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
Xbox games pass the death of the subscription service
A sleeper train, a leather PS1 bag with lockable carabiners, and a Switch 2 that refuses to leave handheld mode—this week we go full travel-nerd and full game-nerd at once. We start with a surprisingly great wired “travel dock” setup and land on the big takeaway: on a café table, inches from your eyes, the Switch 2 screen is a tiny theater. From there we dive into Grand Bazaar and why its market-day core loop is so addictive—limited plots, clever windmill crafting, sprite-powered sales spikes, and a Saturday rush that feels like a small business win. Then we pivot to Astral Chain, where the chain-linked legion adds an approachable tactical layer to slick action without drowning you in inputs.
We rewind to Gen 7 with South Park: The Stick of Truth and celebrate timing-based combat that actually matters, then detour into a Vita renaissance: MLB’s old-school simplicity, Downwell’s elegant descent, Helldivers 1’s revived community, and MotorStorm RC/Resogun for pure arcade flow. George builds an underwater base in No Man’s Sky—moon pool and sub included—while we marvel at how much the game still evolves and how that spirit points toward Light No Fire.
Our news segment swings hard: the Xbox Game Pass overhaul (Essential/Premium/Ultimate) and why “shorter wait times” as a paid perk feels like trust erosion, the newly discovered Minus World in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (found via the All-Stars version after decades!), and Rock Band 4’s looming delist as music licenses expire. We close on collection curation—trading shelves of filler for a handful of classics—and spotlight a true hidden gem: Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, a fast, funny, Ratchet-adjacent shooter that still holds up on OG Xbox/PS2/GameCube.
If you love handheld comfort, smart sim loops, and frank talk about where subscriptions are headed, this one’s for you. Tap play, then tell us: what would you cut from your collection, and what’s the one game you’ll never let go? Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a curated shelf, and leave a quick review to help more curious gamers find us.
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 two hundred and eighty-eight with me, George. Yeah, about that. No, this isn't a solo, because he's back, it's RGT, Holiday Hero. To my yeah, I'm still working here for zero. How's it going? That was good. Do you think of that off the cuff? Uh I thought of it about ten minutes ago.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, very good. Yeah, I enjoyed that. No, I'm very well, thank you. I'm refreshed after my holiday. I'm back. Ready to be on the show. Go again.
SPEAKER_06:Right, this is you. Alright, okay. Head down, quarter three, quarter four, get it done. See you on the other side. Pulling hard on the head collar. I like it, yeah. So I roll. Right, yeah. Did you upload that text exchange we had to Discord, as I said to?
SPEAKER_02:No, I didn't know. I didn't know if you were joking or not. I mean Oh no, I was being deadly serious. It was fairly explicit. I don't know if Discord would have booted us off for that. Of our own server.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I don't think the sheriffs would chuck you off of there. They might chuck me off, but they won't chuck you. Uh well, I don't know about that, but I I've heard that uh to get certain perks they've chucked you around all over the place.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know what that means, but I've been chucked many a times to get on this show. Exactly.
SPEAKER_06:Everyone gets the perks but me, don't they? Yeah, they certainly do, eh? Oh. Although. Yeah. So while you're on holiday, the long-term listeners know that you like to be driven on your holidays. You don't you sit in the back, a passenger princess, sprawled out in your thigh high shorts, everything on show, all the consoles, all the bits and bobs out, all the good bits. And you sit there and you you just have almost like a first class experience, drinks handed to you from the passenger footwell, all of that. And everybody wants to know that you know, when RGT's been on a holiday hiatus, they're very, very interested to know what you've been playing.
SPEAKER_02:Well, in holiday, obviously it was switch two to take with me. Well, actually, took two consoles, took switch two, and as you well know, and is a very, very tempted boy at the moment. Um, the super pocket.
SPEAKER_06:Um is this because you came into that a little bit like a shampoo and conditioner combo. Why take two consoles into the shower sort of scenario? And I was a bit like, oh, RGT, right, okay. I didn't think they were waterproof, mate. How did that work out? Bit of subnautica in the bath, maybe. What's going on here?
SPEAKER_02:No, well, I took two down because I've got a bit of retro one and also, you know, switch to at the moment. It's the first time I've travelled with it and used it. Got as we were talking off air steady.
SPEAKER_04:Um I've got the absolute heart kicked out of it. I don't think it's sat.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, mine's just been pretty much just played on the TV, but um, as we discussed off-air a few weeks ago, we I got one of those travel docks. You did, yeah. Um, very impressive with that for the money, super brilliant.
SPEAKER_06:Um Do you just lay the switch down? Because just to fill the list in, obviously, it was one of the wired jumper box versions, not an actual travel dock per se that you got. So just talk me through. Obviously, I think you've got to go through the bottom USB-C. So what do you just lay the switch down or put it on its kickstand? How does that work out?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I just on the in the apartment we're in with the TV, we just had a little TV stand at the front. I just sat it on the glass part, plugs in the uh USB on the bottom, USB-C, and then out of there, HDMI to the TV and power lead to the main plug, and that is it. Um, I bought myself a separate switch tube uh power lead. Um if you look at if you look at these dot, I mean they're like 20 quid, you'd have to buy another one. Then I've got a little travel bag with all the stuff in there, and I'm not gonna lose it, but there's a lot of negative reviews, a lot of negative reviews on these because people are saying, oh, they don't work, they don't work because they're trying to plug the US the power off them through their TV or with a standard power. No, you need a switch to power supply.
SPEAKER_06:Um, I can't remember what the what's in your switch to travel bag that you just uh enlightened me with. You made your little bag up. First of all, what is the bag? Is it like a carry more rucksack or is it some sort of gaming ephemera that you've repurposed?
SPEAKER_02:Are you just gonna take the mickey out of me when I explain to you what I take with me on holiday? There's gonna be there's gonna be I think there's gonna be s let's be honest.
SPEAKER_06:Let's be let's be honest with ourselves, George. You know what the c you know what the councillor said. Okay, okay, okay. Because these solo shows have worked me up the wrong way. I'll have to check in for a little bit of help. Being truthful. Yeah. There's 70% curiosity in a in a perverted way. Being honest, and 30% I just can't wait.
SPEAKER_02:Well, with this story I'm now about to tell you, I'll change the 70-30 the other way around. Right. Okay. Because I what I use as a travel bag, right? Oh wow. This is confession time. I'll get this. I use a a leather PS1 endorsed bag, which looks like a PS1.
SPEAKER_04:But are you are going to be able to do that? Hang on. Hang on. Let me just do one thing.
SPEAKER_02:No, hang on, let me just say one more thing. This needs to be finished. Okay. It had a broken hook on the side, and because I was travelling with quite a lot of money's worth of games on the side, I did increase the strappage on the corners with two carabiner hooks, which are lockable. Can I just say because this I'm trying to see if I've got it? I ain't got it here.
SPEAKER_06:No, no, no, don't. We listen, keep on point. But I know we're going down a little bit of a side rumble here, but I've got to see this through. Because you were carrying the switch to in your little travel bag, this would become your bespoke switch to going on holiday bag with its little kit, all the bits in it. It you're happy with it, but somewhere inside it rankles you because it's Ninty being carried in a Sony bag. Are you on the lookout for a Nintendo carry messenger bag so you can make this very sacrosanct and holy, or are you just gonna cruise through with this carabined mongrel of a thing?
SPEAKER_02:What um I'm I'm gonna battle on with it because I've had it a long time. I love that bag, and also sometimes I take a PSP, so I feel I'm a bit more on point. So I will stick to it. Okay.
SPEAKER_06:And what's in there? What wipes or what what's in this bag? What obviously the switch to, you've got your little dock.
SPEAKER_01:You don't know how close you are. There is actually wipes and there's screen wipes and there. Oh god, this is I feel dirty.
SPEAKER_04:It's forensic out gaming shirt look here, just ripping you apart. You just told him you got a bag and he sold you everything that's in there.
SPEAKER_06:What about that? What about that emergency tampon you carry in case you spill your beer? Because you once told me there's nothing worse than getting beer and electronics so you carry one of these. I think it was a little you said, because it's compact so you can just soak up as well. Definitely.
SPEAKER_02:And I also take a small bag of Besmarti rice. So if the spillage goes inside, quickly chuck it in the rice, bobs your ankle twelve hours later, all the moisture absorbed.
SPEAKER_03:The car the carry bag, the carry the carry bag doubles as the balsamari rice sort of dehumidifier.
SPEAKER_06:Is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah. Is there anything in there that I might have missed? Obviously, I thought the less was a wild stab and I didn't see the balsami rice coming. You know, I did not see that coming.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's there's two compartments in the bag. There's one little Velcro strapped one. That is where the the travel area is. So that is the travel dock, the plug, and the HDMI, which are neatly wrapped but not tied tight because you'll break the cables. Then there is another section with two dividers in. One is how are we wrapping cables? Um I tend to use either I keep those original little pipe cleaner wraps and fold them round so they're symmetrical, because I can't bear an unsymmetrical cable, and then tie it up both ends, obviously opposite again, symmetrical, and then they're all neat in, and then the next compartment has got two separators, switch two, which is in. I have a grip on, which you've probably seen, my gel grip, which is nice how you've got a gel grip. Yeah. So it's got the bulky bit on the back so you can hold it. Um you know, not two buttocks, so you've got good grip.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, I would love to be working in an airport and see this thing go through the scalar match.
SPEAKER_02:It it would trigger some questions, I would admit.
SPEAKER_04:Um and then it's in the ball riding simulator with a load of wipes, e-balls and whips.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, depending on what order they emptied the bag, it could look quite bad. But the if the yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um little silicon prongs pop out, but he's like, uh-oh.
SPEAKER_02:Uh what we got here, son. Um, we warned you last time, aren't you? And then that's in a hard case. Hard I like the hard cases to protect the screen a bit. And then obviously in the other compartment, I've got the super pocket and my Neo Geo games, which is in the little protective case. And my Evercade games. But other than that, I travel light.
SPEAKER_04:If you applied the same methodology to your sex life, you'd feel nothing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. And I have. Yeah, with lockable carabinas. I have problems. I'll quite I'll admit it on here. I have issues.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, so you this is these are the gizmos you took. Quite a selective, very sort of and I know you're the sort of cat that's gonna pick a scene, pick a moment, pick a cafe, pick a drink, highbrow coffee. You know. You're a man of the people, cosmopolitan cosmopolitan. You're gonna go in a coffee shop, you're gonna blunder, you're gonna say flat white. You're gonna sit down, flat white, some vegan cake, no, God knows what it is. It's laid out. You took the Neo Geo, it's a bit of jazz on. And that's where you play maybe metal slug, something like that.
SPEAKER_02:I dabbled in loads of different games really, never really got a I did start getting into road craft a little bit, but didn't go back to it. I want to play that on the versus on the TV, Road Craft.
SPEAKER_06:I I just to remind you, we need the picture of ginger with a picture of ginge with a picture of ging, by the way.
SPEAKER_04:We need to see that.
SPEAKER_06:I want the infinite one.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That is amazing, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:That was your one bit of homework, so we need to see that through. I had forgot about that. Sorry, yes, we'll get that. I also need someone to create me an image for a t-shirt of RGT in a jazz club playing a Neo Geo pocket.
SPEAKER_02:This is gonna go well, isn't it? Jeez. Someone will someone will put me on a bloody horse dressed as a jockey, I'll bet you.
SPEAKER_06:Oh. Yeah. I want the jazz club. Let's bump it off this. You are the most serious connoisseur. So what were you playing down there? You took the switch to, you ignored your twice, you made a drive you down there. You had quite the gaming holiday.
SPEAKER_02:No, we we we trained it. So we went on a train, went on an overnight train. We went on, so hence why petty cash is empty. But it was worth it because I had fun, so it was good.
SPEAKER_06:Listen, then, if you've enjoyed the show and you think RGT's a good guy and he deserves another overnight sleeper, don't what that says about I take it about the trade, eh? I don't even know, and it was a lot of petty cash.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there was a lot of petty cash.
SPEAKER_06:It was a lot of petty cash.
SPEAKER_02:So, yeah, we had a great time. Um, and switch two was mostly what I played, and majority we're doing it on air, but I don't care.
SPEAKER_06:You put a receipt through for an escort. Now I immediately assumed at the time it was a Ford escort because of your love for them. But then I realised there's probably no way you can get an escort for that money. So then I obviously just it was a classic hire company.
SPEAKER_02:I just hired it just for a night and then returned it the next day.
SPEAKER_06:Makes sense. Interesting name for the car hire company, but I don't want to say that on air. Um it wouldn't be the immediate thing, I would assume.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it it it was quite confusing with their name, but it doesn't screen cars. No, no, not not at first look. You have you have to go and have a browse first before you actually realise what they do. Three sleeper carriages. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Um I thought one was for the gaming tap, but now it's all making a little bit more sense because you packed light.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I did pack light, yeah, I always did. Um but no, I was mostly playing Grand Bazaar. Um how's that working out for you?
SPEAKER_06:Because what you put some owls into that now? You three sort of stages where you're in?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm probably I'm probably 40 hours in this now. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You're not sure if you like it or you all in.
SPEAKER_02:Um, I um what really surprised me, I mean, this isn't so much as the game, but uh I'll say it while we're talking about the switch too. When we were in our apartment, we had probably a the TV was like a 10-year-old Panasonic HD L C D, right? With a docking, looked okay, HD, played the game, blah blah blah blah blah. Um, and then we went out for a day and I thought I'm gonna play it handheld. I played it handheld, and I know people moan about the switch to screen, but you realise how good that screen is when did you take it and what situation were you playing it in? I was playing in a cafe.
SPEAKER_06:The switch 2 playing Grand Bazaar and there. Yeah, it was a game in CAF, so you didn't stand out as or break.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, retroblast new key, no hashtag not spawn.
SPEAKER_06:Um but way you did the Tekaflyer.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Um Welcome all new listeners to the Nukey. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um and I just realized how good the screen was. So the rest of the holiday I played at handheld mode. It looked so good in handheld mode.
SPEAKER_06:Um, but anyway, I think I said to you I had played handheld early days on my Test, and I was like, whoa, this is and it pulled me into the game more. You know, you were playing Grand Bazaar. I was like role-playing Cyberpunk, wasn't I?
SPEAKER_02:But all I all I say to people is there's you know, there was people in the internet saying, Oh, the screens, you know, it's not as bright as it should be, it's not this, it's not that. Plug your switch two into a 10-year-old HD L C D and then instantly take it out and switch it back to the screen, you'll see how good that screen is. Seriously, it is green. I personally I've got no complaints. I mean, I've played it in myriad of it. The only the there's one complaint I have, and I know it's everyone's complaint the battery life is quite poor. But if you're only going out for a few hours, you're playing for a couple of hours, you're bringing that back, you put it on charge again, it charges really quick, I find a switch too, so it's not a major issue.
SPEAKER_06:I've not known well, I don't obviously had an older Switch one, and I noticed when I put you know, put it on a game that although I joked about it was probably quite graphically intense on Switch, and there's a lot of number crunching going on in the background. I think that's where the power goes. But like F1 manager, it would absolutely I would be able to play it in handheld mode on Switch 1 for a race one weekend, boom, and then it'd be plug it in. No way. Yeah, so it would that's how quick it could eat that. I could play other games for hours on that switch one and it'd be fine. So it wasn't the batteries, obviously the consumption of that game was incredible. Playing it on Switch 2 though. I mean, I could probably do three or four, I've not maxed it out on there, but I could probably do three, four, five races easily. I don't think it would even now I know that the hardware's more superior and whatnot, so that's that's a bonus. I think it just depends, as always, dude, on the game and the environment. You've got a bit of bone.
SPEAKER_02:And I do I always I always bring mine back to home menu and then put it in standby just to one click. I don't turn it off properly. So so I'll you know, I'll go out, we'd go out to a calf 100%, I'd play on the game for we'd been there an hour, hour and a half, it'd go down to 55-56%, leave it on standby for about five hours when you go back, it's 24%. It's probably my fault for leaving it in standby, but it wasn't a problem because I wasn't good I didn't need it to be charged for 12 hours at a time because I was always close to charging it. But um, other than that, anyway, back to Grand Bazaar. Um, yeah, really good. Um, I've I think they've they've I've said this before on the show. I think these sort of life farm and sim sort of games can be a bit daunting to people when you see them and you think, oh, this person's put 500 hours in and they're not completed. Oh, I don't know if I can do all that. Oh, it's a bit of a draw. This yeah, this sort of bridges that gap a bit, so it it it does start. Um it almost feels like nowhere near the game of other Farm and Sims in content, but it's actually quite a deep game, but it it it starts you off quite simple. Um, and I quite like that.
SPEAKER_06:I quite overwhelmed more bits into your menu and add a little bit of extra sort of chores and responsibilities to the store as you go along that weren't an issue.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you can you can you you know obviously in in games like Starter, you could turn your whole land into a farm. You could have just one mass massive vegetable patch if you wanted. This you have a set size of vegetable patch, but you can and then as you go along, he'll put you another one just to the back of your house, and another one just to the side of your house. You can have, I think you can have four in total, that's all. So you're limited as to what you can grow, but that's fine because you you've got animals and stuff, but you've already got a barn on your house. So you get your animals, and when they come in, and they're so easy, so much easier to look after than other games where you're you spend up spending days on end just trying to keep all the animals happy and fed. This is a bit more relaxed, but it it's it's sort of taken off that side and then pushed up more onto the bazaar and your market stall. And as you get into it, I suddenly think, oh, I can upgrade the market stall, I can get level two sales, I can put a new A-board up the front for advertising, I can you know change the table layout so it draws more people's attention. And you upgrade as you go, and I think I'm at you have to try and get the the whole bazaar and the town up to level seven rank. I think I'm up to four at the moment. Once you're at level seven, you're the best bazaar in the area, you know, blah blah blah. Um, and I just find it quite relaxing. The music's good, it looks cool. Bazaar or cattle country?
SPEAKER_06:That's the question everyone wants to know.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's that's a tough one. I think if you want cattle country for me, if you want a bit of a fun twist on Stardew, um, with set in that Western world, jump onto Cattle Country because it's brilliant. They've they're very different. Obviously, you've got your 16-bit graphics, you've got your big 3D cell shaded graphics, so they're very different in that way, but similar in other ways. It's this is more about the bazaar, grow stuff, and then you know, and then you start like with like with other life and farm and Sims, you'll you'll you'll be selling like pumpkins, and you think, hang on, because there's three windmills in town that you help get working again, and they do different things, and you'll go to one windmill. Oh, I can pick all the pumpkins, I get another 300 gold per jar, right? And then you you then sense in thinking, right, it's Wednesday, and a crop's going to be done on Thursday. Let's get them done, get the pickles done and jams in the windmill, and then get take them all to market, sell them on the Saturday, see if you can break your sales record. It's it's very addictive and a lovely little twist on the game. And I know it's a remake of an older game. I've never played or heard of it before on the 3DS. Um, but yeah, it's it's very good. If if I think it's like I said before, if you're intrigued by the genre, then this could be a good game to get into to get that feel of how it works. It explains itself well. There's side quests, but not too many, not too hard. The map's a lot smaller, compact. Um you're upgrading the windmills is very simple and takes five minutes, so you're not trying to, you know, you're not plate spinning all the time. You can concentrate on things at a time, and it's it's quite addictive as well. And I just think they've done a very job. Very enjoyable, yeah. Very relaxed.
SPEAKER_06:Where does the enjoyment in this mechanism come from?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I think for me, graphically, I think it's gorgeous. I think they've done a great job. Music is superb, it's it's the same as other games. Your seasons have different music, but that's nice music, similar. It's got a it almost sort of harvestella sort of vibe, music-wise, so it's quite nice. Um, but it's that getting ready for market on a Saturday. So you'll get you'll go and buy some new crops, say, on a on a Monday, and you think, oh, these will be done in four days. Do you because you have to watch the weather? You have to watch the weather as well, you see. What to make sure it's nice on market day? No, because the windmills will produce quicker if it's windier. Oh, right. So I had a question.
SPEAKER_06:Do you shout like you know, one pound fish, anything like that?
SPEAKER_02:Or do you know you have a bell, you you have people walk past, some people will be walking by. I mean, it's quite hectic the market. You've got to be on it fairly quick. I mean Is that mini-game fun?
SPEAKER_06:Because to me, obviously it's called Grand Bazaar. Like, to me, it feels like that's where the magic's at. The rest of it is the preparation for that moment where you're on the page. Pretty much.
SPEAKER_02:Pretty much, yeah. Um, there's some good, you still got your um corresponding with people, you still got your romantic life, you've still got being friends with people in the town, but it's more about to that market day, getting the products, and then you start getting addicted because you start thinking, hang on, let's try on really this week, let's just get all these pickles and jams done because I'm getting a thousand gold for those, I can break the market, and then you have a boost, which is these these little sprites that live around the town. And when you're selling, every time you sell an item that pushes the gauge up, and once you fill a gauge, you go on to the next sprite. Once you get the five sprites, I mean you could do it on one sprite, but it don't last as long. You get a big peak sale, so then the screen changes, and everyone that turns up just buys, buys, buys. You just keep clicking the A button, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And yeah, so you get that extra part, and you're uh you're so addictive after a while because you're thinking, come on, let's get 100 grand, let's get 100 grand. Um, it's very good, like that. It's very good. And then there's the the story side of it. So there's obviously a market inspector who's saying the bazaar needs to improve so they don't shut it down, and you've got to keep trying to get that rank up. And yeah, it's very good, it's a great remake, it runs to perfection on the switch too. Um, I haven't Firm Raturns asked me to test it. I meant to test it on as well, I forgot. I will test it before next week's show because it has the Switch 1 version on the cartridge as well. Um, so you you can pop that straight to the Switch 1 and play.
SPEAKER_06:Um, so there's no downloading when you plugged it in your Switch 2.
SPEAKER_02:No, it's all on cart, whole game's on cart. Um, yeah. Um it it runs brilliantly, it looks gorgeous, very like I said before, Nino Cooney. It's got that cell-shaded art style. Um is it by them? Is it by them?
SPEAKER_06:Is it by level five or whatever it was they have to do the art?
SPEAKER_02:No, it's by I can't remember the studio that does it now. Forgive me. It's the don't worry about it. The split studio who, you know, obviously one does harvest moon, one does story of seasons. But this is out of the remakes I have sampled, this is the best one by a long shot. It's not just something that's high res and chucked on a cartridge. It's it looks really good, it runs good, it's a lovely game, great sound, never had a glitch, never had a crash, nothing. It is just a really good game. And if you if you want to dabble in that sort of genre, I'd give that a go first. Because it's a there's a lot less pressure on, but yeah, really good. Um also I did buy while I was away uh Astral Chain. I've been wanting to buy that for a long time, ever since OG.
SPEAKER_00:Menu both, actually, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So I've played about really, really good so far. I've played Turn based. No action. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:So Bayonetta style, Devil May Cry.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's but it's that different with the chain. It's but it's not as it's hard to explain. It's not as complicated as those and not as hardcore. I don't think yet. I'm only an hour and a half in. That might change. It's got that sort of dark side as DevGon's.
SPEAKER_06:I know MJ Tom really enjoyed it, you know, he's the big Switch One proponent of the show, and he used to champion those games, and obviously Astral Chain was you know, ninty frame big game.
SPEAKER_02:Um, yeah, and I think I think did you get it new or used, or what what happened there? I got it used from CX. That sat in X. There's a new CX store opening, new Keys Hospital. Did you make Mrs.
SPEAKER_06:RGT buy it?
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Um, she's been buying loads of loads of 3D movies of Blu-rays for her collection, so don't worry about that. She bought more than me.
SPEAKER_06:But um she's got a phantom, she needs to try and track that down, by the way, because they did actually 3D release quite hard to get hold of.
SPEAKER_02:I think she has got that. I'll have to check and let you know off air, but I think she might have that. She's got quite a substantial 3D collection, bless her. But um, yeah, so I saw it in and I kept tumbling her on£32. That seems to have almost hit this money, and then it started creeping back up. And I thought maybe this is the time to buy. Is it ever going to go down? I don't know.
SPEAKER_06:But probably not now.
SPEAKER_02:But I think it might have been Firm Returns again or Scotty, I can't remember. Someone asked me on on Discord what did I think of it? I've heard us good, blah, blah, blah. I said, well, the start of it is very first party Sony. A big story, music, intro, explaining where you know what's happened in this world. Um, looks, I know it's an original Switch game. Um, from what I've played of it. I don't know if that's had an upgrade patch or it just runs better, but it played really well, looked really gorgeous on the Switch too. I love that anime style, the neon sort of cyberpunk colours.
SPEAKER_06:Um, yeah, that was my takeaway when I watched OG Tom play it. The presentation was incredible.
SPEAKER_02:Very, very good. Um, and like I said, I'm not far in it, but I like the idea with your chain. I forgive me, I can't remember what your sort of chain mech is called, but how you work with them and you can't use them all the time because they get tired and you have to tactically work out when to use the your mech on that chain and bring them back and get them to attack people while you're fighting. Nice, nice and not too hard so far to work out the controls. I think I thought that could have been quite overcomplicated with literally using two fighters at a time, but it seems quite good. So, yeah, impressed. I'm glad that's in my switch collection now. Um I saw I wanted for a while. Um, but looking forward to getting into that more. And finally, since I've been home, um uh we well, while I was away, I'd done the vote for the next um Gen 7 game and RGT Back to Past, um, which the vote went down to why we had to have a final because there was Neck and Neck, uh, which was Bayonetta and Safe Park Stick of Truth, I believe.
SPEAKER_06:Yes, we won. Because I'm intrigued to find out. Safe park stick of truth, which I mean so I think I've got that on Switch.
SPEAKER_02:I've got it on well, I got it while I was away. So it was on um I bought it on PS3.
SPEAKER_06:So you'd had one copy of C I might surprise myself. Uh do I have it on PS4 as well? I think I might.
SPEAKER_02:And I think you've got it on Switch. I think it I think I'm playing a PS3 one, but looks and runs brilliant. Let's just not play in the show, isn't it? It just looks like looks fantastic. Um and I think it was like three pounds, so that's not a really affordable game to play. And I've I've put a couple of hours in so far.
SPEAKER_06:It was sub ten pound on in a sale, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's cheap. Um, and so far it's good fun. Couple of hours in. Um, it's a different sort of turn-based fighting with sort of turn-based but quick response on your buttons when you've got a block there. Yeah, where you get that timing right, yeah. Once you start mastering that a bit, it's got your safe park humour and the story.
SPEAKER_06:But I just the only thing I wish you could relax that interactive section. I know that's probably what is the USP of their fighting thing, but you know, I just want to sit down and play a JRPG. I don't want to have to be pressing X and looking at the screen all the time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's it's their sort of version of it, isn't it? It's their sort of thing.
SPEAKER_06:It makes it engaging, and I guess they maybe thought that, you know, JRPGs are a bit boring to people that don't Like they've got the involvement, but you know, you kind of do, and I do feel like it alienates maybe your core player a bit because I'm like, nah, I don't want to be involved in that. There's been similar mechanics and stuff, but I preferred to a sort of final fantasy clock race rather than having to you just have to make your selections quickly rather than having to be awake enough to be like, oh yeah, hang on a minute. And the timing's actually quite tight on that game.
SPEAKER_02:That is very tight, yeah. You've got to you've got to be looking and you've got to see when that's that's almost like once you've learned because it'll seem uh so far, I might be wrong, so far it seems to be at the same time as when you do an attack, yeah. But that's that's nailing when that time is rather than it flashing at different times, it'll be at that same time what a difference maker it is when you nail it on because it like what quadruples your damage. Yeah, oh yeah, properly, yeah, yeah. So and I've had a few sort of big fights so far. Um that's just been good fun. I think it's only a 12 to 14 hour game, so I haven't put a uh I haven't put a mission stop point in to discuss. I thought let's just go through, let's chat about it when we're done and see what people think. I mean, for a game that's three pounds if you're playing on original systems and you can also get on a PS4 to play on your PS5 or like you say, Switch. It's very, you know.
SPEAKER_06:So if you're listening to this and you want to get involved, join the Discord. It's completely free. This section of the Discord is also all part of the free package. There's only one one tiny little area walled off.
SPEAKER_02:But this area uh was it last week? Captain Scarlet joined, so yeah. Um he's been joining the conversation.
SPEAKER_06:Popped out the side of his SPV with a bit of a demented smile on his face.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he certainly did, yeah. So he's he's been jumping in and out. So yeah, brilliant. So um, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Who's operating his wires though? Is it you?
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm the puppet master, baby.
SPEAKER_06:So what was his name? Terry no, Jerry Anderson. Oh, yeah, Jerry Anderson.
SPEAKER_02:That's the one. Um Thank you, Captain Scarlet. Yes, thank you very much. Um that is pretty much me, I think. So uh what have you been planning, George?
SPEAKER_06:Wow, my chance to my time to shine, as they say. Time to step up and take the stage. Um well, a little bit more gaming widower scenario, to be honest with you. The portals had a bit of a new life. I think I mentioned in one of the other shows that to sort of reconfigure some Wi-Fi drivel. Boring as all hell, to be honest with you, but that made the portal work properly again, which is always a plus. Um loads of No Man's Sky on there, so much. For some reason, I've chosen to we'll come back to No Man's Sky. For some reason I've chosen to play MLB on the Vita uh rather than the PS5 version through the portal. Don't don't ask me why. Uh to be fair, I'm enjoying the Vita one more because it's more old school MLB to me now than the new ones, which is a bit concerning, a little bit nostalgic for the way things are a little bit more pared down. Things are a lot more involved in MLB now, cutscenes and a lot more of that jazz. And uh I don't know, it's not like it, but I've got a funny feeling it it's people like me that ask for it now, it's people like me not asking for it, but I think they're probably compelled to catch it up onto the back of the NBA games, the 2K games, you know, where they're permanently live scenarios where they can just extract money out of you, although they haven't done that yet. Uh well, unless you're full dynasty mode weirdo and no offense. And you buy all the cards and the packs and all that if you're into that like fine. Much like this show, you can get enjoyment out of the game 100% for free if you want to dip in for some extra bits, knock yourself out. Um so I've been playing that on Vita. I've been playing, you know, quite a bit of Vita, little snappy games, Downwell. I don't know if you've ever heard of that before. It's a great little game. I won't say it's a hidden gem. I think plenty of people have heard of it, but uh you'd probably have it in your library because I think it was a PSN giveaway at some point in time. But Downwell's great. You just it's a very simple game, almost spectrum graphics to be fair. Maybe three, four colours, really, for the majority of the time.
SPEAKER_00:You I think I've heard something about yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_06:Black and white, really, mainly characters are very simple black and white blocks, and you jump down a well, and you've got these sort of gun boots which you can use to uh slow yourself down if a little bit, and also to shoot the creatures on the platforms below you as you descend down on them. Obviously, the aim of the game is to slip down through the well. I think the first times I played it all those years ago when I first got it, I kind of didn't really use the gun boots and just kind of dropped through the level as best as I could, and that is a reasonably successful strategy. But obviously, as the game picks up in the levels, if you're not using the gun boots, and it's not a game that really explains itself, really, in any way. So when I first picked it up, I was like, oh, beat a game, I'll download it, boom. And I didn't know what I was doing. Now I've like know a bit more about the idea and the concept of the game, or gone back into it and quite enjoyed it. Um bit of MLB on the Vita, as I said, also a little bit more Motor Storm RC on there. I downloaded that again. So just kind of enjoying the Vita, all the little I've got Rezzo gun on there that's really quite fun. It's very frantic, it's obviously like a 2D returnal in some ways, the bullet hell and and all that sort of stuff, which is me, but it's not really me. So I'll go on there and have a little flick about. I've gone back on Helldivers 1 on the Vita as well, um, and that's still insane fun, but the player came down.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's gonna say is it people still online on that one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah. And I tell you what, when Helldivers 2 came out, Helldivers 1 got one hell of a player boost. It went from being dead to being like a living creature.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, when was that out? 2015?
SPEAKER_06:Back in the last year or something?
SPEAKER_02:No, um Helldivers 1.
SPEAKER_04:Oh excuse me.
unknown:Boom, boom.
SPEAKER_02:Bless you, bless you, bless you.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, well, it's cheap. Yeah, RGT's uh well, don't say it like that. It's affordable. Don't forget we're gonna unveil that as the Christmas sort of thing that people are.
SPEAKER_02:It's called Glade. So you get it in a big can, it's really good. It lasts for ages. Yes, that's good.
SPEAKER_06:Unbelievable. Anyway, Vita action, left, right, and Chelsea. Um bit more shakedown Hawaii because I noticed in the update, there's been an update for it where there's some more um I think I pretty much maxed that game out. I need to check, I don't know if I've got the platinum or not, because I think maybe the platinum involves owning everything. And I just looked at it and was like, that's just a grind and an enjoyable one. But I downloaded it, came up with an update, and it was a load more shakedown missions available. So I went in the game and couldn't really tell. I think I had some extra bits and bobs in my inventory that I hadn't noticed before. So I had a little run around in that. Not that great. General cleaned up the Vita on the portal going back to that. Obviously, No Man's Sky. I've just been sort of flying round in my own head, mate, to be honest. Uh, you know, that game is the game where you make the game up that you want. So I've got a little story going on about my ship. I've built this uh I never really dived into the aquatic update, and I found this kind of nice paradise planet that's got kind of deep oceans on it, but not really deep. Deep enough. And I've built an underwater base.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, no way. Can you build like submarines and stuff?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you've got this little you can get a moon pool as well, so you can dock the submarine up into it, get out your submarine, and then walk into your submarine base. No way. Oh, yeah, I've got that all set up with power.
SPEAKER_02:I know Gaiman Graham on our Discord, he's he's got been sinking some hours in. That's got him hooked. He's sort of a new player to No Man's Sky and loving it. So well.
SPEAKER_06:Well good. I I've I think I've messaged him on something about it. Um I can't remember what platform I you know me, RGT. I go on my phone and I type in numbers and things, and I don't know who I'm talking to, but when I'm doing it, I'm not quite enjoying it, but I don't know actually how it happened. But I think we I you know I've been waxing lyrical about it, and he's obviously found some enjoyment in it. And I think that's the joy of it. I mean, next year I'm pretty sure will be the 10th anniversary of the game, which you know, you think about the journey it's been on, and I know P I every time I see a bloody comment about an update on No Man's Sky on one of the big three or whatever it is, I go on there and I look in the comments, and I always say, Oh, maybe I should get on board with this. I got it at launch, but never played it, and I'm like, oh my god, what you got it at launch, you let someone else make up their mind for you about what this game was, and then saw them subsequently pour what most people would extract from you on a yearly basis, 30 quid or more. I like Snowrunner, but their DLC is super egregious to me. And No Man's Sky have more than paid for their crimes if they ever are answerable for any, and I personally don't think they were because I looked at the game and it's base in your face. In your face. The base game was great, it's everything I wanted. A lot of people allowed themselves to get a bit carried away, Sean Murray included, fair play to you. But the redemption arc was paid off five years ago. Oh, god, oh, yeah. Oh, don't worry about it. All those updates that they've dropped, they could have been 30 quid updates, and you'd have been like, no question, because that's game-changing what you've done. Um I've seen a few sort of uh sort of ideas or theories boosted around that it actually works in their benefit because all the old players jump on and flood Reddit and Instagram with all these new pictures and the planets and the animals and the spaceships and whatnot, and then that knocks on that people then have to go buy the game at full retail because they've like, oh, I've never seen this before. What's this like Snowman's Sky? Oh, right, wow, you can do all that. Boom, full retail drop. Now, I don't know how far and what the penetration of something like that looks like in terms of number metrics.
SPEAKER_02:But even if it is fair play, you've put all the work in, you've put all these updates in.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, what I'm I would love to see the taper off of that because obviously the as you go on, the people that would be interested in No Man's Sky tapers down, yet they still continue to do it. I think they still continue to do it to gain that sort of goodwill. I also think maybe for the last couple of years they've really been using No Man's Sky as a test pig for really the stuff they're gonna they're doing or gonna do with this Light No Fire game. So I'm I'm very excited to have a look at that as well. Um, a lot of the more advanced crafting features that are coming into No Man's Sky, I think, are intimated or already revealed to be like the founding blocks of Light No Fire. So, do you know what? Very interesting. I don't know I'm as much a fantasy person as I am a sci-fi person, whereas Light No Fire is going to be the fantasy sci-fi, the fantasy sandbox people want, whereas No Man's Sky is obviously the space one that people want. Um, but other than that, go to the Yotai. I've got it in my hands anyway, or actually I maybe need to check because it might be sat on my doormat outside, um, which obviously if someone decided to uh drop by, uh yeah, the yeah, that would not work out that great for me. Hopefully they put it in the post box, but quite often they walk up the drive and they put it near the door because it'd be obviously a little bit frustrating. But you know, hopefully he's he's done the right thing today. Um fingers crossed. If not, I'm gonna have a rain damage go to the Yo Tire to frisbee out the window, uh maybe think Jeff Bezos up about.
SPEAKER_02:I spoke to um Speedy Wheels earlier. He was uh I didn't speak to him for long because he's uh just downloaded it, so he was he was a couple hours in. So uh I'll find out.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I guess that's one of the plus points about the PS5 and the Sony game specifically, is that they'll get you to a ready-to-play point quite quickly. It gives you about an hour of gameplay. I've noticed with the wrestling games, you like you start downloading it and yeah, right, done that bit. What now? Go chill out for an hour or two uh while we finish the download. It's ready to play shenanigans. You you you you push that to its limit, hasn't you? Yeah. I think FIFA's the same as well from memory, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:They should really put on there it's ready to play brackets a bit, a little bit. A tiny bit. Yeah, a tiny bit. So yeah, is the menu showcased? I mean, I uh FIFA from the from the one time I've downloaded it, you go to the menus and it's got all the menus and then half of it's grayed out. So it says, Do you want an exhibition match? You play that for ten minutes, come back. Do you want an exhibition match? No, I'm not a play.
SPEAKER_06:Mate, I've had a similar thought where I thought have I downloaded the demo by accident.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it is it does feel very demo-ish when you when you do it like that, if that's a word.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I think the first time I ever experienced that kind of ready-to-play scenario, I think I thought I'd downloaded a demo with F1, and to this day I still don't think I've played it properly because I deleted it, right? I don't know what went on, but it was like F1 2017 or something daft, and I downloaded it. I thought I'd clicked on the demo, and then I went in my library and it was like a full-down game. I was like, what? And I started playing it, and it was like there was no restriction. I thought, well, it's Phills. I'm really pleased to meet you. Do you know that this is illegal? It's a little bit like that meme, you know. I was like, oh, this isn't right, so I deleted it. That's just this is old school George, it's it's get this point off the hard drive, right? Then I can't be held responsible for it because I didn't pay for it, and it's definitely not.
SPEAKER_01:Delete my digital history.
SPEAKER_06:I've gone on it recently as I've been scrolling through my library of what can I play? It's come up, and I've thought, let's solve this once and for all. Now I'm like this savvy gaming podcaster, you know, I know a thing or two about what the scenario clicked on it, download full game. Do you know? I still don't know what's gone on here because I definitely didn't pay for it. So I I don't know to this day what went on there, and I haven't re- you know, I'm not downloading it because I don't want the Sony police come down. Maybe I had a card loaded or something, I don't know, a gift card or something. I think you know. I don't know to this day, I still don't know. I don't want to know. Um but in terms of gaming, I think that just about covers it. I think there was some I uh I think there might something tells me there's been some retro shenanigans I've been wanting to talk to you about, but I can't remember what it is now. Um yeah, I want to get into the PSP again, as you know, I've talked about that USB C adapter thingy that I've got going on that that kind of worked. Um and I just I'm I'm just looking through the library on the PSP and I'm like, oh so I thought I'll do myself a little mini launch day, I'll pick the PSP up from mine, I'll bring it to Rachel's, and I'll grab a few sort of hot games at the end of the PSP's life. If you were at the beginning and you could be like, oh God of War, Spray, yeah, okay, I'm into this. And oh little big planet 2, yeah, oh I like the idea of this, you know, on the on the PSP. This is sexy, you know. I'm not I'm not gonna lock myself into Redge Racer and I don't know, whatever came out on launch day for it, some dribble, and um, and then pick those like big moments and then take them back and kind of unwrap them and lay them down and play them nice. And I I've just been struggling to decide on what is that big what are those big games. They're the ones I've kind of chucked out there, Ghost of Sparta, maybe a little bit of little big planet, although I've played the wheels off of that on PSP. Uh and then and then what else? So any suggestions, you let me know. Um be as they can be as on the nose as you like. If you want to tell me to play uh Metal Gear Solid, boom, fine. If you want it to be a hidden gem, knock yourself out. Um but yeah, recommendations.
SPEAKER_02:I was doing a similar thing the other day. I was looking at the PSP, I thought I need to I want to play like an RPG or something in here. What have I got? What have I got? Yeah, then I went down a bit of a rabbit hole of looking at RPGs on other systems, and then I started thinking, oh, I won't mind getting a remake of um Star Ocean, I think it's second story R. I was thinking, oh, and then I suddenly thought, haven't I got that on the PSP? So why don't I just play it on there? Have you got it on there? I think I have, yeah. I've now I've got a Star Ocean game on there.
SPEAKER_06:Um Star Ocean franchise has always appealed to me, and I've kind of dabbled with it, but I don't know. The last one they done is I bought that on the PS5, and it's there was one on the PS2 that I've got that I remember around 2003, 2004, being on like bus stops, and you walked into game and it was like a big it was like one that had quite a lot of shit. And it's got like a a ship that's in space on the front cover, and obviously all my history and everything in mind. I was like, this is the game for me, this is the one. And I dabbled with it then, I've dabbled with it again, I've dabbled with it since. Like the franchise is of interest to me, but I need I need to just double down and get stuck into it.
SPEAKER_02:Wasn't uh was it to the end of time, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_06:The PST one was it to the end of time, I think, or something something like that, and I don't know why, but the like the front cover image always reminded me uh obviously it's a spaceship, but it always reminded me of like um one of the keys from Kingdom Hearts. Yeah, I think one could call that hidden gem. If people came here for your hidden gem, I would say probably similar to orbits of the sun, or maybe a a day on Jupiter, or or you know, uh maybe the speed of which glaciers are measured is how the ebb and flow of the hidden gen comes. But I don't want people to think that this sort of sporadic, almost mercurial, like hidden gem arriving now is any hint in any way of some almost ritualistic, like they're monthly, they don't come like that now, they come as and when RGT pleases, because it's not an idea, it's more of a spiritual awakening for you, isn't it? That's what makes these hidden gems so good. Um, yeah. Shame I ain't got one. Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_02:Because I was gonna ask you which tune do you want? Old school or new school? Well, we've got to get new school, surely. What was it? I don't know. You writ it.
SPEAKER_06:I don't think old school then Argie tea Is that the Lone Ranger Bring hidden gems to me Oh not to finish.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks. Good for this what she said. Um Right, do you want to play the guessing game?
SPEAKER_06:Yes, let's see how much more of my game and knowledge is evaporated with my hairline.
SPEAKER_02:We'll do well from this developer. It's swinging ape studios. Good luck.
SPEAKER_06:Were they was it published by someone a bit more well known?
SPEAKER_02:Uh published by Vivendi Universal Games. So no.
SPEAKER_06:What era is this?
SPEAKER_02:This is 2003.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:Now I have this and played this on the OG Xbox, but it is available for the GameCube and it is available for the PlayStation 2, which surprised me because I thought for some reason I thought this was an Xbox exclusive, but I was wrong. It's actually available on the other two systems.
SPEAKER_06:Right. What sort of style of game is it?
SPEAKER_02:The genre is like I would say uh a bit of a 3D action adventure, a bit of a shooty shooty run and gun, a little bit of platform, not a lot. Um yeah. Ooh, he is thinking. Single player motion, it did have a multiplayer, but you could play it as a single player. It's not something like bringing force, is it? No, no, no, it's not. I can put you out of your misery if you like.
SPEAKER_06:Give me another clue.
SPEAKER_02:Um it's by it it's very similar to another franchise which is an exclusive to Sony, almost like a Lidl version. If I said it was a little ratchet and clank. Oh what?
SPEAKER_06:Coded arms or something. No, arms rec no. Got a little yellow robot on the front of it. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, let me know metal arms, that's it.
SPEAKER_02:For the visual viewers there, but for the little.
SPEAKER_06:I remember that being, you know, quite pushed on the Xbox. That was in the ecosystem at the time.
SPEAKER_02:And I saw I even tried to find out whether that was a timed exclusive, but I don't think it was. But it seems to have been.
SPEAKER_06:I'll be honest. What's the artwork for the PST version? Because I don't know as I've ever seen that. Did you get a power release in the yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02:Um price price reporting on this, these are all available on CEX. The Xbox original is£6,£12 on the GameCube,£3 on the PlayStation 2.£3. So they're available. I've never seen that.
SPEAKER_06:Difference in the performance across the three. Obviously, I've you probably can't speak for that, obviously, on the Xbox.
SPEAKER_02:I've only played Unreach with Xbox, which it runs very well on it.
SPEAKER_06:Would do I remember that being quite a good looking game, actually.
SPEAKER_02:I would imagine the the cube and the Xbox are probably the slightly better versions, I would imagine. As into content, I'm not sure. I would imagine they're the same game ported across the code.
SPEAKER_06:Is there leveling screens on the Xbox OG Xbox version of that? Or you know, or is it not very long?
SPEAKER_02:It's it's it's very ratchet and clank. So you've got you've got your level, you know, early ratchet and clank. So you've got your levels, you work your way through. Um, you play as a little robot called Glitch. Um, it's a basic story.
SPEAKER_06:It's I remember that name.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you're on a planet called uh Iron Star, I believe, and it's being taken over by the evil robots, and you come round with memory loss, and they bring you back into the fray, and then off you go to try and stop these from taking over the planet, and it's that run and gun fun um with a few puzzles, few platforming sections. Um, it's actually pretty decent game. It's actually, if you've got an OG Xbox, it looks really good. Um, it plays really well, it's good controls.
SPEAKER_06:I remember it being a pretty game. I do like there were demos and trailers and bits and box on the official Xbox magazine. I kind of remember it being on there and it being I remember it being a look, you know, when you open the magic, well, that looks alright. But then I was always like, well, is it the game for me? Is it the game for me?
SPEAKER_02:Uh if you like Ratchet and Clank and you like the older Ratchet and Clank's PS2s, I would say, from that sort of graphical era, then this this is a must-play. How does it look compared to like Ratchet and Clank trilogy on PS2? Um Ratchet and Clank has its own art style, and so you recognise a lot of it, and it it looks good, it's nice, it plays well, whereas this is obviously a one-off game.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So you you yes, your Ratchet and Clank's probably look better because you know the characters, you know the setting, whereas this is all new, and this is sort of split between city levels and mine um sections, which is which is still good. Great fun with your weapons.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, the original Xbox could do a good mark, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it looked good. I mean, the shame the shame thing is this company made this. I'll tell you who made this the guys who done Hydra Thunder. They made Hydra Thunder, and then they then they made Metal Arms, and then Blizzard bought them, and that was the last you saw of them. So as for a Metal Arms 2, that's what happened with that. But this definitely warranted a second one, I think.
SPEAKER_06:Well, it warranted a second one from your sort of critical reception of it, but one would imagine he didn't warrant a sequel from the financial return of the first game.
SPEAKER_02:Probably, yeah, probably, yeah. Um, and as of today, Blizzard still owned the rights to Metal Arms.
SPEAKER_06:Three years as well. It came out in what 2003, did you say? 2003, yeah. And now he was and discounting. Think about that if you went straight into incubation cycle for Metal was it, Metal Arms? Yeah, Metal Arms, yeah, Metal Arms 2. But think of the all the up res textures you need to do because it wouldn't release on original Xbox, would it? It have to release on 360 in that time cycle because two-year incubation cycle, you bam straight into 2005, your Xbox is straight up straight up your backside. 360.
SPEAKER_02:And I think as well, um I think in 2008, I think they did release sort of an upgraded sort of version digitally for the 360, I believe. Which I think so, 2008, I believe. Whether that was on the online store only or what, I don't know. But I know there was a 360 more compatible version, I think you could play.
SPEAKER_06:Or whether you that seems to ring true. It's one of the things you forget.
SPEAKER_02:But I think the the the studio was sold in 2005, so if they had to been working on one there, only probably 18 months, if that into into a new game. So yeah, shame really. But yeah, definitely pick it up. If you're in the Discord, let us know if you've got it, played it or gonna pick it up. And I'd like to know if if anyone's got the GameCube or PS2 version. Let us know what you think, see what it runs like.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I just want to see the box art to be honest. When we finish here, I'm gonna Google the box art for it. Yeah, so like I'm now seeing an image form in my mind of what the cube one looks like. Yeah, but I can't picture the PS2 version.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think it was this, I think he was slightly more central, sort of coming out of the screen on the PS2 one, if I remember rightly. But it shocked me when I done research that there was a PS2 version.
SPEAKER_06:I just I'd he's a little bit like a proto bumblebee as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he does actually. Yeah, he does. Yeah, but definitely if you're into collecting this sort of genre of games, definitely pick it up because it's cheap and really good fun. Great fun to play. So yeah, Metal Arms.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, well, thank you for that. Awesome stuff, and obviously at some point in time it'll be all over the Discord hidden gem section.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I need to I I must apologize.
SPEAKER_06:I have promised I'm gonna No, don't apologize after that thing I said at the start. It's not something that people can predict or sense or know. It's uh it's like the changing weather.
SPEAKER_02:But I also mean updating the section. I will try and get on that this week, I promise. I'm sorry, as of recording, I will update the hidden gems and get the list up to date. Yeah, I'll try this week.
SPEAKER_06:Apologize You'll be on this now, you're ethereal, you're a spirit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I wish I was on spirits.
SPEAKER_06:You are what you don't know is you are. Okay, well, uh we've uh we've done that, we've done the hidden gem, but won't imagine we're bursting at the scenes or comment. A little bit like uh me in tight shorts attending a TE class with Mrs. Uh Watson flopping. Deal with it, RGT, you don't shake your head at me. Not that one anyway. Listen, we scout the very darkest corners of the internet to bring you the latest stories. First up, RGT, what are you leading with? You got you've got your big boy pants on. You come in here as Trevor MacDonald. I'll be honest with you. It's not really seen as a done thing anymore, but I'll let it slide because you you're a child of a different generation.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's that's that's anywho.
SPEAKER_02:Um this is over on Pure Xbox. So uh this as of recording this, this is uh prime news today, but you'll be getting this on Sunday. Um so you probably know yeah. Yeah, if you're lucky. Um but you could probably guess what this news is. Uh this is by the legendary phrase of Gilbert Genover on Pure Xbox.
SPEAKER_06:Big fan of the show.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Yeah. Um Microsoft is announcing today that Xbox Games Pass is getting a major overhaul with the service now being split. It into essential, premium, and ultimate tiers. In the process, we're getting new games and some price changes. Essential is now the new name for Xbox Game Pass Core, and it's the cheapest version of the service. It will remain at$9.99 per month and provide access to 50 plus games across console and PC while also offering unlimited access to Xbox Cloud Gaming, an array of in-game benefits for free-to-play titles. Next up we have Premium. Premium is the new name for Xbox Game Pass Standard, featuring all the same benefits as Essential, but with access to over 200 games, new Xbox published games in a year of launch, and shorter wait times for Xbox Cloud Gaming. Again, like standard before it premium will remain at$14.99 per month. Then we have Ultimate. Ultimate will be adding a variety of benefits, including access to Ubisoft Plus Classics catalogue, a subscription to Fortnite Crew, and improved quality streaming with the shortest wait times possible. As part of this, it will be jumping up in price from$19.99 per month to$29.99 per month. PC Pass isn't being highlighted as part of the new tiers, but it too is going up from$11.99 to$16.49. It has also been announced that tons of games are coming to Xbox Games Pass Ultimate today, including Hogwarts Legacy and a boatload of Ubisoft titles, which we'll be highlighting elsewhere on Pure Xbox as soon as we can. Yeah, so head over to Pure Xbox if you want to read a bit more on that and their their views on it. I've me personally I think we knew that this was probably coming along. Um the game, and especially current years.
SPEAKER_06:Let's cut to the rubber RGT if I may be football. I'm gonna cut across here. What's the most egregious bit? Because two of them haven't changed price. Games Pass PC's gone up a couple of quid. The other ones are you know, I'm trying to play devil's advocate a little bit here, but the other ones have been slapped up with a little bit of extra content, allegedly, although I always thought they had those bits and bobs anyway. Uh, and if you're right in the sweet spot being a Fortnite Assassin's Creed fan, uh, with a soft spot for Gears of War, you're absolutely busting at the seams on one of these tiers. What's the most egregious bit? Because is it those latter two upgrades, the price almost what doubling on one of them, I think, from what you said? Or you know, yeah, I think what's the bit here that makes you sick to your mouth.
SPEAKER_02:I think Ultimate is expensive. Um, I'm not I I have been, but I'm I haven't been for a while. I'm not a Game Pass subscriber, um, so it's hard for me to complain. But from people speaking to people who are friends of mine who are, um they find that quite a big price hike in Ultimate, and also there was a bit of small print, which isn't mentioned on here, that uh Call of Duty will only be available for free if you've got Ultimate. Um, so it's I find a big price hike.
SPEAKER_05:I think they're in there. I think aren't they?
SPEAKER_02:They've they've I think they've also done a bit of what PlayStation done by changing the name of it and trying confusing you a bit. You I think you think you're getting a better deal than what you actually are. Let's change all the names again.
SPEAKER_06:The vast majority of Xbox, and this is information that I don't have to handle. I think it's the information that's actually important to the conversation. Where are the majority of subs? Because I I've definitely been made aware of people that have cottoned on to these sort of deals where you can sort of grind out the rewards and do this, that, and the other, and it doesn't really stand you at at the real price. Obviously, I think they announced along with one of the top-tier package your Xbox rewards program has been turbocharged, so there's a higher chance of getting money back. I think you can make between eight and fifteen dollars back in rewards in in that time. And I don't just mean like, oh, you get a free Odie and cinema ticket or dribble like that, it's actually money you can use. Um James the Work Experience boy is relatively adept at this, but then he ends up giving the money to charity, which I was like, what are you doing? What are you doing here? Bless him, bless him, very kind, very sweet, but you know, could have added a couple of hundred Microsoft points or whatever it is, but you know, whatever makes you feel good, son. Um so yeah it it on the face of it, it doesn't look great, and I have to admit, metrics-wise, the timing for them is not good. It's not good. What we're looking at is someone who still alleges to be a console developer that's gone multi-format, but that's not kind of were these things always in the sand, or were these things that have come across over the last 12 months as the situation's worsened? I don't The thing is the timing and the metrics isn't great. It looks a bit greedy, it's not a good look. I guess Microsoft overall as a business is gonna make money, but we don't know where Xbox are in terms of their position. We know there's a little bit of management like craziness going on there as well, where one half is saying pay all your bills off immediately, and the other half saying we can't. So is this just part of that whole process, do you think? Or are they were they always gonna put the price up at this point and change the tiers and mess about?
SPEAKER_02:I I think the the price was always gonna go up. I don't think the price would have gone up this drastically. I think all these changes have started ever since that long drawn-out Activision deal. Ever since then, there's been a big change in Microsoft and console-wise.
SPEAKER_06:And I mean, it's cost them, it's c I'll tell you what it's cost. It's cost Xbox their autonomy, it's cost Xbox their off-radar, fast maneuvering style that we've seen from them in the past, where they've been able to kind of operate off book and a little bit off under the. I'm not saying they get away with blue murder there, and they never did, but they certainly were a little bit more able to row their own boat. But now it seems like they've stolen six bill out of the back of Uncle Bill's sofa, and now someone's got to pay.
SPEAKER_02:And also, it's really caught speed. This is it's I thought they could have come out and explained it a bit more as to why, but it seemed to have been dropped, and when you've got people like Matty Plays and Jez Corden, who are two of the biggest Xbox fans cancelling their subscriptions on Twitter, you start to think, oh, it almost seems like a final nail in the coffee.
SPEAKER_06:There ain't a chance.
SPEAKER_02:I know, but for them, you know, they love their Xbox, they're been, you know, stout defenders of the system for years. For them to turn around and say enough is enough is when you start thinking this is not a good one.
SPEAKER_06:What I don't understand is enough is enough is a fair comment. A cancelling subscription is a fair comment. But you might actually be asking the company you love to choose between survival and giving you free shit. And it's like neither of those things can coexist. No, you don't know. I don't think Jez Cordel's being I look, I'm for the gamers, I want games to be free, and yeah, I want the console to be free, I want everything to be free. But you've got to live in a reality where that can't happen. And I know the price hikes and everything seems very egregious at the minute and costs of living. I get it, I do, it sucks, it does, but they're also trying to make money, and this is where it is, and the modern ways pass it on to the game.
SPEAKER_02:I think I I go back to the Activision deal and Bethesda, I think those deals seem to be. I I still don't know why they would come. Um the money they paid. Someone somewhere in Xbox taunted that to Microsoft and said, if we buy these, Game Pass subscriptions will go up tenfold. We'll cover the cost of this in a few few years' time, but ten years, blah blah blah. But now the only people who seem to be paying for that deal is the subscribers to Game Pass because of their poor decisions to buy two studios, and you think, well, it's not really fair on the gamers who are now had nearly double on their ultimate because they've made some poor business decisions. I know that's how the business world works, they have to get it back from somewhere, and that has to come back through through your customers, but I just don't know. With Xbox at the moment, with they done all this, everything is an Xbox, and then you started seeing. I think it's what's one of the big stores in America has stopped saying that they're not stocking Xboxes anymore because they're just they're not selling.
SPEAKER_06:I don't think it I don't think it was Walmart, it was somewhere else. It's it was yeah, similar big songs. I do believe, but I don't think it's not one that's familiar to me.
SPEAKER_02:Which really for me was like our sales that bad that they they're not stocking them, and then GameStop, whatever you think of GameStop in America, but they even put a tweet out today saying paying$30 a month for for games you don't own, or pop in a store and buy a secondhand one, and that's yours forever. Even they had a dig in a tweet, and you just sort of thought, this isn't I think we talked about this before though.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, men wanting to move to a digital marketplace is great, and it's the way it's going, and it's the way more and more games are gonna get sold, and uh it's becoming quite obvious that they want to get you on the digital store. But what that leaves you with is a black hole of no space or representation in the physical uh space. And obviously, if people are more attracted to Games Pass, they're not really gonna frequent your store. So, why would you stop the games on the shelf that people aren't buying because they've got Games Pass? And I do believe, you know, you look at a lot of Xbox owners, unless they're absolutely hardcore, they've got no they've got maybe four or five of the classics on the shelf, right? It's not a generalization. I think that's where I would be if I was all in on Xbox. I'd have what's the point? But I might have a couple of bits of special edition Master Chief collection, I might have like a Gears of War statue or something like that, and then everything else is just on the cloud or on the machine. But is it it leaves you with no real social media penetration because no one's putting the like ghost I guarantee if I went on Instagram now, there's a million pictures of ghosts of yet eye on sand with petals around it, a sword, go on someone else's image, and it's like this someone's done an Instagram art where it's cut the box in half and the innards is all coming out and it's all samurai drivel, black and white filter this, black and white filter that.
SPEAKER_02:But they don't produce a physical media, so they don't get any of that kind of and and like you say, with the digital market going so hard on that digital market that that their their store, their footprint in stores like over in the UK here in Game or in CX or in any game and shop has got so small now that there's hardly any section for Series XS games, let alone Xbox Ones, but now they've gone down that digital front and they've lost that foothold in stores.
SPEAKER_06:My counter-argument is this apart from Smith's Toys Smith's Toys, obviously WH Smith is also dead, right? Smith's toys, you can go in and browse games. Uh CX, you can go in and browse the used games, right? Argos, you can go in and look at the catalogue in your games. There might be some important sales stuff in the in the store, depends what part of Sainsbridge you're in, because Argos is also dead. Um Where else am I looking at games?
SPEAKER_02:It's I know I mean UK, I know in America it's still a big thing to go and buy on physical games, you know, your Walmarts and that have big sections. I mean Nintendo Sony. Yeah, I do definitely. Great. But I mean, do do Xbox now, do Microsoft now, that it looks like the Games Pass subscribers is dropping like a brick at the moment. Now, if it's just is that just a panic tactic by gamers? Don't know. But I think by the time this show.
SPEAKER_06:Show me the evidence, show me the evidence.
SPEAKER_02:By by the time I think this show is out on Sunday, community corrections, if I'm wrong, I think there might be a little bit of a backpedal from Xbox.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I'd love to see it because what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02:But if if if um if this is the case and they drop some any off, do they go back to releasing physical games more regularly?
SPEAKER_06:Do they where do they drop dropping my devil's advocate thing for a moment, right? You know, partially, those first two tiers are unchanged, and one would imagine, I'd like to imagine that's where the bulk of Xbox gamers are. So I think the majority of them are getting away with it. I think the most your casual audience, your Fortnite player, young lads, whatever, they they're they're there, they sit there. That's about what they're getting away with, and that's they're happy with that. Some get free games on Games of Us to try, access to Xbox Live, play a bit of Fortnite, sorted. When you get into your ultimate tiers and whatever else up from that, you're into almost your Xbox purists, you're into your Xbox kind of aficionado. He wants everything, he's got disposable income, he can have everything if he wants to. One has to want like to me, it's egregious. It is. I don't think I could bring myself, although, you know, I'm sure we're probably not far off that on some of the deals I pay for PlayStation, just so I can play a game every now and then on the portal from the cloud. Um, I shouldn't think it's too dissimilar. What is it? 100 and what is it for that for a year? Um I always get it on a deal because if you buy it up front, it ends up being ridiculously cheap.
SPEAKER_02:Works out well cheap if you buy years in advance, doesn't it? But yeah, um, and adding it on. I'm trying to think what the PlayStation top tier is. Is that$17.99 a month for premium?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and how does that compare to the top tier now on Xbox?
SPEAKER_02:Um, well, with premium, you've got access to what 700 games, I suppose. Is that 800 games now? I would imagine, plus the plus the retro games.
SPEAKER_06:That statement, because you know what what are they saying then? So, okay, if you get cloud streaming, if you get the more you pay, the less you wait, and the quicker and better it is. So I don't think are you saying to me that it could have been quicker and better from the start? That's what you're actually saying to me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean when they're saying uh um we've ultimately now, and you're gonna get the best speeds from the cloud, and you're getting a bit more than a few years. Yeah, and improved quality streaming with the shortest wait times possible. So, do you wait less if you've got ultimate than you do premium or century?
SPEAKER_06:You basically bummed me off at this point and to this far, or was I having a good experience and now I'm gonna have a like poor experience if I'm one of the lower tiers?
SPEAKER_02:Almost seems they're trying to shoe shoehorn the majority of the audience onto Ultimate under.
SPEAKER_06:And not to give PlayStation a free pass. I mean No, not at all. Stars was a giveaway, but within the unlock of the stars was reduced wait time if you had a problem with your console. Yeah. I don't think so, Sony. Terrible. That is I've got to buy all these games, I've got to get all these trophies, we've got to get all these mini achievements within the tr within this stars app as well, to get to your level fable or level four, and I did it, I put f I put myself through it, and you know what? PlayStation never went wrong, did it? So I had no one to call. So what was the use of that? It's a free thing, it's a little bit like this. It's not that was you know, I'll let you get away with it a little bit, although it stinks. You just if I've got a problem with PlayStation, you answer the phone as quick as you can, it doesn't matter whether I've got a million trophies or none. Same with this. If I'm paying for a service, what the people who pay more get better. I think I don't mind that so much if it was launched today, but the reflection on the product to this point seems a little bit like, oh well, huh, thank yeah, yeah, well, about that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I th I I think for me, um, to sum this one up a bit for me. I've said this before. I don't think after the last five years, Xbox have had a plan. They haven't had a five, ten year plan. They seem to be operating on the fly at the moment, they're just trying different things.
SPEAKER_06:It all seems a bitted that plan, and now the plan isn't going as they thought it would do. I think they were knocking those things down. There's the this or Xenemax this. You know, maybe there was something else, but I think this has literally took the legs out from them. The acquisition was painful, it was prolonged. That would have cost a lot of money in lawyer fees, dude, alone, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Think about it. And yeah, and also, I mean, is it just me or do we not hear from Phil Spencer as much now? Don't seem to see him very much now.
SPEAKER_06:I just I'm not really sure they've got too much to say. One thing I am stoked about though, by the way, and and and this is a real plus. This is a real plus is flight sin coming to PS5 with VR2 support, maybe.
SPEAKER_02:That is good, it's brilliant. The thing that worries me is um I have the Series X that doesn't get used and definitely won't now. I'm thinking of selling it because they're bringing all their games to PlayStation, which is although my Switch 2 is probably what I use at the moment. I'm into the PlayStation ecosystem. So I'm probably gonna play the games on there, and and that's they've almost shot themselves in the foot because bringing your exclusives over to a competitor has stopped that chance to dragging someone over to have two consoles. I know it's just it's a struggle on time for people. I understand that, but there might be two or three games that a PlayStation game would think I'd love to play that, I'd love to play a new Halo, I'd love to play Flight Simulator, I'd love to play that new indie game. I'll see if I can pick up a cheap Xbox Series X or I'll see if I can buy a new one or get a deal on a Series S. Yeah. They're just gonna buy the game now. Why would you buy a new console for which also consoles have gone up in price, but let's just say for sake, 500 bucks for a new console when you could just go out and buy the game on your PlayStation for 70. You know, it's it's some funny decisions. Um, this feels very nailing coffin to me at the moment, and they seem to be on a plumber. I hope it isn't. I'm thinking Xbox can turn a corner.
SPEAKER_06:With all the information they've got. Now, don't forget, a lot of the noise we see, and I said this the other day, is the people is the subsection of people who can be bothered to log in and comment on a website, social media, whatever. There's so many people that go on there and don't comment. So we only see the most violent subsection of those people that are saying this is gross. But what we don't have is the Xbox metrics about how many people are cancelling, where were people actually sat? Were they actually sat on those first two lower tiers, and therefore the damage that we do appear is irrelevant anyway, or maybe they'll just pay it because they're full on Xbox for the next.
SPEAKER_02:I think because the other two tiers haven't changed that much. I think the people who are quitting are the people who are gone on uh we're gonna be on ultimate because of the price jump, from what I can see. But it's still early days, it's kicking off at the moment. Um, I still think they might either add something on or backpedal a bit. They've done it before, haven't they, when they've done a price change. But I think it's the way the market is at the moment.
SPEAKER_06:Well, things if they'd been allowed to get away with it then, they maybe wouldn't have had to have done so much now. I think what we're seeing now is the inevitable putting that decision off.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's true. Yeah, very true. Um, but with with the price of the consoles now, I mean, I think if you buy the which one is it, the the two terabyte Series X in America, I think it's up seven, eight hundred bucks, which it's it's expensive and things have gone up. And I know we've seen it with the PS5 Pro, but at least you feel you're getting a bit of a jump on that for the price you're paying. But yeah, kind of. Um, yeah. Um, yeah, it's it's getting expensive at the wrong time, and maybe maybe their acquisitions were were misjudged in time and for what the the gaming climate is at the moment, with what people's you know are willing to spend. So we'll see, watch this space. Um, and we'll hopefully jump back on this next week and see what the fallout was from this and and what people are doing. But yeah, we'll go from there. But what you got then, George? What news?
SPEAKER_07:Hmm.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, we'll sit down and buckle up because I know you've got your you've got your uh I know you've I know you've come inappropriately dressed as uh Arrow Mate Trev. But uh to top it off, you're wearing a Mario onesie because of all the fun that you've had with the Switch recently, which I have to admit that's why I'm starting a Luigi one. But there's a bit of news over on Nintendo Live, which can only be described as a holy book uh at this point.
SPEAKER_02:Oh dear. Hey, times have changed.
SPEAKER_01:It's the touche. Fair play, fair play. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Let's let's not get let's not go in arms out here. That's uh I don't think it's gonna end very well for one of them.
SPEAKER_02:We've both got two wheelie bins full of PlayStation tech.
SPEAKER_06:So I see more as a burial tour. Anyway, Alana Hagues, uh, the beautiful Alana Hagues over at uh Nintendo Live says this Super Mario Bros. the lost level Minus World has finally been found after nearly 40 years. Gotta love these stories. We're all we've all heard of Minus World, right? A glitched world in the original 1985 release in Super Mario Bros. It was accessible via World 1 Stroke 2 and is an infinitely looping underwater level, similar design to World 7-2. It's one of the most legendary glitches in game in history, and it turns out its direct sequel also has its own Minus World. It's just taken almost 40 years to discover it, and Speedrunner Cosmic is the one who discovered it. Thanks, Nintendo Everything, for that info. So it seems in both the Japanese and English release of Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels, the actual Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan, available officially in the West by the All-Stars bundle on the SNES, various glitch worlds are available, either changing the names, looping screens, or changing enemy behaviour. However, it's that All-Stars collection where a minus world is really tucked away and it's incredibly complex to pull off. You have to hear progress through some increasingly glitched versions of levels. The idea is Cosmic is trying to get past B8 but reaching B7 the first time. It was believed it was impossible to beat. Saving, quitting, and reloading brought him back in, completely different level layout, but it allowed him to get past those impassable glitches and roadblocks. A glitched warp pipe with part of a coin above it in B9 brought Cosmic back to World 1-1, but this didn't deter him. Continuing to progress through the glitched worlds until he reached World BD and eventually various glitch menu options. It's a lot easier to watch than it is to explain on a podcast, so make sure you go over to YouTube and have a look at Cosmic's video. So why did it take this long? Cosmic mentions that difficulty is probably the main reason he also believes that because the glitch requires you to make much more progress in-game and wasn't played by as many people, there's just lower interest in general. Now I love stories like this argument of people finding things within games, and I've noticed recently with increased uh sort of frequency that these stories are coming out about these sort of people that are trying these games out or going back to them or picking them up from their childhood or remembering those whispered playground stories of someone's big brother unlocking Sonic in Mario Brothers and you know, all that sort of rough and tumble playground talk that you dismissed as just nonsense that you might have seen listed in a magazine, but when you tried it yourself, he's an adult, even as an adult, he never worked. You kind of maybe clickbait is the word that we would use now, but these sort of sometimes spurious looking cheap magazines.
SPEAKER_02:I am allergic to your colo. It does particularly old nostrils displayed. It's so strong. It is, yeah. I've got lots of I've got forest fruits on today. That might be a bit too fruity for you. I'll try and go to it's not meant to be a can per armpit, RGT. Oh, well you didn't say that. I wondered why they're stinging.
SPEAKER_06:You're the one who presented it. I thought I looked at the man spraying air fresh under his armpits and thought a little odd. I didn't expect you to absolutely rinse a can per pit. It's the most toxic smell I've ever smelled in my life. Oh, thanks. Well, I just thought I like you as a man, you're a good friend, but forest fruits mixed with that kind of like sweaty kind of morning dew, sort of wet.
SPEAKER_02:I knew I knew there was something wrong because me my armpit here's hair has gone like cardboard, it's just like completely starched out. So it might be yeah, a can a pit is probably a bit too much.
SPEAKER_06:I'll be honest, I know I slip up every word every other time, but I want to know a little bit more about your armpit heels.
SPEAKER_02:I'll just put my real accent on my armpit heels. Bring the Glade. Glade left, Hayes right.
SPEAKER_04:A full can.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Destroy it, wreck it.
SPEAKER_06:Don't get none on the PSP. Wow. Anyway, it transpires actually after all this time. Some of these stories are true. Uh Lost Levels being a very peculiar, obviously, subsection of a lost levels area that he's glitched and glitched and glitched through. One has to question what it was that meant to be there, or he's just broken it. But obviously, a lot of these things are coming out of the people who've like backwards the code. And is there a story from your gaming past that you remember where you heard of this amazing cheat or unlock? I'm not talking action replay, I'm talking vanilla. I don't want to know about any of that drill.
SPEAKER_02:But um, the only one was when I was um playing Vice City back in the day, and I didn't for some reason I hadn't heard of like the cheats and the cheats you can put in that Rockstar had actually added in. Obviously, it came at a consequence, so you had infinite health, you could not be hurt or or die. But then that would be like you can't 100% the game if you do that, you can't 100% the game. So they always peel, but yeah, there was just things like that where I was I was so into that game, and then when my friend said, You know you can have infinite life if you do another playthrough, you know you can have like big head mode, you know you can have like any weapon, you know you can and I'm like, What? Just typing the all these codes in and trying them out and just being completely wowed that they worked, just amazed. But I think a lot of that is you're not gonna get that in the modern era. Games are made to a certain degree. I mean, if a game's glitchy nowadays, then it's just not worth the money, you know, it's not been released properly. But yeah, back in the day with these cartridge games, I always find it interesting when people find these glitches and hidden things. And I liked in there was that story in Grand when Grand Theft Auto 5 was really get starting to get traction online and going big, and someone online had found these symbols near a mountain, and they deciphered them, and there was tens of thousands of people online following, working out, working together, working these symbols out because they thought there was gonna be this big ascension and UFO, and they'd led them all the way around to this point on the map. And then I think I can't remember which one it was, I think it was Dan Hayes who come out and went, Yeah, there ain't nothing gonna happen. We just wondered if you lot would actually follow it all the way to the end. So there was actually nothing ever gonna happen. I just kept thinking, people really gonna work all this out and go all the way around, which they did, you know, and as things like that I find brilliant. But yeah, it is good when a game's you know 40 years and someone's eventually found his hidden levels. I think that's brilliant.
SPEAKER_06:I'd probably be a spike in price of the game now, no, but if you were a lucky developer, I think I'd also be a little bit sore. Yeah, he probably delivers tofu in Japan now, and it's like, oh, you see that they've found that little last glitch level that you like hid in that lost levels game for a year ago. Oh, they finally found it. So You thought I was gonna do you thought I was gonna look an Asian voice, but I didn't do that. No, no, I didn't.
SPEAKER_03:I knew, I knew you s I I saw you think on uh
SPEAKER_06:I didn't think that. Your Saturday Trevor McDonald, you're giving me giving me grief.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_06:What's this next bit of news?
SPEAKER_02:Thank you.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, hang on. To title, let's read the script. If you've got a gaming secret or something you've discovered or there's a little interesting story about that that you've been intrigued by, get in touch with us, obviously, on all the usual methods or on the Discord and let us know. I love hearing about these little gaming secrets.
SPEAKER_02:I do, especially if you hadn't heard of them before. Like if you're on our Discord and you know one, chuck it on there in the chat when the show goes live. I love hearing all these where people go, Oh, did you know you could do that in that game? No, I didn't. That's what I off the shelf. Let's have a go.
SPEAKER_06:Yes, it wouldn't have to be a cheat necessarily, but maybe a secret or a hidden feature that we like. I didn't I'd hang on if someone says, Oh, no, my scroll draws are in do that. What the hell? Really? I want it all. Yeah. Next bit of news. This has got to be probably the hottest piece of news this year.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe. Maybe not. Um, this is over on uh Push Square by Stephen Talby. This is Rockball.
SPEAKER_03:All Rice for Canon, Stephen Dalby, every yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Rock band four to be delisted from PS Store after 10 years of support.
SPEAKER_06:Cancel my subscription.
SPEAKER_02:The party is over. Um Rock Band 4, Harmonic's legendary music rhythm game, is soon to become unavailable. On a developer's Discord and the game's subreddit, the team confirmed to fans that the game will be delisted from digital storefronts, including PS Store, of course, on 5th of October 2025. This is due to music licenses, full of titles, bass soundtrack expiring. Hey everyone, on Sunday, October 5th, 2025, Rockband 4 turns 10. What a ride it's been, uh, writes community manager Kyle Wynne. With this milestone comes one big change. The original licenses for the core soundtrack are expiring. Because of that, Rockband 4 will be removed from the PlayStation and Xbox digital stores. Wynn confirms if you already own the game, you will still be able to download it and play it as normal. The same applies to downloadable content. Uh songs will come down as they hit the 10-year mark, but anything you've purchased will remain in your library, he adds. So the base game will be delisted and all add-on DLC tracks will also be delisted once they've reached the 10-year milestone. However, anything you own or purchase before the 10-year cutoff is safe and won't be taken away. It appears that online play will remain functional. Rockband 4 was released for PS4 back on the 6th of October 2015 and has been supported with a frankly absurd amount of DLC ever since. Additional songs only being stopped being added in January 2024 when Harmonix shifted its focus to Fortnite Festival. It's a uh a pretty incredible legacy and the longest lasting game of the plastic instrument uh Peripheral Craze, birthed by Harmonix's own guitar hero back on PS2. The bass game, which includes the Rivals Expansion as standard, currently goes for$9.99 or$7.99 British sterling pounds. So if you don't own but want to have access to it going forward, it's inexpensive, but you only have a few days between now and it's D-Listing. Wow, I can't believe that game is 10 years old. I remember getting that from my brother-in-law for Christmas, and that does not seem like 10 years ago. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_06:Like now you get things to stand your console on, and you get things that blow air in your console, but you're not getting these peripherals like we used to, are we? And I think I lament the loss of the game in peripheral, if I'm honest with you. I also lament the loss of this because I recently acquired Beatles Rock Band on PlayStation 3, but then started trying to find instruments and suddenly gave up because it just seemed a bit too complicated, if I'm honest with you, but I'll eventually see it through. I did always mean to get the big box set version, but uh space is starting with a little bit of a premium at Ponsobree Towers that wouldn't sound massive of instruments that probably come out every other Christmas when enough cider's been sniffed. It's a strange sort of weird Venn diagram, really, that when that would come out, isn't it, if you think about it? It's not the normal tat you want lying around the living room. I know obviously the RGT living room, it it you know, comfort be damned. I'm having everything out, and that's how this is gonna be, because at any moment I might decide that I want to play a 3DO game.
SPEAKER_02:So well, fit things are a changing here at RGT Towers, things are a changing. What's going on here? Oh, there's this the beginnings of a mass cull of games and peripherals and big boxings and oh, I want to talk to you about this because I've been wondering if, like, you know, do I need a cull?
SPEAKER_06:And part of me says yeah, but then part of me says what would you call? Because like some of the 16-bit stuff that I've acquired, and you know that's the toughest, that's the toughest. I don't know as I could bring myself to the movie Let That Go, like Dreamcast. No, I've got the biggest collection, but I don't know if I want to let it go. Like Saturn, maybe I could like me. There's times in my life where I've had Saturn and I've quite happily kissed it goodbye. And I've had Saturn more recently and enjoyed it, but I think I could like maybe say bye to that.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not that's different to me. I'm not saying goodbye to consoles as such, I'm saying bye to clearing out parts of collections.
SPEAKER_06:So for instance, that's what I'm I I agree with you.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think I've got four big boxes, about 350 games in at the moment, which are gonna go, but I want to get it to a thousand games gone. Um and my thinking behind that is I could probably get rid of 250, maybe 300 of my PS2 games, but then with the money, buy four or five big hitters with that and have a really curated collection of just nice, you know. Each each collection I've got, I've got big hitters in that I want to play. Um, I got another one of the Final Fantasies, I've got Final Fantasy six for the PS1 when I was away. Yeah, it's nice on there. I just need eight now, and then I've got six, seven, and that. And I'm you know, but then I look on there and I've got certain games on there.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, but I look at that right, and I own Final Fantasy collection and a lot of them digitally anyway.
SPEAKER_02:Hmm. Yeah. So do we need that? Yeah, no, that's going down another rabbit hole for me. Me personally, I just want some big games on the systems and a nice collection of a couple of shelves where people come in and say, Oh, these are all banging games, these are brilliant, you know, rather than going past all this chaff to find one decent girl.
SPEAKER_06:Cricket simulator 1984. Uh 85. Um, so but that's the tap. Listen, I'm a big fan of curation, and I have tried to be very curative with what I do, but then it's so hard to walk into a charity shop and say no to a game for 50p.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because I've done that recently. Um I sorted out my original Xbox games. I had about 200, I suppose. I took it down to about 100. Um, and the top one in there was Heroes of the Pacific, uh, which I forgot I'd put into the box to go to the game shop wherever I'm gonna sell it to. Um, and then um I went to the charity shop about three weeks ago, found Heroes of the Pacific for one pound and bought it because it was in really good condition, and then suddenly realised that that's already one and a half thing.
SPEAKER_06:My man, my man.
SPEAKER_02:I think oh no, it's Heroes over Europe. There we go. 360, I've got it right there. Really mint, and I bought it again for completely another reason because I have a problem. So, but a lot of this is gonna be filtered and gone, you know.
SPEAKER_06:What about to swing it back to the news item? How much of your sort of and I have to be honest, RGT, I've I've spoken to you this on on several occasions. How much of the and you don't have it on display anymore, but how much of the tat? How much tat is there? How many bags of GBA worm lights are there and weird stuff like that?
SPEAKER_02:Um I haven't got a lot of tat on display because a lot of the tat is going.
SPEAKER_06:Um what are you gonna do with that? That's the known thing, it's not tradable, it's not really sellable, is it? It's weird.
SPEAKER_02:No, um I've I've already donated some Nintendo stuff to a friend's daughter who is really into Mario and bits. So I was like, Oh, it's not got some original bits, got a big Yoshi. There you go. She can she can have that from you know 1995 big Yoshi thing, I think. But um I've got some other bits and pieces I'll I'll donate to people who I know are really into it. I spec the Discord as well. I'll um I'll be hitting them up. I have said to them before I've got games and I know Badabics has got, where they go, there they go, so hang on, let me get them all together and I'll put big listens on and then you've gotta you've gotta I think you've got to keep the games on the back and then just drip freak drip feed GBA like screen protectors.
SPEAKER_06:You know, you want the good stuff, boys, you gotta you gotta work for it.
SPEAKER_02:Have you if if you could see what I've got in my storage locker, you would be absolutely disgusted with me. There is some absolute filthy rubbish tag.
SPEAKER_06:See it to know. I've s I've picked you up on so much drivel that you've shown me.
SPEAKER_02:I was in there the other day and I was just thinking, where has my life gone? What have I done with my life? I've looking up, I have got a big white collector's edition of FIFA 2000 on the PC with a free Soul Campbell t-shirt next to a really poorly designed PC VR set that doesn't even work, next to a PS2 aftermarket skateboard in a box, next to a draw system for an original Xbox. I'm like, why have I got all this stuff? I was like, it's 10 foot tall in the 15 foot. I'm like, what is going on here?
SPEAKER_06:Jesus, and I was hyping stuff out that's gonna make me and everybody else listening at home feel so much better about themselves is we thought we were bad.
SPEAKER_04:I was we were not saw combo special edition fever defense on the PC part I saw.
SPEAKER_02:I haven't even got a PC to play it on.
SPEAKER_04:That's what makes me laugh so bad. Where did you even get this monstrosity?
SPEAKER_02:Well, because I saw it in a charity shop about ten years ago, and it had PC on it, so I bought it. I've got I've I found some old games in there, PC games. I had a tour of the British Isles by Harrier on PC, the great British quiz. What have I got that? They're worth like two pence. Just like seriously, I'm a 47-year-old man, I need to sort this life out, and I need to do it now. If if I'm brave enough, I'll take a picture next time on my storage locker. And by the way, I've taken a vast amount out of this storage locker, and you will just be ashamed of me. Just CRTs piled up and about 19 arcade sticks and mini consoles and just absolute rubbish paraphernalia that no one's ever bought and no one's ever gonna buy. I just need to stick a match in there and get rid of the lot. One go, bang, petrol bomber, done.
SPEAKER_04:I don't even need to be here, it's just this unraveling of your own like life in front of me.
SPEAKER_02:Sorry, I've I thought I was talking to my shrink. Sorry, I forgot we're doing a show.
SPEAKER_04:Um he gave up with me, he's he signed me off. So funny.
SPEAKER_02:Honestly, you you don't know half of it, the stuff. Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_06:Mate, I think we're all guilty of having one too bit. Well, I know I'm guiltier than most, but I like to think that the good majority of mine is curated. It's easy.
SPEAKER_02:You have a lovely collection, your collection is you know, yeah, it's good. There's some great games in there, and every one you can sort of say, I'd play that. That's good. That is a banger, that's rare.
SPEAKER_06:There's you've got good feature creep on PS2 that I haven't got displayed, it's just up in a cupboard, and I'm like, to be honest with you, I need to cherry pick a couple of bits out of there and get it gone. Because if I don't have it downstairs, I'm not probably just never gonna play it.
SPEAKER_02:No, I mean, 90 90% of tat and big box stuff is going. Um, you've seen my display cabinet. I've got a display cabinet in my living room now, which I've got an uncharted section. I've got the Last of Us collection in, which is nice. I like that. It's a nice piece, looks good with the lights on. I like that. But all these other tat I've got, I mean, I look over here, I've got Assassin's Creed 2 and 3 on the 360. I look over there, I've got Assassin's Creed 2 and 3 on the PS3, I've got Assassin's Creed remastered. I'm just like, I don't need all these variations of games.
SPEAKER_06:So which one are you gonna keep though? The OG ones, or are you gonna keep the remastered versions?
SPEAKER_02:Uh no, I mean the the console that is gonna be the or the two consoles that will be touched, forget the 16-bit stuff. There's not gonna only duplicate loose cartridges will go. Um, because I just love that collection. I like it, it's it's timeless collecting for those. It's quite nice to have the cases and the boxes, and there's something to it. Whereas the disc games, it's not quite as sentimental to me. So PS3 probably I've got quite a curated collection of PS3. There's a few FIFA's been hoiked out, and that's it, really. I've got quite a nice collection. There's a lot of games I still want, some expensive ones, but I'm gonna collect four. PS4 is fairly curated, which is sort of over here. I've got about dunno two 250 PS4 games, but they're all pretty good. I've got a lot of indie stuff and smaller releases, some good games on there. Um, so they won't be touched as much, but um, PS2 is gonna get cold. PS1 to a limit, um, 360 wheel. I've pretty much done me original Xbox. I've got but that's quite a curated nice collection on there now, but still a lot of games I'd like to get, but I'd rather now go to the Large the Old Republic on there, yeah. One and two.
SPEAKER_06:Umid Empire?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, yeah. Uh Metal Arms. Funny enough, yeah. Um but how how I'd like to put it there, if I go to say a video game market in London or Manchester or somewhere like that, right? Rather than coming away with 30 games at£10, I want to come away with one game at£200.
SPEAKER_06:That's how I'd yeah, I wouldn't get to I mean, you collect how you want to collect, but the more I look at some of the high price games, I think to myself that they're games really that high price because they're not that good.
SPEAKER_02:I know, yeah, that yeah, I didn't really explain myself. They have to be a good game of water play. There's got to be a classic that's collectible on the water play. Yeah. So I don't want to buy 300 games a year, I'd rather buy two or three.
SPEAKER_06:So you've got to So every time you talk me out of getting Castlevania Symphony and art on the PS1 with the collectible soundtrack and the art book, I shouldn't. Oh, and you've got that yet. No.
SPEAKER_02:No, I bought it when we were talking about it last time. No, I haven't got it. I haven't got it.
SPEAKER_06:That's probably the last thing I'll probably buy in terms of retro collection. The only Well I say that Steady. Just hear me out. You'll be reminded, you'll be reminded. Well, I want this to go down as a fact. In terms of retro collecting like PS2, PS3, all that sort of stuff, of Xbox original 360. I'm like, I'm done. PS1, I'm done. Really, apart from I would really like a copy of Castlevania Symphony in the night. And if I ever was to get another retro console, and I would consider selling or swapping one out for one of them out, it'd have to be maybe, I don't know, Saturn or something. I would get a 3DO. Yeah, I've got a pan sonic one. I've always wanted one, I've had the money to get one several times and then never did. And like I could kick myself, I do, because like I would love one. There's a little bit of nostalgia in it, they look cool, they're not that great, really, in all honesty, but it's more the nostalgia.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly. And there's also, you know, there's the young George looking at them with just absolute awe back in the day because they were 600 pounds and you didn't know anyone that had one. And if they did, they were really rich fan.
SPEAKER_06:Did he? Yeah, he had one. Oh, fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I think he's had a got a new job or something on LinkedIn. I was like, oh, he's doing so well for himself. He's got a black and white profile picture as well. He just that sets off.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's the one. But yeah, so anyway, we went a bit off piece there. Sorry about that. But yeah, just all in part and rent.
SPEAKER_06:Listen, I think it's important that we we investigate these things. We don't have to act on them. I sound I definitely sound like you shrink, to be fair. We don't have to act on them, but we can certainly think about it. And if you've got a box of some games that you're willing to let go, I think you should pursue it. I mean, at least it gives you something to do over the next six months as you buy them back piecemeal at a time for three times what you sold them for. So I'm on board for it. Exactly. How many times can a man buy an unboxed uh boxed PS2 skateboard controller third party and never use it?
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. To be honest, it probably hasn't even got a connection on it. Gets whipped over with Mr. Sheen once a year, and that's it.
SPEAKER_06:Paul Border came round while you were getting a couple of rounds of drinks, he decided to get it out, like kick the kick flip off the back of it, shots it up into the roof. Thought, oh, better pull it down, put it back in its package, and put it back on the shelf. It'll never look at this, let's face it. He's got the we fit next to it, it's unboxed.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it he would be far wrong because when I actually started taking the shed down from my old games room, I actually had stuff under shelves and behind shelves, and I was like, I have no recollection of buying this stuff. I didn't I wasn't even aware I had it, and I'm just like, why have I got it?
SPEAKER_06:Maybe you're sleep retro acquiring.
SPEAKER_02:It must be just my finger on eBay.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, God knows, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Uh yeah, I wouldn't I want to go into my mind in that situation, but yeah, we'll we'll see. But it's definitely gonna be a cold coming. So I will an apologies to everyone that I've said this ages ago, I will upload bits onto onto Discord. So if anyone wants any bits, and you know, there's probably a lot of tat there that it ain't worth nothing, so I won't want nothing for it. If there's games interesting you're building a collection, just hit me up and I'll I'll post them off to you.
SPEAKER_06:So we could do it like that. Well, so with that, spare a thought for all the Discord users. Get yourself over there if you're mildly interested in that. Also, if I would love to hear from you if you've got some sort of gaming tap that's giving you guilt. So if you want to sort of speak to me and resolve you of all sins, I'm for that. Email us at questions on officialcontrollerpodcast.com or obviously instant messages on uh X, although that's I'll be honest with you, I checked its pulse the other day, it's damn near dead. Uh I just see people very angry about things on there, and I you know, strange, strange little place. Uh and then Instagram uh I'll yeah, I'll yeah, um, yeah, I might see a message on there, I guess. But you know, get hit us up on the Discord or the US, I think that's where we're at. I don't quite know what's happening to social media in the modern world. Um, but uh yeah, we're there as a uh I don't know, as a holding pattern, I suppose, if nothing else. But uh yeah, feel free to check out our uh ever-aging content, RGT. I I think I think what I want from you is uh a new engagement strategy for the social medias. Okay. I want tomorrow. No, no, bye bye bye tomorrow morning. Oh wow, okay, yeah. And we'll do it, we'll we'll we'll we'll roll seven, so let's do it early doors, four in the morning.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, brilliant. That's handy because I ain't really got nothing else to do, so that'll that'll fill the time up. Lovely. Yeah, brilliant. Cheers for that.
SPEAKER_06:You thought podcasting was just sitting around playing video games all day, mate. You know you've got to do a bit of summon summon every now and then.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, yeah. Yeah, definitely, obviously. How bad of me. Wow.
SPEAKER_06:These bills don't pay themselves, mate.
SPEAKER_02:No, well, I do have to pull my finger out and start pulling my weight a bit on this guy.
SPEAKER_06:It's just a social media engagement strategy. It needs to generate somewhere in the region of three million clicks a day. No worries. Four or thirty-day period. I think that'll probably get us back on an even queue.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, no problem. That's uh I've already got a few ideas up here. Give it to me, you'll get a PowerPoint. Yeah. I mean, I'll send it at four o'clock, but you can just read it when you get up, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:But nine or two Seb said he triple S said he wanted it in person.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, oh okay. So I've got a fly to Texas now, have I? Yes. Oh, okay, yeah, no problem.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, so you probably I know you do your best thing killed on the plane. So you've got time. Yeah, brilliant. Yeah, no problem.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Awesome. And and your credit card's on hold as well, so you get the ticket and I'll reimburse you.
SPEAKER_02:So you're Yeah, I'm I'm sure you will. I will.
SPEAKER_06:Hey, I'm gonna let you down.
SPEAKER_02:Nope. You certainly haven't. It's always the first time. But we better wrap this show up because I've got a plane to catch and a and a and a PowerPoint to to type, so we need to be getting on.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Alright, well where's the Discord members then?
SPEAKER_06:Okay, so do you want me to start then or I don't really know any more whether the list is correct?
SPEAKER_02:It is, because if you just look at your notes there, I've made a couple of hesitant adjustments. Or hastily adjustments I should say.
SPEAKER_06:What we're looking at. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. So shall I start?
SPEAKER_06:This is the new world, is it?
SPEAKER_02:This is the new world of UCP.
SPEAKER_06:So I I then I would like to start because I want him in my mouth for the first time.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:And I love a little bit of edimmy mouth. But what's even better than that is a little bit of retro edit me mouth. Absolute legend. He's only gone and joined the he's only gone and joined the supporters club. And I am. I'm buzzy. You look nervous. I don't know why.
SPEAKER_02:This this has been controversial this show and uh I feel uh I feel at the brunt of it a few times and uh yeah, I I had to hold that one in a bit. Poor Ed. Well, he could be our shortest subscriber ever.
SPEAKER_04:I love him, I thought that was interesting.
SPEAKER_06:And if I've made you feel uncomfortable anyway, I apologize. That was that was about three years too late.
SPEAKER_02:Um next up, we uh outrage is real.
SPEAKER_06:Well, if any of our offended anyone who's listening, I'm also sorry. I you know, I thought we were playing a bit more fast and loose now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, we are. Just fast and loose makes me nervous. Steady, steady.
SPEAKER_06:Next up, we have to have to upload it if you don't want me to. I could just knock a solo out and we call it a day.
SPEAKER_02:Next up, we have the one man George fan club, Carlos. Thank you very much, my man. He's also playing along at the moment on Safe Park.
SPEAKER_06:So you're he's what he's warned us off these because he thinks they're a little bit sort of edgy, but you know what? I'm with look, I'm feeling very reserved and conservative today, but you obviously feel a little bit sort of off the chain, so it's a good job I'm doing is readout. So if you want to avoid the sort of financial traps that would normally ensnare a sort of low IQ Dimwick, you want to speak yourself to firm returns because he's the man who's gonna help me navigate those sort of financial swamps. And I suppose if you're also a dimwit, if you ever take any advice, it will be to go speak to firm returns because you better let him handle your financial responsibilities because I'll tell you what, you're not capable. Well, next up, I'll think that pass is the financial ombudsman.
SPEAKER_02:I think so, yeah. I think you've covered all angles with that.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, there's a couple of ones I left on the table to be fair, but I think it'd be a little bit outrageous to go down that road.
SPEAKER_02:I think so as well, to be honest. Um next up, we have longtime supporters, Trestles of New York. Thank you very much, as always.
SPEAKER_06:Best Buffalo wings in Queens. Up next, probably one of the longest supporters mentally and physically, in every way that you could ever imagine someone, an all-round good guy. The wonderful Rose Space Monk.
SPEAKER_02:With his wonderful Dreamcast collection, which had two more. The way he has that set up, I'll be honest with you.
SPEAKER_06:If I was ever allowed within 200 yards of his house, I wouldn't have to be a good one.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you're not nowadays. You would have done a few years ago, but since that court injunction, you're not you're not allowed now. But photos will have to do for you, I'm afraid.
SPEAKER_06:Listen, mate, I'll be honest with you. I thought it would be a good idea to set up a Game Boy Matty merch scenario. I just didn't envisage they'd want all of the money.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm cool with it. Obviously. Um next up we have the awesome Badabinkster. That was some lore on lore on lore, that was, wasn't it? Actually, that was. That's yeah, starting a bit deep. Deep lore if you're trying to think uh if I should actually even respond to it. Um, yeah, Badabinkster, thank you very much. And also, Badabinkster, I do keep seeing you on Instagram with your PS3 collection, which just looked Hey, he's pushing it now, isn't he?
SPEAKER_06:He's pushing it. Quite a vast collection.
SPEAKER_02:You just uh send me a little DM, let me know how many games you've got. I know I'm saying I'm getting rid of games, I understand that, but you might be the one for a few of the PSGs.
SPEAKER_06:I'll be honest with you, RG. I'm starting to think this. You kind of you're almost kind of seeing your gaming collection as a substitute for Girth in other places. It's like, oh, hang on a minute, Bada Binks has got a couple of PS3 games. How many you got? I've got more than you've got. Like, look at my pisser, it's bigger than yours sort of scenario.
SPEAKER_02:It's a bit you've completely turned out on his head. No, I was just like collecting for PS3, so I just wondered what he had. But you've made it into the size of me girth. Dee hell. Who we got next? Welcome back, RGT. Welcome back.
SPEAKER_06:Hey, listen, mate. Look, you can go on holiday, but just bear in mind that you didn't manage a staff rotor very well. You left me on my roaming on my own in a dark room with nothing but a microphone. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02:So I'm doing a staff rotor now as well. Wow, yes, yeah. This name badge is about nine foot long at the moment. You wear it, look. And yours just says George.
SPEAKER_06:You want the responsibility of somebody. Do I do I? I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:I forgot to check.
SPEAKER_01:You actually made me question myself, did I? Did I ask for that? I don't anyway. Here we go.
SPEAKER_06:You didn't say everyone stand up and sit down, Stammy Bennett, anyway, by the way. So there you go. I've got I've got Tingle Tuner. Uh I know that. I know that. But for some reason I fell into calling him Tingle Turner.
SPEAKER_02:I you know. Hmm. And also well done on your marathon run, by the way. Really well done. Nottingham Marathon, he he completed last week, I think. Well done. Very, very good work. He ran it backwards. Did he? He ran it backwards that quick, he finished it before it started. Well, that's a loop there. I've got to try and work out in my little Suffolk brain. How does that work? That's Proper quantum leap crap, that is. Jeez, how does that work? Um, right, next up we only you could do that though, to be fair. Think about it. Well, yeah, exactly, yeah. Um, Digital Monkery is up next. Uh challenge accepted, and um one of the uh policemen of the uh Discord keeping a chunk of sheriffs sheriffs, that's it.
SPEAKER_06:More rough and aggressive than a policeman.
SPEAKER_02:The digital monker is beard alone, and it says I'm authority, then as well, authority, edgy authority. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's like saying I'll talk to you about a conscious lover. Yeah, he looks like I'll talk to you about your mega drive games, but one swear word on this Discord, and I am coming down hard. All right, I am coming down hard.
SPEAKER_06:Next up, I mean you've got the brass neck to pull me up. Uh wow. Up next, a man who literally drop kicked your PS2 accessory up into the phone ceiling and then repackaged it back down and put it on the shelf and then guzzled one of your beers as well. It's ball border.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. It was the first one to do a 900 on a gamer peripheral. Um think Tony Hawk did at first.
SPEAKER_06:Um I didn't I didn't see that coming. I loved what it was.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Oh, next up we have Boba. Am I still doing the pew?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, no, yeah, it's all been signed off. Apparently, it's a big thing. Okay. Going, Brad. It's the moment to be celebrated.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_06:Up next, my red-headed stepson. Now, you know, we big him up a lot and he deserves it because he's magnificent. You know, I would only like to imagine that a son that I had no genetic input into was gonna be just horrible, you know, a real rancid little creature. But actually, Ginger's the exception to the rule. He is not only what I would call genetically aerially perfect in every way, the dimensions, the way he's laid out, the length from his waist to his inside armpit, the length of his chest, and all of his dimensions. If you write those down on a piece of paper and add them up, they actually spell out the word God.
SPEAKER_02:I can believe that, actually. And also he started collecting steel books, which absolutely are fantastic.
SPEAKER_06:So I the man of steel collects steel books.
SPEAKER_02:Let's see.
SPEAKER_06:I wonder if he's collecting that because he's literally crushing to dust normal games. Might be, just one hand. Yeah. So like Superman, if he hugs Lois Lane too tight, he just pops a spleen out of the side of a body. Maybe Ginger's picked up, you know, I don't know, Astrobot, literally just crunched it into oblivion. Dust. Yeah, dust. What was that?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it's just now like a handful of salt.
SPEAKER_06:So now he has to buy these hard, very hard, enduring sort of metallic cases. So that means his collection's been decimated and he's just got those steelbooks left. Let's start a go for Jing's collection.
SPEAKER_02:Or because he's just got one hell of a grip.
SPEAKER_06:So I just had my red-ed stepson, which I don't think is legal in at least three states. Who's next?
SPEAKER_02:We have the Lord of Darkness himself. It is the wonderful RV Retro. A man that just is perfection personified. He is, he is. He was uh he's got new glasses at the moment, and my god, is he handsome?
SPEAKER_06:I better stay off Instagram, that's my phone's gonna look like a decorator's radio. Up next, Emma Sharp.
SPEAKER_02:On a world tour.
SPEAKER_04:On now, people say, oh, why do you say Emma Sharp's on a world tour? Because every time I go on the internet, she's in a foreign place in a UCP t-shirt. Literally.
SPEAKER_02:She's in America. Yeah, she's in America at the moment.
SPEAKER_06:So expect to see a big boost in American listeners, so we're already very grateful for all the Americans that listen, but I tell you what, business just picked up.
SPEAKER_02:But I'll tell you where Emma isn't. Where's that? It's a bit like Greg. She's not nowhere near Berlin. Slip that link in.
SPEAKER_06:I did. I think the way you did that was pretty smart, actually. I have to admit, I kind of stood back and saw it be executed and I thought that's actually slicker than a car crash with a brokering van.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, a bit of prize.
SPEAKER_06:Up next. The beloved and beautiful mumsy.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Mumsy. Oh, and I get the big one. The fan club for the big dog.
SPEAKER_06:While you're on holiday, actually, this has been brought up several times, and it is I think it's something that you've touched on yourself. I I've got a one-man fan club, right? So that's one input to the supporters, and that that's totally cool. Now I don't want to go full OG Tom on you here, but what I'm saying is if you broke your fan club down to its constitute members and had one man, one, two man, three man, four man, we would be like your fan club, you boast millions of members. But they're all contributing to extract from the lowest tier. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's quite anything. I don't want to sound like Netflix here, like sharing the passwords, but it's quite an extravagance for a pensioner, so that's all I'll say. So just be grateful for the one. So Cheers, Mum Dad.
SPEAKER_04:Um, who we got nextly, you you're like Alan Partridge covered in goose fat.
SPEAKER_06:Let's have a look at who's next.
SPEAKER_04:It's Pete Brace.
SPEAKER_02:Back of my neck.
SPEAKER_06:It's the legendary He's not as strong as my stepson, but he's not, right? And he's he's not as handsome, he's not as strong, but he's still quite strong. Yeah, he's still a unit. He's still scary enough to make you think that you don't want to mess with him. Yeah, definitely. And's been known to flick a ton of rock with an eyelash. He's pretty ripped, even his eyelashes. He's not insanely strong, he's just kind of pretty strong. I'm gonna take this. No, I don't I don't want to mess with the order, you do it, because if it happens, it happens, and it is whatever it is, is is totally I should say it's fine, but it's not fine, but it's okay.
SPEAKER_02:Have you said Pete Brocklehurst yet? Yes. Oh, you have. So I will jump on to the legendary Billy Marmite. Thank you, Billy. Which means which means I read the notes and then I didn't read the notes, and now I've thought about the notes, and I've looked at a you know reverse myself into the and I done a bit of reverse psychology by trying to go first, and I knew you would jump on first, which means in the order of the way.
SPEAKER_03:Because I wanted to get retro at it.
SPEAKER_02:Right, this is my turn to um give you a little advice on how I want you to zange all over the studio this evening. Um yeah, I want you to be slightly scared in anticipation. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Well, of a Zangef.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, slightly not sure what's happening. So you're slightly part. This is the real callback.
SPEAKER_06:I've got BBSD over this, I can do this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you're slightly scared, you're not sure if you like it. I remember my first time feels wrong, yeah, but then we're just when just when you get the little fizzy tip, I want you to I want you to just absolutely have the best feeling in the world. Just let it go. Let it go, everybody.
SPEAKER_06:Just to give it a bit of context now, because I think this is gonna be Oscar worthy. Or it might not be, it might fall flat on his face because it's too real.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, don't talk it up yet.
SPEAKER_06:Right. But literally like thought I'd let myself down by wetting myself. Just so this is this is the route I'm gonna go down with the Zangi, okay? So good direction, by the way. I think we could do something with this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Are you ready?
SPEAKER_02:Go, and just look at me. Look at me when you do it. Straight in the eyes. Well, I'll go to the right side because that's haze.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:Was that like hit the mark on or no?
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah. Yeah, that was good. That was good. Yeah, sorry, Zoe Geef, but yeah, thanks everyone as always.
SPEAKER_04:We asked for that. He he made extra for that. He does, yeah. Does he? Tell me he does. Tell me he does, because I've got nothing left.
SPEAKER_02:Don't do another one. Um, yeah, but no, on a serious note, thanks to everyone, as always. Um, but even if you listen and you're not subscriber, fake you as well, because every download. Exactly.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, exactly. So all the real winners know, yeah. Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:What are you open to what are you open to play?
SPEAKER_02:Um bit more Grand Bazaar, a bit more astral chain. Um I keep wanting to. This is going back to McCleckon a bit in PS1, but I keep wanting to get into sort of PS1 era JRPGs.
SPEAKER_06:Oh mate, oh my sit around with all these aspirations of jazz club type body connoisseurs, you know, like Luna Silver Star and all the things.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, well, you know, a little bit of lure. Oh, what are you putting emulation? No, no, no, no, darling.
SPEAKER_02:Just a little puff. Um, yeah, so um You're an absolute devil. Do you know that? You paint me as the dad, you paint me. I load the gun. Um so I've got a few. I might, I might I might flick the PS1 on and uh play playing something like that. I'm I've found myself I'm founding. So I'll give you the first battle get clean and give me. I'm really drifting away from modern consoles. Switch two is what I'm a go-to, but even the PlayStation, I just I don't I've really sort of drifted off a hard feeling to explain. I just feel more like playing. I want to play my PS3 and I want to play more the backlog, and I have drifted a bit, so I think you'll probably see over the coming months that a lot of my what on my plan, what am I hoping to play is going to be probably older stuff, I would think. I even keep thinking, as I never played them properly, is jumping into resistance as well on PS3, as I never played them properly back in the day. So thinking of playing for those.
SPEAKER_06:I never really thought much of it from the stills. That's like a lot of Crackers, looks a bit diabolical to me, and seemingly some many people say that it's not reviewed really well. Some mixed reviews to be fair, and actually I played it, I really enjoyed it. It was a nice game put together. It's it's age now. It's imagine at the time it would have been quite the Marvel, especially at launch, PS3 launch. Um, but the gameplay was great. I didn't quite bond with two as much.
SPEAKER_02:So, yeah, I'm thinking of jumping into them again and um trying to play through them this time and just really enjoying the PS3. So it's probably gonna be more PS3 games. Obviously, I've got stick of truth to play through as well. Um, hopefully get some more hours done on that, but it's probably whereabouts I am. What about you, George?
SPEAKER_06:More Vita? A hell of a lot more Persona 5. I'm gonna probably put a little bit more Vita.
SPEAKER_05:Um, I've got that looking real nice now. And I keep thinking, do I get it hacked? Do I get one of the other Vitas out and send it away? You know, I just send it to Badavinks to maybe get it hacked, and it's all no, do I?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it's just a button press to hack them now. That's why I keep getting tempted. Website download, all the ROMs as well or not? Well, you you you have to obviously own the games if you're downloading the ROMs, George. Um exactly. Um, but you need uh you just need the SD card adapter for the poultry card.
SPEAKER_06:I don't know, ROMs scare me a bit. I don't know. Nobody cares about me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, only thing is I've got other I've got other emulation devices. It's not my main way of playing, but I understand it. I've got other emulation devices. Um and do I play them as do I really sit there and go through all the games and play the games? I don't really. So that's always the only thing that weighs me.
SPEAKER_06:But I've got two feet, so let me apply that logic to your physical collection now. It's dangerous to think like that. You need to stop. That's gonna end up with Games Pass and just your console and that'd be it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, sell it all, sell a lot. You can't. Some of those games are camp for wood. Can't forwood, sell a soldiers. I want to make a sacrifice for the UCP. Sell them all. Wonderful.
SPEAKER_06:Uh yeah, so I'm gonna watch a lot more of Persona 5. I think Rachel's probably 45 hours in on that bad boy. Wow, go Rachel doing everything, uh, which is great to see, and she's enjoying it. It's a bit challenging in places, I have to admit.
SPEAKER_02:Um, it's quite sweet playing watching them play as well, and I mean, with our partners are similar that they weren't really into sort of games until we diverted them into the games. They'd played a bit, but we've sort of got them onto a game that they like. And Mrs. RGT on Holiday just sitting at the dining table with her little Joy-Cons dock, her little screen up, and then a notepad with all the fruit and vegetables that she's gonna grow that season, and notes of where she's gonna go, oh bless her heart. And I just thought, yeah, you probably never talk to me again, but I'm proud of you for stardup.
SPEAKER_06:Okay. So a little bit of that, a little bit of uh more no man's sky, it's really got it hooked into me, although I felt last couple of days it's been sort of it's its talons are unhooking a bit. I can think you've put it. I've been through a rinse expedition, I've gone through, I've tried to rinse rinse even more story out of it, and and like there's an auto-phage story apparently that I can find or unlock, which I'm quite keen to see. It's of interest to me. Um probably a bit more MLB. I've got Yo Ghost of Yotai, I've got Death Stranding, I've got Death Stranding 2, sat there, burn a hole in my pocket. You know, once we get moved in and we're both living in one house, and that'd be a lot easier for us, and then we're gonna play through some of these bangers, the bigger bangers in the recent book.
SPEAKER_02:Nice, nice, nice, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Set down, big screen, sit and enjoying properly or nice. Not come play for a couple of nights and then me do a bit on the portal and then get back into the story and be like, Oh, who's this guy? Oh, I killed his dad the other week, and now it's here, and so we'll do it together, we'll do it all the way through. Nice. So we'll do it right. Um, so I'm we're just kind of sort of standing time till then, really, in between jobs and decorating things. So yeah, switch is hitting the spot. I mean, I missed it, I went on it the other day and like I'd been on it for that long. All the game recommendations were like so far off, you know, on that week weekly recommendation thing. Basically just being a persona beast. Yeah. It was like all these games are like none of this is anything that uh fair play to Nintendo, you know. They're just I I see now what they're doing. Like I've managed to curate it, so it was like, what about this? And I was like, Yeah, this is great. Well, that's great. I went on it and it was like, nah, none of this applies to me. I don't want to see any of this. It's like why would any of this be oh yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_04:500 hours a persona, but that's pretty much there we're at, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:But yeah, so other than that, mate, yeah, just rumbling about, might have a dabble on the retro over the weekend. I might, you know, like I say, fully invest in that PSP experience, see where it takes me. Um, but I think that's all we have time for this week. Listen, as always, thank you for your time. I look forward to the pleasure of speaking at you again next week. Until then, happy gaming. And remember, there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller, it's what you do with it that counts. See you all, GT.
SPEAKER_01:Ladies, we've got to be able to do that.