Unofficial Controller Podcast
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Unofficial Controller Podcast
Retro Reunions & Boxing Bouts: From Game Gear Revivals to Saudi Power Plays with Scott and Seb
What if the gaming industry's future isn't just about the games we play, but the shared experiences we create? Join us in exploring the nostalgic charm of retro handhelds and the intricacies of modern gaming with Scotty's restoration of a classic Game Gear and Seb's playful jabs at Nintendo's Switch. Discover how board games like Sheriff of Nottingham and the anticipation for new console releases continue to foster camaraderie and excitement among gaming enthusiasts.
Take a ringside seat as we unravel the tangled web of the boxing industry, where power dynamics and politics dictate the careers of fighters like Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois. We offer insights into why licensing boxers for video games is a challenge and how Saudi Arabia's investments are reshaping the sport's major events. Comparisons with UFC's streamlined model under Dana White show just how complex and unpredictable the boxing world can be.
Reflecting on the fleeting nature of modern gaming, we ask whether it's the games or our habits that make some titles forgettable. While discussing the impact of digital distribution and subscription services, we ponder why nostalgia keeps us coming back to old favorites. From viral marketing's grip on our imaginations to the enduring appeal of games like Counter-Strike and Baldur's Gate, we consider what it takes for a game to achieve a "Hall of Fame" status and the potential for future titles to captivate us long-term.
George and Seb rolling down the road RGT, riding shotgun, a heavy load, pastor Longhorn waiting to unfold An El Paso Texas tale's been told. One arm big a sight to see.
Speaker 2:El Paso Texas tale's been told what's up everyone, do not adjust your dial, it is. Do we call ourselves the B team? Do we call ourselves the C team? Are we the S squad? What are we?
Speaker 3:We're the Z team. Baby, the Z team, I like it.
Speaker 2:It is the Z team, with yours truly, seb, and joining me for this illustrious episode is Mr Marathon Gaming himself. Scotty, scotty, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing very, very well. It's been a long week, it's been a challenging week, but I'm very, very happy to be sitting in front of you talking to you about gaming. I'm excited for what's going to come. It's going to be a great show and I am buzzing for it. How the devil are you?
Speaker 2:I am doing well. I'm doing really well. This episode's got me excited for a lot of reasons because you, over the last episode, I found out that you and I had a lot of video game similarities and I was telling my wife this and I was just like you know, I knew Scotty was a Switch man, so you know, of course, that put me on guard immediately because I was like who the hell wants to play Switch in 2024? But then I was like I got to talk to this man and over the discourse of our conversation throughout the episode I was like this guy likes all the same kind of games I do right now. I'm like he's vibing on another level with me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're, definitely we're gaming twins, but you can hate too much on the Twix when I live. Literally we only had electricity from 1990. We had internet from the year 2000. And the first console we got. A lot of people might have started on the atari, on the nes, on the commodore, on the spectrum, but our first console we had was a nintendo switch, so we're just embracing it yeah, I understand if that's the first one you got yeah, that's the national console at that point, you know what I'm worried about is it might be the last one we get.
Speaker 2:That's the problem no, I think I feel like the switch to would be like right up y'all's alley whenever it comes out next year I'm excited for the switch, so a lot more excited than I am for the playstation.
Speaker 3:6 pro, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:6 pro hopefully that's at this rate. That'll be in the next decade or so. But you know, in typical ucp fashion I do have to ask the question off the top, that the coin phrase that George so elegantly puts it on every single episode what have you been playing?
Speaker 3:Modern wise, not a hell of a lot. So I've been, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been. I've been full on retro handheld this week, so I haven't actually done a lot of gaming. I've been very busy. I've been playing aon retro handheld this week, so I haven't actually done a lot of gaming. I've been very busy. I've been playing a lot of board games, so it might not be a topic for everyone on this show, but yeah, I've had a few board game days with family. I've found some new games are really good. One was called Sheriff of Nottingham, a real, real fun game.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah lots of different board games we were playing. Yeah, lots of different ball games we were playing. In terms of actual video games, I've just been playing. Where are my game gears? I mentioned in a previous show my game gears are sent off for repair, and why are my game gears being repaired and flat-modded? So I was having, like you know, the I think it's called the, I can't remember what it's called.
Speaker 3:Basically it takes the six or eight AA batteries, but it's changing that so it's rechargeable on the usb port c, I think it is a small usb, yeah, the screen mod, all that sort of stuff, new cell case, even looking at a possible hdmi mod, so when I'm filming on youtube I can get the game gear on the big tv. So while that was happening I was like, right, what am I going to play in bed? I need my little 10 minute downtime and I thought, rather than play this quick, what else can I play? So I picked up my Game Boy Color and it's a little Game Boy Color. It's a Game Boy Color light, not the pocket, is it called the light? I think it is. It's a slightly smaller screen.
Speaker 3:A lot of nostalgia for Game Boy in general, but the actual Odin Game Boy games. I was very young when I had the Game Boy. I just had what was given to me, you know Tetris, like everybody had, but Game Boy Color I've got a lot of nostalgia for it. But yeah, I was playing Pokemon Yellow a lot. I know I mentioned it previously, but I've just been grinding at that. So like 10 minutes each night, a little bit of Pokemon Yellow, pikachu, working my way up through the badges. Since the last show, since this one, I have actually now received my game gears have returned back to me. So I've gone full on handheld crazy. I was collecting loose game gear games, going to retro game shops, retro gaming markets, collecting loose game gear games. So I wasn't a big fan of boxes, it was cheaper, I was happy with that. However, nintendo cardboard just seems to just draw me in somehow. It's like, it's like. It's like yeah, it's literally like a fish hook in my mouth with a little bit of cheese on the end from longhorn's toenails. I just can't seem to escape it. And the gameboy color boxes I actually love the cover art on it. When I see them I've got one in the corner I can look at now gives me mad nostalgia vibes. And not a lot of people go too fast, mad for the game boy color. I mean, there's obviously a lot of expensive titles that there are in all systems, but there's a lot you can find pretty cheap. And it's amazing because how old these games are, you know 30 plus years old. It's amazing to find out. And when you come across these games and they're still in good condition because obviously when I was a kid I just ripped the tops of the boxes off that it blows my mind that they've been preserved in this way. So I'm actually starting to collect box nintendo, gameboy color games, which is the first. You've heard it here as an exclusive from el paso and so I'm going to put some.
Speaker 3:I've said before we went on air, I've moved some things around in the games room. I'm going to put some new cells up. I'm going to have them displayed front on. I'll probably do a new series for hunting and collecting them out in the wild. So I'm absolutely buzzing to get a bit more of a buzz for collecting something new. It's really fun when you're collecting something and you get a bit of a lull and you don't know what to play or collect. And and you don't know what to play or collect. And I've been playing a lot of Modern the last few months since joining the UCP team and I haven't been playing too much retro other than the game gear. So I'm really happy to have found a new love and it's really ignited my spark. Yeah, no Modern for me, just literally Game Boy Color games. Did you have a Game Boy Color? Any games?
Speaker 2:pop into your head. I did have a game boy color and game boy advance back in the day, um yeah, I I loved the game boy.
Speaker 2:Um, it was my first portable console and outside of, I think that and the ps1 are what really got me into gaming as a whole, because I'm yeah, I'm a 90s kid, so, like that, those were kind of like that stage and early era of Game Boy Advanced and Game Boy Color games are what really kind of like pushed me into that love of video games, right alongside the PlayStation 1. I'm not a physical guy at all, like I'm not a physical collector, but allegedly my Steam Deck is packed full of Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advanced games.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, deck is packed full of Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games. Oh, wow that is really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like you know, I was really surprised that you know, like I heard, the Steam Deck was a good emulation device.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've heard that a lot yeah.
Speaker 2:What surprised me about it is not how well it plays games. It's like how many games you can store on a sd card and just allegedly play like a mind game like they say that.
Speaker 3:They say you can fit a whole catalog of like an early system from our childhood. One one year speech mind-blowing I am.
Speaker 2:I'm baffled because, like on I, I was looking to see how many, how many you could store. You can do the whole modern or the whole retro game boy and game boy color collection on there and doesn't even take up, like it doesn't even reach the gigs of the switch. You know the gig of this. Gigs of the switch come with like 16. I believe it didn't even get to there. I'm like I think it gets to like one fourth of that and then Nintendo 64 is like one fourth of that as well. So I'm like you can get all the major Nintendo's Nintendo like consoles up to the GameCube era and not even scratch a surface of a one terabyte SD card.
Speaker 3:I believe you. I remember seeing a picture.
Speaker 3:It must've been on either Instagram or Retro Gaming magazine and it was a I believe it was a PC gamer or like a microcomputer, and he had all these, you know, the big, big floppy disks before they went smaller, in a stack of these floppy disks. Sorry, I know this isn't good for an audio show, but it was about, you know, three foot high. Imagine it was a usb. And he went believe it or not, I've got all of these games on this one usb, so every single one fitted on there. So, yeah, I, I believe that 100. That's definitely true for sure. But, jeff, we need to address the elephant in the room because last time we was on we talked and you persuaded me.
Speaker 3:During that show I purchased Undisputed. Since that show I have become Undisputed, not once, not twice, but three times Undisputed champion, different divisions featherweight, welterweight, heavyweight and I have broke the back, the neck, the legs, the spine of that campaign career mate. I have made every customized character. I've been eight foot tall, I've been two foot two. I've been loving that game and I know it's got its flaws with online games, like you'll be standing back and you'll be getting punched, but you're not physically getting punched Like what's going on with the hip box, I get the online servers broken.
Speaker 3:However, you're a man that loves single player experience. You're the og single player experience guy, so you must appreciate this game. No pun intended. It's a heavyweight contender for game of the year 2024.
Speaker 3:I'm fighting everybody who says it's not. Look, listen, keep your astro bot. This is what I'm talking about. I love the game. I've done like 40 hours on it. I did 30 hours in one week. I love that game. It's everything I wanted. I love the career mode of it. I love the training mode you can do. I love the coaching. I love the management. I think the graphics are realistic. I think the last game I had was fight night champion. I've embraced it. I've really enjoyed it and everyone keeps saying you know what's wrong with it, but I've been telling my close friends friends that you know I work with and stuff and everyone's been really enjoying the game, the campaign mode, um, and just loving the career mode. So if you just enjoy what it is, as a boxing fan that appreciates that boxing have not had a boxing game in so long, stop being negative and looking at what's wrong with it. Just be thankful we've had a new game and then we'll build up from that. Yeah, there could be more licensed fighters, but don't just play one division.
Speaker 3:I've knocked out probably 50 licensed professionals because I've gone through a different division and I think the game is awesome. Like, yeah, if you go online and choose heavyweight, there's 12 heavyweights. But this isn't FIFA, this isn't COD. Get involved with a single player game. That's what it's all about. It's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I like that. I like that, you know, with Undisputed. I came into it thinking like, because this is a relatively unknown studio. I first came onto the, looked over and I saw a huge, huge championship belt that this guy was holding, and it was. He was holding one. It had a green strap on it and then another guy was holding one. It had a red strap on it. I was like those are the boxing championships and like championship belts. So I walked over there and that's when I was first introduced to undisputed, because they were actually demoing the game. This was about two years now and ever since then it's been all like on my radar. I, they gave me a pc code, I was, you know, kind of lukewarmingly playing this off and on for about two years and a, like you said, I think I looked at it in a different light of this is more like an indie boxing game than actually like a boxing game made by 2K or by EA, which would have probably, which would have probably had a lot of the online issues, would have probably been addressed better, because they used to servers like that, with, with, like madden and with, you know, like all the rest of the ea catalog games.
Speaker 2:But for what this is, I do think this is the best product that we've had in a long time and it really to me I think this inspires me more so of like this is a great stepping stone for what they can do in the future, like I think this is a good template for them to work off of and build, because I think this is a good game. I think I would have probably given this like more of a 7 out of 10 than probably like Game of the Year contender, but I do think I don't think you can hate on the fact that there's not too many licensed boxers, because it's not as straightforward as that.
Speaker 3:No, no.
Speaker 3:I feel like so with boxing, for example, if we compared UFC with boxing, so UFC, dana White, the president, he will just have. He would say, right, this is a pass, it's flipped, he's 60% to whoever's ranked higher, whoever's holding the belt, there'll be a knockout bonus. He will say, right, this is a purse, you know, it's split 60% to. You know, whoever's ranked higher, whoever's holding the belt, there'll be a knockout bonus. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 3:But in boxing you haven't just got the manager, you don't have a particular governing body, you've got multiple governing bodies, you've got four. And then you've also got the stable you're fighting with. So you have, you know, match room. You know you might have, like eddie hearn, yeah, so they will have their own package. That's there too. There's so many things that are done. They talk about fights for like years before they happen. And then even the passes. They're so mixed up and it's quite realistic even in the game you could be fighting someone, and you might, and because you want the shot of fighting someone you know a lot better than you, than you. It's a risk to the fighter who's got, like um a higher no, no, yeah, no losses, so it's a risk to him.
Speaker 3:You're a young upcoming, so they're off for you 10% purse, which is terrible, but that's the truth. That's what's happened. And that's when you look at different careers, like with Frank Warren's table, for example Look at Anthony Joshua's career of how easy his first 20 fights was, and then look at Daniel Dubois' career of how hard his first 20 fights were. And that just goes through the power of TV, sponsorship, media negotiations and who's got the control in the boxing industry. There is a little bit of corruption there, so it's not the case of, you know, like football, you could just go to man City, right, we want to put your players in the game. Here's this, and they do a quick deal. There's so many variables. They're owned by so many people. These boxers, it's not just a straightforward thing. So I was actually quite surprised by some of the fighters. That's why it's so easy. There's a lot of retired boxers in it, because that's easy. They haven't got different people, so non-active fighters are in there. There was some fighters in there I forgot about. Even in the featherweight you've got Cole Frampton, scott Qu, quick. Don't get me wrong. I used to watch those guys fight five, six, seven years ago. They're not active anymore, but that's why they're in the game, because they don't have to negotiate. It's like me going to you hey, seb, I want to put you in a video game. It's 250,000. You'll go, do you know what? Don't worry. So, yeah, anyone who's doing well and is active, you'll. You'll be surprised to see him in the game. The fact that we even had Canelo Alvarez in there was kind of exciting for me to go up against him in a boxing game, because they must have broke their backs to get that deal. But it's really cool the licences and arenas. There's certain bodies that have obviously said put me in the game. The fact, when you get the Undisputed title, it gets presented by that seat, doesn't it In Saudi? Me in the game. The fact when you get the understated title, it gets presented by that seat, doesn't it in saudi? So obviously it's got his logo, his branding. It's really. I think it's really cool. I really um, re-add season, that's what it's called, isn't it? Re-add season, the promotion. But yeah, honestly, mate, I'm, I'm loving it and I know, I know that people it's it's not as good an expectation for everyone. But my expectation wasn't just low. It was removed from the room.
Speaker 3:I've not had a game for so long and you call it an indie game, which it is. However, I've tried many indie boxing games. They don't hit like this. No, yeah, I've paid £30 for some of these games a lot of money, like there was I don't know what it's called realistic boxing or real boxing. There was one and two and they're dreadful and I'll be very honest and say they're bad. But this game is a really, really good game, so I'll do everything I can to elevate us and show the world that this is the real deal.
Speaker 2:It's a good game. I love that enthusiasm. I think you know. I say 7 out of 10. I think that's good.
Speaker 3:I don't think it's like bad 7 out of 10 is a good score, and that is the same score that Joel played Star Wars and he enjoyed that game, so I can't complain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I actually think this might be better than star wars outlaws.
Speaker 2:but you know, I it's one of the I know we don't do a lot, but please click that and then we'll use that it is interesting though, um, I do think, like boxing is a dirty sport, organization wise, because there's so many different organizations and hurdles that you do have to make fights happen, whereas your comparison with the UFC is apropos. There of like the UFC is just one organization and Dana White is at the head of that organization. You know, like he has a committee of people that he might like yeah, like his cabinet members, so to speak, like a presidential party, but like for the most part, he, they always make the one of the best fights that are available happen. You know there's no, there's not a whole lot of ducking and dodging. You know, like you outside of the, you know like people get hurt and all that kind of stuff. But you see, like valentina, um valentina fight. You saw amanda nunez fight when she was active, like she fought basically the next woman up. You saw that with the rousing yeah, he forces them.
Speaker 3:It's fantastic, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think we've seen in the last two years it's since that the money's gone to saudi and we've had this re-ad season. We I remember the first time we saw eddie hearn and frank warren sitting next to each other is since that the money's gone to Saudi and we've had this Riyadh season. I remember the first time we saw Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren sitting next to each other. I was like, oh my God, they're in the same room, they hate each other, they're going to kill each other. And we've been.
Speaker 3:Really, I say we've been spoiled. We haven't, because we've had a bad 10 years for boxing fans. But we're finally seeing now stable, quite stable, best of the best, no more ducking best on best, and we're seeing it. And we've had a few trilogies and stuff, haven't we in the last five years? Yeah, you can't complain. It's been absolutely excellent. But you're, you're 100 right. It's not the same as ufc, for sure. It's not as straightforward as that. I'm very lucid. I like to throw the word corruption out there. Come on, we can say that we've got our sponsors to worry about.
Speaker 2:Now there's a lot of politicking. I think is a better term than corruption.
Speaker 3:Sorry. Yeah, politics, we're on that.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of political maneuverings happening around boxing, boxing and the organizations, the managers, the boxers themselves. I think this is a great starting point. I think that there's some minor things gameplay-wise I would adjust. I would love for the presentation of the entrances to be a lot better. I would love for the hitboxes to be a little more accurate and maybe tone down some of the one-punch knockout abilities a little bit, because I'm like you could be just on someone winning the scorecard, you know, and they get that one punch. That feels a little unrealistic sometimes, sometimes depending on who the fighter is. If it's like Tyson, I get it, but if it's like you know someone who probably has like C-tier power, it gets me a little bit. You know, like they're able to kind of yeah, I don't just put you in bed.
Speaker 3:Every time I start the fight I always try to. You know I try to box and then after two, three rounds I get bored and then I'm like, right, how fast can I knock him out? And I'm holding down the triggers, doing power punches, putting my stamina there and try and lure them in. But I've had it a few times. I know my stats are high because I've you know, I've trained them well and I've sort of worked out the mechanics of it and what I can, what attributes I need and what I don't need that fit my fighting style.
Speaker 3:But I've had it where literally I've thrown one or two punches. They're all over me, my stamina's low, I'm on the back foot and then I've literally rolled under a hook, hit them with a little uppercut and it's absolutely sparked them, dropped them out and I'm like what are these hands that god has given me? I just feel so powerful. The one thing I find really silly, the only thing I would like to change and they could update this I'm surprised someone hasn't said to them yet is the free knockdown rule applies. So if you get knocked down three times within.
Speaker 1:A round.
Speaker 3:And the only reason why I say I mean it's handy for speed running career mode, because I sometimes slow people away even a couple of rounds. But what I would say is there is, um, a clever mechanic where you can take a knee to stop. You know, take a standing eight count to stop you taking too much damage. And the computer will do this even when it's been knocked down twice. So they'll take a knee, the ref's cowed in. And I'm thinking well, why is the ref cowed in? Because the fight's over, it's free knockdowns. It's a knockdown, his gloves have touched the floor. So then, as soon as the countdown finishes and the commentators are going, yep, he's saving himself, he's taken a knee, he'll take a breathe up and then it's over.
Speaker 3:So that that's the only thing that I think I would change straight away. That was a bit silly yeah, the, the ai.
Speaker 2:I think the ai thought process is a little like the cpu, is a little like dumb in a lot of, in a lot of spots, like I feel like they don't often stick to strategies as well either. I would love for for that to be implemented a little bit more so, but I think this is a good game. I think a little bit more so, but I think this is a good game. I think, um, I want more from it, but that that means I have an appetite for it. You know, like it did enough to where I'm like I liked this game. Enough to where, like yourself, I put in a lot of hours into it and I have an appetite for more and I have an appetite for better as well. So, I'm like they got me.
Speaker 2:I think the this is, this is what you want out of a first entry. Uh, I'm like, especially with a new franchise, a new team, a new starting block. I know they they were doing crowd sourcing and crowd funding for a little bit, but then I know I think they they finally got published. Uh, finally, you know, gotten publisher. But like, for the most part, this is what you want out of the first game. You want to hook people, for better or for worse. You know like if you get them in the door they're more likely to come in into it again for part two, as long as the game is good.
Speaker 2:So I'm like yeah, what else you've been playing though? You've been playing pokemon, you've been playing undisputed yeah, no, that is literally be literally.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's why we're on undisputed. In case there is people that have been playing the game and they're enjoying it. I've got one tip which I can share with you, which really helped me massively. If you're struggling to finish your opponents off, anyone that's listening to this.
Speaker 3:Basically, when you rock them, it does like a graphic and there's a sound. You can tell the earring. It's like when your eardrums go or if you get clocked in a fire, it all sort of the atmosphere changes. So you can tell when you rock your opponent. When you rock your opponent, he will go into his guard position, he starts walking backwards and if he's faster than you you will never catch him up and you get about five, ten seconds and it wears off and then obviously they're not vulnerable, they're hard to knock out.
Speaker 3:So when you spark an opponent, if you press up on the d-pad, it basically activates this mode where it's not good defensively. So you want to change it back. As soon as you do it, your hands drop down and it's kind of like I don't know what the mode's actually called. You have to look at the configuration, but it makes your speed closing the gap very, very, a lot more increased. You'll get like 30 percent quicker, so you can shut down your opponent and I'll find, as soon as I've rocked an opponent, I'll hit up on the d-pad and I can close them down and I can keep them within reach. I don't know if you found that um said, but that's really handy it's kind of like switching stances yeah, it's not quite shopping from south part.
Speaker 3:All for that? No, no, I found that by accident. Yeah, kind of. Whatever your start is, whether it's a finny cell or whatnot, you'll just find that you'll drop your hands. Your guard goes down, which puts you at risk. However, you'll move quicker and it's very handy, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So I want to ask you this, based on all you've been playing this probably on ps5, I imagine right?
Speaker 3:yeah, ps5, even on the portal. I've been playing it a lot. Yeah, playing it on there. There was one other game. I've been playing it a lot on the Portal Wow, yeah, playing it on there. There was one other game I've been playing Until Dawn, but I've not played it for a fair few days. I'm near the end of it. Near the end.
Speaker 2:Okay, really enjoying that as well. Have you been playing that by yourself? I think Until Dawn is the one where it has a multiplayer component as well. Right, I didn't know there was multiplayer on there.
Speaker 3:No, it's um, it's confusing with their other studio. It's basically an fmv game, but it's not a full fmv game. So it's like real time based decisions. So it's like you're in a movie. You control third person view, you play different characters and your decisions have a long lasting effect. There's different multiple endings and it takes the game, but there's a lot of cut scenes. So it's a bit like you're in a film. They did the quarry and a couple of other games as well, I believe the studio.
Speaker 3:But yeah, really, really good game. I know IGT's completed it. He loved it. I know me and George talked about it at a previous show and I basically said previously I'm kind of done with it because I've found basically it's about a killer that's on the loose. I found out what or what is it the killer, or whether it's what's in the woods or what isn't in the woods. So once she reveals that big twist, I kind of felt like well, what's the point? And he told me to stick with it. So I take it I'm not quite at the end and something else will happen. So that was exciting, but I've not played it. You know, for a fair old few days but yeah, I'm disputed until dawn were the last modern games I've played, and then a lot of pokemon on the game boy is what I've been hitting. So what I need to know and what the people need to know is the indie thing. What have you been playing?
Speaker 2:first of all, I think I was thinking of uh, some another super massive game, maybe one of the Dark Picture games, because I know they do the other horror games as well. I've been playing quite a bit of Metaphor Refinetio. We talked about this, I think, last time. I was on A Persona-like game by Atlus, jrpg-based.
Speaker 3:That's a big one. Is that the one that got 10 out of 10s and stuff? Was it that one?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, it's, it's very high it's good. I am round in the corner about to come home on and about to roll credits on it. It's, I think I put in like how many hours it's. It's in the 70s for sure I'm quite surprised.
Speaker 3:That's quite good for an Atlus game, I believe.
Speaker 2:Hell yeah, they normally can get up to around 80, 90, 120, but I love the game. I do think it's overstaying its welcome towards the back end. It's almost like a movie that you really love. But you know, man, if they would have shaved off this 30 minutes, this would have been probably perfect.
Speaker 3:RPGs are a time and I feel like they do it in games. They don't need to. I remember luigi's mansion.
Speaker 3:I think it was the second, no, the third one and it was just like it's like a 20, 25 hour mode to complete. But it didn't need to be. But it seems like gamers, like developers, think it's only 10 hours, we better make it longer. But it gets you get. Think you get to the end game and then it makes you go all the way back through the levels and everything's already done. I hate it when they do that. We've got other games to play. I don't know why you said you've been playing it 70 hours and you're a good gamer. So if I played that, we're talking 90-plus hours Like, come on, give us a break, shave some off baby yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's one of those things to where I'm like story-wise, I feel like they had a couple of plot points to where, like you said, they kind of padded the game out, a little bit like oh we added this twist and turn, so this adds another like mini boss and mini dungeon that you didn't necessarily need to have. You could because, like, it all comes back to the same objective that you originally had in the first place. So it's a little bit of fluff for just the fact of extra padding.
Speaker 3:But like it's still like, sounds outrageous. Sounds like they got pillows, duct tape to cushions, duct tape to mattresses. Too much padding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it did, for sure it had that egregious air. But like's what? Yeah, it did, it did for sure it had that egregious error. But, like, for the most part I love the game. I think it's fantastic. I think the gameplay, the art style, the music, the actual emotions, the characters, the voice acting I think all of that is top notch. It's just there's a couple of little things that keep it from hitting that 10 out of 10 range. For me personally, and plus I'm a hard. If you ever go to the single player xp website, I'm a hard, hard reviewer. So, um, yeah, this is this is one I would have. It leans close to a 10, but I'm probably going to give it a nine overall.
Speaker 3:But like, wow, that is awesome. That's cool to hear. I'm definitely gonna play that. If you're like you said, you're a hard reviewer and, um, this is, yeah, this is yours. Um, yeah, I'm gonna check that out, mate 100. I mean, I knew it was good it'll be hearing from you know credible sources, but when you hear it from someone you know, it hits a lot harder, so I'm gonna have to check that out for sure if you're an anime person, like if you like that anime style of like storytelling, this might be more for for you.
Speaker 2:If you're not, then this might not like be a game that's going to interest you story-wise. I don't. I I think maybe, like if you have, if you ever tried a persona game and you thought, oh well, persona is not really my jam, this is a more streamlined version of what persona is, but still I don't think it does enough to change your mind on. I didn't necessarily like persona games. I'm gonna magically like these games, but yeah, I've been playing that. Uh, what were you saying?
Speaker 3:sorry, sam. Yeah, I was just gonna say I know you're a big anime fan, so we talked about previously, so is that the? Is that what drew you into this? Was it? If it wasn't like the animation style or wasn't the way it was, do you think you might have given it a miss? Do you think that's what, the main thing that drew you in for this one?
Speaker 2:no, no, um, I I am a persona guy as well, like I like persona 3, love persona 5. So I'm like anything from that team that is a mainline game as opposed to like a someone at the side, many side games that they do, many like just they throw out a whole lot of like just minor spinoffs in games and such like that. So I'm like I'm not interested in the minor spinoffs, but since this was a mainline atlas game from the mainline team that does the persona games up, that's what got me interested. Uh, I think the anime thing is just icing on the cake for my personal interest. I it just it's, it's part of the venn diagram that that I happen to like both the anime style of storytelling and the atlas style of gameplay. So it's just one of those things to where you you find a game and you're like, oh, that's, that's going to be like a perfect, like type of game for you. But besides that, I've been playing call of duty's campaign like black ops 6 yeah, yeah, yeah yeah and a.
Speaker 2:This is the first campaign, probably in the decade, that I really just devoured and really liked. I do think it has it has. I finished the campaign yesterday. It has some pacing issues as well, to where I feel like it kind of overstays its welcome by an hour or maybe an hour and a half, because it is a short campaign. It's only like seven hours.
Speaker 2:But I like everything about the presentation.
Speaker 2:I think the story is going to be kind of like a Mission Impossible style of story for a lot of people to where, like, if you like that style of like action, espionage, like shootouts, that sort of thing, you'll like this story will be serviceable enough here. It's not going to be a hall of fame narrative but I do think, like the set pieces are spectacular, the fact that, like you are, you go from a desert storm map. That is very much like kadeo kojima's uh, what is the series number one? Like the metal gear solid five, phantom pain, you know, like in that game he basically you can pick an area that you want to go to and it's almost like an open, semi-open world to where you can do different things in different areas. This is like that in in one part of the map to where they give you like eight objectives in an open world style map and you get to choose. Well, hey, I have to go take out that missile launcher so that, so that I can unlock planes to basically do like flybys and like actually do like drop by drop supplies and missiles. If I take out that like that, that mission right there, I can basically like unlock like little rcr cars, like the little art, like cars we used to play with as a kid yeah so, like you can, they have those strapped with explosives and you can unlock those.
Speaker 2:And if I take out that, that part of the um, that part of the base, I can basically unlock this weapon set or this like gear that allows me to be like more bulletproof. So I'm like it felt like they had they're testing the waters for like a open world rpg in some of the maps and then they also have like a zombie map as well in the game to where, like it, they took their zombie mode and made it into a single player level, and I was like there's so the campaign, campaign mode on set.
Speaker 3:What would you say I?
Speaker 2:I haven't I haven't finished writing it really yeah, I haven't finished writing it out, but I'm I'm somewhere between that seven and eight range because I think like you're right in the end yeah, what did I? I've already beat it like um. The hour point was around, like I think, seven to eight hours okay, and he said yeah I'd probably give it like a seven or eight out of ten.
Speaker 2:Like it is, I think. Like the some of the set pieces are immaculate. There's a couple of them, that where there's one where you have to infiltrate bill clinton's like campaign before he becomes before he becomes um president in the 90s Really, yeah, and the whole thing is like he is still a governor at this time and he's having a rally and a sponsorship mission and you're sort of like, while he's doing his whole thing, you're sort of going around and trying to take on different points of the map to where, like if I can sort of get information about this target, or I can basically talk to this woman at the bar who will give me information about another target, and it gives you so many different like narrative branches that you can like execute the mission with, and all the while you're basically trying to find out have you seen Captain America, winter Soldier? Okay, so the whole thing is like you are a part of the CIA and there is a Hydra, there's a Hydra based organization that is also a part of the CIA and Hydra, and what their, their aims are, and like what they're trying to do at different points in around the nineties around the Saddam Hussein.
Speaker 2:Saddam Hussein, like my friends, really good and like it's very loosely based on history, but like it's that Bill Clinton era, it's the the desert storm era. Is the Saddam Hussein type of like I'm going to infiltrate one of his bases and take that out, and you can do that in so many different ways and you can kind of unlock a whole lot of different weapon types. You can unlock little abilities, like they have a homing knife, yeah To where like yeah, I'm going to try this tonight.
Speaker 3:I think, seb, sorry it's in drop, but yeah, I'm going to try this tonight, I think. So it's in drop. But yeah, I tried after everyone was going on about it in the discord card and you know I never really play any cards, but the you know the black hot ones were were like my favorite and I joined. I went online. I'll ask you this in the previous show there's people flying around didn't know what's going on. I was getting shot left, right and center so I thought I'll go in the career mode. I went in the career mode and I literally I played it to 60 seconds. I was just being a bit negative about it. I kind of just, you know, like we talked about fomo before.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the previous show I basically had that, so everyone was going about it. I was like I want to try it. I literally I did it to convince myself, like, oh, I've tried it. Now it didn't click on me, I've turned it, turned it off. I can listen to you talk about this for half an hour more. I really could, but just listening to you talk about now the campaign mode, you've got me buzzing for it. So I was going to say to you anything I saw literally the last 24 hours saw a clip on youtube assault of a guy in the campaign. I hope it's not spoiler, but I'd like to say what happens. But it was an assassination from, you know, thor to a cruise ship or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was sweet, that is.
Speaker 3:So I saw that and it kind of the bullet travel reminded me of what are those games Hitman, Sniper, Elite, you know, with a bullet you can see it in slow motion.
Speaker 3:So I watched that and it made me think, oh, do you know what? Maybe I should have played that. That looks cool. And then hearing you now. I mean I'm sure a lot of people listening to our show, our listeners, have probably played cod, but I'm sure there's a minority of people like myself who haven't, you know, jumped on the bandwagon and the hype train of everybody else. Sometimes games are so pushed down your throat and out there it freaks me off a little bit.
Speaker 3:So it's really refreshing mate, to hear um that you had a great time in a campaign and I honestly think, like after this show recording, I think I might put it on and give it a go. Um, that might sounds awesome. But yeah, sorry, carry on, it sounds no I didn't realize there was so much to it I.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say, like this is also, if you're an xbox gamer, this is, and you have game pass. This is the first call of duty to come out on game pass like day and night Game Pass is ultimate, though. Ultimate. That is true. That is true ultimate, because it pulled me out, seb.
Speaker 3:They reactivated my Game Pass 1099. Still couldn't play it? No, no, I had to play another 1599 or 1399. And I only played the game for two minutes. I might as well have bought the game physical.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I hate that you, I hate that that happened to you.
Speaker 2:No, I do think like this is a good step forward for, like call of duty uh, especially if they're putting out campaigns like this, because, like they added so much like I haven't played a call of duty campaign so I can't say they added so much, uh from previous installments, but this one felt like a actual good single player experience.
Speaker 2:It felt like you were playing a campaign that's got a little hitman dna, a little sniper elite, like you were saying, and also a little a lot of james bond, like the early james bond games, and I feel like that kind of mixed together really well and the fact that they added so or have so many abilities that you can like use and I say abilities meaning like you can actually pick up equipment. You're still a human, you, you don't get superhuman all of a sudden, but like they have a homing knife that you, basically you can assassinate people by throwing knives and that's like a, that's like a stealth tactic or you can use like your silencer, but like they have one knife that you could throw at something or someone. It'll stick to them and then, like you can press a button and then, because that knife has the explosive in the back of it, it becomes a bomb that you can that is so cool.
Speaker 3:I heard you say in the discord, I think that you said it's a lot like a james bond, yeah, and I was thinking what do you mean? And obviously you mentioned a few gadgets, but that is something out of a movie, that is.
Speaker 2:That is cool yeah, so I'm like they have, like they have like minds that you can put down, that like if people walk by them they'll like um, it's almost like a tranquilizer mind, mine and then they also have like they have so many different things. I don't want to spoil it for everyone, but like there's so many different gadgets that I feel like it made me feel more 007 than it did, like a Call of Duty, and I feel like that.
Speaker 3:That's okay, that's okay isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I wanted more so Cause I I don't think Call of Duty necessarily appeals to me. I think like the campaign and playing through like a single player first person shooter appeals to me a lot, especially if you throw in like gadgets. You give me objectives and you give me really cool set pieces, like a casino where I'm basically having to pull a heist. That reminds me of Casino Royale from James Bond, mixed in with like Now you See Me like the magician movie, so I'm like you mix in all those elements.
Speaker 2:And I think every single level is a different. It feels like every single level is a different movie and you are playing like a different part or a movie that they're paying homage to and I'm like that to me, I think, is like I I can't explain how giddy that is, jumping from like movie to movie and it never feels like it gets old, except for like maybe a couple of parts in the middle. But that's personal preference of like I don't like psychedelic, like things to where like there have they have levels to where you wonder if this is a real thing or if this is not real. Obviously you're hallucinating and I'm not a big fan of that line of storytelling. So that's the only thing that got to me to where I was. This is not real. Obviously you're hallucinating and I'm not a big fan of that line of storytelling. So that's the only thing that got to me to where I was, like this isn't quite for me.
Speaker 3:I know, I know what you mean with that yeah I've had that in a game before and it annoyed me a little bit because I was like it's a bit of a cop-out sometimes. It's like when you're a kid and you could write the most elaborate story, you wouldn't know how to end it and you just write. Then I woke up. It was all a dream. I feel like that's a bit like a developer's version of that. It's like, oh, I don't really know what to do. Let's just pretend there's some sort of mental health issue and you don't know reality from. You know, yeah, a different, an alternate universe. You know um delusions of grandeur or whatnot.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I know exactly what you mean by that that's a that's always a story element that I'm not necessarily fond of, but I get what they were trying to do in this game. It's very alan wake-ish but you know, yeah, I'm not a alan wake guy, so that didn't appeal to me personally. But, like I want to, we, I want to pivot a little bit from what we've been playing to. The question is because, like the questions we're going to be doing for this and the inglorious page on the discord that you could that we'll occasionally post questions to and you can basically ask and answer questions that we post and they'll be read out on this on future episodes. We did that, did that in preparation for this episode and I posted a question to RGT and RGT so graciously posted it on the Discord and people kind of took to that question. I was a little surprised with how well people gravitated to that. Evidently they had something to say about it. The question being let me see if I can find it real quick, because I want to make sure I got it. Got it going on here, okay. So interesting topic idea.
Speaker 2:Are we in a while, we in an era where video games are struggling to make a long lasting impression? I ask this because so many games this year have come and just gone. Dragon age sparking zero has lost about 90% of its fan base, according to recent reports. No one's no longer talking about Helldivers, which was a sensation like no other. It seemed to be the hottest thing in video games earlier this year, and Final Fantasy VII, which was the big single player game for PlayStation earlier this year, around February, just sort of came and went. Is this a reflection on gamers, the games, or is this something else entirely? Before we begin with community discourse about this topic, I want to ask you, scotty, what do you think this is? Do you think I'm kind of blowing this out of proportion? Do you think this?
Speaker 3:is a no. I think you're right. It's really. When you said this to me, seb and pre-show, I thought, wow, what a great question, because it's as soon as you said it. Everyone sort of has their own opinions.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say mine and I think my. I mean there's a few different factors, but I just think it is kind of the modern world that we're in. We're a kind of sport for choice. A lot of people like these days everyone's got a sort of thought-attention span. Everything's thick and fast, like I remember when I was a kid and going to Sky TV and the amount of choice there was, you know, when you went satellite. And now, like we've got so many channels and streaming things, if something doesn't click with you in 30 seconds you're like well, I'll go on to the next thing. You're watching something and I'm talking about movies now and you're thinking about the next thing you can watch.
Speaker 3:Um, and I feel like we're kind of spoiled with games. There's so many releases and you've got to think when we was younger, um, like nostalgia is a great thing with retro gamers because you can have a stouter for a game. Yeah, it can be an awful game. That's saying you know you're playing it through rose tinted glasses and you go back and play oh my god, this game's trash. Why did you love it so much?
Speaker 3:Well, the truth was society was different back then. You didn't like now everyone's got. I know everyone thinks. You know we're all hard off and I'm going a bit off topic about generalization of modern society now, but I know people think that money's tough and stuff. But really it isn't. It's just if you look at um, not looking at inflation, but if you just look at what you have going out compared to 30 years ago. Go back 30 years ago no internet bill, no mobile phone bill, no subscription service I can name 10 things that didn't exist 30, 40 years ago and they come into play now. So like there's a lot more money going out now.
Speaker 3:When you was younger, you know when things were a bit tougher you would have in general, you'd only get games. You know birthday and christmas. It's very common. I don't sound silly. Any young audience listening to this. This might sound wild, but it wasn't unusual to play one, two, three games a year. Like people play a lot of games these days Because of the subscription services and everyone competing with each other. There's so many games and sales on. Obviously, we didn't have these e-shops and stuff. We didn't have people competing. We just had things physically printed and put in the shop to maximise profit. If you look at inflation of games, if you look at the price of games from current day to in the 90s. Look at the price of games from current day to in the 90s. There's not actually been any inflation on games. They're the same. They've always been 49 99. You know they always have been so.
Speaker 3:When we were younger we got one or two games and that was all you played. So games would be terrible and you would just play them. But now, and you'd play it, you'd play it for 30 hours. You'd have to find enjoyment in it. You know you'd get a game and no matter how bad it was, you'd have to play it. You didn't have anything else to play. But now we're so spoiled for choice.
Speaker 3:I feel like if a game doesn't hit you straight away, you're like well, why am I wasting my time? You don't need to. I hear a lot, even on the show. We talk about it. One of us might find a good game, like george might say this is good, and then rgt or yourself might go I've played, it's not very good. And you'll hear people say stick with it, stick with it. People talk about my wife says it about series, with TV shows. She goes oh, it's not very good to show. And I go oh, stick with it.
Speaker 3:A few episodes in, it gets good, and people say that, and that just goes to show we're very quick to go. Nah, not feeling that, I mean literally. Nah, not feeling that, I mean literally. Five minutes ago I said I played cod for 30 seconds. So you know, I'm I'm being I'm not being a hypocrite here. I've done it myself as well.
Speaker 3:So I just feel like we're really sport for choice and in this modern age there's so many games that are available. You don't have to go to the shop anywhere anymore. You can just press a button and it's there. So if you don't like it, you don't have to think, oh no, I've spent 40 pounds or no, I've got to go and turn it. You can just go, click off, click on. Another one doesn't cost you any money if you've got game pass etc.
Speaker 3:And I think you're exactly right. For example, what was that big one? You saw? Hell divers 2. Everyone went crazy about that game, right, and the buzz. Normally, when people talk about stuff so much, it puts me off and I I like to. I'm a bit of a dark horse. I like to discover things on my own merit. I don't like to follow the crowd. I got everyone went on about it so much. Everyone talks about it on this show, everyone talks about it on Discord. About six months later I finally got the game and I've not played online with anyone because there's nobody online anymore. So you there's nobody on live anymore. So you're exactly right.
Speaker 3:I just think it's awful that we've just got so much choice now. And obviously when you were a kid right, I know there was you know you had the Sega versus Nintendo wars, but it was like one or the other. You were Sega Mega Drive, you know, or you were Nintendo Super Nintendo, and they sort of overlapped a little bit, but generally you had one console. You didn't have multiple consoles. But now it's the norm for people to have two people have Xbox, playstation or Steam or, like myself, you know, free people have multiple consoles now and they didn't used to. So you used to just get what was on your console and you play it. But now, like I'm sure there's loads of people listening to this and and they haven't just got one system, they've got multiple. But you know, when we were a kid or 20, 30 years ago, you had the one system and that was it.
Speaker 3:I do feel like choice. We've got so much choice and we're living in a fantastic age where they're coming thick and fast. Sales didn't exist either. There's so many indie games and games that download straight away. It's the convenience of it and the fact that it's so readily available. Why would you waste your time trying to get into a game and appreciate it? You're kind of not going to like. You know, everyone scrolls through tiktok and youtube sorts these days. I feel like I know that sounds like I've gone off on one a little bit.
Speaker 3:I really feel like it is relative to the question, because people get all in on these games and then they disappear. I mean content creators, of course, as well, which will show lots of footage of games and playing it, and then the next hot thing comes out. They've got to go play the next hot thing. You know, to stay current. That helps as well, because you've got to think. Influencers in general they're on all social media platforms. Influencers that isn't a career that used to exist. That isn't a career that exists in today's age, and they're going to be playing games and playing the next games. You know, I watch streamers. They'll play a game. They really enjoy it. They won't finish it because they're like I've got to be the first to play it and then their followers watch it and they put it down, pick the next thing up, so it's.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of variables to this. It's not necessarily a black and white question. They're in the gray area and, yeah, there's been some fantastic responses in the discord and it's kind of. It's one of those things you could sit in a bar and talk about this for hours and go right off and run and then bring it back round. But yeah, for me, I just feel like we're spoiled. That's how I'd sum it up, seb. We're really spoiled, man. I mean, what do you think about this one?
Speaker 2:I'm going to go off on this topic in a minute, but before I do, I want to read out some of the answers that we got from the community before I give my input, because I think, when I do go off on this topic, some of the the answers that we got from the community before I give my input, because I I think, like I'm going, when I do go off on this topic, I want to, I want to have this little monologue and then ask a question and I want to see what your response is. So before I do that, though, firm returns wrote in with this response. He said I don't think a lot has changed.
Speaker 2:There's always been some titles that stick and maintain a strong player base, but most disappear after a year or so. Part of it is game design. The 1000 hour games as a service style games have a higher chance of becoming perpetual hits. Linear story games tend to be pretty, pretty shortly. The homie Carlos, you know, who's also very good about very good, he's one of our Patreons and everything like that. Shout out to Carlos. He posted as well. He said I think nowadays there's so much competition, you know, hold on, let me see. His response got cut off for a second. Let me see if I can pull it all the way up here.
Speaker 3:There we go, there we go. Yeah, cut off for a second. Let me see if I can pull it all the way up here for people's attention, I believe there we go, there we go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for people's attention. Here we go, and for people's attention, much of it is designed to deliver quick dopamine hits, then move on to the next thing. There is far easier access to a vast array of games mobile, browser Game Pass, playstation Plus. It's just easier to move on to the next game than another or so on. Kids today grow up with parents who are gamers, so have access to all their games. My parents weren't interested in games, so when I got on a game I'd stick with it for months until I might get another. That that's a very interesting response as well. He said also the innovation is slower, it's slower. Back, it's slower. Back in the day, everything was new. It wasn't the same game with better graphics. Okay, that's a, that's a, that's a good. That's a pretty cool response as well. Bada Bingsta wrote in. Shout out to the homie. Bada Bingsta.
Speaker 2:My problem is time I get. My time is. My problem is time I work, get home, eat and the next thing you know it's evening. I feel like I don't have the time to invest in games as much as I want to. That's why I find myself constantly playing something I like, like Call of Duty, as it's just no skill. You can play a few games and then switch it off. I would love to play your Final Fantasy, witcher's and Cyberpunk, but I just don't have the time. I sometimes go back to Ghost of Tsushima, as I still haven't platinumed it, but it's because it's been so long that I can't remember how to do anything. It's like starting a new game. Yeah, for sure, that is. Do you want to take the last one? The last response?
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure so, steel Master Elliot, I was blown away with a PS5, but I must say the games are just the same as a PS4. The PS4 console I wouldn't say was the most amazing as a console, but it's had some decent games on it. But I do look at my PS5 and think what an expensive DVD and YouTube player that is. So that was a nice little light-hearted one, but they're really good, solid. It really is food for thought, every single one of those. It makes sense. I mean what Carlos said about the games. You know we're so innovative these days. Every six months you get a slightly better graphic game. So I guess you know back in the day the games were sort of re-synced. Everyone was just trying to do a different version of Mario or whatnot. There is some really interesting, and even what Firm Returns has said as well. Big shout out to Firm Returns.
Speaker 3:You know, saying about linear story games tend to be pretty sort of lit. There is a bit of a. You know developers drop a game and if it doesn't hit straight away and the servers aren't pinging, they tend to work straight on the next game. Sometimes, I know we've, sometimes I feel like everyone's going to make the next fortnight Everyone's going to pass in and, you know, get that game. So if everyone's not jumping straight on it, they're sort of on to. You know they're pitching it pretty quick and going on to the next project, but there's. Every single one of those is. I mean, it's a matter of being sure. I feel for you, buddy, I really do. I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes it's effort.
Speaker 3:Starting a game I spend a lot of. I know sham's silly, I don't really have to describe it. It's kind of a bit like an anxiety I get to start in a new game. I'd be interested to know if anyone has this. It's not like a massive anxiety problem, but I can buy a game. It would turn up and I'll be really excited for it. But then I'm kind of not finished with the game I'm playing. I want to play it. You know a bit of a fomo thing and have to really like, even if I've got nothing to play, I have to really talk myself and build myself into starting a new game.
Speaker 3:Learning a new game is always difficult the first half an hour an hour, I know. After half an hour an hour you get into the game. But I do definitely find that it seems like a lot, so I get it. You get home from work. He's had a long day. He's only got, you know, an hour, hour and a half between doing what he's got to do family matters, having dinner chores, spending time with his family and going to bed. And sometimes you'd rather just expect the. What do they say? Expect the devil. You know they say, so I get it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's comfort food.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly it's food. Yeah, exactly it's comfort gaming, which gaming which we talked about before, and so they're all really, really solid answers. So really thankful to everyone that's pinged in with that and obviously, when you listen to this show, please do elaborate on that and have a discussion with us in the discord or let us know what you think. If you've missed out on it, we'd still love to hear what you'd say. But, uh, yeah it's. It's really really interesting. What's your take on it? Bet?
Speaker 2:I think this is an interesting dilemma here because I do think, like a lot of what each response said. I think there's a kernel in there that correlates with one one point overall and I think, like I think when you brought up your streaming, especially with your significant other and y'all trying to get into a show and the stick with it mentality, I think everyone like there's so many choices going on, like you said earlier, but everyone stops when something big happens. What I mean by that is we as people, especially consumers and such like that for movies, tv shows, you name it we love spectacle, we love something that's larger than life, something that we all can get around together and and just like all consume and just that water cooler moment like game of thrones, is it hits different. Like game of thrones, house of the Dragon. They hit different than your typical show that you watch on Netflix, because it feels like a big moment.
Speaker 2:When the season premiere of Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon comes up, it's the biggest thing. On Twitter, it's what everyone's talking about. It's that same thing when you're watching the movie of the year, like Barbie last year, barbie and Oppenheimer whenever that was a big thing, was it of the year, like barbie last year, barbie and opera hammer whenever that was a big thing of was a barpenheimer, when everyone was flocking out to the movies that we want to be a part of.
Speaker 2:Something like that. Yeah, in the past, you're right. Yeah, in the past, video games have had that um. Video games had that moment. I remember gta coming out, like the gta5 coming out. The world stopped for a little bit. Everyone, everyone and their mom was buying it. It became a billion dollar, a billion dollar multi um ip without within the first couple of days. Like that was one of the first times, I think, like a video game hit that billion dollars that quickly.
Speaker 2:You look at spectacles. People want to be part of something. They want to be part of that breath of the wild movement. They want to be part of that Breath of the Wild movement. They want to be part of that Tears of the Kingdom movement. Here's why I think it's different. Right now, though, it's like we still want that and when we get it it feels like a big thing. But we don't get it as often as we used to. We used to because word of mouth the internet before the internet and before Twitter, before X and before all that it was word of mouth.
Speaker 2:So when a game came out, developers and publishers went the extra mile and because they won so many choices. They made each game feel bigger. When a new Pokemon game came out, the world stopped. Everyone and their mom was flocking to their nearest game store and buying that new Pokemon game came out. The world stopped. Everyone and their mom was flocking to their nearest game store and buying that new Pokemon game.
Speaker 2:Same as Mario, same as Halo, for instance, halo 2 was a thing. That was a movement. Halo 3 was a movement. They felt like big spectacles. They felt like Barbenheimer. The last time we had that in video games was, I would say, baldur's Gate 3 sort of built that over time. It wasn't the anticipated release to where everyone flocked out for that game, but now, because of word of mouth, people flocked out and started to support that game. Elden Ring was another one of those things to where it was a movement. It was a movement in time. Everyone and their mom game. Elden Ring was another one of those things to where it was a movement. You know, like it was a movement in time, everyone the mom was playing Elden Ring.
Speaker 3:You're making me think of, you're making me realize something. When you're saying this about big games, I'm starting to think I feel like it's a marketing thing, like a viral thing. So, as you were saying that, when's the last time we had that big moment? I was thinking right, just listening then and I thought I remember seeing a hell of a lot of advertisements for diablo and I remember um over on the east coast in new york they had. There was a time I don't know if you've ever been to singapore, but they have a bit of an issue there with pollutant and a bit of like um, you get it in london like back in the day basically a lot of like smog.
Speaker 3:They call it smog in over there in Singapore. They have a bit of an issue there from Malaysia and stuff, and I remember it happened in New York. I can't remember why, but there was a time where I don't know if it was some sort of desert storm that come across, but there was like a lot of. It was on the front cover of like everything and it was the diablo. Um, I know bobby's a big fan. Is it live?
Speaker 3:yeah, one of the bosses in that thing and she was there and yeah, lyric and that literally and that picture and it went viral and that like really hyped up the game. I feel like it's a little bit of like a viral thing, like with clips and stuff. The marketing these days is so good and the use of social media for marketing, hyping things up, sometimes a fight, the anticipation of the thing is a bit like going to holiday they're looking forward to going on holiday. It's not been going on holiday, they're going to holidays to live in the moment. But the build-up to it and the expectation and the jittery and the summit butterflies going is exciting.
Speaker 3:I feel like we're a bit like that with games. So the advertising campaign's on point. You see all these different trailers and it even says on there not game footage. So you haven't got a clue what's real or what's not real and they hype it up and then you play it and that might be why sometimes people play it and they're like after a while like oh, it's not as good as I thought it was. Then they they drop off a little bit.
Speaker 2:It is a little bit of the advertisement, but I also feel like it's the quality of game too. It's like I think when you look at tears of the kingdom, you remember when that game came out you kept seeing everyone's creations on social media. Like it was a wave to see, like, how creative everyone was with, like how they solve puzzles, the structures they built and everything like that. It took over social media for gaming. I think Elden Ring did that for you know, like people were making videos to where they would put music alongside of like their kills. They were doing skits and such like of how hard or how how much they loved different things. Like that there was people who made skits about being maidenless and in different things. Like that it was.
Speaker 2:It's a movement. It's like when I think like it's a combination of marketing social media, like you being trendy social media wise, and then it's also quality wise, because I feel like you have to have that perfect wave and then you kind of like, if you have that perfect wave, and then you kind of like, if you have that perfect wave, you can maintain that momentum. I want to read something to you before I get your feedback here. It's like I looked on Steam. This is like a concurrent list of people playing a game, an individual game on Steam right now.
Speaker 3:Okay, it tells you the quantity.
Speaker 2:It tells you how many people are currently playing one game at the moment, like at in real time. So and then it also tell you the peak how many like how many people have all time played that game at one time. Does it make sense?
Speaker 3:yeah, of course yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So right now, counter-strike 2 is the highest game, with 893,000 people playing Counter-Strike 2 at the moment, you know right now or of all time.
Speaker 3:No, no, right now. Right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, I didn't realize it was still going yeah, counter-strike, just um, I think you're thinking of the first Counter-Strike. Counter-strike is, I think, the new. I think this is a new iteration, but, like Dota 2, 572,000 people. A game called Banana is two and then it drops down to 267,000. And that's for a game called Banana. Yeah, I want to read you out farm simulator this would make george happy 119 000 people how many accounts does james got?
Speaker 2:I don't know it's. It must be a lot of georges out there. But uh, you've got a server gta 5 with 106 000 people bould Baldur's Gate with 69,000 people playing that Factorio, which is a game I think I shouted out last time I was on. It is amazing, by the way 68,000 people are playing this indie game right now. Let me go down to Cyberpunk, which is a pretty big game. Well, dragon Age, the Velguard, a game that just came out this past week, 32,000 people are currently playing that. Helldivers 31,000. Let's see Cyberpunk 27,000 people are playing that. Monster Hunter World 27,000 as well, which you know, compared to 800,000, you'd think, oh, that's, that's kind of a slip off.
Speaker 2:But it does, it does yeah 28 000 people is a lot of people, though it was a lot of people and league of legends.
Speaker 3:I've got friends that still play that and that come out a long time ago. Obviously probably helped a little bit as well. But dead, dead by Daylight. People play that still and that keeps still getting. There's continuous updates on games that came out a long time ago.
Speaker 2:So let me read out these last two. Elden Ring 24,940 people currently playing Elden Ring at the moment. Red Dead Redemption 2, 23,773 people are currently playing Red Dead Redemption 2. I'm surprised, so you know what this is telling me, regardless of whether you're playing a multi. Oh, here's another one. Crusader Kings is a RTS game. Crusader Kings 3. 20,000 people are currently playing that. Left 4 Dead 23,000.
Speaker 3:Can you just check one for me?
Speaker 2:Yeah go on.
Speaker 3:It's a very big online game, very, very popular Mario Odyssey. Can you just check how many people are playing that one?
Speaker 2:This was on Steam so I can't check Mario Odyssey, but Fallout 4 right now. 15,000 people are currently playing that as we're talking right now, the Witcher 3.
Speaker 3:People are playing Left 4 Dead. Did you say Left 4 Dead?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Left 4 Dead 2 is what I said a minute ago.
Speaker 3:That came out ages ago.
Speaker 2:Ages ago and it had over oh 23,000 people for Left 4 Dead right now.
Speaker 3:There's something wrong with my mind. What year did that come out on?
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I did not know this.
Speaker 3:This is news to me. That people were still playing this hardcore. Yes, okay, 2009. That come out 2000. How many people are playing Fight Night Champion? We're only two years off that.
Speaker 2:Let me see. Is Fight Night Champion on Steam? Let me see, it might not be a lot the way.
Speaker 3:Fortnite Champion is on Game Pass.
Speaker 2:I found out, yeah let me read out these last two for you the Witcher 3, wild Hunt 486. Like Hogwarts Legacy 14,000 people are playing Hogwarts Legacy at the moment as we're talking. So I brought all these. I brought all these things out to say sometimes it's not about being one or done. It doesn't matter if you're a single player, it doesn't matter if you're a multiplayer. I think the quality of your game is like the highest bar, mixed in with the marketing and social media push. But it's also a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, you know, has all these people. It's because the quality of that game is so consistently high. People still want to keep playing it. And here's another thing, an article right here from GameIndustriesbiz Over 60% of players right now are playing games older than 6 years.
Speaker 3:Man, that's 60. 60% of gamers are playing gamer games older than my mind, so this is blowing my mind so this was for gameindustrybiz, so I'm bringing all this up.
Speaker 2:All these people are playing all these games, do you? Did you realize? Like dragon age, the veil guard is the latest game on that list, the latest game to come out on that list. Helldivers was amongst those, but Dragon Age of Veilguard had 32,000 gamers.
Speaker 2:I bring all this to say if your quality is there, people want to still play that, and if your quality is there, you make your mark in history enough to where even Fallout people still go back and want to play Fallout game, the Fallout game, fallout 4. If your quality is high, then that kind of pushes everything up to another level. My point being is, like you mix in quality with spectacle, you become a Hall of Famer and you know what you know like in sports. You're a sports guy as well. Hall of Fame, sports athletes are always remembered, they're always celebrated. People remember them fondly. They get put on talk shows, all that kind of stuff. They stay in circulation. Even an all-star player, an athlete, say, in the NBA, in the NFLfl, in soccer, like you can be all-star for a little bit, but if you're not a hall of fame level, you sort of disappear from the spotlight a bit right yeah, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's that, there's that sort of top. You know it's a bit like football. You have that like premier league level you have champions league level. You know that world class. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in video games, is there perhaps, like? Is there another level of video games that transcends a? Just a hell? Divers, a final fantasy, a? I hate to say this now, but astrobot, to where? Like are we missing? Are we missing a hall of fame game this year? Is what? What I'm? Here's the thing you heard that over 69,000 people were playing Boulder Skate Steel. That game came out last year. People are still playing a game that came out over a year ago right now and they're feasting on it. Feasting on it. 69,000. Imagine 69,000 people in one room. Yeah, it's mind-blowing, it's a. It's. It's a. It's a concert. It's a huge arena full of people watching soccer. You know, 69 000 people.
Speaker 3:That's insane, right I think you're right. It's like this is really blowing my mind, obviously 419 people are currently playing boulder skate if you kind of look at it, it's like there's been loads of great games and obviously we've all brought up great points, but the way you've just said it, chev, it's like all these great games are like you know, they're athletes that are top scorers in, whether it's in football or nfl in basketball. This is like your seth hurry or kevin derrard yeah, for sure, but the games you just mentioned, people are still playing.
Speaker 3:That's the lebron james, that's the kill o'neill, that's the michael jordan, that's the charles barkley, you know, I mean, it's like another level. They're being remembered forever, each.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm very baffled to see, like I would love to see, nintendo stats. I know they'll post this about concurrent players playing a game because I bet zelda's pretty high still. But the reason why I say this is like I think there's another level, a spectacle gamer level, a hall of fame level. That is like when we get those games they not only feel special but they stay relevant for a long period of time. And I don't, and I think it's well.
Speaker 2:When I asked that question yesterday, I I marinated on this myself, the question being, to remind everybody because I know it's been a long we've been discussing this for a long time here like are we in an era where video games are struggling to make a long-lasting impression? I ask this because so many games this year have just come and gone. Dragon ball z sword sparking zero has lost 90 of its of its player. No one's talking about Helldivers or Final Fantasy VII anymore. Is this a reflection on the gamers, the games, or is there something else entirely? What are your views? And I asked that question. I marinated on this for a little bit and I came back to a question because I told you I was going to ask you a question at the end of my rant at the end of all this that I brought up, because I told you I was going to ask you a question at the end of my rant, at the end of all this that I brought up.
Speaker 2:Maybe this is a reflection on gamers, their attention spans. You know, like we're spoiled. Maybe we're, you know, spoiled on choices. Maybe it's that, maybe it's a combination of a whole bunch of issues, but maybe it's in a wave of all these games being pushed out, the oversaturation of games. Are we? Do we just have a need for hall of fame games? Is there, like we need a tier to rise up and be the lebron james, the michael jordan, the shaquille o'neal? Because, like, when we do get those games, we show love to them, we appreciate them, we keep playing them over and over again, despite the fact that it's been seven years, eight years, nine years, ten years in the case of stardew valley, which has over 25 000 people playing star. No, no, I missed that when I was actually looking at a game called deadlock. Right now, stardew valley is 47 213 people are playing Stardew Valley.
Speaker 3:Can you check Hades on there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, I love Hades too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I mean I wonder if some developers are aware. I mean, you don't know, it's going to stick until you drop it. So it'd be interesting to know. Obviously, you know if you're cooking something big as a AAA studio, but there are some games that hit Like what was the game? There was a game called Spiritfarer. I know you're the indie king so you've probably heard of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like Spiritfarer.
Speaker 3:I completed that. I heard that was a studio of three to six people that worked on that game. There's no way they knew it was going to have the impact it did. I heard that game made as much profit as any Nintendo AAA title. Sometimes I guess you just don't know.
Speaker 2:So Hades is an interesting one right now because its current player base isn't super high compared to the other ones. But it's split into two now because a lot of people are playing Hades 2. So 13,000 people are currently playing Hades 1. Currently. But that might not seem like a high number, but remember a lot of those people are moving, A lot of the people who were playing Hades 1 moved over to Hades 2.
Speaker 2:So I'm like for a game like that. That's a lot, because right now, you know like, right now, that's a single-player indie game that just had a sequel pop out on the platform. I think that's pretty good. But you know, like I'm asking this, it's like last year I called it one of the best releases in video game history because you know, we did get hit after hit after hit after hit and games that were hitting in the 9 out of 10 zones, just left and right.
Speaker 2:You know like, we got Baldur's Gate, we got a new Zelda, we got, you know, dead Space came out. We also got Street Fighter. We hit very good with Alan Wake. Spider-man came out, star Wars, star Wars, jedi Survivor I believe it was, yeah, jedi Survivor came out. Diablo came out as well. We also, you know, we had Hogwarts Legacy come out at the beginning of the year. I don't think that's a 9 out of 10 game, but it's a game that people love. I digress, we had a lot of games here and a lot of those games that are listed 9 out of 10 games are in the top 100 list right now. A lot of the games that came out this year aren't in the top 100 list.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay. Well, that is a spin. That is a spin on it for sure.
Speaker 2:So that's what I'm asking. Last year we had a lot of blockbuster games is it?
Speaker 3:I, I think me and you said I remember we spoke about it a few years ago when we were going through I think it might be the fomo one we was mentioning we did tips and pull them out and we and then I said, joey, it's five man. You were like, yeah, that come out. We was talking about I think it's all about game of the year candidates. Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's like they've probably understood it there there's nothing head above the rest. So if someone likes something, it's there. But yeah, go back a year ago or even two years ago. There were so many thick and fast you forget them almost. There's that many.
Speaker 2:All right. So I ask this because I do think it's the quality of the games aren't quite as robust as they once were. But I I do think it's the quality of the games aren't quite as robust as they once were, but, like, I do think the spectacle is missing as well, because I think, like next year I think next year is Barbenheimer for video games. I think, like, just like last year, 2023 was a great year for video games I think next year might have the potential of blowing last year out of the water, but are at least competing. Competing with it, because you have Grand Theft Auto, you have Ghosts of Yotei, which is the Ghosts of Tsushima, like Ghosts of Tsushima spinoff. You have a Wolverine game that's possible. You have the Switch 2 lineup in. Whatever they're doing, I just feel like everyone needs to avoid Grand Theft Auto.
Speaker 3:I just feel like it's Maybe everyone's. It could be said that if we know GTA is its friend next year, they've committed to. Maybe because of GTA they know it's coming out next year. Maybe people have been rushing their games getting them out this year and that's why they're not as polished as they should be, because next year they've got no chance. It's like trying to release a number one single the same week ever or Beatles year.
Speaker 2:They've got no chance. It's like trying to release a number one single the same week ever. Or beatles put a song out here's, um. Here's the interesting thing about that comment you made because, like, I think, like a lot of it has merit. But here's, here's the thing. Ign game spot and you know, ign game spot gave a lot of games, more games eight and nines out of tens than they did last year. There were just more 10 like high nines and high tens last year, but this year we're getting a whole lot more eights and a whole lot more nines, which means, like a lot of people fight back, that this year isn't necessarily a bad year. It's just this year has been mostly great, not superb, superb, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which means this is a great year, like I think great's fine. Eight out of tens is great, some occasional nines here and there. Here's what I'm asking. It's like we've got more eights out of tens than we did last year, which means like there's a good more middle ground this year than there was last year, where it was either you put out a bomb game or you put out like a trash game. There wasn't any in-betweens. Here we got that a lot of the good in-betweens you know like. So we got that good stability there it's.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to be hard and not in a competitive way, but hard for the games industry to put out a, because in the game awards, like they do, a top the top six games every year get nominated for game of the year for the game awards, like the jeff keely game awards video game show, what like? Last year we had a solid lineup year before that I think it was a decent lineup, not the like down between Elden Ring and God of War. What is it going to come down to this year? What's the six games they're going to put in there?
Speaker 3:No idea, I'm putting Undisputed in six times.
Speaker 2:So there's a spectacle that's missing this year 100%.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you've hit an hour on the head there. I'm not often speechless 100%. Yeah, you've hit the nail on the head there, jeff. I'm not often speechless. I am speechless. You've hit me with so many true facts which I wasn't expecting. It's blown my mind a little bit. What are you making you think?
Speaker 2:There's a spectacle that's missing. I don't think the quality of the games are bad. It's just how many of them feel like they're the messies of the world, feel like they're the lebron james of the world. They just feel like, yeah, they feel like any good year, they can be an all-star, but they aren't consistently going to be the best in the world or even rank up there with the best of the world.
Speaker 2:We're not going to look at those like this is a hall of fame, this is a hall.
Speaker 2:At those like this is a Hall of Fame, this is a Hall of Fame year or this is a Hall of Fame class, which is why I'm like I think when we do get those Hall of Fame games, that's why everyone flocks to it, that's why we have moments, that's why you feel like you have the games that feel like they're overrated or overhyped or over-talked about, because there's a starving longing for those type of games. You know what I mean. Yeah, if you don't get those for a long time and then all of a sudden people jump onto those, then there's going to be those people who say, oh man, that game's a little overhyped because everyone's jumping on, but when you had a scarcity of it, you can't help it. Here's one of the last things I want to talk to you about before we side off, because I know we're running a little long here and I know you got to play some call of duty and some switch games here, yeah, yeah, I've got a bit of boulders gate.
Speaker 2:Now you brought that back up yeah, yeah, especially with the new content. Man, they added so much good new content to that game and it's it's like free, it's like they don't charge you for anything. It's no dlc, they just they're giving you the boulders gate added mod support. They added like a new first person, third person mode to where you can change viewpoints, like there's so much, so much that game is giving you. Now to where I'm like every three months, boulders gate has become a new and improved, better video game. Like you can still play the campaign, but now you can play it with, like I can add NPC characters as now playable characters on my roster. I can. Oh, yeah, it's amazing. But the question I was going to ask you what are you hoping to play this week? What are you hoping to watch? What are you hoping to play In the end end? I want to do something a little different of saying like, if you had all the time in the world, what time would you give? What game would you give that time to this week?
Speaker 3:wow, wow, wow games I'm gonna play this week. I'm gonna be playing a bit more pokemon, the gameboy color okay probably not too much other games on it, because my game gears are back now and it's so many games I want to play my game gear there really is okay because I want to do.
Speaker 3:I want to do a video on my game gear collection and I want to go into some game boy color stuff. So I'm going to play a lot of that. But I am, I am going to play call of duty because you said it I'm going to play cause I might have so much to play.
Speaker 3:I'm really I'm really struggling with time, a bit like what bad abeemster says I'm really really struggling with time to fit it all in. And I remember talking on a previous week and with george, and every time I'm into the game I was making notes all right, I'm gonna play this, I'm gonna play that. And it really is hard sometimes, trying to juggle it, I pull up and spinning all these different gaming plates yeah, for sure but yeah are.
Speaker 3:That's probably what they're playing. I've got the new I think I did play a little bit of. I forgot to mention earlier. There's a new. You're going to hate this Mario Brothership. I know George is hating on it as well. That came through Mario and Luigi Brothership. Now there's a really cool mechanic in there where you Say you press A to jump and then you press B and Luigi jumps. He follows you around as a shadow. There's a bit of a puzzle element to it, a bit like Pikmin, where there's something you've got to do, and it's a cool, unique mechanic. However, it's meant to be a blimmin' kids' game and I'm like I failed at the first hurdle. I'm half an hour into the game and I'm stuck know like no it's just FOMO.
Speaker 3:It's just FOMO, let's be honest. I need to play it to see what it's like. But yeah, there's still so many games. I said to George previously I want to play the Accuser games because they're all on Game Pass and one's come to Switch I think it's Accuser Zero or physically with limited run games, and he said to me they're going from the Game Pass store. So I checked out the previous stuff Still not played any of them. Honestly, there's so many games I want to play. But even listening to you talk about, like some of these OG big games that come out 10 years ago that people are still playing, it makes you think. Even that story I said about Diablo going a bit off topic here, yeah, for sure, A non-game-related podcast, Joe Rogan podcast, which is like number one or two in the world, so I'm sure everyone knows what it is. I don't listen to every episode. I've picked two, probably one and six. I've listened to an Elon Musk episode pre-election. So the US election.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure it must have been one of the debates that happened. It just you know. They went off on one a little bit and at the start of the show they mentioned that Elon likes a bit of downtime and he likes to play games with really hard difficulty, because he can't concentrate on anything else. All parts of his brain have to focus on the game. So that way, even though it's stressful, he finds it therapeutic because his subconscious isn't working out problems, you know, with spacex or with different stuff. Yeah, anyway, while he was talking about it and you can watch it on youtube, it shows it. I don't know if you noticed, but elon musk is ranked top 10 in the world on um diablo. Did you know that?
Speaker 2:no, I didn't. I didn't, but it's it didn't.
Speaker 3:It's making me want to play diablo, because I've got the diablo console. When I bought the game pass xbox series x, the cover art was diablo and that was a game that came pre-installed. And so listen to talk about all these different games that people are playing that still play. It's kind of making me want to jump back. I think I have no idea with some of them. That slow my mind a little bit. I I'm real spoiled for choice.
Speaker 2:The album 4 is on Game Pass right now as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I've got that. I've had a few emails from limited run games, so I've got Lollipop Chainsaw, which is coming to me. I know it's flawed. I've got the original but I never completed it, so I'm going to play that. There's a Rugrats game. I'm a big fan. I haven't played all the rugrats games, but I love rugrats. Uh, I've got a couple of v8 v8 cheddars in front of me and I've even got here chucky yeah, chucky finster yeah, he's there, but it was a game I loved me.
Speaker 3:My sister used to love it when he was younger, on the ps1. It was called, and they brought out a new, modern. Yeah, I've completed it, even a few years ago. I love it, even though it's really easy to complete charles game, but it's a lot of nostalgia for it. So there's a new rugwax game coming out. You can get on nes cart or switch.
Speaker 3:I went for the switch and there's another, so I've got a few games coming in the post, uh, but yeah, there's nothing that's screaming out to me set. But to be like, I want to do this, I want to do that. I've just got a moment. My brain's scattered across lots of different games. I really wanna. I think it'll be my first platinum, so I don't think I've got any platinums. I really wanna get a platinum when I'm disputed, so I've got some. I've got some rare trophies, like I got the. I got the undisputed trophy which is 51-0 and that. I looked and now it's 6%. When I got that trophy, only 2% of players in the world had it. So I was getting some pretty cool trophies and I love the game so much. I'm getting to a point now where I'm going to do it on a higher, increased difficulty.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:I'm loving my PlayStation Portal as well, so I mean, this might sound a little bit, you know, cliche to previous episodes that people have listened to, but I'm probably going to play a bit more Undisputed Okay okay, I like that, I like that. He said, if I could only play.
Speaker 2:If you had unlimited time this week, to what game would you want to spend it on?
Speaker 3:Okay. So unlimited time would be a good opportunity to get into an rpg. I know you've mentioned um rpg from atlas, that persona, sort of clone I really don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I'm like. I'm borderline adhd. I've got. I'd like to pick things up, put them down as quickly as Longhorn can shake a stick at, so I'll probably end up playing 30 different games, five minutes of each. That's why I love the PlayStation Plus and Game Pass. I'm going in and out of different games. One thing I've got to say in case we forget about it. I know we talked about it previously and you mentioned it in your question earlier, so a bit of a one back at you, but could you tell me a little bit about your experience in that Dragon Ball Z game?
Speaker 2:Because obviously you're an anime fan.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we talked about Dragon Ball Z. I said I didn't realize the games are still so popular. I said I used to watch Dragon Ball Z as a kid. I can't believe it's still popular now.
Speaker 2:I know you said players have dropped off a bit but from a single player experience point of view, how is that game for you? It's good, um, dragon ball z. Sparking zero is it's a decent single player experience. I wouldn't say it's like top tier. If you like the arena fighters where you can kind of like go like fly up and down, shoot ki blasts, go behind your opponents, that sort of thing, I think it's. It's decent.
Speaker 2:I like the how do I put this? I like the, the story mode in the sense that it gives you goku gohan, piccolo what was it? Vegeta, frieza, goku black and someone else. So it gives you like, maybe let's go with eight main characters, and these characters you follow their story from the narrative point of what happened in the anime Dragon Ball fans, dragon Ball Z fans is that they have like situation modes that allow you to kind of deviate from the story a little bit and kind of like change. It's almost like in the MCU. They have like the what if? Thread and if you go, it goes off the beaten path and lets you show what would happen if one scenario had changed for a character, and that's kind of what sparking zero's career mode allows you to do. It, kind of like you kind of can choose one or two choices and if you do like a certain thing in gameplay, like if you beat your character within a certain time, like instead of waiting for you can go super saiyan with goku earlier, which changes the trajectory of his timeline. So I I think it's a decent single player experience.
Speaker 2:But if you're not a dragon ball fan, an anime fan this is a wait for sale to try then I'm like I don't, I couldn't in good conscience say pay 60 dollars for this game. Like if you find this for 20 dollars and want to try it out, then yeah, I think that's a good steal. If you are a Dragon Ball game fan and you played Tenkaichi and the Tenkaichi games and you missed that feeling, then yeah, go ahead and play this. I think that's a good investment of your money. I'd still say wait for, like, a Black Friday sale where it's maybe $40, $30 to $40.
Speaker 2:But because I don't think I think this is a couch co-op game or couch pick up and play game, I don't necessarily think this is a game that's going to be like sucking in 60 hours of your time. I don't think it has that. I don't think I think it's one repetitive and I don't think it has the narrative pool to keep you invested. Think like undisputed if you're a boxing fan, I think can keep you invested. I think like Undisputed if you're a boxing fan, I think can keep you involved in 40 hours or more. Like I think that with all the sports games, relatively if you're a fan of those sports, like I don't think this has that kind of pool. I don't think this is that kind of game. So, yeah, if I had to give a recommendation out for people, for games people want to try out this week, factor factor is probably the one I'd say like it's multi-platform, it's easy to pick up and play. You were basically like this would probably appeal to george, so if george is listening, check this game out. I think it's on switch as well.
Speaker 2:But I think like the whole premise of the game is you're a factory manager and you try to make like you're trying to make your factories as efficient as possible in order for you eventually to shoot off a spacecraft, like into space, and it is this 16 to 24 pixel art style that is like really smooth move.
Speaker 2:It has like you have to lay down these tracks and lay down these like what do they call those things in factories where you they they lay different stuff on them and they um and they kind of like rotate, yeah, conveyor belts, you have to lay down your conveyor belts, your tractors and all that kind of stuff, and it's basically like an automated factory.
Speaker 2:You're just like upgrading your automated factory to do its thing. So it's not like it's not like you're going around in fallout and you're building a settlement. This is more like I'm creating an automated factory and I'm just adding in like mechanisms and different things to my automatic factory to make it more efficient, to make it more smooth, adding conveyor belts, that sort of thing, and then, like they also add in like some cool combat elements and some, because you have to like protect your factory from people and creatures and different things like that. So I I think this is like I think for you, especially who likes playing new games on switch, I think this is the game I'd recommend right now. Currently, like currently 70,000 players are playing this right now.
Speaker 2:I think, I spelled it wrong step because, um factor. Let me um f a c t o so f a c t yeah, yeah o r I o for listeners. It's highest concurrent point, so the highest amount of players playing it at one time on Steam was 118,674.
Speaker 2:Looks like SimCity or it kind of has some SimCity vibes to it, without the actual SimCity vibes to it. I would say, if you like the, you like the sim sim city, if you liked what is the other game I fell in love with? It's the other city builder oh, city skylines. It kind of has some city skylines vibes to it, but its art style is drastically different. It's more pixelated and, yeah, yeah, it's more pixelated. And then, like, I think it's more streamlined than those games are, to where those games kind of give you a grid-based thing that you can kind of like make your own. This is more about you managing just a factory and, yeah, when you get to space, they even give you like extra content. So I think this is the game that keeps on giving. I would definitely recommend it, especially at this price point. I think it's like like 24 on switch.
Speaker 3:Maybe is that right it looks more like a pc game, though looks like you need, uh, the cursor, you know the mouse, just the dashboard from it. But why don't you play civilized days on switch, can't you?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'm, I'm playing. I played all this on steam deck and I played it with um a, with a controller, so I haven't had a mouse and keyboard. That's why I thought this would be like it says. It's about $35 right now on Switch. So I'm like that's why, since I played it on Steam Deck, I knew you'd probably like it on Switch. I would say for you, though, scotty, download the demo, because there's a demo right now on this switch store yeah, in um in europe.
Speaker 3:That's 28 british pounds yeah and that came out in 2022. I told it's uh value, isn't it my?
Speaker 2:goodness, yeah, like it. And it keeps going up because they keep adding. Just like b Baldur's Gate, they keep adding content, some of it free, and I think they just did their first expansion. But this is one of the games that has, I think it won like Online Game of the Year support, like ongoing game, service support from like different developer award shows. And it's not the fact that it's like an ongoing game, like a live service game. It's that the developers keep giving you free updates and patches for this game, even after it's long since been out. Like new players are astounded by the level of quality of this. That, I think, is the. That, I think, is the most telling thing, because this has probably the most polish I've seen in an indie game and I've played a lot of indie games this year, but this is one of those to where I'm like I jumped on it late because it came out in 2022. I jumped on it this year and I'm like boy. This feels like a high-budget AAA studio did an indie game.
Speaker 3:My list is back. Just you saying you've played a lot of indie games made me think I've still not played Pizza Tower, and obviously you said that was game of the year, like three years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's. Yeah, I think that's definitely. I've got so many games to play.
Speaker 3:Wow, yeah, play the game of the week. You're going to keep me busy. I'm going to need yeah, I'm gonna keep you busy. I'm gonna need a whole week off for a bit. You know, not just 24 hours.
Speaker 2:Well, everyone speaking of a whole week, this week we're gonna read out our patrons and then we're gonna um sign off. God, I know we're running long here. Do you have the list of patrons?
Speaker 3:yeah, I can get that up real quick, just bear with me. I remember some of them on top of my head and I'm hoping I don't want to get anything wrong.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start off because I do have the list up right here, at least like at least part of it right here.
Speaker 3:I've got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got it baby alright, so we got Trestles New York then we've got Bada Benkster.
Speaker 3:Tingle Turn we've got Digital Monkery.
Speaker 2:Roasted Space Monkery.
Speaker 3:Roasted Space Monk, the Gaming Gran.
Speaker 2:Bulba.
Speaker 3:Gaming. We've got the one and only Shieldmaster, elliot. Thank you for your help in the Discord earlier with the show. Appreciate that, jen. Appreciate that Jin Emma Sharp.
Speaker 2:Harvey Retro.
Speaker 3:The man that is missing on the Eastern Front, nowhere near Berlin.
Speaker 2:I believe we missed Carlos as well. I don't see him on this list.
Speaker 3:I've got a couple. We've got Carlos Carlos. And we've also got Firm Returns as well. Big shout out see him on this list. I've got a couple. We've got Carlos Carlos, and we've also got Firm Returns as well. Big shout out to Firm Returns. Big shout out to Carlos.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay.
Speaker 3:Mumsy the Archie Twizzle Fan Club Twizzle.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Tizzle now okay.
Speaker 2:Pete Brocklehurst everyone's favorite naan bread at my local Indian restaurant is Philly Marmite you go ahead and do this, this next one, because I got to do the last one yeah, of course Simon.
Speaker 3:Or depending where you're from maybe you're from France it's pronounced Simon Simon Pratt, aka hi Simon. Or, depending where you're from maybe you're from France it's pronounced Simon Simon Prec.
Speaker 2:Okay, hiya, simon, all right, are you ready for this last one?
Speaker 3:Let me just get the baby oil One second. Okay, I've got it.
Speaker 1:Ben San Keith.
Speaker 3:I have to get a quick mic at the end.
Speaker 2:So everyone, you know, if you follow the links in the description of the episode, you can see where you can also become a member of the community. That gets read out and all it takes is just a small monetary sum. Remember, this episode is free free always but you know, if you do want to give back to the show, that is where you can do so. Just follow the links in the description below. In the meanwhile, this has been a long episode and I know Marathon Gaming's got some gaming to do. That's in his name, that's in his blood, that's what he does. So we're going to sign off right here.
Speaker 2:And you know I've been Seb. You can find me at the Single Player Experience podcast where you, where you can also find, you know, all your dope podcasts. You know that's been Marathon Gaming. You can find him at the great, great, great YouTube site. You know, just type in Marathon Gaming in the YouTube. That's what we call it over here, the YouTube. You find him over there. You know, don't forget to like and subscribe. He's got videos coming out all the time, Great stuff, where you can find out all of his shenanigans and just stay in tune with this glorious, glorious man. Anyways, I've been Seb, that's been Mr Marathon Gaming, aka Scotty, aka Mr, Mr Switch, aka Donkey Kong himself, because you know that's the guy looking over his shoulder. This has been the UCP Podcast and don't forget, there's nothing wrong with having the unofficial controller. It's what you do with it that counts. See ya, everybody, Bye.
Speaker 1:George and Seb rolling down the road, rgt riding shotgun, a heavy load, pastor Longhorn waiting to unfold An El Paso, texas tale's been told, one-armed being a sight to see. Pastor preach, preach, set you free. Georgian said they'd bend the knee. Rgt nodding yes and bleep. Join the cult in El Paso town when Pastor Longhorn's got his crown One arm high, the other down. We're the wildest show around. Sunday's hot, the desert. Air George and Seth both feel the glare. Longhorn's words hang everywhere Salvation found without a care. Sunday's hot, the desert. Air George and Sethppo feel the glare. Longhorn's words hang everywhere Salvation found without a care. Rgt plays a sacred tune Underneath the El Paso moon. Longhorn grins from afternoon To the night. They'll see it soon. Join the cult in El Paso town when Pastor Longhorn's got his crown One high, the other down. We're the wildest show around. We're the wildest show around, I'm.