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
When Game Cards Become Game Keys: The Future of Switch 2 Gaming Is Already Here
Switch 2's surprising power, the truth behind game key cards, and the subscription model debate take center stage in this week's gaming deep dive.
Gaming's technological frontiers are expanding before our eyes, and nowhere is this more evident than with Nintendo's Switch 2. We explore why games like Star Wars Outlaws and Cyberpunk 2077 running on this pocket-sized powerhouse feel like "witchcraft" to longtime gamers. The Switch 2's controversial game key card system isn't just about cost-cutting – it's enabling AAA experiences that wouldn't be possible with traditional cartridges, bringing Nintendo back into the multiplatform conversation in ways the original Switch could only dream of.
Between farming virtual vegetables in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar and traversing the cosmos in No Man's Sky's Corvette update, we discover how these digital escapes continue to evolve with meaningful innovations. The bazaar system in Story of Seasons transforms the farming sim genre with its weekly market mechanics, while No Man's Sky now lets you walk around inside your own customizable starship – a childhood dream realized through modern gaming tech.
The gaming business landscape continues its dramatic transformation too. Ex-Bethesda boss Pete Hines drops truth bombs about subscription services like Game Pass, calling subscriptions "a new four-letter word" and highlighting the tension these models create for content creators. His observations spark our examination of how these services might be reshaping development priorities and potentially compromising creative visions.
Whether you're debating the value proposition of Indiana Jones DLC, contemplating the future of physical game stores, or wondering if that Switch 2 version of your favorite game is worth the upgrade, this episode navigates gaming's most fascinating crossroads. Join us for a conversation that celebrates what we love about games while questioning where the industry is heading.
What games are filling your backlog this week? Let us know in the comments or join our Discord community to continue the conversation!
We mash genres. We pitch games. You question our sanity.
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Hello and welcome to the Unofficial Controller Podcast, your weekly gaming podcast episode number. I do believe. After my well-spoken episode last time, we're on to 284, with me George, and this week you could say unfortunately, but I say fortunately, joined by RGT returning to. I've messed your line up, sorry, contractually obliged to pay you a big chunk of money. Now, returning hero to my, I'm here again. Vote. How's it going? Rgt?
Speaker 2:Very well, thank you very much. Had a little spell of being a bit poorly, but yeah, back at it now. Up ready, fit, ready to go.
Speaker 1:Well, last week I told the tale of how I'd been using your teaspoon to stir the unfettered that's a trick of yours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've done that before, so don't surprise me.
Speaker 1:It's normal. It's what normal people do Well it's what you do. Yeah, it is my rules. It's how it goes.
Speaker 2:Get ready. Wow, I can't wait.
Speaker 1:Let's get stuck in there. You've not been on for a wee while because you've been ill. You're all healed now. Thank God, everyone's breathed a sigh of relief. Rgt has shuffled off his deathbed. He's managed to shake off the Victorian malaise and he's here with us. So I have to ask one question From your deathbed, rgt what have you been?
Speaker 2:playing. Wow, a bit more Dead Space. Not as much as I want, really. I need to get back onto that. I've had a few games all at once there, but, yeah, a bit more Dead Space. That's our current Gen 7 playthrough game. At the moment, I think I'm up to Chapter 6, I believe, or 7. But, yeah, really enjoying that on a ps3. Um, a few others are playing ps3 or xbox or they're playing the, the uh remastered one that I've done on the current one. So a few of us are playing different, different ones, sort of comparing. Uh, we're now on our second stage. We're playing through up to chapter eight at the moment, um, which I think carlos is sort of leading away a bit on there at the moment, but I'll hopefully catch up this coming week as a recording, um, but yeah, really enjoyed that carlos is the one man george fan call yes, he is, yeah, yeah you won't catch him no, probably not.
Speaker 2:You're indebted to that man he will desiccate you like coconut yeah, started so threatening and ended with coconut, but um, yes, yeah, so I really enjoyed that. Then I also played uh, mafia the old country and completed that. Um, really enjoyed that game, really enjoyed that game when you kept texting me.
Speaker 1:I was sat in ucp town, I was minding my own business and I kept getting these rather threatening, mafioso-like texts of like play old country, that's what be your horse's head in your bed. You know that sort of talk.
Speaker 2:It changed me for a while there. A while yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it's rewritten in DNA.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1:I see you in a white suit, black shirt, white or red tie. You've got your hair slicked back. You're chewing on a cocktail stick. Red rose top lapel, left-hand side, brown brogues, brown belt. What car are you driving?
Speaker 2:I don't know, maybe an old Cadillac.
Speaker 1:No, I see you in a Proton.
Speaker 2:A Proton yeah, that's took the edge off the suit a bit. The Proton that pulls up and then I step out.
Speaker 1:No, you park round the corner and saunter in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, true, that's a good way to do it.
Speaker 1:You've got the handlebars off a Vespa and you just turn up ripping the handle, making a noise yourself, a bit like the Italian version of the crazy frog yeah, that started off well with the white suit, but you've degraded me a little bit there from the pro talk.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I'll be playing Matthew, the old country I was impressed around with that Anyway. I'll be playing Mafia the Old Country. I was impressed all round with that game for one being as cheap as it was. That's definitely Under 40 bucks, yeah it's a powerful message Physical. I pre-ordered it, so I got a few extras in-game, got a really fast car in bits and pieces, which was good fun.
Speaker 1:You got the little handle and the little horn I did and also sounds like your mating cry yeah, that is.
Speaker 2:If you hear that in suffolk, beware.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's a liquid super glue to the floor, the lr g. I almost felt that.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is going to be a long show, but yeah, it was a great, launched at a great price, graphically very, very pretty, one of the prettiest games I've seen on this generation.
Speaker 1:You get slathering screenshots on me WhatsApp feed. Yeah, I'm on holiday in sicily, george.
Speaker 2:look at this well, certain times when you're under in there's in certain areas you're underground or in caves and it really it was very, very close to when the ps5 fought launched and we got the first look at it and they'd done that unreal engine 5 sort of tribal woman going for a cave and they show all how they've done that light and it was like that light and that's the first time I've seen that light. And then you know, in a game actually since they she was that demo looked stunning, looked absolutely stunning. There's the odd. Um, I noticed there was the odd little bit of pop in. There was odd, but not much to really. You had to really look hard to see any discrepancies in the graphics.
Speaker 2:But I enjoyed the story very well, acted not too long, I mean. I I mess about quite a bit and I'm always exploring places. So 20 hours I was, but 15 to 17 hours you could get this done if you just stick the story. Um, I thought it was really good. I think an all-round package for a physical, for a physical game if you buy it physically, very, very good. Uh, really enjoyed it. Um, it's been a bit of a. I didn't think too much about it before it launched, but now I think it's been a bit of an underrated game this year. I think this is yeah, this could be one of the better games.
Speaker 1:I've played this year. Did you bring a hidden gem today?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Take it out of the wages. I've rewritten a new song. Oh no, you'll have to save it until next week. You'll have to save it until next week. I have got, I just haven't written it up yet. I have got one, I just haven't written it up, um, and then, anyway, so Matthew as well. And then also I have played and finished Murder on the Orient Express, um what's that on Switch?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a Switch version, but I played it on Switch 2. Yeah, okay, I bought it when I was in the sale. I love them. Everyone knows them. I love the Agatha Christie games. I love all those sort of puzzles and mysteries.
Speaker 1:Are you Praro in this or not?
Speaker 2:Yes, you are, but it's a modern tape, so it's set in 2023.
Speaker 1:What the hell does Praro look like in 2023? Has he got a moustache?
Speaker 2:still, he's got a moustache, but it's sort of a modern haircut Baseball cap no, no, he's very suave but cool as well has he got a mobile. Yes, he's got mobile phones in it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Does he have a games console or is he just straight tech, or is he just?
Speaker 2:straight tech, straight tech. Yeah, I didn't see him flip out a steam deck or anything, but you never know, he might have one hidden in his trench coat.
Speaker 1:He's a GBA guy. He's a GBA SP dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he is yeah he's stealthy.
Speaker 1:He's got a micro build.
Speaker 2:Yeah, backlit screen a whole lot. Yeah, there's people listening, thinking what the hell are they on about?
Speaker 1:anyway, he's got our mate retro futures on yeah, um, so yeah, very good game.
Speaker 2:I like all them puzzle games anyway. Um, good, take on it. Um, when you're in the train itself, when you're in the, all express itself very pretty, looks very nice.
Speaker 1:Is it just to help me understand how these games are put together, because I've seen a few in the past. Is it like static screens that you kind of move between, or are you moving an avatar player, avatar as a character?
Speaker 2:You are third person moving through freely throughout the train, as you would.
Speaker 1:Oh right, okay, and how does that lend itself to the gameplay?
Speaker 2:Very good, very good, very good, because you'll be interviewing people and then you go, you press your X button on the Switch 2 and you go into his mind and he's got his mind tree laid out of people you need to speak to and that'll open up other avenues.
Speaker 2:Don't talk to me about Switch buttons, dude, so yeah, and so then you'll find on the mind map and then you'll think, oh, maybe I better go and speak to them. And you'll go and speak to them and unlock a bit more evidence and then you'll have there's the odd few, the odd few puzzles involved, but there's also they'll test you as well. So it's no good skipping through when you're talking to someone. It's no good sitting on your phone not listening to what's going on, because straight afterwards they say, right, how old is this person? Where do they work? What nationality are they? You know. So they'll test you on if you've listened to what they've said. So there's little bits like that, but I've done it in. That was about 15 hours. Uh, complete the game. Like I said, I got it on an e-shop sales.
Speaker 1:I think I paid about six bucks for that on a position, or is it someone you've had in your backlog?
Speaker 2:No a recent acquisition about eight weeks ago, 10 weeks ago.
Speaker 1:You know, is that made by the same people that make these Sherlock Holmes games that you like.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure to be honest.
Speaker 1:Does that play the same like third-person avatar or is that static screens again?
Speaker 2:Yes, they play third-person as well. Pass them pass them, pass play third person, third person as well, so you awesome, awesome, yeah, third path, uh, third person as well. So then you sort of investigate areas, find clues and, um, yeah, but really good if you like them, sort of games, and I thought this was quite a brave way of doing it, to bring it up to a modern version of the orient express as well.
Speaker 1:So you know, in the modern day and then that that spins off as well on the euro tunnel or something, or is it still on the orient express?
Speaker 2:still on the oran express. Um, and you get stopped. It is a murder. And then, but there's more to this murder than who this person who's murdered is. So you have to really look into it and then you'll go off as someone else for a bit and be solving a crime that's linked to the murder of this person all right.
Speaker 2:So you go off as a female policewoman and have to sort that out to bring it back into the train again. So really enjoyed it. There was some of the outdoor scenes you sort of looked and you could see. I mean, that was that. You know, in like ps1, ps2 days, they take a screenshot of trees and then just project it around. It was a bit like that when you're on an outdoor scene. Do you think that's?
Speaker 1:where some of my sort of and I've never played it, I've never researched it, but I've clicked on it a few times and I've seen these sorts of things, which I think is why my assumption was it was not static screens, but more like a point-and-click from the 80s, where you have a fixed screen that you move your character around in with your mouse, but what you're saying is it's like a 3d space that you do through clicking on the thing, albeit these backgrounds looking a little bit like when you're on a train.
Speaker 2:The reflections and the and the sort of the walnut wood, all shining reflective, looks really good nice and then you can speak to people and you can go and you can.
Speaker 2:You know there's hidden things as well and there'll be the odd few puzzles Not as many as what you think. This is pretty much just a mystery game. You have to solve that crime. But I really like them. I love the ABC murders and I think first cases I've played. I just need to play the London cases one. First cases I've played, I just need to play the London cases one which I've got as well from an eShop sale. They are good If you like them sort of games and you want a bit of a chill out and a bit of a murder mystery. They're really good and as each new one come out I find they get that bit more in depth, whereas the earlier ones were more puzzle based. Everything was a puzzle. Now it's more. You have to interview people.
Speaker 1:So it's gone from being a bit of a missed clone to becoming a little bit more. That's actually a very good comparison.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's a good comparison, very good, yeah. And now it's more like so you'll interview someone so say you've got, for instance, a lady and she's got an assistant. You'll speak to the lady and she'll say went to bed so and so and they weren't in here. And then you speak to the assistant. They say, yeah, well, I went to bed the same time as her, so then you could pick what question that'll say well, what discrepancies was between the two? So you can, you can then pull out if you've listened properly, you can pull that out and say, hang on, you said you went to bed, but she said that you weren't in the room. And then you could pull that out and say, hang on, you said you went to bed, but she said that you weren't in the room. And then you could pull them up to get more evidence out of them.
Speaker 1:So we was up till three in the morning sniffing her undergarments, sort of scenario.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure that was one of the theories in there, but yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it's a conclusion you could and should have jumped to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not sure how'll hurt you would have gone down that route, but yeah, I was looking for a murderer, it's not over as a line of inquiry until you kill it well, yeah, maybe this came in for you, um, but anyway I've also.
Speaker 1:But once I finished those two, I did have a pre-order on a collector's edition that came through which was Story of Seasons Grand Bazaar Now you've been tickling my WhatsApp feed between us with these pictures of this special edition box set, like prostate you know. Exterior, internal sort of book, open gape shot, the whole bag of tricks. You've sort of lathered up with me on this. Now I have to admit what a great looking set. It is a good set.
Speaker 2:I've never heard it described like that, but it is a good set.
Speaker 1:How else would you describe the images you sent to me?
Speaker 2:Just what was inside the collector's edition. I think that's what I said yeah, did you, yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I think I'll just use some sort of stronger, uh, descriptive words yes, you did, yeah, but it's a very good set and, like I said to you, I pre-ordered this.
Speaker 2:I pre-ordered it for 62 british pounds, um, and I did. I pre-ordered a few months ago. Then, when I went to check, I thought, oh, that's coming out, that was showing on Amazon at 102 and I thought, oh god, I'm paying 102 for this, am I? But no, it was 62. So whether that was just a limited time offer or what, I don't know, because the actual game was retailing at 59.99. So for you know, three extra pounds. I got collectors edition, which is very good to get, double disc, uh, cd soundtrack. You get art books really nice big art book, actually seeing all their hand drawn, the, the characters, and you've got, um, a little sheep, little tiny sheep, um physical copy of the game, which is all on the cartridge, which I might add as well for Switch.
Speaker 1:Nice touch nice touch.
Speaker 2:Nice touch and a little box set. So yeah, really good. The actual game itself, really enjoying, really enjoying it. The art style is fantastic.
Speaker 1:Give the uninitiated the breakdown the gameplay loop of this.
Speaker 2:Well, basically, if you don't know what Story of Seasons is, originally when the Har moon games were out, obviously games are called harvest moon. Um, and then this, the uh studio split, from what I understand, and the studios now some remake the harvest moon games, some remake the story of season games, which is old harvest moon games, but redone, if not, I mean. But you know, story of seasons was uh, grand bazaar was a 3DS game, I believe, which has now been remastered for the Switch 2 and Switch and anyway, the game itself is your standard Bloy, sim Farm and Sim sort of trope. You're coming to this little town, but a bit of a twist with this one to the others. But anyway, you come to this little town. Obviously you've got your standard farm and tropes. You could grow, you could sell things.
Speaker 2:There's a few little differences with it. For instance it's not as, nowhere near as hardcore into a stardew valley, you know. You've got a smaller little farm patch. You've got a nice little house, you can still cook, you can do bits a lot more basic but good, um, but you also have a windmill on your farm. So if you want to craft anything, you go to the windmill and take the supplies, you put it in and because you have weather, the windier the day, the quicker it produces the stuff. But the reason you produce all this stuff is because every Saturday there is a market bazaar in the centre of town and you have to sell what you take.
Speaker 1:Is that done in a graveyard, Keith? No, what's that game? I spent ages on you kind of message in because it slipped my mind. I thought it was Dungeon Keeper, but I don't think it is where you kind of go.
Speaker 2:Was that that Moonlight, one Moonlight?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's it, I think it is. You go and do the raids during the night, you come back and then you have to man your shop. I don't know if you've ever played that, but it's giving me similar vibes. One thing I want to know, obviously when you first piped up about stardew, I think I gave quite a resilient rebuff and said, mate, this is mate, this is mate, this is Harvest Moon. I don't know why you're raving about this. I was playing this exact same game 10 years ago. How does Story of Seasons? You've already mentioned it's not as in-depth, I guess, with the crafting and some of the combinations that you can make. But how does that core gameplay loop compare? Is it exact mirror of Stardew? So if you kind of burnt out from Stardew, you could rock up here and it'd be very, very similar. Or is it like speaking French?
Speaker 2:I think this is Stardew now is a massive, massive game. It is brilliant, don't get me wrong, misses our GTs, but two, three hundred hours, it may be more. Now Meerkat76, who's on our Discord, she's probably pushing 800 hours in Stardew. It is very in-depth and a great achievement, that game. This is 3D for a start. Very Nino Cooney, if you played those games, cell-shaded, gorgeous, looks very good, very, very good. You're on a. You're almost not an isometric view, but 3d, if that makes sense. Yeah, um, but there's something about.
Speaker 2:It is your standard tropes. You, you, you grow your vegetables, you grow your flowers, you can go out and collect wildflowers, you can go out and collect ore and bits and pieces. Right, like I say, it's not. It's nowhere near as hardcore as stardew, with recycling machines and ore machines and smelters and all that. You know it's a lot less than that.
Speaker 2:But there's something about when you go on a saturday you take your goods to your stall, which you can customize your stall as well. You can put an a board out to get people there and then you have four items at a time which you put down and the mayor of the town will give you what trends are happening that season. So he might say mushrooms are really in round vegetables scents, and say gifts like necklaces and jewellery that you can craft. So then you go and put them down on your stall and then you ring a bell as people come by, ding-a-ding-a-ding, and then get people to have a look. Now they'll either come up and see and go oh, they've got turnips, I'll buy that. They've got a necklace, I'll buy that. Or you see a little thing above their head, a little imagination bubble, and they'll say, oh, I wish they had this, and if you've got them you can quickly swap.
Speaker 1:It's called Moonlighter. That happens in Moonlighter. People come in the store and they've all. I'm frustrated because everyone worked my arse off. I'm like, yeah, here's me goods, here they come. Everyone walks in, looks at my stuff, immediately, besmirches it. Little bubble above her head.
Speaker 2:I wish, because you you only have four items out, but you have a lot more stock at your place. You can quickly swap it in if you're quick enough and they go. Oh yeah, it's got that and I'll go and get it. Oh yes, you could swap them four things out. So you have a morning shift and an afternoon shift. You have an hour in between. So if you need to use any of the other guys that are there for extending your farm or doing that, they've got a stall there. You can go and see those. Now also, there is these people who, almost like local council, who run the bazaars in all the towns, and ours is like one of the, or yours will be like one of the worst bazaars.
Speaker 1:So they come in and say are you telling me that they threaten to turn it into a car park unless they see more market stalls?
Speaker 2:pretty much yes. So they pretty much say yeah, they will shut you down if you don't get more stalls. So some of your missions during the week, not only you farming, but someone will say, oh, I've figured about setting a stall up. If I had this so you can go off in the wilds, collect them bits, get them a stall set up and then you tick the boxes of the bazaar, getting better and getting their rank.
Speaker 1:You have to do your czar. Is that part of the loop, or can you just farm? No, you, you have to do the Bazaar, is that?
Speaker 2:part of the loop, or can you just farm? No, you have to do the Bazaar because that's the way you earn your money, right, but that's the bit that gets you, because I've tried playing a few other Harvest Moon remakes this year and I've sort of gone. I've done all this before. You know if you're going to play a the place star do. I've done all this before.
Speaker 2:But then this there's something about this. It's very well remade, very well remade from the ds version, but also that bizarre element of selling your stuff at your market and making sure that you've got a good load of stock. And then, you know, the last time I'd done one, I was sold out. Like an hour beforehand I'd sold out. I was like, oh no, yeah, it's really good, you know, because all my stuff was popular. And then you've got these um, I sold eight. Like an hour beforehand I'd sold eight, I was like, oh no, oh, wow, yeah, it's really good, you know, because all my stuff was popular.
Speaker 2:And then you've got these little sprites which are maintained. You can do work for them and then they'll boost your sales. When you're out, you get a sales boost and people suddenly buy loads of stuff all at once and it's really well done. And that's the best thing about it is it's not overpowering, it's not. You don't sit there and think, oh my God, look at all this, you don't have that. You've got this little town. You plant a few things, you grow them, you can go off and find some stuff, you can help people out, and then you get that all built up during the week ready for your bazaar on a Saturday. But also, which is good, you also have a paraglider like on Zelda. Yes, you get one of them. So if you sort of think, oh, I need to get over town and the wind's blowing the right direction, jump and hold the button, scoot across the screen on your paraglider, yes, but very, very good. It's very well made. I mean, I know they've switched to 60 FPS. They said there's been the odd dip. I haven't noticed any dips myself at all. If there is a marginal, graphically brilliant, runs very smoothly.
Speaker 2:I think it's a real proper cosy, chill game that's not overpowering at all and something you can keep dipping in and out of. And you've got all them farming tropes, but nothing's too silly. Like I've got a chicken now. The barn's already there. That's next to your house, you just go in the door, put some food down and there you go, the chicken's sold. That's so it's. You know, you haven't got to then get the wood, to process the wood, to buy a barn, to then save up to buy an animal, to then get a uh feed machine built. You ain't got to do any of that. That's there and you can just sort of dip into these, each of these as you go.
Speaker 2:Um, very enjoyable, very. I would definitely recommend it, if you know, if you're not really into farm and sims, maybe 60 bucks is maybe a bit much at the moment, but wait till the sales on dip in. I think you'd enjoy it because that's definitely an entry point into that genre. But also it's a great game if you've played Stardew and stuff and want something a bit different but on the same sort of theme. So yeah, I've been absolutely loving that. But that is me. So I suppose I'd better jump over and say George, what have you been playing?
Speaker 1:Well, it's been a fractious week, as always. The Switch 2 is coming to its own. I've been playing a lot of Witcher 3 again, just walking around cleaning up my cleaning up the side missions that I didn't complete in the main story. I didn't leave that many. Surprisingly, Skellige was the place that I kind of abandoned, so I've just gone back there and done a lot of cleaning up. I started the full momentum of starting the Hearts of Stone DLC, which again is presenting itself as very enjoyable. Again.
Speaker 1:Even the most random side quests in Witcher 3 feel like the main story, which is one of the plus points of the game. You can pick up a random side mission and in your head conflate it to be an episode of the Witcher TV series. You can really pan it out. You can go on your horse slow walk there, get up, assess the area, do a little bit of investigation. It's very rewarding. I also had a little bit of a rough and tumble session with um arkham asylum on the switch to um. Okay, yeah, the first batman arkham game, uh it's always playing on the switch to say again what's it playing on the switch to?
Speaker 1:super solid really the first one was super solid on the switch one. But this time around, you know, everything looked so clean. I was playing it on a big TV in my hotel room while I was out, you know, pursuing sponsorship deals for the show and yeah, I was blown away by how solid it looked On the 360, which is where I think I played it initially. I've replayed it on PS3. Great looking game, a game of the era. And now, don't get me wrong, there's some of these sort of visual artefacts, you know, lower grade textures, that sort of drama that you expect to see on what's rapidly approaching probably a 20-year-old game or something daft, right?
Speaker 2:I was just hoping you didn't do what I'd done when I come on. I'd actually fell through the floor and got stuck underneath the mat.
Speaker 1:On proper Arkham Asylum yeah. Wow, well, I haven't experienced anything like that yet.
Speaker 2:But other than that it did play pretty well on the original Switch, I mean it was locked at 30, but it still played well.
Speaker 1:It looked good on the original Switch. But again, just that little bit of a boost. The little bit of a boost, a little bit the extra visual clarity that you get from the switch to. It's kind of cranking it up to you know those 4k visuals or whatever. This was a 1080p set I was on this week but that just gave the, the switch, a better chance of throwing an image on the screen. So, yeah, thoroughly impressed with that. It's a nice sort of metroid 3d metroidvania kind of explorer. It's nice and simple, steady away sort of thing. It's a chewing gum and I enjoyed it for what it was. Uh, obviously, last episode did my little solo show. I mentioned the corvette update for no man's sky. Well, I'll be honest with you, that's probably where most of my time has been sunk this week. I've had some late nights. Uh, when I got home you vr on it I uh, I'm not vr-ing it.
Speaker 1:I got all it out last night but then the two handsets weren't charged properly, so I've recharged those, I'm just getting. What I want to do is get the corvette built, because I find in vr, when you get sort of like zoomed up to the god view and you're creating your ship, which is a lot of that going on at the minute, because I'm like disassembling stuff, rebuilding stuff, going in the menus, right, okay, so all the tech out on the old ship I need to. Okay, so I can install this tech and this tech that I've got, I need to find these remedies. So I'm walking around. I've kind of found this system that I've got my corvette in and I'm kind of going between planet go down, grind for money and I'll be when I thursday uh, night time, I started playing the game. Uh, just for everyone, we're recording this on a saturday and I have the most basic things and I I've had for the longest time in in no man's sky my dream ship. This, uh, red, um, it's not the shuttle, it's the one above the cargo hauler always looked exquisite to me. I always just wanted to be able to walk around in the back.
Speaker 1:Last week I talked about the compromise of the corvettes on anything like that at all. But so I I grinded a little bit and got the most basic of modules and I was like, wow, this, this, this sucks ass, but I'm gonna make the most of it. So I kind of have these compromises going on. I found this nice little loop of going down and grabbing certain materials and rare plants and bringing them up. I was probably making a mil every 10 or 15 minutes. You need to be if you first start playing. If you hear about these corbettes and you get no man's sky tomorrow, let me tell you I'm gonna say it again you're flat broke, baby. You ain't gonna be able to afford to even put a landing uh thruster down for this thing. You're gonna have to grind, you're gonna have to get a little bit further in the game. Now I've done all this and I've tried and I've pushed and I'm you know I'm now very happy. I got lucky with some modules that I found.
Speaker 1:Now this thing is exactly what I wanted it to be. It's got a cockpit on like a World War II bomber. I've got this viewing screen. It looks very much like the ship from Star Wars Outlaws. I've ended up creating this thing that looks like that. We'll come back to that because I've got news.
Speaker 1:So now I've built this thing, I'm just in there installing all my tech. There's not many cargo slots, but I've heard you can buy more for seven million each, which you know. I thought, wow, okay, is that? That's where we're at? Is it fine? More grind, that's cool. So I think the ship's just about there.
Speaker 1:So the next thing I do is probably when I'm not trying to be sociable, is to stick the vr headset on and then just trample people in my front room as I walk around this, this starship, you know, and the cool thing about it is I've been flying it. Now you can point it somewhere, go down to the autopilot menu and tell it just to maintain current course and heading. Then you get out the chair and you can walk around to the viewing port and you can see all the asteroids. You can tell the autopilot, you pick a planet in the system and it's like when it just goes there, while you get out, you can be using the refining material refiner in the back to create more materials. You can look out the window. I imagine I'm going to be role-playing in VR and I'm fixing my conducting fan or something.
Speaker 2:Have you actually made in your living room out of cardboard the actual, perfectly scaled interior?
Speaker 1:The thing is you wouldn't need to. You would need, like, I've got like a puff, a footstool, call it what you like. Yeah, it's not what you think I'm going to. I'm going to general a homosexual, uh, slaved in my front room. It's a, it's a, it's a futon? No, it's not, it's. What are they called? Where I'm from, darling, we call them poofs. Okay, right, so I've got one of those that I could arrange up the front and left hand side of my living room and then you turn around on that and then you can stand up and then you can just free walk right. So all you need is that everything else is created by the game so I am.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna have that right near the tv, so not that you even need the tv on for vr, which is cool, or I can position the whole thing around the other way. I'm always a bit nervous about doing it the other way because I've got a fire on the left side of the room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know, wintertime could be interesting crikey, this engine feels hot.
Speaker 1:This is super this psvr2.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize it actually had heat coming out of these controllers. This is amazing. I can even feel my arm burning.
Speaker 1:I picked it up with this reactor cord. It's literally burning my hand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is unbelievable, unbelievable tech.
Speaker 1:So I've just made the same game underneath. Obviously it's the no Man's Sky. For me it's always been. The game that you make in your head is way better than the game. I mean the story they give you has got some legs and I should probably return to it because I've never in all my time seeing it through I've kind of grinded the story to get to the bit that I need, like I want that cool-looking bass part. Therefore, I'll go and listen to this absolute dribble story on this remote planet or suck it off once I've got what I need and move on. So suck it off once I got what I need, uh, and move on. So yeah, the story's kind of there.
Speaker 1:It serves two purposes a little bit of entertainment and then like a slow, drip, free tutorial. I'd imagine if I went and played it now it'd be like the most basic thing like this is how you fly a ship, like oh god, I abandoned it this early, did I? Oh, no, um, and I have like sometimes gone back to the story and it's so like bill, like Billy Bob, basic, like oh, build a base, mate. I've built 20 bases across this whole universe and you're telling me build a base now. Fine, what is it? Oh, you know, really basic thing here. Oh God, go away Anyway. So I'm thoroughly enjoying that. If you haven't ever played it and you find it second hand, god's sake, mate, it's in the sales. At what? 12 quid. If you've got a switch, I can't imagine. I upgraded my version of no man's sky for like five or ten quid, I think it was. So I've got the fully fledged, full horse system going on on the switch to. Couldn't be happier.
Speaker 2:Um, it looks great on there so is it like cross save as well with your ps5 version?
Speaker 1:it is, but I don't. I kind of like to have, like my ps5 save is my ps5 save and I don't really feel like that I did. I have done hot cloud saves on the witcher three between the ps5 and the switch one. Um, haven't really needed to entertain the idea since the switch 2 because it's just that much more solid, playable and around you that you don't like. You're playing a completely different game anymore. Yeah, but it worked flawlessly and I'm sure the no man's sky one does as well. I just kind of I don't know. I just want them separate. I don't know why I want my switch game and I want my playstation game and I never the twain shall meet. Uh, but earlier in the little brief I said to you about how it looked like the ship from star wars outlaws. Well, when the switch launched I saw this game was coming out. At that moment I was thoroughly enjoying it and have you doubled it?
Speaker 1:must have.
Speaker 1:At some strange moment RGT clicked buy on that game many months ago got a little thing Star Wars Outlaws out for delivery and I've had a few Amazon notifications because obviously Carlos won his prize and Amazon delivered it, and HG Games won his prize and Amazon delivered it. So I've had things popping up and I thought it's who's this? Anyway, found some uh chap, uh, careening around my front garden, which is a bit like hey, oh sorry, yes, here he comes. Yeah, I don't know where you were going, mate, at front doors here, one knock and you, I'm here. One would imagine I probably didn't even hear it, but anyway, got it ripped open, outlaws hmm okay, installed it. It's a game key card version. So I had to do the and I probably didn't even hear it, but anyway, got it. Ripped it open.
Speaker 1:Outlaws Hmm okay, installed it. It's a game key card version. So I had to do the old install. And there's a bit of news about this as well, which someone would think that this show is put together by someone who knows what they're doing. But I don't want that accusation leveled at me because I don't think it's true. I think it's just luck.
Speaker 2:Yeah definitely.
Speaker 1:We'll get into the news about why it might be on a game key card and it's certainly interesting for the Switch ecosystem and something for owners, I think, to bear in mind, especially some of the rabid Switch fanboys. They're throwing a lot of hate at these game cards and there actually may be a fundamental reason why. There actually may be a fundamental reason why. Anyway, I would say that on initial impressions and I'm not very far into it, I had like a 20-minute blast on it the other day it feels the Switch 2, I don't know why, probably because I've been playing a lot of Switch 1 games on it, but it feels like witchcraft sometimes. You know, like Cyberpunk is a prime example of playing the Switch.
Speaker 2:I'm like this feels like witchcraft.
Speaker 1:Star Wars Outlaws feels like witchcraft. I played it in handheld mode only so I don't know what the full bells and whistles look like. I was like I mean, yeah, I can kind of see in places that it does look different from memory, but her hair texture on the PlayStation 5 always looked a mess. It kind of looks exactly the same on here as it did on the next-gen consoles and for me, open world, I thought this is going to run like a bag of turd. Obviously, there was a lot of previews kicking around where people saying uh-uh, uh-uh, don't get this. Another Ubisoft cash grab, it's garbage. Well, clownboot's had it on order, didn't he? Unnoticed to him. But in between then and now there's been some reviews and more detailed previews come out where they're holding their hands up and saying, actually, they've got this working perfectly.
Speaker 2:I've seen a couple of reviews on it and comparisons with PS5, and although colours are slightly different, not in a bad way. Not less colours, just a different palette in certain areas.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Other than that I couldn't really see a lot of difference. It looked very, very good. I know I'm watching it compressed on a screen. You know better than me because you've played it natively on your PS5 and your switch to um. But I think a lot of people thought when cyberpunk come out and how good that that was, or is um, people sort of said, oh, that was just a bit of luck that they've got it running that well on there.
Speaker 2:But now it's happened again with star wars I think people are underestimating how powerful um switch to is.
Speaker 1:I think I don't think I underestimate it. I think Cyberpunk straight out the gates is pretty impressive. I do believe Cyberpunk and Star Wars Outlaws are already making Switch 2 sweat, though it's not as though it's got Outlaws running and it's got a load of extra horsepower under the hood. We're talking one or two might have just sort of. You know, if you scrabble around with some code you might find a couple of horsepower on the floor, but that's about it. So I think this classic mindset trope of like oh, this is what Switch 2 looks like at launch and there will be a granular improvement.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to say there's not, but I think the difference between switch to at launch and switch to when it shuffles off this mortal coil we're at the absolute upper threshold of graphical capability when we've got outlaws. I think we should be grateful for that. What does that mean? What it means that the whole back catalog of xbox one, xbox series, xbox one, back catalog of ps4 and early crossover titles from PS4, ps5 era, that kind of genre game, easy peasy, running on it.
Speaker 2:No sweat, which is quite impressive when you think how small the Switch is as a tablet handheld, but also how small the dock is when you compare it to a Series X or a PS5.
Speaker 1:It's powerful for this. Yeah, it's closest rival a Steam Deck or a Rogue or Rogue or whatever you call them. I've been pretty impressed with that. Pretty, like I say, it feels like witchcraft. It feels like you shouldn't be playing it on there, if that makes sense. Yeah, I know what youcraft.
Speaker 2:It feels like you shouldn't be playing it on there, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know what you mean it feels like a very kind of like a rare treat which is super rewarding to have on there and in its nines. Again, I don't think I'm going to be rushing to play Outlaws any time soon. You know, like I did when I first played it, but having it on there for that wet afternoon when you just want that in your pocket, unbelievable triple a adventure that speaks you just said it there in your pocket.
Speaker 2:I mean that's that's big games now in your pocket and it's that leap from switch to switch to switch was always brilliant at having those games in your pocket. But there's always that big compromise and, like we said on the switch to show, um, that compromise is is very small. Now you know you're not being compromised by being a switch owner or switch to owner. You're not being compromised as much now because people are playing outlaws on the ps5. You've got that, but you can take it with you if you want. You know there's, there's that, exactly that.
Speaker 1:I do think we're, and I've been, a rabid supporter of the Switch too. I think it's just hit at the right time. For me it's the right console, but I don't want, I don't. I think let's just ground this in reality. If we think this thing is going to be playing PS6, it's in the same situation. The Switch was. Yeah, it's in the same situation. The switch was when yeah, it's a mid-gen sort of launch, for example, oh, hang on a minute, it's just about hanging on the back doors of this console. Unbelievable, yeah, unbelievable, um, but by the time the switch, one shuffled off it.
Speaker 2:Yeah but I think I think the only difference this time around is before, when companies that were releasing on all systems were releasing your big first party console games, you weren't getting them on the Switch because they just couldn't do it. Now you are getting them on the Switch too, so you will get those games.
Speaker 1:It's brought them back into the fold and it's made the Nintendo ecosystem a viable place again for people who don't want to play the latest Mario platformer, which I have to say is a big boost. I kind of want to see some of the Switch game ports that came across. Like Expeditions, I think, deserves a rework. The Switch 1 game yes, it'll work on the Switch 2, no doubt. But a Switch 2 version of something like Expeditions, I think, deserves a rework. You know, the Switch 1 game yes, it'll work on the Switch 2, no doubt. But a Switch 2 version of something like Expeditions or a Switch 2 upgrade path for 10 quid, I'm on board. Same for SnowRunner, same for Witcher 3. There's lots of skin left in the game where these companies could make an extra 10 or 15 bucks from that upgrade, and it's not as though you have to.
Speaker 1:I've been playing Witcher 3 Switch 1 version quite happily, but if an upgrade came for 10 quid, would I take it as much as I would miss that rather sort of dogged-looking universe I now live in. I would take the upgrade, yeah, I would, but I think some of the straight out the gates. Witcher 3 was impressive on Switch too, with the little micro adjustments Nintendo's been making to the backwards, compatibility, and some games have come on in leaps and bounds and some have stayed static. I've seen little, just it might just be my head and my perception, but I've seen just little, just tiny little increases in draw distance, just little bits of changes in Witcher 3 that's been eliminating the popping from my experience and making the environment feel more solid. So I mean the most egregious one that's been left out in the dark is Jurassic World Evolution. I used to love playing that on the Switch. Don't know what's going on with my mic. I'm chasing around every single corner of this room at the moment. I don't know. I really love playing Jurassic World Evolution on the Switch. It was a great game to take on the go.
Speaker 1:It's a fully-fledged park management sim in your pocket, unless you want to play a 400-year-old roller coaster tycoon game, which I'm thinking about buying. I've got one. That's one hell of a compromise and I think I've just always liked that classic roller coaster tycoon. I get distracted, but it's the only sort of part builder simulation, sort of dinosaur game worth its salt on the console. Um, but there's something gone wrong with the colors. Everything is bathed in this blue and pink light. No matter what you do to the settings or change it, you can't get it to go away. So the menus look perfect, everything looks solid.
Speaker 1:You go into the game and it looks like it's weird yeah, it looks, even though you're in the middle of a jungle. It looks like a cocaine fueled miami, sort of like excessive. Yeah, it feels like vice city, but like a bizarre version where you're seeing dinosaurs everywhere and it kind of just brings down that like oh, if this, even if it was just running Switch One graphics and popping, I'm cool with it, but I can't enjoy it because of these colours. It's a big shame. So if that got a tweak and what's the point in tweaking a game that you're not going to get revenue from? Yeah, but with the third game coming out and no sign of a switch to port, you could rejig the graphics, and little pauper boys like me want that.
Speaker 1:Jwe evolution 3 experience again I can just pony up and buy one, um, and you wouldn't want that to be broken, but it is.
Speaker 1:I think, I've probably bored everyone. I don't think I did quite the spirited service that it deserved that you gave Story of Seasons, mate, I'll be honest with you. But I think it's time for the news to scout the very darkest regions of the internet to bring you the latest stories First up now. As, as I said, if you put 5 000 monkeys in a room with 5 000 typewriters and, as a likelihood, you might get a page of shakespeare, well, let's apply that logic to the ucp. And first in the news, courtesy of uh, the rather hirsute looking ollie reynolds on nintendo, he's done a bit of digging. Ubisoft employee explains why Star Wars Outlaws is a game key card. Get ready RGT, because this is going to make your loins pop, because there's a little bit of Digital Foundry noise in here as well. So let's get stuck in Star Wars Outlaws, as we talked about, released on the 4th of September 2025.
Speaker 1:It's the latest in the long line of Switch 2 titles utilizing the game keycard physical release. It's safe to say that most folks are under the assumption that the cost is likely driving the factor behind the use of the game keycard medium, with Nintendo supposedly only offering 64 gigabyte cartridges to third-party developers. Way to encourage people to release on your system. Anyway, over on the failed Twitter clone Blue Sky, rob Banton, who's the audio architect for Ubisoft's proprietary Snowdrop engine yeah, guys, that's what you called it explained the decision to use game key cards, and it's seemingly not anything to do with cost. Instead, it's all to do with disk streaming required for outlaws open world, with bantam stating that the switch to cartridges simply don't offer the performance needed for ubisoft to hit its quality target. Here's a quote snowdrop relies heavily on disk streaming for its open world environment and we found that switch to cards simply didn't give the performance we needed at the quality target we were going for. I don't recall the cost of cards ever entering the discussion, probably because it was mute. I think if we designed a game for switch to from the ground up, it might have been different. As it was, we built a game around ssds of the initial target platforms, and then the switch to came along. In this case, I think our leadership made the right call.
Speaker 1:A little bit of extra information from john lineman uh, good, friends of the show over at digital foundry, empathized with the reason and stating honestly and this sucks, I do kind of get it to match other consoles. They need storage that was fast, like a modern ssd, right. The cost on that stuff has not come down like the flash memory used for Switch 1 games. I think they probably did what they could and even still those carts cost $23 apiece. Naturally, the explanation here likely won't and can't be applied to every Switch game ever that's going to be released on a game key card. Some of it is likely going to be tied to cost, but it's nice to see a more nuanced added uh to the conversation from both bantin and lineman.
Speaker 1:Um message to the listeners if you're listening, you've got to switch to. How do you feel about that game card situation while me and rgt uh chew on it like an out of date after eight mint rgt, I want to. I want to raise two points. At launch I bought, I think, a 256 gigabyte card for my switch. It's literally rammed to the rafters already for the switch to a little bit disappointing. It's left me a little bit kind of like right, okay, well, I think I maybe got half a terabyte even, I can't't remember now, but it's now left me thinking right, so I'm going to have to pony up and get a terabyte card for this thing because it's literally busting at the seams. That probably would allow me to have every single game ever on the machine that I've got in my library.
Speaker 1:My second point is we have seen, even on the Switch One games, that if you want Digital foundry john did and digital foundry did some work on this if you want the best version of zelda on the switch one, you need to have it installed to the console's memory because its read write function is so much faster. If you have that on a genuine nintendo card sat in the memory card slot, it tends to, it works. Don't get me wrong it works, but it's not as quick. So what do you think about this bit of news? Obviously, when game key cards were first mooted for the Switch, we all sort of dropped our heads. All the red spine collecting maniacs went a little bit nuts and said I can't possibly have a red spine on the shelf without the game fully being in there. You little dogs said I can't possibly have a red spine on the shelf without the game fully being in there, you little dogs. All that being said, what's RGT's thought? Muse on all that.
Speaker 2:I think time will tell with key cards in regards to futures fails and tradings and bits and pricing of these as they go on. But I think as a tech side of things, um, I think you've got to look at it like yes, they are. In some ways they're quite a prehistoric way of doing games nowadays on a little cartridge. Um, almost 3ds like um, and, yes, never thought of it like that before. But obviously, when you're playing a disc game on a PS5 and they're pumping that through an SSD, that's where you get your speeds from.
Speaker 2:Well, if you're playing it off a little cartridge, you're very limited. Limitations are there and I think if I mean I wasn't a great fan of key cards to start with, I'm still on the fence with them. But I will say, if you said to me right, you can play star wars, outlaws on your switch to, but it's gonna, it's gonna look like a slightly higher edged um. Switch one game and it's gonna chug along a bit at 30 and maybe drop to 15 because it's all on the cartridge. Or you could have the key card version, play at 60 fps and it looks like the ps5 version. I'm to tap the keycard all day long.
Speaker 1:A thousand percent. So, the other thing. The other little added note is when I went to download it RGT, it needed me to clear 20 gig of space to make room for this sucker, which is small compared to its PS5 install, I believe.
Speaker 2:Is that still using the 64 gig card as well, or is it?
Speaker 1:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:That's just literally the game on the phone.
Speaker 1:That literally is a key that says I own this game. Therefore, let me play it. Yeah, it says on the box very clearly you need internet to download this game. Game is not in this box. It's very, very, very clear. Does that mean you should have bought it digital from the get-go? I'm, I'm, I'm thinking probably yes, rgt, but from a collecting point of view, I've got a card. It fits in my little switch to carry case. I've got perfectly. It looks like a switch to card to me.
Speaker 2:You'd be hard pressed to tell but also, I mean you can, you can resettle these key cards. At the moment you can. I mean longevity of that don't know we, none of us do but you'll be able to rebuy these. So, yes, like you say, you might be able to buy the. You might be buying just better to buy the game digitally in the first place. But yes, if you're, if you're late coming to games, you've got a bit of a backlog, like me and george do then you might look a year down the line and think, well, cex has got it for half the price for a key card, physical copy. So that's where you might benefit.
Speaker 2:I think I think he, I think a lot of game is myself included um will come around to key cards. Um, I think it will just be you won't think nothing of it. I think once people start picking them up second hand and realising that you're alright, you can still put the card in, you can download the game. Even though you've bought it cheaper, nintendo still recognises that they haven't dated it off, so you have to buy it brand new. I think everyone that will sort of fade a bit in the background, because we'll be getting these big, open world, we'll be getting these massive games because of key cards, and I think that won't be so much of a compromise then I think I have to admit it's a weird thing to get your head around.
Speaker 1:It's basically a digital game that you're buying a physical key for that. That is a strange concept. But the plus side is, if you want to renumerate your asset, you can. If you want to renumerate your asset, you can. Yeah, you can't from a digital store. You can't. With a digital game, yes, this. You are giving someone a key that gives them permission to download that game to their console. That is literally what you're doing. But finish it, trade it, sell it, give it to your gran. I mean, virtual game cards kind of negate that a bit, because you get like a week of play when you borrow a game off a mate, yeah, yeah, and you don't need the card. It's like here, have this.
Speaker 2:And I think also I mean Nintendo tried it with Switch 1 with these ridiculous code in a box. I mean, they were just strange codes in a box.
Speaker 1:That was offensive to me there with the stranger codes in a box. That was offensive to me.
Speaker 2:There was no need for that. That was ridiculous. But this is a compromise in the middle. If you're a digital gamer, it's probably going to benefit you to buy the game as a key card rather than digital, because you've got a sell on then. So, yeah, it is the best of both worlds. I don't think it's as egregious as people are making out.
Speaker 2:When it first came out, I was a bit oh, hang on, I don't like this, I don't like this. I was the same and I was like no, you know, I want all my game on the card. I do not want this, you know. But now you think about you think, hang on, hang on, rgt, just simmer down fella and think about it. You're getting the massive game which is getting closer and closer to the the other two. Yeah, all right, we're getting that. Graphics okay, that's all. But the game isn't on the card. Yes, but I'm not the digital version. If you play the game and you're not a collector, trade it in, get yourself another key card game and in the long run it's probably going to work out pretty good. It's a good compromise. It's a digital game that you can sell on.
Speaker 1:I think, also to refer back to the article as well I think we need to inject this idea that actually does this mean that the Switch 2 with these game key cards might have? We talked earlier about how, with the PS, the inevitable arrival of the PS6 and Xbox, whatever, the inevitable arrival of the PS6 and Xbox, whatever this could struggle. But does this game card option give them a window to be like? Actually, if we are just installed on the main console storage, we can utilize this SSD-like technology. We can actually bring a game we never thought we could. Ever.
Speaker 1:When the Switch 2 was announced and we were working on the Switch 1 architecture, we looked and thought, oh my God, it's more of the same, but just yesterday's problem, like it was today. But these game key cards oh, hang on a minute, we can actually actually, guys, we can get our new game running on Switch 2. It's almost Series S, it's kind of on the back doors of PS4 Pro, but then you play Outlaws and it feels a lot more significant, power-wise in your pocket. Like I say, the whole thing feels like witchcraft. If you've got an opinion on it, message in.
Speaker 2:We've got a lot of Switch collectors. Let us know what you think.
Speaker 1:Your thoughts and whether this news has changed your opinion on the game key cards in any way. A doubtful, but you never know. Uh, can't wait to get scotty on, and it's definitely a compromise, I think.
Speaker 2:I think it's a it could be a decent last week.
Speaker 1:A compromise is two people agreeing to something that neither of them would have to initially, but just to move the job along, and I think the game key card is a prime example of that. Rgt. What's the next bit of news?
Speaker 2:Well, this next bit of news comes from Pure Xbox, from Fraser Gilbert again. Always writes great articles, just Fraser. This one is Indiana Jones Order of Giants DLC launches, to quote mixed feedback in the first 24 hours it seems good, but there are grumbles about price and length. It's now been over 24 hours.
Speaker 1:That's what she said.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the usual gripes I get. It's now been over 24 hours since the Indiana Jones Order of the Giants DLC first launched on Xbox and beyond and, just like in the case of Hollow Knight, silksong, bethesda didn't say any. Uh, send any review codes out for this one ahead of time. We started playing it here at pure xbox brackets. Look out for our impressions, hopefully next monday. So keep an eye on pure xbox for that. Um, but we've only come across one finalized review from an outlet so far, and that's from Game 8, which has given it a very impressive 86 out of 100. Here's what they said in their conclusion the Order of the Giants expands Indy's world in a great circle with care, offering strong storytelling, atmospheric design and a polished gameplay loop. Yet uneven combat balance, weaker puzzles and a slightly constrained setting keep it from perfection. What it does well, it does with confidence, and it makes this dlc a worthy addition that proves great expansions don't need to reinvent the wheel to succeed.
Speaker 2:Nevertheless, the feedback. Feedback has definitely been mixed so far, and mixed is actually the rating it has on Steam based on the first 50 users' reviews on there. In general, it sounds like people are enjoying the actual content of the DLC, but the negative stuff mainly revolves around it being far too short for the 20 bucks or slightly less asking price. A few user reviews on Xbox Store paint a very similar picture to Steam as well. So let's start with a couple of positive user reviews. Teddy B on Steam Fun diversional with some good puzzles. If you're on a fresh playthrough, the DLC feels more organic for getting into because you can beat the main story in 3-4 hours and it feels like an extension of the Vatican level. That's not an epilogue to the secret ending, like I was hoping for, and it's quite linear, but still a pleasure to 100%.
Speaker 1:Howboy632789 what a name on steam, wow imagine mum shouting him down for his dinner yeah, hellboy632789, your tea is ready.
Speaker 2:It's more of the same game. I really enjoyed this game and the dlc is just more of that and it is enjoyable. I have played for a couple of hours so I imagine I am almost done at this point. This definitely isn't going to be very long, but if you thoroughly enjoyed the base game, you will enjoy this dlc. Um, you get the idea right. If you like the nana jones and the great circle, you're probably going to like the order of giants as well. That's great news for those who just wanted more of the same from this dlc.
Speaker 2:However, it does seem like a lot of people, even the players who are praising it, are warning that you're not getting a lot for your money. Here again. Um, just two more negative reviews that we have picked out um. Bobuscus on steam said way too pricey for what you get. If you didn't get it from the premium edition, I would wait for a sale. Took me about three hours to finish the story and have maybe an hour left for the rest of the collectibles. Most of the dlc takes place in the in the, so you can say it's mandatory sewer level. Twists were good, so was the final fight, but honestly, it's overpriced. And then Fuyu on Steam said it takes two to three hours to complete for just the main story and most of the time is spent in Rome in the sewers, which is annoying, to navigate and backtrack for remaining collectibles. I also encountered a bug preventing me from finding one of the mysteries and notes and wasted two hours.
Speaker 2:That's awkward yeah, and wasted two hours trying to figure out why I couldn't get to them. Eventually I was able to get to them after relaunching the game several times, but this definitely soured my experience even further. I only sorry. I think the only parts I liked about this dlc are the puzzles and the boss fight at the end, which were a bit more challenging than the base game. So, yeah, there's your reasons for the mixed reviews.
Speaker 2:We're obviously going to need a little longer to see how it fares on the likes of Metacritic and OpenCritic, but it sounds like it's not going to reach the highs of the base game on there. But it sounds like it's not going to reach the highs of the base game on there. Still, don't forget that if you bought any kind of premium version of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, you can play this new DLC at no extra charge, and Game Pass members also get a slight discount on the standalone version. If you're keen on checking it out this weekend, you might even be able to blast through it later tonight. Yeah, quite rightly so.
Speaker 1:I just want to for reference for the conversation that's going to take place. This is 17 gbp, or the universal 19 books which probably going to find itself at that level across the world in various different stores, up or down by five, but not much. Uh, 20 quid in this day and age you'd think it's throwaway money. But three times that you've got a full-priced game. Some would even argue two times that. And we've talked about some well-priced games recently. And we find ourselves a snap back in this strange zone of dlc's worth. Now I think if you bought the premium version of this game, fair play to you. But you paid through the nose for the dlc that was coming at six months down the line that you didn't know whether it's going to be good or bad. You took a punt, fair play. You probably got a white fedora, unlock, uh, for your sins. God God knows that's pulled many a fool in to paying money for tat. But I think for £20 this might be a bit of a stretch. But at what price point do you put something like this?
Speaker 2:well the thing is as well. I think pricing at the moment is just a mess. Game pricing is all over the place. I'm charging 80. Then I've played through mafia old country, which I pre-ordered and got pre-order bonuses for 37 pound. Now I spent 20 hours on that game. I think if you want a platinum that game you're going to be spending 30 hours on for 37. So 20 hours sorry, 20 bucks for a two to three hour, maybe four hour dlc is a bit rich for me when it sounds just like an added level. That almost sounds like a bit of a level that they didn't add in which they've just now charged for, so they haven't actually done any. It isn't actually an extra yeah, I want to.
Speaker 1:I want to cut them a little bit of slack. I I'm not saying it is.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying it sounds a bit more of a generic level, that was.
Speaker 1:Yes, it does.
Speaker 2:Extra charged.
Speaker 1:Star Wars Outlaws sort of grieve from this a little bit. I bought both sets. They were what? £12, I think from memory.
Speaker 2:That sounds about right to me.
Speaker 1:Equidistant in length. I think to this Indiana Jones DLC. So seemingly, if you knock five pounds off, it's the price you don't mind paying. So what is this five pound between you and friends? Why is that five pounds so egregious?
Speaker 2:well, because I think if if you're keeping around a 10 12 pound mark for these dlc some dlc's are 15 pound, but you you seem to get caught a lot with that. I think when you're pushing £20 for literally an afternoon of an extra level of a game for £20, when you've probably paid £60 for the game that you spent 35 hours playing, you suddenly think this is hold on a minute. The maths don't add up. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:I guess it depends on who's putting the metric of value exactly and at the moment I think you can charge 20 pound because there's no. Before we used to have 50 pound games and dlcs were between 10 and 15 and normally dlcs. You know, if you were playing on long games you've got quite a lot extra hours worth with, but if you're playing store, games, which are three mate.
Speaker 1:I'm about to scratch into something that's going to give me a return on the, a similar return to the hours I've already pumped into the main game exactly?
Speaker 2:do you know what I mean? So, so let's just give it the benefit of the doubt. Four hours, 20 pound that you'll probably go through is just a level of the game. I don't know.
Speaker 1:It doesn't sit right with me let's do the UCP scale of destruction from DLC. Up here is the main prize. We're talking horse armour for £5.99, which is a skin, the first DLC and the most egregious DLC to ever exist on the. I'm messaging if you know of a worse one, this is our metric. Okay, up here we've got horse armor. Uh, I don't know if this is going out on video, but let's just imagine my hands in the air. And down here we've got indiana jones. How close to the dlc of the horse armor is this? Is it halfway towards it? Is it three quarters of the way or is it the full horse armor?
Speaker 2:the silly thing with me dlc. I am not against dlc. I think it's brilliant if you can add to your favorite game and play some more brilliant. Even cosmetics I don't mind. I mean, I put hundreds and hundreds of hours in the first crew game which you can't play anymore, but that's a completely different conversation. We won't go down that route anyway. Um, yeah, that's another can of worms up anyway. Um, and I would buy cars on there which were like one pound fifty, two pound, two pound fifty, which is cheap, and you get an extra car. I think that's all good.
Speaker 2:If you want to expand the game and buy different vehicles, different skins, if they're cheap enough, I think it's good. I think everything needs to have a value. I'm not against any of that if you play call of duty and you buy skins for your gun and all that and it's cheap enough. I think it's when you get companies that will say you can have this gold armor or this gold skin for your M16, but there's only 5,000 of them, so they're £100 each. That's when you start getting that where you think, hang on, hang on, you know, keep all the gun skins the same price and you know everyone can pick what they want or customize how they want. That's when they start taking advantage of people's loyalty to the game where you think, well, hold on a minute. So for this as well.
Speaker 2:I think it's great to indiana jones. I haven't played, by the way, but I do know people who have played it really enjoyed it. Great game, well made, looks really good definitely something I'd want to play. So I think to do a DLC is a no brainer. I think you could add to that, get an audience back in again and obviously, being on the PS5 as well, you might draw another audience in there and think, oh, there's extra to this, get it. But I just don't think £20 is the right price mark this should be at for such a short level.
Speaker 1:I think there's more DLC coming. Right price mark this should be at for such a short level. I think there's more dlc coming so I feel like you know pricing them slightly different to reflect the return on investment. This could have been 12 to 15, yeah, and if there was a chunkier bit of dlc coming down the pipe it could be 15 to 20. Do you think that would have hit the price point? Classic RGT he's got no splinters in his arse because Indiana Jones is it horse armour or not horse armour?
Speaker 2:In the middle. In the middle, I'm sitting on the fence. That's why I've got splinters in my arse.
Speaker 1:That's why there's zero splinters, because you haven't jumped down either.
Speaker 2:No, I think it's a good idea to do a DLC for this game. I really do. I think it's that uncharted sort of game. I think it's nice to have that extra level to unlock this area, but I just think £20 is too much.
Speaker 1:Do you know what my biggest grievance with the whole thing is? And I know people are going to be like oh George, get over yourself. I do not want to play a first-person Indiana Jones game.
Speaker 2:George, get over yourself, like I do not want to play a first person Indiana Jones game that's my only grip with it.
Speaker 1:If it was third person and I know that might break the game, I don't care. It's what I would have wanted and I am a big Indiana Jones nerd. I'm a Star Wars kid. I was raised on Lucasfilm.
Speaker 2:I know what you mean it's. The only reason it's put me off is the first person aspect of it, because I think it, it, it deteriorates your combat. I like the combat in third person, but yeah, and I know there'll be people out there saying no, no, no, uncharted would have been better if it was first person. I'm sure you love first person, but for that style of game I think I just want to see him careering behind a box.
Speaker 1:I want to see him leap. I know, when you do do certain elements in the game, it switches to a third person, which I think is even more jarring. Commit or don't, or commit or don't this. Oh, cut scene. Let's have him swinging across land on the other side back to first person. That's immersion breaking. If I'm going to do it. Oh, cut scene. Let's have him swinging across land on the other side back to first person. Like that's immersion breaking. If I'm gonna do it, make me do it all yeah, that's what you mean, yeah but I see like in third person.
Speaker 1:You could have him walk into a market. You could have the camera pan back to give you that cinematic feel. While you move to tiny little indiana jones around this market he speaks to someone and the camera comes all the way back down again, so you're next to him in a conversation piece.
Speaker 2:You know there's some really cool bits like I haven't played the game, because it's not the wolfenstein guys, their first person sort of absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's their bread and butter. That's where they go to make a game and they can tell a really impactful and an interesting narrative through the first person. I've got nothing against them. I've got nothing against them. I've got nothing against this retelling of Indiana Jones through the first person medium. It's just on the face of it. It is just not for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see what you're coming at and on the perfect board if you go back to Seb's comments about this.
Speaker 1:when it was announced who's playing Indiana Jones and in a way he was right. It's not the rip-snorting success, because you've got to be 40 plus to give a rat's ass about Dr Jones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're not.
Speaker 1:It needs to stand on its own legs as being a good game, which I kind of think it is, but there's so many good games out there. The kids are not buying this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very true.
Speaker 1:So I also see this DLC pitched at the disposable income crew 40 plus, so therefore it's 20 quid?
Speaker 2:That's a good point, that'll lap it up.
Speaker 1:That'll lap it up. That's a very good point.
Speaker 2:They're aiming at the demographic that is behind the game.
Speaker 1:yeah, and to a 40 plus year old 20 quid. I know everyone finds themselves in different financial situations, but you've probably got 20 quid kicking around.
Speaker 2:Well, that's two and a half pints nowadays if you go out drinking Right right, so don't go out tonight or a coffee from a high-priced coffee store.
Speaker 1:It's DLC, so it depends what you frame this up with, because someone will charge you 20 quid for four coffees and more. We'll say three coffees for 20 quid. The beans cost 2p, the staff cost about 50p, maybe less. The milk was 30p. The price upon coffee is way more than a video game. But we'll pay 20 quid for a starbucks. But we go on the digital store and we're like, well, that's, how dare you. But he probably spent someone longer to draw in the Anna Jones left nipple than it did for four people to create a barista coffee RGT.
Speaker 2:No, very true. Yeah, that is very true, but I still think £20 for three to four hours. I don't know. It might turn out that I end up playing it one day and think actually, this is a really good level. I'm really glad I played it.
Speaker 1:By the time you get round to it, the whole package will be on sale for 20 quid.
Speaker 2:CX, yeah, nine quid, I'll have to figure everything.
Speaker 1:Well, let's make this show look like a professional episode, because we talked about Bethesda's Indiana Jones game, right, and now someone else in Bethesda has seen what I did there.
Speaker 2:Spoken out.
Speaker 1:So in this last bit of news we found it over on Push Square. If anyone's ever got their hand on a pen over at Push Square Towers, it's the Immortal Sammy Barker. I hope you will. He writes this the tension is hurting a lot of people. Ex-bethesda boss speaks out on subs like Xbox Games Pass, the sub headline. I saw short-sighted decision-making. Let's dig into what Sammy's got to say.
Speaker 1:If there's any one best place to speak on the impact of Xbox Games Pass, it's ex-Bethesda boss Pete Hines, who left the publisher in 2023. See what we've done here. Bethesda News. Bethesda News. It links Ubisoft, links us to what you've been playing. This links us to that. It's the Bayeux Tapestry, but done by a blind man with one colour.
Speaker 1:Hines enjoyed his wildly successful 24 years at the company, and so he saw firsthand the impact of microsoft's acquisition and while he admitted there's been, he's been out of the picture for a little while. He said he saw some short-sighted decision making several years ago, which seems to be bearing out the way I said now. Let's go grab the full quote from dbl tap as part of a wider interview which touches on prey, elder scrolls and much more. So if you want to go dig it up, listen to the full hit you can do, but here's this specific quote that focuses in on what we want to talk about. So we said I'm not working in any of these companies anymore, so I don't assume that everything I knew while I was in the industry still holds true today. At the same time, I'm old enough to know. I saw what I considered to be some short-sighted decision making several years ago and it seems to be bearing out. The way I said, subscriptions have become a new four-letter word. Right, you can't buy a product anymore.
Speaker 1:When you talk about a subscription that relies on content, if you don't figure out how to balance the needs of the service and the people running the service with the people who are just providing the content without which your subscription is worth jack shit, then you have a problem. You need to properly acknowledge, compensate and recognize what it takes to create that content and not just make a game but make a product. The tension is hurting a lot of people, including the content creators themselves, because they're fitting into an ecosystem that is not properly valuing and rewarding what they're making. Ex sony executive sean layden recently made similar comments on xbox games pass, arguing that it's turning developers into wage slaves. He was quick to share heinz comments on social media, saying Pete's quote nails it.
Speaker 1:Despite a ton of discussion on the topic, microsoft has always insisted its subscription service is profitable, although it's gone through various price increase and adjustments over the past few years and the company obfuscates its actual profits. A PlayStation, to its credit, has consistently said it believes the Xbox games past model is unsustainable. Early in the generation, the organization was put under a lot of business pressure to copy the business model, which some could argue was a mistake. It eventually introduced multiple tiers of PS Plus which provide a rolling catalogue of releases, including some Day One games. However, it's always resisted the temptation to devalue its own software in the service upon release. Industry-wide subscription spending has been in or been up in the us recently, but it remains stagnant for several years despite price increases.
Speaker 1:Ultimately, we think it's probably safe to say that xbox games pass does represent great value. It's not the future of gaming as was hypothesized at the start of the gen. Now sam Sammy's stitched together quite a coherent sort of article there. Now, admittedly, there isn't really anything within there to fight the corner of Games Pass, which, for this to be a well-rounded argument, I think it needs to be. So I might need to serve as the de facto fan of uh subscription models just for the for the sake of this conversation. So you've got something to rail against rgt, because there is value, um, there is for the gamers. Potentially, depending on where and when you're stopping off and stepping in point to gaming wars, there is some value locked in there.
Speaker 1:But it seems that even the developers and core what you would call Xbox team members I don't think there's any doubt that Pete Hines is definitely in that mould. He didn't like it, but he didn't like it not for the reasons that we don't necessarily like it. He didn't like it because he felt he put developers in a tough spot spot. Now I want to add a little bit of extra in there, because I did read an article earlier in the week and forgive me because I can't reference it, I don't know where I read it, but there were some people talking about um developing a game for the xbox ecosystem, and games pass primarily your 10 minute.
Speaker 1:So they're now designing these games to present a really addictive hook in the first 10 minutes, or action upon action upon action for that first 10-minute showcase, because then you may continue with the game, because we've also seen, because it's so easy to get games and I think as gamers we're all guilty of this we grab a game, download it for six hours or stream it immediately, get about two minutes in and go. There must be something better on the store. I'll park this and do that. So with all that going on, rgt let that just coalesce in the back of your mind. But the bulk of the first bit here. What do you make of Pete's comments and how?
Speaker 2:does that bear out to you as a gamer? Yeah, I think this comes back to. I remember us discussing this on the show a couple of years ago and I remember saying to you I think the overall first picture of Games Pass is, if you're a gamer, if you're on a budget or you're an Xbox gamer, it's a great deal. But I always said I was always worried about whether the quality of games would drop drastically. And the reason I say the quality games attract uh drop drastically is because if you're making ghost of shishima or you're making death strand and we make an uncharted, you make the best game you can with your budget you've got and you hope that this becomes a banger and you make your buck back because they're so popular, everyone's love it.
Speaker 2:Talking about it 90 game, 10 out of 10, blah, blah, blah. Everyone loves it. Yeah, now the problem is if you're then about to make a game for xbox games pass and you think that you're going to be a banger needs a 200 million budget, and they turn around and say, well, we'll give you 100 million to put it on there. Well, because they're not going to get an extra 100 million of subscribers just to play your game, especially if they're just using a free month to play it to start with yeah so you're instantly on the back foot straight away because you're getting 100 million and that's it.
Speaker 2:And that's where my worry was, because these developers are going to be making to a budget.
Speaker 1:Let me just insert here you've got 100 million pounds to make this game, but you also know that, no matter what your initial thoughts about the gameplay loop was, you've almost got to make a demo version for the first 10 minutes to keep people even slightly interested as well. So every single step of the way, there's a vision compromise for a creator, and I don't ever want to see a vision compromise. Yes, price, technological stat of the console all being well, fair play, but I don't want to see his vision compromised because of a, a price or service window. I think that's a bit egregious. Like george lucas, yes, my plan for Star Wars, yeah, great, but the first 10 minutes can it be an advert for coffee?
Speaker 2:No, yeah, I know exactly what you mean and I think, at the end of the day, if you're making a game for game sales, you will make it to the best of your capability. If you're making a game for a certain budget that you have been given for a streaming service, or under that budget if you can, so there's a quality compromise straight away. Now I might be just taking this down to the most basic of terms. I'm not a game developer, I'm not an expert on games bars. People might be listening to this saying, oh GT, what absolute trash are you talking? But that's the way I see it and I think oh, GT, you've got a microphone.
Speaker 1:Your valid is your point.
Speaker 2:Your opinion is 90% more valid than the rest of the universe well, I don't know about that, but um definitely not um, but I think, from what I said originally, I think that has taken its turn a bit and I think, yes, xbox has been making these good games you Indiana Jones, your Forza Horizon 5, blah, blah, blah but they've had to put them on the competitive system to earn the money back from them games because they had the big budgets but they didn't get the increase in sales of Games Pass. So it's a tricky one. Do I think Games Pass is the future of gaming? No, do I think a streaming service is in the future? I think there will be a streaming service in some form or another, but I think it's like most things in life or most businesses If they're producing a product to sell, you want to make it the best product you can. If you're making it for a set price that you've already been paid, you will make it to that budget, which doesn necessarily let me flip the script again.
Speaker 1:I haven't gamed since I was a kid. I had a playstation one and you know I had a playstation 2 for a while and I sold it for beer money. And my life's changed a bit now and I'm settled down, I've got a wife and kids and I'm looking for something to do on a night time and I've been looking at the games and I'm not really sure this Xbox is talking to me. They've got this game anywhere thing which it can't work out because I'm too old by any metric to work that out. But I'm old enough to be able to walk to the shop and get Series X. It's come in bundle with three months of games password. I've done a quick Google Hundreds of games. Let me get this now straight out the gates ps5 and playstation plus, or you know the, the name. That's the game, the, the manufacturer that's won the universal word for game subscription services, microsoft games, pass. Let's focus on that. They're the ones who've kind of bedded down in it the most.
Speaker 1:I'm taking this home, 46 years years old, haven't had a console since the PlayStation 1. I've set it all up, that 4K telly that me and the Mrs Scott's come in and told her here because I've got 120 FPS in the back. Yeah, sorted, all set up and running. Gone on to Games Pass, I've downloaded Indiana Jones because that was one of the things that attracted me First. Base is totally free to play. I'm hyped. They're even offering the DLC for £7, because if a game's past subscribe, I'm sure I'd read on the internet people kicking off about that Feels like a great deal. This gamer. I think we'd listen to our conversation and probably call you an arsehole. Thanks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for casual gamers a subscription service is probably thanks. Yeah, if for casual gamers there's some excuse and service, it's probably a good way to go. I think this play anywhere thing you could probably just play it for your Amazon Fire Stick if you want to play it and that's the.
Speaker 1:I did sort of caveat there. I wanted to kill that dead because there's another option for Johnny come likely.
Speaker 2:Yeah because he might go google it and go hang on. I don't need to spend 500 quid on a Series X. I can play it on my Fire Stick.
Speaker 1:Let's say that's beyond him. He's a traditionalist. He's been and bought the console. He's doing all this. He's playing all this To him. He's having a great experience. He doesn't have a lot of disposal. Yes, he's saved up for his Series X, but he's not. It's Johnny's birthday next week. He needs to get the Mrs Anniversary present. He ain't got money coming out of his ear holes but he's got all the latest games what I don't what I don't understand is why is Johnny come lately, not the figurehead of the Xbox marketing, marketing campaign for Xbox games?
Speaker 1:pass To me, get your eyes on the guys that could make this work. Don't chase PlayStation gamers. Chase a metric you've never unlocked.
Speaker 2:I think that's probably why there's everything is an Xbox man, Because they realise that casual gamers you can chuck at a casual gamer.
Speaker 1:How's that working for them?
Speaker 2:No, that's what I mean. It's too little, too late. But I think that's why they've changed now, because I think their original idea was ah, we'll aim at people who just want, rather than go out and go to CEX and find these games they want, or go in game or go in you know wherever, oh, go off and buy the games they want. They just literally think oh, I'm the dabbling gaming again.
Speaker 2:I ain't done it for 10 years. I'll just get games past and play what I want. The problem is hang on. The problem is hang on. I'm on news night tonight. That casual gamer is not going to go out and spend 500 pound on a console. That casual game is going to turn and go. Oh no, no, I just want to play something on a saturday, I'm not spending five. So they've now turned track and said hang on, you can play it on your tv. You can play it on on, you can play it on your TV, you can play it on your phone, you can play it. And they've sort of. But almost they're fighting against themselves because they're now saying don't worry, you don't need a console, you can play this. But then your hardware sales are dipping.
Speaker 1:Xbox have always been one step ahead, one generation or maybe two generations of times ahead of where they actually need to be. The 360 was a prime example. They released a banging store. They released a banging online service. It made a difference. But next gen, everyone adopted that as a universal standard and they've had the.
Speaker 1:We're going to be one box in your living room. Before streaming services were adventing, they were there, allowing you to plug a TV air in the back of your console. So you just have this all in one entertainment hub, one gen ahead of its time they've now looking to. Then there's they've obviously walked back on this a little bit because of microsoft's sort of hardware division is sweating his balls off backstage trying to get something and everyone keeps just pulling the hardware away from them. But you'd imagine next gen and the one after, if you're existing on a console and I don't know how some people like Nintendo were going to cross this sort of pantheon, but you're probably dead.
Speaker 2:So I think the argument there is, especially with the 360 and how they've done the store and Xbox Live and online gaming. I mean it even started from the original Xbox with the online gaming side, but everyone looked at that and went that's where gaming's going. We need to do that. The problem is with Games Pass. It was almost trying to force the market and that ain't necessarily what the games industry wanted to do or what necessarily the games industry wanted. Yeah, so now xbox have gone. No, this is the future for the. You know we're, we're a console ahead, we're two generations ahead and everyone's gone. Well, hold on.
Speaker 1:No, this isn't proven to work and we need to make money now, not in 20 years time yeah, exactly, and they've sort of gone.
Speaker 2:I don't really know. Playstation, sort of thought at first. Oh oh, I put one foot in and went, yeah, we're going to do this. And then sort of thought, oh, hold on, hold on.
Speaker 1:I want to bump it onto a different conversation, a more selfish one, based on what we've talked about, but one thing I want to explore. Johnny come lately, okay, he remembers picking up games at game. He remembers picking up games at game. He remembers picking up games at electronics boutique. Now he remembers that in his distant memory with a little bit of nostalgia. But part of his gaming experience and mine and yours and a lot of people's, although it's proving harder to do was the walking, the physical store.
Speaker 1:Do you think that you are I mean, you're a, you're a peculiar cat, but I'm finding it harder like smiths, if you want to look at a new game on the shelf, I mean, yes, you can buy them from a multitude of places, but you can't pick the box. You can't pick a copy of a box up and read the back and go. Is this for me or not? You know you can in smiths, you can in CEX, but the product is secondhand. There is no, apart from your mom and pop retro stores, twitch. We're very grateful to those people. But without those main branded places, cex almost walks itself out of the conversation because it's used. So the only place you can go and really en masse like. Curry's have got an area, nasdaq have got a half-baked area but it gets smaller every time I go in there. It's the only place you can go and peruse a box back. Do you think there's some mourning for that experience or do you think it's just one of those memories that no one even thinks about anymore?
Speaker 2:no, I think there is um. I think the issue is with the digital side and the streaming services almost forced upon people, casual gamers and people coming into the market, especially younger generation. They don't. They don't feel that. My daughter has never been to buy a physical game in her life. She's a PC gamer. She's never been to buy because she doesn't even think of what you know. She's 20 years old, I'm sure of my age, but she's 20 years old. She wouldn't go. Oh Dad, I'm just nipping to Ipswich, I'm just nipping to Norwich to buy a physical game.
Speaker 1:She just goes on Steam. She just goes on Steam. Bizarrely, my son was going away. He wanted to get a game, wanted to go and see EX.
Speaker 2:So that gives me hope. That gives me hope. They're still out there. They're still out there. Bring back EB Games, come on.
Speaker 1:Bring it back. I think that draws a line under the news. I want to do a little quick discord moment. No, not discord, actually. What we're going to do, we're going to get selfish.
Speaker 1:If you've listened to this show and you found any enjoyment in it whatsoever and you're about to go splurge on a coffee quit for today, make one out the kettle because for three pound you can become a supporter of the show. There is no other show that gives a t-shirt for the minimum subscriber level we do. Okay. So look at it this way three pound, you got yourself a t-shirt, even if you round it up, you know it's not that much for a garment, especially one representing your favorite show you support and listen. You've only got to listen back the last three weeks and we're throwing money back at you like rain on a wet march afternoon. So you know. You know you give to get back. You get back to give, get in on probably the most generous show going. Hopefully you've enjoyed the content. There's a Discord in the background as well. We're not going to get lost in the weeds on that today, but just if you support the show and so many of you that listen that don't I would love to welcome in a 285 episode hardcore listener that we've never met before and wanted to sub to the show. To me, you are the unicorn. I want to talk to you, I want to meet you. I want to send you a t-shirt.
Speaker 1:Just go to the bottom of where you've heard this on an audio platform. There'll be a little link. Go over there, press the £3 button. Rgt will make the rest happen. He's that good. He is slicker to short, to coin a ucp phrase than a greased weasel sliding down a piece of glass. That's how slick you are. Now, if you have subscribed one of the perks and here's a reason reason to make yourself feel good You're going to get your name read out on the show. We're now entering that section of the show RGT. Now, if you think we're just going to read out your name, joe Smith, no, we're going to have a little bit of fun with it, but it's all in spirit of the show. So if you want to be semi-ridiculed by two men who probably need ridiculing themselves, this is where you queue up for it RGT. Let me hop across to our Discord chatter farm and there we see in front of us the names of our lovely supporters First, second or what. What's going on?
Speaker 2:I'll let you go first.
Speaker 1:Okay, I like what you've done, so I'm going to go in. I'll let you go first. Okay, I like what you've done, so I'm going to go in. I'm going to suit up like Henry V at Agincourt. I'm going to go up and down the crowd of people in front of me on a grey pony to show that I'm humble. I don't need a big white steed, not at all. I'm at the front wearing my crown. I want everyone to see me. I turn and look at my assembled army and at the moment of panic sets upon me because there's one guy but it doesn't matter, because I know he's worth legions upon legions upon legions of anybody else's fans it's Carlos, the one man. George fan army.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Carlos, Absolute legend. Then we have the very intelligent, the very good looking, the very well spoken Firm Returns. Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 1:Which means I get to sit down and dine out on some of the finest buffalo wings that side of the earth. It's trestles of New York.
Speaker 2:Then we have the guy with the greatest Dreamcast collection. Every time he gets a couple more games and uploads his collection, as is so far, I just keep thinking. I always message how many left? How many left? He's going for a complete Dreamcast collection. He's got it in this lovely unit backlit with yellow. Oh yes, nerding out with that one, he's Roast Spacemonk. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:As you say, if M&S did Dreamcast collections it would be Roast Spacemonk's retro gaming area you better. It would be Space Monks retro gaming area, you better.
Speaker 2:Take the next one, because apparently I need to take the one after that oh yes, so we have the awesome Badabinkster, our Italian stallion, but also just lately he's been wearing he collects football shirts as well. So if you don't know about that, hop on the discord and check out. But he's got a couple of the gaming ones lately. Playstation sponsored football shirt and the super nintendo one.
Speaker 1:Oh, these shirts are absolutely I would give my right arm for a dreamcast arsenal shirt. I don't even like arsenal. I don't even like football. If I could cruise around in one of them, I'd feel like I love that PlayStation one.
Speaker 2:I think it was. Was it Community Corrections? I think it was an American team.
Speaker 1:I might be wrong, Sorry if I am, but I assume the.
Speaker 2:Nintendo sponsor looked really good, but yeah, that'd have been sweet. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:What have you?
Speaker 2:got next then.
Speaker 1:I was watching an episode of. It was an old episode of Gardener's World with jeffrey hamilton and he had found uh well, he's a real person, don't?
Speaker 1:get where's his head, if you're not sure. Also before I get distracted, I've been playing through death, stranding one. I'm about halfway through it, just fyi. Uh, I think I mentioned it a few weeks ago, but I didn't want to let it go by as you're getting on with that game. There you go, I'm still playing it. Um, anyway, I was watching this episode with je and he had made a kind of American, south American, america's area of his garden and in there was a peculiar-looking plant. It looked like a potato but at the top it produced like a ripe-looking fruit which when he plucked down and opened it up it was Pringles. Right, but what he needed to do to get more fruit, because it was only produced in the little snack boxes and he wanted the foot-long full girth yeah the full yeah, the full Jeff.
Speaker 2:I don't know. That's a new catchphrase T-shirt idea badabinksterster the full Jeff. Why is that?
Speaker 1:why is that activating us both?
Speaker 2:right, I don't know because we're, because we're children.
Speaker 1:That's why so the only way, the only way to get this tree to produce more fruit is if he employed a Pringle pruner. So thank you to you, sir, sir, for your support. Who's next?
Speaker 2:Tingle Tuna, by the way. Thank you, oh is he. I thought it was.
Speaker 1:Pringle Pruner.
Speaker 2:Next up we have the quiz master himself, the hostess or the mostess it is Digital Monkery in a very interesting museum. This week I'll leave it there.
Speaker 1:He's like the Rosemary Ford of the show, isn't he?
Speaker 2:Definitely.
Speaker 1:Okay, up next. This man is not intimidated by the hair suit gamers. He's not even intimidated by the hair suit skaters, because this man stands above them all, blinding them with his brilliance and chrome dome. It's the bald border.
Speaker 2:Next we have Do I have to do the Call of Duty special?
Speaker 1:Yeah, why not?
Speaker 2:Gun brand Boba Loba. Thank you very much. You're an absolute predator.
Speaker 1:Now, never in the field of human endeavours has one young man stood up and done more for his country and the people within it and those around, and for us as well, than Ginge, my red headed step son, at the moment wearing the Ponsonbury suit of armour, is out there on the ragged edge. We wish you the very best, son. If this has got you round a five mile run, knowing that the speed you travel, you're probably already back and taking your shoes off. But we wish you the best. Ginge Got a t-shirt winging its way to you the Ponsonbury Army t-shirt. Yes yes.
Speaker 1:He's put himself in the firing line for one of those. We're very grateful to you.
Speaker 2:Absolute legend, If there was such a thing as reincarnation, or if there is.
Speaker 1:I want to come back as Ginge what, so you can get a hug from me just because he's awesome.
Speaker 2:He's got loads of platinums, he's good looking, he's fit, he's muscular, he showed me his body transformation.
Speaker 1:Not only now is he amazingly strong, but the guy can go for hours.
Speaker 2:I mean, mrs Ginge, god bless you, duck um anywho, next up we have God bless you Duck Anywho next up we have the Lord of Darkness himself, who is now, I should say, the YouTube channel's about 2,000 subscribers, wow, and that is Harvey Retro. Well done on your subscribers.
Speaker 1:Sat at home on a pile of Well deserved yeah, sat at home on a pile of YouTube cash. He looks like Scrooge mcdunk scrooge mcdunk.
Speaker 2:But yeah, well done.
Speaker 1:But thanks also for your last week I was trying to work out where the geographical location is.
Speaker 2:It's nowhere near berlin, one could argue that's anywhere well, yeah and that's where I found it, nowhere near berlin well, I will jump onto the one that you've just missed, um, and that is the lovely emma sharp I've got a restraining order yeah, I did. I advised her on that um so I didn't, I didn't miss it, I just it was actually for you and tom, but yeah, so it's a double restraining order after the um apps.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you a red. Now. That's like a red rag to a bull that putting a restraining order on Tom.
Speaker 2:I did worry about that With a female.
Speaker 1:It suddenly made her 4,000 times more desirable. She was already, you know, probably the most desirable female listener of the show. Now, yeah, Well, he did when I phoned him to tell him about restraining order. Probably the most desirable female listener of the show Now.
Speaker 2:Well he did. When I phoned him to tell him about restraining order, he just went. Hmm, challenge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like the UK legal system has made a big mistake. It slit the fuse on quite possibly the biggest pocket rocket. Emma's ever seen who's next.
Speaker 2:I think it's your turn. Yes, you.
Speaker 1:So when you said you were going to jump on, I was like, oh wow, that's an interesting take. So I'm going to jump on, mumsy, as you said you were going to.
Speaker 2:Wow, thanks, mumsy. Next up, we have the only fan club with more than one member. Forget that. They're family members, but there's more than one member.
Speaker 1:Don't ruin it like that.
Speaker 2:The RGT fan club. Thanks, Mum.
Speaker 1:Fair play to you, you foolish people. Up next, a man who what a legend. Yeah, you see, even Ginge has to bow down to the strength of the immortal Pete Brocklehurst. He doesn't live in reality. He lives in a sort of ephemeral medieval world, but he bench presses the Burj Khalifa.
Speaker 2:And, like I've always said, if we get to the stage where we have a live show with a really hefty size audience, then our very own Max and Paddy Ching and Pete Brocklehurst will be on the door.
Speaker 1:Wow, can you hear me now who's next? I'm on the bus.
Speaker 2:Next up. We have love him or hate him, but he's been a long-time supporter. It is Billy Marmite. Thank you so much, billy.
Speaker 1:And I love the way this works out, because when you know you've got Simon Pryke in your mouth, you know you're safe from a full face covering of a Zangief. So I'm going to say thank you to Simon. Absolute legend, quite a lot of background support in the show.
Speaker 2:So rgt that thanks for the lead in there.
Speaker 1:That was, uh, yeah, very well done so, yes, I, what I want to, what I want you to imagine, is that you you've ended up a bit sort of down and out money wise um not to be mentioned okay.
Speaker 1:So you know method, act yourself. Uh, you're down and out money-wise and you've had a phone call from a guy called Ben, last name Dover. He said I've heard about you being a bit tight for money. I've heard you're a bit of a performer. I'm thinking that our universe is tied together. Can you demonstrate to me your on-screens and gif? Now, what you need to remember is you need this job. Oh God, you need this job. Okay, your family aren't eating at home. Okay, that also means that some activity backstage isn't happening either. So the situation is pretty desperate and you've got this three second window to perform, to secure yourself.
Speaker 1:I'm not a machine well, how long do you want? A second would do let's say five seconds, because, well, part of being I'm not doing two of them part of being an actor is you've got to be a convincing liar. So if you've got to do like a Jules and Gief to make this work, that's what I want to see. I'm now him right and I'm saying to you I'm giving you a chance here, rgt, to make a little bit of cash dollar for the beloved Mrs RGT. You don't want her in it, do you?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Okay, and also.
Speaker 2:Bono. Mum, can you just skip forward a minute please?
Speaker 1:Carry on, that's 50% of the listenership dropped.
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, Dad, can you skip as well? That's it that one's lifted.
Speaker 1:Okay, perfect. So now, with the eyes of the world turned away from you, give me your sangue Flat.
Speaker 2:San P? P Was that long enough, Ben.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest with you. Have I got the job? I wanted to see a tsunami. What I got was a speck of rain from a sunny sky, but do you know what? With a little bit of CGI we get you the right diet. The noise was great, yeah, but not a lot of content.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I sort of Sound-wise I'm a tornado, but I'm more of a light drizzle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's yeah, mate, yeah, finish the show. I'm dark on.
Speaker 2:Oh dear, anyway, oh wow, finish the show on dark on.
Speaker 1:Oh, dear anyone. Oh, wow, okay, thanks for listening everyone busting out the dark place that michael fish resides in. Here you are okay, he. He failed to predict a hurricane and, to be honest with you, you failed to predict a rather subpar zangief. It doesn't matter, everyone's's out there with readout. So now we only know that. The next thing that follows is I ask you what your Supply?
Speaker 2:Thank you. More Grand Bazaar. I've only about 10 hours in on that so far and hardly scratched the surface of it, so, uh, it's definitely going to be that little game in the background just just chipping away at. Um, I want to start something else on my ps5 because I hardly touch at the moment and I need to play something else. But, as you can see, I've got a lot of games behind me and when I was rearranging this games room, it suddenly made me realise how many games I haven't played and how many games are sealed. So I'm not going to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm not going to purchase any more games. I'm going to be playing some from these backlogs around here somewhere.
Speaker 1:Thank God for the back catalogue this gen.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I'm so ungrateful for all the nice big games that are coming out, but there's some solace in just going through the back catalog and so definitely plan some bits like that. Um, and also now I've just about gotten the older consoles now, as, if people don't know, we used to have a lot of crt set up. I've um, reduced crts all the way down and I've gone with an oss and gone through upscaling on a modern telly and I've just about got that leveled and set up now with most of the consoles PS2s, original Xboxes, all running through the modern TV in 1080p goodness. So I will probably be looking at OG, xbox, ps2, something around there that I've always been wanting to play and now I can sit and play it in the living room. So something around there.
Speaker 1:The only compromise with that is it's like you have to pick a TV setting. That's a big compromise, don't you? When you're playing a PS2. Some games support 16 by 9 full screen, some don't. So often, I find, and even then the window that the PS2 presents itself doesn't fill necessarily a big screen, yeah, and also I find with my TV's got built-in AI.
Speaker 2:So when you put your whatever because I for an hdmi selector, I have mrs rgt's oled switch, I have my switch to, I have my ps5, I have series x, I have um and the retron and all that, all for an hdmi selector or that, even for a selector, my tv, the ai, will go ah, that's the switch to, here's the best settings, here's the best sound, here's the best, and that sets it automatically for you, which is flawless. But with an oss that sort of goes. Oh, here's something that I don't quite know what that is and that the tv sort of says do you want ai? Because I'm not really sure what this is playing through here, so you have to sort of set it yourself each time, even though it still looks good in 1080p. You sometimes sort of change the settings a little bit, think, well, I mean, that's, that's way better.
Speaker 1:So it does confuse the, the tv set so are you saying that ai on for the retro consoles, or ai off?
Speaker 2:ai off because, yeah, I think you, yeah, yeah, to go on. I go to go through hdmi or 4k, but I mean I'm playing 1080, 1080 or 3d, ossc. The tv is not really sure on ossc is it knows it's 1080, but it sort of goes. Oh, we've got a games console. Is this? Should we set that for a ps3 or should we set it for a switch 2 or should we set that for a ps5? It doesn't quite know what that console is and also, as they're all different, but running through one system, it, it's not terrible. You can play all them in the settings that gives you. But sometimes you sort of change the colour a little bit in bits and you realise that it's actually better if you turn the AI off on that channel for the OSSC. But yes, I'll be playing something in their minds.
Speaker 1:I find that with the more modern consoles PS4, ps5, switch, xbox, whatever I just let the telly do its thing. When I've ever had an older console pumped into it, I've got my PS2 going in through component on my older Trinitron. No, whatever, it is Bravia, it's HDR and everything, but it's not the latest tech. It's probably 10 years old getting on, to be fair. So it's still doing its trick, I find, if I present to it the ps2 in its rawest form, so I turn off all the ai, all the image sharpening, all of it.
Speaker 2:and yes, it produces a little bit of a jaggy game at times, but it's pure the one thing I think I've gained from the AI on this is the sound, because it measures the room. It will send bings out and it measures your room. So whatever you're playing, it will set to what the sound is best for the area you're in. So if you're watching say me and Mrs RGT are watching a movie on Amazon Prime, for instance that'll say, oh, hang on with this sort of film. And you're surrounded, you want me to change this thing to this for you, and you go okay. And then suddenly you hear it all around you like, oh, that's pretty clever, that's good.
Speaker 1:Perfect, okay. Well, you wanted a game to take away and do homework with today. You wanted a PS2 banger.
Speaker 2:Did I want homework? I didn't believe I was asked you wanted a game to play on yourself.
Speaker 1:You were going to go PS2, original Xbox library, something in that sort of genre.
Speaker 2:Well, I was thinking of looking through those libraries. But yeah, go on. Then what are you going to suggest? Is this going to be another ridiculously expensive one? I've got to go hunt and all fly to Japan To pick up.
Speaker 1:If you don't have this, you're failing as a man.
Speaker 2:Well, that's obviously one I haven't got.
Speaker 1:Then 24 the game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was sitting up there you and Mrs RGT are going to sit down have I got her unsealer, or or should I play the collector's edition, one that's not sealed?
Speaker 1:well, play the unsealed one.
Speaker 2:You've answered your own question yeah, I haven't got sealed one. I'm not. I was about to say I'm not that bad, but I am that bad. You. You do know that yeah 24.
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Uh, I put my thoughts up three years ago on that game and I still think it's actually pretty strong. I think it's good, especially if you were fresh off a 24 watch through. I think that game would be manna from heaven. Um, the little details, the attention to detail that goes on in there, compared to the show, is really well done, and I do believe it's an HD game as well. So you should be. I don't know how you're going into your is that like the 480i, 480p?
Speaker 1:yeah, how are you going from PS2 to the OSC or whatever you call it?
Speaker 2:on the OSC. It's got a digital display yeah, but what?
Speaker 1:cable what is the harmonization cable between the?
Speaker 2:PS2 and that the PS2 is running through component.
Speaker 1:Right, so it's the full ticket already.
Speaker 2:Yes, so on the older consoles I have swapped the really older consoles to SCART. They go through, they go through. So I have a SCART selector and then the SCART into the OSSC, into the TV. On the other consoles that have them, I have component cables into the component selector. So I have two selectors and one scar, one's component and they're all labeled. So you've got original xbox, ps2, blah blah. The other side you've got mega drive, mega cd, blah blah. So super nintendo, you know, and they run that way and and all in, and they all come onto one channel.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, does that sound nerdy.
Speaker 2:Have I just degraded myself?
Speaker 1:No, I don't think. I think you you know your fan clubs will member down, but I think you've survived. I think you've come out all right. It's very nerdy but it's interesting stuff. So the PS2 on that game, you'll be able to get it to output in HD.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stuff. So the ps2 on that game, you'll be able to get it to output in hd? Yeah, well, my upscaler will. Um, they're not always the best, but you can upscale any of those consoles to 1080.
Speaker 1:It's not a 720, it will go, you're gonna you're gonna pump in a 480p, really super clean image straight off that game latter gen ps2 game. It's gonna clean it up and stick up on the screen the cleanest 1080p image you've ever seen. I am very excited to see a screenshot of this later tonight.
Speaker 2:Even if you don't play it. I want to see a little tick yeah and sometimes, though I found with the original xbox some of the games you will put on 1080 and think that looks good. So you drop it to a 720 or even a 480 and then that's what they were supposed to be at and they look better. But sometimes you upscale them to a 1080 and think, whoa, that looks really good. That PS2 game looks very good in 1080. So, yeah, the upscaler is very good for the money. I really recommend it.
Speaker 1:Is that what you're hoping to play?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that's that done. I went off on a bit of a tangent. I do apologize. That's cool.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm the king of tangents so I've got absolutely zero legs to stand on around here. He's the king of tangents. If you heard the solo show last week you'd be like yeah George, I bore witness to the king of tangents pal. One minute you were talking about RGT's spoon. The next minute you what any of that meant. It's like getting a code from an alien civilisation. Like what does this even mean?
Speaker 2:Hylogrifics in audio form.
Speaker 1:That's the solo version. What am I hoping to play? Well, a very quick round Robin. I'll probably play a little bit of Death Stranding. It's the most sort of social.
Speaker 2:So you plan Sorry, you plan for the first one again, don't you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, just to. It's still as enjoyable second time around. I'll play in the director's cut. So there is some things I haven't seen, there are some things I didn't do Not much but and there's a little couple of things that have happened in the director's cut. It's like, ah, I don't remember that. This is new content. I'm enjoying this, I'm happy, I'm a pig in shit sort of scenario. I'm lapping it up. Some of the delivery missions probably don't hold that same weight that they did the first time round. Um, because you've already played through it, so you kind of know how it's going to go.
Speaker 1:So there's an element of that. But there's still plenty of deliveries that I never did. Not that it really changes anything. You just find some lost cargo, whatnot. It's the same cut scenes, but you know there's something about it for me.
Speaker 1:I I've always loved the game. I like that core thing and I've tried to stay well away from all news spoilers, even reviews of Death Stranding 2, but I spoke to OG Tom not that long ago and I said the only fear I have for Death Stranding is that they've taken it down a route. In my mind I imagine it's going to go down Route A, but the author may decide he's going to take the whole thing down Route B. Now I'm sure I'll like Route B, but I was turning up for a bit of a Route A and I've heard there's a little bit of stuff going on with the story and the mechanics and things that made me go a bit ooh. But we'll get to it. We'll get to it. Like I say, my other thing I'm probably going to be playing the most is going to be some more no Man's Sky. I want to keep making Michael Vett look cool. I want to get some. If you're into movie effects or whatever. Currently I'm greebling my shit. Go Google that if you want a thoroughly boring time but also might pique your interest. So I'm greebling it, I'm adding detail to make it look spacey, you know.
Speaker 1:And then, no doubt, well, a little bit of an update for you on Persona 4. We've had some very late nights. Rachel's got very far in the game. I can't talk highly enough about the loop. I'm kind of looking forward to, like she's thoroughly enjoyed 4 and the slick 4, golden. So there is an element of some improvement, but not much. We even popped it on the ps2 the day. I was like this is it on ps2? Different intro, admittedly for base versus golden, but for all intents and purposes the very same game, which is part of the joy. But I'm really enjoying seeing her embracing like a PS persona five because we'd migrated to the minimum system that was running on well, switch. But how many times have I bought persona five actually? And now having this realization, I've got it on switch, god. I've got it on PS four. I think I've got it on PS5 version as well. I've got it on Vita. It's not on Vita, thank God.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's 4 on Vita.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been 5,. Obviously it's only up another gen, but it's towards the end of PS3, and I think its base console that it was really designed to sing on was either PS4 or Xbox One. So, it's looking great, so I'm ps4 or xbox one, so it's looking great, so I'm looking forward to letting her play that.
Speaker 1:The way the menus fold, and, yeah, a little bit more, and a little bit more voice acting, and maybe better anime, more, more frames of animation in that. So, yeah, that's exciting. We've also, then, got persona 3 on the switch, the og um, I can't quite work out whether it's the fares version or not, so if anyone knows messaging, I could google it, but I'd rather talk to one of you lovely people, um. And then, obviously, there's a ps5 reboot, and then I'm thinking well, there's all the shin megami tensei, there's mario rpg, it's so much I can't wait to go on that journey that shin megami tensei one on the.
Speaker 2:Was that five? That was on the Switch.
Speaker 1:I've got them all the way back.
Speaker 2:That was highly rated that Switch one.
Speaker 1:I'm sure I've got a Shin Megami Tensei on PS2. I know?
Speaker 2:oh, johnny from Happy Console Gamer. He said that's his favourite game on the Switch. He just 10 out of 10, he said absolutely amazing game.
Speaker 1:That's strong. Strong, but fair play I mean everyone's allowed to have their thoughts. I mean I rate games that people probably hate and vice versa. So there's always a little bit of horses for courses, but I think that draws a line under everything that we've got going on RGT. Is there any community news that you want to throw out there, or are we all good?
Speaker 2:No, I think we're all good. Like I say, on the Discord front, it's hard to put the links up on the end of the show. So if anyone does want to join Discord, just go on questions at unfishedcontrollerpodcastcom or email us or contact us on Instagram and we'll send you a link so you can join in.
Speaker 1:Instagram's got a link tree which you can click on and it'll take you to the Discord.
Speaker 2:So Instagram's got a link tree which you can click on and it'll take you to the Discord.
Speaker 1:So we've made it easy for you. Or old school if you want to reach out to us, dm. Whatever, we'll make it work. We will do the work for you, so you can just sit back and feel like a king.
Speaker 2:Yes, but yeah, no, definitely no community news. We're busy working in the background on something new which we're very much looking forward to, so stay tuned for that very, very shortly. And yeah, but other than that, just to say thanks to everyone, as always, subs, listeners, anyone that downloads. If you could download, please download rather than stream please. But other than that, yes, thanks to everyone, as always.
Speaker 1:Well, with that said so, we have time for this week. Listeners always thank you for your time. We look forward to the pleasure of speaking to you again next week. Until then, happy gaming. Remember, there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller. It's what you do with it that counts. See you, rgt.
Speaker 2:Laters Outro Music.