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
Your PS2 Games Are Worth HOW Much Now?
We explore the shocking price increase of PlayStation 2 games at retailers like CEX, where even common titles have jumped from £1 to £15+, signaling a major shift in the retro gaming market.
• Gaming experiences on Evercade with titles like In The Hunt, Karate Champ, and Legacy of Kain
• The surprising enjoyment of Lego City Undercover as an open-world adventure
• Revisiting Dishonored, a game with exceptional narrative and gameplay
• The dramatic price increase of PS2 games and what it means for collectors
• Analysis of Microsoft's recent ranking on Metacritic's publisher list
• Discussion of Gran Turismo 7's new rival in Rensport
• The upcoming Robocop: Rogue City expansion "Unfinished Business"
• How new tariffs might affect physical game publishing and pricing
• The challenge of properly displaying retro games on modern TVs
Check out our Discord for gaming discussions, photo competitions, and more. Support us on buzzsprout to get exclusive artwork and merchandise while helping us create the show.
Hello and welcome to the Unofficial Controller Podcast, your weekly gaming podcast Episode number now, by my reckoning, 260. Some would think it warrants a celebration. We're just going to deliver you a straightforward news episode with me, george, and this week joined by RGT Bull to my China shop. How's it going?
Speaker 2:I am extremely well. In fact, I'm the wrong way around. I'm Bull to your China shop. How's it going? I am extremely well, in fact, I'm not the wrong way around.
Speaker 1:I'm bull to your china shop, aren't I?
Speaker 2:I'm the one I was gonna say, yeah, I'm the bull now am I?
Speaker 1:you could be. Whatever you, what would you want to be?
Speaker 2:yeah, to be honest, I wouldn't mind being a bull fair play to you, yeah no problem right, let's get stuck straight into the meat and veg of it.
Speaker 1:Oh, if you're listening and it's your first time, drop us a follow. Tell all your friends. All the cool kids are doing it now. Tell all your friends, drop a follow here. Youtube, spotify, itunes, stitcher, tunein, deezer, amazon Music, whatever.
Speaker 2:Podbean, podchaser, podbean, podchaser, they're all on there, Podbean, Podchaser.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you give us a like and a review on every platform, good or bad, it helps the metric. Do what you feel. Anyway, let's get stuck straight into business. Rgt, because I'm sure they didn't come for the news.
Speaker 2:I'm sure they came to find out what some random Suffolk man's been playing this week on his video game console. So what have you been playing? Had a little bit of a night on the Evercade Another night.
Speaker 1:On it or playing on it.
Speaker 2:No, no, just sitting on it. No, no, we're playing on it.
Speaker 1:Like a chicken hatching an egg.
Speaker 2:That would mean me and my mate had a few beers. He came around and and said right, come on, let's play some evercade. So we done a playthrough of in the hunt, the prequel to metal slug. We played that all the way through to completion. I mean it is the arcade rom. So you do sit there with your select button, go kachink, kachink, kachink, kachink, putting about 99 credits in because it is a toughie, but it's such a good game, he's such a good game, so that was really good.
Speaker 1:Um, we had a blitz through some other bits and pieces I won't go into can we just, can we just go on that a minute, because the pixel art on those games is absolutely beautiful, I presume stunning, stunning nice and it and it plays superbly on on the other code.
Speaker 2:It's really good?
Speaker 1:is that part of a pack, did you say, or is that singular game on its own? No, that is part of the oh you've put me on, uh don't I can't remember which one only a couple of million people are listening yeah, um, just switched off.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so we played through that. That's really good. And what I do love about them because they are the arcade roms even when you start the game, that's like you've turned on the arcade machine. It actually has the startup rom screen right, goes all glitchy and then loads the game. It's that, yeah, it's that authentic, really good. Uh, we played some karate champ. Remember karate champ? Wow, yeah, that is old. It is tough because you have to. If you go past your opponent, you then have to do a lot of jump and a lot of back jump to try and face the other way. That's really awkward, because then you face the other way and then he just kicks you in the back of the head three times. You're out.
Speaker 1:I think I had a similar game on Atari ST and I could never quite work it out because you, just as you say, you didn't ever auto-correct your location, did you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah. So we played that. We had a few rounds of that. That was good fun. Then we played some Midnight Resistance, which is like Contra. Yeah, like Contra. We were playing that. That's tough. That is tough, that game, and hectic, but good fun. But we did find that it was. You know, you could just blitz through the stages. There's bits you were getting taken out quite early on, but really good. Um, great fun, um. And then we went on to. We had a quick look at the legacy cane collection. Just see what they played. Like the two games, um, and uh, obviously the the first one games, aren't they? Yeah, the first one.
Speaker 1:They're very different games, aren't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the first one's obviously almost like sort of early Baldur's Gate really. It's that sort of isometric top date.
Speaker 1:That's what I was going to say. Yeah, it's got that sort of Diablo feel to it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, good Plays really well, really smooth. And then we had a look at what is the second one. Is it Legacy?
Speaker 1:of Cain Legacy of Cain. Soul Reaver Legacy of Cain.
Speaker 2:And that's got lovely. You know the old 32-bit polygons but looks really good, really smooth, high res. Obviously, on the other side you can set it to what you want, but I always have it on the highest res. I don't go for scan lines or anything like that, but yeah, that played well. It's hand lines or anything like that. Um, but yeah, that that played well.
Speaker 1:I was something I'd really like to get into and have a play for that. I think it's like it only because it's got the dna of amy hennig all over it, do you believe that was probably one of her first main games and was certainly what I would call and you can see it in it a signpost towards the first steps of uncharted, in terms of characterization, level design?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, telling within that introduction at the start to what's happened and who your character is and why you're there, and, yeah, really good. Um again in some respects, ahead of us time when you think when it aged.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was on dreamcast and it felt really fresh obviously yeah I think it was on other formats as well, obviously playstation one, um, and I got it like quite early on into my dreamcast relationship and I do remember thinking to myself wow, this is a looker and it was one of the.
Speaker 2:To me it was one of the standout games yeah, I mean I thought they used the dreamcast rom on this, but I don't think they do. I think they use the ps1 rom, um, but it still looks good, still plays really good, um, and yeah, my friend was it's the first time he's played on the Evercade and he was impressed and he kept saying, how much is one of these then for the home console? I was like, well, if you get the Tomb Raider pack one, that's about 90 quid. And he was like that's actually a bit of kit for all the cartridges you can buy and you can do in the home screen, he, home screen. He was like another convert. I hope you're listening. Evercade, I'm doing you a, I'm giving you a turn here, son doing your turn.
Speaker 1:I mean, george has now got every evercade game going, george I just had a weather reporting from hell, mate, and it seems like the weather's staying pretty fiery looking for now.
Speaker 2:So you're well safe but yeah, it's a great night, um, and it's it's just pretty much what that system's made for having your friends around. I bought a second controller as well that's why I don't have one uh, well, yeah, that would be hard just being on your own, um, but in your basement, um, yeah you gotta own it but I got a second controller 20 quid so I thought that aren't too bad.
Speaker 2:I know some people use the 8-bit do's and bits and pieces with them, which I've got a couple 8-bit do's, but they're buried 8-bit do or 8-bit duo no, it's actually um, it's 8-bit do. Some people call them 8-bit do or 8-bit duo, but if you get one of their early, they they've done an 8-bit Duo speaker and when you turned it on, that went 8-bit Duo. So now you know, it's 8-bit Duo.
Speaker 1:So it is actually 8-bit Duo. There you go. That's one of those sort of gaming. Got off a.
Speaker 2:YouTube video the other day and he sort of cleared it up and said nope, because people had been correcting him in the comments and he was like nope, nope, and he played the speaker. That went eight bit do. There you go, it's eight bit do right?
Speaker 1:well, there you go so.
Speaker 2:But you can use air mass quite open source on controllers. But I just thought, well, I'll get an original one for 20 quid. You know, I've got an extension, usb, extension, arcade, but yeah keeps it official. I love it so I roll um, yes, and then more lego city undercover um oh, how's that developing?
Speaker 2:I'm really enjoying it. It's funny. Yeah, it's not as obviously intense as a GTA, but it's pretty chilled out. You can go and explore. I've been doing the missions. I had to get out of mines and look for a guy called Stinky. He was then kidnapped by the bad guy. So I'm now off going undercover, working for a lot of triad gangster as a limo driver. Um, it's really good fun, really really good fun. And for a gamer, it's on premium if you're a premium. I think it's on extra as well if you're extra and premium if you're on them tiers. Just don't know, don't have a go. I think the story you can probably complete it in about 15 hours 12, 15 hours. I don't think it's a long game. Um, give, have a go. I think the story you can probably complete it in about 15 hours, 12, 15 hours. I don't think it's a long game. Give it a go, it's great fun.
Speaker 1:Are you going for the plat on this bad boy or not?
Speaker 2:I wasn't intending to, but we'll see how it goes. There's so many trophies I'll pick up and then if you end up getting two-thirds of the way there, that'll give. You're not really into lego games. Aim undercover, just for the open worldness and the fun and the story. And yeah, I'm just surprised I've never done another one, because that's that'd be what people probably want in a minute a good open-world Lego game. And finally, I started a new game on my PS3 this week. Yeah, my daughter's, boyfriend's favourite game. He's even got a tattoo of the symbol of the game. Wait, he raves about it.
Speaker 1:How has a 12-year-old got a tattoo 12? There's no way I'm not having this. How old is his boyfriend?
Speaker 2:23, I think.
Speaker 1:Bloody hell, what's his favourite game on PS3? Oh, he's a sub, isn't he? Sorry, sir, thank you no he's not. Oh well, what's his favourite game on PS3? Let's judge him as a man based on his PlayStation 3 choice.
Speaker 2:Dishonoured.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a high-calibre gentleman.
Speaker 2:Look at him walking in with a cravat and a smoking jacket and he's got the tattoo on his hand here.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:He's a discerning gentleman when it comes to gaming.
Speaker 1:Isn't he? I'd have seen it and dismissed it as an Assassin's Creed black flag tattoo.
Speaker 2:Bioshock. Mr RGT, I think you'll find dishonoured's the way to go. Sir Dishonoured's the way to go. Sir Dishonored's the way to go.
Speaker 1:Comes in. Call yourself a gamer. What's this Lego City Undercover?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just thought of that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Real men play, Dishonored sir.
Speaker 2:Gaming podcast. You say Lego City Undercover. Let's have a little chat, sir. Yeah, let's have a little chat, sir. Let's have a little chat, sir.
Speaker 1:Yeah some young man's re-briefing you about your game choices. Yeah, what you tell people on that show that you play a Lego game are they still listening or? At this point, god knows okay yeah, so you're solid how are you finding that?
Speaker 2:um, really good actually I've played. I mean it's got a lot of quite a long intro, so you sort of play, you know the setup and the story and then you escape the captivity in the prison and I've just met like the what would you call them sort of rebel army the resistance, I suppose. Um. So I've just done the first mission with them. Um reminds me very much of bioshock. The artwork is very bioshock. It's not. When you look at the cover you think it's going to be almost as real as you could get in a ps3. You know sort of gta5, something like that, but they haven't. They've gone down that bioshock more different. You know non-realistic artwork.
Speaker 1:I suppose you could say it's got a touch of um like a caricature about it, hasn't it?
Speaker 2:that's what I was looking for. Yeah, yeah, perfect um, but that's really good. Uh, controls are really good, um, not to say it's very bioshocky as well the way it plays um, but yeah, I'm really enjoying it. And again, that's another one of those fps games I haven't played, so I'm, um, I'm looking forward to you know, getting through it and playing it. Plus, it's only 11 12 hours to completion, so something you can do.
Speaker 1:Well, I would imagine that you might have to have a couple of playthroughs because some things really early on can affect the outcome. It's all very much intertwined and interlinked into the eventual plot ending I suppose. I think there's various routes and I think some of the sort of triggers that you don't even realise are dripping over in the early part of the game. Certainly set up Because, if memory serves, they did Dishonored 2, and then they've also done that.
Speaker 2:Yes, spin-off sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Well, there's that time loop, one on PS5. What's it called Deathloop? That's them.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, yes, that's them, isn't it? Yeah, but yeah, I think it's really good. Plus, I mean, you can go and see X pick this up for £1.50. Yeah, £1.50, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, on that note, if I may interject while we're on the subject of games at CEX being £1.50, me and you discovered the CEX app had boosted every single PS2 game. Even what I would have said 18 months ago would have been bin fodder into almost a £12 game. What's happening here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't even realise this until you said, and we were looking at the PS2s, and you come back and said, why are these sort of standard titles on PS2 now 15 quid? And I was like I didn't realise they were and you were like, have a look at the apps. It's an app, ssx, tricky 15. I'm like you know, platinum Edition and I'm like what Exactly? That was a pound not long ago, not long ago. That was a pound, that game. And I'm like, hmm, I know it's a good game and all, but is it?
Speaker 1:It's not rare, is it? I think that it's literally. We've just hit that point where PS2, best-selling console of all time had a large fan base, probably spread across a really wide demographic of ages, and the youngest ones have now probably arrived at the time where they've got disposable cash and they want a full PS2 collection. I would say good luck to you, that's a lot of games.
Speaker 1:I haven't even gone deep on PS2. I've got a reasonably curated collection and it forms the biggest bulk of shelf occupation of probably my collection, really. Yeah too, me too, my biggest isn't it his ps5?
Speaker 2:yeah, and that's um, apart from a few games which I bought, which were when my daughter was younger, that we used to play on the ps2 together. Other than that, I mean, it's it's all games that I've wanted to play or have played or wanted in my collection, so it's still fairly curated and I'm probably five, 5,600 PS2 titles, yeah, um, and it's still a lot of PS2 I want. But this might put me off a bit with and cause. Also, what we noticed was the most expensive game as of when we looked. There's like 40 bucks on there. So we were like, where's all the big hits? They haven't listed any of them. So whether they were going through the process of relisting online and redoing the prices, I don't know. But it, yeah, it was a bit of a shock really. There was some stand, some standard games good games, don't get me wrong, but standard pickups, they're the ones you would go for straight away with building a ps2 collection well, that was an x, an Xbox comparison, that were 15, and you're like, yeah, or a PS3 comparison.
Speaker 1:It'd be like seeing Gears of War or Uncharted 1 up at the Megabooks. It's just not what you expect to see.
Speaker 2:No, it shocked me a bit.
Speaker 1:I was surprised.
Speaker 2:Which means if these SSX trickies and all these, you know, larger games that sold in numbers are 15, what's it now pushed up, the ones that people after, like your sly Coopers and ones like that, I mean, are they?
Speaker 1:they were 40 books 40. There we go, so each so the trilogy is going to cost you some serious cash. And I think I remember Winston when I managed to pull the trilogy in. The first two games are easy to pick up, but getting the third one with the 3d glasses, complete with manual and all that was, was a big ask you don't see that very often.
Speaker 2:No, not complete, not, not in the wild either.
Speaker 1:No, and in the end, which, and I bought it 15 quid, I think.
Speaker 2:Then, and I wonder as well whether this is now going to push up the HD collections on PS3. All HD collections. Is it going to push them up?
Speaker 1:I think potentially they might be the first to get spiked when we get to it, but I think they've never been cheap though, those HD collections on PS3.
Speaker 1:I don't know whether it was a limited print run, or people just aspire to get them on PS3 or what. I don't know what it is, but they've always been A difficult to source. Now I know if you went on eBay and opened your wallet up, you could get one here tomorrow and say, well, you said it's difficult to source, but I mean ethically source, ie in the shop or at a charity or whatever, where you're not giving them half your wages for the month to get one 400 year old game. I think also that we are now fully entering a time where anybody that's got anything isn't taking it to the charity shop anymore, because I've noticed that the, the flea markets, the charity shops, the thrift stores, the goodwills, whatever you want to call it their content seems to be dwindling and I should imagine, when times get tight, instead of just throwing it in a box and sending it to the Chazza or the thrift store or whatever, you're actually now listing it on eBay because everyone thinks they've got a million pounds, because they've got six games on the shelf.
Speaker 2:Or even people who aren't even gamers. Now they go and see X for Mov and phones and bits and they see games in there and think, hang on, why give it to charity shop for free? Yes, you're not going to get no, any of the value, but you're still either going to get some store credit or a few quid in your pocket. So I think, yeah, I think it's with the rise of CX how it is and, like you say, ebay, I think a lot of people are cottoned on now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the hobby from a retro point of view, it was always kind of monetized because it's been hanging around there on the 16-bit consoles and obviously we've seen SNES and Mega Drive titles or Super Famicom or Genesis titles spike.
Speaker 1:But I really feel like it's took home now in PS1, ps2. What we're five years away from watching the ps3 uh console library explode, the 360 console market explode. I think the 360 would probably do better out of it initially. Um, because it did have a lot of groundswell of support and there was a lot of transitory players that kind of bummed off at the end of the ps2 because, oh, got another year to wait for graphics and the xbox 360 was sat there at like a disturbing price point in terms of, you know, cheapness and people wanted a change. Ps2 had been around a long time at that point. So I think maybe some of those people that maybe chasing ps2 at the minute will then probably jump and chase 360 and then they'll jump and start chasing ps3 with some ferocity because it's a good point yeah has never been that cheaper console to.
Speaker 1:There are one pound games, don't get me wrong. But then there's always been those kind of hanging around the ether games that are are pricey. But I think once it takes root on ps3 that thing will explode. Price wise it'll be hard to collect for yeah, I think.
Speaker 2:I think, going back to mhd collections, the last one I got was the splinter cell one um, and that was I think that was about 30 on ps3 feels like a reasonable price I think I've got about five. I think I've got now five or six, I think. But yeah, there's, I don't know how many.
Speaker 1:I think I've got Splinter Cell. I don't think I think I've got Splinter Cell. I know I've got. I've got the Prince of Persia's yeah, I've got that one. I don't think I bothered, or did I?
Speaker 2:I've got God of War yeah, I think I've got that Tomb Raider, I think.
Speaker 1:I don't think I've got that Tomb.
Speaker 2:Raider, I think, I don't think I've got that and I've got.
Speaker 1:I might have Jak and Daxter. I don't think I've got Sly, because I already had that locked away on PS2 original hardware.
Speaker 1:I do try and find Because we've got the hardware. I do try and make sure that I'm playing that game on that hardware. I wouldn't necessarily go plump for, although saying that I've got the Prince of Persia collection on PS3 and, tucked away somewhere, I've got it on PS2. I don't know what's wrong with me. We're gamers, aren't we? We're collectors Exactly, we're not normal people. No, how many versions of that game do you want to have?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got multiples of some games. And I just think, yeah, I've got multiples of some games. And I just think, why have you done that? That's because I bought it on the PS2, and then someone says, oh, the Xbox is the best version, I'll get that. And then someone will say, well, gamecube looks good, I'll try the GameCube. I don't know if you know that.
Speaker 1:You've got 18 copies because you're trying to also make the that I've got left and I'm about there, you know, in terms of back in the day backlog games that I want to pick up. And that works for me because I'm nearly there, just at the point in time where everything starts to spike and it's like, okay, I can step, can step back.
Speaker 2:Yeah and then if it's one you've forgotten or one you just get reminded of, then you can source it out over time, don't you, but yeah?
Speaker 1:And it did a pretty decent job of picking up the PS4 games as they launched at the time and any sort of curiosities I picked up along the way. So I don't really feel like I've got a lot left to go back to to fill the gaps in that I would want there. So I guess now it leaves me able to really focus and double down on picking up the PS5, rare it is, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's true. What else have?
Speaker 1:you been up to on the gaming scene Because obviously I took us for a wander down the antiques roadshow video games. What else have you got going?
Speaker 2:on? No, that is it. That is wander down the antiques roadshow video games. What else you got going on? Um, no, that is it. That is what I've been playing. So it's probably probably time for me to then do the flip the role reversal and say what you've been playing put your pad down, flip it and reverse it.
Speaker 1:Is it worth it? Is it worth it? What games have you? No, okay, copyright. Oh mate, if they got copyright off that, well, that sounded very authentic. Okay, well, put your pad down, flip it and reverse it, because ask yourself are you worth it? I'm going to tell you, is that the way we do what you've been playing now?
Speaker 2:Well, it's from today, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, before we take people on any further of a dalliance, of a journey of their time, let me tell you assassin's creed I've had a little rumble with. I think I finished wessex the other day and now I'm up in york and I just kind of migrated through no thought of assassin's creed. I've gone full back into farming, simul farming, hence why I'm wearing the coveralls right now.
Speaker 2:Never say die so are you a bit burnt out on Valhalla, or?
Speaker 1:I don't know something, just clicked on farming simulator with the map. I've finally managed to acquire the land that I wanted in the corner of the map that I wanted. I managed to move because I'm playing on the Calmston farm, which is actually listed as Oak Bridge for some reason now on the mod hub, whatever. That's fine, still Calmston to me, and you start off basically around this cow farm really, and I dabbled with livestock in previous farming simulators. But I'll be honest with you, it's too much like hard work, much like in real life.
Speaker 1:Anyone who has cows is a hero to me because it's so much effort and work and dedication and time it's unreal, whereas in this game I'm a full arable man, so it's all about just the wheat crops, getting them in harvester at summertime. You know that sort of stuff. And I've got now the perfect triangle of land. I've got the perfect set of vehicles to help me do this, although they're not old vehicles. I found a compromise on the new stuff and just thoroughly enjoying it. You know, we talked before about how the new physics system and the suspension and whatnot makes the vehicle travel across the field in a more realistic way. The kind of deformation of the tyres on the area that you've worked as well looks really smart. I have no. I mean, yeah, it's a time sink I think I spent all day some day harvesting. This is one of the problems. I bought a field and there was a crop in it ready to crop and it was peas, and I've never harvested peas in this game or in real life Sounds complicated.
Speaker 1:It wasn't. There's one machine, it was super expensive so I leased it. But do you remember when we had that co-op game and we collected the sugar beet and the hopper was tiny? The hopper on the p, on the p harvester, is minuscule, literally once down and then back up again and this thing was full and then you're then tipping in your truck and getting in the truck taking it yeah and this field probably had 30 ups and downs in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So you constantly. I was trying to do something in another field, constantly flicking back. Where's he at? Oh god right, he needs unloading up to him. Like done, park up, get on, go back to the other field, start trying to uh, I can't remember what I was doing. I think I'll seed in another field and then also trying to roll it at the same time. It was a lot of work and I'm trying to juggle it all in P-Man knees emptying Jesus. Here we go. Now it sounds like I'm complaining. I was having the time of my life hence why you're in dungarees hence why I'm in dungarees cool t-shirt though.
Speaker 1:Yep, never say die. One would say I've shown you my one-eyed willy and you should be enjoying it.
Speaker 2:Always do.
Speaker 1:Audio listeners are like oh, can't wait for the video version of this. George has got his snake out. Don't you worry, I haven't.
Speaker 2:No, YouTube wouldn't let him. He's tried, but.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they blurred it, Although smallest blur ever known to man, yeah, one pixel. Oh wow, Look at Big Snake Dave over there Chill out.
Speaker 2:Big Snake Dave.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we shared your riddle. I know the real story.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, but that's why I'd get in there first. Anyway, pea crop, come on, pea crop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was all done. So now I've got canola. Uh, in every field, bar this last one that I'm working on, which used to be the game obviously fs. As it goes along it's picked up different animal types and on this modded map of calmston this area was meant to be for like horse grazing, and I bought it and sent a plow straight in there select, create, selected, create field, drop the plow in like literally dragged the living soul out of this ground.
Speaker 1:Um, that was quite tough because until I'd created the field, the ai didn't recognize it as a field, so I literally had to go in there and graft out that plow in myself it. It was absolutely brutal as well. The way I went at it was not kind. But once I'd created the field, the game knew exactly what I wanted to do and then, when I sent the AI workers in afterwards to retill it and then to lime it and then to turn it again and then seed it, they knew immediately where they needed to be. So hats off to them for that. You know that was slick. I was a bit frustrated at first.
Speaker 2:I thought.
Speaker 1:Why won't he plough? I thought it's telling me why it's not recognised as a field that was ever set up to be. Have the literal life ragged out of it by some insane guy, in a case Literally splitting the ground in two moses? Would the sea? I don't care? Um. So I've literally got that to a plantable stage now. So it's fertilized, it's limed and it's tilled and it's ready to go. So just need to send the cedar in there, roll the big field and when I say big field, it's huge. Roll that and come and do one last roll and then basically bed down for what's left of the autumn. Canola and wheat prices, which have got in my silo, spike in December. So then I'm going to lease a truck and amass it the biggest sort of balking trailer I can find and then the month of December is basically going to be me dodging ice piles while driving I don't know, probably 120 tons of canola and grain down to the grain warehouse.
Speaker 1:So boring, uh, but you love it I, I do, I really do, and, oh some, some awful news actually to share with everybody. Probably no easy way to say this, but I've recently become single again, which is a bit tough, because the beautiful Rachel has discovered Sims 4.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my partner discovered Sims 4 a few years ago and I forgot what she looked like.
Speaker 1:I don't even know who she is anymore. Yeah, sat down cross-legged about two inches away from the television screen playing the living wheels out of Sims 4. And now, you know, I think I acquired it when it was a. I think PlayStation gave it away, didn't they? Many years?
Speaker 2:ago, I bet my daughter played the wheels off and kept buying all the expansion packs and everything and put hundreds of hours in. You know when they've played too much, because they start talking like the Sims. What do you want for tea tonight, darling? Oh dear, come away from the. You know when they've played too much because they start talking like the Sims. What do you want for tea tonight, darling?
Speaker 1:Oh dear.
Speaker 1:By the way did you know that, as part of one of these DLC packs, katy Perry recorded a lot of her songs in Simish? And if you've never seen the YouTube video, type in Katy Perry, fireworks, simish, and you've got Katy Perry in the studio like this, absolutely iconic. And you've got Katy Perry in the studio like this yes, I'm missing that Shoo-ba-doop-a-doop-a-doop, absolutely iconic. But then I saw a video of someone saying everyone's laughing at this Katy Perry video, but she's actually given us the Rosetta Stone to work out what these Sims are saying to each other, and I thought to myself well, yeah, actually, because, goopy-goop, we know what that word is in the actual song. So therefore, ergo, we're going to be able to work out what some of these words these sims are saying to each other are. It's like Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying. The Rosetta Stone and people have now started to decipher what all this gobbly gook Now it probably is just gobbly gook.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because she probably did make it up. It's just gobbledygook. Yeah, because she probably did make it up, that's not actually the words.
Speaker 1:No, they rewrote it for her.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So she's actually talking Sim's language.
Speaker 1:She's reading the rewritten words in Simish of her song off a sheet of paper as she's being recorded, and she keeps glancing down to make sure she's saying the correct Simish.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:So come at me with you Sim language translations.
Speaker 2:I feel like being a Sim Indiana Jones and working it all out.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God mate.
Speaker 2:Sim-diana Jones.
Speaker 1:Get out of here with that. Get out of here.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm here all week.
Speaker 1:Oh, please Do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, first one to put that in the Discord. Symbiana Jones.
Speaker 1:Symbiana Jones, our GT's going to send you a 3D.
Speaker 2:Well, hold on, I haven't even got one myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I'll get to. Anyway, Sims 4. I am impressed by it. In a way, I'm sort of watching it vicariously while I'm playing bigger boys games. So it's this One thing I would say that lets it down massively. It is one buggy, crashy mess of a game.
Speaker 2:Who makes that again? Oh, EA, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 1:I did say to Resh, just that it wouldn't surprise me it performs this badly, because I should think in the shop there's a DLC pack for glitch-free gaming for £39.99 or something like that.
Speaker 2:I saw it when my daughter used to play it. Oh Dad, can I get the expansion pack? And you look it up and it's £40. And you look it up and it's 40 quid, and you're like, well, she must have had five or six of these. So you know you're over £200 in the hole. Before you bought the game You're just like ooh, that's. You know, most expansions are 10 or 15 quid, 40 quid and I'm like you, better play this. You'd better add yeah, buy everything in this pack.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I'd have them on sale, you know. And then they sort of done one where, oh, if you sign up to EA Play, you get the full game. We thought, oh, you get all the expansions. No, no, no, you don't. You pay £3.50 a month to have EA Play, but then if you want expansions you've got to buy them on top as well. And I'm like, oh you tricky little blighters.
Speaker 1:You're allowed one swear word, so use what you like blighters plenty good enough for me.
Speaker 2:I don't need to talk like filth.
Speaker 1:I need you to, okay. So Sims 4. So I've been mildly impressed by that but been very upset with the game that, however many years old, it is so boogie and she's playing it on PS4 Pro. I mean, I'd be tempted to install it on the 5 if I didn't need to get a bloody priest around to perform some sort of exorcism on the console afterwards. But yeah, so she's regularly saving and it's the usual sort of Sims activity. But apart from the crashes, I've been semi-impressed with it.
Speaker 2:It's a bit naughty when they have fleeced the finances out of that with these expansions, it should really be running pretty well by now. You've got to support it, you would think so it's a bit naughty that I mean there's still a lot of people playing it, I would imagine.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's got to be and there's got to be a big scene of streamers on YouTube. But one would imagine they're probably playing it on a 4060 TI Radeon thing now, so it's probably just brute, forcing all the problems out of the way. But yeah, on PS4 Pro it looked there was a lot of loading. The loading screens seemed to go on for what felt like decades on the field and feel like I'd spent a long time on that.
Speaker 1:and then look up and it was still loading what the hell? So some impressive bits and bobs in there in terms of the playability, but definitely a thumbs down from me for the finished quality of a product that now should be in its most purest and finished form. And I've got one more confession for you.
Speaker 2:This is confession time, isn't it, jeez?
Speaker 1:I felt really tired yesterday and I took myself off to bed a bit early and started playing on the Switch Assassin's Creed 2.
Speaker 2:Now Any reason or.
Speaker 1:I just wanted something just to kick about on. I don't know why I went in my digital library and got to A and kind of stopped there.
Speaker 2:Really, First one that'll do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I thought I haven't played that since COVID times and I put it on Now. I was playing the Switch. It's an OG Switch, admittedly, it's in handheld mode, admittedly, but my takeaway RGT was, I don't remember it looking this bad.
Speaker 2:Four frames per second when you jump and I go.
Speaker 1:That element of it so far has been okay and the in the past sections especially look okay. But when desmond miles, aka friend of the show, nolan north, is talking to like this other character as you're escaping the estergo base. I remember the first time I popped it in the ps3 during covid when for the show I played through every single Assassin's Creed game.
Speaker 1:I remember that it still hurts me now and I remember thinking to myself this is still quite a good looking game and I was trying to put some context behind it. Was it because at the time it wasn't still that far away from the PS3 era and therefore it was kind of acceptable to me? And if it did wow, it was like wow, this is standout, this is pretty impressive. Or is the Switch version even more dumbed down? Because I'm thinking, yes, it is.
Speaker 2:Should it be though.
Speaker 1:Well, it shouldn't be technically should it, but I didn't know whether, if I'd suddenly plopped in the dock, whether the graphics would have been slightly better and therefore go on handheld. It was a bit like, well, we're going to have to pare down these textures.
Speaker 2:I mean, some companies do these, you know, drop them on different systems. They optimise them really well. Other companies, you know, a bit like Ubisoft this disc, can we get it on this cartridge? How can we put it on here? Literally just dump the ROM on see how it plays. That'll do Put it out there. Well, you think you could have optimised that more. You could have optimised that more.
Speaker 1:I don't want to go too hard at them for the reasons that I just mentioned, because I'm only playing in handheld mode. I wouldn't like to commit to whether it changes from docked or undocked in terms of its presentation.
Speaker 1:We do know that games do look decidedly more low-res in handheld mode because they've got the screen size to kind of get away with it. But I was thinking, well, crikey, but then sort of loaded back into Venice or wherever it is. You first start in Vienna, maybe, and I thought, well, it can't be Vienna, florence. I thought to myself, hmm, this looks solid again. So I don't know whether they kind of just glossed over the bits that they know people hate and left that low res or what. So yeah, if anyone, anyone knows, let me know.
Speaker 2:But and probably at the time as well. To be fair to ubisoft, it's an older game, I mean it's. They'd probably use an old hardware to try and get that up, to switch back, to take it from what it was. So it's probably much of a muchness. Maybe they've done what they can with it. As much as it's worth doing to put it on there.
Speaker 1:Do you want to know something cool?
Speaker 2:Oh God, all the time.
Speaker 1:Within it. As I was playing it last night, one of the guys came in and in Italian, he said I'm sorry, mi dispacce or despacce, and I thought, oh, that would be a good one to remember. Within 12 hours I'd used it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, pathetic little worm of an englishman that I am. Uh, yeah, so assassin's creed got me out of a tight spot, that's all I'll say. As if by chance, I plopped assassin's creed 2 in and the dad arrived late for nzo's etzio's birth. Uh, and, and there was the words I needed to talk myself out of a problem.
Speaker 2:Oh, superb. That might be two frames per second, but it's teaching you Italian.
Speaker 1:What more can I do? What more?
Speaker 1:can I say In fact, when I first played it through on PS3, I think I there's more language options I don't know if I'm not looking properly on Switch but I did try and failed because the game said it could do Italian language, with which I thought, oh, that's great to hear the voice actors do that, Cause it'd be, it'd be realistic. But then they even spoke Italian in the English section and I don't think I could get the subs to display in English subs and the Italian spoken word. I mean yeah, and I need I think.
Speaker 1:I remember trying to get it to work because I needed the written English as well to help me to translate and learn the language. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you can do it on newer ones. I might be wrong, but the idea cropped into my head. Playing Valhalla, I thought, oh, and if I could put this into Norwegian and then put English subtitles, and it would be like a super realistic experience. So I'll report back on that next week. In the meantime, put your pork pie on with the word press tucked in the band.
Speaker 1:It's time for the news. We've scoured the very darkest regions of the internet to bring you the latest stories first up. As is habitual right now. Push Square brought this absolute banger in. It's hot off the press, which is why it's here.
Speaker 1:Gran Turismo 7 gets a new PS5 rival in realistic sim racer, rensport, due out in 2025. There's a breed of racing game typically found on PC that takes a simulation sub-genre to the extreme, and ren sport is one of them. It's been. It's been now announced for ps5, with nakon publishing the title sometime in 2025. Ren sport is a realistic sim racing game co-developed by teon and competition company, has an emphasis on circuit training and features a number of licensed gt3 and gt4 and hypercars. Additionally, the game includes several real-world locations such as Daytona International Speedway, autodrome, nazian Monza and Circuit des Spars-Francorchamps. The console version will have full cross-play support, letting you race against players on Xbox and PC. The game has been available to play in early access on PC for a few months now and will presumably launch on consoles when it hits version 1.0 later in the year. My question for you guys is do you know about Rensport? If so, drop me some info somewhere. Actually, I read your news when that was actually I've read your news, haven't I?
Speaker 2:You'll have to read them all now.
Speaker 1:Wow, great. Okay. Well, I've got my teeth in this week, so that's great news. So what do you make of this? Another hyper-realistic racer making its way through to challenger likes of Forza Motorsport and Xbox, or now probably everywhere, gt7, currently on PS5, and also 4, don't forget that legacy version. And here we are. So what do you make of this? Has it got enough to muscle out a set of Coursera and those sorts of games?
Speaker 2:When you think of actually sort of proper full-on sim, hardcore sims even GT7 isn't a full-on hardcore racing sim. No, there's not many. I mean mean, you've got iRacing, that's the ultimate, that's the big daddy, iracing on pc. But when you come to the sort of, I would say, just under the hardcore racing sim which is your gt7, forza motorsport, a set of course, yeah, so of course. Um, they're the sort of main three. You think so there is gaps in the market, and now that sim racing is more and more getting affordable, you can get some good gear for not a lot of money well, mate.
Speaker 1:Not only is affordable, but it's almost a full-time job for some folks now yeah, you know it's.
Speaker 2:And also, when you look at like you've got the Gran Turismo World Tour, or millions and millions of dollars spent taking these races around the world Sydney, london. You've got sim races, jimmy Broadbent and Super GT as commentators, yeah, you know. And then on top of that you've got the F1 World Championships which go around the world. I mean they train at the headquarters, the teams of Mercedes, ferrari, you know they invest in their own sim racing teams. They do. It's getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1:And don't forget the Gran Turismo 7, the Gran Turismo movie that was based on a real life event of taking someone from sim racing into actual on-track racing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know, and it's very popular. And you know, a few years ago, you know Simcube or Fanatec, if you were Barnum you were looking at £1,000 just for your direct drive wheel, let alone your pedals and everything else. Nowadays, you know, when I used to do it, I had a Thrustmaster TT300, I think, rs, which, with my seat and bits and pieces, for 300 pound I bought an extra wheel, you know, ala gantara wheel. But you know, for 300 pound you've got seat, you've got rig, you've got really responsive pedals and you've got a direct drive wheel. So you could, you can get, you can get into it really cheapy.
Speaker 2:I mean, I remember a couple years ago I was watching the grand chisme world tour and a guy, an italian guy, who had got through to the finals and was, I think he finished about third or fourth. He had the same wheel as you. At home he had a TT150, the entry-level Thrustmaster Wow Belt drive wheel. That's all he had at home on a desk and just through practice he got all the way through to the finals and competed well in the finals. So you don't need, you know, as long as you've got force feedback.
Speaker 1:So that's the journey he took his wheel on and my wheel's basically been taken on a journey of farts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you drive a case with yours and sort of. You know harvest peas. But you know, if they ever make that a world championships, I'm sure you'll be top of the line.
Speaker 1:But I don't think there'll be. I wouldn't be. I'm awful at it.
Speaker 2:Barman Simulator World Tour. Yeah, oh mate, I got here with a TT150.
Speaker 1:Well, I've got the kit for it, haven't I? I'm dressed for it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think there is, I think there is space for these games in the market. I mean, there seems to be.
Speaker 1:There'd be Hest of another product, though, do you think, or do you think there's space for all of them?
Speaker 2:I think there's space for all of them because I think this is a very big grower market. Like I say, I think for me there's three tiers of your racing games. You have your forza horizons. You need for speeds, you know whatever. So arcadey, story based, the crew, anything like that, is on that level. Then you want to take it up to something a bit more serious on the track. You've got forza motors Motorsport. You've got Gran Turismo. You've got a set of courses, now you've got this new one and then, if you want to go up, you've got your iRacing.
Speaker 2:Beammg isn't really racing but realistic physics, you know, and they're starting to get into a bit of racing now I think BeamMG, but it's mostly iRacings at the top. But I think that middle tier is where people want to be. I don't think I mean iRacing's very strict real-world rules, real-world, you know stats, so that's quite hardcore. But I think that middle ground in the middle, that GT7, you can get a rig at home for cheap. You can go on each day and race for a couple of hours but get the feeling of racing in a lot more acceptable way. I think that's probably where that sits and I think I think it's probably going to do quite well if it catch on and they support it, it's going to be decent, I think yeah, okay, well, you heard it here.
Speaker 1:First get yourself a pre-order of ren sport, uh. If you've got a pc, got some early access. It's currently in early access, uh, and we'll probably launch on the consoles at the 1.0 later in the year. So keep your eyes peeled. And if you've got a wheel gathering dust, there's time to look at the misses and say I told you so and get your wheel out, dust it off and plug it in. Next bit of news Last week we talked about Terminator. Well, guess what? Rogo, rogo.
Speaker 2:Rogo Cop.
Speaker 1:Rogo Rogo, rogo, cop, rogo Cop. Robocop returns in unfinished. You see, a proper show would have that edited out, but we're leaving it in, so people know that we're human, we're raw, we're raw, that's how we roll. Raw and unplugged Robocop returns in.
Speaker 2:MTV unplugged.
Speaker 1:Raw and his mic's unplugged, so it's recording on his laptop static audio microphone. His mic's unplugged, so it's recording on his laptop static audio microphone. It's happened before. It'll happen again.
Speaker 1:Robocop returns in Unfinished Business, a standalone Rogue City expansion for PS5. I think it's our approachability that makes us so popular, or not? Following on from the success of 2023's highly entertaining Robocop Rogue City, publisher Nacon has announced the perfectly named Robocop Rogue City Unfinished Business, aiming for launch in summer on PS5 and every other platform one would imagine. Unfinished Business is a standalone expansion for Rogue City, which means, while it's technically an addition to the base game, you'll be able to purchase it and play it even if you don't own the original. Now, to me it almost sounds a little bit roguelike-ish, but we'll see how it plays out when we get more info. To reach the top of the Omni Tower, now overrun by elite mercenaries, players will have to access new weapons, brutal finished moves and special missions, reads the official press release. It continues these missions will take players through intense flashbacks, offering the chance to play as Alex Murphy for the first time in a video game. Very interesting.
Speaker 1:Some of the stills that are available out there to showcase this look great. They've got a really great-looking. Is his name Peter Weller the actor? I think it is. It's not Paul, is it? That's his brother from the jam, but Peter Weller, the American actor. He's doing well for himself. He's a robo-cop. They look great, the imagery. It goes on to say it looks pretty straightforward premise on paper, but possibly with a focus on gameplay of a meaningful story, which we're sure that fans of Rogue City won't be complaining. That said, still no price point.
Speaker 1:So my question I've dabbled with Robocop Rogue City. Now, I'm a confessed big fan of the original Robocop, the original 1980s incarnation of Robocop Rogue City. Now, I'm a confessed big fan of the original Robocop, the original 1980s incarnation of Robocop. And, as an aside, I did read the other day that they're working on a proper R-rated 18 sequel that disregards Robocop 2 and 3 and the 2014 reboot and is a direct sequel to the original Robocop. So there's plenty of Robocop action. I didn't believe it when I read it. I thought it was a joke. Then I went and Googled it. It was like oh, so they are doing that. So Nacon have sort of wandered into this Robocop franchise at just the right time, I believe, because they're, I think, proving to the fans like me, although I kind of fell off Rogue City a little bit yeah me too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but they're doing right by the fans. I have found nothing within that to complain about their treatment of the law, about their treatment of the characters about their treatment of the city and the missions and the people you expect.
Speaker 1:It all felt within universe and very well handled, handled with some style and aplomb. I think that really is what made it stand out. I think their history lies in the Terminator game they'd done previously, if memory serves, and that kind of matched across to this in a way that, in my mind, give it some credence. There are some bits where the game falls apart. I think you know there has to be a want to play it through and after the first so many missions I kind of yeah, I think for me I could see through it really a bit.
Speaker 1:Is it more of the same as this? Because Robocop's nails in this and maybe I should play it on hard difficulty. I don't know, but I almost want to feel nails because I'm Robo Flipping Cop.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:At that same time, it doesn't present really that much of a challenge, because you're just a walking bullet sponge. I don't know where the challenge would come in a Robocop game in terms of the life and death of a video game and how you prove that you're doing well.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe that's why you play as Murphy.
Speaker 1:Well, that'll be interesting in this. The way I read it initially, when I read the news, it sounded like one of those tower games where you kind of you've got to try and get as high as you can I?
Speaker 1:think Devil May Cry brought one out where you had to go the Bloody Palace, it was called In fact brought one out where you had to go the bloody palace, it was called. In fact, episode one or two of this show was named after the news of the bloody palace now being released as dlc. Um, yeah, the bloody palace is now open. Probably took me and tom about six hours to workshop that back in the day now. Now it'll do, uh, something random we talked about in the episode make you sound like big boys and put it out there. But, yeah, so the Bloody Palace.
Speaker 1:I thought it was something like that as a standalone sort of bit of fun. Once you've completed it you then have to try and get as high as you could in Omni Tower. But actually it feels a bit deeper than that and it seems like more of a story-focused bit of DLC. But I do quite like the idea of enabling you to be able to play it without owning the original. I think a lot more DLCs, especially these sort of expansion packs, would go over a lot better if there were a good price point that didn't rely on you having the. Well, this was only a cheap game, wasn't it? 40 quid game in conjunction with it to be able to play it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I might buy it, but then some people might play the DLC not owning the game, thinking actually I'm going to get the game now, exactly, yeah, you know it could. It could work both ways that. But um, yeah, I'm with you, I played. I played this um didn't finish. I know people did enjoy it. I know Harvey Retro enjoyed it played it through.
Speaker 1:Oh, Ginge played it through and looked at it Ginge as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, To me it looked really good, looked really nice. They got the essence of Robocop and the atmosphere. To a certain extent, the city felt empty. Do you know what that felt like? It felt like a PS5 game that used PS2 tropes to the story.
Speaker 1:It was almost go there the crime. Do that. Walk over there. Interview here, come back. You know robocop. That was like the premium robocop gaming experience until this came out, so that's also spiked in price. On that cex app for ages, that was like a four or five pound game. Yeah, I think it was like 20 plus.
Speaker 2:So hmm, hmm, but yeah, so that's what I sort of found, but it is. I mean, I think it's fairly enjoyable. I think it's nice to see them bring a DLC out on a game that was cheap, that was a lower price point game yeah, agreed, and support on it. They could have easily just cashed in and gone, but no, they're supporting it. They're bringing something else out which cashed in and gone, but no, they're supporting it. They're bringing something else out which also, like you say, dlc you don't have to have the original game for is good. That might encourage more people to buy the original, but not only that, it's. It's given people to go a reason to go back and play again. You know, then people that did love are going to be, yeah, they're going to be all over this dlc.
Speaker 2:So, and also, it's not you know it's not easy doing a dlc where you're playing as a different character. That's a whole new lot of coding and a whole new lot of making a whole new character for this DLC. So, yeah, fair play to him for that. That's quite interesting. You don't normally get that as much, especially a character that moves and acts completely different and isn't as indestructible as Robocop. So it's going to be interesting, but, yeah, fair play. I think it's brilliant.
Speaker 1:Are you always driving and breaking in a new partner, RGT?
Speaker 2:I'm amazing if they bring out a physical, you know, complete edition. That'd be good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'll be good. Or maybe even have this as a standalone physical. Yeah, that's a standalone physical although before we slide into the next bit of news, the final piece of news, there's obviously some stuff going on out there in the world at the moment, with America applying tariffs, and it seems to be that it's unwittingly might be the death knell of physical gaming.
Speaker 1:I was reading some stories and piecing some things together and probably should have brought might be the death knell of physical gaming. I was reading some stories and piecing some things together and probably should have brought it to the news, but I think there's still some simmer left in this story. But a lot of games are printed in countries and shipped to countries especially. Obviously we're a worldwide show. A lot of PlayStation games specifically get packed in Mexico and obviously a lot of stuff gets made in China, which has also been subject to tariffs. So that's going to have a knock-on effect to the end user because the businesses aren't going to absorb these 20%, 25% tariffs that have been levied on these products. So it's going to actually at that point you've probably got kind of abandoned hopes of physical releases because it's going to be far cheaper for the end user and all these gaming manufacturers to just put it out digital on the store.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what do you think?
Speaker 1:about that. Are we in the death knell now of physical gaming?
Speaker 2:Well, like you say, 25 percent tariffs, they're going to be 100 pound games. Now, aren't they? Games? Physical games are going to be 100 pound. Um, let's hope that that. Then, if that is the case, then your digitals will become cheaper than your physicals, because you know they need to.
Speaker 1:If that's the case, Just so you know that ain't happening.
Speaker 2:That isn't happening, but it should do, because without all the…. What's?
Speaker 1:right and proper is the very last thing that will get done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're right. But yeah, you know, if you're adding 25% on a £70 game, well, we're going to be able to pay.
Speaker 1:As that develops we'll try and bring some more facts. Yeah, let you know exactly how that's going to play out, because I did read that they're sort of in anticipation of this. Various uh things have been stockpiled and or brought into the? U to land and landed in the us early. So it means that sony's got a bulk of things that they can shill through before they're going to have to start thinking about these tariffs. So that's also interesting. I'd also like to know from some of our American listeners where does it say your Xbox games are produced, if you're still buying physical on Xbox? Because, let's face it, that's probably dead as well.
Speaker 1:Last bit of news this has been published on various sites, but we've got it from Pure Xbox. Xbox makes Metacritic's top 10 highest rated publisher list. Microsoft Gaming is coming up. This is written by Liam Doolan. It says review scores are often a make or break for video game companies, which, with this in mind, metacritic has released its 15th annual publisher ranking in the top 10 for 2024. Microsoft is ninth on the ladder, with Astrobot publisher Sony in fourth spot. Taking out first is Sega, jumping from ninth place with the likes of Metaphor Refantasio and dethroning Capcom, who recently released Monster Hunter Wilds. While Microsoft might not seem quite as impressive, its its gaming division, including Xbox, has actually jumped from 15th place last time around, although Bethesda was ranked separately in 8th position last year.
Speaker 1:Here are the full rankings as revealed by Metacritic this week. So in at number 1, as we mentioned, was Sega 325.5 points, which relates to an average Meta score of 82.9, so not too shabby at all. In at number two is capcom 323.1 points, with an average meta score of 82.1. Number three we see axis games 318.1 points, makes an average meta critic score of 78.8. Sony in at 314 points, gives them an average meta score of 80.9. Focus entertainment 309.6, gives them an average score of 79.1. Gamma games 303.5 points, with an average meta score of 80.2. Square enix, solid in seventh, with 303 and an average meta score of 78.5. In at eight raw fury 301.1 average meta score 78.5. Here they are the full metric. Microsoft in at night 301 points, average meta score of 79.4. And at 10 we've got anna perna interactive 298.7 points, with an average meta score of 79.2. Uh, next, uh, bournemouth town, rangers one, lincoln city, nil.
Speaker 1:And here's what metacritic had to say about xbox's first party releases. Specifically, it was microsoft proper that was responsible for the company's highest scoring 2024 release, a new switch port, the one-time xbox exclusive rpg adventure. Pentament betheda saw great success with its indiana jones game, while the high scoring 2024 titles from activision and blizzard were called the duty, black ops 6 and world of warcraft the war within, respectively. Microsoft's overall lowest scoring total of 2024 belonged to betheda. It was the expansion starfield shattered space xbox likely to climb the ladder again with surefire hits on the way, such as doom, the dark ages t, tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4, and Gears of War E-Day. So it'll be interesting to see how the rankings look over the few years.
Speaker 1:Microsoft's new strategy to release more games across platforms has already paid off as well, making it the most successful publisher in the world in December, ahead of companies like EA. I mean we've talked about before how Microsoft are now probably the biggest publisher on PlayStation right now and their move to become a software company in the larger part, obviously hardware at the moment taking a back seat. They promise they're going to come back swinging. I have also heard there's a little bit of extra granularity on top of this that allegedly the next Xbox, so the follow-up to the series X and S development kits are currently in possession of developers and they're looking at jumping the gun and getting a 360-like head start on the subsequent generation. So, with all that in mind, microsoft positioned themselves well on other platforms and becoming a rather large and well-decorated publisher, and also trying to get out the gates first on what is the next gen of next gen gaming. What do you make of all that?
Speaker 2:um, a surprise in that top 10 really. Um, I actually thought xbox would be higher um with with who they've purchased and they have released quite well just lately.
Speaker 1:Um well, don't forget. Some of those will fall into a 20 or 25 calendar I don't know exactly. Yeah, for 2024, measurements were whether it was December 31st or whether it bled in or got closed in November, as an example, which meant some of these games might not have had the upward trend you'd have expected.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think you know. Maybe you're right there, but I think you know Sega at the top. That surprised me.
Speaker 1:Don't forget, they've got games like the Couser and Persona and Metaphorifantasia I mentioned before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there were some big bangers came out, weren't there last year?
Speaker 1:They always seem to be handed very generous review scores.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's true. And for a while I didn't think you were going to mention Square Enix. I kept thinking, surely they're there, surely they're there, but they're a bit lower than what I thought. But then again, I suppose if it's on your averages, the more games you release, it sometimes can work against you on your averages.
Speaker 1:In fact, I take it back. These are the full rankings as revealed by Metacritic this week, but they did say the measurement time was for the top 10 of 2024. So make of that what you will, this is 2024 in review RGT.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, yeah, but yeah, there's some. I was trying to think of ones I was expecting to be in there that weren't, but then, like you say, sony's there surprisingly, because there wasn't a great deal released, I suppose. But then you had Astro Bot. That's probably pushed their average right up.
Speaker 1:I think without that they'd have been a lot lower.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, but I think you look at next year's Xbox is going to be really up there with how they've hit more on software at the moment.
Speaker 1:I think they're going to get more of an easy ride because they're now on everything, whereas before it was kind of locked off and really only the Xbox sides of certain websites IGN, gamespot, you know. They only have a percentage of people covering these different areas. Now it's going to be covered by literally every department in a way, so everyone's going to get their hands on with Microsoft Studio products that would trend on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, maybe. I mean it depends. Having more reviews, does it work against you or for you? It depends, I suppose, on how good the game is.
Speaker 1:I guess it also depends on. It's hard for a critic to literally sit in an isolation booth, so it depends what they've played before, what their expectations of the game was in their own mind there's a lot there.
Speaker 1:So let's say Sony has a bit of a weak first party. Six months this year and we get Indiana Jones from Microsoft. If I was sat at Push Square or a magazine somewhere and it landed on the mat, there's nothing else to play. Let's give this a go. We talked about it before. Games Pass and PlayStation Premium, whatever they call it versus having the game on the shelf in front of you and only that game. You tend to put more time into the game. You put the bang into.
Speaker 1:I wonder if as a reviewer it's a bit sort of scant. You're kicking the can around the office a little bit and then all of a sudden, oh yeah, we've got an Xbox game to review for PlayStation here. I don't know whether it will work in its favour. I know a lot of people have said that it will be the best place to play Indiana Jones when it finally comes out. But who knows?
Speaker 1:What I do out, but who knows what I do find weird as well going slightly off piste a little bit is that xbox now have ps5 development kits in their possession while they're doing games, and I find that you've got him, you've got your rivals development gear to make games for that system they have had that, though, since the start of this generation no, have they yeah, because they sony had xbox development kits off the back of mlb very early on and if you think oh yeah, okay yes, five development kits very early on off the back of minecraft at mojang yes although there'd be ndas going off left, right and chel Chelsea, and there'd be a lot of contractual agreements, taking a development kit In a way. You kind of have to give them that Day one, don't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, screwdrivers. Have a look, look into how they're doing that. There has to be some form of disassembly going on.
Speaker 1:Or at least some reverse engineering of the product from the point, you get the development kit.
Speaker 2:But it's not as though they're very similar machines anyway, aren't?
Speaker 1:they. So they are, and by the time the development kit came out, it wasn't long before the stats started pouring out about what the console was capable of and what it could do. And yeah, so don't, yeah, don't you worry that Rubicon was crossed at the start of this generation, when they're sharing their kits between each other and subsequently, if you chase back Minecraft development, there must have been times where PS3 and yeah. Xbox has been in possession of probably PlayStation development kit for some time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very true.
Speaker 1:And really only MLB was the thing that kind of scratched it out of the sky for Sony to get a Series X development tool. So, yeah, I guess they've both had a look at each other's pocket rockets while they're at the urinals.
Speaker 2:Show me yours, I'll show you mine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that went on, didn't it? It's got to.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I don't know whether that then becomes a little bit extra knowledge that you can use to leverage on your next machine. But like I say with these NDAs, I think if there was any, even a sniff that anything like that was going on.
Speaker 2:A very similar heat sink is going to be in court, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Exactly, and I don't think they're looking at copying each other. From a hardware point of view, I think, if anything, there'd be what software trickery is going on here that we might be able to leverage or use. Obviously, as you're putting the game on the machine, you need to use some of this software trickery, hardware trickery, to get the most out of it. So I'd imagine they're probably full throttle in these bad boys from the minute they get yeah, probably, yeah, probably, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:But yeah, interesting, very interesting. It's been a week of boring but statistically interesting news. Is there anything out there on the wilds that's caught your eye that you want to share? Maybe some retro news has.
Speaker 2:Evercade brought something out. I've got another Evercade game coming.
Speaker 1:Is it Sam Fox strip poker?
Speaker 2:Why do you always ruin my games when I'm trying to announce them and centrefold squares double pack?
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:If anyone remembers that, that's the one. Yeah, it's the collector's edition. If anyone remembers centrefold squares, put that in the discord. If it's just me, then, yeah, I'm a wrong, right, but I've got a new, new game coming. I've got a broken sword collection coming for.
Speaker 1:Evercade.
Speaker 2:Oh you dirty little slut oh, you like that, don't you?
Speaker 1:I do like a bit of that you like a bit of that, don't you? I had the original broken sword on PS1 and I keep meaning to speak it up, but I keep forgetting about it in a way. No disrespect to it at all, but I loved that.
Speaker 2:I thought I might have a double of that. Let me check. If I've got a double of that, I'll send it to you. I might have a double of that, but you've got to be a good, good boy. No, actually you've got to be a bad boy.
Speaker 1:Well, you make your mind of what sort of boy you want me to be, and I'll be your perfect boy. But yeah, and make sure you let me know whether you've got it or not, so I can go back to being my normal horrible self.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Jaded George.
Speaker 1:Jaded George era mate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if it's that one or one of the ones on the pierce too, but I'll have a look anyway. But yes, I've got the Broken Sword collection coming, so I'm looking forward to playing those what's within that collection, though RGT, how many games are you getting for that? I'm now looking up. I think it's two you get.
Speaker 1:What one and two.
Speaker 2:I'm now looking up. Yes, I believe it's one and two. I've looked up the wrong one. Now, Sorry, bear with me. Bear with me. Yeah, it's a broken sword. I can never remember the name of the first one. Oh, hang on.
Speaker 1:Templar's Summon is it.
Speaker 2:It is, yeah, it's Shadows of the Templars, and then you get Curse of the Templars of Summon.
Speaker 1:It, you get Curse of the Templars or something.
Speaker 2:It's the Smoking Mirror.
Speaker 1:Ah yeah, yeah, it's the second one I thought I've had that Was that on PS1 as well.
Speaker 2:I think it was, and then I think the third went PS2, am I?
Speaker 1:correct in that? Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so I've pre-ordered that. I've pre-ordered that, I've got that coming and, like I say, the last one I bought was Legacy of Kain. So I'm liking where they're going at the moment with genres and variety from point and clicks to action adventures to arcades there's a little bit of everything there.
Speaker 1:What's the interaction? For that, though? It's not a touchscreen, is it? Oh no, I'm thinking the handheld.
Speaker 2:So you get what a joypad for interaction, which I'm not against because that's how the original game played. Or could you use a mouse? Um, to be honest, I don't know. I don't know. That'd be interesting whether they there's been a few games where they've they've took suggestions in from fans and then sent you a firmware update and then they've, yeah, so, like before, they had original controllers and then people were saying, oh, we'd, we'd like to use 8-bit do's and you know, open it up, open source it so we can use other controllers. Yep, no worries, it's the firmware. But there you go, you can use. It's all USB.
Speaker 1:That'll be interesting because something tells me, although it was usable with the joypad, something tells me on the back of the box there was an icon for the playstation mouse yes, yeah, so I think you could use the playstation mouse for that.
Speaker 1:So it would be quite interesting if you could get a lot of third-party usb mouse three games based on this topic that I would like to pick up in 2025 broken sword one and both the um. Now I kicked myself because I had these on saturn and I had a weak moment and traded them when I was trying to boost my Mega Drive collection. In 2014, I had Terry Pratchett's Discworld 1 and 2.
Speaker 2:Do you know what I found? Was there three or four of those Three?
Speaker 1:I think weren't there, maybe three, but I only really have nostalgia for two.
Speaker 2:I found all three of them separate big box PC games in a charity shop. I paid £6 for all three, yeah, and I opened them all up and I checked online. They're all complete with the extra bits and everything in them. So someone randomly had them somewhere and just trade them into our local charity shop, just went in and thought, oh, disc world. And then I thought, oh, hold on, that's all three here. Oh, hold on, they're complete and two pound each. That'll do. Thank you very much, so yeah when I do eventually get around no, I know I'm thinking of the future.
Speaker 2:You gotta think ahead or I will never get a pc and I'll end up selling them upon a really expensive ps2 game, which is probably which is probably now, especially how ps2 is probably dis Disney Golf for 300 quid or whatever it will be.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay. Well, this is a conversation angle I never thought we'd go down, but yeah, there we go. There's my aspirational wants, and I might be able to tick one off if you've got a double. So I'm hyped, I'm pumped, I'm ready.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'll have to go to the storage locker and have a look.
Speaker 1:Yes, more of that please. Yeah, you know you did say you would like me to be buried alive in there.
Speaker 2:There's no better way to go, is there? I can think of better ways than being buried by just years' worth of retro game and tat bouncing off my skull.
Speaker 1:OCD like hoarding. I think it would be quite karma like if you got killed by your own collection.
Speaker 2:Just so someone finds me in the storage locker with my Nintendo NES trainers sticking out from a pile of old, old disc world boxes.
Speaker 1:I do think like a Viking you should be buried with your hoard. Old disc world boxers, I think. I do think like a Viking.
Speaker 2:You should be buried with your horde jeez, you'd have to dig up a football pitch. You've got to do that fine.
Speaker 1:In future generations, from now, a thousand years in the future, they'll be this great. It'll be like the Sutton who won't it?
Speaker 2:of video games just up the road, by the way. That's why won't it of video games.
Speaker 1:Just up the road, by the way. That's why I chose it.
Speaker 2:I thought it would be quite yeah, I know those people would listen. Today going Sutton, what?
Speaker 1:No, they've got Netflix Right. I think that brings us to the point in time where we need to thank our wonderful Without doubt supporters. We ran through the changes to the tiers last week and we'd love to welcome you as a sub. We've got some new art ready to drop. We teased it last week. I'm kind of teasing it now. If you're watching the new YouTube video, think about it.
Speaker 2:Apply your logic. We've got something else coming as well. We're going to line that up, hopefully. Apply your logic. Yeah, we've got something else coming as well. We're going to line that up, hopefully, with the, with the artwork, so that'll be a kind of need to cause they're going to dovetail into each other. Yeah, so that's. That'll be some more good news for your listeners, so looking forward to that, trying to make a dovetail joint.
Speaker 1:Hmm, beatles reference for you.
Speaker 2:So, looking forward to that, and I will say again I know I said last week the artwork is superb.
Speaker 1:You look great in it.
Speaker 2:I? Yeah, that was the first thing you said to me.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it, it is brilliant.
Speaker 2:It is absolutely brilliant. So, yeah, I can't wait for that to drop.
Speaker 1:And the website as well. Obviously, we're working on that in the background as well, which we think is going to be a really great destination for people to check out all things UCP as almost kind of like a tee and off point for all the other content. How long has that got left in incubation?
Speaker 2:Well, I was going to say that as a surprise, but you've announced it now.
Speaker 1:So well, I was going to say that as a surprise, but you've announced it now.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the yeah, we haven't announced anything yet. We just they just know. They know that we've been. Yeah, yeah, the website is getting there. It's very close. I want to try, if I can. It's a lot of work. We've got a. We've got a great lad. He's working on it for us. A friend of mine has been putting the hours in getting that ready. If we can link that up with the new artwork, it will be fantastic. It might just come a couple of weeks after the artwork, but if we can link it up together and launch them both, it will be brilliant.
Speaker 1:But it's looking good and it's going to be a good hub Season six. So if you're already subbed, you're going to get the new album artwork which I received the last lot which was exclusive as an early adopters kit. But we're getting ready to send out? No, we're not. We're getting ready to launch the new series, launch the new album art and obviously those that are subbed at the correct tier will get their piece of artwork well worth the price of admission alone. The prices, you see, are in dollars. So if you're anywhere other than America, no disrespect to America, but it's chump change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just to say, you all know what tees you're on. So for your artwork, whether you get a T-shirt, whether you get a T-shirt and a mug, whether you get all three, once artwork is launched, we will have a small print window where we will get this all done and then I will be getting those out as asap. Okay, so do not panic if you don't get straight away after the launch of new artwork, but once we have to allow the print and time. But once we get them done, you will receive them not long after the launch so it's exciting, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It is. This artwork is going to look good on T-shirts. It's going to look good on mugs. I mean, the old one did, but this is going to pop, so I'm looking forward to getting these printed.
Speaker 1:I'm most hyped to see the fridge magnet.
Speaker 2:Oh, and also, if you are top tier, I will be. Once new artwork is launched, I'll be messaging you just for your T-shirt size, so I'll DM you. Dm me back with your T-shirt size so we can get that done and printed and get it sent out to you.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, you're about to hear your name. If you hear your name, you know you've got something sexy coming. Are you first or second this time? I went first last time, so Okay, so I'm going to start off with the wonderful Swedish gentleman Seanox.
Speaker 2:And then we have the one man, george, fan club Carlos.
Speaker 1:Which means I get to gently caress, firm returns.
Speaker 2:It made me a little bit uncomfortable when you said that Just jealous. Well, yeah, definitely you never gently caress me. Next up we have Tressels of New York fantastic supporter of the show.
Speaker 1:Thank you again. Tressels, You're the sub in this relationship. I'm the dom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 1:Totally different character. My reply says it all doesn't Dom. Yeah, fair enough, Don't be a different character.
Speaker 2:My reply says it all doesn't it. Yeah, whatever, just do it.
Speaker 1:Everybody stand up, sir. Si, stand me bene. Everybody sit down, sir. It's about to be a stir. Si, sir, yes, sir.
Speaker 2:That's all I hear in my head whenever you mention bad, a big star everyone stand up for the national anthem, everybody, I forgot for the national anthem, sir. Don't sit down, sir, bonjour no uh, then we have the wonderful tingle tuna now?
Speaker 1:aren't you now contractually obliged to do his whole? Sit you down, tell mrs tuna what a good lad he is, tell her that she needs extra money so he can get a takeaway this weekend. And oh, by the way, he's been a really good lad so you might as well get him a pack of 10. Uh, what are those things that you have? Craft ales. I don't even know if he's into that.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's got to be. I mean, he's the ultimate gentleman, the ultimate man.
Speaker 1:I mean, if he's he's probably going to drink like a really fine, high quality 40-year-old malt.
Speaker 2:I see Tingle With a Cuban cigar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 2:Whilst gently playing through Pokemon Silver.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's that kind of cat. He's got a fine cut glass tumbler. Do you know what he?
Speaker 2:reminds me of Now you've said that. What's the PlayLink game on PlayStation with the fox, where he always goes Freeze Ray? Wow Tingle Jr.
Speaker 1:On PlayStation with the fox, where he always goes freeze ray wow, single-tuned knowledge of yeah, knowledge of power, not that one it's called something like fanatics or frantics, I think frantics, isn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah, I can imagine him, not the fox on there just caressing, you know, for the visual viewers it looks like you're cupping a ball bag that's a substantial bag that's bordering on another.
Speaker 1:Is that what you're telling me? He's got two. It's a two-ander, is it yeah?
Speaker 2:He's holding that brandy glass from the bottom and on the other hand, he's got his cigar, while he's just flicking through with his stylus on his DS playing Pokemon. I could just see him in the corner, gently lit smoking jacket.
Speaker 1:Hang on a minute, mate. Just think about what you've just described. In one hand he's got a brandy glass, in the other one he's got a Cuban.
Speaker 2:Yeah, glass, yeah, and the other one, he's got a cuban. Yeah, but in between the fingers, right. I just didn't know where this stylus was. He's got it lodged between the fingers.
Speaker 1:Stylus, just there flicking through on his hand gesture you just did. I heard some of the bigger boys say something about something in the pink and I don't know. What was that. What was that?
Speaker 2:I have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:I read read it in Max Power about 20, 30 years ago you probably did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but anyway, who's next?
Speaker 1:I think it was officially announced that Discord wasn't PG anymore today because they knew if you're listening and you want to get involved and win yourself a prize. We have competitions all the time on the Discord and obviously we have the one where people win a prize. Yeah, I still have yet to have a word with you, because hosts can't win.
Speaker 2:I've got to tell you, since I've owned the show, things have changed around here and they can, and I have oh nice to see you keeping it humble. No, no, I don't know what the meal is, I'm winner.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, currently I don't know what the um I think I said because did you? Digital monkery was about to unveil the word of the month, which is the what the photo competitions themed round yeah, you took it down a completely different route rather quickly, before it even announced it yeah, so this week it's either revealed or nip.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I said it was nip, slip or not, but obviously it's all very I think you wanted it to be, but I think revealed was the yeah, so I uploaded a picture of my um assassin's creed dating experience, which, which pretty much in one image, sums up the whole dating scenario which you did have to slightly censor a bit with some emojis in some tassel areas. I did, yeah. And then Mickey came out of nowhere with his male model from Starfield, which looked great, and then slapped us up the backside with a couple of cyberpunk images which were first class as well.
Speaker 2:And bearing in mind I hadn't logged on for quite a while, a few hours and then logged on and saw this stream of slowly increasing filth start and I was thinking where is this gone? And then traced all the way back to you saying is it nip slip this month?
Speaker 1:and I thought what a surprise george started this look if, if you're on the edge and you didn't know if you wanted to be on the Discord or not, if you want to see some pixelated boobies, you get yourself on there straight away and we'll welcome you in like a hero. Watch now as the spike on the Discord goes through the roof.
Speaker 2:Ba-ding, ba-ding, ba-ding, ba-ding, ba-ding.
Speaker 1:New sub new sub new sub Well. Well, it's the only avenue we've got left to try.
Speaker 2:We'll be waving away like hell.
Speaker 1:Which means I get to rest as a hair follicle on this man's face once more. Again, it's a digital monkery. I think I'm going to sit here and watch him play through his Power Rangers game he picked up, I noticed on the Instagram. No that's not Instagram on the Discord. So yeah, I'm hyped to watch that on the playthrough.
Speaker 2:Next we have TheGamingGram.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I hope he's doing well, and thank you to everyone so far. I know we have a bit of fun, at your request, reading out these names. If you want us to be super serious, we'll also do that, which means I get next to ride in full force on the bull border then I get. I'm going to try this going brown who is that?
Speaker 2:that is Boba, was that all right?
Speaker 1:I don't think his name is going brown. I just want to clear that up for the sake of the audience. Might be a new listener Like what Going brown Calls himself, that I can only find Boba Lover on the Discord.
Speaker 2:He's going brown, going brown, what Goan Brown calls himself that I can only find Boba Lover on the Discord. Who's Goan Brown, goan Brown. Sorry, sorry, boba Sorry.
Speaker 1:Who is along with Digital Monkery is our Discord sheriffs, which means I get my beautiful. Some would say the best stepson His name say the best Stepson, his name's Ginge. He's got the biggest biceps I think I've ever seen on a grown man. I slept with Shadow from Gladiators.
Speaker 2:Reportedly.
Speaker 1:Corpses don't lie.
Speaker 2:And if you're out there and you're listening and it's the first time you've listened to the show if you're a trophy hunter, this guy has 615 Platinums and he got the Hogwarts Legacy one this week. As of recording 615 Platinums, the man is a machine.
Speaker 1:If you've got more than that, I suggest you get yourself on the Discord and challenge him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we want to hear from you, because not only that this guy's ripped as well, so I don't know how he has time to even get a platinum. It must be in the gym like eight hours a day to look like that.
Speaker 1:No, I reckon he's got himself wired into one of them kits that just sort of buzzes in. You know one of them ab kits but he's like literally bought about maybe 15, 20 ab kits and he's just sort of velcroed him on his old body and he just sits there just sort of tensing.
Speaker 2:It's not an extension of the dual sense. He's got like haptic feedback straight for his whole body. Yeah, literally. So he pulls the trigger and call a duty and it starts at his toes and ends at his eyebrows.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just keep seeing his face every time he pulls the trigger.
Speaker 1:He's in agony, but he looks a million dollars. I just keep seeing his face. Every time he pulls the trigger, he goes. He's in agony, bless him, but he looks a million dollars.
Speaker 2:So you get the Lord of Darkness? Yes, it is the wonderful Harvey Retro, absolute legend.
Speaker 1:Which means I get the immortal Emma Sharp. She's not on the app. She doesn't even know what apps are, so back off. Okay, just back off. But we did request more pictures of you in the UCP t-shirt and we got nothing.
Speaker 2:Not surprised, really, that's a little creepy. Next, up.
Speaker 1:We have. Oh wow. Yeah, I like the way you spanned that on it. You said cowboy.
Speaker 2:No, no. She approached me and just said look, I'm not happy about this. So I take the brunt of it when I barely say it Well, yeah, I said it was you. So I just said it was your idea. You know disgraceful behaviour.
Speaker 1:I will apologise on behalf of the UCP. This traces all the way back to OG Tom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but someone's got to take the credit for it. So unfortunately, you're the fool guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fine.
Speaker 2:So yeah, no problem she didn't really she didn't really Okay.
Speaker 1:I just thought that her.
Speaker 2:Let me wind you up.
Speaker 1:I just thought the tour that she took the T-shirt on was cool and I just wanted to see it continued, maybe when the new artwork comes out, we could you know, do it then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's gone a bit creepy again. Right next up we have well, some say he was in Europe somewhere. But I was thinking, well, where can he be? I'm not quite sure. And all he would tell me. I kept hassling him, hassling him, hassling him. Message, message, message. Greg, just tell me where you are. Are you in Italy, are you in Greece? And he said all I can say is I'm nowhere near Berlin.
Speaker 1:Which means I get to have mumsy.
Speaker 2:Wow, and I get. Oh, I've been waiting for this. The RGT fan club, of which, I will add, is many, many members.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you know what? My one man can kick every single one of your fan clubs backside. Mano a mano.
Speaker 2:It's like Spectrum and C64 all over again, isn't?
Speaker 1:it. Oh it is. Yeah, one's worth way more than, like you know, everyone else just jumped on your bandwagon.
Speaker 2:Hmm, yeah.
Speaker 1:Only the true OGs are in the one-man fan club.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, Mass Wizard. No one actually used a sticky nose in, did they? Which means I get the brick-kicking hero that is Pete Brocklehurst.
Speaker 2:Ooh yeah, the old. What did you say last week?
Speaker 1:He can knee a breeze block Knee, a breeze block yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he juggles, not a football, but a're Breezeblocks.
Speaker 1:It's nails.
Speaker 2:Then we've got love him or hate him. Billy a Marmite. Thank you, billy.
Speaker 1:Which means I get to pull his arms off and stick them in his ears and ride. Simon Pryke round like a moped.
Speaker 2:He likes that. That's one of his favourite things he's going to. That's one of his favourite things. You wait till you see me next. Yeah, cheers for that, which means I'm contractually obliged to.
Speaker 1:I want this to be your. I want this to be your true climactic. Get as close to real life as you can get with your climactic groans, as you say this next yeah, but we are on video and I don't want people to see that face.
Speaker 2:I don't people to see that side of me.
Speaker 1:I feel dirty and wrong I think your eyes roll like a badly maintained slot machine. You know, I look like one down.
Speaker 2:Oh I, I look like I'm fully exorcist. I completely roll, pure white your toes curl rouse oh, they, could, they do a full loop, the loop that face you just did was iconic, I think.
Speaker 1:I think for the video people, we've got to give people who come to the youtube something that's worth turning up for hang on.
Speaker 2:I think I know why you're doing this on here. I can see why. No, I'll talk to you off air about that. I know where this is heading.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I'll last, oh I know where this is ahead and I'm 15 behind it's too, late for that, this won't be out in time to be used but anyway, next up we have the sexy, the wonderful roll them was that too much? Oh no. When I just saw the whites of your eyes, with no pupils in, and just for that brief second, I'll be honest, it was everything to me.
Speaker 2:I'll be honest, that hurt a little bit. I mean the eyes, not. Anyway, carry on.
Speaker 1:And I do believe that draws us to the close.
Speaker 2:It's definitely me. Anyway, I'm done it's helpful.
Speaker 1:So thank you to everybody, everybody. I know we always say we have a bit of fun and obviously it's with your approval. So if we ever cross the line, you tell us that you did want this to be outrageous to read out. So it certainly is that. So thank you to everyone that supports us. It makes a massive difference and we are channeling that funds into the relaunch of season six and also into the uh, vast amount of goodies you're about to get. Don't worry, it's barely break even at best.
Speaker 1:So we're not running off to deals with you, buddy, um, but thank you so much. You've enabled it to, you've enabled us to make the show a little easier, um, and we'll continue to push back into the show as much as we can. Um. With all that said and done, and again genuinely thank you from the bottom of my heart. And if you choose to join, now would be a good time, because you're about to get yourself a whole rake of good stuff. Rgt, we are left in a position where I need to look at you like a man looks at a man, he raises an eyebrow and he says what are you hold on a second there? What are you hoping to play?
Speaker 2:wow, that was a children's TV programme, then yeah, be more. Legacy undercover it will be more. Oh god, yeah. To me it's like yeah, be more Lego City. Undercover it will be more. Rogue Gamer oh God, yeah. To me it's like the FromSoft game of Lego. Is that convincing or not? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're convincing probably somewhat Only the hardcore play Undercover.
Speaker 1:I think you'll find yeah many besmirch it, but not many finish it.
Speaker 2:No, no. Elder Scrolls, elder Scrolls, elder Scrolls. Oh sorry, elden Ring, I tried to be all clever. Then I said the wrong game. Yeah, so there'll be more undercover Dishonored. I want to get this place more dishonored. Really enjoying that Love being back in the PS3 again.
Speaker 1:That's a real classy bit of kit as well, by the way.
Speaker 2:I think you'll like that yeah, yeah, it's good, um, not to say play some more, more Evercade, probably some Legacy Kane. Um, got the Broken Sword coming up. I've got a funny feeling that's coming tomorrow. I might be wrong, it might be as soon as that arrives. Then I want to play through that with Mrs RGT and also also, while I think of it, when I'm at work I listen to podcasts, but I also listen to audio dramas and I've been listening to one. I got suggested this because they said if you've played the Firewatch game, you need to listen to this audio drama called Tower 4, which is absolutely superb. Get it on Spotify. I mean, it's all free. It's not done in a podcast sort of way, but anyway, it's just a good story.
Speaker 1:Is it linked to the genuine game or is it just inspired by it?
Speaker 2:No, I don't even know if it's inspired, but it's a similar premise that Firewatch, you're in a tower, weird things happen, you have to go out. Looking blah, blah, blah, blah blah. Dramas rather than audio books is because, rather than being read, all the characters are acted with sound effects and stuff.
Speaker 1:So that's really good a bit like a ucp christmas special exactly.
Speaker 2:Um, that's not as good, um, so that's got me in the mood. I sort of said to mrs rgt or could you remember when I played firewatch? She's like no, so you can't remember that game. When I was in in the fire tower with the guy and went to go out looking no, no, I don't know where. So I might have to download Firewatch again and play that through with Mrs RGT playing, because I think she'd enjoy that and that is a great game. That is a great game, firewatch. And it's just inspired me listening to that. So, yeah, I might jump on to Firewatch. So what about you then, georgie Boy?
Speaker 1:That's a bloody good suggestion. Actually. I think if Sims 4 hits the rocks this week, it might be a nice one to. I mean, we've played Life is Strange and things like that together, and she's took the lead on it at times, but I think Firewatch might be a good next step.
Speaker 2:Some people say, oh, it's a walking sim. It's not really, because you have to do a bit more to it. You've got a bit of map reading, you've got a bit of discovery, bit of you know almost detective work. You know basic but it's there. So it's just that bit more involved in a walk and sim. You have to work out where you're going and bits and pieces. So yes, it's, it's. It's an approachable game for someone that wants a good story but isn't necessarily a hardcore gamer. So I think that's a good one to play. Play as couple. Did you play that first time around Firewatch?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I did mate, to be honest, it's all faded into one.
Speaker 2:It's very good. It's very, very good.
Speaker 1:I remember. Obviously I remember the artwork, I remember the tower. I'm struggling to remember parts of the game, if I'm honest, but my overall when I go to the Firewatch folder in my brain it's one that I you know you were speaking, the woman would speak to you from the other tower on this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this tower yeah, I remember that was very similar you have this girl called amber who speaks to you from the other tower and you're talking to her. Well or sorry, he's talking to her. And this, this is simple. You know, firewatch is similar to that. Where you're, you're talking to her, but you know you're then going out looking for people that have gone missing and then you finally can't weird things happen and yeah, really good, really good game. The only downside was I always want the physical of that, but I only came out with limited run. So if you want a physical, that's about 200 quid, you know.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's like yeah, I think it might be one of the first digital games I acquired on ps4. Maybe memory serves, I can't remember now, but it was PS4, yeah. Yeah, early days as well, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Relatively early days. Yeah, something says to me 2015.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's about right.
Speaker 2:So the first couple of years of the console, I think yeah, but yeah, so I might give that a watch.
Speaker 1:So what about you then, young man? Well, thanks for reminding me about that. I reminded me about that. I probably need to just set off and have another go on it.
Speaker 2:To be honest, yeah, great game, remember it, great game.
Speaker 1:What am I going to do? Some well, some farming simulator. I have no doubt about that. Probably a bit more Valhalla this weekend than my home, so I'll get the pro out and then. I don't know why, but I'm a glutton for punishment. Rgt, that Assassin's Creed 2 has got its hooks into me. I've not been able to stop thinking about it all day.
Speaker 2:Also what's happened with True Crime. New York Any more play.
Speaker 1:I've just not been there. Everything that I've talked about that I've played so far has either been on the Switch or the Portal, so technically PS5, but actually just streamed from home. I'm at home all weekend, so yeah, a bit more of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah Cool.
Speaker 1:Get myself the PS2 out. Carry on the.
Speaker 2:Are you going slim or are you going full fat boy?
Speaker 1:No well, the full fat boy is what's in the home setup. I've got a slim upstairs. I've got two slims, actually A pink one that I think. Yes know bad, a binkster I bought yes, I remember that um, and a a normal slim that I'm sure I got in a charity shop or something daft in like a carry bag or something you wouldn't do that nowadays I tell you what you would not do, that nowadays that's uh, they're sort of things from the past, aren't they?
Speaker 1:I think from, I think, from a similar charity shop. I actually also picked up a um, um, an original ds in a carry case and in the bottom of the little zip pouch it was full of games Carts only, but it was full of them.
Speaker 2:But even so it was 15 quid. That ain't happening now, boy.
Speaker 1:It's not, is it? No? Some of it was absolute tat, you know, like dog jigsaws and brain training. Brain training, not even the proper brain training and there was a load of proper drivel in there, but there was Mario Kart, I think Super.
Speaker 2:Mario, that's your 15 quid bet.
Speaker 1:Exactly, Super Mario, I think 64 got a go on the DS original, didn't it? Yeah, it did. I got that on the DS original, didn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it did. I got that on the DS yeah.
Speaker 1:That was in there and I also think that and it did really well on the adverts, the one where someone was playing and then you saw Mario transform into Mega Mario. For the first time and he comes whomping through the blocks and no doubt there was a celebrity going oh, isn't this amazing, that game. So Super Mario Bros, I think it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so yeah.
Speaker 1:That was in there and like. I say just a literal stream of tat Dress designer game, that cat, not even the proper Nintendogs, it was like cats and kittens or something that sort of driven, but nice to get, nice to see in the wild. This is off the back of the PS2 conversation, admittedly. So yeah, on the full fat component into 4K TV, and obviously I think I mentioned before that True Crime New York. I can't speak for a lie, I haven't tried. It is also able to output a 480p on component.
Speaker 2:I do look good in those. That was a good plus point for those. It just freshens it right and it looks on a modern TV.
Speaker 1:It literally looks great.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 1:PS2 generally through component on a modern TV is perfectly acceptable. I do get a bit frustrated Sometimes. I read it in other places. People, oh, ps2, don't know what to do in the show, the back of their tv, and there's like component cables, inputs right there. So yeah, you need a composite to hdmi converter. I'm thinking composite to hdmi. What the hell are you going to be looking at? What's wrong with you creeps?
Speaker 2:well, if I just got one of them, I actually got two because I've actually found one randomly found it in a charity shop. Next to some old woman's shoes, there was a brand new boxed, the ps2 converter, which then you then set it to the 480 on the um, you set it to component on the menu but what inputs was it going to accept?
Speaker 2:um, you put the, you put the standard one through and then you put it into hdmi. But then it does put it through the. It obviously doesn't update it to HD, but it upscales it to the 480.
Speaker 1:On the um component, yeah, yeah, so it's, and it looks really good. The alternative, I think, would be a component to HDMI converter.
Speaker 2:Then you are going to get like that's going to look great yeah, well, like I say when I do, when the new shed's done, I'm I'm a few my original xbox, ps2, um gamecube, I'm going for an oss, so, um, I'm gonna put them straight into the hd telly.
Speaker 1:I'm still having a crt for older stuff, but they're gonna be oss, so, um, get them upscaled correctly reddit's a dangerous place to me because, although I've already got a couple of CRTs and a couple of throwaway old plasma things and whatnot, there's a whole Reddit dedicated to CRTs and PVMs, and someone put a PVM up earlier.
Speaker 2:A PVM.
Speaker 1:I zoomed in on the pixel and picture quality and I was like, wow, yeah, that's what first got me playing Halo.
Speaker 2:I went to Retro Replay in Norwich the arcade and they have in their console room. They had a couple of PVMs in there with an original Xbox linked up to it and that's when I first tried Halo in there playing that and I thought this looks incredible. Yeah, playing Halo on a PVM, I think oh they.
Speaker 1:Admittedly, the screen real estate's smaller, so they can get away with it.
Speaker 2:It is smaller but, yeah, but the clarity and colours are superb on them. Really good, really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that draws us to an end of the show. Is there any more? You want to share Any sort of social updates or no, no, I think I'm about there.
Speaker 2:I think I think we've covered most of it.
Speaker 1:Oh, batherbingster was after an update on your crotch rot. Is it sorted now.
Speaker 2:Did we have to do that on air I? Mean I've got cream, and Mrs RGT applies it every two hours, but I don't know if that's what you want to hear on here.
Speaker 1:She wears gloves, obviously, but I don't know if that's what you want to hear on here or my sentence.
Speaker 2:She wears gloves, obviously, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Pretty decent excuse to get crotch-rot, really. I'll see if I can contract some over the weekend and I can borrow Mrs.
Speaker 2:RG. Yeah, I'll send you a bit in an envelope, you can apply what, Mrs RG? No, the crotch-rot.
Speaker 1:Oh right, yeah, I thought you were going to send a finger up with a dab of cream on it, so what do you want me to do? Oh, that's all we have time for this week. Listeners always, thank you for your time. We'll look forward to a patient's speech again next week. Until then, happy gaming. Remember, there's nothing wrong with being given an unofficial controller.
Speaker 2:It's what you do with it that counts. See you Laters.