Unofficial Controller Podcast
Your number one weekly gaming podcast for all the latest Sony Playstation , Microsoft Xbox , Nintendo Switch and PC News. Retrospectives , Readers Mail and Industry Chat.
Unofficial Controller Podcast
PlayStation Portals and the Cloud Gaming Revolution
Imagine playing your favorite PS5 games on a handheld device without needing a console. That's exactly the exciting development we're unpacking in this episode, focusing on the new PlayStation Portal update. My co-host Scotty, who's practically buzzing with excitement as a proud owner of the Portal, joins me to discuss how this feature could revolutionize gaming accessibility. We're talking about top-tier titles like Ghost of Tsushima at your fingertips, redefining what it means to be a PlayStation fan. This is more than just a tech update; it's a potential game-changer in the console gaming world.
But it's not just about PlayStation. We're taking a critical look at the broader gaming landscape, questioning what the future holds for platforms like Xbox and Nintendo. Could we see a crossover where PlayStation games become accessible on a Nintendo device? We weigh in on the strategies behind exclusive titles and the tug-of-war between hardware and software dominance. Xbox's forward-thinking marketing, emphasizing its ecosystem over the traditional console model, is also on our radar. It's a fascinating time in gaming, with each major player making strategic moves that could reshape the industry.
And of course, we couldn't resist diving into the controversies surrounding the Game Awards, particularly with DLCs and expansions stepping into the Game of the Year spotlight. Is it fair for expansions to compete with full games? We debate this hot topic and its implications for developers and gamers alike. Meanwhile, the cloud gaming wars are heating up, with Xbox leading the charge by expanding its Game Pass Ultimate offerings across various devices. Our reflections on these trends are peppered with personal anecdotes about our favorite gaming experiences, from retro systems to the latest releases. Join us as we navigate the ever-evolving world of gaming with insight and a touch of nostalgia.
George and Seb rolling down the road, rgt riding shotgun at heavy load, pastor Longhorn waiting to unfold. An El Paso Texas tale's been told. One-armed, big a sight to see. 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 glee, join the Colton El Paso town when Pastor Longhorn's got his crown One high the other down.
Speaker 2:Yahoo, what's up and welcome to the Unofficial controller podcast, the premium podcast, not just here in the UK, not just in the US, not just in Berlin, not just in Germany, not just in Uruguay, not just in Portuguese, not just in Australia, but all over the world for gamers who want to find out about good games to play, who want to find out about things that we've been playing and want to know that you are not alone, because this is the hottest gaming community around. As always, you know, when George is not around, I'm your host, seb, and joining me today is the man who's conquered a whole litany of Game Boy Color games. Lately, he's the guy who's, you know, thrusted upon himself to be the king of the Switch, and he is my co-pilot. You know my goose for this show. He is marathon gaming himself.
Speaker 3:This is scotty I can't believe you didn't mention the hottest podcast in el paso. You covered every country around the world, but I suppose I'm trying to keep the feds off of our case. We're nowhere in North America whatsoever. We've got IPs going everywhere. If you know where Taiwan is, head a bit further out to sea and we're on a little remote island somewhere around there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, for sure. You know, I was going to ask you if you wanted to do the intro this week and I forgot. I completely forgot. So do you want to start over and Do you want to run it from the top?
Speaker 3:I don't think you can top that.
Speaker 2:The van. So please excuse my ramblings everyone. You know my mind's all over the place today, but we got a good show for you. We're going to be talking about some of the premium things that's happening across gaming, because this has kind of been a heavy news week in a surprising twist, because a lot, because a lot of the world is sort of winding down but gaming news is sort of winding up, you know, coincidentally. But I want to start with the first story on today's show, because normally we start on what we've been playing, but the gaming news is so heavy this week we're going to fly right into the topic of the show here.
Speaker 3:News.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the first one I want to get your take on is the news for PlayStation, because I do have different segments for almost every system's ecosystem here. But first I want to start with PlayStation here. Let me show this to you real quick and bada, bing, bada boom, realest guys in the room. Here we go. All right, can you see this, scotty?
Speaker 2:I can see that, yeah, all right for our audio listeners. This story right now is an interesting one. It is give me one second, All right. So this story right now is about the PlayStation Portal gets cloud gaming with no PS5 required.
Speaker 3:So me and George brought the portal at the right time. Yeah, because the price, now that it's going to be so far in demand, I might start stacking them and become one of those. I might become one of those annoying resellers and scalpers. I'm going to buy every portal.
Speaker 1:No, way, I didn't.
Speaker 3:This is some breaking news. This is some breaking news. This is some breaking news.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah this is pretty big for PlayStation gamers. This story is coming to you from PC Magazine, written by Kate Irwin. Shout out to her. Ps Plus games, or PlayStation games, including 120 PS5 titles, come to PlayStation Portals so you can get the games on a $200 handheld without dropping $500 or more on a PS5. So, in other words, everybody if you just have a PS Plus account. Well, premium members, specifically for this beta going on right now, it allows you to have select PS5 games on the PS Plus game catalog to be directly streamed from their servers without even owning a console. So some of these titles include Ghost of Tsushima, marvel's Spider-Man, miles Morales, marvel's Spider-Man, monster Hunter Rise, ratchet and Clank Rift Apart will be available through the cloud on the handheld. So, based on what you just heard right now, what are your first impressions, or first thoughts, because you're a portal owner, right?
Speaker 3:I am, and I got a portal for one reason only, which I spoke about in a previous show. It was literally just so if someone else is using a TV in a family room, I can sit in another room upstairs and I can play it, or if my wife's watching something on TV, I can put the headphones and be in the same room rather than being separate. And that was the only reason why I got the Portal, and I was aware of its limitations and I get that. People thought it could have done more, but I was fine with it because I picked one up secondhand box for a very good deal for like 140 british pounds and it's a fantastic system great screen sounds fine.
Speaker 3:The controllers are amazing. It's a lot more comfortable and enjoyable than playing handheld on my switch. It is a really, really good machine. But I could see what was wrong with it. You know, if you don't have strong internet, obviously that's your own personal issue. If you haven't got really good internet, I myself have got good fiber that's going to be coming in soon, so I'm actually upgrading internet soon.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're going to be fancy, so I was looking forward to that?
Speaker 3:Yes, but I did not know. I had no idea this was. This is absolutely huge. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't. They could almost use this to release another model, unless they've got loads that are unsold at stock somewhere in a warehouse and they need to shift them. This will give them a massive push for Christmas. I would have thought. Is this imminent, Seb? Is this? Literally I could play until dawn and stream it. I couldn't because I had it. Obviously I'm streaming it, so I could only play my disc game. So I was playing undisputed only and I wanted to play until dawn. So I was playing it via cloud game at the time, but I couldn't because at the time the portal didn't do that. But now it does that. This is absolutely awesome, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:So let me give you some additional details right now. Um, so, for select games, depending on how, how fast your internet is going to be, like, if your internet is 13 megabits per second or more, you'll be able to stream your games at ep. If it's less, are between, like, let's say, 7 megabytes and 13 megabytes, you'll be stuck at p, but 720p on that device isn't bad looking, to be honest. The controller, haptic feedback, will be present, while cloud gaming, though, as well as the adaptive triggers, the speakers, the emulated touchpad, the motion sensor, to give you that classic playstation experience despite the smaller device. To answer your question, though, directly, you know this is going to be for select games right now. Like, so you have to have that ps plus catalog membership and you know so I don't think undisputed is on that catalog right now. But, like, for everything that is on that, that list of games you'll be able to stream without the ps5. Yeah, so obviously I was.
Speaker 3:That's what I was saying I've got playstation, I had it physical, undisputed, but I wanted to play my cloud games. I was playing and I was playing until dawn, so I wanted to play that on there. Uh, else is our plan. I think even dino crisis popped up on there. There were some games that I wanted to play, but I had to wait for the big screen time. But with this, now, this edition, honestly, this will not just help shift any more portals. They could bring out a portal plus or something stupid, even something better, but it would help. It would also sell a load more PlayStation premiums, because if you've got, if you've got two, three kids, right, the dad's got the PS5. Let's be honest, this is a good reason now to get a portal for them for christmas, because how they can play as well and you can almost share it especially in that playstation east ecosystem, pretty hard, you know, like at the price of a premium membership plus the portal.
Speaker 2:I would argue, I would almost argue, you know, you know, just get a higher tier device because I think that's pushing closer to that 350, you know, 350 to between 400 dollar or pounds marker and I'd almost argue, get the steam deck instead. But, like if you're entrenched in that playstation ecosystem, this is perfect for you yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 3:I mean you can, you can pick one up for I mean I'm sure you can probably get one for 150 or so. Your end. I think they're 200 pounds new here, but you don't need to buy them new. There's so many people. I wonder if people will stop selling them once I hear this news. I mean that is.
Speaker 2:You know, I think this will make it more demand. I've always wondered, I've always felt like this was a niche device, you know, a little more in demand probably than the PSVR too, but then not quite as in demand, as, you know, most other gaming handhelds out there, because it can't run games natively. This sort of bridges, that gap a little bit and that makes it a little more desirable, especially with uh. Have you seen the new gray model of the, the ps portal?
Speaker 3:no, I haven't, so they've got. So I was going to say, if they I'm assuming it's just going to be an app, an update to do a software update, so you'll turn it on. Well, next time I'm on, I'm assuming there'll be an update restarted. But obviously the portal has been out what Six months? It's not even been out a year, is it?
Speaker 2:If it has, it's been barely a year.
Speaker 3:But so must have known they could do this. So why didn't they do it first of all? Is it because it was so? They was expected to sell anyway and this was something they had up their sleeve for, something later on I don't get, unless they've had to find ways to make it work. But if, surely, if they come up with it within its first year, why didn't they do a launch? They would have been so much more successful. That would have made everyone get the portal. Surely that would have been so much more successful. That would have made everyone get the portal. Surely that would have.
Speaker 3:Because if you're not showing you in the fence, which a lot of people are, I'm sure now this will make people go. Oh, actually, but once you've got bad reviews out there, it puts people off for ages, forever. So if you go on like YouTube, you know, or whatever you get your reviews from, if you typed in PlayStation Portal first faults, let's be honest, there's as many negative as there are positive. So there'll be people now that'll be put off forever. So it's kind of almost a bit late for some people. Once they've got their mind up, they're not going to change their opinion. But if they had this at launch, you probably would have seen 90% positive reviews.
Speaker 2:There wouldn't be as many skeptics because there wouldn't be too much negative things to say. Yeah, I agree, I agree with you, um, for a lot of that. Um, you know, I do think you're right about like this sort of changes the viewpoints of people who initially like reviewed it and said this is such a niche device that only has like very little, I have very little usability for the common consumer, and now, like it does have a little bit more adaptability as far as like what it presents to the average gamer. So I do think like those reviews are a little outdated now. I also think like to your point. Um, this does make it more desirable. On the counter counterpoint, though, I do think like the reason why they probably didn't present these updates like initially at launch, is more so because they I don't think they had the server capability yet. I think, like PlayStation is like I know they've had cloud gaming for a little bit, but like they're still experimenting with cloud gaming as opposed to where, like nvidia, you're right, they're.
Speaker 3:You're right, they're not microsoft, are they? Yeah, I haven't got a. You're right.
Speaker 2:Actually, it's a good shout yeah, I think like they're still kind of getting their feet, um, feet in the water as far as, like, what they want to present with cloud gaming. This is, I think, a huge step forward, but this is also catching up to something that microsoft has been doing on game pass, especially with the ultimate, the ultimate membership for, I'd say, about two years now. Um, you know, with ultimate you were able to stream anything that was on rather than game pass, ultimate at least the console edition and play it on your phone or using the backbone, using the external controller, pretty much everything you had and that you can connect to the internet with. At one point. This is kind of what I was going to lead to with the next story, and that is have you heard about the xbox news, that everything is the xbox now?
Speaker 3:I haven't but this, before we move on to that. This could be testing the waters with PlayStation with its streaming on its own hardware. This could be testing the waters see how it works, Like you say, see if they find their feet. Does the servers work? Does it support it? Could we see on a Switch 2 a PlayStation Premium app where you're playing it from nintendo? Imagine if they did that, imagine if they crossed their swords nintendo and playstation here's the reason why I don't think that that would happen for playstation.
Speaker 3:Don't ruin the dream set. I've already pre-ordered it on this. We love a rumor on this show we do, do we do?
Speaker 2:But so here's the thing what makes PlayStation and Nintendo a sexy option as opposed to Xbox right now? It's the exclusives, right? Croc the remake, baby Croc the remake, exactly right. But you know like it's the exclusive catalogs. You know like what would the Switch be right now if all their games, like all their first party games, all the first part of Nintendo games, were on steam?
Speaker 3:Wow, nothing.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to say nothing because they do have the brand identity of Nintendo behind them. You know, like, that brand is still strong, but for the hardcore gamer, you know like, do you know how harder it would be for the hardcore gamer to choose picking up a Switch 2 if all the catalog of Nintendo games for the future are already going to be day and date on PC as well?
Speaker 3:I know for sure. Yeah, you're splitting the audience. I was looking at what it does for Nintendo fans already there. But it depends how you look at it, doesn't it? Nintendo fans is great, but in place, yeah, I don't know who wins. You don't know who would get the most gain out of it Nintendo only. So would PlayStation need to do it? Is it worth their while? Probably not really, because they might end up in the future losing people to Nintendo in future generation consoles and IPs and stuff. So when you look at it like that, yeah, so I'm like it's a dangerous game.
Speaker 2:So if you're playstation right now, I know some listeners are probably thinking, well, playstation has already put their games on pc. But for the most part they do a cool little, a cool little cadence of like putting their games on console as consoles, exclusives, and then later they're able to double dip into a new market with the pc market. And you know some of the playstation players who want to play it at a, on a more premium. You know, system being pc or on their beefed up pcs, they actually like get to have their kick and eat it too. You know like they get to sell Ghost of Tsushima, like initially in what? 2020? And then, like in 2023, resell it again on PC.
Speaker 2:Same with Spider-Man, same with Spider-Man 2. You know Ratchet and Clank, the Uncharted collection. Now you know they're able to have their audience, sort of like we can have a PlayStation audience, that we're growing on PlayStation because we can have a playstation audience, that we're growing on playstation because we still have the exclusive catalog, but then later on we can feed, we can grow the brand a little bit more and have a new audience come in by adding the pc, the pc library to it. So it's I sort of like that better than what xbox has been doing, because I think xbox has sort of diluted their brand. You know, like if you're able to play Xbox games on PC day and date right Like Xbox exclusives, why do you need an Xbox?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I think we spoke about this previously where we said so we was joking, saying it's coming on the fridge, yeah, and we did say that, but we think that might be the route they want to go. Do they want to go software only and they want to just be everywhere? I do remember we talked about that because I think, yeah, I mean, I think we were saying how much money do they put into? Because you've got to think you've got to have factories, warehouses, employees, engineers, manufacturers, so much manufacturing, packaging, storing, transit and logistical issues. And I think we spoke before as well saying about how much of an issue it was for PS5 and Xbox Series X because of COVID and there was lots of disruptions with logistics. And there's lots of rumors as well about the Switch 2 being delayed because they don't know how many numbers they're going to sell. There's a bit of a theory and a conspiracy that they already know what they're building and they're mass packaging it now and it's being stored somewhere. So they've got enough because you don't want it that scalping situation happening again. So I think I mentioned it before is it's? It could be a good thing from my x-off point of view, because they're always doing the steam thing anyway.
Speaker 3:If they did have their apps everywhere, it's still because the money really money really is probably. I know there's money in the consoles but I'm sure I don't know how it works for the rights. I don't know enough about that side of the industry but I would have thought there's enough and there's very little risks and costs and paying out going. If you can remove the console and you're well-established, your software is everywhere. At some point need it. Would it go all digital? So before you can play you can play game seb on a fire stick and tv smart tvs you can play sonic on there. I don't even need my switch anymore.
Speaker 2:So check this out, scotty like, check out this. This um commercial for people, the audio listeners, I'll describe it to you. You know, there is an xbox they're showing that says this is an xbox. There's a phone they're showing that says this is an xbox. This is a commercial. By the way, the latest commercial, there's a steam deck that says this is an xbox. On the steam deck, computer rog ally, it's now it's food. Now it's like your phone with a with a controller attached to it. It's showing that all these devices are Xboxes and this is the latest Xbox campaign. It's called this is an Xbox.
Speaker 3:Where did you see that video?
Speaker 2:first of all, oh, this is on Xbox, so a little context everybody. So Xbox put out a new marketing campaign. They're switching and pivoting gears. So in their latest ad campaigns they're not advertising just their xbox console, they're advertising everything that the xbox console, xbox console can be played on, or your xbox games can be played on, whether so the commercial description this is from xbox's official.
Speaker 3:Yeah, read that. That sentence is brilliant. That sums it up. Read that one. That second one, so the commercial description. This is from Xbox's official YouTube. That's fantastic. Yeah, read that that sentence is brilliant.
Speaker 2:That sums it up. Read that one. That second one yeah, this is from Xbox's official YouTube channel. It says whether you have an Xbox console, pc, samsung Smart TV, handheld, mobile phone, amazon Fire Stick TV or even a MetaQuest, you have an Xbox.
Speaker 2:In fact, you're probably reading this right now from an xbox. So it is a show-stopping library and library of up of iconic franchises and upcoming games, including call of duty, black ops 6, indiana jones and the great circle. Avowed and flight simulator array awaits you on your xbox of choice. So xbox right now is pivoting a bit from what they have kind of been putting out there as far as, like their ad campaigns or lack thereof. You know Xbox didn't really advertise very well, but you know their latest marketing campaign is telling you that you don't have to buy a console. Everything is an xbox. If you have, if it has internet, basically, and you can stream to it, you have an xbox, whether it be a tv, a fire stick, a fridge, handheld, a mobile phone, a pc and are, you know, even a vr device like a meta quest so we're at the sci-fi age of gaming.
Speaker 3:It's. It doesn't matter if we like it or not. It's happening and we're here and we're in it. This seems almost surreal. The last two stories that you've read like this is it makes perfect sense, but I feel like this is an advert from the future.
Speaker 2:I said yeah, it's bizarre. This is kind of one of why I wanted to pivot from the playstation story, the Xbox story, because this one. It shows how far streaming technology has come, like the ability to stream your games To any device you really, you really own, as long as it's capable of streaming games. And streaming things from the Internet is here. You know, like, if you're the type of gamer who has good internet, there is more flexibility out there for you now more than ever of like how you play your games, and not just in the past it used to be that there was dedicated handheld games like the PSP, the Game Boy, game Boy Advance, ds and very specific games in the market. They were made specifically for the handheld market.
Speaker 2:You're able to play games like Diablo now on Halo. You're able to play Call of Duty, god of War, you name it. You're able to play it on the go. Now, these big beefy 182 gigs plus games that you're able to just stream to whatever device you want to, it's incredible. It's scary, but it's incredible. What do you think about all this scotty?
Speaker 3:is is exactly what you said. It is scary and it's incredible, I do. It feels like it does. It feels like sci-fi, like we knew this was coming, but it and we've been talking about this for ages and ages like the crossover and the possibility of happening, it would make sense. But now that they've officially, we've known this for a little while, but now it's officially there and it's a marketing campaign and I'm watching this video for our YouTube. I mean, this is a great reason why to check out an unofficial controller podcast on YouTube, because you get to actually see this as well.
Speaker 3:What we're watching right now. It does feel surreal. I feel like I'm dreaming, like watching it, but not necessarily in a massively excited, fantastic way. It's just we're living in a moment where this is a huge crossover of gaming. This is a big step in a direction that's you know, we knew was coming, but this is quite.
Speaker 3:It's like we're at the edge and we've all been talking about it. No, it's coming, talking about the pros and cons. No one wants to change, no one likes change, but it's going to make it more accessible for everyone, so there will be pros out there for everyone. But now it's like, okay, we're not at the edge. We're going to take a step on that platform and now we're actually in it, it's, it's happening. So I mean, where are we going to be this time next year? You know how much is. It's exciting in a in a very scary way because obviously you know we love our games, we love physical games, we both collect games. I'm a self hardcore retro game collector, so it's very scary, but we know it's inevitable. You've just got to jump on the bandwagon with it, I guess, and hope it takes us for a good ride.
Speaker 2:We're kind of, you know, like you and I have had a lot of similarities lately where we've discovered we have a lot in common. The crazy thing is, this is probably one of the things you and I defer on, you know, because I don't collect games. If I'll be honest, I I collect digital games. I don't. I don't have a physical library anymore and you, yeah, you got a huge digital library, haven't you absolutely huge?
Speaker 2:massive. But you know, like it's one of those things to where, like I do not know if I I think I own like three physical games right now, just period across the board. As far as, like you know, like I think at my mom's house I still have a old school like physical collection sort of of games that I played when I was a kid. But like, as far as, like the actual like at my house, you know, I don't have any physical games really I'm sorry to tell you said, but those games at your house, uh, family home are no longer there.
Speaker 3:I did hit mumsy up and I sent her my address and she posted them all to me. That's understandable that's understandable.
Speaker 2:They were collecting dust at my place anyway. So, yeah, it is, I think, the real. I think the real story coming out of the xbox news though at least the xbox, this everything's the xbox now is they're pivoting. They're not playing the same game as PlayStation and Nintendo where they're trying to sell you your console. Their console is now their ecosystem. I think is the bigger thing to take from this. Playstation makes games to help sell a PS5. Nintendo makes their Nintendo catalog to help sell this switch. And it's worked well. These two the PS5 and the Nintendo switch, are have moved hella units throughout their lifetime and that that's worked well. That strategy has worked well. Xbox hasn't put out a litany of solid exclusives of the last two generations. So they, their console sales, weren't great, you know like, in comparison to their contemporaries in the market, you know like.
Speaker 3:So this is them pivoting and saying, hey, we're no longer going to be selling just a box like game pass the xbox ecosystem that is our console now like yeah it makes sense if, if they're struggling to compete and it's hurting them in terms of losing some money, you're better off, like say they're, which maybe they have been the last three years, maybe they are really third in a two-horse race in terms of hardware, with PlayStation and Nintendo doing so well.
Speaker 3:So I guess why hurt yourself trying to compete when you're not going to take the top spot? You know, both those consoles are doing very, very well, like PlayStation sort of seem as a cooler of the two, and Nintendo's, for the first time, has picked up more than just a family audience and it's managed to put some pretty cool games on a system that before was known as something for kids. So if they're struggling to keep up, it makes sense to try something new now and go in a direction that these other companies probably would have headed to in five to 10 years' time. So you know they're kind of making that. It's a clever, it's a smart move, to be honest with you, from microsoft, I think, because, like you're saying, they're already losing, so you might as well try something different why play the same game as everyone else if you're in in last place, and you know it's one of those things.
Speaker 2:But you know, I think I do wonder, though, you know like it's defeatist mentality it's. It's basically saying you know we can't win, so we're just going to change the rules, but it's also I don't know they could do.
Speaker 3:They could do clever, like you know, when. Nintendo and sega, and then that proper rivalry, and then nintendo was going uh, so what is it sega does what Nintendo don't, and all that they did that cheeky commercials, didn't they? I mean, a perfect opportunity for Microsoft to poo all over them right now would be because the PlayStation 5 Plus has obviously struggled a little bit. I saw a comparison video the other day and someone played the Spider-Man on both consoles and the consoles are blind. He played both of them. He couldn't tell a difference and then he guessed which one he thought was the you know the new release hardware, and he got it wrong. So he couldn't tell the differences. So this is a good time to say we don't, don't need to bring out the PlayStation. What's it called? Sorry, playstation plus, I've got in my head.
Speaker 2:Oh, PS5.
Speaker 3:PS5 Pro. Like I say, we don't need to make an Xbox Pro. You can play your Xbox Pros on your fridge or it's on your phone, it's on your TV, it's on your tablet. I mean it's sort of swaying. So people are moaning about how much a PS5 Pro is costing. I mean, xbox could use some clever marketing and go, hey, man, we've got you. Don, buy a pair. Save your 600 pounds, or 600, 700 actually, I think, isn't it? With taxes, I think it's, uh, quite expensive. Save your money, um, and you won't need to spend anything at all. Just sync your account and play on anything as you go and you think about it.
Speaker 3:It's letting, letting other parties do the hard work for you, because TVs are getting incredible and your phones, the technology on iPhones and stuff like the cameras and how good the screen is is absolutely remarkable. So all you're doing is you're getting free. It's there for you, they've created the hardware for you. You're just jumping off the back of it and, let's be honest, it's only going to get better and better. I mean, we had a big jump, didn't we, to OLED not so many years ago, and it's becoming a norm with how far TVs have come. We used to have, like plasma technology, lcd. Things are coming thick and fast and now we've got such high quality that we're starting to see it in tablets and phones and laptops. Come over.
Speaker 2:So quite clever really. Let me ask you a couple questions. I think this is an interesting conversation. I want to pivot a little bit, but I want to kind of get your read on something here. You know you're a physical game. You're a physical game guy. First of all, do you play any cloud gaming?
Speaker 3:I do. Yeah, I play um cloud gaming cloud gaming for modern games because I don't With your portal, yeah and straight, you know, xbox Game Pass or via PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Plus Premium, and that's because of just FOMO and stuff. There's so many games, not enough time, and I haven't got the resources financially to buy every game I'm interested in. So me, having that subscription gives me a chance. The amount of games I've played for 10 minutes and gone, I'm glad I didn't buy that. Yeah, for sure. I mean, until Dawn's a fantastic example, I think physical it's like 50, 60 pounds and I've pretty much played through it in a month. If I brought that, I mean it's not one of those games I probably want to. I don't really I wouldn't keep the modern games really unless I'm really passionate about it. I want to play it again. That's not a game you really play again that type of genre. So it makes sense to play that via streaming. So, yeah, I do, I do stream games. It does have a purpose for me, for sure. So you.
Speaker 2:So you have all three ecosystems. You're entrenched in all three ecosystems. Right now, you're a playstation person with the portal, the ps5, you have a switch obviously because you know you're the king of the switch and then you have an xbox series s or x x x. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So I want to ask this you know how often do you play your Xbox right now? Do you think that's the least of the three or do you feel like it's?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is, but again, it varies. So I don't want to be biased, because this is just me as a personality. I will get really into something, one or two things, and I'll play that and then I won't play anything else. So, for example, I've got loads and loads of retro stuff, but at the moment I'm loving Game Gear and Game Boy Color. Nothing's getting a look in. However, I know in three months' time I'll be playing 360 or Mega Drive or NES or Dreamcast. It does vary, and that's the same with the modern games. So at the moment I'm literally just playing Switch or for any physical releases that come through the door. I've had a couple come through lately, quite a few actually and then I'm playing PlayStation Plus. Now I haven't played Game Pass for a little while. I actually deactivated the account for a few months. When Call of Duty dropped I got it back.
Speaker 2:Did you try it out out, by the way?
Speaker 3:I played it, didn't I? For about 30 seconds. So I hope to play it and the campaign, but no, I haven't made time for it, only because I've had some other games which took my interest, which I've been playing. That's fair. It would be unfair of me to say xbox is the least I'm playing. However, right now it is the least I'm playing, but when I first got the two consoles I got them basically at the same time, like within a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3:I got the ps5 and the xbox straight away. I played spider-man I know that was it. I put spider-man. The console arrived, the spider-man version, but the game you couldn't play for a few weeks. They had a code. So I basically played um diablo, I think, was released at the time on the xbox. It was all xbox. I went to the playstation, I played spider-man two loads and then I left it. I literally, I think I tried out robocop. I tried a few modern games, couldn't get into them and I went back and I was all over Game Pass again for a couple of months. So right now I would choose PlayStation over Xbox, but I wouldn't want to say it's.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not saying you're biased or anything.
Speaker 3:Yeah I was In two months' time. I might say, oh, I've not played the playstation for a month because I've just I'm a creature of habit said once I forget about something, it's well gone. And then all of a sudden there'll be a game on game pass, like call of duty. So I do get into call of duty, I'll play it, I'll finish it and then I'll be going through the rest of the catalog on xbox, I get it.
Speaker 2:I get it. It's more of a you hop to whatever kind of piques your interest at the time and I think that's perfectly understandable. My third question you know, because I do want to lead into another topic here I'm curious how, out of like all the games that you, I was this is a more modern game question when you see a game that you want you know upcoming game or like a game like Undisputed, are you more likely to buy that for the PS5 or the Xbox?
Speaker 3:At the moment PlayStation 5, only because I have my collector's head on a little bit and if it is a very good game, I know historically values stay higher and greater on the PlayStation over the Xbox. However, when it's a game across free consoles, I tend to pick the switch version, um, because I enjoy playing it on the go. So it's a game, for example, a remaster game which we'll talk about in a bit, and that's come out on across all three, and I've actually I've got the switch so I can play it handheld, and I've played it handheld more than I've played it docked, so like playing it in bed, for example. However, with the PlayStation Portal now being something in my possession, I kind of wish I got it in a PlayStation, just for the better graphics.
Speaker 2:That makes sense. So the reason why I ask is because this we do have another story that I want to bring to your attention, and it is also another cloud streaming story.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, there's no clouds left in the sky.
Speaker 2:You've pulled them all on this video man. It's the console. Wars are dead everybody. It's now the cloud wars, yeah it's the streaming wars.
Speaker 3:I think that was a South Park film, wasn't it? The streaming wars?
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. So this story comes from the Verge, written by Tom Warren. He's a senior editor, breaks a whole lot of stories, really really good read and a good writer over there at the Verge, but I digress. So Xbox Cloud streaming expands beyond Game Pass to the games you now own. So you can now stream 50 new games from xCloud servers if you own the titles and have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
Speaker 2:So this is massive because, like on the last story we just read on PlayStation about the PlayStation streaming any game that's on PS Plus, you basically had the ability to stream to the portal specifically. Now you have Game Pass. On the other other hand, who already had this ability? If you were a game pass ultimate member, you can basically stream your game on anything that would basically play, play it. Everything's an xbox. You know, is what we just read on the last story. But you it was limited to just what was on game pass. You know the game pass library. That was understandable, you know, like I, everyone kind of got that in and, you know, sort of pushed on. But now xbox is starting to open up xbox collab gaming to existing xbox games libraries, starting today.
Speaker 2:This story was written, by the way on november 20th. So you know, as of this recording, you already have these capabilities. Everybody xbox game pass ultimate subscribers can now stream 50 games that they already own, including Bellatro, baldur's Gate 3, a variety of Final Fantasy titles, and Hogwarts Legacy is amongst those 50 games. The expansion to 50 more games is just the beginning of opening up the Xbox Game Library to cloud streaming. This is coming from Ashley Misock, who is a corporate vice president of Xbox's Experiences and Platforms Engineering Department of cloud playable titles will continue to grow as we work with our partners around the world to bring you a diverse and expansive selection of great games across devices. So the additional 50 games will be available through your tv, smartphones, tablets, pc, through a web browser. Microsoft is also planning to bring the Xbox library streaming to Xbox consoles and the Xbox app on Windows next year. This expansion is part of a long-running project known as Project Lapland inside of Xbox. I revealed last month that Xbox or Microsoft in this case is planning to start letting Xbox insiders get more access to more games on Xbox Cloud Gaming in November. These initial 50 games are the start of the eventual expanding this to thousands of Xboxes to cover the entire library.
Speaker 2:Dang. This is a meaty story, everybody. You know I'm going to get Scotty's take on this. His internet just died, so bear with us. You'll be dealing with me kind of solo in the meanwhile while Scotty's internet resets. I digress, though. This is an interesting story. Everybody.
Speaker 2:Xbox is not playing checkers, they're playing chess. They are putting more and more games into their cloud system, which will allow you to play games anywhere. Their strategy here of everything's that Xbox is coming to play. They want you to not have to go to PlayStation, not have to go to Steam, not have to go to any other ecosystem, because they want no matter how you play games, whether or not it be like on your phone on a bus during your commute to work, whether or not it be on a plane if you have Wi-Fi, whether or not it be on a train or on a boat, as long as you have internet. You have an Xbox available to you If you have a device that runs internet, and I think that's so interesting.
Speaker 2:They're not playing the same game as Xbox or PlayStation and Nintendo anymore. Nintendo, with the Switch 2, is going to want to move as many Switch 2 units as possible. Playstation, with the PS5, pro PS5, and likely the PS6 is going to want to move as many units as possible and they're going to be playing the exclusives game both Nintendo and PlayStation in order to get you in those ecosystems, in order to keep you buying their latest consoles. Xbox says to hell with buying my console. It's a risky move, but when you're in third place you got to take risk here. You know, when you are on the bottom, you have to take risk in order to get up to the top. They don't want to play by the same game they've been losing at. They want to change the rules of the game completely. I don't hate this. I think this is a smart play by them.
Speaker 2:I think this is an audience there that does play games on luna. I tried it out myself with um star wars outlaws and thought the experience was okay. It wasn't the best in the world, it wasn't like the end all be all, but I thought it was a pretty decent experience running amazon luna through. I'm running, you know, star wars outlaws through amazon luna, but I digress. I I'm curious on what people think. You know I Star Wars Outlaws through Amazon Luna, but I digress.
Speaker 2:I'm curious on what people think. You know, I'm curious on how many adopters are going to be playing the 50 games. You know the list of 50 games on their, you know streaming device of their choice. If that's going to be a big wave of people and they're going to see a success on that, or if this is going to be like a small sample size, let me see if I can pull. Let me see if I can pull up the games that you can own the list of the library here, because I I think that's an interesting thing too. I think it's strong, strong enough of boulders, gate 3 and you know some of the other games. I want to see if I can find a list of the 50 games from the outset, though. All right, so let's see if I can find that list.
Speaker 3:Um, do do me loud and clear.
Speaker 2:Sorry about that so I found the list. There are 50 great games coming today. This article reads um, let me see if I can pull this up for you guess who's back? Back again, scotty's back, all right, so all right. So I wanted to. You know I was talking to the audience there. You know telling them my feedback on, you know, xbox's new game, new game and how they're playing the the I guess you could say the ecosystem race, more than it is the console wars. I don't think of the console wars as we thought of it existing more. I think it's more of an ecosystem and brand competition still, though. So the story about you being able to play 50 games on Xbox as long as you own them and your xbox ultimate subscriber, I think it's fascinating like. Let me read out some of the games for you scotty animal, well, assassin's creed, barrage, avatar, frontiers of pandora, bellatro, balder's gate 3 banishers, ghost of new eden callfare 2 from 2022, the casting of Frank Stone.
Speaker 2:Cyberpunk 2077, dragon Quest 3, the HD 2D remake, dredge, dying Light 2, stay. Human Farming Simulator 25,. Shout out to you, george, I know that will be your mumsy mumsy. Fear of the Spotlight. Fear of the Spotlight. Final Fantasy, let's see final fantasy one, two, three, four, five, six um 14, online. Haiti's harry potter quidditch champion. For all you sweaties that want to play a garbage game high on life hitman world of assassin. Hogwarts legacy house flipper 2. Kingdom bridge spirits. Hitman World of Assassin. Hogwarts Legacy House Flipper 2, kingdom Bridge of Spirits underrated game, by the way. Harry Potter's Lego collection, that was all right. Life is Strange Double.
Speaker 3:Exposure Metroid Exodus.
Speaker 2:Mortal Kombat 1, nba 25, pga Tour 2K23, there hasn't been any more since 2k 23, that's crazy. Um phasmophobia. Prince of persia, the lost crown really good game. No one bought it though. Okay, okay, coming up. Yeah, yeah, so we have rust um seven days to die. Star wars outlaws shout out to george. Again they are. This is evidently a george list right now. Stray the crew, motofest um the outlast trials, the plucky squire a game that scotty has probably bought, I think three or four times by now the witcher 3, the wild hunt, tom glancy's the division 2, top spin 2k25, undertale visions of mana, warhammer 400 I mean 4 000, 40 000, I get. I can't read right now space marine 2 and nba or wwe 2k24.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's basically it you know if you own these games you're game pass or playstation you have on your xbox account.
Speaker 2:You can basically pull them up and it looks interesting that little cloud button and start playing these immediately. I just forgot about it and then, out of all these games, I think you said you were most excited about it, but then I know it got released on a switch, I think recently, about a week or so ago, it looks.
Speaker 3:I've heard nothing but good things about it. To be honest, it's one of those little fun games and you go, you know, like untitled goose game, where you go around um causing mischief. I think it's a bit from that sort of. It's a bit like that, so the things you're doing are cat related. It just looks like a a fun different game.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, for sure. I will say it's a bit. I think it's a bit more puzzle focused than untitled I've played a few of them.
Speaker 3:It's like um I played like outlast games, but I think it's you're both fun in their own right, I, I'm so curious man.
Speaker 2:It's like a rare game. Do you feel like you?
Speaker 1:added any of these?
Speaker 3:one, do you own any of these? And two, do you feel like you've played quite a few of them? I've actually got. Life is strange. I've still never played it. There's definitely some great games there. For some reason, I thought I wasn't too impressed. I thought this was already a thing. I thought you could already. I thought, you know, with Steam and stuff and Microsoft accounts, I thought this was already a norm. I thought this was something that was already. Yeah, I thought this was already something that was possible.
Speaker 2:To be honest with you, I just must have overlooked the fact, with Steam and stuff, steam allows you to basically stream any games you own from one PC to another.
Speaker 2:Like, steam doesn't necessarily grant you the ability to basically say, like, oh, you own this game, we have a hosted server, you're able to stream that game through our hosted server, like. So. Like take, for instance, I have a game Paco, paco, paco, paco and I'm playing Paco on my PC right now. Right, so I'm like I want to play that game on my Steam Deck. I can stream that game via my Steam Deck from my PC to my Steam Deck. I can stream that game via my Steam Deck from my PC to my Steam Deck, but it would still be playing on my PC in another room. It's like the Portal, but in NVIDIA Cloud Gaming.
Speaker 2:If you own the game in anything you're connected to with the NVIDIA account, you're able to basically play it via the cloud. You don't have to have that game physical, like, say, for example, nba 2k25. I own that game on my steam account. My steam account is hooked up to my nvidia account, so I'm able to play nba 2k25 without even having to download the game. It's basically I'm playing that via the cloud.
Speaker 2:Does that make sense? Yeah, so it's one of those things the technology is there. It's not like it's slowly trickling out to consoles, though, and and even in the pc market, like there are some instances. Like you can play your steam games via the cloud or play like Amazon Luna is another good example. Like, as long as you have a Ubisoft account and you can go to Amazon Luna and play any Ubisoft game without having you, without having to actually own those games, you know. Like so if George wanted to get sweaty and play Star Wars Outlaws, all he had to do was sign up to a Ubisoft Plus account and he could play that game on his laptop.
Speaker 1:I think that's probably why.
Speaker 3:George isn't here tonight, he could have played that game on an Xbox, anything he was able to connect. He's discovered the news about Portal having a streaming system, and now he's playing Farming Simulator remotely. God forbid.
Speaker 2:I don't know why you would want to, but you know, if he wanted to play more Outback.
Speaker 3:he could do that Outback doing Longhorn's Garden, doing actual, real farming, whilst playing Farming Simulator. He can't get enough of it. He's no downtime. He's like I can't cut these crops quick enough. I need to do it virtually.
Speaker 2:I can absolutely see that. Yeah, that sounds like him. So I want to pivot to our final story of the day. It is I've got the list ready. We're going to get on to our people that we're appreciative of who have joined the UCP family by donating generously to help further the UCP clause. So, while I read this story, can you get the list ready, scotty? All right, sounds good, all right.
Speaker 2:So the Game Awards is one of the biggest shows in gaming of the year. A lot of people tune in to the Game Awards show for upcoming games that they're excited about, that will be debuting, to see. They're also tuned in to the games as a winner showcase, to see the new game trailers that come out every single year. If Jeff Keighley is going to be putting out something massive. Some of them, some people like, tune in because they like the award show vibe. They like that, the Oscars and all that kind of stuff and they see want to see what games win in their respective categories.
Speaker 2:This year, not unlike previous years, is riddled with controversy. Year, not unlike previous years, is riddled with controversy. Last year, I think, like the, there was a whole snafu about, like, whether or not dave the diver was an indie game and it was nominated for indie game of the year. Year before that, sifu was nominated for fighting. You know, best fighting game of the year didn't win, but it was nominated. People had. People had um a lot of opinions about that. This year the game awards. Controversy is about okay, I can't see a new. What's wrong?
Speaker 2:with that, that sort of was released before the name came out for the game of the year and for all the other awards, and that is that they're allowing dlc and expansions to be considered in the running for game of the year awards. So so here, let, let me give you, let me give you the other side of the fence there, because I can understand, I can understand your point of view there. So here's the reason why people were upset. So, for the game of the year awards, which is happening in december of 2024, the Game of the Year category is described as recognizing a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields. These year's nominees for Game of the Year at the Game Awards are Astro Bot, bellatro Black.
Speaker 3:Myth.
Speaker 2:Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Metaphor. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Metaphor Repentational. And Elder Ring Shadow of the Urgery the new expansion for Elder Ring that came out earlier this year. So yeah, nah, it's just a six.
Speaker 2:Rgt wants Dredge, he wants Dredge. No, you know George would be mad that A lot of people are mad about this one george would be mad about. You know, farming simulators not on their mlb is not on there. And star wars outlaws is not on there. You know you're probably upset. Undisputed is not on there. You know rgt is probably yeah, rgt is probably more upset that you know. Like harvest stella is probably not on there. You know, even though they can come out, this Maybe, maybe Dredge, even though that came out last year as well, you know he's still playing catch up with his back catalog, understandably, so Everyone's back catalog gets fooled up.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you about the controversy about this, though why people are in a teasing online, especially on, you know, twitter, x and all the other social medias. Should a DLC expansion win Game of the year when you had other games that could have been considered, or is elden ring a two-year-old game at this point taking the shine away from something else that could have used that limelight, you know, to be nominated for game of the year. Um, in an award show like this, it's not only an honor but also probably gives a little bit of to yourselves. You know, like your publicity is free publicity, and especially that did shadow the urgent need either of those. Does it also need flowers? When it won game of the year two years ago from a lot of outlets, including this one that we're talking about right now the game awards and where it won game of the year where it won best artist, best soundtrack where it also won, you know like I think it cleaned up with the most awards that that year as well.
Speaker 2:So elden ring yeah, it was elden ring, and I think god of war, ragnarok were like the big two in elden ring clean. No, this is a paid expansion that you so, to give you a little context, shadow of the Earth Tree you had to in order to basically play this expansion. It's not like other expansions where you have to own the game and you automatically get to play it. If you own the game, this expansion, you have to own the original Elder Ring and then you have to get like 85-90%.
Speaker 3:I've heard a lot about it. Since people stream it, some of the big boys over in the US. I've played an Elder. You have to be a very selective boss, and that opens up the path to the expansion.
Speaker 2:So it's not like so, scotty, have you ever played Elder Ring? And that opens up the path to expansion. So it's not like. So, scotty, have you ever played Elden Ring?
Speaker 3:I mean it's sort of changed the argument a little bit straight away. I was going to say the fact that I think it's really nice that they've been given an award for a game that's come out a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3:So I thought it shows that they're paying respect for someone that have built on a game and they've got a fan base there and they managed to expand it, keep bringing out new content. I think that's great. It's something that all developers can learn from, because it might be a lot to make a second game If they can expand it and keep the lore and they're building a game and someone's playing games a lot of time later. I mean even the Witcher, like with a wild hunt. I like that. And I think time later, I mean even the witcher, like with a wild hunt. I like that, and I think that's a nice thing to reward that. Something different. It's something that we're seeing a lot of.
Speaker 3:You know lots of games if they do very well, a good fan base, they have dlc to keep it going. However, especially if it didn't win an award, so it wants to show no, do you know what? You've? This game's ready there now, but the fact that you've said it won loads of awards previously, that kind of seems a bit pointless, to be honest, because they've already had their awards. It seems yeah, it does seem very unfair If they've already won similar awards previously and now they're just getting an award for that completely changes the argument. To be honest, you saying that makes me think that is very harsh, and if I had a game which I was very proud of and it was beaten by a game that's already won an award and now it's getting an award for DLC, that would upset me as well. To be honest with you, I hope it doesn't and I hope, like I say, I've heard a lot about it and a lot of people have been playing it, so it deserves to be nominated. I get what you're saying.
Speaker 3:It took a nomination. If there can only be six spots, but maybe the sixth spot. There was nothing worthy. It'd be interesting to know what the honourable mentions would be. What would take its place? Let's go down that route. What would you take that out for instead of?
Speaker 2:I like that game, I like that game, I like that game. So I think, okay, so let me play a little game with you. I like to because I think, like that question is so intriguing on multiple levels. I do, I find it fascinating that you know. Shadow of the Earth Tree took up this spot, and you know, I think that's a well-put question of, like, what would take, what would take its place.
Speaker 2:So here's what I'm going to do. I'm pulling up right now the best games of 2024, right now, right, of 2024, and okay, good idea, yeah, it's almost, almost there. But like I'm going to do that, best games of this year, primarily by the Metacritic, which is a collection of all the reviewers points of what had the higher scores this year. All right. So Elder Ring, shadow of the Earth Tree, scored a 94. It has a Metacritic score of 94. Same as Astro Bot right now. Same as Metaphor, refantagio, like all 94s, at 92,. You have Final Fantasy VII, rebirth, at number Then, like to drop down to the next nomination, you have Bellatro at 90, which is one of the nominees right now and honestly the lowest score on this list.
Speaker 2:Let me scroll all the way down here. Let me see if I can find it, because we're at 80s, 88s, 87s, alright. So we'll keep 80s, 88s, 87s, all right. So we'll keep scrolling down. We'll keep scrolling down. We made it to 86s right now. I'm doing this for a purpose, everyone, so bear with me. We're at 85s right now. 85s. We're going down the list here. We finally made it to 84s, okay. So there's a lot of games right now At 80, let me, it still hasn't popped up yet.
Speaker 2:Everybody. We're missing a game here that was nominated for Game of the Year but it still hasn't popped up yet. At 80, looks like 82. Right here we have Black Myth Wukong at 82. So my point being is I no, actually 81. So 81. Black Myth Wukong lowest, by the way, the lowest nominated game for game of the year, meta score of all time right now, with an 81. Above it, though, here's some notable games above it. Notable, by the way, because there's's some notable games above it. Notable, by the way, because there's a lot of games above it, but notable ones WWE 2K24.
Speaker 3:Unless they have one from each category, but then WWE there's no sports in there.
Speaker 2:Is there Recently Age of Mythology? Retold has an 83. The Plucky Squire. You remember that indie game that just came out, 83. Yeah, there's a sports category. There is a sports category Dragon Age 82. But let's not play that game. Let's go with the actual realistic shots. Who should probably realistically?
Speaker 2:right okay with the 80. Score of 87. Prince of persia, the lost crown. Silent hill 2, which came out just semi recently with the 86. It's right there at 80, so slightly below it, but so slightly below it. Dragon's dogma 86 as well, another game, and dragon's dogma 2, a game people were talking about the beginning towards the beginning of this year.
Speaker 2:Animal well and the indie game that a lot of critics seem to love, 91 you're here, the uk game 70s, where, where it's basically shouting out, um about a north english town is 90, tekken, 8, 90, so like a dragon, infinite wealth, 89, god, unfortunately. So squirrel with a gun. I go make this squirrel with a gun. It didn't. It didn't review very well, if I'm being honest. It was just. It turned out to be a little bit more mid collectively. Persona 3 Reload 87. So here's the thing, though. To your point, though, what would you take Erdtree out? I would almost argue, what would you take Erdtree and Black Myth out? For Black Myth sold very well overseas in the Asian markets, really well over there. Not so well over here, sold decently, but not as well as it did over there. So it was a popular game because of that, but it's the lowest rated reviewed game that made any game of the year list since they've done the game awards back in 2014. Elden Ring Shadow of the Urgery.
Speaker 3:It took up a spot Well unless it's going to win, if they're saying it's the best, game.
Speaker 1:It could have been Prince of.
Speaker 2:Persia's spot. It could have been Like a Dragon Infinite.
Speaker 3:You know, Elden Ring.
Speaker 2:At the end of the day, it could have been another indie game with Animal Well, which scored drastically higher.
Speaker 3:It's been influenced. Seb right, think how many. Like I've said, I've seen loads of Elden Ring because so many big streamers have been streaming it. Now you have to pay attention sometimes to what the big streamers do because at the end of the day, it's free marketing for the industry.
Speaker 2:It boosts sales for games for consoles it puts out.
Speaker 3:You know it showcases these games. So I think you have to. You know it's not corruption, but you have to look at what the big streamers are playing. So I think that does. You know it's a multi-billion pound industry, isn't it? Some of these, like iShowSpeed, andai, sunet and some of these big streamers that have been really playing that game and completing it, they get absolutely millions and millions and millions of views, a lot of revenue, and I guess they've probably got to listen to what where the audience is with that, that might have have potentially a bit of influence on it.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you a question there. Let me me ask you a serious question.
Speaker 3:It means it's not been a great year. Think of it like that.
Speaker 2:The industry awards Elwin from the Earth Tree An expansion, especially from the year before. But we kind of said that, haven't? We Last year was naming all the releases. There was like 10 game reviews last year.
Speaker 2:It was naming like Spider-Man all the different ones that come out that we sort of forgot about, yeah, but what are you saying, like, just to be frank? Here you're saying Elden Ring, shadow of the, urgently an expansion, just the expansion. $40 expansion is better, is a better value, is a better game and is better quality. Maybe they've looked at it like that. They is better quality. Maybe they've looked at it like that They've looked at Final Fantasy VII, rebirth and Metaphor. It's an old game that's been remade.
Speaker 3:We want to stop that.
Speaker 1:Belatro is a card game.
Speaker 2:They're going older than a minute You're saying there's no other game worth game of the year. Basically, you're saying no other game is worth game of the year this year, so we'll give it to an expansion.
Speaker 3:That's a bad way to look at it like that, it has been a bad year for games. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know enough about. I completely understand when you said well, I thought, oh no, that's fair, it's been. You know, it's given a chance, it's got a nice following, it's done. Expansion it's done well. But I didn't realize it won loads of awards previously, so that would, yeah, that does take but metaphor is there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like, but meta metaphor is there, like a dragon's there, tekken is there. You know, I'm like you. Here's my thing. It's like I I'm okay with giving elder ring shadow. The urgery and all those developers worked hard on it. There there aren't earned kudos because they did something amazing. Like, instead of you making the caveat of saying, like dlc and expansions are eligible for any award, just give them their own damn category, instead of, like, here's my thing of saying, uh okay, we have a best game direction category, a best on game ongoing game category. Best art direction. Best mobile game. Best narrative. Best performance score. Audio adaptation. Multiplayer, independent game, indie game I don't know how that's very much different. Um. Most anticipated game for next year.
Speaker 3:Best role playing game, games for impact action adventure that's a good idea that's fighting, etc.
Speaker 2:Etc. Our family game and best sim strategy game, best sports and racing game. We got all these categories. Just make a best expansion category. Make a best expansion category, like they make expansions every single year in that category. This year you could have had destiny, the final shape. I believe that was the expansion for destiny. This year you could have definitely elder rain I didn't realize those were asshole had realized those were the other one hundred percent they should make.
Speaker 3:That's all hatred from diablo this year.
Speaker 2:I'm like those are three major expansions that have come out this year major expansion, so they should have definitely just have those. Have their own category. You can give kudos to it without taking away someone else's shine. Yeah, so I'm like. Yeah, so I'm like. So here's how it works.
Speaker 2:The industry votes on. They have industry panelists from um, a whole bunch of content creators, a whole bunch of like games. Journalists vote or vote, like a couple weeks ago, and from those tallies of votes, whoever got the highest five or six in their in the respective categories move on, and that's the official nominations. They already probably am based on that number. I think after 10 percent of the fan vote comes in, like the fan vote, you can vote right now you and I could have voted, and 10 and not like our vote would have counted collectively with the rest of the populace for 10% of the actual vote In the end. After all, that's tallied together with the industry's vote. That's how you get the winners for each and every category. So, in layman's terms, unless there's like a small 10% margin for each and every category, we know what the game like. They already know what the winners are going to be for each and every category, you know.
Speaker 1:Unless there's a very small margin there.
Speaker 3:So with astrobot, let's say astrobot, but if erdtree already had like I might have to set myself a task. I'm trying to play every game. 20 percent erddtree's winning, you know, what I mean, just so I can see what I'm missing out on. I mean, or maybe pick one from each category or go through previous years? Yeah for sure I'm not putting the switch in landfill. If that's what you're going to say.
Speaker 2:Ooh, here's my suggestion. Here's my suggestion. I think you should start a clean slate going forward of like, no, no, no, no, no I wasn't going to mention that, you know like I think, instead of going back and playing all these games in retrospect because, like I'm seeing a lot of the games that right here are very specific towards a very specific type of gamer.
Speaker 2:Instead of doing that, I say going forward, forward. If a game really appeals to you and it has like a high review score of metacritic for next year, you should want to jump on the train next year, because next year is like the year for games. So my proposal would be like yeah, and it's more like I, it's more general I'm not a good enough gamer to play Astro.
Speaker 2:Bot, unless you're a platformer. You're not going to like Astro Bot a platformer guy, unless you're a Souls person, like you're not going to like Elden Ring, and Black Myth has some Souls-like qualities to it that you probably wouldn't get along to. I don't think I am either, but like Final Fantasy and final fantasy and metaphor, metaphor is a jrpg. Jrpg like it is.
Speaker 2:Unless you like jrpgs, don't play metaphor you're gonna need to do 60 hours of homework before you play that, because this is a sequel to finest fantasy 7, part 1, the only game that's accessible for you right now to where no homework's required, and it's a general audience game. Anyone can play it. It's probably bellatro out of that list, but next year is a different year. You got grand theft auto. You got a new assassin's creed.
Speaker 3:You have yeah, I think if it does come out, you have a likely a new Star Wars game.
Speaker 2:You also have Nintendo's whole library of first party games that they're putting out with the Switch 2. It's a different beast next year, I think. Just don't worry about this year. Start fresh next year is what my proposal for you. Yeah, yeah, that sounds good. So, scotty, we're running a little long here. Let's get to the community appreciation part of our show, where we like to highlight the people who so graciously have contributed to the UCP.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've got the list of names. I've got the first one right here which I'm going to drop in. He's the one and only the legendary Carlos himself Is Carlos, the one man, George.
Speaker 2:VanCut Scotty, without further ado. Do you have those listed names for me?
Speaker 3:interesting. All right, then we've got firm returns I you know there's rumors that carlos no, no, it's just this. These two were added and it I didn't want to be missed off, so I've just read them firstly.
Speaker 2:All right, so I think the next one would be trestles new New York by the Pink Star Digital Muggery. I think I'm reading a different list than you. The Gaming Grand Gotcha Gotcha Good looking out. Trussell's New York Dingle Done.
Speaker 3:Never run out of voices over here. The Seal Slippery Seal himself Straight popping. The seal slippery seal himself straight popping, his head out in the sea looking around back underwater having a little swim, because he's a seal, it's Seal, master Elliot.
Speaker 2:See, I've switched it up. The switch man himself. Marathon gaming.
Speaker 3:I thought that was G-Unit coming in. I thought 50 Cent just dropped a new banger. She's as sharp as they come. It's Emma Sharp. To new banger she's as sharp as they come, it's Emma Sharp Ch-ch-ch-ch. Now, this man is more elusive than the CIA finding our location.
Speaker 2:Everyone's about to say ch-ch-ch-ch, and we will never tell anyone where we are.
Speaker 3:There's no way you'll ever find us. We're in El Paso. Come find us Now, this man. He's nowhere near Berlin and I've given up the search because I know I'm never going to find him. I've started just digging down so I've got a huge hole out in the yard, longhorns giving me the smallest shovel and the smallest spade, and I've heard that his location, he might be in a tunnel. So I'm finding you one day at a time, wal Waldo. Then it's the RGT fan club, also known as RGT's mum.
Speaker 2:Word is. He's as elusive as Carmen Sandiego and Waldo Billy.
Speaker 3:Marmite, my favourite type of naan bread, as we discovered recently. Big up Billy Marmite.
Speaker 2:Next up on the list.
Speaker 3:Mamsi, simon Pryke, baby Perkers, that was very anime. That was, that was good, that was very anime.
Speaker 2:I'll take the next one as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was good Yay.
Speaker 2:We like doing these voices, don't we? All right, so everybody that is our, those are our soldiers in the front line who have graciously donated to basically be read out every show. Remember, you can join at that $3 tier to have your name read out at every show. The $5 tier will get you read out on every show, plus art merch yearly, and then at the $8 tier, you get read out on every show, art merch yearly and access to the unglorious chat you know. So don't miss out on all those tiers. If you so happen to want to join the ucp nation, just go ahead and click in the link in the description below and you will be able to do so
Speaker 1:so without further ado, we're going to skip what we've been playing this week because we're running a little long. We're going to talk about what we hope to be playing, and we're.
Speaker 3:I want to watch some more of your sexy firsts, but what I'm hoping to play is I've had come through the door a couple of limited run games, so I got two questions for you. What are you hoping to play this weekend? What are you hoping to watch this week?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like to throw that spice in it was a new Rugrats game, so I love Search for Rektar. They've made a new one, I think it's just called Adventures in Funland or something like that, and you can play it modern or in 8-bit graphics. I even released it on it. That's it Adventures in Game Land. What did I say? Do you know what that might be the sequel? Maybe I got a dodgy version of AliExpress or something.
Speaker 2:But yeah, they even made it it compatible. I think you can get one that even works in your nes.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I bought it for the switch in game land. Really looking forward to playing that and the next one they're sending me is the first time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's the original super famicom version, but it's been translated to english, american, so before it's in japanese. So unless you were four years into duolingo, you've got no chance. So now you can actually enjoy it. So, yeah, I'm going to play those. And I've got so many gameboy color games that come through the door and this is an exclusive. I ordered, literally not even eight hours ago, a huge bundle of Sega Game Gear games and two of the games paid for the whole bundle, and there was 40 games and two paid for it. You're going to see that on a future video and I'm sure I'll talk about it in the show. So very, very excited for some more. I'm loving the handheld gaming at the moment. I'm absolutely loving it, and now we've got handheld gaming on the portal that you can stream. And now Xbox is everywhere.
Speaker 2:Anything's an Xbox.
Speaker 3:I might even just take my microwave on a bus, because even that's an Xbox apparently. Yeah, what do I want to watch? I know what they are. We don't have them, but you can probably find a Hot Pocket. The thing is, I'm not patient. I'll burn my tongue. I'm not patient at all.
Speaker 2:What do I want to watch? I really enjoyed the segue here.
Speaker 3:I really enjoyed the Penguin series.
Speaker 2:You don't have Hot Pockets over there.
Speaker 3:That was amazing. Me and the wife watched it and we absolutely loved it. That was so good. So I'm kind of in a hunt for a new series, to be honest.
Speaker 3:So any recommendations from anyone on Discord, or even yourself, seb. In terms of films, I watched an old film yesterday. I just found it by accident. You know, when you want to watch a drama you want to feel something. I checked out what films there were. There was nothing new that tickled my interest. You know, I do want to get to the cinema c gladiator and stuff like that but yeah, there was. Um, I watched, I watched. I watched an older films. Yeah, for me it'd probably be a tv series. I think would be what I'd like to get into. But yeah, I'm open to recommendations.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure yeah, okay, okay, all right. So everyone, what I'm hoping to play this week, I'm probably I just finished metaphor really good game. I think it's a little 10 hours too long, but really good game. I am going to probably go back and try to play a little more Dragon's Dogma. It didn't hook me earlier this year, maybe I'll it'll hook me a little bit more as I dive into it. I've been playing a little bit more of I know what you mean.
Speaker 3:You want to get. You can't get into something. I know exactly what you mean you want to get. You can't get into something. I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker 2:It's a bit frustrating it is not quite scratching the itch that Civilization left, so I'm probably going to bounce off of it hoping to play. I'm really just in the limbo of trying to find something. I'm hoping to play. Dragon Age didn't quite. Dragon Age don't feel Dragon Age-y to me. Yeah yeah, dragon Age don't feel Dragon Age-y to me. Yeah yeah, especially on the high of beating a game you like so much. You know like finding that next thing is a little bit tricky. College football has been really fun for me Trying to restore my alma mater shout out to Stephen F Austin and trying to raise it up from the low tiers of a one-star program no-transcript.
Speaker 2:Is that in the? Is that in the? So I like myself, I like going into the dynasty mode and I pick. You know, I went to school here in Texas at a small school called Stephen F Austin. We're not good at football, really good at basketball. We made the NCAA tournament a couple of times in the last decade or so, but in football we're a small program so we're like one star in the game.
Speaker 2:You know like there are other schools that are one star, but I want to start with my alma mater but so as you go along, um, as the head coach, you can basically revitalize the program by, you know, recruiting people who are like five star recruits, four star recruits, and trying to get them to come to your program, to basically elevate your program.
Speaker 2:Like, if you're yeah, if you're a one star school, it's really hard to get like five star recruits to come to your program. Like, if you're a one-star school, it's really hard to get like five-star recruits to come to your school. So you have to kind of start, slowly build the program up by like introducing these two-star and three-star, like studs and maybe diamonds in the rough, and sort of like building them up and then building the program up. You have to build your school up via the academics department or the athletics department. You know like you have to try to find different ways to appeal to each individual student and whether it be like the quarterback position or the defensive end position, kickers and such like that, you kind of have to be really strategic on how you want to do all that. So I think it's fascinating. I love the game, I'm a big football person myself, but like even if you're not a big football person.
Speaker 1:I think like if you're a management person.
Speaker 3:I think that mode is a B plus for you.
Speaker 2:On that front. Though, if you're still in the mood to watch a gangster type show because I know you like the Penguin have you heard of Tulsa King Jumped on it. Yeah, so, sly, sylvester Stallone, you know like it is a show about him being like a mobster who just got released from prison out there in New York. He goes back to the mob. They don't want no part of him. They send him to Tulsa, which is not quite by El Paso, but kind of, you know like it's right here on neighboring Texas, but you know like they send him to Tulsa and he decides to build an empire out here in Tulsa.
Speaker 2:So very similar to the Penguin who wanted to basically you know, revitalize the empire, build his empire in Gotham, you know, this guy's building an empire in the city of Tulsa, oklahoma. But like, yeah, it's interesting. It's funny. I think a lot of the humor from Penguin transfers over to Tulsa Kings. So if you like, that show.
Speaker 3:I'm going to be just very, very, very cold, yeah. So if you like that, you might like that. On this side, yeah, outside of that, yeah, yeah, I know your side, it's freezing.
Speaker 2:Always love, always love. I always love talking to you, man. Is everything going on well with you this week?
Speaker 3:I wonder what star the old El Paso would be on college football? Probably half a star, because Longhorn's a quarterback and a receiver, isn't he?
Speaker 2:He's all positions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, Maybe the good pass to. Longhorn will allow you to cross over to the other side next week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he throws the ball up in the air and just runs and catches himself with this big, strong arm. Yeah, yeah, I don't think he's a sports guy. If I'm being honest, you know, I think running a colt is probably as much as he can handle. So, everybody, this has been the ucp um podcast. This week. Pastor is warming up his good old guitar and everything like that, signaling us that it's time to wrap up the show. Remember, I've been seb. You can find me at sebastian spe on all the socials and look up the single player experience podcast if you want more of my works and to hear further about good single player games that you want to be playing. That man over there he is the scotty too hottie of the show. He is mr marathon gaming himself. He is the king of the switch. He is the the goose to my.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know we do one a week of the ucp, so I want to shout out his show and the youtube channel where you can find out about all the good retro games and all the other switch games he's been collecting. He posts very good videos. I think he's posted two recently, right, uh-huh, thank you, thank you. So everyone, go check out his great YouTube YouTube channel. You can find it marathon gaming on youtubecom. Everybody, this has been the Unofficial Controller Podcast and, remember, there's nothing wrong with having the Unofficial Controller, it's what you do with it that counts. From my family to yours happy holidays we celebrate.
Speaker 3:Thanksgiving we did 99% the whole time we have a new episode to listen to next week. Until next time though.
Speaker 1:Peace everybody. Yeah, no, el Paso, texas, tale's been told, one arm being a sight to see. Pastor preach, preach. Set you free, george and Seth they bend the knee RGT nodding yes, in glee. 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. We'll be right back. Longhorn's words hang everywhere, salvation found without a care. Sunday's hot, the desert, air, georgia said both 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 where Pastor Longhorn's got his crown. We're the wildest show around. We're the wildest show round. Laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh.