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
The Gaming Trifecta: Nintendo's Rise, Sony's Stumble, and Xbox's Future
The gaming landscape is experiencing a seismic shift as Nintendo's Switch 2 breaks all-time US hardware sales records while Sony and Microsoft grapple with their own gaming futures.
This episode dives deep into what's working and what's not in today's gaming market. RGT shares his completion of GTA 4, marveling at how a 17-year-old game still delivers unmatched city detail and immersion that many modern titles can't replicate. Meanwhile, George finds himself surprisingly immersed in Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2, describing an almost VR-like experience in handheld mode.
The conversation shifts to industry strategy as we examine Sony's candid reflection on Concord's catastrophic failure - pulled from sale in under a month - while they simultaneously double down on their commitment to live service games. Is PlayStation losing sight of what made them successful? Equally fascinating is the speculation around Xbox potentially shifting away from traditional console hardware, though executives insist there's at least one more generation coming.
RGT introduces another Hidden Gem worth your attention: Cygni All Guns Blazing, a vertical shooter that innovates on the classic shmup formula with twin-stick mechanics and risk/reward shield dynamics. At just £15-20, it offers exceptional value for fans of the genre.
The episode wraps with a deep dive into Nintendo's record-breaking Switch 2 launch, which has outsold even the PS4's previous record with over 1.1 million units sold in its first weekend. With 79% of buyers also purchasing Mario Kart World, Nintendo's strategy of focusing on accessible, portable gaming experiences appears to be paying dividends while their competitors struggle to find their footing.
Join our clip contest on social media for a chance to win a full-price game of your choice! Simply send a 30-60 second promotional clip or funny moment from the show to enter.
We mash genres. We pitch games. You question our sanity.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Hello and welcome to the Unofficial Controller podcast, your weekly gaming podcast, episode number 272, with me, George, and this week joined by RGT. I would come up with a joke here, but I think we're past it. How's it going?
Speaker 2:Very well, you caught me by surprise there. It's normally. You know my so-and-so to my so-and-so.
Speaker 1:you know my so-and-so to my so-and-so 272 of my so-and-sos to my so-and-sos, and sometimes I have to admit even I come up with nothing.
Speaker 2:I like your so-and-sos. They're good, but no, I'm very well.
Speaker 1:I went to the well, well was dry, anyway, how are you? Yeah, I'm great. Insert, own to my, to my joke here. If you want one, hey, I tell you what he's tomato to my, to matey.
Speaker 2:Hey, very good, thank you. Thought on the fly as well.
Speaker 1:Look at that Should have tried a bit harder earlier, shouldn't I? But this is where we're at. Here we are post-Switch 2, launch World's Took a Breathe, the post-Summer Games Fest as well. You're thinking up to the minute podcast. They'd be covering that. No, no, we gave you Switch 2. Don't get greedy Little piggy by the trough. Look, weedy Little piggy by the trough. Look at you. Give me my gaming news. Don't worry, we'll have a bit for you. But before we get there, bite your mouth, piggy. It's okay. And if you want to stay wetter than an otter's handkerchief, let me tell you to the long-term listeners and to the new listeners get ready, because we're wheeling out the bi-yearly RGT's hidden gem. Bi-yearly is a bit harsh. How many have you done this so far this year?
Speaker 2:Three. This is my third, I think.
Speaker 1:So so far it's two. So bi-yearly R our GT on current performance maybe by monthly, twice a month or every other month every other month sort of I like it. You made a commitment to the team, the family, the audience. Yeah, and you've already, you've already let them down but just be happy you're getting one.
Speaker 2:You can soon take them away.
Speaker 1:That's relationship management in the RGT household.
Speaker 2:There we go.
Speaker 1:Do as I say, not as I do. Wow, I would have thought the threat of removal of a certain something in the RGT household would see a sort of promotion of feel-good factor in the house. I'm talking cheese. You know what you get like if you have too much.
Speaker 2:I do yeah you hallucinate. Hell of a state.
Speaker 1:You came round here once right, and I thought I got rid of all the cheese, but somehow you found a cheese slice just between the ketchup and the mayo. I came in and found you freebasing it down a bit of foil, but, mate, you were unapproachable, I know.
Speaker 2:It, basing it down, a bit of foil. But, mate, you were unapproachable. I know it was complete blank. I don't know what happened. When I woke up I was in the graveyard in a pair of Y-fronts of a unicycle Don't know what happened and the unicycle had a wedding ring on it. Yep, yep, those were the days. But yeah, keep me away from cheese. That was last week. Yeah well, I've gone cold turkey for a week, so I'm chuffed with that.
Speaker 1:No, you haven't, because I saw you licking a watsit.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not real cheese, so it just gives me that little hit. It's not vaping.
Speaker 1:I think it's more like methadone.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but you could use methadone. Yeah, we're in the attitude era now. Yeah, it's methadone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nicotine's not edgy enough, so we've got that out of the way. So the only question people really want to know, rgt, is how did you cure that athlete's foot?
Speaker 2:Yes, I did. Yes. Yeah, what have you been playing? Gta 4 is complete and done.
Speaker 1:Wow, are you back in the modern era now?
Speaker 2:No, Well, yeah, I'm not very happy about that at the moment, but I was looking. I've got some more PS3 games I want to play. While I'm waiting for everyone else to finish GTA 4 before our next monthly playthrough, excuse me to finish GTA 4 before our next monthly playthrough. Excuse me, but because I've borrowed the PS3, because mine went a bit shoddy, so I've told my mate he can have his PS3 back. I have ordered a PS3, which so far has not turned up.
Speaker 1:Whoa whoa, whoa, give me the grief. What sort of PS3 you ordered?
Speaker 2:What, where, when, who and why. I have ordered a PS3. It's one model I've never had. I have ordered the Super Slim with sliding door attachment.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about getting one of these, you know.
Speaker 2:And the reason I've gone, because they're the last ones made, so I thought they're probably going to be the most reliable. And I've gone for a blue one, the same color as your hat, wearing there and blue controllers, um yes, which I've ordered and has gone into a certain delivery firm's network and has got a bit stuck. So raw mail yes, who the hell would work for them?
Speaker 1:Only an idiot or an ex-now-ripped Russian wrestler.
Speaker 2:Ripped. Bless him. Yeah, so that hasn't turned up. So there's a few games I've been really wanting to play on my PS3, but I haven't been able to. But anyway, gta 4 is done.
Speaker 1:Pause pause, pause. Moment of conversation, if you may have one, about your PS3 super slim choice I want to dig into that, if I may, because I find it to be quite an aesthetically pleasing machine and I, like you and also operate, was also operating under the assumption that it was more reliable. Um, but it transpires. Apparently. It's not, so you, so you might need to just put that through a care package. What's the score with it? Is it turning up refurbished or as it is?
Speaker 2:As is Good condition. One though, like I say, blue one, two blue controllers which will be handy. I mean, I do really like my Retro Fighters Defender Brilliant controller. It will still be my main controller, but it's always nice to have a couple of official oem ones in the background there. Um, and I just thought I thought with the sliding doors maybe a bit more reliable than having the the. You know how it takes the disc in on the slims and the originals. I thought that's a bit less to go wrong, hopefully I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's the issue. I think, for some reason and I have yet to do the research because apparently it was the Tolkens and it wasn't the Tolkens after all, then it was the Tolkens and it wasn't the Tolkien capacitors, but seemingly that super slim suffers from the same problems as the OG fat.
Speaker 2:So I will get a thermal post-net redone on it. Anyway, it'll have a little.
Speaker 1:I tell you what, if you did that, it would be whisper quiet, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm thinking of getting that done. Like I say, the chap I used to do all my consoles, I think to just you know, maybe get it recapped as well, get a whole lot done, be super smooth, won't cost too much, and that'll be like I say, that'll be good.
Speaker 1:Blue say that'd be good. Blue will be look good as well. Um, it will look great. That's the bit I'm most fired up about. I'm not, you know, I'm not wishing ill on the said ps3. I hope it never falters and it never skips a beat, like I say aesthetically.
Speaker 2:I know people say it's a bit of a dog's breakfast, but I kind of like it I never used to like it, but now I sort of thought I quite like the look of that. The more.
Speaker 1:You see it, the crimson red one looks absolutely beautiful. The blue looks good.
Speaker 2:I was nearly waiting for the red because my PS5 is the red oh yes, with the custom red LED and I thought should I go for red again? But then I thought, no, I'm going to go for the blue. I do like the blue. It hasn't got to match the PS5.
Speaker 1:Well, it's that royal blue, isn't it? It looks specifically5. Well, it's that royal blue, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It looks specifically nice, yeah, so yeah, looking forward to getting that, let's take a little hair, tiny little hairbrush and then paint in the PS3 in gold. You've got Subaru and Prezza.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what you or I could have a go and it would look absolutely garbage. Send it to Raw Talent, our friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll say, get Raw Talent.
Speaker 1:He'll make it look good, won't he?
Speaker 2:Yeah me with some of Mrs RGT's nail polish.
Speaker 1:You know that PS3? Wow, I thought it was meant to be gold. All she had was puce it'll have to do. Just imagine it's gold. Yeah, similar. All she had was puce It'll have to do.
Speaker 2:Just imagine it's gold. Yeah, similar, very similar Did you know that PS3 has actually got its memory sort of hardwired to its board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did read that somewhere. Yeah, so the hard drive slot is blank. So you get a slot on SSD straight in there and obviously get all the benefits of those sweet, sweet uplifts or as good as the PS3 will give you. But it is definitely improvement. But yeah, the other memories hardwired on the board. I think I saw an early Digital Foundry or similar video where they kind of tested the speed of it Again, I can't remember what the outcome well, the outcome overarching was. It was no quicker than a mechanical hard drive. But I think the kind of conclusion drawn was that the ps3 sort of architecture could never really benefit from those speeds because it was never designed for that standard. Ps4 had a similar problem, but ps4 pro for some just opened up its gates a little bit so it really can benefit from an SSD implementation. All consoles obviously benefit, but some can benefit more than others. But it would be nice to see that tucked up Thermal pasting. A big job for your local guru, is he?
Speaker 2:really, that's simple. Yeah, knock it out of the park. Pretty straightforward for him. It'd be an afternoon. Yeah, and while he's in there, knock it out of the park. Pretty straightforward for him. It'll be an afternoon. Yeah, and while he's in there, like I say, I'll get the caps done.
Speaker 1:Is that worth it, though, on a super slim like that?
Speaker 2:Well, I always just think, if you're there, if you've taken all that, you know, taken all the bits while you're in there, you might as well get them done. You know, if you're doing the thermal paste, get the caps done, get it singing, you know, get a new lease of life. You know, still still quite a few years old, so be worth doing.
Speaker 1:A little bit of what they call in the trade preventive maintenance, rgt. It's nice to see you keeping the classics on the road. Yeah, very impressive. So, with all that console acquiring, talk out the way. Hmm. So, with all that console acquiring, talk out the way. I'm trying to innovate, I'm trying to episode 270, whatever it is, I'm just trying to innovate.
Speaker 1:I'm just just to break the fourth wall. I'm also in incredible amounts of pain, but we're getting through. I'm a little bit like a lion with a thorn in his paw. Yeah, you think. Oh, go on, give him a hug and then I'll scratch your eye clean out, because I'm that sort of asshole. But yeah, I mean thanks to RGT, that's why he wears his safety glasses. He's got perfect vision, but he's just scared of getting a claw in the eye.
Speaker 2:Exactly, never be too safe.
Speaker 1:No, that's why he wears two raincoats when he goes dancing in Soho, and I admire that. Oh yeah, and a full balaclava.
Speaker 2:Wow. Anyway, yes, gta 4 is done. After we finished recording last week, after talking about it I thought right, I'm going to gonna jump on. I've got however many 12 missions left and we're still playing at four o'clock in the morning like old school georgie boy did old school.
Speaker 1:Georgie boy, are you still doing?
Speaker 2:are you still pulling 4ms, are you?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, it wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 2:I decided I walked belatro into the, into the, into the elephant's graveyard, yeah, so anyway, yeah, but I got the last mission and I just couldn't do it and I thought, oh, going to have to go to bed, went to bed, got up on the Sunday, two more tries, got it done, game done. It was very sad to see the game finish.
Speaker 1:Absolute pleasure playing through that again, but is it finished? Finished? Did you throw its charred corpse on the floor and crotch chop over it because you knew the only thing that was left exposed in its body was the rancid online portion? Or is there more single-player elements within the vanilla-based game for you to unlock?
Speaker 2:There's still a few more side missions, strangers and assassins missions to do, which I sort of thought, well, I was expecting to get me ps3 now, so I'd sort of finished with the ps3 I'd borrowed. So I didn't want to have to carry on playing, if you know what I mean. So I'd sort of stopped. Um, if I'd had it on my ps3, I think I'd carried on doing those missions, but because I just loved the world, um, really enjoyed it. I think it took me 37, 38 hours, I think, something like that.
Speaker 2:That's about right, I think for a PlayStation yeah and I've had a bit of a little dilly-dally and elsewhere there and there and doing these side missions and bits, but absolutely loved it, Really really good. Absolutely loved it, Really really good. Yeah, for a game, this, what is it now? 13 years old, 14 years old, maybe more 2008,.
Speaker 1:is it, I think yes, to do the maths Maybe you listen to messaging?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so 17 years old, my God.
Speaker 1:Get your fingers and toes out RGT Do it right.
Speaker 2:You know, so toes out RGT. Do it right, you know. So it's RGT. What?
Speaker 1:Get your fingers and toes out 17 years old, just told you. You did that without taking your socks off.
Speaker 2:I know I'm learning.
Speaker 1:I was going to say Suffolk man's, larger in areas than you expect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's quite surprising for a Suffolk man's larger in areas than you expect. Yeah, he's quite surprising for Suffolk man. But yeah, it's there's, there's. There's a guy on YouTube I think I can't remember what he is now Electric reload or something he's called and he does games for under a fiver on his on his channel, on his shorts, and he had GTA four today was his games for under a five for, and I did message him saying it's way ahead of his time. That game just finished it on a playthrough on on here on the podcast and I said it's, uh, absolutely brilliant, that game, really good, really good, and I still think that's doing things that modern games aren't doing anymore. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:the debt in what way the, the, the the in depth of the city.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, in what way. The in-depth for the city. You know how deep they go within the city with the people talking. I mean even when you see the final credits and you've got hundreds of names of just voice actors that have done pedestrians.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if that's a reflection on the industry. I think that's just a reflection on rock stars ever increasing attention to detail Because you say, oh, they don't do that anymore. Show me another game of that era that even tried to do something like that.
Speaker 2:I suppose the only ones were like the Saints Rose they tried, but they would never.
Speaker 1:They never gripped for me and I'll tell you why. And you make a solid point there. It's that granular level of detail and believability of the world. Before you even start, saints Row's got a guilty obsession with massive, double-ended purple dildos, and for me, I know it's meant to be the playground. Oh, you know, we didn't forget what fun is while GTA went super serious, and I kind of get it. You've got to make a place for yourself't you in the industry. No, if I can't go and read a sign on an air conditioning unit up the back of tony's bakery, they're not trying, are they?
Speaker 2:no, it's, it's. You could see where they were going and I did enjoy the second one, obviously, the the first one was 360, I think wasn't it exclusive.
Speaker 1:That first 360 exclusive. It came in strong, but as soon as you loaded it up you knew it was wrong.
Speaker 2:And I enjoyed two and then they went a bit all out, get out of hell and all that all went a bit off-piste from what Saints Row was. But I did enjoy the second one and even.
Speaker 1:GTA, mate, didn't it really? I mean, it just lost In a way from 2 onwards. To me it resembled more a game like Crackdown, if you remember that, on 360.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good comparison, Like a superhero sim kind of scenario.
Speaker 1:It was very loose. It was enjoyable at the time. I wouldn't say that Cr crackdown one would have aged very well though, mate no, and in a way, has saints row I would probably say not.
Speaker 2:Um, I literally played saints road 2 to fill the void until the next gta came out. To be honest, um, but yeah, like I say, I just think, think that is Rockstar's attention to detail. You know, if you drive past a shop and there's just a tiny notice in that window, if you stop and get out and go up to that notice, there will be something written on there, whether it's funny or silly or stupid joke or someone with a funny name, it will be written on there's so much detail in that world and you just think how old this game is.
Speaker 2:I mean it is absolutely fantastic and yeah, I just think, like I say they don't make them like that anymore. I don't think you get that amount of detail. The detail nowadays is more has it got ray tracing? Is it 60 FPS? How does it run?
Speaker 1:That's more the details nowadays I think that's the sort of we are in that transition period, aren't we from baked lighting, from fate? A lot of what we got to with the graphic fidelity the end of the ps3 era and into the ps4 era was baked in lighting and faked scenarios where it looked fantastic. But obviously now we're in it's weird to call it that, but we're kind of in this weird kind of bambi like state, almost ps1 times, of moving from absolutely nailed on 2d sprites into obviously the very early polygonal stuff of the ps1. We're now moving from baiting stuff that looks fantastic to ropey-looking ray tracing down the Achilles heel console because it's working so hard.
Speaker 2:Very true.
Speaker 1:In a way, one would imagine that a studio with not a lot of funds would probably just sack that ray tracing off and just bake it in, because other than Digital Foundry, who the hell even knows?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's only so many windows on Spider-Man you can stick to to see your reflection, to see the sunlight behind you. In a, you know, in a fast action game, I don't suppose you'd notice too much, absolutely not, and even Spider-Man. I had it in the performance mode, the best performance mode I could, so you didn't really sort of….
Speaker 1:The thing is each gen much like. Let's go look at the Mark I Fiesta tiny little car, brilliant. Now, right, because you need to have bigger boot space and you need to have bigger seating area and you need to have a bigger engine. The Fiestas might as well be the Mondeo. Mm-mm. Yeah, they've all changed now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the same happens when you go for a bit of a console launch. You kind of stick your stakes in the ground about what makes this different. What's the usps and old cerny trotted out and he's rt, it's gonna be ray tracing. Yeah, I swear it's up. This gen boys, yeah, boom, makes a big fuss about it and almost kind of sets the stall out for developers and publishers to say, all right, the benchmark this gen is to get ray tracing working. That's great, but we're the pawns in that, aren't we? We have some great implementations and we have some bad implementations and poor old developers. It must be hard to get that right that must be hard.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you're chucking all your time into getting this ray tracing 4K, 120 FPS where it works, and then you've got a game that's terrible, who's the winner? Do you know what I mean? No one.
Speaker 1:The game is absolute arse, but the ray tracing's first class.
Speaker 2:It's gorgeous. I can see my reflection in a mirror, but I wouldn't want to pay full price for the game. You know, it's just what was that thing?
Speaker 1:you played every time. I had visions. No, what was it called? Rock A?
Speaker 2:City.
Speaker 1:I wanted to call it that, but I was nervous. The name didn't sound right to me. But yeah, rock A City. Yeah, jeez, I'm playing that tonight.
Speaker 2:You know you're talking to Chuck Norris and that is it. The rest of it is absolute garbage. Sorry if anyone likes that game, but oh God dear.
Speaker 1:Don't apologise. Get some splinters in your arse and get off that fence. Rgt Is that game garbage or not?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, for me that was soulless. There was nothing in that whatsoever. Maybe if you played with a few friends you might have a bit of fun, but what?
Speaker 1:it shows you looks like RGT RGT. Yes, Are you on the local parish council?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That explains everything. Okay, I asked a yes or no answer and then you gave me like well, you know, the guys are trying really hard. I don't care Is it poo or not poo.
Speaker 2:That's how we're trained to speak.
Speaker 1:So is it poo or not poo?
Speaker 2:Like I say, if you had a few friends, ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha, unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Oh dear me what else have you been playing?
Speaker 2:More Mario Kart Won't go into that, because everyone's playing Mario Kart. Who's got a Switch 2? But playing More Mario Kart Won't go into that, because everyone's playing Mario Kart, he's got a Switch 2. But, yes, more Mario Kart. Finished the 50cc, he's got all the stars on that and then done the special cup and then done the special cup and then you get the roll credits again. Then I can go back through on 100cc and 150, whatever. So, yeah, really enjoying that and 150, whatever.
Speaker 1:So yeah, really enjoying that. How are you finding the whole sort of in the wild open world exploring section of it? Have you kind of left that for now?
Speaker 2:I've only dipped in there a couple of times, but I quite like it. I think it's a good distraction. When you've finished all the racing you just think, oh, I'll just have a little drive around, have a look, I think it's quite good fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just have a little drive around, have a look. Um, I think I had to go. Yeah, I had to go at it. It's very hard to come. I just followed the roads right and it was very hard not to end up on a certain like doing a loop every time so hang on a minute.
Speaker 2:I don't follow the roads, I just literally go off in the wild. It's up in the snow and log cabins and everywhere. Here I'll just drive literally as a crow fly.
Speaker 1:See what I can find you so edgy, one could argue, a little bit dangerous. Yeah definitely. Do you want to announce your alcoholic beverage sponsor for today? What have you got there, Fred?
Speaker 2:I've got a local brewery to me today. I've got an Adnams Wild Wave English Cider.
Speaker 1:We don't promote this kids or adults? Obviously, drinking leads to depression, suicide or worse, but one can't hurt.
Speaker 2:Well, unless it's BrewDog for George.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean I had an allergic reaction to that live on air. I don't know what episode it was, but that might see at least two people download that episode, so it might go viral by Sunday.
Speaker 2:See your two-month hangover. Don't mate, because that's actually the truth it's true.
Speaker 2:And then also I've been playing our challenge for this month. I've been quite addicted to this and I'm doing rubbish at it, but I still really enjoy this pinball fx. We've been playing hello high Score Challenge for this month by Digital Monkery. Yes, and it's on the Wild West board. You have to play Classic and Normal on the Wild West board, which is free. Download the game and the board is free as well, so it doesn't cost you anything to play. I originally downloaded it on my PS5, but I've also downloaded it on my Switch 2. So I can play. You know, go to bed at night, have a couple of goes on the board, see what high scores we can get. I think the highest score is 20-odd million. I think my best is about eight. So I think I'm bottom of the table.
Speaker 1:But really enjoying it. It's great fun. Do you think your virtual pinball expertise would improve if you weren't squeezing out a log?
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe I mean it does affect the concentration somewhat.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, so maybe I'll try it when I'm not Listen. You need to win one of these leagues because we look awful in terms of well, no, we're perfectly qualified, aren't we? Those that can't podcast, those that can compete on the Discord's challenge?
Speaker 2:Exactly. I'm just proving our motto, that's all.
Speaker 1:Mm, mm, good, well, you know, as living proof of that, living embodiment of that, yeah, I'm bottom of the table. Is this your new? Is this what we're looking at now the new games area or what's going on here?
Speaker 2:No, this is. That's all Mrs RGT's Blu-rays and 3D movie collection.
Speaker 1:But you're in a slightly different location, forgive me than you normally would be.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm currently renovating my living room, so this is the part that is done at the moment. So when I finish this, I'll be back painting again.
Speaker 1:The magic of the interweb. If that camera turned round, there'd be dead umpire lumbers and paint strewn everywhere.
Speaker 2:Looks like Delbury's flat if you turn it round. There's a little bar in the corner. Turn it round.
Speaker 1:Turn it round no way. Turn it round, nope. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's apart from the hidden gem, that's pretty much all I've been playing this week. So okay, what about you then? What have you?
Speaker 1:been oh, oh cowboy. I don't know whether because I'm playing it in handheld mode. I don't know whether because I've got the screen closer to me. Although equidistant, it's the same distance away as the screen would be in terms of ratio versus the TV I've got versus the sofa. I really don't know what it is, but I have been so drawn into Cyberpunk 2077. I knew you'd say this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been role-playing, because I've completed the game at least once and had numerous kind of experimental playthroughs as different characters doing it different ways. You know, being a bit of an arsehole, being a nice guy, just mixing up a little bit to see what the game would do. But this time around I'm kind of role-playing as like a private eye. I've got like a trench coat Admittedly, the only one I can find at the moment is zebra but I thought well, it's 2077, right, work with me. Yeah, but everyone wears outlandish stuff. I've got a little sort of almost oil, you know, petrol slick, almost like um hat, little private eye hat, and I'm kind of taking on jobs that to me feel like private eye cases Generally mooching around, still quite early game.
Speaker 2:Can I just say you've reminded me of Crichton when he was Jake Bullock.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, I ought to rename him.
Speaker 3:Trenchcoat Jake Bullock, Jake Bullock. I should have done that. Anyway. Ought to rename him, couldn't I?
Speaker 1:Jake Bullitt. Jake Bullitt, I should have done that. Anyway, he's V right, as you would imagine, because it's Cyberpunk 27. But in my head I'll call myself Jake Bullitt, just sort of enamored with the world. We talked before about GTA 4 and its world and things like that.
Speaker 1:Playing it this time around again, not rushing for the show to try and cram a review out or try and get some early hands-on thoughts on it or anything like that, just literally just enjoying it for what it is and I'm just having a really thoroughly good time. Rgt and my buy-in to now. I don't know whether it's. Obviously when Cyberpunk launched it was a bit of a mess and that's. I personally didn't have any negative experience with it. I had the odd glitch, but it was more humorous, as I've often said, than it was game-breaking. Now, I don't know whether it's because when I first got it I was like my eyes were scanning everywhere, looking for it breaking like oh no. You know, I was always nervous. I couldn't just enjoy it because I thought it was going to scramble my save at any moment. Maybe that's why, but definitely this time, picking it up closest to my eyes at times when I was looking around in the game because I took it away and I was in a dark hotel room. I thought I was like, oh mate, I had to give my head a little bit of a wobble because it was almost like I was. It was. It was almost like a vr experience in a way. Um, like I say, really enjoyed it. I've also been putting the switch to through its paces, with some f1 manager have to report that the switch to's horsepower has made a night and day difference to my enjoyment of that game, night and day. Uh, the same for witcher three.
Speaker 1:I said it last time. You know, on switch one I'll play it on ps5. I cloud save. I'll pick it up on switch and think, where am I now? Not much has changed in terms of the graphical representation, but everything is solid. The pop-in and the draw circle around you feels solid. So everything that's drawn in around you is there and it's got really solid sort of polygonals to it. It's no doubt about it that it's in that world and everything feels really solid. A little bit like when I described to you.
Speaker 1:We did a little bit of a soft review of the PS5 Pro, didn't we? All I could really say was everything just looks really, really solid. There's no flicker in and it just looks great. Um, and the same could be said for this. Um, I've tried a little bit of mlb on there as well.
Speaker 1:Again, it is a switch one version, so it's just getting brute force through. That's made a little bit of a difference, generally just been really enjoying, um, everything the switch to has got to offer, like really just enjoying it, either dipping into the back catalogue to see or wonder what this is like, because I obviously had a little go on snow runner. I have to report that that's great. Obviously I'm still struggling with the blippy throttle, but I don't want to become. This is to be the death knife. I sink into the switch to. There's so much more going on where those, those paddles matter. Ninty, if you're listening, oh boy, do they matter. But I'll give you a free. I'll give you a free pass along for now. All right, but my god, sort it out yeah, definitely I still.
Speaker 1:I would have been a day one switch to pro Controller adopter if that had had triggers, because it would have been. They're not on the console. Fair enough, it's portable. But if I stick it in at home and I want to hold half throttle on the apex of a bending farming simulator, I bloody will.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see what you mean. I mean I predominantly play mine on the screen at home, so hence why I brought the controller, because you know I like the sort of best controller I can get for that. But I mean you might be able to get aftermarket ones that will have the more sort of triggers on.
Speaker 1:I think it's more that the games need to be coded to receive the variable inputs and obviously, they're not I think my other top tip for people who are thinking of getting a Switch Tourer if they've got one obviously I've got the Mark I Pro Controller works flawlessly. People say, oh, hd Rumble's not as good as HD Rumble 2. It is but the one thing, the one thing that's literally got into my brain, and I love Ninty for this, but at the same time I hate him. Guess what? The one thing you can't do with the switch one pro controller when you use it on the switch to screenshot. No mate, it's gonna niggle you. It's the sort of thing that ninty plant as a mind worm where you're like I can't live. I just can't live without that Pro 2 controller. I can't what? Because you can't wake the console from sleep with anything other than the Switch 2 Pro controller.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did hear that, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the sort of thing that gets in. You're like I'm not bothered. Ninty, I ain't bothered. And then you pick the controller up, you sit down, you get comfy, you press the button nothing.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what Nintendo done. You went no, I'm not buying a Switch 2, switch 2 Pro controller. Nintendo, I'm not doing it. And they went, george, you will, and that's my.
Speaker 1:As soon as I realised that, I was like oh, they know that you and I know that this ain't going to be all right, although it's perfectly fine, aren't they good eggs, given there's a backwards compatibility, but it is a little bit of like.
Speaker 2:And you'll keep forgetting and you'll sit down and you'll press that button and you'll go oh, I can't. And you get up again and you press it and you think In a very short space of time.
Speaker 1:It's going to piss me off to the point where the very next thing I do is go on Amazon and buy a Switch 2 Pro controller.
Speaker 2:And as I do it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to hate myself.
Speaker 2:You're buying it for one button.
Speaker 1:Don't, because it's so rotten, but I've got to, in a way goth me cap to their business practices because they've been very generous. Oh yeah, use a Pro 1 controller. We're cool with it. Dude, yeah, whatever. Very generous, oh yeah, he is a pro one controller. We're cool with it. Dude, yeah, whatever. But you're going to lose that weight quick Cause you're going to be up and down like a sailor's pants in Hong Kong. Uh, rgt, do you want to? How do you want to go into the hidden gem? Do you want me to cause? Obviously you've. You've paid quite a lot of money to the London Philharmonic Orchestra to re-record you A new intro to the HMGems.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a thousand, I would say. The licensing fee alone was somewhere in the region of £250,000, maybe able to Apple Music, emi and Parlophone. It was a lot of money. One wonders if it was worth it. I'm starting to doubt myself, I must admit. You ain't heard it yet, sunshine, so just sit down. Are you ready for the hidden gem, or is there anything else you want to ask or discuss on the playing section before we?
Speaker 2:know I'm um, I am zero on hidden gems the only thing I was going to say you reminded me when you talked about Switch 2, is because Mrs RGT has now taken over the OLED and just because she had a Switch Lite before. So, just to see her, the OLED looks, because she's quite small, so the OLED looks massive. Plus she's now got that brighter screen, plus she can now play out on the TV. So her just sitting there with the pro controller, which she's now inherited, and turning on her console and playing Stardew on the big TV is, yeah, bless her, she is over the moon. That's not our experience with the Switch 2, but for her with an OLED, so yeah, she's over the moon with that.
Speaker 1:I was going to say. I'm really happy for her because it's nice to hear that and it's also nice to see that you've actually decided to share your hardware with family members.
Speaker 2:Oh well, she's paying monthly, so she's got about two more years to pay the interest off and then that's officially hers. I mean, I've done well, I've got 800 paying for it. I've got 800 paying for it. I've got 800 paying for it.
Speaker 1:I've got 800 paying for it, I've got 800. Paying for it, I've got 800 paying for it.
Speaker 2:I've got 800 paying for it anyway, sarah pace for a switch OLED.
Speaker 1:I mean really, it's just like manna from heaven, isn't it for the girl exactly? Exactly, I guess that's what real love looks like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, life lessons, yeah yep, yep, loving, loving it on fire are you ready because I'll get Phil to run the VT.
Speaker 1:Phil, let's show him where the money went. Sunshine. Rgt says listen, you don't know what you're missing. The world of hidden gems is at your command. He doesn't have a point of view, just picks out the gems for you. Isn't he a bit like you and me? Rgt says listen, you don't know what you're missing. Call it there, phil. I'll be honest with you yeah, we can't.
Speaker 2:We only played a certain amount of time what do you mean, hmm? Has? He added the orchestra in Phil.
Speaker 1:You added the orchestra in Phil. Listen, if you faded up track five on your great big table pal, that would have been the full orchestra.
Speaker 2:Oh, we hadn't done it, phil.
Speaker 1:Ringo, it would have been absolutely. Do you know what?
Speaker 2:God, I sold my house and car for that. Listen, jesus.
Speaker 1:You've been working on the show for three years. I call you Phil. I'm absolutely, don't cry, absolute baby. I don't care. Your name's Brian man up, jesus, wet God, you don't even know my real name. Get a grip of yourself. I'll be having a word with you. People think my name's George, brian, jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Axis darling. Get a grip, man, bloody fool. I wonder Joe Rogan didn't want him. Yes, you can see why.
Speaker 1:Get a grip, man, bloody fool oh, no wonder Joe Rogan didn't want him yes, you can see why piss off get out. I'm done with you now out, get out.
Speaker 2:Don't slam that door. Jeez, just can't get the staff.
Speaker 1:I just don't want people to see me like that no, sometimes it needs to be done. Although we are looking for a new producer if anybody's got the obviously great working environment. Everybody matters to us big family here Very kind. Everybody knows your name here at the UCP.
Speaker 2:Out, phil, I don't care if you forgot your pen Out Jesus the UCP. Out, phil, I don't care if you forgot your pen out, jesus right, hidden Gem time it's a family show you know careful. Yeah, I don't want him ruining it for everyone.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest with you. He had to just fade up tracks three and four and it was beyond.
Speaker 2:Him calls himself a producer all he had to use was two fingers, and that was we were there, two fingers.
Speaker 1:and we were there Two fingers was all he had to use, Just honestly, mate straight up.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, just go in gently.
Speaker 1:If the music comes in, you have to fade it up, don't you? No, I wanted the sting of it. I didn't want the gentle fade, wow, absolutely not Just flip, blast it straight away gentle fade.
Speaker 2:Wow, absolutely not Just flip, blast it straight away. Yeah, absolutely Just straight in.
Speaker 1:Anyway, do you want to play the guessing game?
Speaker 2:Not really, but for the sake of continuity, yeah, absolutely, this is developed by Keel Works.
Speaker 1:Keel as in the bottom of a ship.
Speaker 2:Keel as in K-E-E-L Works. Keel Works.
Speaker 1:As in the spine of a ship the keel, the keel. Yes, Okay, I'm not familiar with their works. You're going to have to give me a couple more clues along the way.
Speaker 2:A year would be helpful. Well, the year is 2024. And I'll tell you, the publisher as well is Konami. That's got the old grey matter of sparking, hasn't it?
Speaker 1:give me the genre let's play this loose dog out as far as we can it's a shmup shooter.
Speaker 2:Do you know what I said?
Speaker 1:shmup like all the cool kids, I am never going to be able to pick this out, am I? It's a shmup, yeah.
Speaker 2:Single-player game. It's on PS5, xbox Series of consoles and PC. I'm hoping that they'll do a Switch 2 port of this because that would be awesome on the Switch. They're good for shooters Any idea.
Speaker 1:No, I think that when Tom lost his main, I also lost vicariously a little bit of gaming knowledge. I'll be honest with you I know nothing anymore.
Speaker 2:His main. He's telepathically put knowledge into your brain from his quiz.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, to be honest, I think I sucked off on it. Mm. Yeah, I think you did you know? Just like a miasma, like just an absorption. Mm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think you did Probably a bit too much.
Speaker 1:Well, he's a second cousin as well, so yeah, it's probably totally fine, yeah, he's a second cousin as well. So, yeah, it's probably totally fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it is, because it is especially in Leightonshire Well how do you think you've got to be second? Cousins, exactly, and I'll send away you boys swimming. Or yes, quick, this game is a game called Sign. Yes, quick. This game is a game called Cygni All guns blazing.
Speaker 1:I'll be absolutely straight up with you Never seen it before. But that box art, if you could just hold it for the camera again, Just tilt it forward slightly. Yeah, that's cool. Do you know what it's given me? I don't know if it's intentionally, but what's cool, lads. Do you know what it's given me? What? I don't know if it's intentionally, but what's that game on Dreamcast where you go chasing the white and the black dots, Like one moment you have to shoot the white and the next minute you have to shoot the black dots?
Speaker 2:It's an absolutely awesome game. There was one on GameCube as well, wasn't there?
Speaker 1:There might have been. Actually, I'm trying to remember the name of it, there's one for community corrections. Let's make sure the listeners are listening. Fire it into us. Tell me what game that was. You know what it was. It was on the Dreamcast late release. You shoot black dots or you shoot white dots. If Rowspace Monkey's listening, he'll know.
Speaker 2:Definitely, without a doubt, is it? Ikaruga, ikaruga, there we go. Well done, ikaruga, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's given me well, if you've already typed it in, well done. If you haven't, then give up. It's given me big Ikaruga vibes, with that white and dark aesthetic on the front. I know it's not but it's given me it.
Speaker 2:It's not quite as bullet hell shooter as that, but it has got bullet hell aspects to it. It's got a little story with cutscene at the start, which is quite nice. You don't normally get that with. You know shooter games of this sort of genre and it's quite a basic story. You know your standard invading aliens. You have to go out and take out all these aliens and the motherships, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:You know it's a pretty weak story what was that last game you were playing recently where it was like aliens have invaded the earth and someone else and someone else?
Speaker 2:what was that? Was that a hidden gem, or was it?
Speaker 1:I can't remember. I want to say it was like Earth Defense Force 5, but I don't think he'd have been playing that fired up on PSP.
Speaker 2:That was an invasion game if you mine space yep laughter. That was an invasion game. If you mine space, yep. Anyway, tell me about this fine-looking gem.
Speaker 2:So yeah, scroll and shooter vertical. It's got almost like a little bit of a twin stick vibe. You can aim 30 degrees either way with your right stick to help you shoot while you're moving, which is a nice little mechanic, um, and you and the other little mechanic I like in it is you'll have five shield points. So when you get hit by a bullet you obviously lose one, but if you're fighting a boss you can click over one of them points to upgrade your weapons, so then you've got a stronger missile to then fight the boss with. So you could, you know, punishment for reward, sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Does that gameplay mechanic only unveil itself during the boss battle stages, or is that something that you can implement?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can just do that. You can swap it over and use it as you know, enhance your weapons if you're confident enough to go through. Yeah, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. You can upgrade your ship between levels as well. Um, it does look really stunning, plays really well, um, and I just think with these two new mechanics, that's like they've took an old genre that everyone, or most, gamers love a shooter. I love a schmuck, and you can. Some of them can feel a bit samey, so they've sort of gone well, let's, let's to see what we can do. We can have the punishment reward with your shield. Swap them over for your weapons. Then you got that sort of almost twin stick vibe to it.
Speaker 2:Um, it's tough. It is tough, but you can go into the easier mode, which is a lot more forgiven. Work your way through, learn the mechanics as many levels as you can. Go into the easier mode, which is a lot more forgiving. Work your way through, learn the mechanics as many levels as you can, then jump back on at a harder level and play, and it's very addictive. I mean when I first played, I was dying really early on in the first level. I mean, some of the levels are like 15 minutes long, so they're quite long levels and I was dying quite early, but not once did I just pack up. I just wanted to have another go and another go, and I think for how much? If you're buying retro shooters Dom Dom Pachi or anything like that they cost a fortune. Now they cost an absolute. And this game, this game is probably I think this came out in November 24. So it's probably seven months, eight months old. You can pick this up 15, 15, 20 pound 20 bucks this game physical copy.
Speaker 1:when you, when you um, when you talk of the are you playing up the screen or side left to right?
Speaker 2:which one is it up the screen?
Speaker 1:so vertical. So when you hope for a switch to port, you're hoping for a tote mode, or would it work for that?
Speaker 2:no, that'd be good if they, if they could do that. I mean, I'm sure that's baked into the switch like it was switch one, and then you could get the special grips to play in in the old, the old tape mode. So yeah, hopefully that'd be awesome if they'd done that, because on that eight inch screen as well, that looks stunning. On there I was thinking that would look absolutely fantastic yeah.
Speaker 2:So anyone who's into shooters I think I think carlos likes his shooters and that definitely, and he's got a ps5 or xbox series x definitely pick this up. I think it's definitely worth it for the money. It's a great shooter and the thing is no one. I just I went off the cover art for this, saw it in the shop. I think I paid 20 pound. I thought, do you know what? I'm gonna take a chance on that? Um, just see, and I've been playing it, absolutely loved it. I think. Um, no one talks about it. I never see it online or anything, or on other youtube videos on hidden gems or anything. So I just think, yep, give it a, give it a go. So, yeah, signy, all guns blazing, brilliant brilliant shooter.
Speaker 1:Two things to note. I realised, as we were putting some shorts on the YouTube the other day, how dark I appear.
Speaker 2:You do sometimes. Yeah, it sort of flashes in and out your screen.
Speaker 1:I will fix that. Going forward on the episodes, as you know, I'm a big fan of the video podcast medium. I think it's absolutely brilliant, means I've got to get dressed in the morning and all sorts. But yeah, I remember back in the old radio days where me and Bobby would just turn up in our pants.
Speaker 2:But those days are long gone when I'm on video well, to be honest, no one knows if you're in your pants or not now, and I would probably say you, you are in your pants let's not let the truth get in the way of a great story.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, before we, before we solve all of our darkness issues in the, in the phil, he had one job to do turn the light on. Yeah, he's a piece of garbage. Um, poor old phil. I'm gonna get letters in about that, aren't we? I know we are, but to be honest, Long overdue. He'll be back next week. When we forgot that, we wrote him out. Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant. I just want to say thank you to the people that sent in clips. If you don't know, this has been on the QT. It's been for the community members that are engaged on the Discord. They would pop it up on the X, as it's now known, and the Instagram, I believe. But this is the first time for you listeners in cheap seats who haven't engaged with us on any of the free ways that you can get involved. Now you're going to find out that you can win a full price game of your choice on ps4, ps5, xbox, series x, switch, one or two steam xbox.
Speaker 1:However you fancy it, we can make it happen. All you need to do is send us a 30 to 60-second clip of either you promoing the show, which Carlos did, and he's literally flying away with this at the moment or you can send us a clip of the show that you've enjoyed, that you find funny, that you think other people will find funny. You can send us the timestamps. If you join the Discord, you'll see that Boba's shown you the way. I'm sure you tech-savvy millennials and down no, exactly that's our target audience. Rgt, the tech-savvy Gen Zers out there who bizarrely want to hear someone the same age as their dad talk about a game they have no idea about Trying to find our niche. It's probably like Food for Dogs YouTube channel. It's probably the sort of 62 dead range that we appeal to, which you know I'm stoked, by the way, food for Dogs, if you've not seen that you need to check it out probably one of the best YouTube channels.
Speaker 1:I have learnt so much from Food for Dogs.
Speaker 2:It's unbelievable especially when you're talking. If you lose your passion for a bit, put Food for Dogs on. She's unbelievable. If you lose your passion for a bit, put Food for Dogs on. She will get your passion into gaming back. She's fantastic. Bless her heart.
Speaker 1:What an incredible woman and her story into gaming, to be honest, is unbelievable. Yeah, it's tear-jerking, I'll be honest with you. But from there she has grown and her love for the genre holds no bounds. It's always those niche Japanese bizarre games these big collector's editions of the t-shirt.
Speaker 2:That's too big.
Speaker 1:She's got on, she went through her bushes the other day and she had like a full length pillow. I was like food for dogs. I don't know, is that for the sofa love, but? And I really don't think. If that's for the sofa, love but bear with it. And I really don't think you're the target audience. But do you know what? You can bump and grind that thing. Whatever works for you, girl, I'm all good for it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, before I went on, the side ramble, the immortal UCP George side ramble, send us your clips. Now you can send those. You can join the Discord, send them to DM or a link on there. You can send them to us at questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcastcom. That's the email address. That's right. 272 episodes. Reading it out, maybe it will sink in, I don't know. Send them on X, send them on Instagram, put them, send us on Instagram, put them on your own socials if you want to. Either which way the winner will be determined by the video that has the most views and likes, yep, but if it's and really we're only getting into likes if we've got a double header, rgt, two heads are better than one, as you say. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Double the pleasure, baby.
Speaker 2:Double the fun.
Speaker 1:Triple the fun, triple the fun.
Speaker 2:Well, steady, double or do. No, no, no A little double or do yeah.
Speaker 1:Fine, w W. So please get involved. We are desperate to give away a brand new full price game for the gaming machine of your choice. I'm going to pull the reins in a little bit if you start showing me special editions and limited runs, but if you can get it on Amazon and it's up to the price of oh yeah, we've had to up the budget, haven't we? Because Switch 2 might be up to 80 bucks, but I'm willing to go there. But we need the content to be good and I need to be drowning in it. I want to feel like I'm in one of those specialist japanese videos absolutely I'd like.
Speaker 2:I'd like someone to clip this week us telling phil off. That'd be a good one to put on youtube.
Speaker 1:So we're giving you we're literally giving you the toolbox to get yourself a free game. We're literally giving you the toolbox to get yourself a free game. Yep. Don't leave me hanging.
Speaker 2:Right, that's some good ones in, but even had a, a new YouTube channel which I'd never heard of, um Roger retro. He done one as well. So, and how much you like to show, so brilliant, thank you.
Speaker 1:How did you, retro, find out about this?
Speaker 2:I have absolutely no idea, but he said he listened to us and he's got a gaming loft. Looks very cool. So I've been watching some of his content and brilliant. So thank you very much, roger, retro Fantastic.
Speaker 1:Roger Retro. He's probably got his own Discord Probably 100,000 people in it but Roger Retro would do well from joining the Discord. Yes, there could be a cross-pollination of our guys straight up Roger Retro's channel. So, glad you said channel.
Speaker 2:Well, channel is a passage. Anyway, yeah, so get your clips in unofficialcontrollerpodcastcom or on X or Instagram, whatever. Get a clip send to us and we'll upload it on there, and some of them are done really well. So, yeah, fantastic, really really well. Yeah, fantastic, really really well, yeah.
Speaker 1:So lots and lots of those, please. Literally, you have got to do two seconds worth of doodling on your phone. That you're already doing. Let's face it. Open another tab, clip this up, your Gen Z, your target audience, make it happen. This is the sort of thing you do when you sleep with your eyelashes, you kids. Let's have a look at it and if you're one of the older guys, ask your kids to do it. Easy, that's what I would do. Hey Sunbeam, come here, win me a game. Clip something funny off this. What do you mean? There's nothing funny. Clip something Anything Fine. Strong chance I'll win with that. And there is Thanks Chance I'll win with that. And there is RGT.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Time for the news to scout the very darkest regions of the internet, to bring you the latest stories First up. It's my go. Ah yes, Father, Son, the Holy Ghost, the Trinity has been awoken one last time.
Speaker 1:I say one last time Again, anyway, over on Push Square. Yes, the lord and master of Push Square, sammy Barker. He oversees the whole of Push Square like some feudal medieval lord. I hope you're well, sammy, we won't make the same mistake again. Sony reflects on PS5's catastrophic Concorde. Here we go then RGT.
Speaker 1:Sony vowed not to repeat the mistakes it made with PS5's ill-fated live service shooter Concord, saying it's reviewed its processes to deeply understand how and why the title fell to meet expectations. Speaking candidly as part of a choreographed investors roundtable, ps Studios boss Herman Hulse said he believes some really good work went into the first person shooter, which were dramatically removed from selling under a month. They took their own game down in a month. Yet I can still buy black tiger sony. Make this make sense to me. It would have, it could have found an audience. But no, you let the negative press get in the way. You pulled it down. Um, herman also had that on his fridge, you know. Look what I've made, mummy. No, it's done. Um, but herman admitted it was differentiated to be able to. It was.
Speaker 1:It wasn't differentiated enough to be able to resonate with players after entering a hyper-competitive segment of the market, Hearst continued to ramble on. We've introduced much more rigorous processes for validating our creative, commercial and development assumptions, and we now do that on a much more ongoing basis, and that's a plan that will ensure that we're investing in the right opportunities at the right time, all while maintaining much more predictable timelines. The ex-Guerrilla Games managing director pointed to Marathon as a title the company is taking extremely seriously, and he noted that the team is currently reviewing the alpha cycle that the release just concluded, so it can get better Understand how audiences are engaging with it, said Holst. He also insisted that Sony will not shy away from the live service, despite the lessons it's been learning. It's a great opportunity, fresi remarks.
Speaker 1:While enthusiasts will be fuming to read some of those quotes, it's worth remembering that the vast majority of PlayStation's revenue now comes through microtransactions and while it's scraping a lot of that money off the top of multi-format titles like Fortnite and Genshin Impact, it wants its own money spinners, where it pockets 100% of the revenue for itself. Now RGT, concord Concord worked out a success for some people because some people ordered a couple of copies of it and then found out those couple of copies of Sony's cancelled live service game are worth a lot of money, I'd argue they might not be going forward. But you never know. Collectors, collectors, they like to boost prices, don't they? But an unsealed copy of a game that doesn't work anymore to me has a value of less than two pence.
Speaker 1:But for the completionists that you'd think they might need to have Concord on their shelf. Fair play to you, old bean, but it's not my cup of tea. All that aside, rgt, I think the main focus of the conversation point for this bit is really Sony say they've learnt their lessons, but they continue to push live service games. One would argue that's a company that hasn't learnt its lessons. What's your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it seems a bit late for them to be saying they've learnt their lesson. I mean, they would have known a lot earlier in the production of this game that it wasn't going to work. If you'd done your research and looking at what you're making to what audience you've got, surely you would have known that this game wasn't going to be popular. And whether it's the case of, oh, we're just going to push through, I'm not sure. But then, on the other hand, you've got the weird thing of why take it down, then You've just gained nothing At. Weird thing of why take it down, then you've just gained nothing.
Speaker 1:At least, if you got it up, at least there might be the odd sale every now and then I mean, I don't know what it is or whether it's to save and face or what I don't know, but I think that if they'd left it up, there was a potential that the game could have gone into a death spiral, and that would have been what drives news. Bizarre is negative news.
Speaker 2:I suppose cutting losses get it off.
Speaker 1:Get it off, get it removed. Let it be an embarrassment that people talk about in past tense. Imagine if Concorde was still and it would all be about, and part of me thinks that they probably should have done this. But they should have come up with some post-launch recovery strategy just to try and save some money. But we do know, obviously, that you can cycle these games into a loss-making scenario and write them off against your tax revenue, but I don't know how far down that road you can go before you can pull it. Was it too late for them to claim the money on that as a failed investment? Or you know what's happening there. I don't understand it.
Speaker 2:No, me neither, and it just seems. I mean, I think actually it was probably more of a content thing and something that people didn't want. But I think the actual game played okay and looked all right. I just think it was a. I just missed the mark of what people actually wanted and it just seems a strange thing that surely you'd you'd do focus groups and that before making a game to see what people wanted and is this a game that they'd you know? Did enough people say they wanted this for them to go for and produce it? You know, and it just seemed you know, even from the start. I would say yeah.
Speaker 1:I would say there's potentially yes that people said they wanted this. Now, not directly, but certainly based on the back-end information that, sony, you've got about the games that people are playing rgt one would one would have thought this would have been actually boss. The big computer says we need to produce this game right now yeah, yeah that's what people are playing, aren't they?
Speaker 2:yeah and just, and then we had all this, you know, sony, concentrating on live service stuff, and overall, when you look back at it now, it's just the gamers that have suffered because we haven't had the first party releases, because they've been concentrating on these, these live service games that haven't had the first party releases, because they've been concentrating on these live service games that haven't worked, and everyone's just left with a bit of sour taste in their mouth just thinking well, if you've learned your lessons, then start getting some big single player games out again, because they will sell and people will play them.
Speaker 1:I want you to picture the scene me and you. We're in a boardroom, maybe in Europe, I don't know, or Japan. Herman Horst is at the head of the table. You've got someone from Naughty Dog on the table it's not Neil, he's busy. You've got a few other Sony PlayStation first-party teams there as well, and Herman turns to Naughty Dog and he said we're not going to carry on with the Last of Us multiplayer game that you were going to do. We're not going to bother with it. We're not going to bother with it Because do you know what? Here comes Jesus, he's conquered. Look at this team of ragtag guys. How can you not fall in love with them? Jesus, herman, I know you're from Amsterdam, mate. That's a stretch. That's garbage. How can they have left? What is it? And the thing is, it would have been called Last of Us, right, fine, but it would have been the Last of Us universe. You don't need control. That's what I mean.
Speaker 2:You've already got it's a secure fan base. Concord is new. You've got to make fans for it. Last of Us already had the fan base. You'd bring a certain percentage of them over, so you're guaranteed day one to have quite a few players. I just thought how can you cancel that and make Concord from scratch? It's just like no. And I just. Sony really seemed to have lost their way these last couple of years, and I don't whether they thought that the single-player big story games were coming to an end, or people didn't want to play them, or they'd noticed a drop in sales. I don't know. And they've tried something different, but it's backfired big time.
Speaker 1:I reckon I think the thing that made them move their needle in terms of their whole business operation was the player retention on their own single-player games versus the multiplayer shooter games Fortnite, warzone. Whatever People get in at night, they throw the keys in a bowl. It's not that kind of party.
Speaker 2:I was going to say this went off the list. That's where they keep their keys. You're right.
Speaker 1:For once it's a very innocent slip from me. He throws his keys in the bowl, sits down with his cup noodle can of Monster, a burger bite crisps. He's like I know, I know, I know, I know, but I'll just want to play some Warzone tonight and I'll be like till four in the morning. Imagine Sony's mega computer screaming they love these games, herman, they love them, they absolutely love them. Look at what they're playing all day, every day. The day you brought out the biggest game, they didn't touch it. They played Fortnite. Wow, I think we need a piece of this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the problem is they're already established titles that have been going for years and people go back and follow them. A bit like your FIFAs and your MBAs and bits and pieces trying to bring a new dog into the pen. It's just going to be tough from the start, whereas, like you said, if you've got one that's already linked to an established IP, you've got more of a chance. I would have thought, well, we'll find world because I don't believe the.
Speaker 1:I don't believe the. Banhammer has been brought down on Herman Holst's pet Horizon open world Chilby universe that he's building. Can't wait to see that absolute dog's breakfast on the doormat. I'm going to be about as into that as Lego Horizon. That absolute gangbuster success, unbelievable, yeah, first class, darling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like I just said before. They just seem to have put all their eggs in one basket. It hasn't worked and they almost seem to be right. Right, let's apologise, so we'll learn a lesson. Where do we go now? What do we make now? But we turn a corner worked and they almost seem to be right. Right, let's apologize, so we'll learn a lesson. Where'd we go now? What do we make now?
Speaker 1:but we turn a corner. Obviously, this year we're getting death, stranding 2, we're getting ghost of yotai. Is that them learning their lesson or is that them just serving us up what they already had in the bag and the next game?
Speaker 2:I think it's just lucky that they had them in the background working away on, so, um, it's a good job they did, I think. Isn't it? And no disrespect to the way Xbox has gone of late. I think they're very lucky, because if Xbox were really knocking the games out big first-party exclusives then Sony would have been in a lot more trouble.
Speaker 1:There's a universe not too dissimilar to our own where, instead of Xbox sort of grinding out not very successfully in their mind this gen people talking about oh they've gone, multi-format and blah, blah, blah, done this and done that Actually the slew of games in a slightly different world with slightly different momentum and a slightly different spin from the gaming media. What are Xbox doing wrong? They're not doing anything wrong. No, in fact, they're doing it all right. But now we live in a universe where all those great games that they've been incubating are actually popping for someone else's machine. Yeah, and I think to be fair.
Speaker 2:And it's a good job they are for Sony's front, For Sony yeah it's a good job they are, they're top ten developers this year of Xbox. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:What world are we living in?
Speaker 2:It's mad, isn't it?
Speaker 1:And I feel like dragging them both in here. Let's sit down, herman. Here you go. Uncle Phil, grab yourself a pew. I'm the headmaster. I'm the headmaster. I'm like what the hell's going on with the pair of you? Absolutely disgraceful behaviour. Clip round the ear, bang their heads together, send it back out in the playground Unbelievable.
Speaker 2:It's very strange times.
Speaker 1:I can't quite bump my mind off the track that as gamers, we are a lot more responsible for this mess than we realize. We say one thing, we do another thing. We don't make a lot of sense, rgt, especially in the metric of a customer satisfaction survey, or what would you like next? Uh, I think they just need to double down and and just focus on making great games. We talk of Microsoft and PlayStation and incestuous love in our GT as we seamlessly transition to your piece of news. What have we got?
Speaker 2:Well, this is over on Pure Xbox.
Speaker 1:Father, son, the holy ghost Beautiful. This is by. Frasier Legals, legals.
Speaker 2:Legals Beautiful. This is by Fraser Gilbert over there at Pure Xbox. How's?
Speaker 1:he doing.
Speaker 2:He's good, he's good. Yeah, he's alright, give him my best.
Speaker 2:I will do. I will do. Ps5 execs questioned about Xbox moving away from consoles in official sony interview. Um well, this is something we didn't expect to see. In a new sony fireside chat featuring a bunch of ps5 related executives, the speculation of whether xbox might believe in the traditional console business was brought up Specifically. Justin Hill, who is SVP of Finance and Investor Relations at Sony Corporation of America, asked this question.
Speaker 2:Many investors are speculating that Microsoft is moving away from the console. If that's true, is that good or is that bad for PlayStation? If that's true, is that good or is that bad for PlayStation? The answer was delivered by Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO, hideki Nishino, who's the person you see in the image up above if you go onto their website. He's advised that competition is a good thing for PlayStation and it's not just Xbox that provides it. Is a good thing for PlayStation and it's not just Xbox that provides it, while also stating there's no urgent need to pivot on Sony's console strategy. In his eyes, pivot yeah, I was thinking that Pivot. Here's the answer that Nishino gave. So we think that competition in the business is healthy and pushes us to innovate. There are multiple participants who together drive the overall gaming industry and while there are new engagement models being explored, we ultimately think this is a good thing. However, as I mentioned earlier, we are confident on our current strategy. There isn't an urgent need for us to pivot, but we will continue to monitor play patterns appropriately, as required.
Speaker 2:Now, before everyone goes panicking, we've already heard that the next xbox console is on the way in some form, and that is expected to be an xbox series x successor arriving in 2027. The speculation stems from a belief that it might be more PC-like than in the past, potentially supporting the likes of Steam in addition to current-day console games. The reality is that we don't know enough about Xbox's console plans for the future right now, but clearly Sony doesn't need to pivot from the strategy that's proved successful with the ps4 and ps5. Xbox's next system might end up taking a different form as a result, but the signs suggest microsoft's not moving away from the console market. Entirely interesting, I I can understand what people are saying Now. I think I mean I think they're not quite telling the truth. Sony, there, I think we're saying oh no, we're confident in our strategy. Blah, blah, blah. No, you've made a bit of a left-wing strategy move.
Speaker 2:It hasn't worked and because of Xbox's current situation, as we said on the last article, you've sort of weathered the storm more than what you would have done if you got away with it if xbox was actually neck and neck with you selling consoles and they were releasing indiana jones hi-fi rush see your fees and that was all on their console, you could have been a different story, could have been a big different story so work.
Speaker 1:Best case scenario for Sony. It ends up being a slog to the death, like PS3 versus 360. And I'll be honest with you, although they had a great go off the back of the PS4, I just don't think they've had enough in the war chest to see that out.
Speaker 1:No, absolutely not, especially with all the money that they'd already started sinking. At the end of last gen and beginning of this They'd already sank multiple millions, possibly even knocking on our door billions, into several failed or soon to fail in that moment, life service games that maybe didn't even see the light of day in the end. Anyway, it's I don't say it's. The thing is we're sat here, sony's revenues are up, their profits are up. You could say it's a failure. It's obviously not a failure by any metric, but when you the thing for Sony is the only measurement of success they have on themselves and our only measurement of success on them as a business is their previous wins historically.
Speaker 1:And PS5, it doesn't even have the ability to claim the cult status of PS3 or something like that. It doesn't have it. It sold well. It's probably not going to outsell PS2 in the long run, but it sold very well, especially considering the higher price of the base unit. Just to get on board the train. The ticket itself went up this gen quite considerably and I've hinted about this. But the price to get onto the ps6 train oh, especially with every single accessory they're doing going to be two grand yeah, well, we had um guy on our discord, uh, hg games.
Speaker 2:He was talking about the rumored prices for the xbox handheld which is coming out. Well, technically it's, it's a, it's a rogue alloy, sort of re-skinned one, but they're also going to be bringing out their, their own version. But they were talking sort of 600 bucks, going up to the top versions of a thousand. And you start, well, and I know some of these rogue alloys and these lenovo's handhelds that they do are pricey, you know. So, for the next gen hardware, I mean, if a switch 2 is launching at 450, I mean, like you were saying before, I think we could see some big figures being launched for these new consoles.
Speaker 1:Um, and I know we're gonna have I was just gonna say they're gonna have, just for the optics of it, they're're going to have to be below a grand, but I think that's going to be a struggle for them.
Speaker 1:Because I think the biggest complaint from the PS5 gen is where's the upgrade? Where is the upgrade? Now again, I went down the pro route so I kind of ruined PS5, and now I've gone down the pro route again. Ps of ruined ps5. And now I've gone down the pro route again. Ps6 can look like a bag of garbage. I know that. I know, that. I know that, I know that, I know that, I know all that, I know that. But man alive.
Speaker 2:The generational lifts these these days are minimal yeah, yeah and and the thing is getting more like pc. They're very, very similar pc based inside um, and we know if you've, if you're a pc gamer, I mean let us know, jump on a discord, email us, let us know. But we know, we know the pain of your guys wallets when you have to upgrade a graphics card or you know it's big bucks, you know so, to release a console, a similar to a, to a PC, with those parts in it's. You know. Obviously we know they take losses on consoles, but after a while that you can't get that loss too big. It needs to be something coming back.
Speaker 2:Oh completely yeah. So yeah, it's. It's interesting, I think I've done me personally. Do I think Xbox are moving away from console? I don't think quite yet.
Speaker 1:No, they've got another gen in them.
Speaker 2:Definitely another gen in them. I don't think Games Pass has gone anywhere near what they were hoping it to do, hence why they've launched it on many different things. Will they go down the Steam route? I don't know. I think you, you know, people have steam on their steam decks and on their pcs. Is it a place I mean it would be sort of the only console to have it? Um, I know there was rumors of steam making a home console. Um, there's been rumors for a long time that they were going to make their own Steam sort of console for at home, I mean one would imagine just to cut in there.
Speaker 1:If they were going to make a home console, I think it would be a Steam Deck without a screen, kind of a ramped-up version of that, and they don't need to go much further. And I'll be honest, rgt, playing the Switch 2 as I am right now, we talked during the Switch 2 review about how the Switch 2 had managed to catch up in a way and sink its coattails definitely into this gen. It can hold its own within, and by this gen I mean the gen it's arrived late to, that's very nearly over, much like the Switch 1. They've got their grease simmits in the back of it Now. The ability for it to perform on a level with the series s, the ability for it to be on a level where it outperforms ps4, a game where a console where you can still play some of ps5's biggest hits god of war, ragdoll, rock, etc. Etc.
Speaker 1:yep yep is that fidelity that we've reached at that point just enough to convey a good story? Is it enough to be to be graphically beautiful from an artistic point of view, without going any further? I'm kind of trying to insinuate that I think we're in this world. It's been talked about diminishing returns of pound. For an extra 100 pound you're going to be able to see the face fuzz on your Cyberpunk character. Well, no disrespect, guys, I don't think we'd need that. Fine, play it on the Switch. Totally cool on there.
Speaker 2:I was trying to go at work the other day and he said to me that had a big three Switch 2, Series X, PS5 or PS5 Pro. Let's go PS5 pro if you could only have one. And then now what would you have? And I said I'd have switch to about those three I would go switch to and it's basically because, yes, in docked mode it's not as powerful as a ps5 and it's not as powerful as series x, but you're getting 4K gaming. It looks very good, 60 frames per second. You've got all your Switch library and you just pop it out of that dock and you just carry on playing your games. It's very, very close now. Whereas before you had a PS5, a Series X and a Switch because it just weren't quite there for the TV, you had a PS5, a Series X and a Switch because they just weren't quite there for the TV.
Speaker 1:It was. I 1,000% agree with you, but my big nervousness and they're not exactly hiding this fact, I do believe they're on with doing it themselves is much like the Wii caused Sony and Xbox to panic and they independently developed the Kinect and the Move. I feel like the Switch is making them panic and I can see them do something absolutely ridiculous like making a hybrid machine. Now my question to you, rgt you've just said Switch 2 would love it. If it was my choice, xbox would go in the bin, playstation would be in the bin, I'd kick it down the street to the local orphanage or some other worthy cause and I'm just happy with my Switch 2.
Speaker 1:Would you feel that if PlayStation launched a similar hybrid console, you could see that being your main bro? Or is it too late? What do you want from gaming? Because I think this is this is the message that we're sending. It's very confusing because we're raving about switch 2, but then the idea of sony sort of imitating that makes my skin go cold I think also, you've got to remember as well, this is the second creation of Switch.
Speaker 2:This is the second version and they seem to on our opinion anyway not everyone's opinion, but on our opinion they seem to have ironed out a lot. They've brought it closer to the consoles and they've ironed a lot of these issues out. But they've learned. They've had eight years of Switch 1 to learn. What do we need to do on the Switch 2? We need these Joy-C out. But they've learned. They've had eight years of switch one to learn. They've been. You know, what do we need to do on the switch to? You know we need these joy.
Speaker 2:Cons of rails aren't very good, do you know? I mean we need the buttons a bit bigger. Hey, what a bigger screen. We probably need at least 1080. We need four car and all these little bits and pieces done. We need that usb c port on the top. You know all these little problems done now for playstation to do this, or Xbox. We know they're doing their handheld, but this is almost like well, we don't want to do a Switch 2 clone because they've done that and then we're just going to be accused of copying. We've got to do something different. And you just think well, you're starting from scratch. Yes, we've had a PSP, but as an actual hybrid. I mean, what are you going to do? Because sony would probably want it to be similar to power, to a ps5, but then how do you get that into a handheld? I mean, it's going to be walking around with a lot of briefcase, you know it's good, it's a steam deck issue again yeah, and again, because it's going to be their first iteration of it, of this hybrid console.
Speaker 2:it's probably going to be a lot of teething problems with that, and on top of that it's going to be expensive, you know. It's probably going to be double the price of a Switch 2. And you just start to think, well, do you need to go in that market? Yeah, you're right. And if they go and dabble in that, sorry, it's been done, it's been done very well. Stick at what you do. All right, xbox have gone down a different route. Sony, you do the same. Stick to your.
Speaker 1:It's that awkward moment, isn't it, where Switch grew from being the cook? It's now in a solid relationship and then its old girlfriend turns up, Hang on, and it's XX. It's Xbox and place. Guys, you're embarrassing yourselves.
Speaker 2:You place guys this. You're embarrassing yourselves. You're not swingers, yeah, I know, and it's just, and the three of them have different strategies. Anyway, just double down on your strategy and stick to it, all right, and there'll be room for like. At the moment, me and you and quite a few other people in discord have all three. That's what you want people to do to buy all three. Don't try and jump in on the other one's party, because they've already mastered that. You know. I mean cloud gaming and games past. That's the xbox thing and especially cloud game, and that's probably the best way to play. If you want to play cloud gaming, cloud gaming, cloud gaming I'll get there um, I didn't, I never.
Speaker 1:I never heard you make one slip up. I'll just, I was ready for your next nugget. To be honest with you.
Speaker 2:And then PS5, get back to your big single-player games, your big first-party titles. Get into that. Start getting some big storylines out from Naughty Dog and Insomniac.
Speaker 1:Keep raising that visual fidelity as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just keep going and you know, don't try and jump in. They tried that with PlayStation Premium and you know they've had the odd day, one release and bits and pieces. But if you all just do your own thing, there's room for everyone. Don't try and jump on everyone else's bandwagon.
Speaker 1:Hey mate, what with stars cancelling recently, I was thinking the other day like, hmm, I can see Premium getting literally slashed. You know, they kind of dipped in. I don't know if they're going to stay. Why would they? I bet they're running the metrics. I bet those classic retro games that they bring into the premium offering, I bet they're barely getting played.
Speaker 2:Do you know what I was so excited when they announced all these Do I play them? Do I how?
Speaker 1:No, and I think that's the problem. We say we want them, they spend the money converting them's the problem. We say we want them, they spend the money converting them, spend the money putting trophies in them. And not even our own rabid. You know platinum devil, my ginger red-headed stepson. As per the show law, he's not even touching him in a barge pole no, no, it's again.
Speaker 2:it's something that a lot of people shout about but not really use, so it's.
Speaker 1:I hate to say this, mate, but OG Tom was right. Mm. Yeah, go back to series one and tell me how many times that dude's been right, because people think I'm getting it right a lot of the time. Og Tom.
Speaker 2:No, bang on, bang on.
Speaker 1:Ten years in the the future, that kid's living here. That's out of the hell.
Speaker 2:No, very true, Absolutely bang on. So yeah, back to the original point. Are they moving away from console? I don't think so. I think they're going to test the water with this sort of rogue alloy skinned Xbox. See how it goes with Games Pass on. I think Could be quite popular. Handheld seem to be the talk at the minute.
Speaker 1:I think they're getting themselves into a place where they can maybe push that Xbox on everything. But I think this next gen not to serve up a console and just say, well, you can play Xboxes absolutely around and you can play all our games, we'll say for free, but for X, y, z a month, okay, so it's not free precisely, but we can certainly get into a place where you think it is. I think if they didn't release a platform that you could stick under your TV, even if it was just a cloud gaming server, bouncer dude, I think that the press alone would kill it, kill them. I think they need a platform. I don't know what that looks like. Like. I say whether it's an absolute rip snort or two xbox series, four xbox series x taped together with hbi hdmi stuck on the backside I don't know what it looks like or whether it's a tiny little thing that just literally streams it to your TV, just so you feel like you've got that standalone thing. And maybe it has a pre-menu, a preloaded menu, where the actual cloud thing doesn't begin until you press, go on the game and then it dials it out for you and brings it back.
Speaker 1:Having the machine literally solely be a menu selection tool would mean it would always be snappy. You could literally you could get away with a switch processor in there if all it's got to do is sweat and acid on the screen. Although we don't want it, we don't want it like the nintendo switch shop no, we don't want that experience. But what I'm saying is it could cost them relatively little to get on board. There is going to be the sort of cold hand to some of the more remote parts of the world where this thing has to have a constant internet connection to work. Definitely. Yeah, that's another one of those kind of bad news stories that you are struggling to circumvent in this era if you decide to ditch an under-the-tv box. So I don't know what the metrics look like, but definitely one last gen left in both of them, I think In all three of, obviously, the current big boys that are playing in the game. I think they've all got at least one gen left in them before either calling it or moving to some sort of cloud-based future.
Speaker 2:I think so. I think I think nintendo will always. I think they'll always have a platform, I think they'll always have a console. They seem to do their own, their own thing. They, they prefer that. Um, whereas I think when you get like, uh, xboxes at the moment seems to be dipping its toes into different areas. So it's tried the cloud game and it's now trying a bit of the handheld console. You've got the consoles itself. You've got your digital consoles. They're almost like putting their fingers in all the pies to see what sticks, to see what is going to work. But I think you're right, I think Xbox will eventually just cloud.
Speaker 1:They've put their finger in lots of pies but never really made any of those pies taste good.
Speaker 2:No, you're correct, I think it's almost, rather than they almost don't want to risk going all in. They went all in with Games Pass and it just hasn't quite got the momentum they wanted. So at the moment they're just tentatively. Well, we'll do a handheld, but we'll get rogue alloy to do it I'll say this again mate games pass.
Speaker 1:If you were to do your market research and then focus that market research on netflix, right, which would make sense, yeah, the games pass seems like a really great idea, but what no one forgot to realize in that moment was there just aren't enough gamers, and there aren't enough gamers specifically on that platform, for it to ever work yeah, yeah, we've said this before the the die and date.
Speaker 2:How good that is. The extra sales and extra the extra subscriptions. You would need to have regular AAA, £150 million titles being released. The metrics don't add up on that. They don't work.
Speaker 1:A great system and a great idea, but hey, mate, and what I would say is if you're in the ecosystem, bear play to you. Yeah, exactly yeah, bear play to you. In a way, you're winning 100% for yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, For a consumer definitely.
Speaker 1:But step back a minute. You can only pump that whale so long before it's dead. And, as an Xbox user, right now you are killing your own platform. I know it sounds crazy, like well, I'm not buying full-price games, they're giving them away. I know they are, but you and them in conjunction with each other, are killing that platform. Games Pass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, they're now selling them on the competitor.
Speaker 1:Well, games Pass is absolutely great, but we need a few hundred million more people on Xbox alone. I think it's, like I say, from a consumer point of view, absolutely brilliant, from Xbox's point of view, awful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, money-wise it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and as a few other people you know, journos and whatnot have pointed out, it's literally trained their ecosystem to shun their own store. Because I'm gonna oh, I'm really excited in the end james is out tonight. You're not buying that, are you? Yeah, I'm buying it tonight. Yeah, I'm gonna get the physical moron dude get it for free on there oh, yeah, okay and even xbox is shying away from doing you nice boxed games for their own platform.
Speaker 1:Even I just, if that ain't enough, tentum, to go out and spend money on the thing that Microsoft have blown the kitchen sink at. They actually developed a game that's gone over reasonably well and actually I'll say we're guilty of doing a disservice on the show and I've always been a big pusher of this Flight Sim a disservice on the show and I've always been a big pusher of this Flight Sim. That used to be like 80 quid when you went and bought it for your old school PC back then.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then you updated maps and bits and pieces you could buy afterwards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, In a world where microtransactions were deemed to be a little bit shady on the internet, you went like I don't know about that. Yeah, people must have been banging their ex-frustrated, bloody BA pilot sat there blowing their mortgage on an expansion for Honolulu or something ridiculous. Are you going to fly there? No, but I like the idea I can. This says every person that bought dlc ever. Um, yeah, I think let's rest it there. I think we'll go around in circles all day.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping, as the next generation begins rgt, that the the fog thins and we can see exactly what they've all been fighting for. It's the wild west still, in a way, and when the smoke has settled and dust has cleared, I think we'll see exactly what they've all been fighting for. It's the Wild West still, in a way, and when the smoke has settled and dust has cleared, I think we'll know exactly the right direction to go in and we might find out that two or one of the big three has took another misstep. And they're done, because these towers, they're big and they're full of cash. I mean, imagine they've got to be made of glass. You've only got to be one bad game, one misplaced social media comment and the groundswell in this modern era of social media and outrage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a. It's a fragile world anyway, isn't it? And the thing is as well.
Speaker 2:When you, when you're, when you invest in, like I said, 150, 200 million pound in a game and that game don't stick, people will vote with their wallets and you will know very quickly that that has been a failure and you don't need any of them missteps for that kind of money to suddenly, oh you know, we're, we're not doing very well here in the red a bit here. So, yeah, it's, you can be doing well one minute in in in the games world, but you can soon, you can soon fall. So, uh, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with this, with this next gen.
Speaker 1:I think the the first article I found I've misplaced, so I've grabbed. Grabbed another one. Are you ready for it?
Speaker 2:We certainly am.
Speaker 1:As we said, this is part of the Holy Trinity Father, Son and the Holy Donkey Kong 64. This is courtesy of Nintendo Life and their sexy little man, liam Doolan. Switch 2 sets all-time launch record for video game hardware in the US, beating the PS4's record with the help of Mario Kart. Give me more details, george Fine. I will Following Nintendo's news about the Switch 2 becoming the fastest-selling Nintendo hardware ever in the US. We've got some numbers to go with it, courtesy of Sakama's analyst Matt Piscitella. According to Piscitella, this is an all-time launch week unit sales record for the video game hardware in the us over one that's nintendo stockpiled dude with over 1.1 million sold uh units sold weekend in june 7th 2025. The previous record was held by Sony's PS4, and the sales calculated here for the Switch 2 exclude my Nintendo Store purchases. Additionally, 79% of US buyers purchase the Switch 2 exclusive launch title Mario Kart World on release, either physically or as part of the system bundle.
Speaker 1:On the software front, mario Kart is leading Switch 2 physical game sales in the same location followed. Now I hate this. This dude's gone with what I went with. We're half of America anyway. Let me put my head on for a moment. I went full Lincolnshire there. Let's rein it in. On the software front, mario Kart is leading Switch 2 physical game sales in the same location, followed by CD Projekt Red Cyberpunk 2077 in second place and Zelda, te tears of the kingdom, switch 2 edition in third. My god guys, so unsurprisingly the new mario kart has dominated software sales on the switch 2 in other regions in the first week.
Speaker 1:Early this week, nintendo officially announced switch 2 had sold over three and a half million units globally in its first four days, making it the highest global sales level for any nintendo hardware ever in this time. Rgt staggering numbers. They're being thrown around. Um, now, obviously switch to's momentum's probably going to maybe plateau a little bit between now and I'll predict it might not because the fever for the console seems to be absolutely rabid, despite some of the clickbait articles about how garbage the switch 2 is or how badly they've messed up. Guys, honestly, give it a rest. I know we all need opinions and by any metric it's not the most powerful console on earth and it's not this and it's not that and you want it just from Nintendo. It is what it is, but what they've delivered is exactly what you asked for the thing is as well if you look back on these certain YouTubers.
Speaker 2:Their videos were what do I expect from the switch to? They wanted better joy cons. I want a bigger screen. They want better graphics. They wanted 4K. You know, certain things changed on the console. They've done it.
Speaker 1:I don't understand that beat-em-up guy. Bring him here in front of me. Get his man-long-air man-air down. Get him bent down in front of me. Bring me the cleaver. I'm having his head clean off and I'm going to stick his head on a spike at the end of the Farmington Drive. So people know that I am done with this clickbait drivel. Done with it.
Speaker 2:I just think to what I wanted from the console and I think they've delivered on everything, even down to the eShop just being approachable and easy to use.
Speaker 1:The biggest grind I get is the price. Honestly, people have disassembled the PS5 Pro and they've found justification for every single capacitor in there, right, and the price point, how? If you remember, one of my predictions was it was going to be 499 and that was going to be a tough gig for them. It's 450 with Mario Kart World, by any metric sold separately, should be an 80-quick game and is yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think also you've got to think you've got a home console and a handheld within that.
Speaker 1:And let me tell you this now, when the dust has settled and smoke has cleared and all the Switch 2 launch fever has died down and all those morons have done their maybe I got it wrong with the Switch 2 videos as a transition back to getting into penis in their mouths. Okay, when they finally arrive at that point no RGT, I'll tell you how it is. It's exactly like that They'll be telling us how great the machine is. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we got it right from the gates and I believe we were the right side of history. There are some negatives. I went into them In handheld mode. The Joy-Cons have you looking around like a kid who's had way too many monsters right and forgot his ADHD medicine? Okay, it's nuts. Some of the implementation of the launch games, apart from Mario Kart World, what we're looking at? What we're looking at here? We're looking at a PS4 game. Some would argue not that strong a launch lineup. Oh what, you've high res. Okay, so it's free to the people that have sipped the Kool-Aid and it's 10 quid to the people that haven't. Let's see the new things coming through. I think would be my second argument. I think the game chat camera big flop. I'll be honest, I think it's a big flop.
Speaker 2:PS5's never kicked off the PS5 camera. Who uses that? I used it for streaming. That was it.
Speaker 1:In my cupboard, never even been unwrapped from launch day. I'm hoping that might be worth at least £2 in a couple of years.
Speaker 2:Maybe I just used mine for streaming. That was it. I don't have it out. I just don't see the point. I don't even know what it was made for.
Speaker 1:For that, for that. Whereas the PS4's first camera kind of came with some innovative gameplay ideas, implementation of the sensor bar, you know people forget that Astro's playroom, launched as a astro bot, was there day and date to make that camera look cool. He struggled. It ended up really being a kind of vr life support for the aged move sort of combination that had going on there, didn't it? And really, ultimately, fisher price, my first streaming tool. Guess which clown used that camera to stream his minecraft stream? Yep, yeah, me right, and it was grainy and it was dark and it was a mess. It is what it is. But that camera, I don't know, I, I don't know, I just don't know, I just don't know. I feel like that's a bit of a dead-end street, if I'm honest. But then we look at the rest of it and we think, yeah, impressive, bigger buttons, that we asked for the bigger screen real estate, that we asked for the ability to run more modern games, that we asked for less compromises, that we asked for everything we asked for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know what people were expecting. I really don't.
Speaker 1:Could they have made it more powerful?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But then where would the price point?
Speaker 2:be. And also, you know, there's an idea that there's a certain real estate that Switch has and they're trying to stick within that. If you start, then, making these PS5 levels, I mean it's going to be huge.
Speaker 1:You're not. You know Well. One thing I've noticed is I've got my Portal carry case. Because of the ergonomic grips, this thing ends up being deep, it's wide, it's portable, but it's on the edge of not being portable. I like the Portal, but the Portal's fading into insignificance off the back of the Switch too, because I can play that in a field in the middle of nowhere. I don't need the internet for it, but equally so, that flat aesthetic means you can slot it between two folders in your school bag, no drama yeah, so yeah come.
Speaker 1:Christmas time again. That will launch, that will, as every little Johnny around Johnny and Johnette around the world starts to write their letters to Father Christmas and number one is Switch 2,. They're going to see an absolute uplift in sales between, I would argue, mid-October and mid-December. It's going to go gangbusters for them. Yeah, it will, and I hope the other two are going. What are we going to do? I don't know. You better get out the discount hammer. That PS5's got to be at least 150 quid, as we're done. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Maybe wrong, but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Rgt. That brings us to the end of the news in what I would call a hearty discussion between two grown men discussing children's toys. It's 2025, and this is completely acceptable.
Speaker 2:Without doubt.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope it is Because we've done it Says every criminal ever yeah, because we're done. It Says every criminal ever yeah. Is there anything you want to share with the community? Before we dip into thanking them and I ask you what you're hoping to play, and then we kind of jump on this sort of almost tandem-like Vespa that we've got.
Speaker 2:I'd just like to say thanks to everyone for your clips this week. Who's been doing the clips for the show? Been great fun seeing them, and you know carlos and boba, and even the one about me, which is very.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll be honest with you. I uploaded that onto some of the socials. But sorry, digital monkery, I'm not putting that on YouTube, mate, I'm just not.
Speaker 2:It was funny, though Very good. But, yeah, thanks to everyone who's done that and new people doing it as well. And yeah, it's great to see and you know, it makes it all worthwhile when people promote the show and say, look, we really enjoy listening to these two idiots talking about games and and what they're playing at the moment, and yeah, so it makes it all worthwhile. So, yeah, just just thanks for everyone for that and uh, yeah, keep them coming, keep them coming there you go.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, I want, I want to be surprised. I want someone who's a complete stranger to the show to show up in my DMs or my emails or the show's emails with literally the best clip ever. Because at this point I'm starting to think, well, there's a prize, no question, we've already discussed it. It's a free game for the big boy who gets the most likes and the most views and shares, and all that. But I'm starting to think it's a secondary prize, probably for some UCP merch. But the clip that I find funniest personally, is that fair?
Speaker 2:That's fair, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we have taken the budget and we have blown it.
Speaker 2:Definitely clean the doors off well, we ain't got Phil's wages, now have we Sue.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest with you. I forgot midway through the show that we'd written him out. So he's back. Oh, and I ain't got the heart to do that to imaginary character again. To be honest, he wept.
Speaker 2:He did weep quite heavily actually.
Speaker 1:It was awkward, you know, when a man weeps too much and he sort of slots coming out his nose.
Speaker 2:Oh God, yeah, he went fully in bale on it, fully, in bale.
Speaker 1:In fact, what he said to me is I've got nothing left. All right Phil. Yeah, just do it properly, so you claim to have sent to me the list of subs.
Speaker 2:Yes, True to his word he has as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I have to start off. Don't ever question me, rgt. Yes, no matter what tier you're on, you're getting your name read out at the end of the show, correct?
Speaker 1:oh boy god, yes, you are let's just say I've listened all the way through this. I'm a plucky young scrapper of a man and, and I think, do you know what I can't? I can't really get my head around the fact that I've not been into these two guys before. But damn it, the only tier I'm interested in is the one where I get a T-shirt. Tell me what tier that is.
Speaker 2:That is the $10 tier. So if you go top tier, you get your name read out in the show every week, as we will be doing in a moment. You get the quarterly Zoom meetup, which we do, and now we also release those as a show. You get access to the Unglorious Chat, which is the chat room for the subscribers on the Discord channel. You will also get yourself a yearly art merch fridge magnet. You will also get yourself a yearly art merch fridge magnet. You will also get yourself a yearly art merch mug and you will also get yourself a yearly art merch T-shirt. Full shebang, the full works, full English. There you go.
Speaker 1:Bosh, do the maths guys. Yes, we're making zero money. Okay, and if Games Pass can say this, this, where else you're going to get yourself a free t-shirt every year? You're not here. In 12 years time you're going to have a t-shirt for every single month. You're not going to be that smelly gamer anymore that smells of watsits and burger balls like me, you're not yeah, like you, you're not going to have rancid monster breath.
Speaker 1:like me, you're going to have me as well. Okay, all right, you're not going to have rancid monster breath like me, you're going to have a fresh. Okay, all right. You're not going to be covered in cheap coconut noodles anymore. Well, at least You're just reading out my description, aren't you? I'm reading out your Tinder bio. You've put the same thing on Grindr. I've just got another tab open. You've got the same drivel on there, except the pictures are slightly different. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Got to say You've got to play to your strengths. Yeah, stick with what you've got going on on Tinder. I just think that it leaves a little bit more to the imagination. I think, if you've seen it, you don't have any kind of. You don't build up the anticipation for it. You don't have any kind of. You don't build up the anticipation for it.
Speaker 2:I thought I'd go all in Whole hog snap. Put it up there while you go.
Speaker 1:You broke your penile bone.
Speaker 2:Many times.
Speaker 1:God be with you, my friend. Okay, let's get started. I've no idea At this point. I just don't know. Okay, so we've done the tears in the UCP classic way. Thanks for listening. If you're watching on YouTube and you can make any sense of my pixelated video, fair play to you Some of the subs money we've invested into camera quality. This is as good as it's going to get, so I hope you join it. Hi, mum what?
Speaker 2:a webcam from 1989?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, she can't use it anymore for her special sites, her chat sites, because she's lonely yeah. But you know I bought it off her. I blew the show's budget on it. You know people say, oh, you need to get a better camera. This is as good as we can get If you want us to get a better camera sub.
Speaker 2:It was plenty good enough for the Commodore 64. It came off, so it'll be plenty good enough for us.
Speaker 1:I wonder where that was going. I'm glad it went there. Let's get the names right out. So first name bizarrelyly, rgt on the list you've sent me. The first name on that list is Retro Gamer Thomas.
Speaker 2:It's probably because I sent it to you. Not very good with tech are we Not very good with tech?
Speaker 1:That's why we play consoles because we don't want to see colon backslash each other. We just want to play some games. We're not those. You know we've got girlfriends and things. If we didn't, then we would see colon backs us each other. In fact, to be honest, I think I'll be a little bit higher than a colon, but I don't know where that is. I don't know what that is really. Anyway, xenox, the greatest man from Sweden to ever live. He out invented the guy that made Minecraft. I'll be honest, seanox even out-invented the guy that made Ikea and in fact, he's part of the team that assembled PewDiePie in a lab.
Speaker 2:Wow, I just wonder where all this comes from. Every week I don't know.
Speaker 1:Literally I just open and it comes out If I've offended anybody, unsubscribe.
Speaker 2:No, don't please Next up.
Speaker 1:We have the one man You're down there filling the holes, as I'm just blowing more in the hole. It doesn't matter anymore, rgt. They like us to be more real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the holes are getting bigger. Next up we have the one-man Georgia fan club. It is Carlos. Thank you very much. My man and your shorts have been brilliant.
Speaker 1:He's not the one-man Georgia fan club, he's the one-man clip factory. They poured out of him blood on a battlefield victim. It was unbelievable.
Speaker 1:He oozes clips the one mate, that clip where it's like have a. Where he's like have a look at this, have a look at this. It's just the twang in his voice and the the sort of excitement, stroke disgust. As he pulls the duvet back and there's a myriad of consoles covered with like screwed up bits of tissue and it's like if this sexy mashup is your sort of thing, UCP, blah, blah, blah. As the camera pans back, there's a Dreamcastle with his flap open and he reaches back into shop and he says oh my God, cover yourself up. You're showing everything.
Speaker 2:Brilliant Carlos.
Speaker 1:I think what I've learned is that really you're the new boss of the UCP. I'm ready to hand over. When you're ready, you let me know and I shall pass the baton, carlos, because that is comedic genius, I feel like John. Lennon and Paul McCartney. Having just met Bob Dylan, it's like, wow, we thought we could win nothing. To you, who's next?
Speaker 2:It's your turn.
Speaker 1:How can it be?
Speaker 2:Because I just read out Carlos.
Speaker 1:Then I fluffed him up. Okay, up next. I tell you what. If you've ended up on hard times and all you've got is an old ring pull from a can of Top Deck Shandy, and you want to train that up to a million pounds, well I'll tell you what. You start off. Oh yeah, classic. Yeah, you took it off sometime in around the late 80s and you've been wearing it as a signet ring ever since. But if you want to trade that ring pull signet ring up to something where you never need to work again, then the best thing you could possibly ever do if you had a hole in your arse is to follow firm returns on X. There you will learn to get to know more about him and you'll find out more about his trading prowess.
Speaker 2:Hey, we've got some top-deck sharing ring pulls to X.
Speaker 1:To to x is unbelievable only on the show that calls itself the ucp could you have that, and he gets that for well, technically he does, so it's free.
Speaker 2:There is a sort of sort of bit of a games pass thing going on it.
Speaker 1:There's a to win element to his engagement. There is who's next?
Speaker 2:next up we have trestles of new york absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 1:Thank you, trestles yes, thank you, trestles. You'll always be in our hearts. We even recorded an episode there, so just go back through. I think it's called asmr trestles as we ate our way, was it thanksgiving? I do believe it was yes, we ate our way through the menu Quite probably one of the best produced episodes we've ever done. Thanks, phil. So let's try it once, mate. But since series T Is he?
Speaker 2:still crying, stop. You can stop now. You've got your job back.
Speaker 1:Mate, it's not a straight cry. Sometimes when he cries he gets a little bit randy, so he's still crying.
Speaker 2:You're absolutely right when he cries he gets a little bit randy, so he's uh, he's still crying. You're absolutely right. I was gonna say what's he doing? Is he? Is he hitting himself? Oh no, he no. Okay. Okay, phil, jeez, whatever you need to do, son we've already voiced that he's an imaginary character.
Speaker 1:The fact that we've imagined that I have an imaginary character says more about us than it does about anybody else it does, because I can actually see him, which is worrying but um.
Speaker 2:Let's see if I can do this without killing the mic, because obviously You're going to have to volume it down and do it on a very calm, not excited George for too much panda pop. We need calm George.
Speaker 1:Everybody stand up, sir, and everybody sit down, sir. Tante Bella go, sir. Tante Bella go, sir. Tante Bella go, sir. Stand me Ben Ciao.
Speaker 2:Wow, very good. The mic didn't cut out, so you've done very well, thank you.
Speaker 1:Badabingster. We've got a full European worldwide vibe going on with the subs because we've got a man from Sweden, we've got some Americans and we've got an Italian man yeah, very worldwide.
Speaker 2:Next up we have the RPG connoisseur himself, tingletuner. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:I tell you what I tell you. One thing I've learned about TingleTuner is he knows his way around a bazooka and he knows his way around a rocket-propelled grenade. He's an arms dealer in his spare time.
Speaker 2:Is he really Mm, mm? Mm-hmm. I'm starting to think your painkillers have kicked in, mm. Who have we got next?
Speaker 1:All I see is a sea of letters they kicked in through. Through that cloud, I see a hallucination of a monkey, one that went out with its partner uh doing some policing and got shot up badly in a old steel mill. Anyway, we brought him back to the the UCP towers and we basically turned him into a digital monkery and he's now the Robo Cop of the.
Speaker 2:Discord. That was actually very good. I wondered where you were going to start with, but I actually ended up bringing it back.
Speaker 1:One thing you've got to remember with me RGT is just enjoy the ride, because the end location, the ending, is always a disappointment.
Speaker 2:The middle bit, I tend to think of loaded gun. I normally think of you as loaded gun, so once you're far up, just hang on for the ride because you don't know where it's going.
Speaker 1:Well, it takes two men to back up a hose of that ferocity.
Speaker 2:Rgt it certainly does. Next up we have the wonderful gaming Graham. Thank you very much for your support, as always. Long term supporter very next.
Speaker 1:He's a man who likes the Brazilian. I'll leave it there.
Speaker 3:It's ball border next up we have. He's a man who likes the.
Speaker 2:Brazilian. I'll leave it there. It's ball border Next up we have Go, my friend. Yeah, did I go a bit far there?
Speaker 1:No, it's not like us to have a conscience, but I feel a bit guilty because obviously we uploaded a clip about very early days of him talking in detail about the MCN Comic-Con hotel room. I wonder if going brown, I just don't know if it's really got a good ring to it anymore. I feel a little bit like we've evaded his privacy. When he was like a single-man ranger, you know, it was okay Going Brad, it was all part of the macho machismo of it. Now I don't know if I want to be associated with RGT. So yeah, going forward, I think you do that. I'll just shake my head disapprovingly.
Speaker 2:Marvellous thanks. My apologies, but thank you very much, Boba, for your support.
Speaker 1:Who's at download right now? Absolute gangster.
Speaker 2:Did you see his present? His good lady got a massive Pokemon.
Speaker 1:Oh, mate, is that what it was? Because I messaged him.
Speaker 2:I think so yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, mate don't.
Speaker 2:What have you done? What have you done? What have you done? Oh no, I think. Well, I'm not really into Pokemon, so I don't know, but I thought it was a big Pokemon.
Speaker 1:I don't really know anything about Pokemon. I thought it was a furry and I oh no, what have you done? I thought someone was finning it anyway, who we got next. Just sat on his sofa looking at him. You know he looked like a fun furry. He's massive.
Speaker 2:He's huge. Yes, but maybe I got it wrong, but I thought it was a big Pokemon, cuddly sort of plushy thing. Ooh, anyway, who have we got next?
Speaker 1:What was that noise?
Speaker 2:I went, oh why? I have no idea.
Speaker 1:Going brown Up next my beautiful auburn-haired hero of a son. He's not my son biologically Doesn't mean I love him any less. He's absolutely swollen in every way a man should be. It's Ginge who's next RGT?
Speaker 2:My God. Next up we have the Lord of Darkness himself, the wonderful Harvey Retro, who I think is probably still on his Oblivion playthrough well as long as we have it.
Speaker 1:I believe he is. He has literally turned his whole house into the set from Oblivion. He's got his missus walking around as a Khajiit offering people skooma, laughing. Laughing as a Khajiit, okay, offering people skooma. Well, now, talking to people that do good things for the show, emma Sharp, you need to enter the clip quest honestly, because what you've done for the show over the last two or three months out of your own pocket, touring the world hosting UCP panels has been absolutely incredible. I caught the shot that you loaded to Discord of the advert you paid for in Times Square, obviously all of us hanging off the Zagoonies. One Looks so good. So thank you for that, emma Sharp, everybody.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Emma.
Speaker 1:If you want to do right by the show, you take a leaf out of Emma's book.
Speaker 2:Tour the world.
Speaker 1:See the world, don't listen to the show Up next. Who have we got?
Speaker 2:We have got the wonderful Greg who, as always, is nowhere near Berlin. Thank you, greg.
Speaker 1:Mmm Coming up from the rear Probably going to do this quite viciously, if I'm honest is Mumsy.
Speaker 2:And then I get to read out the best one, which is the RGT Fan Club. Thank you very much. All of you Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Imagine the plot twist when it transpires. That's me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, don't ruin it, Just give me something to hang on to.
Speaker 1:Imagine the plot twist when it transpires. It's just you Could you imagine?
Speaker 2:can you imagine that, jesus, I am? Jesus how bad would it have to be?
Speaker 1:it would have to be pretty awful. Up next, another victim of the top tier, speak brocklehurst now. Back in the day before pete was born, they used to have these uh, great big concrete metal balls that would swing around on the end of a crane. As soon as he was born, they were superseded immediately by his kneecap. Because what? What he then did? He'd just walk up to the corner of the building, just give it a knee. The whole thing would come down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he used to play conkers with them.
Speaker 1:Jesus. Some would say that both kneecaps are beyond sixer by some measure.
Speaker 2:Without doubt who's next Next up?
Speaker 1:we have the wonderful Billy Marmite as always, I hate him, I absolutely despise him, yeah, but some love him, don't they?
Speaker 2:You know, some prefer his brother.
Speaker 1:What's his name?
Speaker 2:Richard Bovril.
Speaker 1:Oh, Dickie Bovril.
Speaker 2:Oh, dickie. Yeah, Some people prefer Dick to what they do, Billy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dickie. Yeah, some people prefer Dick to what they do. Billy yeah thing is he's yeah, mate, because I tell you what Billy Marmite has got a yeast infection. No word of a lie. You don't get that from Dickie Bovril, do you? No no.
Speaker 2:No, dickie. Anyway, here we go next. Up next I'll tell you who we have ripping straight out of biblical times simon prank. Thank you, simon. This obviously leaves me again with this one, doesn't it now? I'll tell you now, now, now now.
Speaker 1:Now I'll tell you what I want from you this time. Darling, please don't, please, don't. No, please do. My mum listens to this. Dude, you are like the ultimate. I'm your dom and you are my sub. Okay, this is how it goes. You protest, but it's only part of the routine and I admire you for it.
Speaker 2:Sorry mum.
Speaker 1:Just Google it, mum, it's going to be all right, okay. So anyway, what we've learned over the course of getting to know the wonderful fat sangief is that he's obviously got body body dysmorphia because he is actually, and has been, renamed on the Discord RIT Sangief. My washing machine broke the other day, so I just popped over to Manchester and scrubbed my dirty undies up and down on his chest, immaculately clean within minutes. Wow.
Speaker 1:But what I was going to say is now we know he's not like a rotund Sangief and he's actually. He's really RIT and I'll be honest with you, he's not like a rotund Zangief and he's actually really ripped and I'll be honest with you, he's in great shape. I can see veins popping out of him, up and down the whole shape of him. He looks incredible. Now, with that in mind, rgt, I want this to be. I think last week we went into like a little bit of we kind of role-played the idea of you exploring a little bit of an innocent side of your RIP. Sankeef, oh no.
Speaker 1:But this time I want you to come at this literally, metaphorically. I want you to come at this like a worldwide 45-year-old man. It's not your first Sankeief, not by a long chalk, but this one catches you a little bit untoward. It all feels very formulaic, almost habitual. It's almost like loading the washing machine. But then something just catches you and this Zangief comes up from the very bottom of your toes Right, comes up from the very bottom of your toes Right.
Speaker 1:You're an actor, darling. Okay. When people work out that we aren't who we say we are, we're just actors, they'll realise how good this show's been Until then Well, yeah, and they'll also realise that I'm actually a very good actor. Well, this is your chance. All jokes aside, we'll rest in the show law for a minute.
Speaker 2:This is a chance for you as Maybe I could be buttons in the panto this year if I get this right.
Speaker 1:If you get this right, the only buttons in panto you'll be involved in is undoing.
Speaker 2:Right, let's narrow this, right, okay let's narrow this. Right.
Speaker 1:Okay no and action. Fat.
Speaker 2:Zanky. How was that? I feel I really got into the role Started slow, don't you?
Speaker 1:ever, and it just blasted. Don't you ever do a Zangief that realistic in front of me again.
Speaker 2:It was very realistic, I can assure you.
Speaker 1:Every single board you'd ever tread suddenly just kind of came up through you and you channeled it. It was absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2:I was quite pleased with that.
Speaker 1:Phil, one of your duties is to pass out the hand sanitiser when he's Zangiefed. Nice Cheers, phil. Yeah, so now you've Zangiefed and I'll be honest with you, it tastes a little bit different to normal. What are you hoping to play?
Speaker 2:Well, hopefully, if the much-talked-about PS3 turns up, then there's a few games on there that I want to jump onto. I think I've got one called Singularity. I'd like to try that. So yeah, there's a few games I want to plan there, obviously, a bit more on the Switch. 2. There's a game I want to order this week. I can't remember the whole name of it. It's that new Rune Factory. 1. It looks very much like Harvest Stella, so I might dip in my wallet and get that.
Speaker 1:I think it won't be Harvest, stella, but I can always pretend. Oh God, I've got a ringside seat for this disappointment as it unfolds over the next couple of months, haven't I?
Speaker 2:Yeah, pay 60 quid for a complete clone. That looks like a mobile game. But also I keep thinking about getting Cyberpunk as well. I've done the five hour trial and cyberpunk, the PS five. It didn't stick with me. I didn't quite like it, but it's just something, I don't know. Something seems to be telling me to buy it on the switch too, and I think it's having a portable and yeah, I'm quite tempted how often do you play the switch portable switch to portable at the minute.
Speaker 2:Well, I've got a holiday coming up in a couple of months and I keep thinking do I play it and hang on?
Speaker 1:and then that could be my big game that I take away with me. Do, do, do, do, do. Come on. How, on God's green earth do you expect the listeners to take you seriously when you suggest, just for a moment, you're going to go on holiday, with just a switch to handheld right?
Speaker 2:all right, I know I'm going to have a suitcase full of other consoles, but and the dock and the dock and the tv but and the psp, just in case yes, but I've got plenty of room in the back of the car. I will be chauffeured, so for the journey down there I can just sit there. Cyberpunk my way down, be fine.
Speaker 1:I love how Donna has to drive you down but also has to wear the only clothes that she can get on as well, Because she's got no room in the suitcase. She's wearing like four or five pairs of pants.
Speaker 3:Two weeks, four or five pairs of socks. Yeah oh. Four or five pairs of songs, yeah oh yeah, oh, you're going for two weeks.
Speaker 1:Hmm, that's awkward. Hmm, oh well.
Speaker 2:What else are you playing? Yeah, so I've got another actual hidden gem I'm working on at the moment, so I've been playing that. Obviously, I won't mention that yet, so I'll play a bit more of that, and I've got to, as I've been doing, my living room up.
Speaker 1:What genre is it? What genre is it? What genre is it?
Speaker 2:Racing and because I'm doing my living room up, I want to get me. I haven't set my Evercade backups. I need to get our backups. I've got quite a few cartridges I want to get stuck into on there, oh dear so that'll be pretty much this week, oh dear. So anyway, what are you hoping to play other than your complete Evercade collection, George?
Speaker 1:I'll get there one day. No doubt I'll get there one day, no doubt. What am I hoping to play? I don't know. Hey, I'm just going to keep burping along on the Switch 2. Cyberpunk, cyberpunk. Indeed, I'm also partway.
Speaker 1:I got the Lando DLC and thoroughly enjoyed it, although not really enough to back in it for me. And I'm halfway maybe more than halfway through the second one, the Pirate's Fortune. This one's not grabbed me as much, to be honest, and you've got to do like a base infiltration and I wasn't that keen on them to begin with. So I've tried shooting my way through and I've literally got a stack of corpses from the floor to Tatooine itself. It's massive, but there's an AT-ST in there. Now, in other Star Wars games Fallen Order, et cetera you can actually take on an AT-ST, admittedly in a slightly more tighter controlled, almost set piece, but you're not a Jedi and you can't take down the AT-ST. So I get in there, kill everybody, just to have enough health to have a little look round. But then the AT-ST just lands a shot on me and I'm dead and it's not legal.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have to kill all these people again outrageous. So I might have to look at a guide to find out the door I'm meant to go in through. But the last door I tried in there was like you haven't got a key pass to get in here. I'm like, oh God, I have to do everything now. I just want to have fun and be Star Wars-y. But it's a small blip, no doubt, in an uneven path. So I'm looking forward to it and mate much like Carlos. I mean this when I say this I'm getting outlaws to the Switch. I mean this when I say this I'm getting outlaws to the switch.
Speaker 2:Of course I am Double dip.
Speaker 1:Double dip. Did the tongue need to come out? No, no, definitely not. No, you took that down a different route then I think I did, and I'd imagine that's all we have time for this week, listeners, as always. Thank you for your time. Look forward to the pleasure of speaking to you again next week. Until then, happy gaming, and remember there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller. It's what you do with it that counts see you RGT later you.