Indie Heat And Final Fantasy Feels

A cozy fishing sim, a classic turned modern, and a debate that might change how you buy games this year. We kick off with Cast and Chill on Switch—the prettiest pixel art water you’ll see—then jump straight into Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster, where party roles, fast saves, and auto-battle make retro feel fresh. From there, the stakes rise: Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 quietly teaches while you play, Expedition 33 hits like a movie with an intro that lingers, and Blue Reflection 2 shows why mid-tier JRPGs can charm and frustrate in equal measure.

The big question threads it all together: what’s the real value of a game in 2026? We challenge the $70 price tag, unpack why fall release windows don’t own the calendar anymore, and dig into the GTA effect—how a single date can warp everyone else’s plans. Along the way, we compare 100-hour epics to a cadence of tight, 15–40 hour experiences. Think Miles Morales, Lost Legacy, and compact RPGs that respect your time without skimping on heart. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth gets a spotlight for opening up its world with smart towers, clean crafting loops, and some of the most satisfying combat on PS5.

Then we turn the spotlight to indies poised to steal the year. Mio: Memories in Orbit brings Metroidvania mystery with watercolor vibes. Romeo Is A Dead Man swings for stylish hack-and-slash swagger. Mouse PI: For Hire blends steamboat-era noir with punchy FPS action. Screamer gives racers an anime story and neon-drenched drift. And Slay the Spire 2 looms like the roguelike deckbuilder to beat. Whether you chase platinum trophies or lunch-break wins, this lineup delivers identity, pacing, and honest value.

Stick around for community shoutouts, new Discord faces, and what we’re playing next, including Final Fantasy Rebirth progress, Sleeping Dogs in the Gen 7 playthrough, and a few hidden gems on deck. If you enjoyed the conversation, download the back catalog, leave a five-star review, and share this episode with a friend who still thinks value only comes in 100-hour packages. Your turn: short bangers or big epics—what are you playing?

Chapters

• 0:00 Hosts Introduce Show And Ponzi’s Recap
• 3:15 Cast And Chill On Switch
• 6:45 Pixel Remaster Final Fantasy I Impressions
• 10:10 Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 First Hours
• 13:20 Expedition 33’s Powerful Opening
• 16:20 Blue Reflection 2 And JRPG Friction
• 18:35 Deep Dive: Final Fantasy VII Remake And Rebirth
• 27:30 Are Fall Release Windows Still King?
• 33:20 $70 Games, Value, And Indie Momentum
• 41:45 Game Length: 100 Hours Vs Shorter Hits
• 47:40 GTA Cadence, Spin‑Offs, And Classic Rockstar IP
• 52:10 What Could Be Nintendo’s Next GOTY‑Level Play?
• 55:45 2026 Indie Watchlist: Picks And Previews
• 1:07:35 Community Shoutouts And Patron Thanks
• 1:15:30 What We’re Playing Next And Housekeeping

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:21

Hello and welcome to the unofficial controller podcast. And it's me, RGT. And no, I'm not joined by George this week. No, no, we've given we've give him a week off. You know, you know the pressures of being a CEO, you know all them strains, you know, after absolutely entranced in the Ponzi's. We thought I'd best, you know, let him just mop his tears up a bit, let him have a week off. So I'm joined by the only man who's here to talk about Switch, the absolute YouTube legend himself, Marathon Gaming, or as we know him, aka Scott. How you doing, Scott?

SPEAKER_01: 0:57

I'm not too bad, I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit exhausted. Work's been battering me as we was talking a moment off air. However, I'm excited to be talking about games because I have been playing a lot of games, so I'm excited to dive into it. And and yes, as you can hear, the gruesome toos are back. Yes, it's me and RGT. And how good was the Ponzi's last week? That was fantastic. Oh, it's brilliant.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20

I listened back to it um today while I was at work and uh I was just laughing my head off. And I also had my mate message me. He listened to it as soon as that dropped, he listened to it and went, My God, he said, Scott sounds just when he was rapping, he sounds just like Mike Skinner from the streets. I'll tell that. And I was like, Oh, we'll love that. I said he was just doing it off the top of his head. He's out he's good, he is good.

SPEAKER_01: 1:43

We'll see if we can repeat a bit of that later when we did a shout-out later in the show.

SPEAKER_03: 1:48

Yeah, if if um if is if you're new to the show and then listen to us before last week we done our show which we call a Ponzi's, which basically is a Ponzi's Awards, is um we all put our top ten games we played for the year before, so 2025, and then the Wing Men and Seb they calculate all the scores up from ours, and we have a top 10 of the games we played that year. Now, they're not necessarily releases that year, they're just games we played. They could be from PS2 to Switch 2, could be anything in between. Um, so it's some interesting picks on there, but it's a good fun show because we're all battling for that top spot. But if if you know, like what happened, if we all all tend to pick at the same game, it gives it a little bit of a boost in the rating. So uh, yeah, it was it was good, the Ponties last week. Good show. So check it out, check out the back catalogue. If you've never listened before, give us a download. If you download the bat catalogue, that gives us a good boost in the algorithm. So yeah, but welcome anyway, if you're new. Um, and what we normally start with is uh what we've been playing. So over to you, Scott, and what have you been playing? And I'm looking forward to this because if you've played a lot of games, I'm looking forward to it because I ain't hardly played any, so I'm looking forward to this one.

SPEAKER_01: 2:57

Well, I'm quite excited to talk about them. So a couple of different platforms. So I'm gonna go in reverse order, it's probably easier. I've made some notes, but it's easier to remember, and some I spent more time than others. So the most briefest, which I did download last night, cost me about I want to say it was£12 something for the Nintendo eShop. Um, and it was a certain fishing game that a couple of presenters have been talking about. Um, yeah, so I played uh what Cast and Chill, I believe is the name. I've thrown down fishing game question mark, but yeah, Cast and Chill. Um so yeah, it came out just before Christmas, I think, didn't it? In December. But I think it was on yeah, it was up, but I think it came to PVC, I think might middle of summer, like they normally do a good few months before. Um, but it's done very well on Nintendo eShop. Everyone's getting hold of it, saying how fun it is, and it just is cast and chill. Um, and yeah, there's a little shop. Um, I like how it started, you sort of customize your character, choose your dog. Um, and as soon as you start it, it's very tranquil, very relaxing. You get you know, you you fish so far, I'm just fishing like three a day. You go trade up, you get some different bait, catch some bigger fish. I only played it briefly, but I have to say I can see that being a game that you do get quite stuck into because I came off of quite an intense game. Yeah, it was quite nice just to play for a bit, and I'll tell you what, that's probably perfect for.

SPEAKER_00: 4:19

If anyone works from home, that is probably a really good lunch break game because it's not too faxing on the brain. Did you play it handheld or did you play it on the TV or both? Or I played it on the TV, but I reckon that's probably very good handheld, I would have thought.

SPEAKER_03: 4:34

It's good on handheld, but what impressed me is because I I kept playing at handheld until George said, Have you put it on your TV at? Well, I play because I have my switch to on my recording desk here, so I have a I've got a 4K monitor, a smaller one, and I thought, Oh, I'm gonna try what he said. So I dropped it in the dock, played on the monitor. And for pixel art, honestly, I think this could be the prettiest pixel art game I've ever played. The reflections in the water, and uh, like George was saying the other week, and and the fish's reactions and habitats, and and this is all pixel art, and I just yeah, it's something about Mr. How you cruise out, yeah, he's very arty, it's almost a painting. You're correct, it does look like like a pixel art painting, or when someone does those hammer beads that look like a hammer beading. Um, but there's something about that when you get in your boat, and that just that's very quiet. You can hear the wildlife, you can hear the birds, and you just have your little boat, pull up, decide where you're gonna pat your dog, and then drop your line over, and yeah, it's brilliant. Then you've got your shop, and like what that'll do is you'll have say three slots for fish once you've filled up with slots of fish and go back and sell them. But as you can upgrade, you can upgrade the slots, upgrade your boat, upgrade your rod. Have you put any money in the tip jar yet at the shop?

SPEAKER_01: 5:47

No, I haven't.

SPEAKER_03: 5:48

I heard you've yeah, put money in a tip jar, that's all I'll tell you. I want no spoilers, but put money in the tip jar.

SPEAKER_01: 5:53

Yeah, but um I haven't experimented too far. Um, I need a bigger rod because I every time I try to catch a big fish at the bottom, it snaps. But yeah, I'm looking forward to going on a bit of a venture with it. And the type of game it is, I can imagine it having a lot of DLC because it's one of those games with once you've done everything, if they just dropped like a new location or and a new five species of fish and a new rod and a new bait, you'd probably find yourself going back in it for another five hours, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_03: 6:20

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's got that it's one of those games where once you've played it for half an hour, you know everything what to do in the game. Although obviously you'll get new areas, but that's not a down point of the game because it makes you want to play more. You already know what you're doing. That's just now let's just find the fish, let's find the better locations. Drop DLC on that, and I think people will love that. So, yeah, Caston Chill, great choice there, Scott.

SPEAKER_01: 6:44

Um, the other game I've played before that, and this is probably the game I've played the most out of um this, believe it or not, I've played five games this week. Um, and a little bit off of the back of what you've been playing, but I've gone right back to its origins, and I've been playing um Pixel Remastered or Final Fantasy One. So I've got the I've got the collection physical on the Switch uh one to six, and they're on everything. You can play on PlayStation, they're on eShop individually, they're very affordable. Um, and I basically I went back to play Dragon Quest, the very first one a long time ago. I really enjoyed the first one, um, and then I didn't like the way the second one was set up with a party. But other than playing like Final Fantasy VII, I was thinking I haven't really played any of the predecessors. So um I started it up and I've put a lot of time into it and really, really enjoying the simplicity of it. And what's very funny is on the back of the Ponzies, um, when Seb was joking about Final Fantasy and saying I need to check out Seven to find out the law of the stones and stuff, this literally tells you, like, obviously, it's the game starting. You see, the it's a bit like Star Wars. A text goes up the screen, it says your fantasy awaits, and it talks about the stones and all this. And what's really good of it, as soon as you start it up, you have got a party of four, you can and you but you can change it to what you want. So you customize the character names, you can have like you know, a monk, you can have a warrior, you can have um, I think it's a white mage and a black mage. So one of them would do like magic healers, like to to heal your team, like your allies, and the other one would be doing attacks, and they are so awesome. But yeah, I keep just if you're not into grinding, um, then it's probably no good for you. Sometimes it's frustrating when you're going off into the caves, you're trying to get to somewhere you're lost, and you keep going in battles. But what is good on the repixelated version is you can walk a bit faster. There's obviously a lot of quick save points and auto save points. Um, and you've also got auto battle, which is quite good, which it sort of remembers what you've done, but you have to be careful because if you flee a battle, the next one it will just flee. And if you use like a lot of MP points on say a big spell, if you encounter a weak monster, it will just assume you want to use it again. So it's it's helpful, but if you if you use it, it will abuse you, if you know what I mean. Yeah, um, but if anyone has played it, please let me know in Discord because I've got to a point where I'm stuck. Basically, I've beaten like this first boss, um, and then I've done like the second one. And basically, the first thing you do is you save a princess, then you return a crown to a king, then I've beat this like elvish prince or king, something he was impersonating, and I'm trying to save someone who's basically in an elvish village, they're sleeping, and I've got to retrieve something. But I've been everywhere, I've looked on YouTube, and it's almost like it's a glitch in my game. I've been everywhere, done everything, but I can't find a certain key. Oh no, so yeah, yeah. So, what number that is you're playing? Uh, it's just the first one, Final Fantasy One. Yeah, I'd like to play for all of them. Um, but yeah, so I played quite a bit of that. Um, really, really did enjoy that. Uh, I've literally been on all genres because and then a couple of big games on a PS5, and I had to just because of the Ponzies. Um, I was a bit cheeky with some of my nominations of games I had watched people play or have barely played. So I dived into two big, big games. One of them was Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and I tell you what, it's so much better than the first one. I don't find it as frustrating where it it teaches you the moves. Like the first one, I find it holds your hand too much, and it's like a false tutorial, and you want to get on with it. But this is really good. So you start off like in a battle. I won't give any spoilers away because literally like the intro of it, and then you know, it's the same story from the first one. So you're sort of protecting, um, you know, you're a royal, you're like protecting a royal king, and you're trying to deliver a message, obviously. On the previous game, um, you know, your son of a like a blacksmith on your mates' weapons, so he passed away, and that story carries on the same characters, really good humour, um, lots of swearing. Um, it's very, very good storytelling, good cutscenes. Um, but yeah, I've just been really, really enjoying how it doesn't force a tutorial on you, it does it slowly throughout the hours. You kind of don't notice. A lot of people, because I talked about my YouTube video, a lot of people said, Oh, is it a bit um like souls like the combat? Because it is very, very hard, but you can do a lot without getting in combat. Um, I mean, I saying I text George the other day, I said I've done the most George thing on this game ever. I'm just sitting in the taverns playing dice. I'm not even playing it as a um as a uh an RPG, and then every time I lose money, I go down the corner, I look left and right, and I just uh I'll rob someone, hide the body, sell their clothes just to play dice a bit more in a tavern. So you can play the same hat however you want, and I just love that medieval world, and I'm really, really enjoying it. I know George, I think it was George that said it didn't quite um click with him, or it might have been someone else that said that recently. So they weren't too sure that sort of fantasy medieval land, but I really, really like it. But I I seem to have a thing with any games involving horses, I seem to be in my bag. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_03: 11:59

I think you'd um because obviously I've recently played Final Fantasy Remake, which is obviously the first part of the trilogy of the remake of seven. Um, and then I've I'm now into rebirth. Um, but on there in rebirth, you could play a game called Queen's Blood, and that's in the first, yeah. You you can play it throughout the game, but in the first part you're in a in a little town called Calm, and that reminds me of that. I just went round playing matches outside bars and loved it, absolutely brilliant.

SPEAKER_01: 12:26

But um, yeah, I'm really, really enjoying it. So I'll probably be I'm stuck on it again because I'm so terrible at the battling. Um, so I am stuck on something I've got to get past, but yeah, I've probably played a good eight or nine hours on it. Um, I will go back to it, and now another game, uh huge game, which did very well in our Ponzies. I think it well, I don't want to give it away actually, I won't say where it came, but Expedition 33, just in case someone hasn't watched last week's show. So um I played Expedition 33 and I hadn't obviously started the game for myself. And I have to say, I'm glad, like I said to my wife later on when she came home, I was like, I'm really glad you uh wasn't here when I played this. I said it was very, it was so the storytelling is so amazing that I it was a bit quite emotional, wouldn't I? Like you're meeting all the characters, and the you know, you're going off to expedition, it's explaining what's going to happen. And I don't want to give anything away, I want it to be very pure for people. But the intro of that game, they're getting better and better of it. The first time I ever thought, wow, what an intro was Hogwarts Legacy. You know where you'll play it, and the games are doing it now. They're starting Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 did it a bit. You'll play the game, you'll think you're in it, and then after about half an hour, it will show you the sequence, and then it will say, like, the starting credits, you're like, Wow, that's like Cyberpunk done it a bit, but yeah, Expedition 33 does it the best. The story is really good. Um, the the battles are very, very good. I have just stuck on pretty much the first big battle you get to, um, and I really don't know what to do. So I don't know whether I'm supposed to be grinding on it more, but um, I can't seem to with this particular enemy, I can't get the timings right, and if I get hit more than once, I die. So I keep restarting the bat the battles. Um, and I played it in handheld as well, so I thought I'd get a portal out, see what it's like, and it looks pretty good. So I started it on the big screen and I went on a portal. So um, yeah, huge huge game, but yeah, I'm literally stuck like so early on, like a couple of hours in.

SPEAKER_03: 14:22

Another thing that amazed me about that is that's an indie game. I mean, that's an indie game, and I mean you talk about intros. I know I'm going back to Final Fantasy again. If you ever play Final Fantasy remake, that's the same thing. The intro is movie-esque, it sets the scene, it shows you the setting.

SPEAKER_01: 14:40

It's got you're right, it's that nuclear power plant bit, wasn't it? I remember. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 14:45

Superb, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:48

Um and right, before I pass over to yourself, there is one other game. Um, probably the lesser of them. Um, a bit of a poor man's harvestella, I'll call this one. Um, it's a uh actually it's turn-based RP JRPG called Blue Reflection uh 2, I think it is. Um it's how can I say it without being too disrespectful? It's more at the cheaper end. It's a bit of a, you know, like a typical Nintendo Japanese anime schoolgirl sort of style. It plays on the sort of humour and culture of that, but it is it was a good game in it. The battles are pretty good. The um the characters, the three girls you have, um, once you pout their tributes, they turn into like a different persona, and then they get like a different, you know, outfit, different weapons, they become more powerful, more spells. Um, but the only thing I find a bit struggling to it is you know, like when you play these sort of JRPGs, you have to keep going. Harvestella does this, you have to keep going through the same areas. Um, and every time you're going, you get a bit further, and it's a bit frustrating. But eventually you get to a point where you can fast travel, and this game seems to the fast travel hasn't come soon enough. So I keep doing the same things over and over again every time I go into the fantasy world. But yeah, story's okay, music's okay, graphics, it's it's a real, it's a very mid-game, you know. I'm talking six, seven out of ten. But um, there's a friend of mine, Mr. Fed, I watch on YouTube. He loved the game and he got some he loves his RPGs, and he just said, Yeah, it's a nice, easy one. You know, it's 40 hours to complete. And I thought, you know what? I'll give it a go. But um, every single one of those games I've mentioned, RGT, I'm stuck on, and it's why I've gone on to the next game. So that just shows how much of a bad gamer, and like we always say, those who can't game do a gaming podcast. That is exactly true.

SPEAKER_03: 16:34

It's nice to have that option, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01: 16:35

Yeah, but I'm really glad to be playing all those games. I think it was a Ponzi's that hyped me up. I was like, right, I need to get involved, but but yeah, that's sort of me and a recap the last seven days. What about yourself, RGT? What have you been playing?

SPEAKER_03: 16:46

Um obviously Final Fantasy Rebirth. Um I'm this is crazy, so I was never a Final Fantasy player at all. Um never played them back in the day. Um, I've got PS1 ones, I've got the PS2 ones. Because I always and I weren't just buying them for shelf fillers, I bought them because I always thought one day I might want to play these, so I'll get them while I can. You never know if they're gonna go expensive, so I bought the the full collection. Um, but once I got into Final, once I I'd tried to play Final Fantasy VII remake about five times, but it was I found it quite complicated. I was never really into JRPGs. The the story is absolutely superb, but the the combat with the real time and the sort of turn-based elements and the material and all that just didn't click. I even had my brother-in-law show me once. I just didn't click, he's a massive Final Fantasy fan, you know, he's even got his the Final Fantasy 15 PS4 Slim, which he uses and the controller, he's got all the steel books. He loves it, he loves it. And I had him showing it to me, and that still didn't click. But what did click, I don't I don't think you're on the show, but what did click is when they done the demo on the Switch 2.

SPEAKER_01: 18:03

Yes, that sounds yeah, out at the moment, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 18:05

I was writing a show um for our other show, Flashback, and I sat on here, that popped up on my phone, now available. I thought, oh, I've got my switch next to me, I'll download that. So I downloaded that just as I finished writing the show, pinged up download complete. I thought, oh, I'll have a player this, played a demo through, no problems. That all just clicked, all all the materia, all the combat, it clicked, and I and I've played that first bit about five times, like I say, and I was like, right, I'm gonna pre-order this on the switch to pre-ordered the switch to copy, and then I suddenly thought that's sitting right behind me here for the PS4. So then I googled it and I said, Yeah, you get free upgrade to PS5, right? No, cancel the switch to one. I am gonna put this in. I think if you haven't played it before and you got a switch to, I definitely ordered a switch to one because it looks really good and you got it in handheld, which is brilliant. Um, but yeah, so downloaded the PS5 one um and just couldn't put it down 35 hours in. Um, got that complete. Uh the story is the story is fantastic. It's that um, like I was saying when I was talking to OG Tom Badett, it's that almost metaphor to our life where the hierarchy are on the top, and you live down below in the slums, and they're the ones controlling that you don't get a lot because they want a lot, you know, it's all that sort of Shinra, and and it's it's very think of the year it is written, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 19:37

Yeah, it's crazy storytelling, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 19:40

And so obviously, I played that, went into rebirth, which is obviously your characters again. It gives you a recap from when you start the game for when you finished. Um, but this time it's now open world. Um, you sort of break out of the city and you go into this little um town called Calm, which I have said on the show before, but I will repeat again one of the best um developed towns I've ever seen in a game. You can especially if you if you if you've got your um pulse 3D headset, or if you've got a 3D headset, pop it on. Because as you're turning your character around, there's all chatting, there's market stalls, it's a very lively place, there's bars, there's people playing games, it's a proper little and you I spent hours just in this town, just doing little side missions, wandering around, then you go out into the big open world, and I'm about I'm about 20 hours into the game now, I suppose, and I've just done literally I've just been exploring the map, unlocking these towers, which is very breath of the wild. You find these towers, unlock them, unlock the map, then you can find things to upgrade, which is very horizon, so that'll give you a little triangle and a lineup so you can collect everything, start making your own potions, and it's just so addictive. You know, I've only I'm only on chapter two, and I'm 20 hours in because I'm just I'm just exploring, I'm just exploring. And when I was in that first open world part, um it was a very grassy area, some ruins, and you can and they when you find these ruins as well. I'll just quickly jump in with this. This is what I like, right? A lot of games don't do this and they miss this. You'll find these ruins, like there was an old bridge. I come across this old bridge, and that said something like don't quote me on it, that's something like the old ruined bridge, right? And then that'll come up with a little key bit and that says naught out of two treasure chests. So one, you know there's two treasure chests there, and two, once you've done it, that'll tick out off. So you ain't got to worry you've missed anything. Hey, just give you a little bit of a. Yeah, it's very well thought out. But when I was in that area, um I sort of thought, it looks nice for a PS5 game. Yeah, it just looks nice. The grass and out. I thought that's okay. Now I've gone into another area which was like almost sort of like a quarry area with rocks. And I've also led from there into a like a little fishing village. But this this area of rocks is I've I've put some pictures up on our um Unfish Controller podcast Discord. Um it looks stunning. The lighting on these rocks and everything reminds me of when they first launched that PS5 demo with Unreal Engine 5 and you saw the lighting on the rocks. It looks like that, and it does look stunning.

SPEAKER_01: 22:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_03: 22:26

And you almost forget sometimes you're in Final Fantasy, apart from the characters, you're now in this massive open world.

SPEAKER_01: 22:31

Yeah, you wouldn't expect those sort of graphics. You don't need the game's so good, it doesn't need to.

SPEAKER_03: 22:35

No, they've really gone to town on this. And because you're in an open world, but you it's weird how they've done it. It's a huge map, and you'll do what you can in this map, and then once you've done that and you do the main story mission, it will lead you to another area which is part of that map within its own map. You can still travel back and do it, but then it's got its own map within that, and the areas you can discover like there's all these areas up high. I couldn't, I was figuring thinking, how can I get up there? Then I went to see this guy who'd done these chocobos, and he said, Oh, can you help me get this chocobo? She's a special rock climbing one called Belle. So then you have to do this side mission. We have to stealth round, creep round, and then tame Belle. And then once you got Belle, she's your Chocobo you can ride round on, and then she climbs up walls. So now you can get to all the high areas in the mountains and search all round there. It's very good, very good. That's actually this second part. The the combat's still as good as ever. That the combat is some of the best I've ever played, but they've actually the menu-wise, they've almost simplified it. I think they realised from the remake one where there's a lot going on here. Um, which I think anyway, um, absolutely brilliant. I just wish I had more hours in the day. It's one of them games where I want to get back and play at, but I've been so busy with work. I want to put more in the house.

SPEAKER_01: 23:58

Yeah, I can I can hear the passion, I can see the tweets in your eye freeze. I I love the the IP myself. Like it it's funny, like, even going back to the first one, there is some similarities there. So I wonder if it's something they'd done the Pixel Remaster, but they've actually on the first one the the on the map it shows you the chests on there as well. It says if you've done them and ticks them off. So that's interesting to know. Is that a Final Fantasy thing? And something else I found really odd is you know that iconic when you win each battle, it goes that iconic sound. That's on the first one. But I s to me, I like that reminds me of Final Fantasy VII, and I was thinking, oh my god, is that from the very first game? And they just kept it up or they added it in.

SPEAKER_03: 24:40

If you play remake, the funniest thing is that music doesn't appear, but every now and then, no, because it's not real time. No, of course, of course, yeah, yeah. But Barrett, every now and then, when you win a battle, goes he does it himself.

SPEAKER_01: 24:58

Do you know what? It's funny. Speaking of Barrett, um, there was a that's pretty cool, by the way. Sorry, um, the there was a friend I had at school, and we were playing Final Fantasy VII, and he was, I thought I actually mentioned this guy, he's just such a small world. I feel like my deja vu on my last YouTube video. I remember burrowing it Final Fantasy VII of him at school. Anyway, and I think it was the first time I heard the name Barrett, and obviously he's one of the playable characters. And um, for some reason, literally the next day, like, what's the chances? I saw him write his full name out, and I was like, What's your middle name? And it was Barrett, and I remember being like, Oh my god, and I was like, What a small world is I've never heard that name like that, but it twice in two days, and he's a guy that led me Final Fantasy. But um that's me. Yeah, I mean, what I remember from the game is the very first big boss, which is that spider that was probably one of the most um like a scorpion spider, it's like a scorpion, I think, isn't it? One of the very first robot that's a global scorpion. Yeah, that's what I always remember. You said you got um most of your collection. Now I love the franchise, probably more than I love cell or anything like that. Did you I know you said in case they go up in prices? The ones that really have, I don't know if you've got them, I haven't, certainly haven't, is Game Boy Advanced ones. They're quite expensive and they're out of stock at CX.

SPEAKER_03: 26:11

Yeah, I haven't yet, and I sort of looked into them, a bit similar to you, because the handheld ones I hadn't really got. So I looked into them and thought, oh, they're out of stock. And then you then I started doing a bit of delving into pricing, and I thought, oh, they're they're quite collectible because they are really good, obviously, to have handheld mode. They're a great game to have, and you didn't really have them handheld back in the day, apart from that. So, um, yeah, absolutely brilliant. I'd like to get them, but it depends on what price is.

SPEAKER_01: 26:40

Maybe that's what we can do with our if we do trade our Xbox in. We were talking off air earlier. Maybe that's what we'll do. We'll get a couple of big hitters of GBA Final Fantasy games.

SPEAKER_03: 26:49

That would be nice. That'd be nice. Not that I don't think Seb would want to uh play Final Fantasy, although he has joined us here. The young Sebastian here. How are you doing, Seb?

SPEAKER_05: 26:59

I'm good, guys. I am very good. I didn't mean to interrupt the flow. I didn't mean to interrupt the flow, but when I heard when I saw we were recording today, I was just like, one, I was disappointed. Well, and I'll tell you why. I was disappointed George is not here because George last week talked a lot of mess about Fable. A lot of mess, had a whole lot of like, oh, I don't think it's I have all my reservations, I'm not really sure if they can nail it and everything. Have you heard the scuttlebutt about this game? Everyone's talking about how good it looks. Did y'all see the y'all see it by the way?

SPEAKER_03: 27:30

I've yeah, I did. And there's also um I noticed there's a lot of the uh big Witcher fans are jumping on this because they said that's got very similar vibes to the Witcher there. And I I think that I think they're bang on. I'm excited for this game. I really am. I love the other fables. Um, yeah, I'm up for it. I've been fingers crossed ever since I announced this. Please be good. I think we could have a good one here. Could have a good run. You know, it could make a bit of bang for Xbox, well, on the PS5 anyway, but it could be a bit of a bang for them because uh I think this is yeah, I this is up my street, this game.

SPEAKER_05: 28:04

I yeah, and I was also that and I was also excited to ask, you know, like we were talking last week about like the video games that we were excited about, and then ever since then, trailer after trailer after trailer's been dropping, and I'm like, man, it's such an exciting time. If you're especially on the triple A side of the fence of like like these big bombastic blockbuster video games, today Crimson Desert just put out a mega like a introduction trailer walking through like all their walking through who their main character is and like the the actual game of that that the gameplay mechanics around like the actual campaign. I'm like, oh, this looks like it could be a contender as well. Um Zelda looks like and not Zelda, but you know, of course not Zelda, but um um what was it? Fable looks like a contender, and then I was just like I was so excited, and then they announced the direct for next week for Nintendo's side of the fit the fence, and then today they released what Tamagotchi in life and everything like that, that direct, and I'm like uh I'm like, oh, then everyone's in good right now is what it feels like, guys. How do y'all feel about gaming?

SPEAKER_03: 29:08

I think a lot of people are getting wind that GGA is gonna be delayed again, and I think you're right, they're pushing out and bringing things, yeah. They're now hitting these trailers saying, right, we've got this coming out this year, we've got this coming out this year, and I think I think it'll do us good. I think if GGA's postponed to 27, I think we're gonna be rather spoilt in 26. I think I think we're gonna be uh I think we're gonna be eating out well.

SPEAKER_05: 29:32

I think it's the opposite, man. I think like um so I was looking at some of the the like trends for Granthafado and for Red Dead Redemption, especially Red Dead Redemption 2. Delayed one full year and then like they put that they put that next date on it, then they delay it again, and then it hits that that final date. It's almost like it's following that same trend as GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. It's almost like they have a marketing plan for it. And I think everyone else is like, oh, we they feel confident that even if like even if um GTA doesn't come out or if it gets delayed, or if it does come out, we can nail those dates around around that nebulous. I think like from what we've seen of the last like two years, the fall doesn't feel like the big release date anymore for video games. Like last year, um, what was the big game for y'all in the fall?

SPEAKER_03: 30:31

Um, what do we have in the fall? Ball X Pit, was that in the fall?

SPEAKER_05: 30:34

Ball X Pit, but yeah, that's the end game, though. I'm like, it wasn't it wasn't like it just took over the world as far as like, oh, this is going to just like capitalize and basically be the top leading seller in all the world, you know. Like it's not like it's gonna be like call the leading numbers.

SPEAKER_01: 30:50

I think it was Hades on the Switch that came out September, I think, didn't it? Uh India Kid number.

SPEAKER_05: 30:56

Oh, yeah, yeah, but but we're you have different expectations for those. I'm like for Ballock's Pit in Hades, if they do three million dollars, like three million were for sales, that's a huge success story. You know, like for a game like a AAA game, you have different qualifiers. It's like um when people were hearing um the report that came out like two or three weeks ago that you know um Atlas saw soft numbers with um um metaphor, metaphor um refantageo, and it barely has scratched like one million sales. I'm like, oh, that's concerning for an Atlas studio, you know. That's concerning for a team that put up persona. Whereas like Bollock's Pit, that's like that's a sensational number, you know what I mean? It's like different parameters for that. So I'm like, what was the big fall game for y'all last year?

SPEAKER_02: 31:47

Um I didn't even I'm trying to think. I don't think I had one. I don't think I've had one.

SPEAKER_01: 31:52

No, I was gonna say mine probably yeah, mine probably was Hades 2. Because I remember holding out the thing. Yeah, I feel I feel like do you know what actually? Kirby Air Riders and Hades, I think, released within a week of each other. Um, and I think Pokemon Legends, I'm pretty sure that was more end of summer, so it kind of it was yeah, those were probably the three big ones for me between summer and autumn last year.

SPEAKER_03: 32:18

Yeah, triple A wise, I don't think I bought anything in the fall. Not at all.

SPEAKER_05: 32:22

That's kind of my point here, though. It's like it's it's been a wide open area. Uh it's like it hasn't growing up, and especially like within the 2010s, the 2010s, and maybe like the 2000s, fall was that big time when all the games are releasing. This year, the Outer Worlds released, um, Pokemon ZA was um October, is what the the the lookup just said. It's like that was October, Kirby Air Riders. Um, what was the Keeper? Was another one that Xbox put out, um, Ghosts of Yote came out. I'm like, some some games did come out in the fall, but like would you consider those like A tier games?

SPEAKER_01: 33:01

So, Seb, do you think are you sort of implying the fact that you think all the studios possibly knew GTA was going to be delayed? Because if they knew it was coming this spring, then they probably all would have released their games last like fall, autumn, like you say, because they would want to get that window, get that few months of buy-in. Is that what you're sort of implying? Are you saying everyone sort of expected it to get delayed? They had more time.

SPEAKER_05: 33:28

What I'm saying is like I think last year they were also like, if you remember correctly, very gun shy about like announcing release dates at the beginning of the year because that noose was hanging around their necks. It's like this year, it's a very similar thing, except like I've this year like the trends of video game releases are different now to where like they're not worried about the fall, you know. Like they're like, hey, we'll put our games out. We've seen we've seen Resident Evil have success in the like spring summertime. That's their window now, you know. Like, um, you see like Capcom releases games spring and summertime versus the fall. You see, like Xbox still does the traditional thing, but is that working for them, guys? I'm like, let's be honest. Um, Nintendo, you know, they they're still doing a hybrid between like the traditional thing, but they're also rolling out games all year round. It's not like they're waiting for the big the fall to release their biggest games of the year anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 34:26

I'm wondering if it I'm wondering if it's uh Black Friday is so commercialized now. I feel like Black Friday's kind of ruined the Christmas build-up because it seems like it's just one big sal. Whereas, like you say, you used to have those big games come out and you'd either bought them or you waited for Mumsey to buy it for you, and those are the big that was a big selling point from its release up until probably Christmas. Um, but yeah, you're right, it's probably just a change.

SPEAKER_05: 34:50

Um that note though, the Black Friday thing, Black Friday's power isn't what it used to be.

SPEAKER_01: 34:55

Like this year, it's not one day anymore, it's just it's so prolonged. It really might as well be a black season, it's not Friday.

SPEAKER_05: 35:03

Exactly. Exactly. So I'm like, if there's no there's no traditional Black Friday anymore, like that also sort of muddies the waters there. I'm like, there's no if Black Friday is all of November, you know, uh at that point, you know, it's basically November sales month. A company is gonna look at that and be like, well, why would we release a game when everyone's expecting discounts during that game, anyways? You know, it's like so I know it's I don't think Call of Duty, uh I don't I was about to say Call of Duty, I don't think um um Grant of Auto's date really impacts anything for a lot of studios this year. I don't think um I with ever whatever Nintendo's going to do, they they have their own market. Like Nintendo is probably gonna put a mainline Pokemon game. Do you really think GTA sales or a GTA is gonna really impact Pokemon?

SPEAKER_03: 35:54

Oh no, whatever Nintendo, Nintendo completely separate, they do their own thing up for everyone, their fans are their own fans, and even if their stuff is completely different anyway, even if you're not a hardcore Nintendo fan, the likelihood is if you're a gamer, you've probably got a switch or a switch to sitting around anyway. So you just sort of I always see it as that they're sort of off the main line, they just do their own thing, they're not worried. I think more for dev studios, especially, I think a lot of them will watch where Rockstar is coming out, where GTA is coming out, because especially with people's disposable income is shrinking, if you're releasing in the same month as GTA and gamers have got a matter of choice, it's gonna be GTA 6. So either do it before or after, just keep out of that because that is gonna be big.

SPEAKER_05: 36:42

I don't think people want to do it after, but like, especially like it's let's say it's November, and I think December's a shot month after that point. So I'm like, but what I'm saying is the whole rest of the year is wide open now, and like we resident evil has seen like tremendous sales, monster hunters seen tremendous sales. You have like all these other title franchises now are they doing game busters throughout the year, you know. Whereas like November, I mean Outer Worlds just had uh they just had a story about that last week. How soft the sales are for the Outer Worlds, too. You know, um you mentioned yourself that you didn't feel compelled to play Ghost of Yote. That's a lot of us, you know, like a lot of people didn't. So it's I'm curious though. Um like what is I didn't mean to hijack the podcast, but I was just like, what is the hype levels for y'all for the rest of the year like as far as video games go? That's what I was bubbling up to talk to y'all about. I was like, oh, the guys.

SPEAKER_03: 37:39

What it reminds me of when you want to think it was a few years ago now. We were all sitting in the same position talking about 2023 and how sport we were in 2023. It feels like that again, you know. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to 007, I'm really looking forward to Fable, um GTA 6 if it comes out. Um, Crimson Desert looks fantastic. Um looks sensational, and there's so many of these guys, and then like you say, the last few days I keep I get home from work, I pop my YouTube on, and I'm on my feed, I just got these popping up new new trailer, this, new trailer that, and I go, Oh, that looks good, this looks good, that looks good. I'm thinking we're getting absolutely spoiled here. So it could be after a bit of a dry year, I won't say a drought because I always said that was quite a a drought like uh 25. But actually, when I went back to look through Wow, really? Yeah, for for me, um I I didn't think it was I thought it was uh an okay year for what I would buy. But actually, when I went back and done my uh list for the Ponzies for you, Seb, I actually thought I didn't do too bad, really, did I? You know, I played there's a lot of games there I really enjoyed playing, yes, some of them a few years old, but the the the new newer ones I played, Mafia Old Country and Story of Seasons, things like that, they were all really good, already enjoyed them. So yeah, it weren't as bad as I thought, but I think this year could be could be a good year.

SPEAKER_05: 39:04

I noticed I noticed something with you um with the lists you submitted, like a lot of the lists that you submitted weren't$70 games. Like, how crazy is that? Like a lot of the best games of the year are below the the threshold of the MSRP that and most consider like the triple A standard. You know, that is absolutely insane how much bang for the buck we're getting, especially like with like triple I, as I like to call it, triple indie indie titles.

SPEAKER_03: 39:32

Well, I think as well, I think if you look at it, they made that price jump from sort of 60, 55, 60 up to 70. And I think that hide that heightened people's expectations, and now people are are doubling down a bit thinking I don't know if I want to spend 70 because uh quite a few of the games that come out were mere, and people are like, I'm not spending 70 on a I on a medium game. So when you get companies dropping games like Mafia the Old Country, I paid 35 for that. Yeah, sweet, that's a fair and yes, it was 15-20 hours long, but it was a great game, um, really good graphics, great storyline. That's where I want to be round about, you know what I mean? Now, if you're paying double that for a game, it better be good. And I don't think people trust it. I think people are now looking at getting them secondhand market or tradings, you know, see what the game does first, and then I'll pay, say, 50 trading for it. Because yeah, I think that's actually been a bit of a you know, they've actually backfired on them a bit. I mean, when you get Nintendo games at 80, you're like goodness, you know, that feels so wrong. It's uh it's uh yeah, it's a tough pill to swallow. I mean I think I can't remember what I paid for Hades 2, but it was nowhere near that, you know.

SPEAKER_05: 40:50

I think like top MSRP for Hades 2 is$30. So I'm not gonna go.

SPEAKER_03: 40:53

Yeah, I think it's what yeah, I think it's what I paid 28, 30, 30 bucks, and it was absolutely fantastic, one of the best games of the year, if not the best, you know, and you think that's how you can do it, you know, you can make good games for less. They don't all have to be completely packed with ray trace, and it's took you 10 years and 200 million dollars to make, you can make good games for a lot less, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 41:14

That's it. The the indies are affordable, and it is purely because obviously less studio, less overheads, less staff. So their profit margins can be very similar, yet they will be a lower price to us, meaning we're more likely to take a punt on it because you don't mind spending 20-30 quid. I mean, what a big game last year that I don't think come up on the Ponzi's was I think Silksong. I think that wasong, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 41:37

$28.

SPEAKER_01: 41:38

Yeah, that is a that I mean, let's be honest, that's a triple A game, really. But it's an indie game and it's a uh a blibbing well affordable.

SPEAKER_03: 41:47

Same again.

SPEAKER_05: 41:48

Yeah, yeah, it was Silksong was on my list, by the way, but it's it was yeah, that was one of the games to where I'm like, I looked at so many games that I played this year, the Altars, Hollow Knight Silksong, Um, Dispatch, Hades 2, um Mafia of the Old Country. You look at um like all those games are below 50 or 50 pounds or dollars, you know, like all those, and a lot of them besides Mafia of the Old Country, no shade to it, but like a lot of the everyone's the game of the year list, when you look at the whole industry, had a lot of those games on it. And then you may throw in like a DK Bonanza here or there, or you throw in a um um what was the other one that was heavily touted? Um, oh Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Also, below$70, you know, like Kingdom Come KD2 was is an independent studio, you know. But so I'm like, there's I think I think what we see is values from last year is like really gonna mess the consumer up this year. Because I'm like, a lot of these games this year that people want to play are triple A games. It's the$70 titles right at the jump. They have to deliver now.

SPEAKER_03: 42:59

I'm like I think they're even saying GTA 600.

SPEAKER_05: 43:03

Man, I if any game can maybe get away with it, it might be that one, but it's that's still a tough peel though. I mean that's still a tough peel for a lot of people to play.

SPEAKER_03: 43:13

But it's take two in charge, and that wouldn't surprise me because them guys like the bank, and if they can get 100, they will get 100, you know what I mean. I think they're even on about um what was a game I saw the other day we were releasing this massive uh collector's edition. I can't remember what game it was, and it's the same again, it's a bit like the Red Dead Redemption 2 one, a site nearly 300 bucks, but there's no game with it, not even a digital code. You're paying 300 bucks for a collector's edition, you ain't even got any games, and then you've got to pay another 40 bucks or 50 bucks to get the game on top. You're like, what?

SPEAKER_05: 43:45

What exactly are you collecting at that point?

SPEAKER_03: 43:47

Exactly. It just amazes me some of these companies, and I honestly do think, like I said before, I think when they when they'd made this jump to 70 bucks a game in a cost of living crisis, which is a Across the world as well, it's such the wrong time to do it because you've you've swayed people as to what they want to play, and indie studios approved. Like I say, you don't need that big budget, you know, and they've jumped in with these great games for half that price, and you're thinking, hmm, they might have shot themselves in the foot a lot of these big studios and and game companies, because you know, the 70 bucks is a tough bill to swallow at the moment.

SPEAKER_05: 44:22

It really is. Yeah, I think like the the value bang for your buck is like consumers are looking at that more than ever. It's it's really interesting too, because like the games that a lot of people are saying they want to look forward to, you know, there's some question marks behind it. Crimson Desert comes. I'm looking forward to that game, but I can't deny like a lot of people are saying maybe it's too ambitious for its own good, maybe it should narrow down its focus instead of letting you do like Zelda meets um Zelda and Tears of the Kingdom also meets like all these other inspirations, and you know, like from Assassin's Creed to everything in between. It's like it's overly ambitious. A lot of people look forward to the IP that um the I.O. is working with with 007, but a lot of people have those question marks. The the showcases hasn't quite wowed the internet as a large, you know. Some of the people are talking about like the frame rate's a little choppy, the stealth doesn't look great, but like the and the bombastic action sequences don't quite like they kind of feel like they're from a bygone era. So there's some question marks about like that game as well. Um Lego Batman is um is the Arkham DNA going to actually transfer well to the Lego thing? It's a Lego like DNA. Is that going to are they trying to appeal to two separate audiences? And if one of those audiences is going to be marginalized, you know, like there's question marks. GTA, will it come out? Will it live up to the hype? Is are people going to be satisfied after 13 years of waiting? You know, like is that story is that story and the humor still there with Fable? George said it last week, you know, like are they gonna nail the direction of Fable, the original vision that that people loved Fable for? Like, the is the humor gonna hit? Like, how does Fable, how is Fable still gonna feel like classically the IP that people love, and also like a modern video game, because those games were made three generations ago at this point, you know? Like, yeah, there's some question marks be about like so many of the triple A games in this space, and it's after last year, where like the top of the line as far as like the game awards goes, four of the top six games were indie games. Below$30. How do how's that going to reset the market as far as like oh, what's value in video games now? You know, like what's a cons what's the consumer gonna do? I think like GTA is a lock, but I can see any one of these games flopping, and that might be the last game that the studio puts out this year. Except for except for Playground, yeah. Playground safe, they put out fours as well.

SPEAKER_03: 46:59

I think the devs had a false conception of what we wanted at the start of this generation. I think they thought we wanted massive big storylines, ray tracing, you know, 120 FPS, you know, it all has to be in one massive package, but because of that, these games are going to go up in price because we've got thousands of people in the studios mounting a game for five, six years, and uh because of like I say, they cost a living. I think these indie indie studios have shown you don't you don't need rage racing, you don't need all this stuff to mat a good game, but you can make a real you I mean Hades 2, for instance, gorgeous looking game that runs at 120 FPS on me switch to um plays stunning, uh great storyline, great sound, but it didn't need thousands of people working on uh doing all this rage racing lighting. You can make great games for that. Ball X Pit, I mean, superb game. It didn't need all that extra, so you can make good games without all that, and I think now I think if some of these studios I mean I know Ubisoft used to publish these rather than make them, but Ubisoft used to always tick along with these good little games in the background, like um Song of the Deep and games like that, like an indie developer that they'd publish for. And these were great little games that were cheap. And you think if some of these studios still had alright, still make your big game, make your big release every five, six years, but in the background, have these smaller studios under your wing who are churning out these good little indie, almost indie titles that are cheap and decent price, and people are enjoying them, even if they're shorter, shorter games, you know, that they can do those rather than concentrating all on the big the big sales, and I think that'd be great to go back to those again, I think, anyway.

SPEAKER_05: 48:42

I think that's where Nintendo's been thriving this this um last couple of generations to where like they make games that really and truthfully, based on like their art style, like they're no different than indie games at this point, it's just they have the Nintendo mantra behind it, you know. Like uh, you know, if uh put it like this if Zelda Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, if and Zelda Breath of the Wild, if that was another 3D model placed in that same exact world and it didn't have the title Zelda on it, would you you wouldn't you uh if like Nintendo didn't put their stamp of approval on that, you can you can easily see an indie studio making that game, you know, like based on like the visuals and everything like that, there's nothing there that says like, oh, I couldn't see like I couldn't see a studio for 20 million or below making that type of game. You know what I mean? Like it's not I'm not and I'm not saying like that game is I'm not trying to marginalize what Nintendo did with that game. A lot of people consider a masterpiece, but what like with their art style and the way they deliver those titles, it's like we see we're now seeing indie studios deliver similar value and similar like output and similar like art styles and directions to where like there's a game right now called Little Gator Game. It plays very similar to Breath of the Wild as far as that goes, but it's like a narrower focused vision. And the game's no bigger than like 10 hours long, but like for less than that, I think. Yeah, for sure. I think it is like six hours long. I think I was given a little too much credit, but like that is that is a game like that. If people if Nintendo put their stamp on it, they would think it was main a mainline Nintendo game. Yeah, and so I'm like value and perception of like what's triple A and what's like a$70 title feels like it's sort of like crazily constructed and construed very weirdly right now, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03: 50:36

So I mean, you know, Nintendo's always been that gen behind as well. Well, well, yeah, recently it isn't hurting their sales, you know, their games are still doing gangbusters, and that's you know, that's a good thing. Except for Metroid. Well, yeah, Metroid's always Metroid's always been that funny, innit? Yeah, for sure. Um, but and you just think, you know, you think the other big companies would look across thinking, do we need to be spending 250 million on this with this ray tracing? Because we're now going to get outsold by game on hardware that we didn't use on the last gen. Do you know what I mean? And you're thinking so we'll smoke and mirrors, baby. Yeah, if you're mat a good game, you made a good game. Do you know what I mean? You people sometimes, if you really love a game, you'll ignore us little four boys and as little mistakes they've made because you you enjoy that game so much. So yeah, I know what you mean. It's it's it's gonna be an interesting year. Um I I'm hope I'm hoping with all these indies that have done so well in 25, it's give a bit of a boot up the bum to these big triple A developers thinking, well, hold on, you know.

SPEAKER_05: 51:38

We gotta bring it.

SPEAKER_03: 51:38

We've gotta bring it because even if you look at Claire Expedition, I mean it looks good, it plays well, it's got a great story. You know, they didn't spend 500 or 250 million, Matt, in this game. Do you know what I mean? A small studio that grew a bit, and they come out with something like that where bigger studios have had three times the budget and not made anything as good as that, you know, and you just think, hmm, it's time to wake up and uh yeah, yeah, try and try and see what they can do, you know, within the price limits, put it that way.

SPEAKER_05: 52:12

For sure. Scott, I have a question for you. It's like I and since you're the Nintendo guy, you're the Nintendo expert on here on the panel. I want to ask, like, what is that? What's what Nintendo game and our realistic game could they put out this year that could basically be in the mix for game of the year this year? That you think?

SPEAKER_01: 52:33

I'm not too sure to be honest, because obviously, all jokes aside, obviously I love the Nintendo Switch, but I love it more from its hardware perspective. So I love playing games on the Switch, but if you look at what I play the most of, they don't tend to be the big, I'm not massive on the Mario's and Zeldas. Obviously, I played them all, but I prefer all of the I play a lot of the indie games and the other games on there. It's just my console of choice because it's a hybrid, you know, it works well for me at home. Um, so to be honest with you, I I I couldn't say for sure what I think is going to be their game to carry on this year because I mean last year I would have obviously we knew Donkey Kong Bonanza was going to be big, but I would have put all my eggs in a basket. If you asked me this last year, I would have said Kirby Air Riders, and I was very disappointed. So to be honest with you, I it it's not necessarily that straightforward. Um, I don't always get the same hype of everything. Obviously, there's a lot of hype at the moment about this new Mario movie we had the last couple of weeks, the um Galaxy trailer, but you know, that's not something that's making me jump out of bed in the morning, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_05: 53:36

So um it almost seems like you play a lot of the um spin-off games more so than the mainline games. You play Pokemon ZA and and Kirby Air Riders versus Kirby and the Forgotten Lands, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 53:49

Yeah, I definitely I prefer, yeah. I prefer Kirby to actual Mario. Um, that's for sure. And we were talking about earlier. I said I said I prefer Sony's um Final Fantasy over actual Zelda, to be honest, if I had to choose them as a franchise, um, that is for sure. So yeah, I love the console, but um, it's not necessarily all of their I will always play all the Nintendo games because I it's you know, it's not nostalgia with it. I always will play them and enjoy them. There's been some great games like how good Mario Odyssey was. Wow, that was amazing to take you back to that place and play that again. Um, but yeah, I don't go too crazy for all their releases, but of course I'll check them out.

SPEAKER_05: 54:28

RGT, like uh, so with this year being uh blockbuster year with GTA coming out, with um with GTA with Fable, with like a lot of these Crimson Desert and such like that, like a lot of these games are taking up a lot of space right now. Does Square Enix look at this year and go like, hey, we even if we have the Final Fantasy part like seven part three ready, do we hold that game off till next year where there's a little less ox there's a little more oxygen in that that like year versus this year? Um I think because they did have soft sales for like I think rebirth that they didn't like, right? It was that the big story.

SPEAKER_03: 55:09

Yeah, I think that was I don't know why that was either. That was um I was reading that the other day that they were quite disappointed with the sales. I mean, obviously we'd probably look at the sales and go, Oh no, they've done well, but no, that weren't what they were expecting. But um I think it's so crucial more than ever now. Um with with financial markets as they are, you need to release that bang on the right time. Um I think you I think they need to release that part three when no other RPGs with a good history are coming out. I think you need to be you need to be that RPG or J RPG in that era at that time. So you're releasing them, people think, oh fancy J RPG, what's just come out? Oh, part three's out, I'll get that. If you've got five or six others that are all around in the same couple of months, you suddenly you you you're you're watering it down a bit, and are you gonna get the sale? So it's a tricky one. Um it surprised me with rebirth because I'm I'm sort of deep into that at the moment and just absolutely loving it, absolutely loving it. Fantastic game. Um and I the thing I find with Rebirth, I I don't think it was marketed very well. I don't think it was marketed as well as it should have been. Um I know sometimes they like to keep things um under wraps till a game's released, but this is quite different to part one, you know. You're now open world, um, but it's got tropes of great games in now. I mean, you have to find the towers to unlock the map, which is very like I was saying earlier on to Scott, which is very Breath of the Wild, and then you've got the way you craft and you find things is very Horizon Zero Dawn. It's got a real big whiff of Horizon Zero Dawn about it. Um, but I never knew that beforehand. They, you know, they give you a bit of the story, but they don't give you the bit of the gameplay, and I just sometimes think if you if you market that well, I think you'd probably pull over a lot of Horizon fans, maybe even Zelda fans, I think, oh actually we love open world games, so this this might be up our street, sort of thing. But I wasn't even aware that was that sort of style of game, so yeah, it'll be interesting. Um, I did see today, I think they've pulled uh Final Fantasy VII off Steam today. Yeah, um which um I don't know what is the reason behind that or whether that's gonna be an announcement for the part three or what, I don't know, but I knew they'd pulled it off, and a lot of people are annoyed because I think uh jacked all the mods off as well at people, and so I'm not quite sure was uh I think it's destroyed that a bit, but um yeah, it's it'll be interesting. I think they need to find that window where that that style of game, that genre of game, in that few in that few month window, if you're gonna play it, that's gonna be Final Fantasy Part three. Um because yeah, if sales have been soft on on remake, you know, your your fan base is diluted down a bit to who's then gonna buy part three. So yeah, yeah, be interesting.

SPEAKER_05: 58:05

It's also a hard investment, though. You know, like it's like I know the game's good. You you know, like you have ton you and a ton of other people have told me the game's good, but like I know it's uh like hours of investment that I um I have to give it because I have to also play the first game, you know, to actually yeah, I mean the first game in 13 hours.

SPEAKER_03: 58:24

Yeah, well the first game I've done in 35 hours, the first game. Okay, gotcha. And I've done loads of side missions. That's quite a nice this one. I was saying to Scott earlier, I'm just in chapter two and I'm 20 hours deep, and uh I've hardly I've only done like three or four mission main missions, yeah, because the the world's so big. I scott you it's got side missions as well, but there's so much to explore in this game, it's so well made. But yeah, I think this is gonna be a this is gonna be a hundred hour game, I think.

SPEAKER_05: 58:51

So oh yeah, a lot of people said time to beat is between 80 to 120 hours as far as like completionists as well.

SPEAKER_03: 58:58

Yeah, so yeah, you got you've got to put the time in it, and uh I keep thinking, I mean, I do like a big game every now and then, but I'm now starting to think are hundred hour games the way to go nowadays? Because I played I played remake, which was 35, and I thought that was bang on. That was bang on. I mean, I put over a hundred hours in Horizon, I put over a hundred hours in Harvestel, I put over a hundred hours in Breath of the Wild, same Meteors of the Kingdom.

SPEAKER_05: 59:25

But no one can say you have commitment issues.

SPEAKER_03: 59:29

But do people do gamers want that now? Because that's especially in a in a year when there's going to be a lot of games coming out. Do you want to be pulled aside for a hundred hours on a game? It could take, you know, depending on your work, could take you weeks to do when you've got other things coming out, you know. That's that's a tricky one nowadays. I've I think the the day of the hundred hour RPG is dying a bit. I think I think 35 to 50 is about where it sits.

SPEAKER_05: 59:52

I think especially after Claire came out. Claire came out, and that's a mean little like maybe 20. I was just like, I think I beat that like with before 20 hours elapsed. So I'm like, it is a very condensed package that also like hits above like the value-wise. It's like because I feel like even though Claire is so much smaller, uh, not even a third of the size of what you were describing with rebirth, it's like I feel like I got so much out of that because the story, the voice acting, and all that still hit so hard, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:23

Exactly. If it had been a rushed ending and you'd have come out of that game thinking, oh man, they've they've they've cut this too short, they needed a bit more time in the oven with this, but they didn't, because everything was paced perfectly. I found out with I know it's a different thing, but Mafia the old country, it was 15-20 hours. I mean, if if if if you played them sort of games before, you'd probably do it in 15 hours, but it didn't overstay us welcome. I thought it was it was perfectly paced, it was a nice little story set in set in, you know, turn of the 20th century. It was perfect. I thought it was brilliant, you know, and it didn't the story had played out. There was nothing you didn't feel like you're being cut short, it was how it was meant to be, and I I didn't feel underwhelmed by playing a game that short, you know. I think it it fitted well.

SPEAKER_05: 1:01:05

So how would would you feel cheated or robbed if Marvel's Wolverine came out this year and it is close to 10 to 20 hours?

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:17

Um, I think 10 hours would be a bit you'd be a bit short, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:21

I agree. But I I think under I think 20 to 50 hours, I think people prefer. I've got a friend Mike and he will not start a game unless it's under 30 hours, it always makes me laugh. And when there's a when there's a game that's 10 hours, he's really proud. He goes, he goes, Oh, that was a really good game, but only took me 10 hours, only took me 15. I know what it means because I like the satisfaction of completion, and I do appreciate you know a good game that's a big game, but is only you know 20-30 hours. I really do appreciate those ones. Red Dead Redemption was probably that, and I was fine with it, I didn't need it to go on any longer. Um it's enough time to enjoy it, but yeah, you do get you get indie games that are really short and you still get enjoyment out of them. It depends on the game, doesn't it? I mean, firewatch was only four hours, and I love that. Brilliant game, yeah. Yeah, but little gator game, that was the same, that was short and super sweet.

SPEAKER_05: 1:02:14

Spider-Man Mouse Morales is why I bring this up because that was an eight to twelve hour experience, you know. Like, but a lot of people said they actually love that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:22

Yeah, I platinum that in like 15 hours for platinum.

SPEAKER_05: 1:02:25

Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:26

That's that's the other thing. Platinum culture, I think, will change the culture of the length of games because people are really obsessed. I know you talked about it previously, yourself and uh George, you're saying people like these, you know, trophy hunting. And so the shorter the game, the more appeal it is. If there's if you're on the fence between two games and you you're hunting for platinums, if one of them's 20 hours, the other's 50, you're probably gonna choose a 20, aren't you?

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:53

Yeah, and some of these games as well, though. I mean, that amaze me when you look at time to beat and for the completionist and stuff, you'll get like 70 hours on an RPG, and then it says for platinum or well for your thousand G, it's like 120, and you're like, Wow, it's nearly doubled to try and do everything to get so you've got to be dedicated to wanting that platinum on those big games, definitely.

SPEAKER_05: 1:03:15

So this is uh a philosophical kind of like preference question here, but like let's say you're the consumer and Sony asks you just a straightforward question. Hey, we're gonna do whatever you tell us based on this specific the way you answer this question. They ask each one of you, um, so like, hey, I we can come out with one for every studio that we have, we for one IP, and we can come out with a bombastic 40, 30 to 60 hour game. Let's say it could be like Gorilla Horizon um with um San Sony Santa Monica God of War, or you know, you can pick the studio, you can pick the IP, or you know, um you can pick Uncharted God of War per studio, and you know, like would you prefer one bombastic entry per generation, or would you prefer three smaller uncharted Lost Legacy slash Miles Morales size games that they would put out per generation? So, like, for instance, would you prefer Sony Santa Monica to put out one solid like solid to amazing God of War game in the PS5 generation, or would you have preferred them to put out three smaller experiences that may still all be God of War, but they're all uncharted lost legacy size?

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:37

I'd I'd have to go yeah, I'd go with the smaller games. Um I think one, it gives you that excitement because you've got you play that game for 15 hours, maybe 20 hours, you love that, and you think, Oh, we've got the next one on the way. Can't wait. When you're getting one game every gen, six, seven, eight years. Um, you play it for 40, 50 hours, that's brilliant. You think, oh god, wonder where the next one's coming along. I I don't I know people that find it an insult to play a game for 15 hours. I don't because you know, like I remember someone telling me, Oh, Last of Us Two's a rip-off because you can do it in 25 hours. Yeah, you could if you really blast through it, but if you play the game properly, it's about 40 hours. Um that story's that intense, that game is that intense you could if you made it 100 hours, you you you'd be pulling your hair out. It's the perfect length for what that game is, you know. So you can make really good stories that fit into a a lesser uh, you know, hours, less hours. You know, I think Miles Morales, for instance, um yeah, uh platinum in fifteen hours, but I didn't come away from that thinking, oh well that was short, that was rubbish. I just thought it it was paced to that time really well. I thought it was a good, really good game. It fitted well, gives us that stop gap till Spider Man two, which is obviously a bit longer, you know, about double that time. But yeah, I didn't I didn't find That that that's bad at all. So yeah, I'm I would I think I would prefer playing throughout a year, I'd prefer playing some really good 15 to 20 hour games, four or five of them in a year, just rather than one hundred hour game, definitely.

SPEAKER_05: 1:06:14

Well about you, Scott. Same?

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:16

Yeah, definitely, mate. I'll be exactly the same. Because you it's games, uh it's a bit like a book, isn't it? And like a movie. You got that you enjoy the start, you enjoy the middle when you're in it, and you enjoy the closure at the end of it. So the more of those experiences, the better. I'd rather have a few mini of them than have one big uh experience like that, because it it is really fun when you finish a game and then you go on to the next one, you know. It it G's you up, you get excited, you get that weird emotion. You know, when a game finishes, you almost get a little bit sad in a way because it's over, but then you're excited because you get to go on to other things. It's a really hard thing to explain. But you know the thing, you know, you look at the credits and you're like, damn, that got me in the fields, you know, it's an emotional roller coaster. Um, you know, a bit like the start of Expedition 33. You're like, oh, here we go, we're off an adventure. So it's good to get closure of games and then get in, enjoy the next one. It's all part of the journey.

SPEAKER_05: 1:07:06

Let me ask the then, let me flip that that question on its head because I like I like the way this is going. Um, so would you say that you'd rather have the Netflix model of like I just immediately give me smaller experiences, you know, like y'all were describing just now, rather than the like the HBO model to where like we're only gonna put out a season maybe every two or three two or three years, and it makes you look forward to it? Like, there's a the reason why I asked is because like I think there's a hard expectation and uh like from Sony, uh for instance, from like the Xbox model versus the PlayStation model, bringing this back to video games. And I've been pondering this, and the reason why I asked is because I've been pondering this. Is PlayStation not only succeeding more so than Xbox because of the the way that they put out quality, but also because each of their games feel like spectacles. Like each of their games, like a God of War, for instance, feels bigger than uh Outer Worlds too, than the outer worlds, than you know, like uh years of war, you know, like they feel like hey, stop what you're doing, shit's going down, you know, like they feel like they feel like that moment, like for instance, would you prefer a GTA? Um would you prefer a GTA every two or three years, or would you prefer to go Well that's a good question, or would you prefer this once in a generation, or maybe once in a one generation point five of this, oh my goodness, this now feels like it is the biggest game of all time moment.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:52

I think I think with GTA, uh I mean it's his own entity, but also I think the only reason we didn't get a GTA sooner was because they were just absolutely milking the online, you know, for that game to be released on three generations is incredible. Um but I think that's more the take two side. I think we would have had a GTA sooner if it wasn't for that. I would like to see this is mixing it up a bit a bit of the old Rockstar. So you get your big game every ten years, you get your big GTA game, but you have side games, Vice Single stories, Liberty City stories, Chinatown Wars, 15 hours, 30 hours spin-off of that GTA series, but you you're still getting the games coming through. That's what I'd like. You have your big blockbuster. I mean, don't get me wrong, there is still a place for a hundred-hour game, but the problem is before you get to the next hundred-hour game, you need palette palette cleansers, which is what you know.

SPEAKER_01: 1:09:52

I like that, RGT.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:53

That's a good shout. What we're talking about now, really. But I think, yeah, if if Rock.

SPEAKER_05: 1:09:58

You could almost argue the part palette cleanser was Red Dead, though. If we're taking that, you know, like the Red Dead's games, you know, like yeah, but then again, Red Dead 2.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:07

I mean, I'll put over 100 hours in that. That's a Whopper. I mean, that's a big palette cleanser.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:12

Yeah, and I needed a palette cleanser between the Red Dead games. Well, I went in from Red Dead straight into Red Dead 2, and I was not ready.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:20

No, not ready, no. But I think also you've got to remember the IPs that they are they don't use anymore, you know. Your Max Payne, your bully, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:29

Oh, Max Payne was so Midnight Club.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:32

Um, there was there's some great IPs in there that they don't use anymore, and you just think, oh, wouldn't that be great to have? I mean, there was always rumours of bully too, and it's supposed to be Jimmy Hopkins in college and the rest. And I mean, I've played that game five, six times, loved that game on PS2, and then I played it again on PS4 and Platinum that bully's a great game, and you just think, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:52

We had three or four Max Paines, but you're right, it was only one bully, they could definitely do another.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:57

Yeah, yeah, that there was talk of it for years and years and years, and they never did. Then it was supposed to be a uh remaster, and then there was gonna be a remake, but that's never stopped.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11:05

Oh, that would come on that will come on a switch soon. And hey Seb, you mentioned dispatch earlier, that's coming to Switch 2, just announced.

SPEAKER_05: 1:11:12

Oh man, that's already it's already got controversy behind it. The Switch 2 version. It's like the oh so like a lot of people have already gotten hands-on with it, and they are Nintendo's heavily censoring the game as far as like what Dispatch is, as far as like the game that we got on the PC and the P um the PlayStation version is different. Imagine like the Disney Channel version of Dispatch.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11:40

Well, Seb, do you know what? Leave it with me. I'll make some calls, I'll make sure I bring the Nintendo fans the real Indie King version of Dispatch. I'll get it sorted.

SPEAKER_03: 1:11:51

Yeah, it's I've got a good question for you this year. For this year's I want to know what you're predicting to be the indie hits in 26. For what you know was coming out, what to the listeners, what do you think is gonna be? What's gonna be the Expedition 33? What's gonna be the Hades 2? What's gonna be the Ball X Pit this year?

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:13

So the great things about those, besides Hades 2, is like they're they're surprise games, you know, like they took everyone by surprise, and no one kind of seen them come, and they kind of like the word of mouth sort of just spread like wildfire about those games. So that's like one of the organically good things about those indie titles. The game, the indie titles that we do know about, though, that you would be like, okay, um, these are probably like the indies to look out for based on what we know right now.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12:42

Um I've got my pen ready. So I'm gonna write these down.

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:46

Okay, so there's one that I'm gonna start from January. All right, so off the top of the off the top of the dome. January, um, there's one that's already out right now. If you're in the if you are a fan of Hollow Knight Silk Song and you like Metrovania games, there's one called Mio. Um, Mio Memories in Orbit, I believe. So let me see if I can pull up that. Um, so memory, uh so imagine like Hollow Knight, but you're playing as a little robot. The little robot's in like this sort of like techie type of environment, and you're going through a Metrovania trying to find out the mysteries of what happened to not only you but some of the companions that you that like were in an adventure with you previous to the game starting. From my understanding, this game isn't a sequel, but it's all it's has kind of like a mystery element to it, but it also feels like it is sounds like hor there was a horse super rare game.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:41

That sounds exactly like that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:13:43

It's kinda is. Um, let me see. I'm going to hit you up right now. Let's see. Alright, you should begin uh requesting your screen just right now. Let me know when you see it. Alright, so you got it right now? So this is the trailer for uh since we're posting a lot of these on video now. Why not have video representative representation?

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:05

Oh yes, I have seen this trailer.

SPEAKER_05: 1:14:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:08

There's a lot of unspoken about this.

SPEAKER_05: 1:14:11

Yeah, so this is a game that um has come out like within the last week or so. Um, right now it's probably the highest-rated new entry of this year, which is you know, not saying much. It's only been three weeks, but three or four weeks. But like this is a Metrovania game that is very tried and true to Metrovania roots, but with a heavy like art style that kind of reminds me a little bit of the cell shadiness of like Borderlands meets like inside.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:39

Yeah, it's almost it's almost warm colored. And watercolor looks gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01: 1:14:44

Yeah, so I literally fought limbo inside, little nightmares. I was thinking all of those from that zoomed-out screen.

SPEAKER_05: 1:14:51

Yeah, uh yeah. So I'm like, it kind of reminds me of like this is like you'll actually start to see the gameplay here where where it's like it sort of reminds me of the platforming of Ori and the Will of the Wisp, but whether like some of the some of the combat elements of Hollow Knight and the and some of the gameplay elements as far as like the map goes of like other games that you probably known and love, like ultros and different things like that. It's it feels organically indie, but it also feels like it is one of those titles that is that feels like it had like a solid budget behind it in a weird way. So I'm like, I've played probably like six hours of this so far. I think this game is absolutely gorgeous. I you know, I'm not the hugest Metrovania person, so I'm playing it, I'm but playing this game despite it being a Metrovania, if that makes sense. So I'm like, I like the way it looks, I like the way it feels. Um, Focus Entertainment, of course, has been publishing a lot of cool games like this. So if you're in the mood for like a indie Metrovania that kind of like scratches a little bit of the itch of the Hollow Knight with a little bit of that puzzle element of like of a planet of Lana and inside with a little bit of like that I would say that get lost in the sauceness of like silksong, then this this is an easy recommendation.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:11

Yeah, it does look fantastic. It looks really good.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:14

I just I just I just struggle with uh Metroidvania's. I really do. I do struggle with it a little bit.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:20

Yeah, you have to be into the genre when you have to keep backtracking after a while. I mean I mean I found I think the game I found the biggest struggle with that is is the Metroid Primes, especially the early ones, the backtracking in first person. You oh, that was quite a struggle, but I prefer them in in the 2D sort of plane if if if they if they are doing Metroidvania, but yeah, that's so that's one of them that you know I wanted to start in January because that's actually releasing like now, you know.

SPEAKER_05: 1:16:46

But like um, there's a one for the future, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:50

Give us another big one.

SPEAKER_05: 1:16:51

Yeah, there's a couple of them that I think are solidly juicy that are releasing right now. Um Little Gator Game Part 2 is coming out. Like, yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:01

So uh yeah, little Gator Game in the Because I I was confused by that because I saw so obviously physical um over in the UK, we had a super rare game release, and then I think it went limited running off America, which sort of changed the prices for for collectors, and then it came back up on the eShop. So a friend of mine has been playing it recently with his kids, and then I see just this week, I think it's coming up as another physical release in the UK, and they're saying like a gold edition or something like that, so they must be boosting it, getting ready. They're doing like almost like a bestseller platinum greatest hit version of it. So I didn't know there's a second one, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:17:40

So little gator game, um, uh Little Gator game in the dark. It's sort of like it brings all have you played Little Gator game yet?

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:48

I've I've played it, I completed it, that is amazing.

SPEAKER_05: 1:17:50

Yeah, it is fine. What about you, RGT?

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:53

Um, I'd started it and I didn't go back to it, but I can see where how good it is. I you make me want to play it again.

SPEAKER_05: 1:17:59

So that's uh that's a game that's coming out in February. I believe it's around like somewhere in the teens. I would say like um probably 11th, 12th, or 13th um of February. Um Romeo is a dead man is one that is a game that's coming out in February 11th, and it is one of the most weirdest odd games that you can probably I it's hard for me to describe, but it is I feel like this is going to be a cult classic this year, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03: 1:18:31

Oh right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:18:32

So Romeo is a Yeah, so Romeo is a dead man. Um, you've probably seen this on some of the showcases right now, but like, so it is a weird game that sort of has that um what is that um game that a lot of people were saying, No more heroes type of vibe to it, you know, like comic book style, yeah, comic book style, um that sort of thing. Let me see if I can pull up the gameplay here for y'all. So it is a game that reminds me of like that classic PS like PS3 to Xbox 360 style. Yeah, to where like it is that almost like a hack and slash where the enemies are around you, but it mixes in some of the modernness of like the parry systems that we're kind of growing accustomed to, but like with the art style and with like the sensationalism of a devil may cry or like a um or what is that other one that um or no more heroes, those type of games. So I'm like, yeah, it sort of feels like crazy.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:36

It looks sort of crazy sort of PS3 version of anime.

SPEAKER_05: 1:19:40

It looks it really does, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:42

Yeah, very intriguing.

SPEAKER_01: 1:19:44

There was something, I don't know if it's called Lucky Number Seven or something. There was some sort of first person game on not a shooter or killers or something, and it had like a comic art book style. I think it was on the GameCube, and it's the way the hit points. I know for the audio listers you can't see, but those hit points are coming up, like you're seeing the actual figures, the numbers on the screen, like they do with a lot of over-the-top sort of Japanese hack and smashers, and it's really cool, really, really cool, mate.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:08

I really like everything, it's got mechs, got everything in there, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:20:11

Yeah, and look at the platforms PS3, uh PS5, it's gonna be Xbox and Steam all day one. So I think this has the chance to be like the first major like indie domino this year.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:25

Sometimes sometimes you need something unique, and this is very unique, you know what I mean? And but a lot of people love them sort of more weirder games. So, yeah, I think you're right. I can see this doing well.

SPEAKER_01: 1:20:35

It's cyberpunk looking as well, isn't it? With the colored palette and the just the skins of the the main character looks very cyberpunk.

SPEAKER_05: 1:20:44

It does, it has like a cyberpunk meets a Capcom art style, though. You know, like you know the way Capcom does the Resident Evil type of games, but like mixed in with a cool one, Seb.

SPEAKER_01: 1:20:54

Thanks for sharing that. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_05: 1:20:56

Yeah, I'm I'm kind of excited for it. Um, it was one of those games to where I I haven't got hands on with it yet, but a lot of people, you know, whether it be like at conventions that I've that I've been uh met that people through conventions and all that kind of stuff have been telling me about, oh, I've gotten hands on with this game. You need to check it out. Early build of this game looks really impressive, looks like the best seven or eight out of ten you're probably gonna play this year. And I'm like, sign me up. If it's but like a lot of people are saying, like, this probably isn't going to be a 10 out of 10, but it's gonna be the most stylized eight-ass eight out of ten game you'll play this year, you know. Like, and I think that's that's a solid marker. Um, that one's coming out um what was that? Oh, yeah, February 11th. So like Little Gator Game and this game come out just days after, days apart from each other. Um, so another one that is I'm just sorry to interrupt.

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:50

Just can you just say the night just for myself and the listeners, can you just give us the name of that game again?

SPEAKER_05: 1:21:54

Just oh yeah, Romeo is a dead man.

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:57

Romeo is a dead man. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_05: 1:21:59

So Romeo's a dead man that's coming out for um all platform PS5 or the PlayStation family, Xbox family, and the P and PC family. So those those are all solid. Um, the next one that I wanted to bring up is one of the games that I think is going to be like basically one of the most unique stylized games of the year, if that makes sense. And we just we and that's crazy because we just talked about one of the most stylistically weird games, you know, in Romeo Must Die. But like this one is, I got to say, stylistically in an old-fashioned way, and I love that. Um, it is called Mouse PI for Howard.

SPEAKER_03: 1:22:45

Yes, yeah, this is like the original Mickey Mouse, black and white first-person shooter. Yeah, this looks gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:53

Like Steamboat Willie style.

SPEAKER_03: 1:22:55

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:56

Or Steamboat Mickey style, like it is so Scott, have you seen this game yet?

SPEAKER_01: 1:23:01

No, um I know I mean when you said Steamboat Willie, I know what to expect, almost a bit like Bendy the Inkman or whatever that was called, Bendy Machine.

SPEAKER_05: 1:23:09

Yeah, yeah, so so completely black and white. Um is you play as a PI mouse, and in this world that you're living in, this game is very much ready to m. It's almost like a that looks well good.

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:22

Yeah, it looks fantastic, doesn't it? I love the you know, especially as you have PI as well, so you're solving mysteries while first person shooting looks brilliant.

SPEAKER_05: 1:23:31

Yeah, so it has like a Doom like first person shooter quality to it, but in a noir black and white, yeah, almost like a retro steamboat Mickey style art style, and it's like it feels like the most unique game that you can possibly imagine, doesn't it? Looks fantastic.

SPEAKER_01: 1:23:50

I would pre-order that now. That looks it it looks so fun.

SPEAKER_05: 1:23:54

And uh so I haven't I haven't like I haven't talked to anybody who's gotten hands-on with this one, but like it the from what I'm seeing as far as like the demands for like um, you know, like the PC demands, this one looks like it is not going to be as demanding as Cuphead, coincidentally. So I'm like, it feels like it'll be pretty much playable on all platforms. Um, I think this game will run beautifully on the Switch 2 and the Steam Deck, you know, like this feels like a solid, cool handheld, but like me personally, I want to get this into my theater room upstairs and just like have that whole Omniance and blast it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:24:31

Yeah, I think it'll be in the dark, planet in the dark, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05: 1:24:36

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:37

Flickering, yeah, sound of a flickering film.

SPEAKER_05: 1:24:40

Yeah, so I'm like, I might actually do that now that you mentioned that, Scott. I might put it because I have a projector upstairs as well. So I have a TV and I have a projector screen that goes like it comes down above, like uh like right in front of my my TV screen. So I might actually do that on the old school projector, and I'm like, that would be pretty cool. Yeah, brilliant. So yeah, mouse PI for hire. That one's um like March 9th, um 19th, um, 2026. I think that one's really cool, um, really sensational looking. I think the game though, um, that a lot of people are probably gonna be like, I want to play this next game and I want to play it because it kind of reminds me of an old franchise game, is like this next one I'm gonna talk about. Like it is called Screamer. Have y'all heard of it?

SPEAKER_03: 1:25:28

Don't think so, no.

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:30

I y'all have the wrong person, man, because I'm talking about indie games, and y'all know I can talk about some damn indies. So it is. I'm sorry I'm I'm talking too much, but like Screamer is an anime game that is taking all the games that a lot of people grew up with and combine putting those in a blender and combining those into a sick arcade racer game. So it's taking Need for Speed, most wanted, it's taking Burnout Paradise, it's taking like um what is that game? Jet Moto and combining all those adding an anime and adding an anime aesthetic, and it's just like, and they're like saying, Hey, Forza, Forza Horizon is the closest thing you're getting to like an actual arcadey sim in the racing space. We're gonna give you a story that's made by an anime studio, a real anime studio, and we're this is actually the gameplay, y'all. So it is very much a racing game, and everybody has these like arcadey, um, arcade meets like anime like art styles. Imagine if High Fire Rush was like an F1 game, everybody that's listening, and this is kind of what streamer is.

SPEAKER_01: 1:26:43

There's a lot of people in the Discord, including RGT, that's gonna absolutely love this game.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:47

Yeah, I'll be all over. I love a racing game, but I don't there's never enough of them that have a really good almost RPG like story to it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:26:55

So it reminds me of do you remember Driven? There was a uh it was a film and it was also a GameCube game. It was like an arcade F1. Oh yeah, it was actually decent. Do you know what I mean? Like a bit tongue in cheek, but it had a story around it. It's quite hard for a racer.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:12

This is so this is some of the gameplay. Um, by the way. It's it's combining like a almost I would probably say this is I said F1, it's probably closer to like Tokyo Drift if you're listening, of like the knee for speed like things. It kind of reminds me of like speed racer type of vehicles in a way, to where like the vehicles sort of look more almost like Japanese, yeah, almost like cyberpunk sort of cars, aren't they?

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:37

With the neons and the yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:39

So what what do y'all think about the look of this game?

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:41

Oh, this is out of the ones you've shown, apart from the uh mouse PI for hire, um, I'm all over this. I want this game. I want this game.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:51

Two out of three. Yeah, what about you, Scott? This is gonna be a banger for you as well?

SPEAKER_01: 1:27:56

Yeah, yeah. I think out of the three Magnum PI, that's definitely I mean they're all very good games individually, but this is very cool. I mean, racer isn't my favourite genre, it's not bad at all either. But I you know, I do I do play them. But if you're like I said, I'm quite excited for RGT and a few of the lads in the Discord because I know like Badabinkster loves it. There's a few people that really love their races. Um, and it would just be nice for someone to have a fresh one, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:25

Yeah, I haven't played one for a while. The last one I played was the last need for speed they'd done. I can't even remember what it was called, and I was so disappointed.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28:32

Well, same. I've gone back and played Hot Pursuit, I've gone back and played Burnout Paradise. I haven't actually grabbed the new game in probably five years.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:40

So this one kind of so the the last Need for Speed game kind of had a similar vibe to it to where Unbound kind of had like a similar vibe to it to where they kind of had like these almost like these anime like aesthetics and after effects that happened, but it was it still kind of like mirrored a little bit of like real-world graphics, but with like a almost like a filter on it, so it kind of it kind of was like borderlining both of those things, yeah. And it's and it you know, it was a cool idea, it didn't sell as well as that just the story let it down and the gameplay I thought was very mid.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29:19

Yeah, how to make this game a bit of me is if you slapped a couple of guns on them cars, that'd be a bit of me.

SPEAKER_05: 1:29:26

Twisted metal stamp.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29:27

I love Armageddon and Twisted Metal full auto. Any game with driving game that involves a couple of guns on a box. I've got one for you. Have you got a PSP, Scott? Um I saw today you put in your um RGT's hidden gems. There is and that's a 360 game, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03: 1:29:47

360 PS3 blood drive, you're thinking of. Yeah, yeah. If you're on the PSP, if you've got a PSP, you can pick this game up for about two pounds. Um, fired up, get the game fired up as vehicle combat. That is you'll you get that in CEX for literally a couple of bucks. But yeah, that's that's a good game. Fired up, that's what you want. Sorry, uh Seb, we went we went off on Monday.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:07

No, no, you're good. Uh I derailed the whole show, so my bad. But um no, this is like Screamer is also like a indie studio that is or is this indie game is going to be having had it has like a full anime style um storyline to it. And I'm like, I'm so excited about that. That one looks absolutely cool, it looks pretty sick. Um, this one's coming to a PlayStation, Xbox, and PC day one in March as well, March 16th. And then the last one that I'll give you because I know we're running a little long, is what I think like is probably going to be the most anticipated indie of the year, and it's Slay the Spire 2. And it's not even close. Slay the Spire 1 is uh a cult classic, it's one of those games to where like if you like roguelike games and you like turn-based games, you've if you haven't played Slay the Sire Spire, you've done yourself a disservice. The second one's coming out, and I think that one's going to be absolutely sensational. Um, coincidentally, Slay the Spire and uh Moonlighter 2, I think are like Moonlighter 2 is also coming out of early access around that same exact night. So those yeah, so I'm like, it is a stellar year for like indies in that first go around. Um, but yeah, I've been talking a lot. You want to get to the the our great, great, great patrons.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:27

Yes, we'll get onto our list now. But yeah, thanks for that, Seb. That was brilliant. Um brilliant listing all those indies down because they're definitely going on my wish list there, especially Screamer. I want that game now.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:38

When did you say that was A, Seb? Oh, that's out in March 16th. So I think the others were February, yeah. Yeah, so I only did like the first couple of months because there's like there I only did that first couple of months, that first quarter, because that second quarter it gets meaty, it gets really meaty, but it's it gets sweaty in a different type of way.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:57

But like yeah, once we get to March time, we can we can get your recommendations for the next two or three months and oh yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05: 1:32:03

Brilliant for sure. So one thing I wanted to pitch out for for you listeners, though. If you want a lot of these games, you know, I'm I'll be getting codes for, I'll be getting reviews for. If you want to hear, not only hear about all these games, but actually see how all these games stack up. If you go to the singleplayer experience.com, we have this new thing on the website. It's called the Indie Power Rankings. So this year, I'll be ranking these games. And as these reviews come out, you you'll be able to see what's top dog every single month for from one to ten and all the way throughout the the rest of the year for the best indie games of the year. So if you want to see how Screamer ranks up against Slay the Spire 2, against Mouse Pi Mouse PI for hire, just I'll have that link. I'll have that link I'll send out to the Discord and you can see the rankings in real time.

SPEAKER_03: 1:32:54

That's awesome. We'll get um um we're still working in progress on little bits of our website, unofficial controllerpodcast.com. We'll get our link set up for single player on there. So there'll be a little little icon, single player, and then you can click on that, go straight over to said site. Very well worth it. It's absolutely fantastic. Um, there isn't anything this guy doesn't know about indies. So I mean, we're all game, we're all gamers here, we play a lot, and he's just knocked out three out of them five I don't even know about. So the guy knows his stuff. So if you're in if you want to get into indie games, um is the man. So yeah, we'll put that on on the website, get some links in so you can jump straight across to his his uh his website and his show and bits and pieces his pod. Um but that brings us on to our amazing subscribers. Um as we say every week, and you'll probably get bored of saying it. These people help us do things like the website, they help us do things like um the extra shows and bits and pieces. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be able to do half this. So we always read them out at the end as part of their one of their little perks, um which start from three bucks all the way up to ten bucks. If you look on the description of our shows, you'll see on there what the tiers and bits and pieces are. Um, but thank you to all these. Um, and I will start this with our first one, which is Captain Scarlet. Um, this guy does a lot behind the scenes, absolutely fantastic. Um, from websites to artwork to bits and pieces. So thank you for everything, Captain. Um, and I know I tell you that in every message you send me, but I do mean it. Absolutely brilliant all for all what you do. Um, do you want to go next, Scott?

SPEAKER_01: 1:34:30

Yeah, and this next one is RetroEd UK. And to say thank you to Ed, I'm just gonna throw a little something that people probably don't know, and this might be helpful for anyone who's listening. Ed actually has a second YouTube channel called Special Spectrum. Um, and what it does, it's basically aids uh families, gives a bit of support and tips and shares a bit of advice for parents with um disabled and disabled children, so they could be autistic, have special needs, um, certain requirements, certain challenges. And he's got a channel, they're really short, quick, sort of five-minute videos, and they obviously don't appeal to everyone, but it might be someone listening to this, um, you know, who's a who's a parent and has these sort of challenges and would like someone to talk to or share some advice. You know, there's legal advice, um, tips and trips, um, tips and tricks for like going on holiday and how to deal with everyday life and just navigating and making things as easy as possible. So I just thought I'd give a little shout there. So thank you to Retro Ed. And yeah, if that does um apply to anyone, or then check out Special Spectrum on YouTube.

SPEAKER_03: 1:35:30

Absolutely brilliant. Yeah, thanks for that, Scott. Um, and also I will just say, um, RetroEd, are you still going to Bristol? Because I am all booked up and I am going.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35:38

You go to He is, he is going, mate. Yeah, we're both going. All hotels booked, we're in my own.

SPEAKER_03: 1:35:42

Stay here, hotels booked, early bird tickets, I'll be going. So nice one. There should be a good meetup. So if we we'll speak about this off air, but yeah, if anyone else is going, Bristol Games Expo, February 28th. Um, a few of us will be there, Scott's gonna be there, I'm gonna be there, Retro Ed, I think Digital Monkery. Um, I think there's a few others going from Discord, but yeah, come and join us. Um, it's gonna be good, gonna be a good weekend. So yeah. Hotel, a few beverages, I would imagine. Yeah, um, who we got next, then Seb.

SPEAKER_05: 1:36:12

All right, here we go. Give me one second. Um, Scott, can you handle this real quick? I'm pulling it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36:18

Yeah, sure. So, next up we've got the uh the one band, 1G fan club, um the YouTube, the YouTube short uh artist, the sexy assassin himself. It's Carlos.

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:31

Oh, thank you, Carlos. Um, next up we have firm's returns, yeah. Firm returns. Seb's on that one. So I'll go straight on to thank you, firm returns, by the way, as well. Um, another big switch man there, Seb. So don't worry. Um next up we have the wonderful trestles in New York. Thank you as always for your support and long-term support, I might add.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36:57

Um, and then we have got um, he is friends with uh Elon and the Aliens. He loves a Sunday dinner straight out of uh 1850s church. Can you guess it? It's Roast Space Monk. See what I did there.

SPEAKER_05: 1:37:12

Very good. I like that. So next up we have a sending out a huge thank you to Mr. Bada Bada Bada Badabinkster.

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:22

And again, Bada Bingster is he's such a big help. I've been up updating all my hidden gems this week. I know I've been saying I'm gonna be doing it for months, but I'm nearly there now. And a few of them I didn't have artwork for, he just custom box arts for them. I hadn't even asked him before I'd even asked him, suddenly, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, the messages come through. There's the box arts for the missing ones, mate. And I'm like, brilliant, thank you. So it's legends like that that we appreciate so much in this in this Discord. Um, next up we have the wonderful Tingle Tuner, which surprised me this week. Um, I thought I was the oldest guy in the Discord. Turns out I'm not. But the worrying thing is he looks 10 years younger than me, so I'm doing something right in my life. He's he looks damn good. He does look damn good, but yes, thank you, Tingle Tuner.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:09

Um, next up we've got the uh movie set collector, the challenge accepted moderator. He's also, I believe, a female body parts inspector.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:18

It's digital monkery. He certainly is, yeah. Yeah, he's now got. If you didn't know, if you're not in our Discord, he's just done um any movie game tie-in, which was on the Sega Mega Drive. He's now got the full set, so well done on that. He's been trying that for a few years, so yeah, complete set of those.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:34

So yeah, yeah, he's on um he's gone on to SNES now, I believe. Yeah, oh wow, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you better get your wallet out, uh Mr. Bumperia.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:42

Especially if you're getting M C I B. Yeah, who we got next in sep.

SPEAKER_05: 1:38:48

And next up we got Baller Borda.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:52

Yeah, thank you, mate. Absolutely brilliant. Um, then we have one of them, goddamn Winchester boys. It is the sheriff of the Discord. The man who, you know, you want anything done, anything programmed, is the guy to do it. If he isn't there, you get his second sheriff, which is DM to do it. But these guys are on the Discord, they do a fantastic job, constantly coming up with new ideas, and that is Boba. Thank you very much, as always, Boba.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39:22

Um, next up, we have uh this comes with a special alert each week because he gets that many platinum. So, this is my uh Ginges' platinum alarm. That doesn't sound very optimistic, but I'll think of a better noise for next time. Basically, Ginj this week has managed to platinum um Power Rangers rewind. So he got another one in a bag. That man is an absolute machine. What's he on now? 700 700 and he's he's gone past. I think they're to try and invent new numbers because that's how many he's done.

SPEAKER_03: 1:39:54

I know he's quite high in the rankings in the UK. Um I said if he gets to a thousand platinums, we need a massive meetup party. Thousand plat party is what we need. Great shout.

SPEAKER_01: 1:40:03

Yeah, bouncy castle, baby all. I'll be there. I weren't thinking of that, but now you said it, I'm all in. Um meet me, get it done before Bristol, Ginger. We'll pick you up from nothing.

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:16

Um who was next? That was you, went, Scots.

SPEAKER_05: 1:40:20

That was me. All right, so now we have what is it? Um, is that Boba?

SPEAKER_00: 1:40:28

It's the uh Prince. Oh, is that Ginch? The lovely Ginj?

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:31

We're done, just don't do it. One more down.

SPEAKER_05: 1:40:33

Oh, Harvey Retro.

SPEAKER_01: 1:40:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:36

And Harvey this week done another one of these great videos on YouTube where he goes through it, won't mean nothing to Seb, but we used to have a catalogue over here called Argos back in the 80s, 90s. So he goes, he goes through the PDFs on the old catalogues and the nostalgia wave seeing all the old things, and he'll highlight what he would have liked back in the day from personal organizers to a to a record player, absolutely brilliant. So, yeah, check that out on um Elematic. I think he's Elematic Rewind, I think, on YouTube. Um, so over to me then. Next up, we have the wonderful Emma Sharp. Thank you as always, Emma. Um, another one who's become a long-term supporter. Um, and I know you love the show, so yes, thank you as always.

SPEAKER_01: 1:41:16

Uh yeah, thank you to Emma, best female gamer in the world. Next up, we have um he's the where's Waldo, the UCP. It's probably all I should say. It's uh nowhere near Berlin.

unknown: 1:41:28

Thank you, Greg.

SPEAKER_03: 1:41:29

Thank you, Greg. Yeah, still probably busy with Forever Skies, as always, I spent bless him. Um what have we got next, Edzip?

SPEAKER_05: 1:41:37

Alright, so we have Ma Mumse.

SPEAKER_03: 1:41:43

He sounds very English when you do that. Oh, yeah, he does, doesn't he? Yeah, you do sound English.

SPEAKER_01: 1:41:49

Spent too much time with us, that is.

SPEAKER_03: 1:41:50

Upper class English, but you do say Dingl. Oh, it's fell on me. The RGT fan club. Thank you as always, really appreciate that. Um, another ones that have been long term, so yeah, cheers. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01: 1:42:04

Well, I've done the math, so I'm happy to take this next one because it means I avoid what's the inevitable is. Um so what we got? Uh well, this man will bury you six foot deep in an open casket. It's beat Brocklehurst.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:19

You don't want to mess with Pete. It's a quiet one in the background, these are the ones you ought to worry about.

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:25

And now we sing out, we're sending out a thank you to Billy Marmite.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:30

Thank you, Billy, which leaves me with the one, the only, and I'm gonna do. Do you know what?

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:36

Deep in the deep in the gullet. You gotta bring it out.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:40

I was actually gonna do a normal one, but now you're wanting me to do one, aren't you?

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:44

No, hell no, you can't do a normal one. You gotta put some respect on this man's name.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:48

Right, here we go then. Here we go. Come on in, here we go.

SPEAKER_01: 1:42:50

Hats backwards already. I'm gonna do a take the glasses off, they'll steam up.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:54

No, because I can't see the microphone if I do that. And I mean the real microphone. Don't don't don't hit that anyone. I can see a short coming up here. Um, it's not short. You're putting me off now. Right. Thank you to Fad Zen.

SPEAKER_01: 1:43:19

Oh, I'll tell you what, test that spit guard on that microphone for chlamydia. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:43:27

Thank you. Get wet wipes, Mrs. RGT. But yes, thank you to all our subscribers as always. Um absolutely brilliant. Um, it's like I say, boring, I know, but really does make a difference. Makes uh a lot of change to us and what we can do. So thank you very much. Um, which leads us on to our last part of the show, then guys, and it's gonna be what you hoping to play. So let's start with Seb. What are you hoping to play, Seb?

SPEAKER_05: 1:43:52

Um, I'm gonna finish up Mio. Um, or at least like see how that game comes along, and you know, hopefully see where that that lands on the power rankings. I am um also gonna be playing a little bit of a game called Blade Song, a little bit of that. That is a game where basically you are constructing it's a sword-making game, it's a sword making simulator, basically. And so you're in the middle ages and you're trying to like pound that sword in and make the coolest sword ever, and see how um, see how your customers and clientele like really connect with um the different types of swords that you make. And then I'm gonna be playing a new um, I would probably say expansion slash spin-off um of a game that was probably one of my favorite indies from a couple years ago. It is Cult of the Lamb Woolhaven. They've come out with more cult of the lamb. Yeah, they have, yeah. Yeah. So I'm like Cult of the Lamb, one of the one of my favorite games uh of all time. It's like as far as like indies go, it's it's not the best indie ever, but it's like it's such a unique and really cool premise. So I'm like, I love I like that. But Woolhaven allows you to basically take what we loved in about the first game, and then they kind of throw in a whole new kind of um a whole new kind of like jam there with the the winner um months and the new like followers that that you're able to get. So I'm like, if you like roguelikes that kind of like hit above hit above and beyond, and you also kind of like meshing that with like Animal Crossing, but also with like with like building a cult, try out Cult of the Lamb. I think you'd actually like it. Scott, what are you hoping to play?

SPEAKER_01: 1:45:38

Yeah, I'd I I echo that. I think Cult of the Lambs is is up there in my top five roguelikes of all time, I think. Whoa! Probably is up there up with Shipper Falls, up with Hades. Wow, Finding of Isaac, Bro Tato, they're all up there anyway. Um, got me excited there for that little uh explanation. Bottom of the Lamb is out now. I will probably my I'll probably be the same as my intro. So I'm obviously I'm gonna go back to Final Fantasy because all of these games I'm stuck on, so I'm gonna return to all of them, but I'll probably go straight into Final Fantasy. Um I'm gonna play a bit more of Carson Chills. I'll be played that briefly. I need to work out how to get past the battle I'm stuck on, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. And for the love of God, I'm gonna have to just speak to anyone who's got further than me on Expedition 33 and find out if I I might have to YouTube it. Do I need to grind because I'm just stuck? So the only game I think you won't I'll it's too embarrassing to say on air, so I'll tell you off air very early on. Um, but yeah, and then Blue Reflection 2. I'll probably won't rush back to that because the others are big games, and I want to there's I've got four big games on the go at the minute, so that's enough. And uh really excited to jump in there. What about yourself, RGT?

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:50

Um definitely more Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Um, we'll also on our Gen 7 playthrough on our Discord. We are playing Sleeping Dogs at the moment, and we are now, as of recording this, we are now at um mission 20. So hopefully next week we will be doing the final 10 missions. Um, we had some new people join Discord this week. Um, I sent them away. Oh, we did, yeah. Yeah, I said to them three who joined, I said, look, if you if you want to join in, just play up to where you want to play. But yeah, if you want to play Sleeping Dogs, don't matter what you play on. I know we say Gen 7, but because they're Gen 7 games, but you can play 360 PS3, play the definitive edition on Xbox One or PS4, play on Steam or Steam Deck, wherever you want to play it on, just join in. Um, so yeah, I'll be playing more Sleeping Dogs. Um, hopefully getting up to spec. I've got a hidden gem, which I was gonna do this week, but I've got to hold off because George gets very stroppy. He stamps his feet, cries, and goes and sits in the corner for an hour. If I do a hidden gem when he's not on the show, so he's a hidden gem. I've got to play a bit more of that, but I've nearly finished writing that for next week. Um, that's probably about all what I'll be playing um in the coming uh days. Um this I will just say a bit of housekeeping. Um if you fancy, you know, when you when you hear all us talking about the Discord, if you fancy joining, jump on. Um we have links in show notes and bits and pieces, more the merrier. Very friendly little community there. Um, from challenge accepted that Digital Monkery does each week, uh, each month for a high score to our Gen 7 playthroughs. To just people, if you want to upload some screenshots um or show us what you're planning at the moment or your pickups, what you've been buying, uh something for everyone on there. Um, if you like retro games, um our other show, Flashback, comes out every Tuesday. Um, we've done different eras from 1993 right up to the mid-2000s. Have a listen to that. Very similar premise to this show, but it's just that nostalgia trip with a bit of a bit of what we would have been playing back in the day, bit of news articles, all genuine news articles from the day, um, from original magazines and journalists, and also what we've been hoping to play, and a bit of Stingrays boot in there, which is it's all good bit of fun. If you want to, you know, jump on there, give us a sub, give us a like, give us a review. That's flashback, that's on everything. Um, and also if you want to check out our new website, um unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com, jump on there. Um, again, thanks to Captain Scarlet for all he's done on that. Um, lovely slick. It's got a mobile version as well. Um, it's sometimes hard to search for, so you have to type in unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com, but then you'll come up on that'll come straight onto the onto the page. Um, but yeah, great website, and we're like I say we're adding to it as we go, so we'll get Seb's links and bits and pieces. So don't forget to think check out Seb single player um experience. Jump on there with him, and uh yeah, he has some great stuff on there of views and bits and pieces, you know, and he's also the king of indies. So if you if you like your indie games, that's the guy you need to uh to speak to and check out. Um I think I've covered all the housekeeping now.

SPEAKER_01: 1:49:52

Can I do uh one more quick extra bit of housekeeping? I've got to give a shout out just to our new Discord um because we did have free join the last couple of weeks. So big shout out to Super V Tech, um, a big thank you, and a big shout out and thank you to BoatGoat and also to DJ Cat64. And just a reminder: if you could leave a review on whatever platform of choice you're listening to this on, a five-star review will help massively. So thank you so much for joining the team. And we look forward to having some chats with you in the future. Brilliant. And also, I forgot the main man, aren't I?

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:22

Marathon Gaiman, check him out on YouTube, Scotty Boy here. Um, fantastic. I mean, Scott's a collector. Scott's a big switch player, um, arcade lover, you know, anything like that. So check his show out. Go over to YouTube, give him a sub, give him a like, and um, yeah, you won't be disappointed because he does some great stuff. Anything from you know, latest Switch game, PS5, all the way down to his game gear collection, which you're going for a full set, aren't you, Scott? I believe.

SPEAKER_01: 1:50:47

Yeah, yeah. It's been a bit taken over by modern. I mean, like I say, it's been a lot of PS5 this year and Switch 2, but but you've got an awesome collection anyway. Oh yeah, the retro's still there, and I'll be adding to it very I'm sure in Bristol at the gaming market.

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:59

Brilliant, fantastic. So, yeah, don't forget that. If you want to see more of what I do um on Retro Gamer Thomas on Instagram, don't forget Marathon Gaming on uh YouTube, don't forget single player experience with Seb YouTube and every everywhere, Seb is especially his website. Um, and I think that just leaves me to say there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller. That's what you do about it. That's what you're doing with the accounts. Exactly. See you later, guys. Gonna bounce. Bye.