Sony Burned HOW Much on This?!

Microsoft Flight Simulator landing on PSVR2 is not just a curiosity, it’s a genuine “wait, why is this so good?” moment. We’re talking cockpit presence, Sense controller switch-flipping, 3D audio, and that sweaty high-stakes feeling you only get when VR turns a small mistake into a full-body panic. I walk through the messy first impressions, the key settings tweaks, and why the career mode structure makes the whole thing addictive on PS5 Pro and still compelling flat-screen.

Before we hit the headlines, we swap hands-on thoughts on two demos with totally different vibes. Pragmata delivers sharp sci-fi action with a satisfying hacking grid that slows time and creates a clean combat rhythm, plus a real-world comparison of Switch 2 versus PS5 that surprised us with how close the experience feels. Outbound goes the other direction: a cozy camper-van road trip where the best moment might be sitting inside during the rain, and we can’t stop saying the same thing, this genre is begging for VR.

Then we dig into the big business question of the week: Bungie and Sony. We break down what an impairment loss actually signals, why live service strategy keeps blowing up, and what Marathon’s traction says about the risk of chasing the next forever game. We round it out with PlayStation’s preservation team spotlight and a Switch sales check-in as Nintendo inches toward the PS2 record while price hikes threaten the finish line.

If you enjoyed the ride, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave us a review. What’s the one game you wish every publisher would preserve forever?

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Hello and welcome to the Unofficial Controller Podcast, your weekly gaming podcast, episode number three hundred and seventeen, with me, George, and this week joined by RGT. Let's save in for posterity that was early door slip hook, wasn't it? Crushed. Let's save in for posterity to my old oh my good God. Why did you why would you keep that thing? RGT, how's it going?

SPEAKER_05 0:50

I'm very well, thank you. That was one way you were gonna.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

I don't think I really care how you feel. Gemini, YouTube AI, how are you feeling? Good, you're looking good, you're making all the right moves. Let me tell you that we've got some PlayStation preservation news coming up. Oh, don't panic. Don't you dare panic. Because then we're also asking whether Bungie was worth a 750 million for PlayStation. And I think we know the answer to that. And then we're gonna slide into some news about the Switch. Possibly, possibly not, because of Nintendo's greed, not getting the best selling console of all time marker. We'll dig into that and a lot more. Once I've asked RGT, RGT what? The bloody hell have you been playing this week?

SPEAKER_05 1:41

Not much, but a couple of interesting things. Um I've actually played two demos and one demo I've played on two different systems to see what the difference would be, which is quite surprising results, really. But anyway, first up, Pragmata.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Do I need to go and download this immediately? And if so, on what device?

SPEAKER_05 2:04

Well, I um I had a bit of a chat with Carlos on Discord about this because he's played it as well. Um, and I said to him, This has Remember Me DNA all over it. If you've played Remember Me, which we've done recently on our uh Gen 7 playthrough on the Discord. Um in terms of the combat you mean in terms of the feel of the game, the sci-fi, the way you go to root to room to room to clear it, to move on, um, almost this new way of sort of tech way of beating your enemies. Um, it's it's very Remember Me. Um definitely delivered better. Obviously, Remember Me could be a bit clunky for the ideas that that was pushing at the time. Um, but if you haven't played, Remember Me was a generation seven game from Capcom. Um and also Don't Nod over on PS3 and 360, I believe. Um, and it was an interesting concept of a game, and obviously they were gonna do a second one. They didn't, they went on and done um Life is Strange and blah blah blah and the rest is history. But this is Pragmata is um I don't know whether the demo is just a contained demo to show you the game rather than the actual story. So I think you're just in this contained world to give you a bit of hint of the story, how the combat works, mechanics, etc. Um, and you're basically this guy and you've got this young girl who's an AI sort of robot. Um and when you go into battle, she has this little platform, she stands on your back, and when you go into battle, uh when the enemies come at you, you can fire at them, but it would take a lot of ammo to even try on dentys. So she then goes to hack the enemies, and you have a grid system that comes up and it slows down the time. This grid system comes up, and you use your buttons, your triangle, circle, cross, and square to do up, down, left, and right, and you quickly work your way through the system to get to the green panel to hack them, and as you go along, you can get extra buffs to make it even more powerful. So you go did did make your way around this grid, get to green, and boof, that hits them, take a load of energy off, and then that weakens them, and then you can shoot them, then you can destroy them.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

What happens if you don't get the hack right?

SPEAKER_05 4:29

Um, you have to quickly move away and do another hack again, but that it happens quite normally simultaneously. You'll go into another hack again. Um, once you get the flow of it, it I found it quite easy, but really good fun. It was very satisfying. You'd get this big one come up, and you've oh god, you get this hackney. Good diddy. Oh, if we quickly hit that, there's a yellow box that'll take a bit more life off. Ding ding ding ding, work all the way around, quickly get the green boof, and then because you can then select your weapon with your D-pad, so you can have like a shotgun that takes a lot of power off, hit the weak point. Um, and then you get other weapons like um one puts like a static ball you fire out and it freezes the the enemy there. So if you hack them, then put the ball out, hold them there, then you could just put loads of shots into the weak point. Really interesting, different ways of doing it. I found it very good. Um, I found it played really well, looks nice, different story. They didn't let on too much at the moment, from but from what I can make out, you're on the moon, and I think it's a uh a settlement on the moon, and these all these robots have gone rogue, and you're trying to fight your way to get out. And I've I'm I'm supposing that's what the story is. Um, I'm definitely gonna purchase the game because I've I really enjoyed this. This was really good. Um is this the one you played on two systems? I played this originally on Switch 2, they they had the demo come up. I played for a demo, it took me about 20 minutes. Um, but once because I knew it already, I thought, right, I'm gonna jump into the um PS5 version, which then I blitzed through and done it in like 11 minutes, and I wanted to compare what they looked like, how they played. Um so switch two first, I thought impressive for a switch two. I mean, looks really good, lovely graphics, um, seemed pretty smooth. I didn't I mean I was thinking it was 60 frames per second, I'm not 100% sure, but it's it felt very smooth, it didn't feel clunky. Um I say I learned the game more on that one, so it took me 25 minutes, I was at 11 minutes on the PS5 version. Um jumped into PS5 version, there's not a lot of difference between the two, they are very close. Even light and even um graphically, there's not a lot in it at all. There is not a lot in it at all. If you're if you're only if you only own a Switch 2, you are not missing out one bit by not playing a PS5 version. This it almost seemed like it was a like-for-like port. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

I'm sure if Digital Foundry got hold of it, they could Oh mate, I think they have, and I don't think obviously it's not, but uh look, I'll take your layman's look at it. It's good enough for you, it's good enough for me.

SPEAKER_05 7:16

If if I mean maybe there's reflections are maybe a little bit better, maybe the lighting's a little bit better, but as for playing, I mean you have the added benefit of your haptics um and your adaptive triggers on your PS5, which is I know a lot of people don't speak about, but that's always an added plus for me. You really you know that vibration, I mean you really feel part of the game. Um but switch to Pro Control is still a very good controller, it still is very good at that. But yeah, it's not a lot of difference. The only thing is, when I looked up the game, it was like£10 more on a Switch 2 than it is on a PS5, which I still find mad.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Um gotta pay for that special little tech, yeah. Exactly.

Outbound Cozy Camper Road Trip

SPEAKER_05 8:01

Um but yeah, as far as differences between the two, there's not a lot in it. You you'd be fine with both, and I think it's gonna be a good game. Um looking forward to playing it. Um, I played through the uh demo twice and was willing to do a third run because I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the combat. I thought it was very unique, but a lot easier to learn and adapt to than remember me, which felt overly clunky to do it. This feels very swift, bang, bang, bang, bang, done. Shoot, you know, you and you get this rhythm going. I really enjoyed it. Um, yeah, and quite well acted as well. Some cute bits with the little girl as well. So, yeah, good, all good. Um, then second game I played.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Moving on to the second game, yes. May I just have a few indulgences to ask you about this game because I'm I'm looking for something, and I've looked at this and been not sure, but uh I think you'd enjoy this.

SPEAKER_05 9:01

Definitely played a demo. I think you'd like a bit of this.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

I don't do demos, I'm going all in with conviction or nothing. Fine, buy it, get it, get it on the pro.

SPEAKER_05 9:10

No, I that's one thing where obviously I can't compare. Well, I did think with the pros boost, this being that space world is a PSSR2 game as well, apparently. I think this would look quite special on a pro. I I really do. Um, okay. No, no disrespect for the standard PS5 or Switch 2, but I think if you've got a pro, that's probably gonna sing on there, I think. Sorry, yeah, carry on.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

Um okay, I'll get it on there. I think that was it, really. Uh just telling you, I think I'm gonna get it. I'm looking for something. I've got some good bits on the go at the moment, which we'll get into. But this second game, you've intrigued me because I do believe it's the the outdoor game where you build and live in a camper van RGT, is that yeah, this is outbound, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:56

Um a demo cropped up on on Steam, so I downloaded it on the my handheld PC. Um and I thought, as soon as I started playing it, I kept thinking, what does this remind me of? What does this remind me of? I suddenly thought firewatch.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

Mmm. In what way? Because narrative looks like a buildy game.

SPEAKER_05 10:17

Not not by narrative, it's graphically firewatch that I see, yeah. And outdoorsy, it it it almost feels like a evolution of Firewatch. Um it's got that DNA in it, but basically, you start off in this camper van on the demo, and you have to get to a fire lookout tower. You've got your map, and everything is very easy to do, everything is very simple. It's just away you go, find a campsite, and just explore. And I always remember what was the car when you played where you that you found it overly complicated, the one where it was in that sort of specific drive.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

Yes, yeah. I wanted to love that game, dude. So did I the kind of knife in your back was a bit much. Um there's times where I just wanted to chill out and enjoy it, and I I guess that's what Outbound's giving you.

SPEAKER_05 11:16

Yeah, this is. I mean, some sometimes you don't you only go around a corner to another campsite, and the day cycle's quite quick, but um, you basically have your your camp event, you can only pick the old school one in this in the demo, but I think there's three to you can get more of a modern sort of four before one in in the full game. Um, and you have to make it to this firewatch tower, and en route you can um pull up in these little campsites. Um, you can pull your awning out the side, you can light the campfire.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

Can you only stop in these little campsites? Um it's like a road trip, and then after a while you see a campsite you pull in and set up your camp. Yeah. Do you do that to like monitor? Is it got like survival mechanics, you have to keep your hunger topped up and all that sort of drivel?

SPEAKER_05 11:59

You do, and you get tired, but it's not it's very chilled, it's not aggressive.

SPEAKER_03 12:05

So it's not like easy delivery code where I'm gonna disappear down single-tune a K-hole.

SPEAKER_05 12:10

No, no, so you basically you can when when you open up, this is the bit you love. This is this is a bit of you all over. When you open the the the back of the tailgate, you've got a workbench.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

I've seen this in the trailer, but like bizarrely, now this is where people think they know what kind of game I like. As soon as I saw that workbench, I was like, oh no. And then I saw a building on the roof, and I was like, oh no, no, I just want to get in my camper van, drive to the campsite and sit and chill. I don't want to be you don't have to do all of that. But what's all that building on the roof? Like, how do you drive when you've built a massive hot tub gazebo and pink flamingo on your roof? Like, what how did you come back from that?

SPEAKER_05 12:50

I did get to that in the demo. I basically you find these as you explore little areas, there's hidden things to find and collect. You get um there's things like how many campfires you light and you find, then you'll you'll find berries, but there'll be these uh little radio towers, and if you climb and get to them or walk to them, you you can download that'll give you an option of three blueprints to download. You can download and you download them, and then that'll give you the option of building them in the back. So, like the first thing I done, um I had to build a recycler, but to build a recycler, I needed some units in my van. So I built two little kitchen units in my van next to my bed, and then I put a little recycler on, you can recycle stuff, then you can like um download schematics to like cook um and make a cooker, and you can just build as you go.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Where'd you get your food from? Is it just these berries you're eating, or do you have to like rub it?

SPEAKER_05 13:44

I've just found just found berries. Um, but I think as you in the fall game, I think there'll be more stuff you can get to cook, to make meals to keep your energy up, and then you can and then you can make things like um a pickaxe, an axe to get through other areas where when you're walking around, you'll see a big rock, you can't get through there without a pickaxe. So you you find different bits and then you can travel back, but it's it's so chill. Do you know what the bit I really loved? There is this section, and you don't like I say, you only in real life, I started travelling like 50 yards, and you found another campsite, you drive around the corner, it's another one. But I set up this little campsite, it was just off the road near these rocks. I pulled my orn and out and I thought, oh, I can't cook you, I've got the schematics. So I had some berries, and then I felt pit a patter of rain on my awning, and I thought, oh, I'm gonna have to get in the van. So I got in my van, and I as I was in the van, the rain was just pit a pattering down on the roof as it was raining. That was night time, and I've my fire had then gone out because of the rain. And I just sat there near my bed and I thought, oh, this is lovely, just sitting there literally. Do you know what?

SPEAKER_03 14:45

You know, a lot of these first-person experience games like Outbound are like begging to be in VR. Imagine that experience in VR.

SPEAKER_05 14:54

Oh, this would be superb in VR.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Everything about it, like from the create to the way your hands are on the screen to the way you interact with the things, it screams all these games like this. My summer drive, they all scream VR. If people have been brave enough to put these in VR, I think we'd be starting to see it take off.

SPEAKER_05 15:13

Well, I did wonder if this was meant to have been a VR game originally because because of you always find VR games, especially when they're um, it's not many that are overly complicated. I know like No Man's Sky is quite in depth, but yeah, a lot of these games were similar to Outbound. The mechanics of them are quite basic because they're in VR and you're doing them by hand yourself. Yeah, and I always thought this really feels like it was a VR game at some point, and whether that should have been, you know. Yeah, because this would have been odd because you're in first person viewing your camper and you're driving as well, and you're moving your head to look and look around. Oh, it's I'm gonna tack that road and you veer off. And yeah, it's it's good. Is if you want uh because I've been crying out, as you know, I've been trying all these different farm sim games and that like oh I know, I've been crying out for a proper little cozy chill game, and I think Outbound is scratching that itch. I was just laying back on the sofa with my PC, and that's not a workout in itself, holding that up, but it was so chilled out, and um, yeah, it's another one I think I'm gonna get that. I don't know whether to get Steam version or PS5. I think I might get the PS5 version just for having it on the screen on the TV and sitting back on the couch.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

I think you're biting at the wrong stick. I think it needs to be um it needs to be done on the gaming PC, the handheld PC, the Lenovo, whatever you call it, only because you could take that on your own camping experience.

SPEAKER_05 16:50

Well, the only other thing I was thinking was switch to, because then you've got on the TV and you've got it portable. Is it on Switch 2? I think it's gonna be on Switch 2, yes. I believe so.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

Get it there then there.

SPEAKER_05 16:59

Yeah, and then you can have best of both worlds, can't you? We can take it when we go camp and then we can uh yeah, I could play camp or more camp.

George’s Week In Games

Flight Simulator VR Hooks Hard

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Well, that's what I'm thinking. What's wrong with you? Yeah, and on that point, if I may, let me regale you with what I've been playing because last week I threatened I would download Flight Simulator. We'll come back to that. Been playing a little bit of farming sim. I've been checking out Cyberpunk uh with its new PS5 Pro update, and it does look gorgeous. I also promised I would have a look at Witcher 3 on the Switch in the PS5. Do you know what? It holds up, it does. Um, it's nowhere close, but I even got a third party in to adjudicate. Do you know what is passable? Um, it does look good on PS5 though. Uh Assassin's Creed, black flag, bit more of that on the Switch. Um, but the game I really want to talk about, and I want to labour this point RGT, so you're gonna have to indulge the hell it is.

SPEAKER_05 17:49

I bet I know what this is.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

Last week I said I was gonna get Flight Simulator because the VR had been included. I did exactly what I said I would do, because I always do for you. Viewer, viewer, viewer, viewer, viewer, viewer, viewer. I do it for you. Um, I got it, I downloaded it. Junky install, fair enough. Uh first of all wasn't played flat screen, wasn't I impressed with the graphics? A bit like, oh god, this looks like dog mess. Just don't get me wrong, planes look great. Put the VOR VR on, expected downgrade, yeah, awful. Um, it was passable. Getting the plane. Let me cut to the short of that story. You can go in and ramp all the settings up if you want to. I don't know if that's a PS5 normal option, but it's certainly an option to me on the pro. I went on the VR and you could take everything from low up to medium and some of the settings up to high. When you're playing on flat screen, you go into the settings, you can put particles up, put it all up.

SPEAKER_05 18:46

As soon as it's a PC thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 18:48

It is as soon as I went back into the game, the grass texture loaded up. Even Rachel was like, Wow, look at this. I was like, I know this is improved, isn't it? Put the VR headset on, different game again. What I can say is the Friday night I downloaded it, I didn't realise it was move the VR sense control compatible. So I was playing it in VR and on flat screen with a controller. Having a great time using all the short button links on the controller to do all the things, feeling quite sexy. Anyway, took the headset off and said to Rachel, you know, it'd be really good because I can see all the dials, you know, and when I look at them, it comes up and says, I really wish it supported the sense controllers. So I googled it. It does. How embarrassing. So I load it back up with the sense controllers. Um wow, let me tell you, I loaded up into a Cessna with the sense controllers. Not that I really know that much about flying, but I know my way around a car and machines and bits and bobs. Looked at the dashboard, I was like, right, all right, all the instructions have gone. Because on the joypad, you hold R1 and press up and it goes through the starter mechanism. Here's me in VR. Alright, bit of fun. So we'll see if we can get this started. Up this red switch, poof, main battery on. What next are we gonna need? Fuel. Look down at the fuel direction lever, move that to the centre, yeah. Turn the fuel pump on. What else are we gonna need? Like master avionics there, all that's all turned on. Yeah, okay. So, how do you start a plane looking around? Oh, it's a key. Reached out with a sense controller, turned to the ignition on, rotated it round, though. Couldn't get it started. Oh, it must be something else. I can't remember what it was, but I flicked up one other switch. Okay, right, right.

SPEAKER_05 20:48

I thought for a minute you're gonna say you got Rachel a VR kit as well. You played two players and she bump started you down the runway.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

You know, it doesn't support anything like that, but it'd be amazing if it did, because the chance to take a guest in the back, because they have to watch the big screen, right? Because you have to be looking at the controls. Um, let me tell you, it's I've got it in like semi-casual mode, so it will bite you in the arse if you're not careful, but I can get a plane off the ground, up in the air, easy peasy, awesome, flaps up and down, yeah, and you can see all the controls, and you just you mess about with them. Now, I've had some success in assessing them. My landings are a bit rope. Took off dead nice. I've been going through, so you have to start off and get your Jesuit pilots license to start with, and that's pretty simple. Up circuit, down, kind of everything was okay and manageable. Then you do a few jobs for people, and you're doing what I love about it is the level of detail, like pharmatons in here. Perfect. Like I parents in law came around, mother and father in law. I said, Hey, have a look at this, Dave. Loaded it up. He said, bloody hell, which No, we had one on PC as it was loading. We had one on PC, you know, ages ago. You could get in a helicopter and fly it round. Here you go, Steve. As it loads, it pans round all these airports. So they're the graphics. Oh, bloody a one like that. We load it up and fly over his house, and he's able to pick it out from the sky. He's like, That level of detail's unreal. I was like, oh no, it's scary, isn't it? So let's fly, go fly over stage. I said, Alright, what we'll do is we'll load up in an airport near it and we'll fly over it. Can you do that? So yeah, of course you can. And the weird thing is, if you're like a Farberry's just cut a strip of grass and you fly your Cessna off of it, and that's a registered place that you launch from, it's in the game. No way. There's a strip of grass down the road from me that professes to be an airport, believe it or not, that planes like hobbyists take off from. It's in the game. So I take off from there for my sightseeing trips around local area.

SPEAKER_05 22:58

That's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

And when like when you're low, obviously it uses kind of streamed-in Bing Map technology, which we know probably isn't the best. But when you're up a couple of thousand feet in the air, especially in VR, and you're looking out the window, and you can see the clouds pass, and then between that they break, and you see like ground and fields and rivers and cars on the road as well, and it's like this is bloody good. And you look up and you're flying into the sun. So in the Cessna, you can put a little sun visor down and it works. You can open the window and it's like BOOM! The sound of the engines coming in, and you can look out, or the wind noise, you close it, and it's back to quiet.

SPEAKER_05 23:43

So is it like 360 sound as well for your geez?

Sense Controllers And Cockpit Rituals

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Yeah, don't forget that's one of PlayStation's USPs, that 3D surround sound, which does work in VR, really gives you that feeling of. Now, don't get me wrong, I did feel a little bit at times in the VR experience, like I was playing around in like a map app or something, you know. It does have that feeling to it. But in terms of its slickness, I was thinking and then saw it read. I I read someone mention this after, so I know it's not an original thought. But when I was playing it, the only thing that I could liken it to in terms of its scope and its interactivity and the ability to oh, I'll put the headset on, I'll take the headset off, I'll load it up without the headset plugged in while it's loaded up now. I think I'll plug the headset in and use it, and it you can be rough as assholes in terms of how and when you put the implementation in. It's totally cool with it. In fact, it endorses it, if anything. Like you load it up flat screen, you plug your headset in at the bottom, it just says press L1, uh R1, L1, and triangle, boom, flips the headset mode, you put it on, you're straight in the game, RGT, and it slips impressive that last thing you want would have to come out, turn off, plug in, start up. Who would have thought that Microsoft delivered the killer app for the now death PSVR 2 right on the day that I've got a tombstone chiseled out for it in a six-foot hole dug at the top of my garden?

SPEAKER_05 25:18

That's crazy, isn't it? That's you could tell one had the tech, one had the game. When they come together, you suddenly think, hmm, maybe you should do this more because things actually work quite well when you put your heads together.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Oh, dude, and I'll tell you what, the the realism, like you get in the plane, you get it started up, you've got to get on the radio to tower, uh, you just press the button. Oh wow, geez, and you say, Okay, I'm in holding position. Do I permission to go to the second holding position before I enter the runway? Yeah, you're clear, proceed to the holding thing. So then you have to off-break, bring the revs up, bop, bop, bop, bop, use your rudder to steer yourself round to the position. Yeah, yeah. It's great. And then you have to hold there. One issue I've found is when uh I've been coming in hot and heavy, I'm like that with the yoke trying to get it in landed. When you finally get the sucker down on the ground in one of the Cessnas, the handbrake levers underneath the steering wheel. Now, in VR, that means I'm now taking my head right off of where I need to be looking to jam my head down under my legs in the passenger seat well, so I can see the brake, so I can get the little dot on it, so I can press X to pull it on while not nose-diving the plane into the deck. I tell you what, that'll make a man of you. Uh, especially when I come down. I could be a bit hot. I could be a bit hot, right? Bam, cut power.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

Oh god, boom! Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, hang on, break. Oof. Boom.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

Yeah, it's it's it's an experience, flat screen or in VR, but VR takes it to another level. It kind of makes it a different game, it makes it feel a lot more high stakes, I tell you. When you're playing it flat screen, like yeah, sat in your pajamas playing it with a controller. When you're doing it in VR, you're sweating like a stubbed pig. Terrified.

SPEAKER_05 27:12

Thing is, as well, I mean, fair play to Microsoft, because you know, it was one of their killer apps on on you know, when it c when did it come out? Three, four years ago.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

This one released probably only last year, did it not?

SPEAKER_05 27:26

Oh right, but the you know the flight simulator for this gen came out a while ago and yeah, during COVID, they relaunched it.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Yeah, that's it. And then the second iteration of that relaunch.

SPEAKER_05 27:36

Yeah, and you know, obviously then they done their putting their games onto you know other systems. But to be fair, they didn't really have any need to put it on VR. VR2 is dead. Let's look at it from let's look at that.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

So it's fair play to them from a business point of view, yeah, it makes no sense because they're never gonna recoup the money. I can't see how they're ever gonna recoup the money from the development team, which must have been how many million, right, to get this done, even if it was on the cheap, it was at least a couple of mil. PSVR users that are still in in entwined in the system that still own one. I mean, there's probably more PSVR 2s on the shelf of CEX than there is in Users Home in the UK right now. So just think about that for a moment. So they've released this game with this multi-million pound you know, RD'd add-on. And let me tell you, the implementation is slick. It's not garbage, it's not nailed on, it's the best.

SPEAKER_05 28:38

Well, like you say, it seems it seems like the killer app.

SPEAKER_03 28:41

It's the best in the business.

SPEAKER_05 28:42

Do you think there's been a bit of funding from Sony here? Do you think they've sort of said like that?

SPEAKER_03 28:46

No, I think basically they were looking at maybe wider VR implementation for the PC, had a look at it, maybe thought maybe a couple of switch flicks, and we can be doing this on VR for VR2. Don't forget the support in the implementation of the VR2 headset on the PC, because it wasn't that long ago Sona released the little cable, so you could then use it as a concurrent headset on PCs, and from all intents and purposes, we know the headset's probably one of the best in the marketplace, if not the best, because it's got the haptic feedback in there, and mate, that works. It's got the haptic feedback in the controls. Like when you touch something in the game with a haptics, you know you're not picking it up, but you feel like you've made contact with it, and that's a that's a big difference in the world of VR. Instead of floating around like a ghost, you're still floating around like a ghost, but you just feel like that snagger haptic, so you know you got it.

SPEAKER_05 29:40

I can imagine the Microsoft boys getting their first VR dev VR2 dev kit playing around with it, going, Oh, this is really good. Then you can imagine the Sony boys getting the Microsoft flight simulator on the VR2 going, My god, these guys have smashed it on it.

Career Mode Pressure And Landings

SPEAKER_03 29:58

You know, the the way the menus are it uses AI in probably one of the best ways. So it's using AI to voice all the characters in the game. So when you're talking to the tower, that's AI, but it you can't really tell because of the radio. So can you ask him anything without answer you? No, no, no. You have to be you you you press the button to ask, then your co-pilot says the proper command, they reply. But you do kind of ask them as you're coming in to land at places, you do, and you are rated in your career mode on whether you made all the right radio calls. So you radio to say I'm going into a circle, they say okay, pattern recognized. Then when you're ready to land, you have to tell them I'm coming in, and they say, Okay, right one way. Well, they need to know the runway that you or they tell you the runway to use, or you tell them the runway you're gonna use. If you don't tick all these boxes on the way in, you aren't getting a perfect score at the end. And I haven't had a perfect score yet. There's always been something. My landings has been a big issue, but then normally I've like messed up airport etiquette. Like I took off on a grass um airstrip. Well done to everyone still listening, by the way. Thank you for this. And I was rattling down it, and I couldn't tell like where the airstrip was, it's a grass field, so I start I caught a little bit of wind and started to veer over, and it was like minus points. You've you've you're not observing the air, the runway. And I was like, Well, what the hell do you want me to do? Like, I don't even know where this is. Goes through someone's garden washing line. Well, what I'm saying is it's a field, and apparently within that field was a line I must have stuck to. But how do you know in a in an unmowed grass field?

SPEAKER_05 31:37

Yeah, you think there's some sort of markers, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_03 31:39

But this one didn't. Some of them have little cones, this one didn't. So anyhow, it's up in the air, quick flick of the rudder, and then uh only just made it over the tree. So you know, some of these are in ways like I'm giving it full beans as well, and you know, not coming up aggressive, but you know, just under a stall warning. And I'm looking out thinking, you know, you you that's close.

SPEAKER_05 32:01

Yeah, that was nearly in the conifers then.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

Yeah, so I've got lots of good things to say about that. I know I'm probably being an advocate for an experience that's gonna cost you the thick end of whatever for a pro, the thick end of whatever for a VR2, and the thick end of whatever for the 70 bucks that this game is. Hey, I know this is not what you can call um decent consumer advice, it's insanity. Um, but if you want a dose of that, I'd recommend it wholeheartedly.

SPEAKER_05 32:28

Well, no, I think I think where this probably lies is people who have either got a pro or PS5 and got a PS VR2 and felt a bit burned by it or very burnt by it, and what am I gonna play on it? You've now given a good reason to pick that back up and give it a go.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

So or let me offer you up an alternative user. They've got a they've got a PS5, I don't care what version it is, and they've got flights in, and they love it. Get yourself down to CX and get yourself one of those cut price PSVR2 headsets, sharpish, because your experience is about to go from F19 Stealth on the Atari ST to oh my god, dad, I think I've got my pilot's license. But you know, for the sake of it, someone edit that round, make it look good in a TikTok, Jesse. I'm looking at you. Make me look sexy, don't make me seem like a weirdo all the time. It's like it's all I ever get.

SPEAKER_05 33:20

Like, you know, you're now giving him clipbait here. This is gonna be clipped. You're just done the noises. That's just gonna be you just making noises again this week.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

Well, I'm hoping that I leave enough other material around for people to understand that I'm not just I mean, I am.

SPEAKER_05 33:35

We're not worried about that material, we just want the no one wants that. This week's TikTok, I was crying. I was absolutely crying.

SPEAKER_03 33:46

I realised on the watchback what I thought was a really perfect Scottish accent of a of a concerned elderly Scottish grandmother or mother was completely unintelligible when I listened back to it. There you go, Jesse. Stick that in there. Stick it in yourself, boy.

SPEAKER_05 34:07

That's another one, that's clip.

SPEAKER_03 34:11

Brilliant, yeah. So that's it. That's all said and done. Um, I want to just flick back to farming sim a little bit. I just can't say how much joy that game's giving me. I've kind of given up. How many hours you put in there? Not as much as you think. Must be a few hundred, don't you? Well, across all the different systems, across my concurrent one running on the Switch version that I play every other night, and on the PlayStation version I play every other night. I mean, I've got a lot going on here. I've got two farms, I'm running. I'm a double estate kind of guy. I don't like the switch estate, though. It's it's in America and it's not my kind of farming. I don't like it. Still made in. I wish. And we'll keep going back to it, though. Well, we've got nothing else, have I? What's an addict gonna do? What's he gonna do? Well, yeah. You gotta do something to take this agony away. So I'll play I'll play Farming Methodo simulator. You gotta do what you gotta do sometimes, RGT. You know. Uh I I've been known to draw tractors on pieces of paper and just shuffle them round the floor making noises.

SPEAKER_05 35:17

So I've seen that, I've actually witnessed that.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

So there's a man who's probably had a little bit too much farming in his yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_05 35:25

So, you know, if one's on charge or run out of charge, but you switch and you're away, out come the crayons, little little international, and bum bum bum bum bum boom torch the farmers off.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

Talking point, talking point, talking point. Do I need another game lab console? Because I found myself missing it severely. I had it for a day and a half, and then my son took it on a Pokemon binge, and I haven't it's May, and I haven't seen it since, and it went in December. So help me out here.

SPEAKER_05 35:56

Don't go for a game lab, go for a really good quality um emulator, like a Amber Nick or something like a second hand one, maybe from CEX, you can pick them up.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

But the weirdest thing is, mate, I could go on to Game Lab, click a button, and it turns up with all the games loaded on it, no stress. If I go into CX, I'm gonna buy basically a device that's ripped naked, bare, born of nothing. It's just a calculator, for want of a better word. And then I've got a now, you know me, I'm like a kid at Christmas, I can't wait. I can't wait. If I buy a new fancy dance piece of technology from CX, if I can't get in the car and start getting some enjoyment out of it, either from the slot or whatever, I'll give me furious.

SPEAKER_05 36:38

Yeah, but then that's when you just need to have a little DM with Badabinkster and say, do us a favour, load us up a load of games on a sim card, obviously ones I already own.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

That's 24 hours away. I click Game Lab. No, I click the one on Amazon, it turns up Tomoz. Tomorrow's that's what the cool kids are calling tomorrow.

SPEAKER_05 37:00

The OG dog wants Tom Oz.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

OG said to me, This is why you're not getting the downloads on YouTube, you're not speaking like the youth.

SPEAKER_05 37:09

So I'm incorporating a bit of that.

SPEAKER_03 37:11

Total motion. Alright, Karen, chill out. Like, what is all this? Karen, you racist. That's what all the kids shout at the bus stop these days. What the hell? He took your lolly. So are you? What's happening here? Yeah. That's the kids for you. 6'7. 6'7. Oh, don't not that. Take Rogan Trump UFOs, Apollo lights. Uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:44

You just hear every algorithm going. Lovely. That's a few more downloads. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03 37:48

Don't thank me when we've just topped the six million download mark when people come here looking for UFO secrets and they come all the way to the end of the show and realize there weren't any. But I suppose if they got here, they probably would stop listening. But they think that's a trap. I posed to you the other week, right? You know, I said to you when you're outbound, would you take this, you know, in your tent playing it? And you said, yeah, I would. I put it to you on the close of Flashback the other day. Can you believe that there might be someone, a pilot, playing on portal, on autopilot, in a plane on autopilot?

SPEAKER_05 38:22

That's a weird world, isn't it? That's almost twilight zone.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

That's plane inception, that is. Now, did him and his mate, because they've got Wi-Fi on these planes, so he's got his portal out, he's like, alright. You take off as I take off from this airport at this time with that weather, you fly on that, and I'll fly on this.

SPEAKER_04 38:43

Great idea, Craig! Of course we will.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

I don't know why he's called Craig. Well, he's like high end either. Um but he is.

SPEAKER_05 38:54

I mean, he might just be Craig, he works for EasyJet and he's gonna make a loose, but you know he doesn't have to be Craig, what's his co-pilot's name?

SPEAKER_03 39:05

Kevin Shane Shane, nice Craig and Shane. Co-pilot pilot.

SPEAKER_05 39:23

They could get muddled up. So it's like, oh the warning lights now, ah that's alright, don't worry, we'll just get lose a few points. No, in your plane. Oh god, sorry, didn't realise it. You could get muddled up there.

SPEAKER_03 39:35

Yeah. Maybe you play it on mute. Put the plane on mute so you can enjoy the game. Stall, stall, stall, stall. Yeah, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_05 39:48

Yeah, no, it's not, yeah, it's not the game.

News Desk Opens

Bungie Write-Down And Marathon Fallout

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Too low, pull up, pull up, too low. Whatever. Anyway, think it's time for the news to scout the very darkest regions of the internet to bring you the latest stories. First up, um, I'm gonna go first because uh I'm in charge and I just do whatever I want, uh, apparently. You do. Um, well, so you say. Uh I've had Sammy Barker's lawyer on the phone. I don't give a rat's ass, Sammy. See in court. Um, because over at Push Square, Sammy Barker, the outrageous bannerman of Push Square, has decided to indulge himself in medieval cosplay. You'll find him this week on the outskirts of Swindon, reenacting the Battle of Agincorps. He's a specialist longbowman and has managed to develop, whittle, and refine a medieval longbow with such historical accuracy that the Armoury of Leeds can find it indistinguishable from the longbow they have in their museum. He will be attending there with 40 rubber-tipped English longbow arrows. Uh obviously they can't use real arrows, and he's looking at raining down hell on um Kevin and the aforementioned pilot that's not on the plane and Shane and Craig will be there dressed as French knights uh on their steeds, which they've acquired through their no doubt unenviable pay from EasyJet. So I wish you well, Sammy Barker. Go stick the French all over again and show them the two Vs of victory that only a true English bowman can. So obviously, with his weekend busy, he wrote this. Is Bungie Sony's worst ever acquisition? Are you googling whether Sammy Barker is a medieval reenactment guy? You're gonna be surprised. He is. Is he is Bungie Sony's worst ever acquisition after 765 million write down? Uh Marathon's under the microscope. Get ready, RGT. I want your full scientific forensic analysis of this. Sony has reported an eye watering 765 million impairment loss on Bungie, raising the question: is this the platform holder's worst ever acquisition? This includes a 204 million impairment loss late last year, meaning the value of the developer has plummeted since its 3.6 billion purchase in 2022. It's important to understand exactly what's happening here. These aren't exactly, these aren't necessarily cash losses for the company, but a devaluing asset. The Japanese giant is effectively writing down the value of the purchase because it's fallen short of expectations and its performance isn't expected to improve in the short term. The latest impairment loss is particularly pertinent because it comes after the release of Marathon, which appears to have performed below expectations. While the platform holder hasn't announced any specific sales data, we know from sources like Steam DB that the game hasn't exactly set the world online. Meanwhile, it was completely missing from April PS Store's sales chart following its release in March. So did Sony overpay for Bungie? These impairment losses appear to signal one very simple fact Sony dramatically overpaid for Bungie. Wedbush securities Michael Pactor, hang on a minute.

SPEAKER_05 43:23

Oh Michael. Mmm hang on now. If you listened, if you've listened to last week's flashback, you'll probably recognise that name. That's just dawned on us. Yes, this was the slightest.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

Sorry to expose me in red light, but flashback notes, he's there. Michael Pactor. Oh my god. In fact, he's there because Sting and Ray got out. What Ray and no, I don't even know the characters to my own show anymore. A couple of guys get out of a car at the end of flashback. Call them what you like, probably Kevin and Craig at this point. And uh I had them looking like Jordan and Michael or whatever?

SPEAKER_05 44:03

Yeah, Michael was the guy who uh was very annoyed. Yeah, and he was weren't he the guy who was annoyed that the EA Take Two sale, and he said that Take Two should never get a better offer than what EA was offering them, and blah blah blah. And well, yeah, he might have misjudged the future of Take Two.

Panic Buys And Live Service Regrets

SPEAKER_03 44:21

With that in mind, yeah, listen in Webbush Securities, Michael Pacter, a divisive but well-known industry observer, said as much when the purchase was announced. He described the acquisition as desperation and a response to Microsoft's unprecedented near 70 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, which was taking place roughly around the same time. He said just to compare and contrast, EA bought respawn about three or four years ago for 700 million with 400 developers, and those guys generate 700 million a year in revenue. Bungie does about 200 million in revenue, so I think Sony vastly overpay. Part of Bungie's value for Sony was not just its games but also its live service expertise. However, the dev has struggled to cling on to players as Destiny 2 has shed many of its daily active users since concluding its story with the Final Shape in 2024. What did you expect? Meanwhile, Marathon is now struggling to surpass 15,000 concurrents on Steam just a month after launch. And while we don't have any specific console numbers, we know the game likely sold best on PC and is attracting most players there. Live service woes. Furthermore, even with Bungie's apparent expertise under its umbrella, Sony's live service strategy is blown up in its face. Concorde was shut down within weeks of release after it failed to retain anywhere near enough players to be viable. Firewalk, its developer and other candidate, the worst PlayStation acquisition ever, was unceremoniously closed down as it failed to settle on a rescue plan. Multiple projects have been shutter as a consequence, including God of Warlife Service game from remake dev Bluepoint, which also included in that dev being shuttered, and remaining projects like Fair Games and Horizons Hunter Gathering face an uphill battle against negative player perception. The former has been roasted in various closed beta tests, while the latter has constantly attracted criticism for its art style and deviation away from the mainline games. In fact, the only live service game PlayStation fans showed any excitement for was The Last of Us Factions, and was apparently axed after feedback from Bungie. While the Washington studio simply advised Naughty Dog it require a lot of resources to maintain, many people blame the studio for its cancellation, especially when it was apparently close to completion, by all counts an outstanding experience. And rumour has it, RGT, there is some fan petition stuff going on to get that released. If it was allegedly finished as it was, then give it to us. Those who have played Marathon do seem to enjoy it, but it's hardcore extraction shooter format means it's always going to be difficult for a game to reach a large audience. Meanwhile, Destiny 2 is on a downward trajectory, and not even a Star Wars theme expansion could turn its fortunes around. The studios in early stages are making Destiny 3, but considering modern dev cycle, that's going to be at least five or six years away, so likely somewhere in the 2030s at this point. While its project Gummy Bears should still release as a first party game, it means the team's now operating independently of Bungie. Given the amount of money spent, the company's ambitions for it and the impairment loss recorded so far, it's hard to against it's hard to argue Bungie is Sony's worst acquisition. Other candidates like Firewalker up there and Haven may make the list, but depending on what happens with Fair Games, the overall spend on these studios is nothing compared to the billions invested in Bungie. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with Bungie moving forwards, because while we don't necessarily think the studio's in danger, it's clear big changes are going to be needed. And with an estimated 850 employees in one of the most expensive areas of the United States, it's difficult to see how Sony is going to justify the studio's expanse in its current state. And sadly, that likely means impending job losses and redundancies. What do you think, RGT? We've talked about this before on the show, namely when the acquisition happened, but we've not really gone back there, bar probably the odd barbed comment from me thrown at the whale carcass that is bungee. Um excuse those that want to see my face, God knows why, but the mic was in the way. The listener, listener, listener, listener, listener, dear listener, look at a pebble. Imagine my ear on there. I love you, and I still want you to talk to me. Think of me in that way. Yeah. Yeah, RGT. I don't know how you come back from me being on a pebble two weeks in a row. But do so, my good friend, and tell me what's going on here.

SPEAKER_05 49:06

I think it's just proof that when you someone reacts to another company's purchasing, it doesn't always work. That's what's known as a panic buy. Um Bungie's definitely a company that was on the down and still is. Um, one of my customers at work was a die hard Destiny fan and played it thousands and thousands of hours on Destiny, and that has even been deleted off his console now because they haven't treated the fans, the hardcore fans, very well, and broken promises and things that were coming and costs, and they lost a lot of destiny's probably a shell of us for myself. Um, and then obviously, like you say in the article, the um them stepping in and saying The Last of Us online was you know, give that the chop. Don't understand why. Um it's a totally different game to what they normally make as a live server.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

So going back to the article, they did the reason they said to chop it was the amount of expense it would take to maintain the servers was going to be a lot. So I don't we don't know quite what they had in mind.

SPEAKER_05 50:16

But you say that, but that was in especially with that first season of The Last of Us, it was in full hype as well.

SPEAKER_03 50:24

Oh, it was, mate. If that has dropped, that would have been massive because that would have been like a it would almost have been a single player Last of Us Union.

SPEAKER_05 50:32

I think they've really, really dropped the bomb with that because that would have attracted so many people to PlayStation who were just Last of Us fans, who are only casual gamers who probably didn't even own a PS5, but would have been, oh, I need to play that. You know, these big, big fans uh there is a big fan base for the Last of Us TV show. They could uh I think they've really dropped a bomb with that. But yes, with old Mickey there, I think I have to agree with him. Um definite overpayment. I think most of these companies that have been bought have been overpaid. It was uh oh yeah, big time. It was this mad, almost like gold rush where they had to buy the studios up, and that was who could get them first.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

Well, if you think about it, this all started when Tencent started chucking their money around.

SPEAKER_05 51:18

Yes, and it was the Embracer Group as well.

SPEAKER_03 51:21

But yeah, and it was all a race for the bottom because all of a sudden they realised that the video game market kind of happened to the mid-flow. All of a sudden, everything was up for sale.

SPEAKER_06 51:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:34

And you needed to grab some of these bits in the air because when everything touches down, whatever wasn't touched was owned by somebody else. And if you're looking to survive, and it was only a couple of weeks ago reported that Sony's moving back from television, moving back from this, moving back for that, focusing solely on becoming an entertainment company. If you don't know if you don't have entertainment within your portfolio, you're dead.

SPEAKER_05 52:00

Yeah, it's and the mad thing is that was just uh like I say, it was a gold rush era where they already what it was, and they and they jumped on with Bungie. Um now at the time you probably thought, yes, not a bad buy for that money. It's are they gonna recoup that? I mean, for what they've done so far.

SPEAKER_03 52:24

Not even close.

SPEAKER_05 52:25

Not even close.

SPEAKER_03 52:26

Well, that's what these impairment losses are, dude. This is them trying to recover through an accounting write-off mechanism the money that they've lost.

SPEAKER_05 52:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:34

This is normally reserved for games that have bombed that never make it out. This impairment loss has never been attached like this to a whole developer before.

SPEAKER_05 52:43

And this is from a company that's absolutely smashing this gen in sales-wise, um, the platform to play on, making the most bucks, and you think they still had to write this off as a loss. That's how bad this acquisition has been.

SPEAKER_03 52:58

Yeah, um it dented their quarter four, but their f their full year figures were good.

SPEAKER_06 53:05

Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 53:06

Yeah, so so they were able to absorb these 200 million pound hiccups here and there, but that 306 billion is still up there. They're obviously taking the opportunity to take quarter billion chunks out of it as they can, but it's not looking easy. And we're not talking Mickey Mouse money, we're talking 200 million quid. Yeah, this is you could solve homelessness with that.

SPEAKER_05 53:30

And you think this is when you sometimes look at Nintendo, and yes, there's there's a lot that Nintendo do wrong, but there's a lot they do right. They don't get involved in any of this shenanigans, they didn't, you know, they just as they are, you know, as and they just do their own thing, and sometimes you think maybe you should do that, you know. PlayStation, we've said this a hundred times before, but they jump on this live service bandwagon. I shouldn't have done that. Stick at what you're good at, stick at what you were good at, you know, and it's it's made a big big hole and a big golf in this gen for PlayStation, and it it it's an odd one. Um hopefully they've learned their lesson from that. Um, you know, that they bought a couple of studios, it hasn't gone really well. Microsoft bought quite a few studios, some of them are shut, some of them are big bucks, Activision springs to mind, um, which hasn't really seemed to have paid off at all yet, especially with Call of Duty. So at the end of it, no one's really won. All has happened to the city. But think of the developers.

SPEAKER_03 54:29

Yeah, I was just gonna say, think of the developers that Sony's bought for like millions here and there, ones and twos, tens, twelves, that they've brought on board and that just fall through the cracks. It's embarrassing in a way. Some of these games that have been lost to time from developers that were attached to Sony that now are just shuttered or gone, like Bungie better watch itself. Because the only thing keeping it in play right now is the amount of money that it costs to get them in the first place.

SPEAKER_05 54:57

Yeah, yeah, they're being they're being held there by their own value. If they were bought for anything less, they would have been gone.

SPEAKER_03 55:03

Um they would have. A marathon would have been iced.

SPEAKER_05 55:07

And you see that with like when Microsoft are buying smaller studios like Tango, Tango had a massive hit, but you only need a short period of time where you're not making money and you're gone. You're gone because it is it is a small amount of money to a company like that. So you you you you are gone, and it is that's why I love to see with I was talking about this with a guy at work the other day, he plays a lot of indie games, and we were talking about he was saying that you know, one of the benefits, and and Captain was saying this as well, one of the benefits of the greed of the big companies, the Sony's, the Xboxers, of buying these studios up, killing the studios with effect, is freeing up all these developers to start their own little studios, and we're now getting this big swave of uh indie games. And he said that is one good thing to come out of it because they know how to make good games and not just triple A games and how to make a good game, a good finish on a game, but you know, look at um uh Secret mode, for instance. You know, they came out of the Sony studios, set their own games. They did, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:11

And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to champion them, mate, because they did nothing wrong.

SPEAKER_05 56:16

Yeah, and both their games have come out perfect. No glitches, no bugs, no patches, bang, the game's out, brilliant little games. So, as a gamer, that's where we've got to look and think we have gained from because overall these companies buying up, paying astronomical amounts for these studios, and then trying to recoup when they need to recoup the money, that's only gonna come from one place, and that's our pockets, unfortunately.

Back To The News Bag

SPEAKER_03 56:41

So you bail them out one pound at a time. RGT, get your nose in the news bag, my old friend. What are you gonna drag out for our listeners and viewer? Viewer viewer viewer viewers uh I'm gonna have a route round in here, and this is from Push Square.

SPEAKER_05 56:56

Oh, and this is from Stephen Tileby.

SPEAKER_03 56:59

What's what's so Tailby What's that means to me?

SPEAKER_05 57:03

He's been busy this week. He has been a busy boy this week. He's um he's taken up the dying sport of pigeon racing. Um he just said that this isn't getting enough clout in Europe at the moment. So he's um he's taken it up, he's worked his way up the ranks. Um the only problem is he he entered European championships and they launched from Safe of France, and his number one bird is lost. Fast Frank. Fast Frank's gone missing over Bordeaux.

SPEAKER_03 57:32

So do you know what I've heard about this? What illegal raft riders to grab him out of the sky. No, yeah, because they're called Frank. Yeah, they they fly low, they hook the waves to pigeons. It's how they navigate. They don't pull high when they cross water, they come low. Yeah, and it's within his arm's reach of these of these dinghy riders, and they just grab him out of the air and eat them raw.

SPEAKER_05 57:55

No, I poor Frank. Frank's Frank Frank's done. That was his senior year as well.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

That was his big moment.

SPEAKER_05 58:02

Yeah, that was his last race.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

He was one of the quickest in the I hope it's a mistake. I hope he turns up.

SPEAKER_05 58:08

Yeah, let's hope so. I mean, he's been lost before, Frank.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

He's crazy out there, mate. Yeah, well, they found Mad Max beyond Thunderdome, from what I understand.

SPEAKER_05 58:15

He's he's been he's been lost before, poor Frank, and they found him just say for Doncaster.

SPEAKER_03 58:20

So he he was just yeah, he's he's over he's over friendly territory there. But the North Sea, mate, it's a hotbed. There's like people running around on jet skis, it's like Waterworld.

SPEAKER_05 58:30

Yeah, I mean, Stephen did mention that to me, he just said the underground pigeon racing scene is lethal.

SPEAKER_03 58:37

Yeah, yeah. So maybe maybe the dinghy riders, maybe those Waterworld people that inhabit the North Sea these days, maybe they've literally caught him to operate him as a as a ringer in the illegal pigeon racing scene. Because I know that's a big thing in there, because I've took over a couple of disused oil reasons.

SPEAKER_05 58:56

You know what I said to Stephen? I said, this is not sure gar all over again.

SPEAKER_03 59:00

It is. Um he was a he was a good gorilla. What's this news?

SPEAKER_05 59:09

Anyway, Stephen says uh PlayStation's lofty preservation efforts not stopping anytime soon. Um he goes on to say, we've known for a good while now that Sony has established a team within PlayStation that's specifically concerned with preservation. Spearheaded by Garrett Fredley, senior build engineer IP Preservation. The team's work is predominantly about um archiving PlayStation's historical games and related materials. The idea is doing so allows for much easier access to source code, documentation, assets, or whatever might be needed, and even lays some of the groundwork for potential re-releases. Fans were reminded of this work today when Fred Lee shared the post below. Uh PlayStation's preservation journey is on its way, and we're not looking to stop anytime soon. Being able to share our vision, work, hopes, and dreams with Sony leadership was a special moment for our team, and I'm excited to see where we go from here. Uh PlayStation's preservation journey is on its way. Oh, I just read that bit, they've just repeated it. Thank you. With a preservation all about preserving Sony's well for video game IPs. It seems the company's higher-ups have been briefed on the work his team is doing. It's not anything we did didn't already know, but it's at least encouraging to know that these preservation efforts haven't fallen by the wayside. Fans will no doubt be excited to see several legacy franchises on the slide in the above image. It features Sly Cooper, Ape Escape, Whitebout and Kill Zone and more. This isn't some sort of promise, and these series will be returning. Uh some sort of promise that these series will be returning, but the hope is the hard work being put into archiving the organised organizing of historical materials may make um those comebacks that bit easier. Fredley previously shared he and his team had successfully stored more than half a petabyte of data. That is a lot by the saying of that. That is a lot, and that figure will of course be much higher by now. A petrobite is a thousand terabytes, by the way. My god. Anyway, it's good to hear this work continues in the background. It'll probably lead to some fun re-releases in the future. We can cross our fingers at least.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:32

Um, I don't think all those pectorbytes, by the way, are all just game stuff. Don't forget the preservation efforts is going to relate to full scans and um media artworks, artwork, all of it that went high-res into magazines, into massive 40-foot posters. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of probably some of the early PlayStation games are probably tiny compared to some of these like jumping jack, it's co-preserve preservation next to a last of us bus poster, 4,000 meg or something. Two meg 4,000 terabytes. Uh, I don't know. It there's there's a lot going on there. I'm I'm kind of happy about it that they are doing this.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:15

I'm very happy, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:17

But why weren't they doing it sooner? I mean I know for a fact, and they will admit that a lot of things have just gone.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:27

Oh god, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:29

I mean, can you see their remake efforts have been hampered by the fact that they've had to remake the whole freaking game because they've lost it.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:37

And also, I think can you remember we spoke about this a few years ago on the show with um Xbox and doing the backwards compatibility and their efforts as well. Um, and then there was obviously the stat that came out that less than 1% of gamers were using the backwards compatibility. And I think PlayStation will look at this thinking, what's the point? No one's playing the old games, blah blah blah. But they've missed the point is the people might not be playing them, but you still need to preserve your history because once it's gone, it's gone.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:04

Yeah, I see this this is a very much internal team, they're not talking to us at all. We get little glimpses that they've talked to the team and they're okay and cool with them preserving some games. It's very secret in a way. I mean, you look at the logo and endorse everyone to go on to probably onto Push Square and have a look at the preservation article because it within that is the logo that the PlayStation preservation team has attached to themselves. It's freaking well cool. Um, I noticed Kratos is in there. I wasn't quite sure at first until I zoomed in it was him, it's jumping flash, uh Ape on the right hand side, and and a few other of the classics. I think Sly Cooper's in there, so it's nice to see that they've clocked that we know. I think there's a wipeout quasar uh phaser ship on the in the logo as well, so that they've they've seen and recognised all the good bits.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:55

Yeah, and this is also um this is good publicity for them because they've got to remember their demographic now is a lot of those gamers that had an original PlayStation and now our age, they're in the mid-40s with a PS5, and they want to know that this stuff is being saved now. Do you know what I mean? It's not so much this isn't aimed at at the younger Fortnite or Minecraft crowd. This is the people that are still playing and have been playing with PlayStation for 25-30 years, and they've now realized and there's a big part of their audience that would be a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

Well, I put it to you, mate, that those people that you've mentioned are probably really paying for everything that they're doing right now. Yeah, exactly. They're the ones with disposable income that are buying the stupid consoles, they're the ones with disposable income that will buy these games when they come out at launch for 70-80 bucks, you know. And they're they I feel like that user has been long forgotten in all the studios' minds, maybe not Nintendo as much, but they don't really cater for anything beyond what they want to do. But PlayStation and Xbox, I think they could start to recognise the people that have been paying in to this uh experiment since the day they started. Like they've had a lot of money off people, me and you, both of them have.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:15

Exactly. And this is and like I say, this is good publicity because we look at this and we've both said, Oh, this is brilliant. You know, it gives you a good feeling about about the brand and about Sony, and yes, they are preserving, and it's a good little they've ticked a little box there. That's you know, it's almost like they're Ashasharma, and they're doing a little bit of a good news story to say yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:33

It does feel like that, yeah. I have to admit, they've again this week she's talking about going over like with a fine tooth comb everything that they're doing to make it right, and again, got to endorse it, but we we can't do another story on Ashasharma cleaning up the Xbox office, can we? I mean, what next week? Ashes Sharma found some activity antibacterial wipes down the back of Ode Mate's uh um filing cabinet, so she's supposed to not picture on Twitter of The like cleaned office or some drivel, and she's got a little master chief Funko pop on the window, like cheese, like Asher, come on. Um you know, well done, but no. Um and PlayStation, they want a slice of that, didn't they? What can we say that we're doing that's good for gamers that's free? Oh, yeah, do it, do a show and tell. Do a show and tell. Tell them, tell them, show them your PowerPoint. Don't show them all of it, just show them the front picture. Yeah, they'll love it. They'll laugh it up. The thing is, UCP will do an episode about it, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:32

Yeah. And about pigeon racing. Yeah. But as well, that's funny with these companies because sometimes they do a lot of good work behind the scenes and they don't tell us. No, they don't let us know it, you know, and you just think, hang on, you think you think you know what we want to hear, but actually, we probably want to hear more of this sort of stuff. So 100%. Yeah, so yeah, good news. So well done, keep doing it, and it's gonna be interesting to see how big this this project gets with them. But I think they've probably got a long way ahead of them with preservation of games. Um, well, of anything really, you know, IP's the lot, but yeah, it'd be interesting to see where they go.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:12

Drop some more news.

Switch Sales Chase The PS2

SPEAKER_05 1:07:14

Oh god, yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:15

Switch news, Ollie Reynolds. Ollie Reynolds has been Amsterdam on the red light district. Oh, yeah, he's not as seedy as you think. He's writing a book about the history of Amsterdam's red light district and its association with popitution. Uh or from what I understand, it's a very highbrow book, so I'm looking to uh looking forward to getting hold of it. Well done, Ollie. Uh a real journalistic feather on your cap, young sir. In the meantime, he's writing some drivel over at Nintendo Live. He's uh Need to pay the bills, gotta pay the bills, he's gotta sell himself out somewhere. And he sold himself out with this weighty toe. Switch lifetime sales inched toward PS2, but price hikes may hurt its chances. The Switch is an absolute juggernaut, taking pride of place as Nintendo's best-selling console of all time. Yet with the company only shifting 3.8 million its latest fiscal year and prices on the rise, does it have any hope of surpassing the mighty PS2? Current figures show that the Switch is sitting at a running total of 155.92 million consoles sold as of the 31st of March 2026. This puts it above the DS at 154.02 million and yet below the PS2 at 160 million. Naturally, there's plenty of time for Nintendo to shift a further 5 to 6 million consoles to dethrone the PS2, but price increases across the board are adding some doubt. Last year the Switch Family consoles saw a price increase in the US with the OLED model adding 50 bucks onto its MSRP. Similar price hikes have now been announced for Japan and are due to take effect later this month. Obviously, we've also got the Switch 2 getting a hell of a big price increase as well. We're also used to consoles going down in price over time that this is frankly unprecedented. So much so that it severely hurts Nintendo's chances of the Switch becoming the biggest, highest selling console of all time. Only 3.8 million were shifted in the last year, so with further price hikes announced, it's practically guaranteed the number will fall further. Indeed, Nintendo itself is forecasting Switch console sales of just two million during the next fiscal year, which could put lifetime sales around 157, 158 million. Really, it depends on just how long Nintendo is willing to keep selling the Switch. If it sticks around for another few years, there's every chance that it could reach that lofty 160 million goal. Fingers crossed, says Ollie. RGT, what do you make of all that? I mean the PS2, it's a it's a big beast and it's been up the top of the charts for nine on 20 years at this point. Um will anything dethrone it? We thought the switch could, but it's running out of air quick.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:04

Yeah, but the thing is, there's so there's still a massive user base with the Switch. When you sold that many consoles, I mean you remember the PS2. I mean, they still the last game released for the PS2 in Europe at least was um Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, because there was still such a big user base for that console, and I think this is the same. Will it pass PS2? I think it will, because I think Nintendo will keep this go until the Switch 2 gets big enough to stand on its own two feet without having to release Switch.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:33

I'm thinking this this becomes although the pricing has kind of made it difficult to pick now, but you're almost might as well there's a switch and a switch pro almost now. Yeah, and also And if you're a mum and dad, might as well get the one that doesn't matter if Johnny flushes it down the toilet. I'm not being funny, you might as well get in Switch 1. Johnny won't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:52

Yeah, this was the point I was gonna make because everything's gone up. So you're not gonna say, Oh, I'm not getting a switch two, I'll get a PS5 instead. Sorry, that's gone up hundred bucks as well. So, but if you're on a bit more of a budget, say you're a casual gamer in your 30s and you fancy something to take on holiday, you go, Oh, I'm not gonna get a switch two, that's a bit out of my price range. I'll grab the OLED, I'll grab a switch light, that'll be ideal.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:12

Switch light would be the one for holiday, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:14

Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it's I still think there's legs and I still think they'll keep this running for a few more years until they get that.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:22

So I think they're still selling all three of the switch models as well, like the OG, the light, and the OLED. They're all being sold concurrently in the store right now, brand new, sealed in box. So depends as we've talked about on flashback. It depends where Nintendo counting the numbers.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:41

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:42

Depends where these numbers are being counted from. If they're counted from retail sales, fine. If they're counting from numbers shipped to retailers, Ninty, just build five million and shipping to retailers today. Do it. Yeah, you know you're gonna get them gone, just get it done.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:56

But I think I think if anything is gonna take the PS2, it's gonna be that. It's close enough, and I think it will. And I you know, I know companies say they're not interested in in this sort of competition of the biggest sales, but yes, they are.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:10

Nintendo would love to be the biggest selling, you know, Switch being the biggest selling console of all time, especially with it being uh their only just their last console as well, to drag that all the way up to the number one of all time. Yeah, you count them out in your danger, mate. That's what I say about Nintendo.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:25

And and you know, and the thing is as well, it came off the back of the Wii U, which was a complete and utter disaster.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:31

Um it provided the software for the switch, though, didn't it?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:34

It did, but you know, and this was their big comeback. Um, and they've had a lot of criticism over the years for the Switch, the underpowered the chips they used, blah blah blah deh. But it's popular and it's been popular, it's been a fashionable gaming item to have in your backpack, you know, and and they know what we want with the Switch Lite and them gorgeous little colours, you know. I ended up getting the the turquoise one, and then uh for Christmas, Mrs. RGT got me the Zelda gold one, and they know how to sell your stuff. I hadn't even used the gold one, you know. I thought 200 quid worth it. Send that to me. Yeah, whatever. And I thought 200 quids worth, you know, and you'd bought it because it's nice, you know, you've even got it as a piece on the shelf, and you just think, mmm, they know how to sell stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:20

That needs to be played with.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:22

We've got there's only me and missus in the house, and we've got four switches in our house. So that tells you everything. Two switch lights, got an OLED and a switch too. You know, that tells you everything, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:33

You need a girlfriend.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:36

No, definitely not, but yeah, so it's it will it will surpass PS2, I think. Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:47

Well, with all that said and done, let's let's look back, RGT. So PlayStation um PlayStation regretting the 750 million purchase of Bungie, and we don't blame them, but while they're clearing out the locker of Bungie, they're also found all their old games, and they decided to preserve those because they found them behind the uh standee of uh resistance, and then the third item is the Switch, vastly swelling sales numbers that's even threatening the PlayStation 2. Some interesting news this week, RGT. Yes, as we sail out the news into an area as I throw you, hey, catch a mop, boom, throw you a sponge, boom, do some housekeeping.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:33

Well, as we always say every week, um, if you've got any news or anything you want us to talk about or any views on the show, you can contact us at questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com. Um, you can check out our website, unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com, which is regularly being upgraded and new bits added. Um, we've just recently Captain has added the new challenge accepted um to that, which is looking very good. You've got the hidden gems on there, you've got events we've been at. It's a lovely, lovely little website. We're very proud of this, and he's done great work on on that side of things. Um, we've also got our ex, we've also got our Instagram, we've also got our Discord, but we don't talk too much about Discord.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:16

Don't talk about that. It's the cool place. If you if you hype it up, they won't come.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:20

If you know, you know. That's all we'll say. Discord.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:23

Uh plenty of groovy stuff for people to get into, friends to make, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill, get in it, all get left behind. Everyone else is on it. You're the only one who's not on it. You're looking a bit strange now. When you get on there and realize that oh, all these were here, you're like, oh god, the sooner you do it, the less embarrassing it's gonna be for you. We're not gonna make a big deal of it, we're playing it down, but get on with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:46

But I would love to see you there.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:49

I've I've also um just to mention something on air, which is RGT Back the Past, which is our generation seven playthrough. We've uh had a little chat and decided to um give the 50 fifth 50 50 cent game. That's gonna be clip. That's gonna be clipped, thanks, Captain. Um Fist 50.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:12

Jeez. Why wouldn't you use him like a glove puppet? He's nothing to you.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:17

Anyway, we've decided at 50 cents. Blood in the sand or blood in the sand is uh being kicked into the sand. Um yeah, it's not great. Everyone said let's move on. So we as of this coming out, hopefully we've already done our new vote, but if not, then it'll be even the next couple of days.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:34

What's in the vote?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:36

We don't that's what I mean. As of this show, we haven't decided which four we're doing in the vote.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:40

I wanted to get behind it, hype it up.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:42

Yeah, well keep an eye on the Discord and you'll see.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:46

Um I don't think I can even get on it anymore. Before you banned me.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:50

I did. Um we could lift it for a day to see how good you'll be, and then if you get a bad boy again, poof, you're off. Um, we can't, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:01

We need to keep control of these. The house that George built changed locks and keys. Mm-hmm. Yep. Wow. You're a past tenant. Are you gonna let this happen? Are you gonna let this happen? Do you think I'm gonna let this happen? Absolutely not. I think I'm gonna lay down and get steamrolled, you got another thing coming.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:22

Um hopefully as well, as of listening to this, um, Gaz Con, who I have kept saying his name wrong, so I do apologise.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:29

I have a he's not a Russian gas company, he's not an oligarch under Putin's control.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:35

Definitely not.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:36

He's a Gas Con man.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:39

Gaz.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:40

So he is a Russian Gas Con man.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:43

So you're yeah, you're you're making this terrible. Sorry, Gascon. Sorry, Gascon. I'm saluting him. What are you doing? But can you let me finish? Nearly key interrupting in a minute. Um so hopefully, as of listening to this, you should have your t-shirt and tingle tuner, you should have your t-shirt as well. Thank you very thank you very much indeed. Um I'm still saluting you carry on. Um anything else we need on housekeeping anything. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:14

We'll do another show. We do another show called Flash Wolf. Because yeah, Flash Back. I'm still saluting in deference to Gazcon.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:20

Yeah, so well done. Um, you keep going. You're just gonna rake in a minute.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:26

Then again, put your working out, and it's uh that's the burn I deserve to feel.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:31

Uh that arm's had a plenty of good enough workout.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:33

You said it twice.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:34

I know, and I'm gonna think a second time, did it?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:36

Do it third time.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:37

That arm's had a plenty good enough workout.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:39

Oh, you're absolutely right, RGT. I'll give myself the five knuckles shuffle on a nightly basis.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:44

I want you to hold it there now to the end of the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:47

Don't you worry, Sunbeam.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:50

Anyway, uh yeah, flashback. If you're listening to this, you haven't heard of flashback, you probably have, but if you haven't, I saw other people. No one's heard of it, which is a look back at a random month of a random year in game, and then we discussed the news stories and games that were out um in a similar premise to this. But yes, it's uh it's quite interesting having a look back at the past.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:10

Well, we're kind of non to the fact it's the industry's best. The insiders of the industry are loving the show, which is great, but I love the fact that it's your private special place, a little boutique place. You've got to start telling people about it. We're keeping it audio, keep it nice and you know cozy for a while. We don't want to flip the video with a flashback so quick.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:33

What I would like to ask the listeners, if you're listening now, and if you haven't contacted us, maybe you can now. On flashback, would you like us to have a guest every now and then on flashback? Let us know. Questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com. Oh. Or you could DM me on Instagram at Rich Graham and Thomas or you know our unofficial controller podcast DM on there or Mumsa, put the kettle on, get Mike Rouse.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:57

Of course we can get him on again.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:59

Or you can contact us through your your podcast provider. That'll you can you know contact the show on there, give us a little note, leave your name on as well just in case it doesn't do it, and we'll give a redo. But yeah, let us know if you if you'd like to Dave Perry. Yeah, we'll we'll see on that. But yeah, let us know. Hey Dave Yeah, ready for round two, fella.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:23

But yeah, so uh We defended his honour to da we fought Dominic Diamond on his behalf because we're loyal banner men to the to Dave. Yeah to the Perrimeister. We did. I got his aged balded head in a headlock, Dave, and I power drove him through a table. I said, How's that? Yeah, you stitched my man up with your Mario 64, you knew what you were doing. Now apparently he can't walk.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:49

And I um I threw an under controller podcast fridge magnet at him. Well it hit him. It didn't and missed, and I accidentally hit John of OLL, so sorry about that, John. But the intent was there to back you up, Dave.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:01

So I was hoping you'd hit him because I obviously there's gonna be a lawsuit because he he can't walk. Can we say that it did?

SPEAKER_05 1:21:16

No, I'd rather you didn't. I've got enough lawsuits as it is at the moment, so I don't really So what's another one? Well, yeah, I don't want another one, you're gonna have to have blame for that. You're the one that's on video evidence, so you do it. I'll tell you what, I'll take the blame for it.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:28

But why don't you represent me in court? Why don't you take the responsibility for it? We can wash into like a UCP. Why have I got to do this? Well, you know you're officially the director of the ECP because it absolves me of any guilt for all the flandering that I'm doing.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:44

I do notice that there's a lot of stuff that involves the UCP that sort of gets gently pushed over onto me. To then when you sort of turn round one day and think, I'm sort of doing everything here at the moment. And now I've even got to represent you in court.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:00

I'll be honest with you, you've pushed me to the edge of what I can tolerate because I bought that boat in Monaco, all you have to do is refinance it in the show's name, and you flat out refused, and now I'm stuck with mooring charges on a yacht in Monaco, and I'll be honest with you, it's getting a little bit it's getting a bit rich for my blood. I want that sorting ASAP.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:23

Yeah, but you can't that is not gonna be a cause of a major injury, is it? You know, so sorry.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:32

I don't think you're quite getting this. You're gonna have to sell the concept that that is dangerous enough to give someone an injury.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:42

I think you just have to take responsibility for your actions.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:45

So Mum, get Lionel on the phone, we're taking over. Lionel, Lionel. He ain't got a chance. Take everything he's got. Um yeah. Get it sorted. Tell Lionel I want I want it done.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:58

I made me laugh my last suspension. I was suspended until recording, and then I had to come back again.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:05

Yeah. Yeah. So Lionel's drawn up the decree nice I. Okay. So just be careful.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:12

Well, it's been a good journey. So thanks for listening, everyone.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:15

And uh I saw the end of the show.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:17

I know, I know, I meant for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:19

I'll um well don't I don't want you muddying it up like this. 317 doesn't need to be muddied with this. I don't want you doing this on here, not like that.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:26

No, just be open.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:27

No, no, no, no. Finish your show properly, as you will not get paid.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:31

Well, again. I'm still owed four pound thirty-six of last week.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:37

Well, last week and 17 episodes.

Supporter Shoutouts And Community Bits

SPEAKER_03 1:23:41

Anywho, should we do that? What's going on? Yeah, let's do that. Why do we read this out every week, though? Why would we read this out? What what what have these people done for us, RGT, and what have they done for themselves?

SPEAKER_05 1:23:52

These people are fantastic people who put their hands in their pockets each month to support our show, to help us do two shows, to help us, you know, put on all the things we do, events and bits and pieces, and giveaways and stuff, and as a reward for that, for their level tiers, they get little bonuses, which also I know we have said we have done away with the Zoom meeting. There will be some you might have already known as this show is out, but we are obviously doing something a little different, which is coming to the fore very soon. So your new perk will be added and one taken off hopefully next week. So keep your ears to the ground for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:27

Are we telling them what it is or not? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:29

No, we'll we'll I want to speak to them first individually, and then we will um we will put it on the show next week.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:35

Individually?

SPEAKER_05 1:24:37

Well, in their group, in our subs group. So we have our little chat room on there. We will we'll have a discussion with them and going forward because we need to discuss how it's going to be done. Um, but yes, we will let them know about that. But yes, and they they are supporters of our show, and we are in great honour of these people because they they are wonderful to put their hands in their pockets to support us, and it really, really does make a massive difference, massive difference to this show, um, and has enabled us to do a lot more things. So we thank them as one of their perks is by reading them out on the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:10

Um right, RGT.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:12

And I'll tell you what, I will start this week. Okay, Mill for you. Because I need I need to recoup myself for my little Hang on a minute.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:19

The tea fairy has been wait.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:23

Now, where are you going? Right well, I'm soloing here. So we will start off with GazCon, and I said con this time, not con. He returns. If you're on audio, you have no idea what's just gone on there.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:43

If you're on audio, I got a text from a good lady wife, Rachel, which you audio listeners know, because you've been with me since episode one. One of you has at least, and I bloody love you for it. You're silent in your violent, but you're awesome. What I did is I got a text, went to the door recording studio, I opened it, I picked up hot beverage, hot cup of tea in a black in a black Ferrari mug with a silver prancing horse on it, tail up, so you know it's genuine. I do believe this one actually came from Moderner itself or wherever it is.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:14

You are one spoilt little boy.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:16

I am, and here it is: a cup of tea in perfection personified because the colour of the beverage is exactly the same colour as He-Man in the cartoon skin. Therefore, you know it's a perfect cup of tea. An audio listener, you're back up to speed and you've missed nothing. And in some ways, you've had a an ASMR almost noise gasm experience off the back of it. So I I hope that you we'll cut this out for the for the viewer, viewer, viewer, viewer, they'll never hear that about the mug, about the tea, about the warm beverage.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:52

I think in the TikTok video, the noise gasm is going to appear in that a few times, I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:57

But absolutely no chance. Listen to me, slur upon this. You know, I used to ban drinks on the show. You did, and now you're a bit of a drink whore. I drink drinks for money. That's a gig I could get into RGT. So how much am I being paid to drink this drink?

SPEAKER_05 1:27:19

Too much. Um apparently so. Yeah. Anyway, back to sorry to diverge off things then, but now I Gascon, my whiskey very much.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:32

Damn justice. So there is only one person that can drink on the UCP, and that's me, to wet my tombstones down. Right. It's a bit like Death Valley in there.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:43

Right. Can we get back to Gazcon? Because I've tried three times now.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:47

Oh shit, is the camera on me?

SPEAKER_05 1:27:50

No.

unknown 1:27:51

Fine.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:52

Not now I'm talking. Keep taking it back off you. So, yes, thank you very much, Gazcon, as always. Thank

SPEAKER_03 1:28:00

Thank you, Gasco. I'm that enamoured with my hot beverage. It's good as well. It's like nectar throat. Um I'm I'm lost. Here we are. Up next, a man who has woven himself into the DNA of the TikTok. He is a TikTok. He is. He's like Job from Lawnmower Man. He doesn't know where reality starts and stops anymore. He lives in a digital ecosystem, can only express himself through our words reconstructed in soundboards to his beloved.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:35

He's literally hooked up to the show with wires going in him. He is. He's like the woman. He produces material just like this. Show goes out ten minutes later, video, video, video, bang, done. Artwork, video, bang, done. You're just like, wow, this guy, he's just there. He's got he's got binary just going through and he's R G T.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:56

Whoa.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:58

Yeah, that's not going to look good on video. Don't clip that, Captain. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:02

Clip it and then zoom in on the tongue. And then also go Google on Dr. go do Google Doctor Who and Google the character Syl S-I-L is a small green slug character that makes exactly that noise. What I want you to do is get that footage and then mix between the two. So from him, and I cover my tongue so you couldn't do it to me, and then bring in Sill and from him, right? You're Bellin. You're not doing me dirty boy. Well, no doubt you have already.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:37

We'll speak Captain this week, but yes, thank you as always, Captain, for all you do.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:41

Syl S-I-L.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:43

Next up we have uh as Seb would call him Retroid, but we would call him No, we no, he's rebranded his whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:52

He's retroid now. He's a he's an Android man that collects retro.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:57

Yes, but we still have to call him Retro Ed because that is what he subscribes as. But also, I saw him and Scott were at the uh Kong off this weekend, so that looked a great time. Oh no!

SPEAKER_04 1:30:08

Scott's giving it me, oh bloody hell, and then Boomby pops up there, giving it big licks out Scotty. Yes, boy, I'm on to you definitely clip that clip.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:22

There we go.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:23

I could berry and watch your congoff, eh?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:28

Hey? What makes the bad Kong off, eh?

SPEAKER_05 1:30:31

Anyway, thanks, Vetra Red, as always. You had a great day.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:37

Up next, the one man George Fan Club. He needs no intro, yet he gets one every time. It's a wonderful, chiseled, gorgeously collected up, tussled hair looking, sexy son of a gun. It's Carlos, the one man George Fan Club. And one thing I've got to say to you is that man looks so sharp, he could cut himself out of a Sherman tank with one swift move his head.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:07

And also he's just started uh Last of Us Part 2. Holy! You are in for a journey.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:15

Getting a DM's own, mate.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:16

Yeah, oh you are in for a journey. Fantastic. Yes, thank you, Carlos.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:21

Is that your first experience with it, Carlos? Yes, it is, I think.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:25

Well, we've done a couple of episodes on it, which you might have listened to or not, but you can go enjoy now with no spoilers, and I'd love to get into the DMs about it about that. Um, because it's an interesting experience. Unrivaled.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:38

Oh, without a doubt.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:40

Anywhere unrivaled.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:42

The best narrative in a game ever has ever been absolutely superb. The things that make you do the lot of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:48

The best emotional consequences that you will ever consider and think about from a video game. Anything close, probably Red Dead 2.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:57

But even that didn't have me questioning everything I was doing as much. Absolutely not. You didn't have me reassessing everything I thought I knew.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:07

You didn't, no. So yeah, looking forward to hearing from you about that.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:11

Beautifully beautiful that game, absolutely brilliant.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:13

Well, RGT, you don't come up with many taglines, no doubt you didn't come up with that, but I'm gonna attribute it to you. That's genius.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:19

I did just come up with that, it's right on the swap.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:23

Sometimes you surprise even me. I surprised myself with that. I was gonna say that and then I thought that's probably not a compliment.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:31

A few Hazy Janes, I wouldn't have been getting that out, I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:34

Your performance level after a few Hazy Janes, in my opinion, is it is very top level.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:39

I beg to differ on that. Um, next up we have the wonderful firm returns. Um who did What's he gonna do?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:48

What do you mean? Hang on a minute, what's this? This is a dry read-through, or is this like a semi-warm read-through?

SPEAKER_05 1:32:53

No, we're just doing normal. I haven't finished yet, you decide to jump in. I was then about to say, if you want to go from Trump to Trump in a week, this is the guy you see. If you want any financial advice, this is the guy you see. Jump in here.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:04

I wanted to hear a more elaborate story about him this week from you.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:09

Yeah, I know but you're the elaborate story, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:11

I just I mean, I'm not the guy who came up with a pigeon chaser story, which I have to admit. That's true. I know it's true, but finding that is significant.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:21

Yeah, you know, but I was talking to him.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:23

Well, tell me a true story about Fern Returns then, based on based on Stephen Talbis pigeon fancying.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:30

All I was gonna say was he um they were sharing pictures of their gaming setups this week, and he had one of his uh gaming shelf and his vast Switch collection. And again, I'm getting vibes from him of Tingle Tuna. You see the games he picks up and very curated, very do you know what I mean? It's now just going on behind any old shovelware gumpf.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:53

Yeah, yeah, we don't have any old Mickey Mouse dribble. Everyone that's attached to the show has got like a a green room with a very curated collection in it. Yeah, you go for wood trim, like a library.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:04

Oh, it is, and you go, he's got the shelf up high, and you can go past the spines, and that's like being in a 18th-century library of curated, you know, indies and yeah, really good. Yeah, so that was a pleasure to see that, and I think that's how you game collect properly, not to spine loads of tat. Who would do that, hey?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:22

And fill in a room with it. No, I don't know who would do that. You know, we all make mistakes along the way. Up next, someone that I'm very happy to be associated with. Uh they make the best wings in New York. It's Trestles, New York.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:35

That was a quick one. I was expecting you to go on longer than that.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:38

No, no, no, no. They didn't turn up to the live event, so they're on a bit of a sticky wicket as far as I'm concerned. I don't care the distance.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:45

Oof. Please stay subscribed. Um next up we have Ro Space Monk.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:51

They get it, don't you think? They were in season two.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:54

Um, yeah, well, they were, yeah. Uh Roe Space Monk, um I was talking to someone the other day about you and your Dreamcast collection. Can you pop on Discord how many games you have left before you have a full collection? Because I'm thinking that I think you've chipped it down quite a bit now. And you were even considering the other day trading in um Conker's Bad Fur Day because they were paying like nearly£200 at CEX for that, to then knock off a couple of heavy hitters on the Dreamcast. So what does he need? I don't know, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:28

What does he need? Get me the name of one of the games he needs and the price. We'll you will club together with me.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:38

I love how I was pulled into that. Um, yeah, let us know, Rose based on how many you got left and what games you need. Because if I've actually got a game, Danny, that you need, I'll you know, I'll give it to you if you want. If it's one you need for your collection, let me know. We'll chip in and help you get that collect you know, full set. But yeah, that is gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:57

You've done the heavy lifting now. Let's help you coast in boy. Yeah, that's it. Exactly. You've earned this.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:02

So thank you as always, Rose Bacemate.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:06

Up next, it's my turn.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:08

This is why I started the show because I think Charles Badabinster. I just closed my eyes and just listened to that.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:18

Commer style. Oh yeah, neck, bearing, banner. Stammy Bernick, Badabinster. Stammy Bernik. Gratemele.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:33

My little gooey zone, that is. My little gooey zone. Thank you, Badabinkster. Uh next up we have uh the man himself, the curated, the wearer of a cravat when he games, a smoking jacket, he sits in a vast library of JRPGs.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:51

That cost him nothing.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:53

Think of Downton Abbey, but a Nintendo version. He's sitting in the library, he has um oh, what's the butler's name? The main guy. Carson. Carson standing there with Fire Emblem, 3DS on there. Are you ready for this?

SPEAKER_03 1:37:12

On a tray on a doily.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:13

Yeah, are you ready for this? Uh hang on. I have two more hours of octopath traveller left, Carson. Sorry, sir. I will just be waiting in the wings. Oh wow. Yeah, so yeah, tingle tuner. Thank you as always.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:27

Which means I get to kick the back out of this bloke and ride in here. Like I want to ride him as a taunton myself this week because I feel very hand solo-ish this week. I feel like a sexy rogue. Uh, I don't know why, because before recording I was a complete broken mess of nerves, and uh, I don't know, 317 episodes in. But right now I'm feeling confident. I'm feeling you know, might delete later kind of moment.

unknown 1:37:53

Sucks.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:55

You're you're the eye candy of the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:58

Jesus Christ, this is what we're hanging on for.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:01

I don't yeah, I think you are.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:03

I think the downloads reflect me being the eye candy, to be fair. That's why the audio does gangbusters, and thank you again to everyone who's doubled down on the audio. And I know I asked you to move over to the video, but you've damn refused, and you've doubled down and entrenched in the audio area. Fine, fine. I love that you're there, you stay there. You didn't need to see our faces anyway. Bloody minging. Um, thank you to a man who's not minging in any way, it's practically perfection personified, if I'm being honest with you. And I see you, and I I love you, man to man, I tell you. Digital Monkry, thank you for what you do to the show. And I do believe.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:40

Let's get quizzical, quizzical. I wanna get quizzical.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:48

Let's get quizzical.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:51

Let me hear your game of talk. Your brain matter talk, let me hear your game of talk. Your brain matter talk. Yeah, woo.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:05

Some clips there, and that went on longer than I thought.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:08

Um that's because he does a quiz in the Discord every day. It's like the wordles, superb quizzes. Get in on it.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:17

Shall I I tell you what, if shall I just read a couple of questions out from that quiz and then we'll show you what what the quizzes are about?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:24

Oh god. No, no, there's a moment of our lack of knowledge, detailed and laid prostate on the show.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:32

No, because then that might get um you know people interested.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:36

So Nintendo character wears red suit with blue overalls, begins with an M. No, it's it's Sonic.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:43

Hang on, just calm down. I think there might have been coffee in there, not D. Um, random question. In 1995, Discworld point and click game, which member of Monty Python voices Reese Wind the Wizard?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:59

Eric Idol. Boom. Got it wrong. See?

SPEAKER_05 1:40:04

No, you're right. Oh, so that's what I mean. And then and then we'll have little random questions. Another one is name any of the three POW launched titles for the N64.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:16

Pow launched tiles, Mario 64, uh Shadows of the Empire, uh, maybe pilot wings.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:22

You just named all three. So there you go. Absolutely perfect. See, so if you like questions like that, they're a little bit of fun. There's nothing I'm glad I got that right. There's no leaderboards or anything like that. There's no leadboards. Was that right?

SPEAKER_03 1:40:34

Or were you being kind to me?

SPEAKER_05 1:40:35

No, you were correct, all three. They were the three launch tiles. Um, so if you like them sort of quizzes where you can just he blanks out the answers, you can just press on them, join in, come and have a look. They're brilliant. They're over on our Discord, he does one a week.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:49

I use them like wordles, mate. I go and have a little go and a little play, that's how I see it. Yeah, it's no score, just do it yourself.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:56

Yeah, just do it yourself. And if you want to put in what score you've got, well, a few of us will put them in each week. I got six out of ten this week. Um, the week before is my best effort. I got nine out of ten. But other than that, I've been threes and fours, but it doesn't matter. That's all good fun, and we all just see what questions we got stuck on, and good fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:14

You got three or four right, but you've also now got seven other factoids that you can wheel out on a show.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:18

Exactly. And I tell you, they aren't just your standard questions. He's very clever with his quizzes and writes it very well.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:24

Let's get quizzical. He's basically Gamer Podcast University. We're helping you. This is like a self-help course now. We're like Cobra Tate, baby. Get in on it, and it costs nothing. This is like the gamer sphere. RG.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:39

Take that down a different route.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:40

I want you 24-hour live streaming, baby. Uh, and you can use what's left of the UCP budget to get yourself out to IBEFA, because I think you can make some good.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:49

Have you noticed, listeners and viewers, viewers, viewers, viewers, have you noticed that is doing that again? I want you to do this. I want you to do this.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:59

I want to live vicariously through you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I can't do this anymore, so you have to.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:05

You do all the work, and I'll take all the credit as how we roll.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:08

Yeah, I think you're taking work and credit and glory. You're out there streaming 24-7 on the show's budget in a bid to replicate HS Tiki Toki or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:18

I'm not sure I am.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:20

Oh, trust me. By the time I've spiked your first drink with six Viagra and whatever else I can find on the bar top pile, probably screenwash. I won't see you for two weeks, but I'll have a terabyte SD card full of some of the best content known to man. It's not the holy grail.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:38

Dance monkey dance.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:40

And I just wait and I just recover it like a black box at the end. You're like come naked through the door. Like, what's happened to you? What's happening? And I'm like, you still got the bumbag on. Winner. Put you in bed, tuck you up, whop you down with antibacterial wipes, upload that to the hard drive. Can't upload that, can't upload that, can't upload that, can't upload that. Maybe won't put the screenwashing in next time. Is he rested? Get him back out there. Literally, that's what it will be for you.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:10

This is feeling a bit familiar.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:13

Yes. We attempted this before, but we did also wipe your mind.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:19

There's a little bit of a flashback there.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:21

Yeah, I thought I probably shouldn't have mentioned that on air because I think that's one of your reactivation triggers.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:26

Oh. Anyway, thank you, Digital Monkery. I don't know how we went down that route, but thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:32

How are we here? How did we get here? I do not know. I don't know. I'm a little bit nervous now about how we did get there.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:39

Yeah, I'm gonna try and bring it back on track with the floss 360 man himself. Oh the only guy to have pulled off this trick in the whole of the world. Tony Hawkes has nothing on the floss 360.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:53

He ain't got shit.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:54

And as he's listening to this, he's he's in uh on a European holiday, so I hope you're having a lovely time.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:00

Promoting the show abroad? Yes, he's where is he promoting the show abroad?

SPEAKER_05 1:44:04

Oh, you put me in a spot now. I think I don't know if it's called for Crete, one of the two he's gone to. But he is um he has told me he has taken his uh skateboard and he is gonna do a speedo version of the floss 360 along the promenade. So if you're out that way on holiday, keep an eye out for a guy with a beard. Um he will be doing a floss 360, but he has to do the speedo edition because of um because of um you know laws and stuff. But yes, so keep an eye out for that. Hopefully that will go viral and you'll see him in the UCP speedos doing his trick. So thank you, boardboarder, as always. Who we got next?

SPEAKER_03 1:44:41

Up next, going dark, going brown, shuffling through the newly cleared nettles my front lawn. He's he's decided to infiltrate what can only be called the UCP White House. He's on the front lawn. I'm nervous, I think he's under orders from someone, possibly RGT, possibly OG, but I'm definitely walking around the house and finding a red laser dot on my head every now and then. Um so it's just a warning. I'm here, come out and find me. You can't find me. Yeah, he's out there somewhere, but we just don't know where he is. So yeah, he's gone rogue. At the moment, he's what's known as a rogue asset. I don't want to have to instruct a kill order on that, but I will if I have to.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:24

This is like the Bourne series in Farmerton.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:28

It literally is. I'm gonna be I'm gonna get some CC footage of the local shop, right? And he's gonna like catch a kid's like um what's it called, slushy. And I'm gonna get the footage, oh my god, it's Boba Bourne. Appears out of nowhere, just saves the goal at the like at the local football pitch with some kids. Oh my god, it's Boba Bourne.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:57

Yeah, and there he goes, back into camouflage.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:00

Just disappears like predator and then red dot on my chest.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:04

Yeah. Boom. Yeah. Boba born's here. Boba born's here. Anyway, thank you, Boba. More law, who's next? Your red-headed stepson.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:17

Ah, look at him. Me and his mum aren't talking again, so it's not he's my ex-stepson, but I still love him like a real biological child.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:25

Oh, good, yeah, because he's if you don't know who ginger is, he is this guy's ripped. You know when you you know when you see like on the viral things, they'll put an egg or they'll put a walnut in their bicep and crush it. You see that when they do it? Just for his little just for his little training routine, he does tins of beans. He blasts the beans out of the back. Oof, straight out. Apparently, he's gonna move up to to barrels, oil barrels, one on each gun, bang, sprays everywhere. Absolutely brilliant. Cheers, ginge.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:01

Who used to say, ooh, I could crush a grip?

SPEAKER_05 1:47:04

Who used to say that? Uh very 80s TV, but well, yeah. Questions at OttafficialController Podcast.com, let us know.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:14

Uh use email for something good for the first time.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:16

First correct answer, three French magnets.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:18

Yeah, boom. One you ain't got if you're a regular country. No, no, we don't. Up next, a man who literally is a god amongst men. He's got a new podcast coming out where he's gonna go through. Catalogs. It's out. Oh the crow is I don't look on Instagram for two days and it's bloody on my phone. There it is. Okay, fine. Well, subscribe, as you should do. It's Harvey Retro's new show. He's a great man and he's got a great idea. He's done something that we should have done, and he's made it good. Uh, I think this should be which we would not have done. So we think this should be one of your adverts, Harvey Retro. In fact, scrap it. We'll do a proper one if you want us to. Uh, in the meantime, thank you for everything you do. Uh, we wish you well. Uh, and uh very excited to start checking that out. Up next, Emma Sha. I don't mind taking her because she does so much for the show. Uh, is she back in the UK this week, RGT?

SPEAKER_05 1:48:22

Yes, she is, yes. Yeah, so she's back from Miami where she was uh Are you kidding me? I am, I just completely lied.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:30

I thought she'd gone for the Grand Prix or something. I was like, oh my god, she's hyping the show in Miami now. This woman's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:36

Everything she does with all the watch while TV, and you just see a woman walk past with a UCP t shirt on in the background.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:43

Oh we're dreaming that viral hit one day. There's enough t-shirts out there for it to happen now.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:51

There is, there's quite a few out in the in the main street. But yes, thank you, Emma, as always. Next we have Greg. He is the guy that we always refer to as nowhere near Berlin. And because he's nowhere near Berlin, because he isn't nowhere near Berlin. It's Greg. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:06

I heard he was living in Harvey Retro's podcasting shed.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:09

I heard that as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:11

In the bottom cupboard, underneath a couple of turtle figures, you will find he's there. He shrunk himself down to action figure size so he can live like a king amongst all of Harvey Retro's playsets and figures. He's dating Leia now.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:27

Oh wow. I did hear that he'd put two USB cables together to form a bed. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:36

Interesting. He plugged the cable into itself.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:40

He put the two flat ends together.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:42

Bloody hell, at that at that at that scale, that's like splitting the atom. That's Oppenheimer shit.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:48

Oh yeah, he's small. He is small. If you don't if you watch sometimes on Harvey's podcast, you'll just see him run across the mic. There goes little Greg. What do we do? Next.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:08

I'm going to take the next two just to reset the balance. So I'm going to thank our wonderful mother. She's mother to both of us. Seb, Bobby, Scotty, and OG.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:18

She's a bit a busy woman in her life.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:20

Yep. All different fathers, of course. But you know, like the Dudley boys, we get by. So thank you. I also want to take a little moment to thank, genuinely thank the RGT fan club. Wish you the very best. We hope you're well, rested, you're looking after yourselves. And uh all our love to you.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:38

Next up we have he's a silent but violent. He's always there in the background. He's almost like a bit like Boba but without the red light dot. It is Pete Brocklehurst. He's there, he's everywhere, but you never see him. Thank you, Pete.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:54

Up next to man, I think I'd probably chin and knock clean out for Soren. It's Billy Marmite. Thank you, Billy.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:01

Leaves me then.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:02

He will get that.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:04

He will, he will. Um leaves me to uh Zangief, I suppose. So are we gonna do the usual ones where I do a Zangeef and you have to guess what it is?

SPEAKER_03 1:51:13

That is the new Zangief de Rigor. Yes, it is. Please deliver it to me now, and I shall assess it and then vomit up my answer.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:23

La la la la la.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:50

I'll be honest. You got a little wrapped up in the performance.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:55

And I did get carried away and I've got a little host.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:58

I have to admit, I don't think I paid much attention to it for that reason. There didn't seem to be a lot of straining, and then you geefed. I was wondering if you took a magazine of salubrous nature to the toilet, and that had coincided with the stretch and evacuation moment that kind of coincided at the same time, and you kind of zangiefed at that time.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:21

Bang on. I had a copy of Crash Magazine researching for flashback. Things got a bit muddled with excitement and your standard things that humans do, and that all sort of went off at the same time. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:35

Kind of kind of bit run-of-the-mill work a day by the time we got to find out what it was after the like what I would say quite intimidated performance.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:43

Yeah, you you did you had sort of a intrigue look followed up by complete shock and disgust. So I I knew I'd done a good job.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:50

Yeah, the intrigue was the slow rumble at the beginning, which sort of drew me in.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:55

I was just going for the pages, and then suddenly a Sam Coop popped up on one of the adverts on the pages and coincided with what was going on, and yeah, just uh a double effort, I suppose. End of show.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:14

Well no, no, let's dwell in it for a moment, please.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:17

Uh please, let's let's dwell in it for a minute.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:25

Let's sit in it. Let's just think about that.

What We’re Playing Next

SPEAKER_05 1:53:29

Yeah. Yeah, just let that sink in as I just sprayed water all over my recording area. What are you hoping to play? Um Do you know what? I have absolutely no idea. Yeah, hopefully I'll be out on a Gen 7 game that we choose. Hopefully it has already been picked as this show going out. Um What do you reckon it's gonna be though?

SPEAKER_03 1:53:56

Like what give give me give me give me a sniff of what things you might throw in for the delectation of the fans to vote in. Teasers, wetters, pleasers, teasers, cheesers. Jeezers.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:08

I don't know if I mean our lists, we have everything from our lists that me and um this is me and uh Zan Geef have done. Um we have from who, mate? Who Zan Geef. I'm not doing it again, I've already sprayed water everywhere. Um but we have things from Bayonetta, we have uh where's the GTAs on there, GJ4 with the DLCs, we have um what else is that?

SPEAKER_04 1:54:38

Good luck getting that done in a month, cowboy. Let the hell no, not in one.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:42

We've already done GTA four, we've played through that, but we've got Lost and Damned and Balladigatoni on there, we've got things like Portal 2, we've got yeah, there's a smorgasbord of stuff, like say Deus X. Um there's Heavenly Sword.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:58

You ought to put the old you ought to put Gen 7 Thief on there.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:02

Gen 7 Thief? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot about that. Yeah, I might already be on there, I don't know yet. But yeah, so we tick them off as we go on the spreadsheet and we pick four, you know, two each each each time we play. So hopefully I'll be playing one of those. Um I think um what have I got coming? This I think Outbound will be out, so I'm gonna buy that. What system I'll buy it on, I don't quite know yet. I want to play more of that, and I might even purchase Pragmata as well. Because I'm getting that. Yeah, I I enjoyed that. I just don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:34

My my problem is I don't know what to get it on.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:40

Yeah, I think I don't know. I think I'll go PS5, but I don't I don't know yet.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:45

Is it less on the five? You said I think it's like 40 bucks, I think, something like that. Right, fine. That's where it'll happen then, eh?

SPEAKER_05 1:55:54

Yeah, so yeah, I think that's probably what I'll be looking at. What about you, George?

SPEAKER_03 1:55:58

Um, I'm locked into a pilot's career on flight simulator. Um, so there's gonna be plenty more of that. In fact, that's been my go-to for the last solid week since I downloaded it last Friday. Um, probably gonna be a little bit of farming, sim. It's my happy place on the weekend just to sit, leave my tractors running, and just watch it happen. I love it. I I love it.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:21

I really I I do think next week you need to let us know how many hours you've put in this. Because I think uh I'll be intrigued to find I reckon you've does it tell you on the app. Uh no, it doesn't. I think you have to go in screen or in game and do it, but it'd be interesting to know. I reckon you've put some hours in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:40

I bet it's less than 80 hours.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:43

No way.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:44

I bet it is.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:45

No. Oh yeah, mono, I can't because you're you're a bit secretive on your PSN. I can't view it, but yeah.

Closing Motto And Goodbye

SPEAKER_03 1:56:53

I don't want you rifling through my drawers, boy. Yes, you do, you always have done. I know, but I've got to make you earn it. Actually, you get you you lose interest too fast. You very much like that. Um yeah, I think that's probably all I've got in mind. I did have a little bit, I kind of like been drawn back to the Witcher. I've kind of been sort of totally enthralled by that DLC. I was saving it for a rainy day, so I do feel a little bit naughty that I popped the seal on it. Um and you know, I I got a little bit stuck on it, but then I went back in and I was like, no, you're playing this like someone who hadn't played Witcher for ages. You know what you need to do. Put your oils on your sword, you do idiot oils, took some potions, bit bat bop, a lot easier. Slice and dice the bitch, got out, went on this really like nice. I think we then went to a tournament which was on PlayStation 5. I didn't do the comparison here, I did this after, which I kicked myself for. It was beautiful. You arrived, you could hear the crowd over the hill. You kind of walk around the corner, and there's all the yellow and red medieval tents, and then it flicks to like an overview and goes into a cinematic of all the people gathered round cheering on these knights, fighting these beasts in this thing. And I was like, wow, this looks really it doesn't look photorealistic, but it's got this look to it that just looks awesome. Everything's so solid in it, looks really sweet. So I've just been enjoying that. Um, and I keep thinking, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, save it, save it, save it, save it, save it. There's a whole Witcher game here that you're pretty much ruining by it's like Phantom Liberty for Cyberpunk, pretty much. And I'm I keep like just running my fingers through its delicious grey hair, and I'm like, oh well, maybe we'll do just one more, and then this Duchess awarded me this winery, and I was like, Well, maybe I'll just go up there and look at that. And I was like, no, no, turn this off now. Uh so it got binned and went back into farm um flight simulator. So yeah, I probably need to delete it because the temptation's too strong. Uh, anyway, I think now that little side ramble's done. Uh, I think we're all wrapped up, RGT.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:16

Yeah, I think we're there.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:17

All right. Well, that's all we have time for this week, listeners and viewers, viewers, viewers. As always, thank you for your time. I look forward to the pleasure of speaking to you again. Until next week, remember happy gaming, and remember there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller. It's what you do with it that counts. Nearly fluffed me on outro there, RGT. But uh beautifully recovered. If you're still listening at this point, I love you like a man should love a woman. And if you're a woman, well, awkward. RGT. Thanks for all you do. We'll see you next week. See you, listeners.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:44

See you later, everyone. Thank you.