about Blood Bowl, but no, um interesting though.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Um another game I'd completely forgot. I played this game, I completed this game, I started it in multiply, and my friend couldn't make it for the rest of the game, and it went a few weeks out playing, so I finished it on my own. Um and this came out on the PS4 in the March 2014, and that is Dead Nation Apocalypse Edition. And I don't know if you ever played Dead Nation.

SPEAKER_09 16:43

No, I don't think I've played is that a top-down computer shooter game like the zombies isometric.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Yeah, it's got that sort of it's an isometric sort of is it like hauls that you're blasting through? Yeah, and you work your way through collecting things and bosses and bits and pieces. Was it on Vita? I think this did come on Vita as well, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 17:03

Yeah, it's one of those kind of super secret source PS4 Vita sort of power early days powerhouses, wasn't it? When they still trying to care about what the Vita was doing.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah, we had great fun with this. Um, really good game. Um I completely forgot about it until I saw the title and had to Google it and for it. Who made it? Oh, now you're asking a question.

SPEAKER_09 17:23

Uh I've got a feeling you'll be surprised. Is it not the people that make it returnal?

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Oh what house mark?

SPEAKER_09 17:31

Might be.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Let me have a look while we're chat. And um, yeah, but this was um like I say, it's that top-down, almost sort of Diablo looking game, you know, a bit like Larakoff Temple of Osiris. Um, but it was just it was something about I think I'm not house, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 17:50

Keep going. I think when you see the name, you'll be like, oh of course, you see all their other games, you'll be like, Oh damn it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

No, it was Housemark. Hmm, there you go. I never knew that. That I never knew that.

SPEAKER_09 18:00

Sometimes I surprise myself. I use Google, but there's something in the scratch of the back of the brain that said, hang on a minute.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

That's the whole reason you're here, you see. You know, you're the gaming guru.

SPEAKER_09 18:10

Um, I can't remember the pin to my own bank card, but I tell you what.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

You knew Hacemark made Dead Nation in 2014.

SPEAKER_09 18:18

Kind of had a wild stab at it, it'd be so indecent to bring to a pub quiz, but there'll be lots of maybes and don't know's.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

But that that was a really good game. Um, if you like them sort of isometric, top-down RPG-ish sort of games, they were great fun. Upgrade your weapons as you go along, get you know wider shot on that. Um, really good. Not got even come out. This is obviously another one which was a digital early game on the new gen. Um, but yeah, that was a very, very addictive game as well. Not too not too long as well. One of them ones you can play through fairly quickly, bit of a challenge era bosses, but doable, you know, not ridiculous. Um, another one on here which I've never played and everyone keeps recommending to me to play. I don't think you've played it either, is Titanfall.

SPEAKER_09 19:03

Now, no, I think I don't know if Titanfall is the one with the single player element to it, or whether that actually came in Titanfall 2. I think it is Mex, yeah. And I think Titanfall 1 didn't have uh it's one or the other way around. I think Titanfall 2 did have the story component in it, and it was you know much lauded to be very good, but I think few people have played it. Titanfall 1, I think, was solely online from memory. I could be wrong. So message into questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Okay, so it was more like a shooter sort of online.

SPEAKER_09 19:37

It's like a straight-ass shooter, and I think people wanted a little bit of stories, which is why that part element came in too. Ah, and I think it was a well-received, I think there was that. Maybe. Um, because I mean I guess the servers are maybe still on for these games, it's only 10 years ago. I mean, I've I've been trying to get on servers for games much older than this recently, and um I mean they they're they're on, but no one's playing them. Uh so good luck with Titan 4.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Yeah, yeah, it might have to be number two, I guess. Um we also had our 18th of March, Metal Gear Solid 5. Now, I've never played Metal Gear Solid 5.

SPEAKER_09 20:18

Is it Metal Gear Solid 5 or is it Ground Zeros, which is like the prequel like mini demo?

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Oh, is that like in between four leading into five? And they done that.

SPEAKER_09 20:29

It's kind of like basically more as a precursor to five, but I think it's set, you know, some sometime before the game of I can't quite remember, it's been a while since I played it. But one thing I did remember about Ground Zeros is it's quite a self-contained, fun little experience.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

So released a physical as well, didn't they?

Bloodborne, Performance, And Learning Curves

SPEAKER_09 20:49

Yeah, yeah, oh yeah. It was it was a fully paid up sort of here while you wait sort of job. Um, and there's lots of classic uh Hideo Kojima sort of Easter eggs in there, it rewards multiple playthroughs. Um if you want just like a a small slice of very quick to action metal gear where you can get to learn the environment very quickly and where people will be and what they're doing, and yeah, there's a lot going on there. I enjoyed it. Um, obviously, there's lots of little cannon bits in there that that bleed through and connect as a connective tissue between all the Metal Gear games. Um, yeah, I mean I played it on PS3, I think there's a version of it even on PS4, at least probably these days, in one of the complete editions of five, I'd guess. But uh yeah, worth looking out. Super cheap, I think, from memory on somewhere like CEX RGT. I can't imagine this running you much more than sort of if it was more than four quid, I'd be a little bit shocked. Was it very long or uh again, like I say, if you've ever played The um I don't think it came on magazines, but certainly came on Zone of the Enders. There was um Zone of the Enders one, I think it was. There was a um demo disc that really what is what most people bought this for, and Zone of the Enders ended up being the bonus. So you bought a Metal Gear solid bonus disc and then got Zone of the Enders the full game as a treat. And um OG had this, uh aka original Tom over on the um main show. OG had this, and we were talking about it not that long ago, this sort of tanker disc as it was known. Uh you really only got to play on an oil tanker, but it didn't matter because it was some of the most rewarding, most open gameplay you could possibly imagine. And in my mind, this was like the modern kind of stab at it, really, letting you see the new sort of HD engine, understand how it worked, let you have a go, give you a load of freedom, maybe gather a little bit of player feedback for that little bit of finesse of the main game. You know, let's face it, everything's connected, even in this era, everything was connected. So you might as well harvest player data, retention numbers, bits and bobs, what people get stuck on, what they don't. So, yeah, I mean, if you've never played this and you've never played five, I mean, yeah, dip your toe in the water with this, it would be quite the rewarding experience, even then.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

I think I think I'm pretty sure I've got this physical on PS4 because it was just you would uh cheap. It's like one or two pounds or something ridiculous few years ago.

SPEAKER_09 23:38

I'm not saying it is now, um, but I've got it on PS4 and three, maybe. As you say, it's that cheap, you just sort of grab it. I think I've majoritively played it on yeah, because I've got like a special edition of five, and I think it got came Michael in it.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_09 23:56

Either which way, I've also got it on PS3. I think I've probably pechatively played it on PS3. You can tell it is a late stage. Uh you can tell the PS3 is like, oh, hold up. You know I'm old, don't you? Because this is a it's a it's a bit of a shift you're it's it's yeah, alright. Don't don't don't worry I didn't load that area in. Just just boom sorted that now.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Don't you don't you you got four fans all aimed at your PS3 pulling them in the room?

SPEAKER_09 24:26

Forgive the shimmering, forgive the shimmering, forgive the shimmering. Yeah, I'm old.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Yeah, you you you are in the woods. I just haven't put the woods in yet. Just wait a second. There you go.

SPEAKER_09 24:35

Oh, it's it's which switcher, is it? Switcher. It's not that egregious, it's not that egregious, but you can certainly tell um when you play it on newer hardware. Oh, okay, this is maybe more what I had in mind.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Yeah, definitely. Um, one here that is I want to know your opinion of because I'm currently nearly at the end of the first game, as this being the third. Um, Infamous Second Sun um came out on the 21st of March 2014. Um yeah, I'm playing the first one at the moment.

SPEAKER_09 25:06

I'm very I've got about seven missions left, and I've completed the first one as on a newbie to pay attention to the story, pay attention to the story because I want to talk to you about the story because it's mate. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Um the just quickly going to infamous for a minute. You always said to me, Oh, you've got to play it, you've got to play it. I've now played it, and it is very good. It is very good. Well, you finished one now, or not? Nearly, nearly on seven missions. But it's fair so far very, very good. I I was a bit dubious at the start because of the uh title screens and that look a bit basic, but once you're in the game, it's a great game. But anyway, we're talking about infamous second son. Um have you I take it you've you have played this.

SPEAKER_09 25:53

Yes, I have. I never found it to kind of grip me the way the first two did. I will warn you. I don't have you not played this, I thought you'd played this.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

I'd I I'd tried it, but I stopped. I I played it right early days in the PS4. Um I'd played L.

SPEAKER_09 26:11

If Daddy had walked in when you were playing that, he would have been like bloody hell, boy. I thought you were going out to buy the PS4, not a PS10.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Yeah, yeah. Um, but I I stopped because I hadn't played the other two, so I wanted to play them first, and that's now it's only took me 12 years. So it's only took me 12 years to get round to buying the first one.

SPEAKER_05 26:29

Yeah, exactly.

Dead Nation And Housemarque Roots

SPEAKER_09 26:29

You never get anything achieved like that. Welcome to my pain. Uh look, graphically, it's great. You never get bored of the smoke powers in Infamous Second Sun. And I think, you know, graphically, that effect still looks really good. It's a cheap one to do, don't get me wrong, in terms of graphical horsepower, but the way that it's been executed is is definitely very cool. Um I just never felt like I bonded with a character in Infamous 1 and Infamous 2. I felt pushed along by the character and the story. Lesser definitely so in one, lesser in two, I have to admit, although two doesn't overstay its welcome you kind of in and out, and that's okay. Totally new environment, by the way, so well worth checking out if you're close to finishing one. I would have a uh UCP patented paling cleanser, though, in between, because yeah, I will be uh it would be a bit much, yeah. And Second Sun is on paper everything you want it to be. Now, I think on the main show I've said to you and Seb recently the weird thing about sequels is they never can quite get it right for certain players. In my mind, a game is X, the way I played it, it became Y. You know, you kind of write the story in your head about what the game's gonna be that the the developer never gets privy to, and then when the second game comes out, it's it's completely the wrong end of the stick of what you might be wanting. Infamous Second Sun smashes the graphics, smashes the gameplay. I'm even gonna chug that out there. So it's like hang on, George. You talk about a video game podcast, you talk about a game smashing all these metrics, and then you say you don't like it, it's about time you quit. But there's a lot of emotion in video games, there's a lot of feeling, there's a lot of characterization and familiarization and empathy with the characters. There's there's many more levels to it than just the gameplay and the store the and the story. So it hits a lot of the metrics. I think that it has maybe starts to feel a bit sort of dare I say it, Assassin's Creedy in a way. It feels like it's been polished to a point in time where it feels a bit more way more corporate. What I quite liked about Infamous One and Infamous Two is they felt a bit thrown together in a way. I know they're not, I know people have worked on them for years, but they've got that kind of scrappy feel to them.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

They have, but and because of that, the actual game they produced is actually special because you think, well, actually, they feel like this has been sort of thrown together, but about what they've produced is a really well-executed, great controlled game, you know, which is a bit ahead of its time for the when it came out. Yeah, I know exactly what it meant.

SPEAKER_09 29:19

Here's an example for you. Sometimes when the Beatles were recording, their mistake would happen. I think in one of the songs, an alarm clock goes off day in the life. That was never actually meant to be in there, but you know what? It works perfectly because the next line ended up being woke up, got out of bed, ran a comb across my head. Yeah, when that alarm thing went off, they never in their mind thought that that would be good to have that there for a reason, but they left it in in other parts, have left in words and bits and bobs. And I think sometimes good stuff has to be a little bit broken. Definitely, unfortunately, for my second son, it's not broken, it's a flawless representation of what a video game should be, and for that reason, I can't get on with it.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Well, you say that, and I'm going off piste a bit here, but I'm the same with Bioshock Infinite. I didn't find Bioshock Infinite anywhere near as good as one or two, yeah. Didn't even feel like a Bioshock game.

SPEAKER_09 30:12

Yeah, but find me someone that did. The only thing that really ties it in and makes any sense is the last sort of 15 minutes of Bioshock Infinite. Um, and thank God that's there.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah, it felt it just didn't it almost felt like a someone that tried to do a clone of Bioshock and done it in an opposite and done it in the air.

SPEAKER_09 30:32

It kind of made sense. The if they'd done another a third one in the sea, I think by that point in time it would have been dismissed as very derivative by people. What more could you do? What more more sea, more whales, more more big daddies? What you got now, big mamas, and they've got you know, it was only ever gonna go that way if it stayed under the sea. So hang on, we've got to flip the script, we've got to do something. What's the opposite of this? I'll tell you what, boss. Yes, uh Josh, work experience boy sky, yeah. Uh actually, yeah, Josh, you just got yourself hired.

unknown 31:08

Brilliant.

Titanfall’s MP Focus And Servers

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Yeah, so whether that's a comparison to Second Sun, not to say I haven't really played it, so I don't think.

SPEAKER_09 31:15

I think I think the shades of the comparison are there. I think they're having a go, aren't they? You know, and as you say, for you it was more a feeling of this is not what I want from a game. But I think sometimes the studios are that boxed in, they've got no choice. Um there is a spin-off to Second Sun, I think it's infamous Second Sun First Light or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

God yeah, there is, isn't it? Was that clear and C or was it a separate?

SPEAKER_09 31:40

Yeah, that you do meet, I think you meet that character in this game, but then it's a DLC that was sold separately as well. So I don't think you need a purpose cover on that. Correct. She's got like a almost electrical light tracker speed powers. Yes, yes, yes, and she's actually bizarrely got more charisma than the main character. So if you're ever gonna get mileage out of the second sun sort of tier of games, First Light might be the better place to go to initially.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Oh wow. Oh wow, brilliant. Yeah, that's interesting. I did want to speak to you on that. I saw another one here, which I wondered if you'd played being the Vita man yourself, which was Breach and Clear.

SPEAKER_09 32:26

Um, I thought you I wondered if you might bring that up because I was going to ask you about it.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Um the only reason that always reminds me is because it was the very first limited run game, number one. So everything was.

SPEAKER_09 32:36

That was on Vita, was it?

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Yeah, it was PC, and then it came over to Vita, didn't it? The the uh breach and clear, and that was the first one.

SPEAKER_09 32:42

A few of these, like I also see that Luft Rousers was um a Vita game. I think it was like a side-on kind of single screen PVE kind of World War II or aeroplane shooter game. Um yeah, I didn't have a Vita in at this point in time.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

I picked one up maybe Oh, I thought you'd had one at launch.

SPEAKER_09 33:07

No, no, no, no, no. I couldn't have done. I was in my gaming dark ages at this point. I was I was playing game gear.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

I actually got the local computer shop in my little town, said I can get your Vita in, and I I got it like enough, you know, when it launched, and uh yeah, it's absolutely fantastic.

MGS V: Ground Zeroes As Prototype

SPEAKER_09 33:23

A couple of years in from here, I picked one up, and then immediately connected everything up, obviously. Because when the what's annoying is we uh people will never know, but when the Vita was concurrent with the PS4 and the PS3, I suppose, because they all were kind of living in that ecosystem at the same time, everything worked with everything. Yes, and like now it feels like a distant memory, but everything was connected all at once in a way, and you I know in a way now you can still go on a genuine Vita, not jailbroken, or even jailbroken in your trophy sink, and everything feels sexy, but 2014 was the time where you felt like you were it wasn't a switch, but it was almost like uh a very close experience.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

You kind of had remote play, which yeah, I remember playing Jack and Daxters on the PS3.

SPEAKER_09 34:13

You could be playing Jack and Daxter on PS3 or PS4, I think maybe on the trilogy remaster. I don't know if that would have been essentially possible to begin with, but let's say it was, and then I don't know if again depended on cloud saves and all that sort of stuff, but you could technically kind of pick up. I think hell divers you could have played on your PS4 and continued experience on your Vita, totally genuine, no shadow of a doubt. And there are other games, I think Retro City Rampage was one of them, I think maybe Hotline Miami was one of them that I've experienced, and I'm sure other people will tell me otherwise, but yeah, it's a good time, mate.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Yeah, it was a good time.

SPEAKER_09 34:52

I mean, you might get breaching clear because something tells me it's like Hotline Miami, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Yeah, it's very squad-based, isometric, you know, get in the rooms, do the signals, clear the rooms, you know, proper SWAT team. Um, like I say, the physical was like number one on limited run, that's when they first started. So you know that's a ridiculous price, but I'm sure physically you can uh um digitally you can get that. Is there any more you want to talk about on these?

SPEAKER_09 35:18

Um well I would say I've been on the Vita and PS3 stores recently, actively using it and buying some things up and getting things downloaded from the from historic downloads, and um yeah, there's not a lot left there, mate. It's very bare bones now. It's very bare bones.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

Well, it's just one I was gonna talk about near the 25th of March, Fez. Um obviously, if you've seen the documentary, the video game documentary they'd done about when all these indie guys were then first coming up, and Phil Fish was making Fez. Um, and there was the guys making Super Meat Boy as well, and they were trying to get it on the Xbox 360 stores.

SPEAKER_09 35:58

And yeah, this is the era like Joey Danger as well, innit?

SPEAKER_01 36:03

There was that era where also you could see these early indie devs who were working from home in their spare bedroom with a computer making these games, how they were nearly all broken, how the hours and strain, and I remember I remember the guys from um I mean Phil Fish was he was out there, the guy was out there, but I remember the guys doing Super Meat Boy as well, and they were then they'd done it, they'd got the guys literally just eating takeaways, ordered coding 16-17 hours a day to get the game on to Xbox Live, and then the day it was meant to be on, there's just these two shattered blokes in separate separate houses who'd been working on this game for how many years load up Xbox Live to see it, and that's not there, and you just see the drain in them. You just think this has been my life for two years, and you just you you just fought the strain on them taking on a project like that when there's just so few of them. Whenever I see Fez, even just this artwork, I always just think of Phil Fish and how he done that on his own. Um got that game, but it came to critical acclaim in the end, and you know, it's a very, very unique sort of plat puzzle platformer, and um, yeah, but he he he done well, but you could just see that he he was a broken man at the end of it, I think, safe to say. Um, did you ever play Fez, George?

SPEAKER_09 37:24

Or no, I it kind of passed me by. I was aware of it. I think it was kind of sniffing around the Xbox 360 marketplace at some point in time. I don't know if it came there first or not, but uh I'm aware of Fez. I mean, it's probably not my cup of tea.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

I think I've got it downloaded on my Vita on my memory sticker.

SPEAKER_09 37:45

Yeah, that would that would ring a belly. Unique sort of tea and uh it would be a bit of a hard play on Vita because Fez himself is quite a small little on-screen character, isn't he? So I don't know how that works out.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

He sort of zooms in a bit as well, and you you you have to sort of turn the world as you go round, you sort of turn it to walk into fine doors to get up. It's very unique, very clever. Um, for one man to have made that is is is very impressive, but like I say, the pressure was uh the pressure was on. Um but yeah, I think we've I think we've uh comprehensively covered what we probably would have been playing in uh April 2014. Um and I think it's now time that we uh scoured the very dark pages of the Game of Max and we delve deep into the interweb to bring you what was the latest stories in 20 April 2014. Uh do you want to attack this first one, George?

SPEAKER_09 38:38

No, I want the second one because then you can get the third one, which is right up your street, isn't it? And the second one's my cup of tea.

Infamous Series: Character, Feel, And Sequel Shifts

SPEAKER_01 38:45

So yeah, no worries. Well, um, first up is this is if you're up for that, yeah, no problem. Um, from Edge magazine. Um, and this is titled Academic Success. Uh four months ago, Miguel Fasque uh was not a race driver, but in January, he and three other Grand Turismo players, uh Florian Strauss, Nick McMillan, and Stavoslav Asanov finished first in the Dubai 24 Hours SP2 class. These GT Academy graduates were recruited based on their performances in the Grand Turismo 6 demo last year and all qualified for their race licenses after just two months of intensive training. A second GT Academy team came in third. The question of whether virtual skill could translate to real-world success was posted by GT Academy back in 2008. In the years since, the alliance between Sony and Nissan to find new racing talent has become reliable source of drivers for Nissan's Nismo race team. When Bob Neville of RGJN Motorsports, Mark Bowles of SCEE, and Darren Cox, the head of Nissan's motorsport division, first met in 2008, Neville uh gambled on a mad proposition that he could take a gaggle of Grand Trismo fans, put them in Nissan cars and find a genuine racer. But Neville isn't exactly short on confidence. If you gave me 20 bricklayers, he says, and if they are of the right age, fitness, and temperament, with the determination to become race drivers, we would find one with talent and we would train them into a professional driver. Founded in 2000, RGN Motorsports has a close relationship with Nissan and a record of success that makes it ideal as a virtual racers university. But AGN struck lucky with its uh first round of students. Lucas Ordonez was GT Academy's first shining light, having won in the Or Negral uh 2008 competition. He since placed second and third in class at Le Mans in 2011 and 2013, and he's also taken a class victory at the Nurberg in 20 Nurberg 24 hours alongside uh Kazunori Jakimosi. Uh, since um Ordenaz GT Academy has founded new talent with each passing year. UK winner uh Jan Marambara um shared Lucas Ordenaz uh third place in 2013 demands and is now working through the single seat at ladder. Ordenaz's own uh journey started downloading a demo for 2008's GT Academy. From there, he went through the national to national finals in Gran Turismo pods and then into GT Academy Race Comp, which is based at Silverstone in the UK on track tuition, is accompanied by physical training, overseen by judging a panel of experienced racing professionals after the intense programme. Um after the intense programme, the best are selected based on raw speed as much as temperament and fitness. Um the triad, a real race driver needs for Neville. Taking on a raw talent um like Lucas was a revelation. What surprised us with Lucas was the speed at which he adapted to the track track cars, Neville says. In our experience over the years, the GT Academy winners have a unique talent when it comes to adopting um to the real thing. For the team director, a childhood spent playing Race Sims is a perfect virtual foundation course. Uh, when we took uh Jan to Monza, he was running competitive laps with five minutes uh within five minutes. Um he says Grand Turismo clearly educated him. Neville draws a distinction between Motorsport Tradition and GT's Academy virtual filter, though. In the traditional path from go-karts to professional license racing, there's actually no um selection uh filter. Talent isn't as important as money. Licenses are earned via experience. You get pr uh pretty fur you get you can get pretty far without winning a thing. With GT Academy, the selection process is so tight that the drivers are all winners. The fact that they've made it through the process means they're the right fit. Um Lewis Hammerton uh Neville notes they talked about games and Gran Turismo. It's no secret that many of the current F1 drivers play video games, and for Neville, GT Academy is the formalisation of a trend that has been building since the nineties. With Nissan committed to racing Le Mans highest category in 2015, and with so many GT players on the team, the prospect of virtually trained driver winning one of Motorsport's Hello Triple Crown events, Le Mans 24 Hours, Monaco's F one GP, and Indianapolis five hundred seems close to being a reality.

SPEAKER_09 43:56

Um I I doubt that. RGT I don't know why you decided to rock up with War and Peace, but I tell you what, there's plenty of meat in there for us to chew on. Isn't this actually the guy that the film Gran Turismo is based on?

SPEAKER_01 44:16

Yes, I believe it is, which is why I've chucked it in there. Um he he went on to be, you know, a hell of a racer. Um and I can remember, the reason I put this in, I can remember back in the day reading the magazine and saying that this I thought this was a publicity stunt. I thought that it was a Gran Turismo publicity stunt to put a guy in a real car. This is how good our racing simulator is. Then you started keeping an eye on him, and he was then started winning quite early on in his career, and you thought, hang on, there's there's something in this that he was that good, and obviously now has spawned a film and God knows what else, but it was it was so interesting that uh how confident Bob Neville was that you give me these races from Grand Trismo, and like he said, although they're being in a virtual world, the discipline is because they've had to all win to get through to the actual finals, they're all winners, so uh you're nearly guaranteed a race driver out of one of those, and I've you know, and it's it's some of them some of the comments that the young gentleman made were a bit egregious.

SPEAKER_09 45:23

Obviously, he's very biased, so anyone who's coming through the carton ranks to him is just money, even if you've got money, you've still got to win. Um, I think that's one of the most brutal things that you learn as a young kid in carton. But uh there you go. Um, whatever you need.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

From Lewis Hamilton's background, they didn't have money, they scraped it and got through, and obviously the rest is history.

SPEAKER_09 45:45

But yeah, so I find that a little bit of a weird comment. But I know what you mean, but he's a good one. I know what he means, but it's a comment that was said by someone who had sort of maybe got a bit of a chip on his shoulder from coming up through a video game as a better example. Um, I would argue if he actually really passionately believed he wanted to be a racer instead of sitting in his bedroom uh playing a PS2, he would have been out trying to get enough money to buy go-kar or something. I don't know. Bit of a bit of a strange, bit of a strange one. But I do think that um GT Academy and Gran Turismo have proven, and generally in the modern era, that the lens that we sit in in 2026 as it is now. I think a lot of these um Sims have earned their stripes. All the F1 drivers are playing Sims in their break time. Um a lot of them stream, a lot of them compete professionally, not only in the physical world, but also in the digital world as well. Uh, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, George Russell, Max Verstappen competing at a high level in esports as well, with his 24-hour sim runs that he does and other bits and bobs.

SPEAKER_01 46:53

So and all these F1 teams have their own sim teams as well. They're all in the same headquarters and go on their own tours.

SPEAKER_09 47:01

Not only do they um have a digital esports team to go along with the F1 game that they have, but they obviously also have their own sims internally that the drivers train on. Some are advanced, some are probably just uh PS4 Game Masters F1 game on it. I'm joking, I'm joking, that's obviously not what they're doing, I know, but within reason it's probably pretty close.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Um if you actually do watch the live F1 esports events, they are very good to watch with the 20 drivers, 10 and 10 sitting above each other, the big screen for the this the uh whether they're doing it in a theatre or whatever, and the the crowd watching and you know, and commentators, and it's it's very good. I mean, you'd think it'd be quite boring to see someone sitting on a stage, but it's very epic and swapping places and pit stops, and you know, really good.

SPEAKER_09 47:51

It's yeah, I think the one thing I would like prefer to see in that situation and you know, is a is a more sort of maybe follows the the Grand Prix itself. So you go to Silverstone and you go to uh Spar Francochamp, you go to Suzuka, you go to I don't know, wherever in South America or America, Brazil, all those kind of places, and you take those that thing along as part of the circus. I think what I would prefer to see, and I don't quite know how they do it exactly, but I can't imagine they're gonna do this. I would prefer to see practice one, two, and three on the Friday and the you know, mixed in with the proper Formula One at the circuit. On the Saturday, you have the qualif uh P like practice three and qualifying, like you would do in the real thing.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

I think they do it similar, I think they've done it similar, and they're gonna be around.

SPEAKER_09 48:47

And then in the race, I want no messing about, I want the full formation lap, which is in the game now, I believe. Yeah, and then and then I also want the full race distance, no messing about.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

Yeah, I'd I I'm trying to.

SPEAKER_09 49:04

I don't want 50%, 20%, I don't want any of that. I want full race distance.

SPEAKER_01 49:08

I'm sure they did do full race distance, I'm sure of it.

SPEAKER_09 49:13

I might be wrong, but then I might start watching that.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Um it is very good. Um but you'll hang on a minute, mate.

SPEAKER_09 49:20

Be Elzibub's on the phone. He says his front pond's fault's frozen over, so I guess I will be watching uh F1 esports this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

Brilliant. Um yeah, it's um I know this was a long article, it's H magazine. Ever all our articles are very journalistic and very big, but they always they get you know, there's none of this.

SPEAKER_09 49:43

But this is proper journalistic chisel, I have to admit. It this is not um this is not thermal tangers. This is definitely they're having a go, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 49:53

And also we're both, you know, Grand Prismo fans. Um I never realised I knew this lad had come through, won this competition and went on to be successful. I never realised how in-depth they were going with all these drivers and really literally using it as a it's almost like a a youth team at a big football club and they're just picking through to see who who could actually be you know that good, you know.

Vita Era Synergy And Cross‑Play Memories

SPEAKER_09 50:17

Yeah, well this this comment that uh that this ch Chappie made, he says, if you give me 20 bricklayers, he says, and if you they were the right age, fitness and temperament with the determination to become race drivers, we would find one with talent and we would train them into into a professional driver. Now, I get that, I think that that is there, but let's let's end on this. I think it was Bernie uh Epstein. No, that would be the wrong character, Bernie Eccleston. Bernie Eccleston. That's better. Oh he's fine, he's not related. Anyway, he said they said to him, you know, who do you think, where do you think the next best F1 driver's coming from? He said the next best F1 driver is a lumberjack in the Ukraine somewhere, but he'll never ever get in an F1 car. And I think there's a lot to be said about there is the greatest person to ever drive in F1 will never actually be an F1 driver, he's just doing an all he's a milk driver he's a milk like float driver for for British milk or whatever it is, and that's I think sadly true, but at least GT Academy gives people the chance to get their talent seen. Yeah, like an alternate route into the industry, you know, and it's a bit of an X factor roll of the dice, but I think if you get in, you've got to work it. And it's physically, you can't just, you know, driving a car in your in your house for two hours is probably quite physically exerting, I'll give you that. But it's not stood up to the G-forces of a two-hour or 24-hour race. So you could be an absolute blob and be awesome at F1, but then rock up for GT Academy, and they're like, hmm, right, okay, then, chap. Um we hit the first corner, you're gonna be at that side wall like a ball of jelly. We're gonna probably buy the fourth lap, we're gonna have to come and pull you out the back of it. No, mate. You're gonna have to do a couple of laps of this on foot first, and then uh maybe in a week or two we'll squeeze you in the motor.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

Brilliant. No, but yeah, interesting here to see uh to see where they were picking people from and how.

SPEAKER_09 52:35

Well, especially 2014 as well. It was already paying dividends. I suppose one last thing as well, or we're nearly close to seeing someone win the triple crown. Well, that person would have to get a chance to win Lamon. Win indie 500, which there's a chance, but then get a one-off opportunity or a full season and then win the Monaco Grand Prix. I think we're some time off someone coming through the video game room winning the triple crown, anyway. Um sat next in George Bit of Star Wars news, and if you want, I'll throw myself on the on the pyre. I'll take the third bit of news as well, so you can just relax a little bit. No, no, I want to do it.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Oh, okay. That's yeah, okay. You were determined then.

SPEAKER_09 53:22

You rolled over a bit easy, so now I'm thinking it's a trap. But anyway, that's a that's on theme for a Star Wars thing. It's a trap. All Star Wars games are no longer canon. Uh oh, I remember this happening. It's weird, this it's almost like I've time travel. In a recent blog post reported by CVG, Lucasfilm has announced all Star Wars video games and expanded universe media is non-canon. Just like that. This basically means all video games set in the Star Wars world, despite their license, are not part of the official Star Wars story. Apparently only the six films and the Clone Wars TV show are properly canon. However, Lucasfilm has also decreed that all Star Wars spin-offs in the future will be more closely tied to the core films.

SPEAKER_03 54:05

Hmm.

SPEAKER_09 54:06

What does this mean for gaming? Several things actually. It's not for un it's not unusual for Lucas to tinker with what is and isn't considered official Star Wars lore. In fact, the company can't leave this damn franchise alone. As the remastered versions of episode four to six attest, it seems strange that even close tie-ins are no longer considered part of the story, especially as games like Force Unleashed present smart and fan-pleasing theories on heavily debated aspects of the law. There's something a little sad about Lucasfilm humorously dismissing all the sly winks and nods to the core films, especially so when games like Nights of the Opera Republic 1 and 2 do such a great job of creating compelling stories within the Star Wars universe, while also being very careful not to rely on endless crowd-pleasing references to the original trilogy. In the writer Antony Hartup's personal opinion, I'd rather axe the dreadful prequel films from the Star Wars canon and leave a handful of great Star Wars games like Kotor firmly in there. But then again, I'm not George Lucas or any of his minions, or am I? No, I'm not. No, you're not, Andy, thankfully, because uh coming in here with your axe cleaving up what you think's right and wrong. Disney have already done enough damage, RGT. Um I remember this happening, it was part of the oh to buyout.

SPEAKER_01 55:27

There's a bit more to that as well.

SPEAKER_09 55:30

Oh, sorry, it ended just like it should have, like that was it. Okay, well, and he continues, being banished from the initial canon certainly doesn't detract from the content of any game, but does lessen the importance of any story beats and the feeling that you're part of the Star Wars experience. It's like a mean older child telling you that you can't play Battle of Hoth with the other kids, even though you brought your Tonton costume. However, the good news in all this, well, it might not actually be good news, Lucasfilm has set up a story group that will oversee every future expanded universe product to make sure it fits with the Star Wars canon. This means that titles in development like the new Battlefront being made by Dice will have to comply with Lucasfilm's current vision of the franchise. Sure, it's great that each new game will have the official seal of approval. I think they did anyway, which is odd, adding to authenticity, but this also relies on Lucas' current vision, aligning with stuff great games are made of. Video games and films have a famously troubled relationship when it comes to movies becoming games. The most common reason for failure is a lack of artistic license. Developers need creative freedom to turn the most explosive, exciting material into a decent game. Sticking too rigidly to film structure or studio demands leads to hogwash like Enter the Matrix or Iron Man the Game. I'm starting to doubt this man's uh credence, if I'm honest, RGT, but I shall read on. My worry is that Lucasfilm will ask for too much control and will suffocate future gaming iterations of Star Wars like a force choke trademark. But there's the issue of whether or not we actually want games based on Lucas's current Star Wars vision. Here he goes again. Sure episodes four to six are quite rightly cherished, and we all love to be part of them. Episodes one to three, not so good, and the fact that Lucas wrecked several aspects of four to six to justify some of the stuff in one to three, yeah, leaves a sour taste, right? Doesn't fill me with confidence for the quality and faithfulness of the forthcoming episodes seven to nine, and it's these films, this story that will be the and it's these films, this story, that will be the focus of the story group as they seek to influence and control all Star Wars media from this point forwards. I don't know as the second piece really needed to be said. There's a story wrapped up in an opinion piece wrapped up in a story there. He published it as news, said Andy Hart up, and then basically wrote his opinion of what he thought Star Wars should or shouldn't be. I am interested to talk to you in a moment about how you think this has played out. I'm finding some of what he's saying a little bit out there. Listen, I don't really feel like this has really made that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things if Modest RGT. I was playing only the what two weeks ago, Star Wars Nights of the Old Republic on Hill Switcher 2 in the bedroom in the hotel room. And I was thinking to myself, hmm, this is nice. Now I remember in 2014 I was a very bitter, very beloved, very peaceful, very right-on Star Wars fan as well. And now, 11 years on from this point, it's so dead that I just don't even care anymore. I'll be honest with you. That's what they've done to Star Wars. They milked it for all it was worth, they steamrolled a load of stuff in, they made you re they made you feel like all the stuff you'd already spent all your money on was like pointless because oh no, we decide that's not canon anymore. Uh go clear your bookshelves because we're gonna sell you a load more ta.

Indie Rise: Fez, Stress, And Craft

SPEAKER_01 59:15

Well, I think this is summed up with this part where it says, um, however, the good news in all of this, well, it might not actually be good news. Lucasfilm has set up a story group that'll oversee every future expanded universe product to make sure it fits him in a Star Wars canon. This means that titles in development, like the new battlefront being made by Dice, will have to comply with Lucasfilm's current vision of the franchise. No story in that game whatsoever. It was just a uh cash cow online only, where people had to pay to win. Well, if you go in with 70 bucks and buy Darth Vader from the very first day and just kill everyone online, it there was no story in it.

SPEAKER_09 59:53

I think I there's something here that made me smile because he no, I'm not saying that um oh, where is it? Force Unleashed is a bad game, okay, but the way it plays with the law, which was deemed to be canon at the time Yeah, think about that. And the fact that's now in the bin, I'm actually quite happy with. The fact that Calchestis and um Fallen Order exist now in this and he is protected at the at the behest of Starkiller, I think that's actually a decent trade-off in terms of what they've done to the books. I mean, you're telling me you're telling me are you telling me Battlefriendor isn't legit anymore? So that's not canon. Oh my.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

Yeah, this is it's it's I put this in because one, I know you're a massive Star Wars fan, and two, he sounds like a quite embittered Star Wars fan.

SPEAKER_09 1:00:59

I haven't thought about all this for such a while, it's been so dead in my head.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:08

I've actually just thought, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:11

And it is interesting because when you've had licensed Star Wars games in the past which have tried to be the movies, people complain because, oh well, they missed that out, and that weren't quite right there. So then you do side stories, but then you either keep them completely separate or it has a bit of a line into the films, and then is that wrong? So, do you know what I mean? This is I'm a casual Star Wars fan, so I know you are quite a hardcore fan, so I wanted to know what your opinion is on this.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:39

Do the games like I'll be honest, at the time I'd have been very animated about this and what's going on, and Disney have done this, and what doesn't make any sense? I'd have been very passionate about a load of um old universe books that I've probably barely read, to be fair, and uh the Empire this and blah blah blah, and this Force Awakens better be good, and blah blah blah. Where did any of it get us, really? I mean, even I got caught up in the smoke of Force Awakens by the time I woke up. I mean I basically watched Luke Skywalker get get fingered, so yeah, not the greatest experience as a Star Wars fan, but it is what it is, it's a cash cow, it was bought to get pimped, uh and that's exactly what they did to it. They basically just stood it out in a street corner and a pair of cheap stilettos. I mean, that's basically what Star Wars is, and that's kind of why when I was reading this, I felt like actually distanced from it in a way. I was kind of divorced from it. I've now just settled up on what I think is Star Wars in my head, and that includes some of these games, you know, Star Wars Republic Commando, Knights of the Old Republic, you know. I'm if Disney says that's not leg, like hang on, who's who who was Kotor ever hurting? It was set thousands of years before the main film. He could have he he could have written Luke Skywalker eats fish pie on a wall in that game, and it would make it make no it it wouldn't it wouldn't even scratch the surface of being an issue, would it? Four thousand years later or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:10

So it's just it's just a setting in the universe and the talent that some of these devs done was even though it was a thousand years before Star Wars, it was still very good, and you knew it was in a Star Wars world.

Gran Turismo Academy: Sim To Reality

SPEAKER_09 1:03:20

Yeah, I mean in in here he says, Oh Dart, um is it Dart Forces, the PS1 PC shooter? That's about stealing the plans for the Death Star. Now, I would ask this gentleman now, I would look him in the eye, old Andy Hart up, and ask him in 2026, how does your idea hold up now that you've seen Rogue One? Um, that you wouldn't want that film made because it it you know sadly betrays the story beats in Dark Forces. I think it would glow beat red and be like, yeah, alright, well, and I say, Well, you win some, you lose some palette. So I I'm as I said, I'm willing to sacrifice some of this for some of that. Uh and I think you know, in my example, I sacrificed Force Unleashed and we got Kalchestis. Uh, in his example, I think we got an Equidistant Wind, did we not? So yeah, I would I would burn Dark Forces on a pyre for get to get Rogue One any day of the week, and andor and all that other stuff, yeah. A worthwhile trade-off. Um, this last bit of news, also from Games Radar. I put this in because me being the Uncharted fan, I thought, oof, this is well, you can sit back and listen to this read to you, digest it, and then I can uh pull my chair up and get old Parkinson on you. I don't mean the shakes, I mean the interviewer guy. Right. Could Uncharted Four be in trouble? Signs point to yes, says old Lucas Sullivan over at Games Radar. He's got the lowdown on something. This was published on the 22nd of April 2014. Something's going down behind closed doors at Naughty Dog, and it doesn't bode well. It all started with the departure of Amy Hennick in March, who had been the writer and director of the Uncharted series. She's now working on an unannounced Star Wars project at Vessoral Games. Later this month, Justin Richmond, the game director on the upcoming Uncharted game for PS Port. PS Port. Leave that in RGT. Keep me humble. Left Naughty Dog for Riot Games. Today we're hit with a one-two punch of troubling naughty dog news. Nate Wells, the lead artist on The Last of Us, is moving to in developer Giant Sparrow. Nice move. The only character confirmed for Uncharted PS4 has been recast following the departure of writer and actor Todd Snashwick, who will be joining Hennick of Visceral. It all begs the question just what in the hell is going on over there? Without an inside source, I can't say for sure, but my guess is that Uncharted on PS4. Is the cause of the turmoil with the development staff. In a blog post from the development from November last year, Naughty Dogs community strategist Arn Mayer wrote that Amy Hennig, just in Richmond, are and the team are hard at work on an amazing new installment of the Uncharted series to be released exclusively on the PlayStation 4 system, adding, We can confirm the voiceover is performed by Todd Stashwick and he will play a character in the game. Six months later, every team member mentioned in that statement, all of them playing an integral role in Uncharted on PS4 is now gone. People typically don't depart a company in short succession when they're satisfied with their job. For that, many creative leads to all jump ship within the two month span can't be a good sign. And many indicate, may indicate, internal conflict over the direction of Uncharted for Sony's newest console. Perhaps demands were made of the project that Hennig and Richmond couldn't agree with. Hennig has been with the series since its inception, so fair to leave so abruptly could be an indication that something is going very wrong. Or maybe achieving Uncharted signature set pieces on PS4 is proving to be an unsurmountable challenge. After Uncharted 2 hit it big, co-lead designer Richmond Lemershand revealed slapped an em in his name for some reason, only in the first one, not in the second one, where it belonged. The set pieces took much longer to create and polish than we'd anticipated between the scale of the project and frame rate issues that needed to be ironed out. When Charted 2 resulted in a soul crushing crunch period at Naughty Dog, we realized just how big of a game we had bitten off, and we were either going to have to chew extra hard or make some cuts or choke, said Lemarchan Lemarchand. Let me know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Perhaps that same excruciating amount of demand is being made of the current Uncharted staff, enough to make some team members reach their breaking point. Regardless if you were hoping for Uncharted on PS4 within the year, you should probably temper your expectations. This all feels like deja vu, a company going through teamwide exodus right after coming off a widely popular AAA game. It was only this past February that Irrational Games disintegrated following the success of Bioshock Infinite, a move that stunned many gamers into appreciating the creative tolls that came with developing big name games for years at a time. With Naughty Dog's current state of affairs, it seems to me like half a year's work or at least for the fourth uncharted instalment may not be all but abandoned. If the people still working in Naughty Dog want to shake off any doom and gloom rumours, they need to hit E3 2014 hard with some uncharted info that's more substantial than a teaser trailer. When game development veterans like Amy Hennick exit a project on unclear terms, it's bound to create a crisis of confidence for the game currently in development. And the thought of Naughty Dog losing its footing after putting out Games Radar's best game of 2013 is troubling indeed. RGT, you're a big fan of the Encharted series. Much of this is out there obviously now in the wider press. I think really much of this inner machination between Amy and Naughty Dog never really did come out. I think Amy had a lot of the game planned from memory. She had it all storyboarded on a wall. This wasn't just some uh throwaway effort that they were halfway into, and as far as I'm aware, everything that was up on her wall um was in the bin, and the locations uh were repurposed with some additional ones recreated and then reordered with a totally new story and additional characters uh to make it all work. Uncharted four ended up being a bloody good game by all reckoning there, but it had a very troubled incubation period, RGT. Tell me what you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:03

Um well, pretty much the same as you. I mean, I knew there was in the early days there was a lot of trouble with people leaving. I didn't know people by name at the time. Um, obviously do now a few years later, and we you know, with Amy going and a few others, yes, the journalist was delving deep into that, massive troubles, naughty dog are in trouble, uncharted, you know, it's looking like it's going to be a failure. It obviously weren't. I mean, Uncharted 4 ended up being an absolutely fantastic game. Um, how much of what their input was in this early on, or you know, whether and why that went on, we don't know. I mean, I would imagine me personally, I think there was probably Amy wanted it to go one way with her story, and they had a different plan involved in that.

SPEAKER_09 1:10:52

And in the end, it was just I think there was a little bit of a coup de grade going on at Naughty Dog at the time as well, I'll be honest. Um, and I think Amy was maybe wrapped up in that and ended up being one of the the losers. The winners are the ones that crawled out the dust of what was left and obviously gave us the Uncharted 4 and Last of Us Part 2, uh, and are about to really test themselves with um Intergalactic Heresy prophecy because you know, new project, new new systems, new gameplay loop. You really putting it out there. Um I think that it probably comes, probably stems from Amy being a bit burnt out. She was involved in a lot of big games from Soul Reaver, straight really punches, straight until Uncharted, followed almost immediately by two, followed almost immediately by three. Big games, a lot of story, a lot of moving parts. The way she works is from what I understand, there's a lot of movie watching to ref you know. I want this piece to be like this. Let's watch this piece of this game. You can see that in the work, isn't it? Let's try and bring the spirit of that out and make this into this. And she has a stack of movies and a video player, or probably DVDs, or now or whatever she's doing now. She's not brought game out in a long time, bless her. Um, I feel like this clipped her wings a bit. Getting a Star Wars game cancelled as well, I think clipped her wings the second time. And I don't even know she's even in the industry anymore, but I can understand how in a world of crunch and Sony have been on the phone. You know, we said this was gonna be a launch game, right? Oh, was it? Yeah, oh uh what are you doing? Oh, me and the team are watching Smoky and the Bandit. Amy Amy This is great, I love it, but you need to crunch. Oh, I know, but we need this bit of the story to be great, yeah. I I know, but come on, you haven't coded for two weeks. Um this might be the extreme example of it, but you can imagine that would be quite a frustrating way to work, but I don't know any other way you could try and build that dynamic in without it. So and me, yeah, like you say, I might be a clash of styles from the new way that things are working with video games to the way Amy developed video games and eventually it clashed and yeah, I think maybe in the modern day G you get something working and then kind of I think you know, story comes first, I think every time, but do you then part the story and get something half working and then try and pin your story on top of that? You know, you get a vehicle, you kind of get four wheels on it, get it rolling down the road and perfect it as you go, or or do you do it the other way around, like you keep perfecting the story, but but without this we need a vehicle to pin the story to. There's many there's many facets to making a great game. I think maybe I think maybe Amy represented maybe a different way of working, a different style of storytelling. I I definitely feel a difference between the Uncharted trilogy and four, and uh it's definitely a different game, it's definitely a different vibe from the minute you start in it. It's definitely got more of a last of us vibe than it has an uncharted vibe before.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:13

Definitely, it's definitely more mature, more serious. You see another side to Nate, you see his personal side more, you see an older guy, you see a bit of his history and family, and yeah, it's definitely at the time I just thought that was them maturing the series to a finale, but obviously, now you see all this, there's obviously a part of the game has gone different because of people who weren't there to working on it, so you can see that now.

SPEAKER_09 1:14:43

Um it's been co-opted, and and I and and to be fair to your point, I think you know, maybe quite rightly so, PS4 landed, it had a little bit more of that mature PlayStation vibe about it again. It was for the players. This was quite honestly, legitimately the sign-off to what had been a very big PS3 era game uh for a lot of the hardcore fans. So, to mature the storyline up a little bit, uh more in line four definitely feels very much like it's in the last of us universe at times, in terms of the the graphical fidelity, some of the the visceral um punishment that's received in it as well. It it's it's on the button at times. Um for another for a for an Uncharted game, it's on the edge.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:36

Um yeah, I think the PS3 you had uh uh an indie clone with a guy who had witty lines.

SPEAKER_09 1:15:43

I don't want you I don't I think we need to start looking at Uncharted as um romance and the stone.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:50

Yeah, I know what you mean, but I'm just using it as an example as to the the character himself, you know. He he he was always close to death, witty comments, you know. Yes, you know, but then when into four you actually saw a man he's done with this name near enough, you know, and suddenly you think, oh he's a real person, actually, you know, played brother.

SPEAKER_09 1:16:14

Yeah, and I think after is it is it three, you see him as that kid, you play as him as a kid in it a lot, don't you? Which then returns in four as well when you start to kind of then pick that story up with the brother, so that you have almost then seen the full circle of Nate's life. And obviously, when it came out, obviously Thief's End was quite a scary title if you think about it, in terms of what that could represent to the franchise and a fan. I don't think they really made much of it. I think if I'd been there might have lent into it a bit more, you know. But you know, it is what it is. But this is as you say, this was quite the this was big controversy at the time. This was talked about for at least two or th the the spin-off and the reverberations of this move of what Amy's the the height wagon of what Amy's next game was gonna be, this unannounced Star Wars project. I think Star Wars 1818, it kind of ended up getting a name attached to it a little bit. Um people were still talking about this in 2017.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:26

Yeah. Yeah, and I think, you know, how especially with I know there was other people as well, but with Amy how well known she was for the game she'd done, learning that she'd gone, you can tell with this article that straight away they were like he wasn't saying this as much, but he's basically saying is Uncharted 4 gonna happen. It seems like it's dead now. With Amy gone, who's gonna do Uncharted 4? You know, they've straight away thought, right, this is done, Naughty Dog's in mega trouble. They pulled it out of the bag in the end and created a great game, but I would like to have seen what Uncharted 4 would have been um with Amy there, that would have been interesting. Did they use a lot of games?

SPEAKER_09 1:18:06

I would like to have seen I would like to have seen what these games would have been if Last of Us hadn't stuck. Yeah, yeah, because it was a very kind of zombie saturated world at the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:18

And they even well they even had Yeaster Egg to Lincoln at the you know, where people fought in the newspaper, yeah. Yeah, in the newspaper, in Incharted Three, was it in the pub, in the English pub? Yeah, there's a little reference to a virus. If you've never seen that, that's the you you're in Uncharted Three, you have a punch-up in a pub. But if you go to the corner, there's a newspaper and that shows the picture of the ant from the famous virus, and it says um virus outbreaks hit certain parts of the world, blah blah blah. And that's why everyone thought that was either a little hint to Last of Us or whether or that was a um you know, they're in the same universe, you know. So there was there was that close ties with the game. Um, but yeah, definitely from from the popularity of Last of Us, which you can see in Uncharted 4, um, yeah, it's been interesting, like you say, if if Amy had stayed and Last of Us hadn't have stuck, what would we have got?

SPEAKER_05 1:19:06

Um I know. Um maybe there'd be one of those studios that have let go.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:14

Yeah, you don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:15

Imagine that.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:16

Imagine if Naughty Dog had gone. You know, what we wouldn't have had we wouldn't have had eight remasters of Last of Us.

Star Wars Canon Reset And Game Impact

SPEAKER_05 1:19:24

What would they have done?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:26

Exactly. Um but yeah, three very interesting stories. I hope you like those. I know some of them are a bit long, but uh I like to put the full article in because that's quite interesting to see what these journalists and what we were thinking at the time, you know, from from you know how they were picking out uh Gran Turismo online players and successful virtual racers to race in the real world, right through to a quite embittered uh Star Wars fan writing an article on games being linked to films from YouTube. Weren't we all? Yeah, and to Uncharted 4, you know, thinking, is it gonna happen? Are Naughty Dog in trouble? Obviously, we know different now, but yeah, I thought it was very interesting to see what what they were thinking at the time and you know some quite controversial incidents that had happened within the gaming world. Um, but now I think it's time for what we affectionatic Stingray's boot. I was nestled between some counterfeit nappies and a dodgy copy for Battle Endor. It's some of the new releases for April slash May 2014. Now then, what have you got your eyes on in here? I I did put a little one in here because I knew you'd have been all over it. You are the man for that game, and you probably buy it on three different consoles every single year. Well, we can't find it.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:51

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:54

Yes. What is it, George?

SPEAKER_09 1:20:57

It's MLB.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:58

MLB 14 the show.

SPEAKER_09 1:21:01

It's a really good version of it, to be fair. I was just looking through it because I was gonna throw a couple uh I've got this on Vita, I've got it on PS3, I've got it on PS4. I was gonna throw in it's it's one of the Blue Top PS3 games, by the way, if you're so mildly curious about such a thing existing out there in the wild. As is there another Blue Top PS3 game right at the bottom of the list. It's Draken Guard 3. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:27

How many of them is there, these blue tops? If you don't know, I think the last sort of few games of the PS3 were in that era they had a blue top that sort of crossed over the PS4.

SPEAKER_09 1:21:36

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:38

I mean with Curio A few times.

SPEAKER_09 1:21:40

Yeah, you know, I go down Rabbit Hall Stone. I want to get every steel book, I want to get them every LMLB steel book, and I you know Don't we all though? I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to get all the blue top PS3 games. I writted out a few. There was MLB, there was this, there was a couple of others, but yeah, you can't, it's hard to find evidence and a full list, so without physically just starting to buy retro back retrospectively, and there's no guarantee it's blue top from the last game made working backwards through concurrently until you hit another blacktop, but then you might go on other blacktops and get a blue, so it it's an unknown, and I don't know how or why Sony made the decision. I wonder if it was like a worldwide decision, but still some local marketing pushed it through in a different way. So maybe MLB is a game that could be published in several markets, but would still need to attach at the m at the right you know, look in terms of short store display. Hang on, we've got all the PS4 store display out, so you know why don't we do a blue top PS3 version of MLB and then they can all be on and use the blue theme? Oh, good idea, Brian. Yeah, we'll do that. But I don't ever imagine walking into Best Buy and seeing a Drakengarb display. So go figure. I mean, go figure. It's a real interesting curio, and one that would probably only ever be talked about on this show. So if you do know any more about the blue-topped last era PS3 games, whether is a a full list PAL versus USA as well, or whether it's a worldwide thing, let us know. I would love to know. Um what game are you picking out? RGT?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:36

Um, I'm gonna pick I'm gonna pick two. Um probably not what you think I'm gonna pick. Um one of them is R-type dimensions. Um, I love me R-type.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:49

That was an obvious choice for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:51

Oh, and um I loved it on a PS3 because it's the first time I'd seen a game where you could change the graphics to the old style pixel to the new modern sort of way you could play between the two, and I thought that was brilliant. I played it right through, completed it, really enjoyed it, and another one that you were not gonna guess that I've gonna pick. Um, a Sparkle 2.

SPEAKER_09 1:24:13

I knew you were gonna say Sparkle 2.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:15

You didn't have a clue. I've played the Sparkle games, and they're there's sort of the ball roll and puzzle game. I had so much fun with those. Um, and I just yeah, I've always wanted another sparkle game actually.

SPEAKER_09 1:24:26

I like most I'll tell you what means Xbox Arcade was full of games like this Peggle, Sparkle, PS3. I think got equal amounts of them. Maybe didn't push them as hard, but these games are everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:40

Yeah, great fun. They were great fun, but two sort of good memories for me. So I'm I'm gonna pick those. What about you, George? What two are you gonna pick out as Thingrays boot?

SPEAKER_09 1:24:47

Um, I think I'm contractually obliged to pick MLB um for my second game, and it's bizarre how these things happen. Obviously, I'm trying to I didn't realise I was having to come this far forward in research, I'll be honest with you. I've been a bit blindsided by 2014, but it seems to me that we remember a little bit more than we thought, but maybe less than we thought we thought that we knew. Um, but anyway, um there's a game here called Bound by Flame, which was uh a game that they gave away on PSN for PS3 when they were doing Vita PS3 and PS4 game giveaways. So that might be in your back catalogue. So RGT check it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:30

That must be where of Cinep from what sort of game is it? Is it an RPG or something?

SPEAKER_09 1:25:34

It is, yeah. It's it's deemed to be kind of it might be a hidden gem, actually, RGT, because I think Metacritic wise, it got a seven. So in that era, a seven would have struggled to really penetrate any sales, if that makes sense, because people are a bit more snooty, had to get a nine or a ten, that's it wasn't getting bought, and that's that is a fact. So now we see sixes and sevens, and we've half convinced ourselves that there's a good game in there somewhere, somewhere. Uh, and bam by flame is alleged to be one of those. So if you're looking for a hidden gem, my little uh friendly friend, don't know if it ever got a physical, I've only got it digital on PS3. I've I've never seen it in the wild.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:15

I just remember seeing Bamba Flame when I was researching this, and I thought, why do I recognise that? Well, maybe it is because it's in my back catalogue from from me you know PlayStation.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:28

I think, and that might be obviously a bit of a shout out to Watchdogs. If you listen to the main show as well, you'll know that I gave that a go on the most recent episode. And uh I think if I played it in 2014, new console, new feeling, new vibe, new controller. Yeah, do you know what I think I'd have got drawn into it a bit more? I think the st I think the stealth would have done my head in. I've always been a bit of an anti-stealth. Um so maybe last little shout out, which is nice to see, is Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:59

Yeah, yeah, there was a few like that out. Um Mario Kart 8, Lego the Hobbit.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:04

Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on a minute.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:09

Anyway, Lego the Hobbit, Mario Kart 8, dude.

SPEAKER_09 1:27:13

I don't think you can just brush over me like that. I'm your guest, and you're not you've totally glossed over how we're seeing the Ray. I know you wanted to be a big boy over here on Flashy B. You'd forgot as well, so no, mate, I was I was waiting for you. I'm the passenger, I'm just sat here like, oh, where are you going? I thought he must know that we've gone the wrong way down this road. So I'm gonna let him sort it out himself. Because if I say don't forget about Ray Road, you'd be like, Oh no about Ray Road, Dick and let me just turn right here and back right again and then down this little side alley. It is Ray. How are you seeing him?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:49

Anyway, like you say, you are the passenger. So let go of the hobbit was also out. There was there was um Trolls Fusion, had great times of Trolls Fusion. Good game. Um, that was also out. Um, any other notable ones before we go?

SPEAKER_09 1:28:05

I may be a passenger, but more like in the way that Mr. Bean sits on top of his mini.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:13

Triple deluxe. Anyway, yes, how are you seeing the Ray today, George? Oh, the Ray.

SPEAKER_09 1:28:18

I know you've tried to kill him off, but he's he's a beloved family friend. Um I tell you I'm seeing the Ray. He's coming in here, and I tell you what he looks like. He looks like a divorced dad.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_09 1:28:30

Yep. He's he's 2014, so he's gone full hipster, he's got a flat cap, he's got jeans, but he's got little cycling clips on him, and he's got what can only be described as a um a fixy. He's wearing, you know, those bikes where they've got the fixed gears.

unknown 1:28:52

Oh.

SPEAKER_09 1:28:54

He's got a um he's got a cup carrier on his bush on his push bike, because he didn't come up in the uh he didn't come up in the I know it sounded like he came up in the blue, but he came up on this on this fixy. He's got a little um cup carrier on there, and he's he's got what it's 2014, so it's a bit edgy. He's got what looks like an oat milk flat white. Um yeah, and I can't see Wayne because it's not Sting's day for custody.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:36

Oh okay. Well me, right Stingray Stingray is he's trying to get him and Wayne on point. So what he's done is Sting has come, he's he's come as a racing driver, but he's put his old cartsuit on from when he was seven. So it's it I mean it is seriously tight. Yeah. So it's when it was seven. When he was seven. So it's undone at the front, his chest and medallions out, and the sleeves are almost up to elbow and knee on the legs. So he's it he's tight. I mean, it's gonna give. If he bends over, explosions happen. Now, Wayne, he's tried to go as a Mario Kart, so he's got a little pedal car. But then he's gonna ride him. But he's but his suit's far too big, so it's getting caught around the pedals, he can't pedal it properly. I mean, they're trying to push the Mario Kart 8, Grand Turismo, you know, Kitty doing Mario Kart, him doing Grand Turismo, but it's not it's not pulled. There'd have been better swapping suits, to be honest, but I'll give him I'll give him a half a point for being on point with with racing games at the moment, because it was a popular time for 'em. But yeah, bless him. Um Stingray's boot, what film are you picking?

SPEAKER_09 1:30:57

I know one a minute. I know one minute. Hey, Ray! Is that a tattoo? Of course it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:31:06

No worries. Uh I'm gonna get hey Ray. Taking it. You watched this on a date last week, Ray? Banger. I'm gonna take this this cam copy of the pirate uh Guardians of the Galaxy.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:23

Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:25

It felt weird picking a film. I'll be honest, RGT. It's it's over ten years ago, but it felt like I was picking a film from last week.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:33

Yeah, I know, it's weird as well, because the film Ompick and I haven't seen, but I know Mrs. RGT loved the series, but this is the first one in the series, and that is divergent. Um never seen it myself, but it was out in the world.

SPEAKER_09 1:31:46

Is it about people with like different like mental um definitely not, no.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:54

Um it was um a bit like a clone of Hunger Games, I believe.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:00

Wow. Okay, that that's throwing a whole new sort of angle on it.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:05

I had that British actor who went across and done the Divergent films. He was he had a small part in um Downton Abbey in the first series. He was the Turkish guy that died in Downton Abbey.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:17

Come on, Pamuk!

SPEAKER_01 1:32:18

Yeah, and he uh he uh he went across and done divergent.

SPEAKER_09 1:32:24

He's in the gentleman, in he? I can't remember his name, but that's he's Kamal Pamuk in mind.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:28

He was also in one of my favourite TV series, which Mrs. RGT got me for Valentine's Day on DVD, which is Bedlam, which is in that as well, which is fantastic.

SPEAKER_09 1:32:36

Kamal Pamuk's in that. He's in a few things old Kamal Pamuk. He's the son of the Turkish ambassador, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:43

Is he really?

SPEAKER_09 1:32:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_09 1:32:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:47

Didn't know that. Yeah. But yeah, so I'm gonna go with Divergent. You're going with um what did you say? Oh, Guardians of the Galaxy. God, twice. Why not? Yeah. Um, yeah, so that was really good. I mean, we'll do a bit of housekeeping before we end the show. Um don't forget don't forget to check out the website. Um it's like I say, it's being built every day. Um, it's looking fantastic now. And also, you've probably, if you listen to this, you'll probably listen to the main show. But um, we did say it's easy to find now. So just chuck in Unofficial Controller Podcast in your search engine, and within the first two or three searches, you will see our website, unofficial controllerpodcast.com. So jump on there, have a look, hidden gems, bit for everyone on air, our challenges, whatever else is going on. Most of it is all on there, and we're building it as we go. It's looking fantastic. Um, if you want to email us about the show, or if you've got any ideas for a show, or whether you want us to do some special shows, we've done one last week. We've done top ten games to play. If you're only now getting into the PS2, um, email us at the Unofficial Controller Podcast um questions at unofficial controller podcast.com. Um if you want, you know, even if you want a link to our Discord, come and jump on there. We've got a section for flashback, but it's also good. We've got a couple of new members joined again this week on the Discord. There's always stuff going on there. Absolutely brilliant. Um also my army. Your army. Um and don't forget to let us know.

SPEAKER_09 1:34:12

Um that's popular on this series of podcasts as a mozzie on a nice summer's night.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:21

Yeah, maybe. Um also sacked off the main show.

SPEAKER_09 1:34:28

I mean, I'm on time here.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:30

You haven't been sacked. You know you haven't stopped seeing so dramatic and attention.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:34

On the storyline for the main show, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 1:34:36

Yeah, don't people don't believe that. They have to, they do. You're the arcala, you know that.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:42

Um my mate, man. Yeah, you are. You lead us. I'm brown owl. Brown eye. No, owl.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:51

Owl. Um wrong show. Um, let us know what you thought of our PS2 show last week. Um, I had some good feedback on that, but if you'd like us to keep doing those sort of uh buying guides and top ten games for new consoles or retro consoles that you haven't bought yet, let us know. Um, and also there's quite a few of us going to the Bristol Game and Market on as you're listening to this, it's in two weeks' time, um, or less than two weeks now, on the 28th of February, uh Bristol. So if you're going there, come and say hi. Um, it's quite a few of us going from Discord, so should be good to have a meetup. Hopefully, get some retro stuff as well. Um just say thanks for all the downloads, thanks for the nice comments, thanks for reviews. Um, it all helps us uh get out of there a bit and get seen and helps us on the algorithm.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:38

Um RGT of I just uh I just said an epiphany, mate.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:43

Oh god, here we go. Trying to be serious, doing a bit of housekeeping at the end. Here we go.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:51

This is a CEO take. We're gonna end up if flashback keeps going, you keep doing these shows the way you're doing them.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:02

We're gonna end up being able to put an episode flashback out just by using episode five of the UCP original run.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:11

Rinse repeat. That's good enough for naughty dog, it's good enough for us.

SPEAKER_09 1:36:17

That is true, like in 2014 we're tickling under the chin of OG Show era.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:22

Yeah, yeah, we are, yeah. Imagine that, just just a just a really bad edit at the start.

SPEAKER_09 1:36:28

Is that the cutoff?

SPEAKER_01 1:36:29

Welcome to the Olive Control Flashback.

SPEAKER_09 1:36:32

Should that be the cut-off for flashback? Is the first ever episode of the UCP? That's the date where like we can't cover that because you might as well go and listen to that episode. Yeah, when you've got the same, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:44

2019, yeah. Well I wouldn't go no later than that. I mean where we're at with this is about yeah, 2019 or something.

SPEAKER_09 1:36:53

I don't even know. I don't know when this show started, mate.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:55

Yeah, I think it's yeah, I'm sure it was 2019. End of 2018, start of 2019, I think. So, yeah, that's our cut-off point for this show. But um, yes, is there anything you want to add to that, George?

SPEAKER_09 1:37:11

Or no, not other than that epiphany, um, which you shouldn't have been afraid of, mate. That was all business, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:37:18

It was. I apologize.

SPEAKER_09 1:37:19

I thought I'm not a flasher at the Super Bowl, mate. This was all business.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:23

I just I saw the face and the thinking and I thought, hmm, we've got a bit of a George story time coming here. But no, it was it was all good.

SPEAKER_09 1:37:32

Look, if you want that, I guess well you even pulled the reins in on me on the main show.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:35

I think you've got to let me go full full bore on the main show now, so I can keep it down low for the that's fine, but um God help us when you go full bore, because it is a sight to behold. It is it's a trembler for the years, put it that way.

SPEAKER_09 1:37:54

Wow, yeah. Okay, well, I guess on that note, you better hit.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:01

Yeah, so anything you want to add to that, no? Are you all done?

Uncharted 4 Turbulence And Rebuild

SPEAKER_09 1:38:04

Um no, I just I just want to say thank you to everybody. We see you out there, we see this continued growth and love of the separate spin-off show over here on Flashback, and we'll keep making it if you keep coming. So just want to thank everybody for listening and downloading and spreading the magic around. A little personal Georgie thank you. And also, just need to see some more reviews and you know, all that good stuff. The five-star rating. I mean, we'd like five stars, please. Please, please, but rate us what you like. Um, but any sort of interaction there would be really great. And if you want to sort of message into the show, interact. Obviously, you can quite painlessly, as RGT said, do it on an email. Um, or you can jump into the Discord where you can interact with us about flashback, ask us questions, pose your own questions and memories. Um, I see a few people have been doing that by the method of the YouTube comments. Feel free to do that as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:07

Um, which has been good because some of them have led to going into Discord from them comments. And I know Discord can be a bit of a scary place, it's very friendly on ours. We've got little challenges we can do, we do an generation.

SPEAKER_09 1:39:18

I thought for a moment that our Discord was like clicky or you know, no or anything weird, I'd shut it down immediately. Yeah. And that's you know, what I see there is something that's not any of that stuff, and it's very welcoming. And um, yeah, so yeah, if it was a swamp for toxicity, yeah, I'd be the first person to wield the banner. But it's actually the complete inverse of that, it's the most beautiful place. It's why I don't go there, I don't want to poison it. Um don't talk wet.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:57

On that note, thanks to Lera to everyone. Do appreciate you're all listening and downloading and spreading the word. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:05

Thank you again, George.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:06

Um thank you. Thank you to everybody out there on the on the Discord and on the listens and on the YouTube and uh thank you so so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:15

No, I mean thank you, because you you really do add something to this show on a serious note, with your knowledge and the bits from even like today, from you know the blue label PS3 games to know how smart made the game.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:37

I've just been wheeled into the conservatory, and this is like a flashback moment, and then I get wheeled in front of the fire, and that's where I do UCP.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:44

I don't think any of this is real. So you get what you get.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:48

Uh no, I just think no, because uh I wouldn't be doing it without you, and you really do add to the show with the memory and you and you and the same. So just to say thank you, we're 11 shows in, and it just gets better every week. So thank you very much. Just see it. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:41:05

All right, well, yeah, good.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:07

Um, which just leaves me to say flashback, the games you loved, the stories you forgot. See you later, everyone, and see you later.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:16

See you dude.