We Broke Down What Game Pass is Really Worth

A tiny daily habit can end up paying for your games, and we get specific about how. We’re comparing notes on Microsoft Rewards points, what actually moves the needle, and why a simple routine of Game Pass tasks and Bing dailies can quietly turn into real voucher value over time. If you’ve ever wondered whether the grind is worth it, we break down what we’re seeing in the UK and how it fits into everyday play.

Then we get properly stuck into what we’ve been playing. Steve wraps up Replaced with a fair look at its emotional payoff, repetitive combat, and the bits that still land hard for a “free with Game Pass” title. We also talk about the surprise hit Vampire Crawlers and that dangerous “one more run” loop, plus a paid highlight with Mouse PI For Hire, a noir shooter dripping with style, sharp writing, and a very cheesy Prohibition twist. I also share first thoughts on Aphelion as a calmer sci-fi climbing and exploration game when you just want to switch your brain off.

We round it out with Fortnite’s Star Wars content and why Droid Tycoon feels like a perfectly engineered time sink, then hit the headlines: Game Pass pricing changes and Call of Duty timing, the bizarre GameStop buying eBay rumour, Sony’s PS5 digital licence check clarification, an Atomfall TV adaptation, and Valve’s new Steam Controller. If any of that sparks a strong opinion, come tell us what you think and help the show grow: subscribe, share it with a mate, and leave us a review.

Watch our Previous Episodes on YouTube - https://linkly.link/2dG8W

Support the Podcast by using our Affiliated links:

Earn Microsoft Points to spend on Games - https://linkly.link/2gVsi

Support the podcast by shopping on Amazon - https://geni.us/npUEx 

An award-winning VPN deal from Surfshark - https://linkly.link/2cM3B

Start your own podcast and receive $20 - https://linkly.link/2acMf

Transcript

Welcome And Weekend Catch-Up

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Hello, and welcome to episode one hundred and eighty-one of Gamers of the Lost Spark Podcast. I'm your host, Stuart Burgess, and joining me as always is the other Spark on the Pod, Mr. Stephen Carter. How are you, Steve?

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Very good this week, mate. Thank you. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

I am very good, my friend. I'm a bit tired, as we were talking about on WhatsApp yesterday. I've had a mental week, which has included going lots of places in the car, my van letting me down, and fabric wrapping a cinema, which absolutely killed me yesterday. So apologies if anybody watching this video looks at me and goes, My God, he looks knackered, because I am. I'm just glad it's a bank holiday weekend.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah, you get a long weekend off. You put me to shame working from home, sitting my backside all week, mate. So hats off to you being on your feet and being a busy boy this week.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Yeah, I've certainly uh I've certainly burnt some calories off. I think at one point my uh my watch turned around to me yesterday and went, Nice run, Stuart. You spent 75 minutes running, and I'm like, I wasn't running.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

It felt like it, but I wasn't. But no, I'm I must have I think I said to you in a message like, I am really jealous of your handiwork and been able to do these things. But my old boss in my old job used to be able to like build and construct things, and it was like it's a blessing and a curse. Like it's great being able to do it, but also you just end up doing everything, so it's great, but also not so I I do wish I had the DIY skills that you do, mate. I am clueless when it comes to that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Well, what's funny is you you won't be able to see it on camera, but if you oh no, you can.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

If you look at my knuckles, no, no, he's got scars, he's got wounds to prove it.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah, you look at my knuckles, it's just like it's because when you're doing the old um fabric wrapping and that, your knuckles are scraping against whatever surfaces near you. So I I always say I put a bit of blood into every cinema I build, and in this case, there literally is blood somewhere in that cinema room.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Luckily, the ceiling's been repainted, so yeah, yeah, you don't leave it there as a bit of a talk and gesture.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Right.

Microsoft Rewards Points And Routines

SPEAKER_01 2:05

So getting on to the uh podcast, I just thought I'd do an another quick points update. It's not a massive difference, but I just thought it's a good way of showing. Actually, if you just do you play some games and if you do the Bing things every day, actually it does sort of build up because it's been exactly two weeks since we podded, because again, we're podding on a Saturday night. So uh my uh my current total, oh sorry, my previous total was 718,704. My current total is seven hundred and twenty-six thousand two hundred and seventy-one. So what's that that's eight grand?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Eight thousand in two weeks, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Yeah, eight thousand in two weeks, which actually equates to not a huge amount, but equates to about six pounds. So, you know, it you know the last time we did it, the total was around £579 as some change, and this time it's £585 as some change. So it is about you know six or seven pounds more than we had last time. So it just goes to show just by and and as we'll get on to, I've really not played any games in the last week because I've been so busy, but just by doing your dailies, you know, trying to do the bing app and bits and pieces like that, they really, really do build up. Yes, I still need 141,598, but we we've we've made a kink, you know, we're we're another eight grand into that total. I will get there by uh holiday 2027.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yeah, and and this is the thing, it's like obviously like you've got a routine, you you log on, you do these things and da-da-da.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

But again, if I got a routine, yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

But again, if you just get into that little routine and rhythm of you jump on the app, you do the bing things, you play a game pass game for 15 minutes a day, you play you get your monthly four-pack, your monthly eight pack, you you are just playing games, you know. So if you do just play games and make the use of your game pass, it is pain just to play things. Like you say, it sound doesn't sound a lot, but to say, well, I mean I earned six pounds in two weeks to do something that I just enjoy doing.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Well, actually, you're not really putting any effort in, are you? Do you know what I mean? Like you say, you've not really caned it the last two weeks, that's probably minimal effort. So if you put more in, you could probably get a lot more out as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah, well, I think I said on the last pod, you know, basically I just, you know, like I don't know, like when you go to the shop and you buy your lunch and you you end up buying a sandwich, a pack of crisp, a bar of chocolate, you know, you know, and a drink. I sort of like I get up in the morning and I, you know, I put the coffee on, I let the dog out, I sit on the sofa, and just instinctively I put the TV on, I switch it over to the Xbox, I turn the Xbox on, put it on a game so it gets my 15 minutes of game pass stuff, and then basically I then pick up Bing and just do my Bing dailies and then little things just like using Bing on your phone rather than Google, it just you know, you can unlock. I don't know, well, I think it's I think it's somewhere between two and three hundred points a day, and then one of the games you're playing Mouse PI, you know, when you buy that, I think they gave you a thousand or twelve hundred points for buying that. Well, it did for me anyway. It flashed up saying, you know, you've got twelve hundred points, uh, these will be in your account in two days.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Well, I don't know. I don't know if I saw that. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be fuming if I haven't got that. I didn't see anything. I'll be furious if not.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

I know it because it basically it comes up. I'll see if I could put the message on the screen because I I clipped it, and I don't think I put it on the group, but every time I buy anything, Xbox messages me saying, Stuart, you've collected 555 points for to you can redeem some points now and get some Xbox vouchers. And I'm just like, they're really desperate for me to be for me to spare these bloody points.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Just spend them, spend them. I might have done to be fair, because I must admit, I mean, my my tally is obviously incredibly low compared to yours, but I must admit I did notice that mine had jumped a little bit, which I might have got the bonus points, but I just assumed that I'd got it because I'd done the eight pack, the four pack, I'd done the seven-day challenge, I'd done the play on a console challenge, so I'd I'd done quite a lot last month. Yeah. I I might have got the bonus points to buy Mouse PI, I hope I did, and I haven't missed out. But I mean I'm still on a lowly 8,945, so I'm 72% of the way through my £10 voucher. So I almost almost chipped my five pound voucher in for Mouse PI, but I was like, no, I'm I'm gonna get the tenner. I'll I'm I said I'll I'll get to the next £10 voucher, so I'm sticking to it, so I will stick in it. So yeah, so I I finished like I say I finished all the eight pack and four pack and everything last last month, so I'm gonna do it again this month. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Oh of course, yes, it's the beginning of May, isn't it? So yeah, it's uh that's all going again. Oh yeah, so I better not use the same Game Pass game every day. I better mix it up a bit.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Yeah, but I I must admit I did what you did the other night, just flicked some on on the iPad. I think it was the Trapang 2, which intrigues me, which I'm hoping to play that once I finish mouse behind things that we'll talk about in a couple of weeks, hopefully. But I just took that on, left it for 15 minutes, and it was the last game I needed for my eight pack. So I was like, winner. So like I say, just for the sake of leaving it there playing, I got what is it, 520, 560, something like that. You get something like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

For your eight pack.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

So again, it's it's literally just points for nothing.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Yeah, I mean, as you say, you're playing you're playing games, so I'm just trying to look now. So it is yeah, 560. So yeah, 560 for an eight pack, 80 for a four-pack, that's a big difference.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

And then uh if you do the streak, that builds up as well. Because my streak, I think it started again, but my I'm on four days out of seven. My five days is two hundred and forty at the minute. Next week that multiplies by four if you complete it, then six days is sixty, and then seven days is 120. So even if you just do that and then do it into the next week, you're getting a four times multiplier on that. So doing that every week I'll clock it up.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Yeah, so I've got five days is plus three twenty, and next week four times, six days is an extra 80, and then on seven days I get three hundred. So yeah, it soon it does soon build up, so especially when you've got that monthly multiplier.

Replaced Thoughts On Story And Combat

SPEAKER_01 8:14

So talking about games, what have you been playing whilst I've been playing nothing until today?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yeah, so uh we touched on replaced the other week in the last pod. So that is now done and dusted. So I did a little review about that on Instagram and TikTok. So I ended up quite enjoying that actually, Stuart. Um, maybe I was a bit harsh on it to start with by saying, you know, it was okay. Maybe I was a bit a bit harsh about it. Like in the end, like I think I understood it more towards the end, like, and I don't think that's because I was paying more attention towards the end or not, I'm not sure, but the story kind of made more sense as I got towards the end of it, and it kind of made it feel a bit more not real, but obviously it just kind of had a bit more of an emotional hook to it by the end by the time you got to the end. So, yeah, so I wouldn't say it was one of them gut-wrenching stories, but again, it kind of made you consider things a little bit. So ultimately, the AI that the company's working on that takes over this person's body and the AI controls a human's body to ultimately destroy itself to stop the AI taking over and blah blah blah. And obviously, in the world of AI becoming well, pretty much everything at the moment. Again, it has a bit of significance, a bit of relevance, and it had a bit of that human touch to it that this AI incorporation were going round and taking over and killing people and you know, overriding people and things. So, yeah, it had a bit more of a human connection towards the end. See, I finished that, really enjoyed it. I'm glad I saw it through. It did it did drag, I'll say, towards the end a little bit, which I mentioned in the review, is that the combat didn't change very much and I feel like it got a bit overwhelming at times, like it plonked a lot of enemies in quite a small arena.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Well it always at a beginning you were right at the beginning you were doing six minima, weren't you? Literally from the get-go.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

So Yeah, that's it, and then you get the you get some other ones, you get people that can shoot at you, they can throw things that can trap you, you get the armoured guys, then you have to do the heavy attack to then break their armour before you can then attack them. So you do get other bits and things like you get a pistol, you do get other ways to counter that and things, but I played it on easy, like I pretty much play all my games at the minute just because I I haven't got the time to be repeating things, and I just I just play it on easy for an easy ride, I'm not gonna lie. But even that I I wouldn't want to try out on a harder difficulty setting, I must admit, because it and again, that's because I was cloud streaming it. Sometimes you the the prompts felt a little bit out of time, you felt like you pressed it and it didn't work, and da da, then you were getting your backside kicked. So whether that was just because there was a bit of a lag with the cloud gaming, I'm not sure. But yeah, the combat did get a bit tiring and overwhelming towards the end. The puzzling again, it didn't have much in terms of like extra beyond the puzzling, but I really liked the the hacking mechanic in it, so it was almost like a little game of Tetris. So you had like obviously you've got your little Walkman or mobile device, whatever it was that it had, and it was like it gave you a puzzle, and you have to find out the piece for what that idea to do with that three times, and I actually quite liked that. I hadn't necessarily seen that before, so yeah, so I liked that, and and it had a really nice look to it, a really nice feel to it. So, again, as we keep mentioning, for something that's quote unquote free, you know, as part of Game Pass. I'm glad I played it, it got better towards the end, I think, as a story sort of invalid to you a bit more, but albeit the mechanics didn't necessarily change. But yeah, I enjoyed it, glad I played it, so that was polished off.

Vampire Crawlers And Roguelike Addiction

SPEAKER_00 11:36

And then another Game Pass game that I played for another one following Anthony's recommendations because Anthony's gonna be asked.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

I was gonna say this is another Anthony's recommendations, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yeah, pretty much, yeah. He seems to be our resident game pass, yeah. Go try this, go try this, and then we do, and then we end up enjoying things. So he had become addicted to vampire crawlers, and again, I did a brief bit of a look into it. I was like, Yeah, but again, for the sake of game pass for the monthly four-pack and the eight pack, I was like, right, we'll give it a go. And I I was hooked like from the first go. Like, um, it's a spin-off of the name Escape Survivors. Vampire Survivors. Yes, that's it. So again, it's got the same look and feel of vampire survivors. So again, much like replaced, it's got that old school, maybe sort of mega drive vibe to it. Top-down look for vampire survivors, but this is more of a a card, it's we it's like such an amalgamation of different games and different mechanics. So you walk around in this sort of first person, 2D, sort of in-betweene-y world, almost a bit like Doom for back in the day. Yeah, um, and then you're on like a set map, like there's a set map, and you can go backwards, forwards, left and right. So again, you can't really free walk around, but you're kind of on rails but in certain directions. You take you find little monsters that are just in the in the wild, you battle them, but you've got a deck of cards, so you have a deck of cards that have a power for them, an amount of mana. So each turn you have that say four mana, you get hand of cards, some cards cost no mana, some are one, two, three, four, etcetera. And then obviously, once you've run out of your mana, unless you've got a free card, you can't go. You build a deck, you build your hand, and each time you've got you play a level, so there's like a village, there's a castle, there's a bridge. Each one's got different like levels, so you like descend into a different level of that level. But once you die, that's it, you have to back out and start again. And it's very much you go on runs of these things, so you go on a run, and you either finish the run, you complete it, you get to the end, you finish the boss, descend, descend, descend, and then the grim reaper comes and finishes you off, and you finish and you've completed it.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

So very so very like the original game, really, isn't it? Because was it vampire survivors? Was that, wasn't it? It was like you you played it and you got up to I know level 80 or whatever, and then you're boobed down, you're down, you're back to the beginning. Okay, what did I do wrong? Let's start again, and then you just try and go further and further and further.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Yeah, and it was in our group chat, and I think James mentioned is it a bit like Slay the Spire, which I've not played, but Anthony said in comparison to Slayer the Spire, it's similar in terms of how it plays, but the runs are a lot shorter. So, like with Slayer the Spire, you could be on a run that had last an hour. This could last 10 minutes or so. You know, again, if you go back to the early levels when you've powered up and you've got you know you've got to hand to handle with it, you can whiz through these levels, the early levels, especially. But again, there are tactics to it because certain obviously certain enemies do certain amounts of damage. They they they come in waves and they're in different phases or levels almost, so the front line will attack, you can knock enemies back, you can you know stop them from attacking and so on and so forth. So, yeah, so it it is you get into that nature of oh, I'll just have one more. I'll have one more go, I'll do one more run.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

It was funny when when you said I can't feel I can't feel what it was now, but you were going, you were gonna do some work, and and I think we were we I think we were talking about something, and you were like, I might just have a couple of goes on Fortnite and just look at the new whatever they were doing at that time. And then Anthony was sort of talking about the vampires game, was talking about vampire scrawlers, and you're like, No, no, no, sorry, I'll play some Fortnite because you know I've got to get I've got to get to work, you know, I've got to do some work, you know, log on that. And then I remember then I just I must have gone off for dinner or something like that. I don't know. And uh and then I just came back and read the thread, and it was just like, What have I done? Oh my god, what have I done? I I am addicted to this thing. Anthony, what have you done to me?

SPEAKER_00 15:30

It was, but it's it's just that thing is like, I will just have one more go, I'll do it, and da da da, but then like you say, you get defeated in that that run, yeah. Right, I'm gonna go back and do it. Like I will go back and you go back to the the main area, you know, you can buy boosts so you can have more health, more armour, more mana, that sort of thing. You can change the character who comes along and helps you, so you get a different boost and different perks from that character that you can play the card for. So, again, there are different ways you can play this, you can tweak it a little bit to to make it work, and you get different boosts, you can get different cards so you get ones that like your armour will carry because again, per turn, if you build your armour up every turn, that'll go back to whatever the base setting of your armour level is. So, for example, if you start on two, you build it up to ten, it'll drop down to two on your next draw of cards. But you can get you can get a boost that will say your your armour rolls over, your mana rolls over, you know, that sort of thing. So again, you can tweak how you play it, and again you can go back to different levels and say, right, well it didn't work doing this, so next time I'll do this and see if it works. You know, you go collect coins, you can buy some more boosts and some more, you know, some more levels and things. So yeah, so it is it really is it it's almost that it almost plays the addictive nature of you know collecting, you know, grinding, and because it's so fast paced, and and I think I made a joke about it that it appeals to that by also my like my TikTok brain of that it's somewhat short, it's quick, it's instant, you know. It just you you feel like you're going through it again and again and again. It's like I don't have to grind, I'm not going at something for hours that makes me go, I really can't be bothered again. It's like right, that took me five minutes, right? I'll go again. I'll go again. Oh, I've got time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And and you just it just goes and goes and goes. So anyone that likes roguelike games, card-based games, strategy games, anything like that that sort of remotely sounds appealing to you, anything that's short hit, that's short, you know, that quick fix, albeit you might be playing it for quite a few hours, but again, you know, just as a pick-up and play game, again, perfect for game pass, perfect for cloud gaming, rogue, handheld, anything like that is perfect for that. And again, a bit like replaced, it just shows you that you don't need big, fancy, shiny, shiny games to keep you playing for hours on end, as long as it's got something there, a draw, a hook, you don't need it. Do you know what I mean? And it and it works, and it just it just keeps coming back for more.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Well, I think some of them it's it's like as you say, the you know, you your big shiny games, your your GTAs, your cyberpunks, your Call of Duty's, you know, there's a you know, there's a lot of money, and you know, obviously we get onto one of those stories in the news, but you know, they there's a lot of money spent on those games, you know, hundreds and hundreds of millions. And you do sometimes feel especially if I can say we like Call of Duty, I sometimes feel like, oh, when am I going to get over this? When am I gonna get to the end? I'll feel like I want to complete it, but then there you do have games like you know, Vampire Crawlers, which I'm scared to go into. I downloaded it, but I'm scared to go into it. I have not got the time, but then I've I'm pretty much balls that up with one of the game uh one of the games I started playing today. But um, it is good because it's one of those games that you could just go into and you you don't have much expectations of it, like Moonshot that I had a f last week or the week before, or whatever. You know, just a nice simple game that you could just dip in and dip out, and you don't have to sit there for hours playing it. You can you can play a bit before work as you do, you could stop and have your break and have your your lunch and play a couple more, and you you can just dip in and dip out without having to think, oh, I've got to get to a save point.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Exactly. And and even though there's not really much of a continuation for this either for vampire crawlers, it's one of the things that you could not play it for a couple of days if you manage to put it down, come back to it, and it still just makes as much sense as what it did when you played it if you continue playing it. So, again, because there's not really that much story apart from being in that little world, there's not really that much of a continuation. You can just go back to the old levels, the new levels, and carry on. So, again, it is just that element to pick up and play that you do get from it. So, yeah, it's it's just a great little game that again it's one of those things that I would never, never have tried if it hadn't been for Game Pass.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

So, again, and Anthony.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

And Anthony, yeah, yeah. So, you know, double whammy, thank you, thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Well, I I did I did hear that he's he I can't remember the name of the the the guy who did it now, but there are quite a lot of spin-offs uh in the sort of like works for vampire, the vampire sort of survivor games, whether they're spin-off games like vampire crawlers or their sort of like affiliations, guest appearances in other games. So they certainly built a nice little platform there. Yeah. So, no, I mean, yes, I said I've downloaded it onto the Xbox, and it was sitting there looking at me this morning when I'm thinking, what shall I play? So I've got something different. Well, admittedly, the only reason I didn't play that and I didn't play the next game you're going to talk about, and I didn't play I didn't play replace was because I wanted to talk about something different than you know that I've played, even if it's only a little bit than you know what we you know, for last few pods, we've played similar stuff like you know, Fortnite and Replaced and bits and pieces like that. So I saw it there this morning and I'm like, no, I'm not gonna go into that because I don't want to, because you know, we'll talk about that on the pod. And I'm also scared to start it because I just I don't want to get addicted to it.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Are we gonna talk about Fortnite tonight's due? Like we're on the agenda. So are we gonna are we gonna are we gonna circle back around to that?

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Sorry, no, we are gonna touch on Fortnite, but in a in a different, in a different way, not in our normal Fortnite way. So we we you can get excited for that, Anthony. Pause it now, go and get yourself a beer or a coffee, depending on what time of day you're listening to this. We're gonna go on to another one with Steve, and then we're gonna get onto some Fortnite. So I just uh you know, I don't know, three, four, five minute warning. So uh what else have you been playing, which Anthony has also been playing, Steve?

Mouse PI For Hire Noir Shooter

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Yes, so this one wasn't Game Pass, this one was actually a purchase. So Mouse PI for hire. So again, Anthony had said that he'd bought it and played it. He'd been excited about this for weeks, you know. This was kind of one of his highlights.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

I hadn't noticed.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

No, no, no, it's basically like, oh, this is coming, this is coming, this is good, I can't wait, I can't. I was like, and I'd been aware of it because obviously this had been in development a while, but obviously Disney had lost their rights to is it Steamboat Mickey, which this is kind of based off, like the old school black and white.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Steamboat Steamboat Willie, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Yeah, yeah. So again, this is kind of based off that old school black and white, hand drawn, Mickey Mouse style, which they've obviously been able to do now with Three Rain because this is the somehow don't have the rights to it anymore. But yeah, it it's obviously been about in terms of obviously been showcase and things, and I've always sort of kept tonight thinking, oh that would be quite cool that. But yeah, so it's 25 24.99, 25 quid on Xbox. So so yeah, so I I underdired and umdired because obviously I'm just that stereotypical tight Yorkshire. I was like, it's 25 quid. Should I, shouldn't I? Should I, shouldn't I? And eventually I relented like, yes, because it'll be worth it, and da da da and I just started buying it. And Anthony's not stopped talking about it, so let's jump in. So and I'm really, really glad I did, because again, we both select you know collectively said at the time it's not on Game Pass, it's not a physical release, so we can't get it again, quote unquote free. I can't rent it through Boom Ram or subscription service, so we just have to bite the bullet and and do it. So but yeah, I'm really glad that I did because it it's such a charming and witty game that is just a perfect representation, a perfect mouse-inspired representation of that uh era of America, that uh mafia, gangs, 1920s, 30s era, you know, gangs ruling the place. Obviously, you're a you're a private detective, you take on a case. As these things always do, it becomes evident that there's more to it, and you start unravelling it rather than unravels a little bit more. And obviously it ends up in this big uh you know, this big case that uh you didn't expect it to be to start with. But it's I think I said to you, it's almost like it gives me uh nucleum vibes from the N64 in terms of how it plays, right? Just purely because it's that it's that first person uh shoot style. You've got a shotgun that's called a boomstick, which obviously you can call the shotgun is boomstick. You can kick people you can kick people, so you get the little big boop that you can kick people, but again, it's that uh the world's a really nicely created, I will say that. So you've got these 3D environments where you can roam around, but all the characters are flat, 2D, but as you like pan round, they move round with you, so whatever way you're facing, the front always faces you, and again, that's very much what that juke newcomer was at the N64. So you just they're just sort of like spin around on the floor, but you'd always see the front of the enemy. So when they collapse and die, there's just a heap on the floor, and then obviously that sort of thing. So yeah, so it gave me that sort of vibe, but uh it's got Troy Baker that that is the main character, so he voices the main character, and he's got very loads of personality. The voice acting is really good. All the characters that you go and interrogate or question are a part of the main story, they've all got a really good script, they've all got a really good acting behind them. It's just a change, you know what I mean? It's just a change. So it plays very much like uh any other first-person shooter, really. You've got your variety of guns from like your pistol, your shotgun, um, you get a Tommy gun. But I've just unlocked a cannon, so like fires old school like cannon balls out. Nice and something called a D-varnish, which basically fires out acid that burns and then melts people. So again, and you've got different types of enemies that pop out, you know, you've got your small fry ones that come in and you know hit you with batons, there's one that comes and blow up, you've got the big bouncers that take a little bit more taking down snipers from afar. So there's nothing I'd say that's overly new or different about it. And I think sometimes the combat the enemies do tend to just run at you and flock at you and try and overwhelm you in some respects, so sometimes you are just literally just mowing them down as they run towards you. But again, it's just it's just such a well-written game that everything is based around cheese, and like a smuggling cheese.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

So, like obviously, in the American Prohibition here, isn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah, exactly. So like Prohibition America, obviously, underground bootleggers and things, this is very much of that nature of cheese, different strengths of cheese, different types of cheese, smuggling. You know, bars serve cheese, they don't serve booze.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

So are you finding are you finding clues and then you follow the clues to to another part of the map or Yeah, basically, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

So you start off like I say, you go to investigate the you know, these areas that you get. And it's very much it's not open world, but obviously the levels lead you to where you need to be. It doesn't necessarily that it leaves you to go find it, but again you play through these different environments, you play through like a movie theatre, a dockyard, uh basements, sewers, train station, subway station, that sort of thing. And then that basically furthers your investigation. You put it on the old school pin board with the pieces of street to connect all the leads, then you can solve the lead, and then that leads you to the next bit. I really like the map that so when you go from area to area, it basically opens the map, it shows you that this place is now unlocked. You drive your little car around, so you've got a little car and you drive it around to your next your next little destination. I re I don't know what it is about that, but it is just quite cool that rather than just being a perfunctory list of you know areas or POIs, you don't just select it, you drive around to your little destination, then you select it, and then you jump in and then you jump. And the end at the end of each level is either like there's a phone that you go back to the your office with, or you go back to your car and then you drive away and go back to your office. So again, it kind of like synergies in, but yeah, it's just it's just a nice little game. It's again you get overwhelmed by the enemies, which again I'm playing it on what'd you call it, medium level. There's a three levels that I played it on the medium setting uh rather than the easy setting. And again, the enemies can swarm you a little bit, so you can get a bit overwhelmed with that. But yeah, I I'm really enjoying it, I'm really, really enjoying it, and and yet again Anthony's come through with an absolute sterling recommendation.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Excellent. No, and it does sound I mean, it's all I've put some clips up of the game that you sent me, but it's all it's all black and white, and it's all sort of cartoony graphic, so it does look really, really nice. So again, it it probably would have been the one I jumped into this morning, but I decided no, you know, let's just try and mix it up a little bit. So

Aphelion Chill Sci Fi Exploration

SPEAKER_01 27:42

the one that the first one I saw the other day was a game called Affilian. It's by Don't Nod. So it appealed to me this morning because it's a bit of a a walk-in stroke climbing simulator type game. So I just fancied something which I could just basically I didn't really want to have to think about much this morning, you know. I just woke up early, I played a little, I played a little bit of this, took my daughter kit box in, came back and played a bit more. But I'll read a little bit from Don't Knob's website. So it basically goes hunted on a frozen planet, uh, you are an astronaut that must brave the rugged landscapes of shifting realities to rescue her wounded partner Thomas. This action passed sci-fi adventure blends exploration, traversal, and tense stealth gameplay. So basically, you start off in a ship, it's it's um it's 2060. Basically, the earth has become uninhabitable, and it starts off with you and your uh fellow astronaut. For some reason, there's only two of you, which is weird because it's a massive ship. But you basically start off on this ship and you're going towards this planet to look for a heat source to basically see if it can be uh a planet that humanity can go to. I think I'm right in thinking that it was done in partnership with the European Space Agency because all of their all of the stuff that the guys are wearing in it have got the European Space Agency's official logo on it. But as far as I've got in it, basically what you what you do is you you crash on the planet, you then have to escape the ship. So you basically you know walk here and you open the door, and then there it takes you straight into one of those sequences where you slide and you've got to you know sway from left to right to avoid the obstacles, and then you eventually land on the planet, and then you're literally-I mean, was it Justant? There was a climbing game. I can't remember if that was Donod, but there was a climbing game out recently where you were just basing his character and you were just climbing up the side of a cliff face, you know, and then eventually you got up to the top and the whole story made sense. But it basically is just a you know, watch a snip, snip it, watch a scene, you know, walk from A to B, you know, climb up this, jump across there, you know, and it's just a nice thing you really don't have to think about, and you just sort of read the story. There is there is one mechanic which I really like, and I don't think you've seen it before, but it there's you have to walk across ice. So there's massive, like it's not lakes of ice, but if you can imagine a lake of ice, but there's nothing underneath it, and depending on how fast you walk across it, depends on whether the ice breaks beneath your feet or not. So you sort of creeper, creeper, creep across it, and it just adds another different dynamic into it. I I've sort of got probably about an hour or so into it, now maybe two hours into it, and and she's just discovered because you've got separated from your partner, you wake up after the crash and he's gone, and then you then suddenly find these strands throughout the planet leading back to this central point, and she walks into one of these strands, and then she sees this figure which he thinks is her partner, and then you go on a little bit, and it is her partner, but she can't hear him and he can't hear her, but they can see each other, so you're just you're just on this you know frozen planet, and you're trying to find each other, and yeah. I mean, I've heard mixed results from you know, I think IGN gave it something like five out of ten, but then I heard someone else who gave it nine and a half out of ten. So for me, it was it's the perfect game for me this morning, which was like I just wanted to chill out, have a cup of tea, just play something that I didn't really have to think about, but kept me entertained.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Yeah, and I'm just watching um I'm just watching on YouTube just some of the gameplay whilst you've been talking, and it it looks like it's very much taken a lot of inspiration from some sort of other platforming games, you know, like Uncharted the Assassin's Creed, you know, with the climbing and the exploration, that sort of thing. But maybe a bit death-stranded as well in terms of just looking at how it how it plays, maybe. But yeah, it it's nice that you can have these games where you can maybe just switch off a little bit and that you know the story's there, but there's not it's not so fast paced or Twitch, you know, you don't need your Twitch reactions and things to you know be firing back at people and worried about getting your head taken off or what have you. So it does you know, look at it, it looks just like something that just like you say to play on a on a on a Saturday morning or something, just to break you in gently to the day or what have you, just something a bit quiet. It just looks like just a bit of gentle exploration around uh a frozen planet, which who who doesn't want that on a on a week weekend morning.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

Yeah, actually, and I was just looking actually. It yeah, so Jussant was developed by their French studio, uh Don't Nod. So if you played Jusant, if I'm pronouncing it correctly, first of all, if you haven't played it, play it because it was a bloody brilliant game. Yeah, it came out, you know, it's an action puzzle climbing game, it was released in October 2023, and and it's a very similar game in respects of it, just has the climbing mechanics, and there's a there's an underlying story going on, which is which is quite good. And yeah, for me, this was just I liked it because it was something I wanted to play. So yeah, so I played that, and then as I was saying to you, I decided to like I I just wanted to stop because I just wanted to turn my brain off. So I so when I made myself a drink and I came back in the lounge and I had a drink and I was watching something on TV, I was watching um I was watching BBC about Artemis, about the moon trip that just happened or the fly around the moon. And then I found myself falling asleep, and then I'm like, oh no, I want to watch this. So I stopped that, and then of course, fatal error, I then woke up, and then I'm sitting there in the lounge going, oh okay, what am I gonna do? I'm carrying on watching the Artemis thing. So I carry on watching the Artemis thing, and then all of a sudden I remember the trailer that Fortnite put out.

Fortnite Star Wars Droid Tycoon Hook

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Sorry, Anthony, that Fortnite put out. Here we go, here we go. Set your watches, skip forward five to twenty minutes now. If uh it's like an ad break. If you um if you basically if if you look to any fortnight stuff, obviously we've got May the 4th coming up on Monday, and Fortnite always do some related stuff. I mean, it's Mother's Day in America, I think, this Sunday, I think. So like they've put out all the female characters of like Family Guy, you know, the mum, and Bobsberg as the mum, and they always do stuff like this, and always around this year, they bring back Star Wars content. So, but they they brought in three games, they bought in Escape Vader, Galactic Battle, I think it is, and then they brought one in called Droid Tycoon. And and in our chat the other day, I put if they make BBA or BD1 or any of the little droids a sidekick in Fortnite, just take my cash. And then we did have that very, very funny conversation of Anthony going, so what's the what does a sidekick do in Fortnite? And you just came straight back with just gives away your location.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Yeah, not a lot, actually.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

And then and then and then James came but comes in and goes and takes your money. But um that gave me a thought, actually. I did think actually, if they do bring any of the droids into Fortnite, any of the droids that shoot, let's say R2, D2, something like that, they should allow them to shoot in the game. So there should be another weapon or side weapon in the game or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

Well, it's no different from when you hire a companion, is it? Because they can fire, albeit they're not they're not very much used, but still it's just the same, surely.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Yeah, again, and they give way so you're I always you I always makes me laugh in Fortnite. You're crouching behind a rock waiting to shoot someone, and your your guy's just out at the side by the side of the rock going, Hello, I'm here, he's hiding down there. So um, so one of the levels they did which sort of like piqued my interest was Droid's Tycoon. And for the last sort of probably since we started the pod, I've been dabbling in a couple of games which are tycoon-y, so you know, Planet Coaster 2. I've just been wanting to try and find something that I could just whittleway my time on and just sort of like not necessarily grind, but do something that gets you somewhere that gives you something that is just sort of like rewarding. So and this thing is very bloody rewarding. So it's a bit confusing because when you you you so you go into it and you are your Fortnite character. So I'm Spider-Man at the moment, thank you very much. So you go into your character and you're Spider-Man, and then you basically have these sections, you have this you have like this plot of sand, and you go up and you basically build like a a mining station, and then you build a droid station, and then you build a like a flying area, and then you build a shooting area. And fundamentally, the idea is is that you basically are mining scrap, and then you mine the scrap and you hit the scrap with your axe, like you do in Fortnite when you want to hit a wall or something like that, and then you so you do the scrap, it adds up, it adds up, it adds up. But what you do is you slowly unlock areas, so you unlock an area where your droids will start smashing things up for you. So you basically unlock an area for one droid. So you go to this like carousel and you basically buy a droid, and and there are different droids. So there are there are galactic droids, there are utility droids, and there are shooting droids. And so you get a utility droid and you put it in this area, and then it has a rating of how how much it costs and how much money it can make you per second or per minute, I think it's per second, and and it basically just drip speeds you. So you've got to do these tasks to do this, like unlock the next part of your base, and that now allows you to put another droid in and another droid in and another droid in. And it you just get to this point where you go, right, okay, so I've got four droids mining or smashing stuff up, I've got three droids or four droids like shooting practice, and then I've got two droids doing flying off missions, and then I've got two droids basically doing something else, I'm not sure what. So they're all earning you like money. So you can have no money and then go around and collect all your money and then have you know a thousand uh credits and or a million credits, and what's really bloody addictive about it is that it just feeds you enough to basically go, okay, so if you unlock these characters to do this, you can unlock your next part of your base. So you unlock the next part of your base, but then you're sort of like waiting for something to happen, like for something to unlock or a timer to go down, and then you so you sort of think, okay, so at the moment I've got I've got four droids there all breaking up, recycling or or scrapping. Two of them, let's say a hundred credits per second, and two of them are 50 credits per second. So I need to go and buy two more droids, which are higher than 50 credits per second. So you end up going to the conveyor bout and you watch this thing go round and you go, right, I'll buy that one. And it's almost like we were talking before the show, it's almost like you pick up a Pokemon card, you take it back into your base, you throw it onto this machine, and this machine will generate this droid for you. And it just sort of like that that sort of drip feeds to you the game, but then you can sort of go outside your base, and there's little challenges around, there's little things you could do, and there's little upgrades, and it and it's nothing special, really. It's not a it's yeah, it's not a special game, it's it's it's like a creator fed game or led game, but I think it is an epic game, but it is just really bloody addictive.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Yeah, and again, just watching some clips of it, it's almost like um like obviously like a tycoon, but like a third person perspective of it. So rather than being on a mobile and a top down of being the like the overlord or the overseer, you're very much just running around and doing bits and bobs, and it's almost like you're you're creating your is it the jowers in Star Wars that are like to tell the droids and the big land crawl and the sand crawler and whatever. It's almost like you're building like a little world of that, isn't it? Like you're like you say you're there's the things like the cards or the tokens spinning around the you know the giant crawler and things. So yeah, it it it does look like very much something that again, just like that mobile game addiction of I just need to do that and you need to grind to do this and do this, and then sometimes you need to leave things or I need to come back in a couple of hours and pick it up. It very much just looks like uh like a character as well, which I think is that maybe that brings people in that it's like oh I get to take so and so in it, and it feels like it controls rather than I'm playing as whatever random Star Wars character you might do. But it does very much look like uh a thing that is just like is gonna vibe for your attention of ooh, I need to go back and do those quests for today, or I need to go back and make sure that's finished, or see, I'm a droid to get in on. Have have they done the tasks that I set them out to do?

SPEAKER_01 41:31

And it does it so from a Fortnite player point of view, my god, your levels go up really quickly within it. So, you know, you do still get the leveling that you get from playing a Fortnite game. Well, that's interesting, yeah. So, and obviously you are unlocking like X uh earned certain amount of points in a creator-led game, rather, you know, stuff you wouldn't get by playing them the main in a you know, quotation main at Fortnite games. But it's quite good because like I I've just found the website PC Gamer did a good thing on it earlier, and you know, and it does little things like it's got like companion perks, so you can have a companion like a droid with you, and that droid will give you some more crafting abilities, or that will give you more or make get uh allow you to get more scrapped better. It then has you know different sort of side quests, so there are some uh stormtrooper bases in around you. So if you go and attack those, it unlocks a reward. So that can be you know points, that can be these little computer chips which you use to upgrade your droids, and then that's it. It's called rebirth. So what you do, so like the one I've got here in front of me is rebirth rank one, they've got here. So it's have 10,000 K in credits, it's unlock a I can't see it's too small, unlock a uh C8 and a PH and a DRK1 probe droid, sort of had that in your sort of like your you your sort of base, and then you can you can do a rebirth, and then when you do a rebirth, it unlocks another level within your your sort of tycoon beer, and then you go on and it gets more the only when I got to rank three or four, the only thing I found a bit annoying about that was it took ages for one of the droids I wanted to sort of come up, come up, but yeah, I mean it's it's just got it's got just loads of little bits of pieces, and then it's got a BB8 event coming in eight days, which it's it's basically what we so it's next Sunday, it's probably next Sunday about four o'clock in the afternoon UK time, but there are basically it's got here B uh BB8 event, as you exp expand your base and reach higher rebirth levels, you can start chasing down the rarest droids in the game. That includes BB8, who only appears during you guessed it, the BB8 event. There's a huge countdown timer in the centre of the map. uh for this one set yourself a reminder so I'm not sure what's going to happen and and I'm hoping that it will be a case of that you're unlock BBA and then you can have him in the main game.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

This is your BBA companion coming coming to real coming to fruition Stu.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Well that's what I think because I I mean I've not jumped into the other two games yet so I've not jumped to Escape Vader and the other game but I think what's quite nice if they could do it is to do some way where you know if you play save the world you you were unlocking some skins for the the battle royale game so I think you know it would be nice to be you know like I don't know it would nice to be have you know a skin or a sidekick in the main game and you know and it's just a little reward for you playing that game basically so yeah so it is good it is it is really really good I mean I want to go and finish the podcast and play it now because I want to see how much money my droids have made me because I think they do they do continue to make money whilst you're offline but so no I would recommend it I might try and jump into some of the others tomorrow but just uh yeah just a word of warning I waste not wasted I suppose if you go back to our doom scrolling Instagram where you go my god where did those 45 minutes go or like on TikTok as people tell me this was one of those ones which I started playing at about one o'clock and then I looked at my watch went oh bugger it's five o'clock I need to do dinner because I got a pod with Steve in an hour is it where Sadifi enjoyed it still that's the question. No and I really really bloody enjoyed it so yeah no I it it just scratched my itch so yeah really really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

Good and and I must say the I I was listening to a a a retro podcast that I listened to about them going back to the Star Wars Battlefront again for May the 4th that it has a resurgence of spiking players now good Battlefront is the sort of the recent I say recent the most recent version of it that came out not long ago and that galactic battle coming out on Fortnite I was like ooh that kind of there's a double whammy then it's a bit battlefronty but in the world of Fortnite so it might not be quite as hard I say I call or intense as battlefront but at least scratches that itch of you feel like you're in a you know a big Star Wars epic battle so I again I jumped into it yet but again with it being that time now I know what I'm doing after uh after we finish here you know sit on the sofa stick that droid tycoon in the background and then yeah let's let's see how many hours I can waste in there this evening.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Well I I you might do that or I've just remembered that I think they're doing power hour again. I think they're doing they're doing power I think it's 8 pm on a Saturday night they're doing they seem to be doing power hour at the moment so um we need to finish the podcast in 12 minutes so you guys you can jump on I should wrap it up pretty quickly. Yeah we should we should do what uh Jez Corden does whilst he's doing his podcast which one of us plays computer games in the background while the other one

Voicemails Feedback And Showcase Predictions

SPEAKER_01 46:58

talks. Yeah yeah why not definitely right so that is what we've been playing and now we will get on to the news but before we get on to news if you are enjoying this podcast please rate review or comment wherever you're watching or listening to this podcast as it means a lot to us and helps us get viewed by other people into the algorithm we are actually I did learn of a new little feature that we have on the audio podcast so not YouTube but on the audio podcast which is within the link of this podcast there is a there's a button which says something like send us your feedback or leave a note or something like that and uh buzz sprout the people that host our this podcast for us. They've actually made it so you can leave a voicemail. So if you are yeah so if you are listening to this show and if you are enjoying this or you have a question or you have a point of view obviously I won't put everything out um uh so if you think two that Steve is sitting too close to the camera today oh there's too much Fortnite Anthony will picture that yeah tomorrow that after this podcast goes out I'll grab 17 messages from uh Mr Cheston in Tunbridge Wells. Um so yeah so if you click on that you have the ability to record a voicemail and if the voicemail's good and we like it and it's a good question then we will place that voicemail out on the show. I know we did speak to Anthony about doing a an Xbox predictions show foot ahead of the showcase in June so I need to look at when our diaries aligned up for that so if you have got any predictions you're thinking about for the Xbox showcase maybe around Fable maybe around Project Helix maybe around Xbox exclusivity or about the PS6 or anything like that anything you might think what could cover Summer Games Fest then again drop us a message drop us a comment or leave a voicemail and the good ones we play out from the show. So

Game Pass Price Drop And COD Shift

SPEAKER_01 49:04

getting on to the news the first news story is with you and it's about game pass going down.

SPEAKER_00 49:11

Yeah which it's almost like we we kind of predicted that this was going to happen on the last episode we were talking about game pass and different variations because obviously as we said in in that show that Sharma said that Game Pass isn't in its final iteration there are options that they're they're looking at in terms of how to make it more affordable, more appealing, that sort of thing. And was it within the space of a week of us having that recording of that record if that you know it was like damn it we you know we we've we've missed the missed the big news story again it went down you know and and it it's gone down in price which obviously any price reduction is always very very welcome. You know it's very rare that something will go down in price in this day and age. Everything seems to be going up in price. So yeah so obviously we were saying that in terms of depending on what you use game pass for if you use obviously the the battle pack you know the crew pack for Fortnite it makes it a bit more you know fruitful in terms of it or cost effective because obviously that alone is the tenor. But yeah it is going down in price so in the UK especially it's going down from 2299 to 1699 that is the UK Game Pass ultimate PC Game Pass is going to £1099 from £13.49 and I think in the US is it from £2999 in dollars to £2299 I think is that right yeah that sounds about right yeah so yeah so it's so obviously this is uh not long after they you know increased the price which again we touched on but this obviously comes with a caveat as that again we discussed this in the last show so thank you for making us look silly is that the price went up to accommodate the acquisition of Call of Duty that is now dropped which then accounts for the reduction in price of game pass so it won't Call of Duty will not be available day one on launch through Game Pass. Previous versions will be but the latest game will come a year later on Game Pass. Which I'm happy with you know we we've all we again we we discussed this previously that Call of Duty is not the game that it used to be that we used to play and we jumped out of day one that we'd go out and rush to buy it because the campaign isn't what it used to be. The online multiplayer is not what it used to be in our opinion obviously but again it seemed like that that as it came to light the price went up to almost soften the blur of the lack of revenue from Call of Duty releasing day one and people buying on Xbox so and overwhelmingly people seem to agree you know from what I've been reading in terms of what we've put out the comments I've seen on news articles reactions is that everyone seems to welcome this that they're not bothered about Call of Duty. You know they're not they're not buying game pass or subscribing to Game Pass for Call of Duty it's great that Xbox and Microsoft has it but that's not the mainstay. They're not there for that so the fact that they're saving this money by it not being there people don't really seem to be that bothered.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Well I think it's so yes I mean I mean I think if Game Pass sorry if COD was a bit more predictable like you knew that every year it was going to be a banger but it was just going to be a a banger in the real world a banger in modern warfare or even a banger in you know World War II like it used to be I I missed the World War II games and that. Oh definitely so I think that if you knew it was going to be like that good I think it's uh it it warranted it but I mean for a a game that basically is costs anything from a hundred million to five hundred million dollars to make they could have only have looked at the figures and gone look we're not gonna be making our money back by including this in Game Pass and people that want to play it day one will still buy it. You know I potentially will still buy it day one I think I'll be more averse and listening to the the reviews after last year's one that I still haven't even bothered playing because it just annoyed me so much getting into it. But no I mean you know looking at the story you know they are going you know it's still 35 more expensive than game pass was two years ago but hey everything's more expensive and and I had I had um I had listened to a few people which I quite agree with so again I've referenced it on it a few times but with my EE contract for my mobile I get to choose a perk so I choose game pass as my perk but this is the sort of what I want to get on with it is that within my perk so I pay my I think it's what £25 a month or £35 a month for my EE mobile sim my broadband not my phone and then I get to pick a perk so that perk is I can have game pass that perk is I can have Apple One I think or I can have what's now HBO Sports so what was TNT sports and I pick my perk. So I think a lot of people are saying that well look why don't you do it at you know 20 2099 maybe drop it a little bit or do it keep it at 2299 and let us choose our perk. So if we want game pass day one then that's our perk. If we want Fortnite crew that's our perk but then also add some other perks in there. So maybe add Netflix as a perk so if we want to have Netflix with ads then you can add that if you want to add I can't remember the name of the game now the the like world of warcraft like if you want to add like a world of warcraft or some of the other IP that Microsoft own then or yeah then basically put that in as a perk but just sort of like give people the choice to choose what they would want to have I mean let's face it you know look at Sky here in the UK now you know Sky is a dying platform in respects of Sky television. Everybody's moving app based and they you can't buy Sky Q now which comes via the satellite you have to get Skystream but they've just signed up now so as you know as a Sky subscriber you know I get Netflix Disney HBO and Haya with adverts all as part of my subscription so I think maybe that's something that Xbox should think of doing like have game pass throw in Netflix as your perk have game pass throw coding as your perk.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

Yeah well that's it like say that we've got Sky in the same and as soon as it was like oh you can have you know Disney Plus is going to be included brilliant that saving some money or did it it's almost like again we were with or two previously before moving Sky can have bolt ons is what they called it so you could bolt these things onto your existing contract. And again for a reduced price you add these things on and tack it onto your contract and like you say that you know game pass in its base format whatever that base format is like you say that's six quid a month. Add this for an extra fiver add this for da da da da and add this da da da da and even if they didn't call game pass game pass or whatever the you know Xbox a bit like Sky became this is your platform this is your one-stop shop for for streaming for gaming for TV for movies for you know mute Spotify anything like that they can say right your game pass that is that's what that is and stick this on stick this on stick this on like you say your console it's almost the vision that Xbox had when the Xbox One first came out and they got a bit lambastered and loaded for it because the integration wasn't quite there they were trying to make your Xbox a TV and you plug your TV via HDMI and da da da and obviously like even then TV was gonna be not redundant but obviously everything was going out base and instead base so again it wasn't really a a future proof or a you know a very you know something that added a lot of longevity. So yeah so if they became that thing and obviously whether they did it again like they could some is it some Samsung TVs you can get the Xbox app on is that right? Uh Samsung get it on yeah so again if they became more of a prevalent thing on other you know smart TVs that right you go on the Xbox app or whatever app it'll be everything's in there for whatever you subscribe to and it's in that own little ecosystem then well yeah you know that might be a future potential for getting people in that ooh I can have like you say Netflix it should be a tenor a month by rights but if I do it through game pass it'll be a fiver a month you know so again if you're saving a bit of money by these little deals it brings people in as a oh well I've got Xbox and I've got this and I've got that so again like like the previous New Guard article said this is Game Pass isn't in its final form. What that final form will be who's to say but clearly you know they aren't shy and afraid of making these big decisions early on you know Sharma's been in this job what six months something like that. Not that long not that long again you know already made some really not controversial but big decisions that might people might have been scared of previously whereas now and and overall it seems to have had a positive impact and a positive reception for what what they've done so far.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

Well I think the I think obviously because that Phil's still working with her I believe until the summer you know and the old saying you know new broom sweeps clean and I actually think you know without annoyingly without trying to throw Phil under the bus which I think a lot of people are saying you know the oh it's much better without Phil being around you know he did a lot he I I believe he was one of the reasons that Xbox is still around you know and Microsoft just didn't get ditch it and you know arguably whatever you think about the Activision takeover you know he was one of the main response people responsible for it but there is sometimes there is like when it's not a gamer when it's not a person that is necessarily from a gaming industry they see things differently you know a friend of mine brought a person into his business a speaker manufacturer distributor and the guy that he brought in was not in this industry when he brought him in but he brought in some really good new ideas that actually you know that person's now left and got onto songhouse but you know this person is still using those ideas in that business because he came in as a business person not as an A V business person so I'm hoping this is the beginning I mean obviously the the the conference coming up the showcase coming up could be quite interesting but yeah no I think it could be very interesting but uh do you want to know what's really interesting bordering on comical I think if I was trying to be very very disrespectful but uh my headline are you ready for this one you're not gonna if you've if you've not read this right so this I have and I didn't believe it no I still don't believe it but so the second story is by Sarah Fields at Gamerant. I have

GameStop Wants To Buy eBay

SPEAKER_01 1:00:03

seen it in a few other places but you ready for it GameStop yes GameStop that has like circumvented liquidation many many times so GameStop is preparing acquisition offer to buy eBay claims report reading from this article a new report indicates that GameStop is preparing to uh to offer a uh to buy eBay if GameStop is successful and it would be a particularly interesting sale as eBay has a considerably higher market value than GameStop GameStop has been quite tremendous experience over the decades uh with the game retailer seeing its stock dramatically rise and fall in 2001 uh GameStop experienced a short squeeze meme stock era which if you've not seen it there is a documentary on Netflix about it I think it's Netflix it's very very interesting go and watch it where their share price at one point reached a whopping $483 however has since dropped to a market value of $20 to $30 now in a new report from the Wall Street Journal sources have said that GameStop is preparing to make an offer to buy internet auction at retail at eBay. The attempt apparently is being made in effort to turn GameStop into a 100 billion juggernaut with an offer expected to be made no later than the end of May. Unfortunately full details of the offers aren't known at this time but the report is further cemented by current GameStop CEO Ryan Cohan's recent efforts to turn the company around he previously told Wall Street Journal that he was looking into potential acquisitions in the consumer and retail sectors in particular which falls in line with this report yeah I'm not sure what to think about that for a for a for someone that was like just about to drop off a cliff face I I don't even know how they could buy eBay unless they have massive you know backing from Saudi or Tencent or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:02

But it just it it just don't make it like if the if the headline was reversed I'd understand it. Like if eBay was buying GameStop then yeah you know again it'd be a bit question but why are eBay buying GameStop? Okay fine whatever yeah they're acquiring a big brand you know maybe something valuable in there I'd understand it but I just I just don't understand it. Like it it just I I mean obviously clear turn it into a hundred billion dollar plus juggernaut for what? Of what? You know it just it just doesn't make any sense. You know it just don't like you say I s I saw it on the list and I was like what like surely they don't have the funds to buy eBay. And I just look at it there it's like GameStop has a a market value of 11 billion which still that surprises me. And eBay's got forty five billion value which again I thought that would be higher but again they've got nearly four times the valuation there or over four times sorry. Where are they getting that money from? Like where are they getting the money to buy by eBay? And and you know I guess we just talked in the previous piece that you know coming from an external perspective to to go into an you know an industry or a market that's not yours or something that you're in, you know I'm guessing they'd leave eBay alone and not touch it or change it but again it just it just don't make any sense. I I I just can't fathom it to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:25

Well if you put it into like I don't you know I'm I'm not sure if game are still around or their stores are still around but it's almost like it's almost like the same headline that if you're a UK bass listener of like game buying eBay. You know you walk I mean there's a picture on games rant where she shows you the front of a of a GameStop and and if it's like the last time I walked into a game store it it's like an eBay shop but in a physical form i.e, it's just loads of stuff around gaming very few games but you know you know bubbleheads you know merch and things like that that you'd actually see more listed on eBay in an eBay retailer shop. So yeah I mean I saw the report on games run I saw it on IGN and a few other places so but then again it's you can you know I had a phone call last night from King Charles he's basically said that he wants me to become the next king when he passes away I can state that it's not a fact until it actually happens and and that's quite I mean did you completely completely oh I can't remember the name of the brand now but there's this all birds the shoe brand did you see the story of that this week no no no I'm gonna butcher this but all brand all bland brands all brands all blands was basically a shoe company I think mainly in America and they were quite trendy shoes for especially a lot of the Silicon Valley lot and they reached quite a high market cap but all of a sudden their market value just went down and they were basically tanking so let's say you know their share price was their share price was let's say $10 a share they then announced that they were going to sell off the rights to their shoes and they were then going to rebrand themselves and they were going to become an AI company. And then all of a sudden literally within a matter of hours if not a day their share price went from ten dollars a share to a hundred dollars a share and it made them like a hundred hundred million dollar value company just by saying they were going to go into AI.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:35

It's crazy in it it's bonkers and this has a it it has happened before isn't it where even just a suggestion or something like a comment you know flippant comment affects a company's valuation. It's just it's crazy in it you know that they could be like the bones of the backside we're right we're gonna do this now. And they might overdo it. You know we might get into it they might not but they've the X amount of million from it. But yeah it's just Yeah, I mean even just muttering the fa again, even just muttering it, will that, you know, increase the value, change the value? I don't know, but yeah, it it does uh you like you say a game when they were still around, they got bully got bundled into sports direct shops, but the few that were open were just there was Lego, there was pop bangles, there was jigsaw, there was board games, you know, they stopped doing secondhand tradings, you know, so they stopped they stopped doing that. So it was just new games only, and then codes and digital and da da da so yeah, I'm guessing it's the same there is that actually video games plays a a very small percentage in actually what they do now. So yeah, maybe that feeds into it. You know, they could sell on eBay, there could be eBay shops. I don't know. Well I yeah, it just yeah, I'd uh yeah let's just see see what happens. Let's watch this spit.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

Yeah, let's see what happens. I mean, I don't think I don't think it's gonna materialize to anything, but um yeah, we never know. You never know. It's a crazy, crazy world. So uh so right, going on to the next story. The next story

PS5 Digital Licence Check Explained

SPEAKER_01 1:07:00

is about the PS5 digital catalogue and with you.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:04

Yes, so the so this initially came out as people sort of delved into the licensing, the terms and conditions, agreements of digital games and catalogues for the PlayStation purchase through the PlayStation store. So there was uh something in there that was written for having a 30-day licence check. So, in essence, it made it sound like a DRM feature that made it sound like you had to check in every 30 days online to make sure that you could access your gaming catalogue. So, unless you did that, you you'd not be able to access it after 30 days. So of course, most things now are connected to the internet, you know, pretty much everything is always online now, but there are obviously people that don't want to do that, you know, for obvious reasons, they'll install the game, update it, and they might go offline and just play offline for whatever reason. But this kind of raised eyebrows of like, oh, actually, am I gonna have to now make sure my PS5 is always plugged in, it's always connected to the internet. If I don't, I'm a good be able to access the games, that sort of thing. So it has transpired since that Sony have come out and said that it's a one-time thing. So you you have to basically do an online check for your purchase to validate it, right? But beyond that, there's nothing further, you don't have to keep checking in every 30 days. Now, whether that's a response to people's reaction or not, because that response didn't come out straight away, that was kind of a bit of a delayed thing after maybe the dust had settled a little bit and people had obviously posted a lot online about it, and as with anything, with any sort of change to people's rights and access to content and things, there's always gonna be a bit of a pro in regards to it. And maybe they slightly tweaked it, backtracked it, I'm not sure. But obviously, again, Xbox and Microsoft tried to do this at the launch of the Xbox One. That there was this there was gonna be this sort of DRM thing that made you have to be always be online, you couldn't share games, you even if you bought a physical copy of a game, it was yours, you couldn't share it, and da da da. So they had to backtrack on that. So whether they've done that as well, I'm not sure. Is piracy really a big thing in this day and age, you know what I mean? It's that I don't know, I don't know enough about it. That is it possible to really pirate games in this day and age that there's bogus and you know pirated copies of games floating about that they need to do this. I'm not sure. But I mean, there's clearly is a reason for doing it in some capacity, but yeah, I'd it seems that it's not quite as strict as what people thought it was going to be initially, but still there is at least some sort of online validation that you have to validate your purchase initially before you can then go and access it at your free will thereafter.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:36

I mean, uh I know when I went to Manchester recently, I there was I had to connect the ROG to the internet to allow me to play the game that I wanted to play, wouldn't play, it just said you're not connected to the internet, you can't play this game, which was slightly disappointing. But I don't know whether it's possible to with Xbox as well, I don't know whether it's possible to sort of like load games onto the Xbox that or a PlayStation, then you know, technically, you know, I deal with clients that own yachts. We have a system called Colliderscape, so you can download, you can buy a movie, put it onto your Colliderscape, and then basically take that server onto a yacht where you have no internet connection and still watch your movie library. So I don't know whether it's possible that you know you could download games onto a PS5 or an Xbox series, take those onto an offline surface like a yacht or a hotel room that's not connected to a hotel uh the internet and play them, but you could keep on doing it because I could you download the same copy of the game onto five different PS5s and then flog those on with the content on it, meaning that the person never has to pay for the content. I don't think so, but maybe that's I don't but yeah, I mean looking at looking at the tech radar, it made made me laugh when it came down halfway down, it went to a Reddit report and it goes, so hemlock Desi goes, please be fake, please be fake, please be fake. And then the the next person goes, didn't Sony make fun of Microsoft for trying to attempt to do this with the in of the Xbox One? And yeah, you're it they're right, you know, in 2013, you know, they they run the whole you know short video on how to share a game on PS4 and took the Michael out of them, but yeah, it it seems to be that I don't know what's going on at Sony, but they seem to be the ones at the moment on occasion shooting themselves in the foot. You know, they've not had a particularly great year in putting out first party games, and then this is not really going to help the cause of the next generation. But this is how gaming works, isn't it? You know, sort of like you know, Microsoft had a really good 360, you know, and then the then the PS4 was better, and it's always they always the one who I hate to use the term, but the one who's considered to be the top dog in the console in wars always is the one that seems to shoot themselves in the foot ahead of the next series of console war consoles coming out.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:16

The one thing that I hadn't considered that I've just looked at actually is to prevent people re getting refunds. So in essence going online, buying it, downloading it, going offline, and then maybe being on another console or on online on via web or what have you, then requesting a refund, but then still keeping the game offline. So I think it's once you've checked that licence, and regardless if you're online or offline, once you've you've you know basically certified that this is your copy of the game, you can no longer request a refund. So that's one thing that I didn't think of that that will stop that doing it, basically. But yeah, again, whether that means that you can't do the like you've done with Xbox games a couple of times, that I've tried it, I didn't like it, get a refund. Whether that means that's an outright no, you've you've certified it, you've validated your licence. Sorry, you can't request a refund now. But yeah, it seems that that's one of the things that it's trying to clamp down on, which maybe there's been a lot of people doing that. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:12

Okay, so the next story is with me, and it's um are we getting an Atomfall TV

Atomfall TV Adaptation Announced

SPEAKER_01 1:13:18

show? So this, if I bring my screen down, so this is off Eurogamer. So the headline is 3.7 million players later. UK made Action Survivor game Atomfall is getting its own TV show. Today publisher, so this was on the 30th of April. So today publisher Rebellion has announced that in 20 the that it's 2025 survival game Atomfall is the latest game to make the transition from console to the TV screen. Rebellion and Two Brothers Pictures has announced a TV adaptation of the Atom Fall game. That went very northern, though. That went very northern, didn't it? Adaptation in Yorkshire. See, I'm coming to I've got coming to Edinburgh in a few weeks. I'm getting coming up that way too much.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:05

You've you've got to you've got to meet in the middle somewhere, She. You've got to you've got to stop off here.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:08

I will, I will, I will try and stop off on my way back. We'll do one day we'll have to do a live in-person one together somehow. Yeah, so uh TV Adelais is the great uh Atafall, which was the best British game at this year's matters, which we talked on last show, but no casting or release window has been said yet. Uh, it's uh already some interesting talent attached to the show behind the scenes, however. This series will be written by Emmy and Globe, sorry, Golden Globe's winning producer duo Harry and Jack Williams, credited on Fleabag, The Assassin, The Missing Baptiste, The Tourist, and the exclusive produced by the pair plus Alex Mercier, the assassin and Miles Terrorist, and Doctor. And one of those I know is Doctor Who. So yeah, I mean, you played, didn't you? You played Atom Fall. You quite liked it, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:02

Yeah, I did to be honest with you, yeah, and and it's almost a bit like um, you know, Fallout E, you know, the bit like um it's loosely based on a real nuclear disaster that happened, the windfall disaster that happened in the late district, which I didn't realise was a thing until I actually played Atom 4. Right. So it's based it's based in the late district, fictional, there's like few like based off the late district, but fictional villages and environments that are up there.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:26

Oh yeah, 1957 it's got here, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:29

Yeah, which I didn't realise was a thing to be honest with you, because I'd I've we've I've been going to the late district for years and I didn't even realise it was a thing. But yeah, this nuclear power plant has had this disaster, there's some supernatural things going on. So again, it's a little bit like there's like the Fallout TV series that there's the storyline for the Fallout uh games, but within the Fallout universe, there's a whole lot of other stuff that can go on as a TV series, you know, as books, comics, all sorts of things. And Atomfall lends itself quite nicely to that as well, I'd say, because again, there's the the plot line that happens in the game, but again, there's a lot of nonsense that could go in in Atomfall that is very similar to Fallout. You see these things in the game, you know, they could easily spin off some of the stories that are in the game and make them their own thing. So yeah, so I'd I'd I'd be really interested in watching that actually, to be fair, because I I really enjoyed the game, you know. I don't know if that's because it had that sort of unique British charm and it was based in the late districts, but a bit clunky, you know, you know, not perfect, but again, just something a bit different. So yeah, so again, like loved Fallout, absolutely loved that. So watching the TV series, yep, I was always gonna do that. So yeah, so being able to live in that world and expand that world, hopefully there'll be an Atom Fall 2, there'll be a sequel in some capacity. But yeah, just being able to stay in that world and live in that world, that'll be that'll be great.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:45

I got I think I did about one or two hours into it. I can't remember why now I I fell off of it, but yeah, I agree. The sort of like you know, when you like went through the tunnels to go to another area, and then you sort of like it was very uh English, UK based, and and I could see the the setting of it being it's one of those games, yeah, they could take over a they could take over Windermere, let's say, and they could just you know distress it and make it look all you know, excuse me, 1957s and um quite easily shoot it around sort of like the late districts and places like that. But no, I I really I did like the game. I said I can't remember why I fell off of it, but no, I think it could make an interesting TV show, and uh there does seem to be more and more TV shows coming out. I mean, I finished I finished Fallout, and although I didn't think it was as good as the first season, I did actually quite enjoy it at the end when they were when they were fighting the Razor Claws or whatever it was, the the actor in the armour and all that lot, and I did did quite enjoy it towards the end. That's it, yeah. I did quite enjoy it towards the end. So but yeah, so maybe that's another you know prime video or Netflix TV series coming our way. So that's something to look forward to. And then the by me, we really are covering all of our game console and bases this week. So

Valve Steam Controller First Impressions

SPEAKER_01 1:18:13

the next uh story is PC based, and it's about a new controller from Steam.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:18

Yes, it is yeah. I think the only thing we need to do is maybe look at the Nintendo or Switch content, but yeah, we were even chucking a bit of PC in there, which isn't bad for two people that don't really uh game on PC, but yeah, it's the Valve's new Steam controller, so it was just something that I I saw flicking through the feed on Instagram and TikTok and that sort of thing. And it you know, it it's one of these things, isn't it? Like PC gaming has always been like PC master race and da-da-da, and you know, you mouse and keyboard and rah-ra-rah. But obviously, since there's like um you know, there's like Steam Machine and things are coming out and more accessible, you know, it's in your living room. Been a Steam controller before, but this one is obviously again making that PC element of gaming more accessible. So if you're playing you know console games or things that have been a console to make that transition a little bit easier, but these albeit it doesn't work with your console, so you won't be able to hook it up to your PS or your Xbox, you can use it for connecting to like your iPad for cloud gaming, streaming, that sort of thing, and again, as an extra controller, you know, or as an alternate controller, so you don't have to keep flipping between oh my Xbox controller's connected to my iPad, I have to put it back to Xbox and vice versa. You know, it's a good option, you know, and it it blends those elements of PC and controller by having the touchpads on there. You know, it's got these two touchpads and track pads where your thumbs would be, as it were. Um so again, if you play in sort of like RTS games, anything that traditionally would be on mouse and keyboard, you've got that easy access from there. So it's a bit more intuitive in terms of the location of them rather than the PlayStation where it's got the like the bar, the pad in the middle of the console, uh the controller. Sorry, these are where your thumbs would be, just underneath the thumbsticks. So again, that makes it a little bit more intuitive. And again, obviously, you can use mouse and keyboard and Xbox, but obviously this doesn't connect to it. But we see these we're seeing this transition of making games more accessible on different platforms, and I think this is just trying to bridge that gap. It's got the extra function buttons on the back, so like you get on the elite controllers, so it's got the extra buttons if you play shooters, you want to map more functions to it, again, like you'd have access to if you play mouse and keyboard. But overwhelmingly, everything that I've seen it is a bit cost heavy, you know. I mean, it it's £85 in the UK, which you know you can pick up an Xbox controller for about £50. If you buy the blog standard, ones about £50 quid off Amazon, something like that. Probably same for the you know the standard dual shock. But if you go into the Elites, you know, the the more expensive ones they're clocking it around maybe £100 plus £100 plus. Yeah, I think they're £85. Yeah, so £85, you know, granted again, this can't connect to your console, you can't stick this on the Xbox or the PlayStation, but again, if you are playing more casually on the on the PC, like me, your cloud game, I've got one of these Mamba controllers which I game with on the iPad, so I don't use my um my Xbox controller. As a secondary controller or an alternative, if you want to play things you know, access PC Game Pass, you know, for cloud streaming. This is a great option, and overwhelmingly the reviews and the reception has been really good. You know, every platform, this is on Eurogamer, this this article that we've quoted here, but again, I've seen IGN, a load of other platforms and places reviewing it, video and and written it's like it's almost like the perfect controller. Granted, it's a bit of a niche thing to buy, you know, from its usage VCAT connected to other consoles and things, but it seems to be a very good hybrid of bridging that gap between console and PC.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:49

Well, I think I think I was listening to kind of funny the other day, and I think I think it was Tim Gettys that got his one and and a few of the guys, it was being passed around, and everybody sort of like was quite enjoying it and quite liking the feel of it. So, yeah, I mean I just looked on Amazon, I can't see it on Amazon even though it's saying it's coming out on the 4th of May. So uh But it what I would say is you don't want to buy the new steam controller. What you want to do is potentially look at eBay at some point next week, and you might find a shed load of controllers up there for sale as I have uh I have migrated my controller collection from my office, which has sat in boxes for the last two years, and I've decided that I think I'm going to get rid of some of them. I may I may have sat longingly looking at the the Forza Horizon 6 controller this week and going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you don't need it. And I'm a colour that no, I don't need it because my Forza Horizon 5 controller is sitting on the dock over in the side. And I mean today today, and most days I use the Starfield controller. So uh I have a feeling I've decided that my my love affair and lifelong collection of the Xbox controller is coming to an end. I might keep some of them. The you know, the one that James sorted out for me, maybe you know, some of like the God of War elite controller, which is almost impossible to get hold of, and my one's still brand new, they might stay in my collection. But anybody who wants, you know, Minecraft or Fortnite or some Halo or Gears Awards, uh, you might find them on eBay soon, and I will put a link to my account on the description if anybody wants to pick up some rare, rare controllers. So um, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:34

You can open a museum, that's what you should do. We should charge people to come look at them.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:38

Yeah, I should have a nice little museum. But uh, but yeah, so right, that's it. You

Where To Find Us And Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 1:23:43

know, that's the end of the show on that note. So thank you for everybody for listening. Thank you, Steve, for spending your Saturday night with me again. Where can you where can people find you on your podcasting, YouTube in social media and platforms?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:58

Yeah, so pretty much CK91 everywhere. So that's PlayStation, Xbox, YouTube, and Instagram. Annoyingly, it's SteCarte991 on TikTok, but it's not too dissimilar. But yeah, if you if you search SteCata 91, I will probably search and come up in anywhere that you'd be able to find me.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:15

Excellent. Excellent. So I am general let down on Xbox and PlayStation, but as you probably get from this podcast, I'm mainly on Xbox. And if you want to come and see me over on social media, I am at Mr. Stuart Burgess. As we said, we now have a feature within the audio podcasting where you can leave us a voice note. So please do so or leave a comment or message wherever you are listening or watching this. If you have any feedback and you want to do it by old-fashioned email, then hello at gamers of the lost spark.com is our email address. And uh yeah, thank you, Steve. And uh, we'll see you all again in a couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:55

No, thank you, mate. Pleasure as always. Thank you for listening and watching.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:58

Excellent. Cheers. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:00

Bye.