He’s Back: Bobby Returns | UCP Special

Bobby’s back in the chair with the best kind of life update: he’s a new dad, and somehow he’s still finding time to game. We talk about what that really looks like in practice, from sleep regressions and bedtime routines to the simple strategy that keeps his hobby alive: pick the right games for the right moments, and don’t pretend you’re still living in a pre-baby schedule.

From there we get straight into the backlog and the highlights. Bobby breaks down Reanimal vs Little Nightmares 3, celebrates his 400th platinum with Astro Bot, and explains why roguelikes have become his sweet spot. We also dig into Hades 2 and how the new character and magic-focused combat changes the flow, plus why the story structure keeps pulling you into “one more run.” If you’re curious about the PlayStation Portal, we revisit our original skepticism and admit the cloud streaming update changes the whole conversation, especially for PlayStation Plus Premium users with strong Wi-Fi.

Then we go where gaming podcasts are supposed to go: the hot takes. Sons Of Sparta gets a deep dive, Spider-Man 2 gets called out for losing momentum and undercutting its villains, and we wrestle with that bigger feeling a lot of PS5 players know too well: burnout, even when the graphics are stunning. We close with the Pragmata demo surprise, dream remakes like classic God of War and Manhunt, and a wild side chat about what modern media ratings allow. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review, what game recently made you feel that “magic” again?

Transcript

Welcome Back Bobby And Baby News

SPEAKER_04 0:19

Hello and welcome to the Unofficial Controller Podcast, your weekly gaming podcast. We're not going to put a number on this because it's too special. This week, I'm George, joined by a returning hero of the show, a season two stallwart. He's in the credits, so goddamn, it's my absolute pleasure to welcome him back, Bobby. How are you, sir? I'm good, man. How are you? Bathing in the fact that you look better than you've ever looked, your hair looks tighter and nicer than it's ever looked. You are born again, handsome. Got the pink hue bag in the face. Oh, honestly, you look like a man who's had it all. This is what time off from the UCP will get you, Sunbeam. It will get you youthful looking appearance, it will get you a zing back in your step. And may I go as far as to say, Bobby, it would put a little bit of special sauce in your testimonials, will it not? That's a fact because I got a little baby now. And this is a huge congratulations to you and your beautiful wife from the UCP and everyone listening and viewing, viewing, viewing, viewing, viewing, viewing, viewing, as you do these days. You uh in for a real treat. So let's get behind and wish them the best. Jump on the Discord, get in the socials, and wish them all the best. It's some great news. A baby boy arrived in New York, Bobby. How's that feel? Fatherhood.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Man, it feels amazing. I'm gonna tell you something, it feels amazing. The whole when she told me she was a pregnant thing, and then you can't tell nobody for the three months because it's bad luck, and then holding that in and holding the secret. And then we were nervous, so we held it a bit, we held a little bit longer, and then finally when we told people it was like a relief. Because I was like, I'm I'm terrible keeping secrets, and this was the hardest secret to keep. I I don't know how she hid it, but she hid it in some pictures that no one saw. And then when the day arrived and he popped out, I was like, look at this, it just looks just like me. But then, but then it looks like just like Eva. So her real name is Evan Thia, and now we call him Evan Zulow, the little little little Eva boy. Because it's unbelievable. Every time I look at him and he makes some faces, I'm like, that's my wife. Just bam, there it is. My mother's eyes and my wife's face. Now he has in some light golden blonde hair, in some light, it's super ginge. So uh I don't know. What will his it's changing every day, we'll see. But he's five months, he's healthy, and uh it's been a blessing.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

Mate, I don't think you can stop the Auburn army follicles of hair coming through. I think if that trait's there, he's gonna be straight like Sheamus in 20 years for WWE.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

He had uh thick hair in the middle and a thick little monk patch, and then now all of it's growing around it. So it's like that's the longer of the original hair coming in. It looks he looks like a weird scientist, I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

How has parenthood changed your daily life?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Uh no, not really, to be honest. He's a really good baby. Uh he's in that regression period now, so he wakes up maybe once or twice in a night. But before, he would sleep almost the whole night. Um, so my wife took her her turn first for her leave, and I'm now on my turn, so I wake up middle of the night. But he only he doesn't really wake up that often. Um, we try to put him in bed by 7 p.m. It's been working. We have like a little flow. Yeah. Uh so he goes to sleep. Me and my either do whatever you have to do, she goes to bed early. I can still game. And I game till late because I'm not gonna go to sleep. I did that before. I would I would go to bed around 11, 10, he wake up around 12, 1, and then I'm like exhausted. But if I just stay up and I feed him and I put him in the bed, I go to bed, I can still get like seven hours of sleep. So it's not bad, I have to say. So far, nothing really changed other than I have to care for this baby now.

What We Have Been Playing

SPEAKER_04 4:15

You know, so let's bring this back on topic because I know people have got patience, I know that we've seen that, and if you've gone this far, you love the baby talk. Well done to you. But the question is poor people, what have you been what have you been playing?

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Oh man, I mean now to go so far so far back, I have no idea when, but notably, let's say the last few minutes.

SPEAKER_04 4:45

Yeah, give us your highlights.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Uh I played Reanimal. Well, yeah, re Reanimal I wanted to play because I do like Little Nightmare games. Um But Little Nightmares 3 I played. I got the platinum with our boy Ginch actually helped me in.

SPEAKER_04 5:03

Isn't that beautiful? It wasn't my you know he's my adopted stepson.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Yes, he's my adopted cousin now as well. Oh we signed a clause, so he's scared. Yeah, so basically his kid went to bed, my kid went to bed, and then we played for a couple hours. Uh I think we're gonna do Ninja Turtles Splinter Fate together. Yeah, yeah. And we're gonna do apparently uh Shredder's Revenge is a PS5 release now. So we're gonna try to do that together. Why Ninja Turtles? Uh why not? We have other things to do, but whatever.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

That's well, my my adopted red-headed stepson, he does love a little bit of TMNT. So he it's his favorite, it's his favorite. So you're well in there. So talk to me about is there any other games there? So Little Nightmares 3, Reanimal.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah, Reanimal, Little Nightmares 3. I think Reanimal was great. Uh I think it was better than Little Nightmares 3. I don't know if the if the guy who created that moved to Reanimal and then I don't know who did uh Little Nightmares 3, I forgot, but maybe they took over. It just doesn't seem like a Little Nightmares game to me. Reanimals felt like a little nightmares game, you know? Yeah. Um then we spoke and I got my fourth hundredth platinum. Yeah, which I did it with Astrobot, which was outstanding. That was the right one for your film. It was the perfect one. It was it was amazing, it was really good. Um, Absalom, it's like a roguelike beat-em-up. First of all, I love roguelikes now, but I love beat-em-ups.

SPEAKER_04 6:37

This was just Hang on, Ray!

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Amazing.

SPEAKER_04 6:42

Even Bobby likes them now.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Yeah. Oh my god. No, I'm hooked, man. It was it was amazing. We did the Marvel Maximum Collection and my brother knocked that out.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Um, that was that's that's all what's the Marvel Maximum collection? That's all those 90s.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, it had Silver Surfer in it. I mean, they got for Cheats because I still cannot beat Silver Surfer to this day. Uh I don't know. That game is terrible. But with Cheats, you could do it. I finally spelled the first level boss. Never got that far. Um I did the Ghosts of Sparta or Sons of Sparta,

Sons Of Sparta Deep Dive

SPEAKER_01 7:16

actually.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Let's stop, pause on that, and let's deep dive because I you messaged me, we were talking about your return to the show, and you said I'm gonna make Sons of Sparta my 400th platinum. I went, Oh, Crikey, I'm not sure. And you then you revealed that you had Astrobot left to do, and that to me is perfect. That really crowned your gaming history.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

You nailed it, it was perfect, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Every journey that you've been on is in that game, and to me, that was the right resolution. But you kept yourself dry for the old Sons of Sparta, dear Bobby Love. And what's your take on it as a God of War, as the show's God of War Guru, for one of a better word? What's your thought on it?

SPEAKER_01 7:57

I mean, you know, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I thought it was gonna be. I thought it'd be a lot more similar to like a Metroid, you know, something like that. Or even even as close, you know, you can't even say it, but like same thing at night, something like in that style where you'd have a lot more action. It kind of felt very repetitive. Yeah. Um, it felt like I had to go way too far to get an item to go way back. Um, and then me like an idiot with these games, you know, I just keep going till I can't go nowhere and then go back. Probably wasted more time doing that. Then I wrote it, then I realized towards the end of the game, you save a creature and you can fast travel to anywhere. I mean, if had had I had known that, I probably would have saved myself a good 10 hours trying to figure things out on my own. But whatever. It was it was okay. I mean, I mean, if you're a God of War fan, I guess it's something to play. But like if you're not really into it, I mean, that's better Metrovanians out there.

SPEAKER_04 8:55

What I stumbled over, mate, and I I don't know where you're at with this, but with the God of War lore as we know it, I find it a little strange that you would go to the town of Sparta, the home of the most fiercest warriors, and the blacksmith in there sounds like a very effeminate sort of West Coast American man. Yeah, that was weird. Um all the voice actors didn't feel like Spartans to me. Now I haven't got a time machine, so I don't know what a Spartan sounds like, but something tells me.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

You probably sound like this is a Sparta, you know? Something like that. I I just I mean, um, the original actor, uh uh uh voiceover actor, uh something Carlson, Carlson, I think his name was. Yeah, something yeah, he he was back, which is good to hear him back. Um but it it just everything just seemed out of place. You know, I know they had like recontens and lore, because then he has a brother from I think it was God of War um the multiplayer game. They added they added his brother, females in there. Yeah, and now you go a little bit backstory, and like you know, he was very arrogant, Kratos. That's the whole point of him, you know, I'll do anything to get to this fight to beat the battle, and then they wind up killing his family. Yeah, he seemed very nice here.

SPEAKER_04 10:16

Too nice.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

I would think be more of a little bit more like a not I wouldn't say a bully, but more a forceful figure in what he was doing, and who's gonna tell him anything because he's supposed to be a badass. Yes, didn't really get that too much. Um the lore's off, I'll tell you. It just felt like what they should have did was just make a game in set in that universe with just Bartons, which probably would have been even better.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

Yeah, I think to me, I didn't mind the 2D at all. I thought it actually this works because what the art was cool too. It was uh it was almost like okay, so God of War was on the PlayStation 2. Let's imagine it was on the PS1 or earlier, because this time-wise would have been on the Mega Drive snares, something like that, or maybe early PS1, although I think that might be a stretch.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

No, I didn't even think about that. That is pretty dope, but you just mentioned that.

SPEAKER_04 11:07

Well, that's one of the things I liked. You when you go in, I actually think the game looks better with a CRT filter as well. It kind of I play with that, yeah. It yeah, it makes it it stops it looking like I had this problem with Street to Rage 4. You got a game that looks like clip art, and then when you put the filter on, it feels like Streets of Rage again. It felt too clean. I had that vibe with Sons of Sparta. Um I kind of like the premise, but I didn't get any Kratos vibes out of this young kid, like none. It didn't feel to me like the seeds of his character, and I'm not expecting to see a full-blown wife killing Kratos unleashed right in front of me in Sons of Sparta. I don't expect that. Yeah, but I expect to see at least a couple of traits.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, some of the anger coming out of the young eager.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

So I can say, oh yeah, oh yeah, that's Kratos as a young kid, I get it, right? Let's play this. You know, him growing up in the surroundings which we are now told he grew up in, it's a game, it's not canon, it's not real. I know it's not, it's not like Sparta. I mean, if Sparta was in a video game, it'd be pretty horrific, and there'll be a there'll be a cliff somewhere in the game with a load of dead infant children at the bottom of it, namely girls. So, you know, we know Sparta isn't exactly the nicest place, and probably more often than not, they probably didn't even wear clothes. That wouldn't translate very well into a video game, so I kind of get it. The idea of Sparta's there, it it it is, but the voice work, the forward and backward in, it just didn't feel like a it didn't feel like a game from yesteryear, and for that reason it also didn't even land as a game of today.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

It's very true. You know what it would kind of remind me of was I was like when I started playing it, I was getting like a little bit of the vibe of what they were going for. It reminded me of uh Battle of Olympus on the NES. And I love that game, even though it's really hard, basically it's like a Zelda 2 clone. But um, I'm like, if they did something like that, that would have been even better. Just a no-name character. You know, maybe you can even have Kratos in there, like as a general, trying to prove yourself you're trying to prove yourself to be like his right-hand man lieutenant, whatever, to build up to this big battle. You know, that would have been even better.

SPEAKER_04 13:16

But what about a morality test where as you go through the game, various bosses present to you situations that Kratos would have dealt with in his life? The final one is your boss reimagines himself. Now, this would be killer move in a 16-bit game, because normally it's like whack whack hide, whack whack, get behind, whack, whack, dodge, whack, whack, jump, whack, whack, whatever it is, to get those moves in to kill him. In this last battle, the boss imagines as your wife and daughter, and you have a timer on screen, and you go up, it's one whack, boom, and they die, or it's don't press the button, timer elapses, and you hug your wife and children. If you beat him, it's like you're taking another step towards a road that you ought not to be going down. This is a road that Kratos went down, boom, boom, and then that ends up scene.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

I always told you this before. Should I write a game? I would have bought this game tomorrow, yesterday, tomorrow, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 14:12

Today buy yesterday, and then I can retire today.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Day one. That's a day one project.

SPEAKER_04 14:19

So I don't know. It you know, we don't work in a studio, so it's alright for me and you to have these ideas, but they need to pass, you know, legal QA. You know, is this going to appeal to this John? Is it gonna appeal to the widest subsect of people? No, it's too gruesome. Okay, narrow it down, the vision's gone, narrow it down a bit more. It's not even a game I'm interested in working anymore. I'm done.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

No, it's true. Yeah, like the games like those violent games like Dante's and Dante's Inferno, which I love, uh Manhunt, you know, they're never happening again, right? The closer we got to something gruesome was The Last of Us, only because of the story itself.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

I would argue that some parts of Last of Us 2 on PS5, like some of those kills, dude, still leave me.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Oh no, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

When when you one thing I don't know if this is normal, but when I used to do a stealth kill in that game, I would spin the camera around to watch the person either like go out or up a thread.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

But listen, they did the the animation work for that reason. Oh my god, it's brutal. It's brutal. I watched somebody on someone through TikTok one day and had just uh on super hard difficulty.

SPEAKER_04 15:30

Oh yeah, what 300 hours looks like or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Oh my god. I mean, that looked absolutely brutal.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

What I didn't understand about it, it I know, but it was just like pistol, pistol, pistol, pistol. And I'm like, how have you got the time for pistol, pistol, pistol?

SPEAKER_01 15:46

I have no idea. There was another one where she uh the guy threw all the items on the floor, made chaos. I mean, it was just absolute perfection, you know.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

Yeah, I've seen I've seen one of those. Is it the racking you fight around that pillar in that basement in the cellar? I saw someone. Well, I used the pillar, you know. I've always used the pillar. We've talked about this. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but it gets me through it.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

It's there for a reason.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

Yeah, I guess it is. Um I forgot where I was going now. Racking.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

How to kill them? You watch somebody kill them somewhere else? Oh, that's it.

SPEAKER_04 16:23

And they just did it in like two or three moves.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

I don't, I don't understand. I don't understand. Even like some of the Red Dead, Red Dead uh Resident Evil games. Like you're playing them, you're struggling, somebody goes in there, does four or five moves, game's over. What how?

SPEAKER_04 16:42

How? I was like that with the first resie though. As you kind of build up your experience, I used to like Resi One to me felt almost like a like a real harsh callback initially to like NES games because the actual save point is deep into that first game. So, like, how many times did I see the sense?

SPEAKER_01 17:05

That's what it is, man. I just think it's meant memory meant from memory over and over and over again. Yeah, whereas now the games are so big, I don't I don't have time to redo this after a hundred hours in. You know what I mean? I get it, you know.

SPEAKER_04 17:19

I was um on that point, mate.

Old Saves And KOTOR Heartbreak

SPEAKER_04 17:21

I was playing a little bit of um been dusting off Nights of the Old Republic on the Switch 2. I had it on Switch, same game, but carried on playing on the Switch 2. And I put it down ages ago because I kind of got a bit sick of it. It's a very old game now, so it can feel a little bit like hard work. I picked it up the other day, thought, no, let's get this bit done. So I finished off Tatooine, I was like, wow, I'm having the time of my life. Went all over, did a mission here, did a mission there, travelled to Kashyy, went all the way through, fought a load of baddies, got underneath, did this next bit, got into the sub-level, did another bit, took, fought these Mandalorians, scared them off. Oh, great, went round the corner, thought, oh, I better got killed. Oh, no worries. Oh, yeah, lots of worries. The last what four hours of your life, George, in a bin.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Oh god, and then I remembered.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

Then I remembered that's why I put it down. Yeah, because I'd had a similar experience on Tatooine where I got a bit stuck, I'd managed to sort of grind through that, kind of get that little bit I'd stuck on done, and then I died. So and then it's like remembering all that you've done, going back, cleaning it up. Who did I talk to? Hang on a minute, where's that thing gone? Oh no, I must have spoken to that guy. Go back, find him, trying to recreate what you've done. Like you can do it quicker the second time round, but because you're doing it all over again, it feels like it's gonna take 10 hours, it's done. It's gone.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

I've been devastated. If that happens to me now, I've just gotta stop. I can't, I don't have the patience or the time. Wow. Like, I mean, I had time before, I still have time now, but it's also limited. So if I'm losing four hours, you know what? Enjoy, my brother. That's right, right back to the back of the list. I'll get around to you at some point, but it ain't gonna be now.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

Also, for that reason, I'm a little burnt out from KOTOR, but uh, yeah, what else have you got on that list of games, mate?

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Uh so listen, a game I probably wouldn't play, if James didn't recommend it, but I I had the portal. I brought it home, I had it at work. Yeah, sometimes you gotta play it work. I brought it here because sometimes Eva has the baby, she's watching TV or she's playing Disney Dreamlight. By the way, 600 hours in Disney Dreamlight.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

Stop! Hold up. Let me ask you this question. Would I like Disney Dreamlight?

SPEAKER_01 19:46

It's very Animal Crossing, but way more to do. And it seems like they care about the game and they keep updating it. I think she has about 95 characters in the world that she's in. Uh all like all over the place. I I even like, you know, not once has she put a town set up, fixed anything. It's just whatever's there. I'm like, why don't you put some of the you know water people in the like the beach area? Yeah, with some of the forest people and for you know, and she's like, no, they're just what they're that's what the DLC is. I'm like, yeah, I know that, but you can take them anywhere, right? You can put them anywhere. Yeah, I know, but who has time for that? Obviously, you do 600 600 hours. You definitely have time, you know, but I guess not. So they're just randomly there, you know? And every time I turn it on, and it just seems like it never ends. She's digging for gold, she's getting roots and buying this, and everyone's her companion now. She has 900 outfits. Every day she lives on, it's another outfit. I'm like, When when did you put that on?

unknown 20:47

When?

SPEAKER_04 20:49

About a month ago, Scotty was on Marathon Gaming, and we were talking about Disney Dreamlight, and we both got each other whipped up into the idea that we might buy it. Can I buy that and get away with it? Would you look at me the same, Bobby, if I owned Disney Dreamlight as my own game?

SPEAKER_01 21:07

You know, if you like if you like Disney and it's your thing, it's up there. It is a very uh task-based game. And you like task-based games too.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

Listen, Anno 1776. Come at me in the comments, but I need to ask this question. Uh is it a female game predominantly, do you think? Or is it a male game, or is uh is it is it just open and it's wide, and this is what Disney Dream, this is the magic of Disney Dream Like.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

I think it depends on the gamer. If you're a hardcore gamer, like you're playing serious stuff, you probably wanna play Disney Dream Link. If you're a casual guy, like something you could just mess around a couple hours with and uh do some tasks and it never ends, and just have something to look forward to, go for it. That's what it is. Let me scrub that off. It's it's not a hard game, but it's It's just very grindy.

SPEAKER_04 22:02

Another question for you.

Disney Dreamlight And Portal Regrets

SPEAKER_04 22:04

You mentioned you mentioned now we've spoken about this off air, but let's do it on air. You mentioned you had your portal. Now, when the portal was first announced, we were in the hot seat for the show, and me and you said, Nah, absolutely not. What is this drivel? Who would buy this? Yeah, yeah. It's a piece of garbage. Why would you have this? It's now probably the best-selling accessory for PlayStation ever. You own one, I own one. Yeah. They're garbage.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Why are we buying them? Let me tell you why I bought them. My co-worker brought it in to work to show me. He logged in for his PlayStation, which I had to put on Rest Mode. Which I get, I guess it works if you're the only person on the PlayStation. But Eva has an account on the same PlayStation, you know? So she's not playing. I can tell listen, put it on, put it on for me, I can play the portal, or I leave it on rest mode, fine. And at my job, the Wi-Fi is amazing. It was like playing a handheld. It looked good. Certain games obviously are better for the portal than others, but everything was responsive, it worked good. 200 bucks. I'm like, you know what? I spent stupider money on dumber things. So I bought it. And I brought it home. And the Wi-Fi in my house, phenomenal. Wi-Fi in my job, phenomenal. No problem. Didn't really use it at all. And then I started using it the last few months when we had a lot of downtime. I picked up my lunch, play this, play here. Then I brought it home because now the baby's here, so I can't really turn the TV on. Because he can't, you know, we're not watching the TV with the baby. That's that's rule number one. That's why there's I brought the portal. So if nothing's happening, I'll play some portal games or games that could be played on a handheld, and it was fine. Then they did an update where you can stream games. This is it. This is the this is what we talked about, what they should have done day one. Now it's like, oh my god. And I'll tell you something, if you have a Wi-Fi that's strong, it's seamless.

SPEAKER_04 24:08

What package with PlayStation do you have in terms of the online one? Do you have like premium base? Like wherever you have the top of the top. Yeah. If you're a portal user and don't have the top of the top, let me rephrase that. If you're a portal user, you're gonna have a great time using remote play.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:30

But that, as Bobby says, is dependent on a connection at home, b, if your partner or someone else in the household is playing it. If you get this top package, any PS5 game, now I have to say Flight Simulator hasn't migrated over yet, so I have to play that through remote play, but every other PS5 game seemingly is on there. Now, maybe Flight Simulator isn't on there because the amount of servers it would abuse and it would be a lot. Oh, yeah, yeah. Right? Because when you turn on your PS5, you are streaming in real life map data, and that holds. I had a look at my stats on there that they downloaded 13.5 gig of streamed map data. Are you serious? I'm deadly serious in about three days. I did not know that was happening, but it is happening. Um, so it's not on there, but everything else, if you buy a game, there's an an option on the Smash page now where you can go into the PlayStation Premium catalogue, or you can stream games that you've bought on your PS5 that aren't on your PS5 that you own straight from the cloud. Now that streaming games from the premium collection was okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:45

Streaming games from the premium collection plus any PS5 game you have ever bought, and rumour on the streets, my beautiful Bobby, is that they're gonna roll that out to every PS4 game you've ever owned as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

It's a no no-brainer. Can you believe what is it $200 now? It won up $100?

SPEAKER_04 26:03

It was $199, so it's I think it went up $50. So if it's $299 or $250.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

100%. It's a must, it's a must-buy now. A must-buy. It's a must-buy, yeah. It's a must-buy. Like, for example, I was looking at what games do I have that can I can look on the screen without like obviously you're not gonna play sniper resistance on this. I mean, you need to see, you know. Um, but like talking to ging, he was like, Oh, the turtle game would look good, Hades 2 would look good. Yeah, amazing. Then it's like this a game called Thank Goodness You're Here.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Now, my son loves that game, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Let me tell you something. I would have never bought this game if it wasn't for Ginge. I had never laughed so hard in my life in a game with just unbelievable. And that's British humor as well. Bro, I that love, I love it. That's my favorite, that's why I love it so much. Because I'm like, this is absolutely outstanding. I loved every single minute of that game. Even in my wife, even's like, what the hell are you playing? I'm like, don't worry about it. And then she started watching it, she started laughing, not even knowing what the hell was going on.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

Perfect. Well, I know what I'm doing this evening because it's on plus, and I've been threatening to download it for a while. And me and Rachel, uh, we've been toying with it because she said she'd seen a clip where a guy was at a fishmonger in the game.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Yes. Let me sound something. The I'm not I'm not about to spoil anything, but there's three times you visit this guy. Okay? The third time you visit him, and you gotta smack all the fish in the ice. Pay attention. Pay attention to particular fish in the upper right hand corner. Uh then you tell me. We'll get back to me on air. Tell me. Oh my god, it was great. So I what I did was I actually played that whole game, except for the last part, because trophies videos don't pop on the Vita. So I waited to on the portal, yeah. So I waited to go to the PS5 to finish it to get that, you know, I want that clip. Oh man, that was amazing. I played Puppet House on there. My first person horror game.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Um me and Eva were playing Cat Quest 2 and 3. On the portal. No, on the PS5. But um, I could I could have played on the portal with myself in another room. She could have played right there. Yeah. I mean, you could do it if you wanted to. Um yeah,

Hades 2 Changes How You Fight

SPEAKER_01 28:36

that's it. And basically, I'm now playing Hades 2, which I love.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

That's what I wanted to check because you were a fan of the first game.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Oh, the first game.

SPEAKER_04 28:46

How has two kind of advanced it for you? Tell me where Hades 1 stopped, and then tell me where Hades 2 picked up because different character.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Yeah, different character, different moveset. So instead of the typical like hack and slash, as fast as you can zigzag and hit attack, this is more like magical based. So you just can't uh zip and zip an attack, and you know, you have to plan it out your attack a little bit more. Which in the beginning I was getting killed, and then I started looking at it like, okay, like obviously I'm playing it wrong, right? Because I I keep dying. So then I started looking at what am I getting, how do I use this weapon? Um I can't be zigging a zag, and I need to use um my magic more. And then I started getting into the groove of it because I do like how they set the stories up, the artwork's amazing. And then once you get the hang of that weapon, you know, obviously you I mean, if you can beat to the end of the boss, then you're amazing. But obviously, it's not meant to do that. You're meant to lose because dying is getting better and better.

SPEAKER_04 29:48

There's your rogue like baby.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

So, and then you get it improve over and over again. Now, I feel like if there was a fight between her brother, Zagarith, and her, and what's it? I think it's um Melwin or Melene, whatever her name is, she would whoop him. I think she would whoop his ass. I the way that she could use the magic and move with her weapons. Yeah, I think I have a better time playing as her now than I did the origin in the first one.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

Interesting. So Hades 2 was eclipsed everything that you thought was good about the first game.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah, they uh yeah, because you can go down to the underworld and you're trying to get rid of Kronos, or now you can go up top to like Earth to Mount Olympus and try to get rid of um Typhoon. And it's different gameplay, how you go up there and go down there. I mean, it's essentially the same, but the enemies and the order of things that happen are different, and you kind of need to do both to further along the story because you only meet certain people certain times, and then as you start getting more in the story, everything starts popping off. And you're gonna get your nectar this person, and what's she gonna give you? And then you know, that's what I like. Trying to figure out how to complete the story until you get to the end. Because obviously with Hades, you beat the game, you still have to keep going, but by then you're a professional. I mean, any weapon you pick, anything you do, you can beat the game because you're so good at it. Because of repetition, you know. Um, but yeah, I'm loving it right now. I can't stop playing it, and also good on the portal. So even once I watch some TV, I put it right in the portal and it's perfect.

SPEAKER_04 31:28

Okay. Well, while you've been off raising your beautiful son, there have been some games come out on PlayStation that are I'd be interested to see if you've had any experience with. The first one, early doors on the PlayStation 5. We got a game called Returnal by House Mark. Now, boy, all intents and purposes, that should be your kind of game.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah, have it downloaded, never played it. But then Soros came out.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

Well, this is what I was leading to.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Have you all bought it? Oh, I bought it.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

Yeah, okay. So we'll feed back to you, dear viewer, view, view, view, viewer, on Bobby's opinion on Returnal and Soros once he's played them. He owns them, he just ain't got round to it. Here's one more for you. Ghost of Yotai.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Yeah, beat it. I like that a lot, actually.

SPEAKER_04 32:18

Right, okay. So no one else on the UCP actually picked it up. No one else on the UCP has actually even played it, including me.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

No, I think it's great. Um how does it compare to the first one? It doesn't. Oh. Because it's kind of its own thing. I mean, obviously, there's similar gameplay aspect of it, but um, you know, she's not a samurai warrior by any means. So um her final skills is a little bit more rough, and she gets a little bit better as the story progresses. She's on a revenge. Kind of like almost like a you know what it reminds me of? Like uh a Quentin Tarantino movie, like the Kill Bill, where she's getting the revenge, and the even the way they have like the screen splash, and it says like you're in this town and this enemy, like that's what I liked about it. Um, but definitely if you play the first one, you have to play the second one. I I really liked it a lot.

PS5 Burnout And Spider-Man 2

SPEAKER_04 33:15

Right. Now, I don't know why. I felt I'll be honest with Bobby, confession here for not just for you, but for everybody, really. I've been a bit burnt out by gaming, and I've been retreating to the beloved PS2 to try and conjure up some of that magic. Now it's there on the PS2, and I'll go and play on the PS3 and I find a little bit of magic there. When I come to the PS5, most recently over the last 12 months, the magic's been a bit thin on the ground. And for me, it felt like it. I've been playing a lot of PS2. I'll go to my PS5 and I'll play like farming simulator, I'll play flight simulator, but not I've not really been. I picked up Spider-Man 2, and I have to admit that I was confused and disappointed by that game, Bobby.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Super disappointed by that game. First one was great, second one was like a letdown. I'm sick of that. It's the same thing that happened in the first one. The two-thirds of the game, you're fighting who are you fighting?

SPEAKER_04 34:18

Oh, in the in the second game, or the first game. In the first game, you're fighting the Mr. Negative, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

And then in the last quarter, the the last bit, you're fighting who?

SPEAKER_04 34:27

Uh it's switching. Well, the sinister six, isn't it, really, in the end, but ultimately Dr. Rock.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

This yeah, exactly. Yeah, then the same thing in two. Alright, so you're fighting um Um the Safari guy. Yeah, oh god, what's it?

SPEAKER_04 34:40

Maven.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Craven.

SPEAKER_04 34:42

Craven the hunter, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

And you seem like a good, a good enemy, like for you know, like, all right, it's gonna be a good game, and then all of a sudden now it's like bam, here's Venom. And now you're fighting a bunch of symbiotes, which was just reminding me of Separation Anxiety. Um, and I'm like, so you did it again, you flipped it again, and then there's no time to even care about what Venom is doing, you know, the whole town of disarray.

SPEAKER_04 35:06

I'll be honest with you, mate. When I played Parker When I played as Venom Peter, the game felt broken, it didn't feel like Spider-Man anymore. I was jumping and the game looked different, felt different. It's like, oh god, I don't like this. And I I don't like it. Wasn't my story to write, but the Peter and the Miles I bought into, which were fleshed out in 60 plus hour games and an 8 to 20 hour experience for Miles, so it's not as though I kind of maybe got the characters wrong or something. Spider-Man 2 felt like it was set in the right universe, but all the characters were totally different, and yeah, right voice, it just felt different words in their mouths, goody two shoes, a bit too much.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Like I understand like you're a good superhero and I get the whole Disney Marvel thing, but it's like you know, you don't get angry that some stuff's happening. Like, I have to save him. Why? Why do you have to save him? Right? It's just it gets like annoying. Whereas, you know, you're playing a Batman game, a thug comes out of a bodega to steal some sandwiches, and now he has no kneecaps because Batman's scared of him. You know what I mean? Meanwhile, Spider-Man's like, come on, man, here's some change, bro. Don't do that, get a job. You know, it's a job listing down the block and go there, you know. Like, I was like, what's going on here? You know, even the side missions were like, I don't know, corny. Oh. It was just corny. Like, I felt playing the game. I started getting embarrassed. I'm actually playing this game. I don't know. I just didn't know.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

The first game I finished completely on PS4, Platinum didn't, Platinum did, Platinum the new game plus mode, platinumed all the DLC, I got Spider-Man remastered, so I did the same on Mars Morales. I got Spider-Man remastered instead of just popping the trophies, I literally went through and did them all again because I love the game. That was awesome. And I had just as much fun doing it the second time around. Now, admittedly, I did drag it out on PS5. It was my what am I gonna play? Oh, I've still got the save on time. I'll go to that and push it on a bit more. Just as much enjoyment. Spider-Man 2. I played it the one time, never again.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Yeah, I'm not gonna go back. There's even like a I've even got back to miles. I don't even think I'd do the new game plus B and 2. I don't think I'd like I don't think I did, mate.

SPEAKER_04 37:25

I think I told myself I would come back to it, but I've not found the time or inclination. Now I did stream it to the portal the other day, and it looked fantastic, but it was just another reminder of like this came close and then it just disappeared up his own tailpipe.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

And the thing is, like, I don't know where it lost me. No, I don't. Somewhere along the line, I'm just like, first of all, and not that I'm saying, oh my god, there's too much to do, but maybe there was just too much to do. And I understand maybe there's pressure to plump out an 80 hour, six hour game. Now you're doing things that I can care less about, like fetch quests. Like, really? This is what we're doing in the Spider-Man game. Um, you know, you had to help some kids with a prom date. Why am I wasting my time to help you with a prom date, bro? Like, I'm trying to save the city from craven killing people, you know? Uh, just annoying. Even even when you're fighting and you're knock somebody off the building, which I love doing because I think it's amazing. Somehow he gets hooked to the side of the building.

SPEAKER_04 38:36

Every I love testing the game to see, and sometimes he'll even just do and a little trail. Yeah, it's nothing. Yeah, but it gets the guy and it sticks him to the building. Now, that level, one thing I will say about them is I've seen some footage of the section where you're racing, I think it's in Mars Morales where you're racing on Rhino, and there's a section where you can save a push chair. If you don't save it and put it in photo mode and turn the camera around, Pete has swung completely perfectly animated to a position where he can grab that, pull it out the way. If you then allow it to advance, turn the camera around, pause. If you look back, Pete's giving you a thumbs up as he's moving the trolley out of the way.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

No way.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

Technically, frames of animation no one will ever, ever see.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

You see that, but see, that is love and detail game that you love programming. Yeah. And I don't take that away from them. I just don't know the story or something. Okay, controversial. I love God of War 2018. I could not wait for the second game to come out. Second game come out, I'm playing it, and I just don't really feel it. It's not. I just the way you ended the game with just seeing Doors Half Face and his little hammer and his little pot belly, you know. I'm like, oh my god, it's gonna be epic. And then it's like you're getting there, you're playing it, it's just too much love and dove in the air. Like family and hugging, and what are we playing again? This man, okay, hates his his his Greek god family so much for what they did to him. He wanted a mission. Now he's trying to just live his normal life, but now you're coming after his son. Okay, you would think now, oh, we're gonna see like almost like older Rocky Balboa come back into the ring and do a whooping. Now it's more like life lessons to his son and what not to do. And meanwhile, no, no, no, no. In in reality, this man should have been more violent and destroying on everything because now it's like this is who I'm trying to protect is my son. This could have been more like was so upside down.

SPEAKER_04 41:07

I actually tried to rush through to the sections where I could play as Atreus and the woman.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

I had a better time.

SPEAKER_04 41:15

The way they moved, the fluidity, the graphical punch of the clouds of paint. It felt how it should feel. Now I know they wanted to have the characters feel different, like Kratos got to be slow, heavy hitting, like I get it, but he is way too slow in this game in Ragnarok.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

I don't understand why he has to be that slow. I mean, he is a a demigod after all, right? So, what is the point of him being slow?

SPEAKER_04 41:42

There is zero.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

Okay, you can age and everything, that's fine.

SPEAKER_04 41:46

Is he slow when he when you have that opening fight in 2018's Scott Award? No, no, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

He's all right how faster action pace. And it's supposed to be what it's a continuation of the story, it's not like we waited five years. It picks up right.

SPEAKER_04 42:01

Let me kick it back to Spider-Man 2. Do you think Spider-Man 2 would have been a better product if it had just been Craven, you and Miles, and the idea of Spider-Man 2 was you two combining together in Spider-Man 3, which then technically could have had three Spider-Mans in Venom, Spider-Man, Miles Morales. Would that have worked better for you?

SPEAKER_01 42:21

Yeah, I think it just focused more on craving and like you know, let him actually be a villain, like you're fearful of, like he's killing people, right? He's decimated the town. He had start, mate. No, he did, and I was like, oh my god, that's a good thing. I enjoyed the first third, second, third, and like all right, this was getting a little bit too much. And by the final, I'm like, just beat the game already. I just never went through a thing so fast. Like, I never use a subway to fast travel. I was like, just I just gotta go there. I just want to get this done. I just lost it. I don't understand how you have someone so menacing and then lose it. Like all the Batman games, even people people shit on um the Origins game. I love Origins, right?

SPEAKER_04 43:04

Get me started on Origins, dude.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

I love them. I love them. I don't know if people don't like it, but I love them. But all those games I cared about from the beginning to the end, they hooked me from the beginning to the end, all four of them. And now I'm like, what how did you lose me in Spider-Man 2? Was it I don't know if it was too much or to this? I mean, the the the action, the fighting is good, the store, the graphs are beautiful. It's just you did that same switch again. Like he craven went down like nothing.

SPEAKER_04 43:35

That was disappointing because to make it have weight, the game, they built him up and up and up. And then when you actually take him down, it was like that's it. It's diminished him to the point of it being almost embarrassing that you saw him as a threat at the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 43:51

Kind of like what made me mad about Dark Knight Rise was I'll never forgive. You may be this imposing, or you know, at least in Nolan's universe. And then really at the end of the movie, all he was was just a half-ass henchman. At the end of the day, that got shot with a missile from the bat bike from Catwoman.

SPEAKER_04 44:11

It's not a very good way. The man who broke back.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Even that final fight, like, you know, you cared about the fight. There was no music. It was brutal, you know, or as brutal as it can be, I guess. And then bam, back broken. Now you're going through all this thing. Okay, fine. If you really want to dig deep into it, why'd he keep going back and forth to Gotham to that little town? It's beyond me, but whatever. Um, to be knocked up by like just being like a typical thug, a side thug of a of his sister or whatever that's supposed to be. Yeah. I'm like, it was disappointing. And this seems like the same thing here. You build up Craven to be this badass enemy. Now it's like that's it, done. Now Venom's the real enemy. But it was so fast so soon, I don't even feel a threat by him yet.

SPEAKER_04 44:53

The weird thing is, when we saw trailers for two, and I saw Craven, I was like, oh really? You're gonna waste, no, can't we have a proper baddie? Blah blah. Yeah, yeah. When the game came out, obviously by then we'd have the Venom pop. But as like you, I was playing thinking, wow, you know, they've actually done the job with me on Craven. I was thinking Craven's just garbage, you know, what's the point? I'm playing it. Oh, Crikey, he's a threat. Like, he's serious. Yeah, this is actually a baddie I didn't expect, and maybe maybe they didn't either, and that's why they underserved him in the game. They kind of used him as a device to get Venom to us. Um fine. Let me ask you another question.

Pragmata Demo And New Score System

SPEAKER_04 45:35

The other day I played a game called Pragmata, a demo. Are you aware of this game?

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Yeah, the Capcom with the little girl on the back. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 45:46

Not often. Now I downloaded the demo. Now, back in the day, we used to get demos by Metal Gear Solid, and it was the whole tank 11, it was contained, and it was like, oh, this is banging. I'm not saying this is that, but Pragmata Sketchbooks, when you download the demo, don't matter what device it's on, PS5, Xbox, or Switch 2. PC, even if you're gonna be a bit weird. Um sorry, PC users.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

PC master race.

SPEAKER_04 46:14

PC mas we're all gonna be there steam decking each other around Chelsea. Um, anyway, Pragmata, I thought, oh last episode of the main show, I said I'm gonna download it. I'm gonna download it immediately. I didn't do that, downloaded the demo. Now, this is called Pragmata Sketchbook. It's a self-contained game called Pragmata. Now you go through, there's a section now, it ends up being a speed run. Now, what you do is you fight the enemies normally, but then you hack them as the little girl, and you hack by using your triangle, square, circle, X to move around a board on the right hand side. Nor you got it's not hard. All you've got to do is get your cursor into the circle. That hacks the bot, drops its defenses, so you can like I tell you now, when it was described to me, I thought, man, I'm not gonna be able to play that all a bit too much, and it's left and right hand coordination, honestly, Bobby. I went through it the first time, unlocked uh a new suit, and it gave you a time and it gave you a little bit of a rank. I was like, oh, that was good. I'm doing it, I'm doing it again.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:23

And I went straight back into it, and I'm looking forward to tearing straight back into it again. I even downloaded sketchbook demo on Switch 2 as well, um, just so I could have it anytime I want, anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

I thought about it. I watched the trailer, it looked kind of out there, but you're the second person tell me now. Third, that is really good, apparently.

SPEAKER_04 47:42

I've only played the demo, so I didn't even go that far. But let me tell you now, uh I mean, maybe this month I'll get it, maybe not. There's so many things out there that I need to buy and do, but I'll be playing that demo again, and I genuinely think it's a real PCU.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

You see?

SPEAKER_04 48:00

Recommendation.

SPEAKER_01 48:02

All right, I'll definitely download the demo then.

SPEAKER_04 48:04

And we have a new acrobat. So we have a new scoring system on the UCP. How many fingers on the shaft? And I'm gonna give Pragmata demo eight fingers on my shaft. Well, it's quite large. It's it's it's a double fister, mate. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

So no thumbs, so that's that's that's a stop rating.

SPEAKER_04 48:25

The thumbs in this rating are plaster's fingers. Okay, yeah. So I mean, don't forget I'm from Farmerton where your cousins, your mum, your brothers, your father, and your sisters your your own daughter. So don't family tree that out, listener.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Don't so if we're doing Spider-Man 2, we're doing what? Oh, shaft rating. I'm gonna okay, but is there an air it's like is six average or is five average? When you do six average, it kind of makes the seven game playable. People think Spider-Man 2 is playable. Yeah, I I would give it like a six.

SPEAKER_04 49:06

Yeah, 6.57, I think, in retrospect. I think when I was playing it, I was in the Craven section. I thought, well, don't get any better than this. Towards the end of it.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Yeah, it just started dropping for me. Same thing with Ragnarok. I will give Ragnarok a seven. First game's a ten to me. I mean, I was damn, this was by me.

SPEAKER_04 49:26

I was so the only bit of Ragnarok I enjoyed, spoilers for a game, five-year-old game, I don't know, two-year-old game, whatever it is, is the end. I was super frustrated, mate, don't get me wrong, but the end battle with Odin was actually quite fun. Like it had the waves, yeah. It was frustrating as hell, uh, but it was doable, and you could feel within yourself it was doable. It felt a bit cheap at times, but like that was probably the only moment where I was like for a moment I forgot and I was enjoying myself, and that felt like proper God of War moment as well.

Why Classic God Of War Matters

SPEAKER_01 50:01

Yeah, I heard they're remaking the classics now. Yeah, but they better they better remake them like the original game. I don't want this Last of Us uh style for the new ones. I think those that the the the chains need to be like a free-flowing arcade style, whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_04 50:25

Grandeur of the game would end up in the bin if you took it off locked camera mode. Yeah, how can you have the scale of going, oh my god, Kratos has gone from being the size of the screen down to a dog going in this building two miles with it?

SPEAKER_01 50:40

I first of all, when I first played that, what 2006 or four, whenever that game came out? No.

SPEAKER_04 50:48

First one was what, 2004, maybe, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:50

Yeah, right. And then you realize like you're actually on this guy's back.

SPEAKER_04 50:56

Yeah, that was cool.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

I was memorized, like mesmerized, like that was unbelievable. You need to do that in 2026 and make it even more epic.

SPEAKER_04 51:09

I kind of don't even want them a week or so ago, we got the announcement they're bringing out um Star Fox for the Switch 2, but it's actually just a reskin of the N64 game, and it looks incredible. I kind of hope they just do that.

SPEAKER_01 51:25

Like you could do that too. That's listen, you could just add different cinematics like on the top of it, yeah. And just do good cutscenes, and that's listen, that's fine with me because when was the last time you played the PS2 God of War? Oh man, bro. Probably 2015, 2016. Because when three came out, it was early, it was a very early. I played it, I beat it, I went back and played the first two, and then it was re-released.

SPEAKER_04 52:04

Yeah, it was, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

And I bought those and then they re-released the PS Portal, the PS uh Vita on Vita, didn't they? Yeah, yeah, so I got all that. Um, so around that time. But I'll never forget those games. Like I think all of them are great, and if you you can't touch that, you can't always change that sticks with me.

SPEAKER_04 52:25

I think it's in the first one where you end up my my memory's a bit hazy, but there's like a town that's moving around this desert area, yes, with the sirens. Oh mate, like that was a bit that I was like, wow, like there's so much more in here and so much bigger scale and so much more ambition, yeah, than I give this credit for on the way in.

SPEAKER_01 52:48

Yeah, I just thought it was gonna be because my friends said my cousin, my friend were like, oh, it's a beat em up hacking slacks, you love that kind of game. Okay, cool. I'll I didn't expect what I played to be like masterpiece. Like, oh my god, and then two was even better than one. I'm like, how are you gonna top this? If you were in the PlayStation.

SPEAKER_04 53:08

If you were in the PlayStation circle, you knew it was a good game. Sadly, if you were outside of the PlayStation circle on PC, Xbox or Nintendo or whatever gaming device people were using when this game came out. The fact it had been popped into a hack and slash beat em up kind of box meant that people were easily able to quickly dismiss it, like who's making games like that anymore? That's a stupid idea or a beat-em up in 2000.

SPEAKER_01 53:33

Devil may cry with a similar time. That was for everything. People played that a lot more and compared it. It's not comparable, you're not comparing those two games.

SPEAKER_04 53:42

I've played Devil May Cry recently on PS2, and um it's phenomenal. It's an interesting game to go back to though, Bobby, because I tell you what, it is even more so than the Demon Souls or Dark Souls or whatever. It's like, okay, here you go, deep end, kick you in, see in a bit. If you can get to the top, we'll see you, but if not, then you're drowning. And you know, you go through your first couple of areas and you're trying to work out this big room and the stairs, and like, where do I go? And you stumble through a door, and then suddenly the puppets come down, and you're like, Oh crack is combat, it's come back to me by surprise. Let me get you up in the air if I can, let me get you up. I can't quite yet what that okay, right, fine. And you get the sword get frazzled, you get all that, and uh it's an interesting game. I would like to see. We've had like ports of the trilogy to like modern equipment, don't get me wrong, but it's literally a port. If they took that, cleaned it up a little bit. Do you remember when we got was it on Minutia Remade? Did you play that?

SPEAKER_01 54:43

They kind of no, but I heard about it.

SPEAKER_04 54:46

Slicked it up, did all the nice stuff. If they did that to Devil May Cry 1, I think they've got an absolute gangbuster on their hands. Like the Destiny's the Destiny Warrior games, how they do it now, is like compared to back then. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

Unbelievable amount of chaos on screen.

SPEAKER_04 55:03

I need to go back and play one of those old games and just do a an enemy case.

SPEAKER_01 55:12

But it's not Destiny Warrior game, they have like a sub sub sub game. I think it's called Troy or something. Where you do the Greek, the you do the Odyssey and the Iliad, whatever you're doing, and you're playing as the Greek gods. That's cool. It's something I gotta Google it, but it's something around the same style of gameplay, but you're playing as the Greek gods. It's really good. That I would love uh to have that back. I'll tell you that. Do you think they I mean I don't think that will do it, but that'd be cool. Like certain games like that, even if they just remat, like reskinned it, like Nintendo does. I buy it.

SPEAKER_04 55:47

What's one game from your youth that you would love to see that done to? And it can be don't don't think oh, they're never gonna do it. This is Dream Moment. What's that one thing that you would love again?

SPEAKER_01 56:02

Oh my goodness. I mean, top of my head, definitely, we'd love to go do a manhunt. Let me ask you this though, Bobby.

SPEAKER_04 56:15

Could you stomach a photo realistic manhunt? Could you actually because it's not that long ago I popped it in PS2 and it's kind of funny, you know actually, I've painted myself as a sick guy. It's not funny, well, it kind of is, but you like it's funny how you have to wait, you know, for December Ed for that their most gruesome kill.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

But like the style of the gameplay is old, so like if you're playing it now, it's like whatever. But if you grew up on it, you loved it. If they did that modern, photorealistic with like better control, I just don't know how you could.

SPEAKER_04 56:55

I have nightmares when I choke someone out in Last of Us Part 2. Imagine how I would process putting a bread bag over a man's head, yeah, and then in photorealistic detail watching him, watching the bag move in and out of his mouth.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I think that'd be amazing. I would love that. I mean, am I crazy? Maybe I don't know, but I think it's great. I would love that at the minute. I always thought I always talk about that game like it was so violent and controversial at the time that they had it go back to the game and put like a like a VHS filter so you couldn't even see it clearly. That's how crazy that was. And if you're looking at them right now, they're so the they're so polygon. Oh, yeah, you know what I mean? But I mean, you know, just the whole fact of what you're just the whole game in general.

SPEAKER_04 57:41

It's it was a good looking game from Rockstar at the time because it was above it was above GTA, it was probably on a level with like warriors, but not quite bully.

SPEAKER_01 57:52

Yeah, yeah. Like, well, they rematched with bully, but if they redid bully, another thing that you could modernize, that that'd be fantastic. Oh, I just thought of something else, too. You can I just thought about it right now. Manhunt. I was just thinking about it. Oh my goodness. That's called a brain fart, guys. I have them every episode, and it well, I'll you know what? If I remember, I'll get back next episode. If not, I'll think about it before we go. But no, there's a couple games like that I would go back to. Um what else would I love there that to come back? Oh my god. What an on the spot question. You really can't do like Same Thing of the Night over, but if you can make that game with modern graphics, and I don't mean just Unreal Engine cover, I mean like modernize it 3D. No, you keep it, you keep 2.5D if you wanted to, just make it more realistic looking. That'd be great, just to go back because then you would have all the conveniences of a gamer for now to play it, replay it. It's not gamer friendly for people who never played before. You know what I mean? Like those games that you would play back then, you would want to modernize now, would be fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 59:03

Castlevania from one all the way up to Symphony of the Night are great games, but if you threw a modern gamer at that game, they wouldn't know it's they'd bounce off it within the first, they wouldn't even get off the first screen of Castlevania one, would they? Let's face it.

SPEAKER_01 59:18

It's too much, and I don't think people have time. It's funny because a roguelike technically is like an old school game. You die, you go back, you die, you go back.

SPEAKER_04 59:26

But let me tell you, it's a lot more user-friendly because your your distance that you traveled when you die is not in the bin. On a classic 8-bit game, it was in the bin.

SPEAKER_01 59:37

See, what if they did games like that as a roguelike?

SPEAKER_04 59:42

What, like a true old school 8-bit game, just make it super hard, but every time you die, you go back to the game.

SPEAKER_01 59:48

Yeah, you're learning something, you're figuring things out, you know, because you're under a magic spell or something. Like you have to come back. Like some Simon Belmont can never die. He has some kind of whatever, you know, I don't know, the Jesus is in to take out, you know, Dracula with his cross.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:06

Resurrection, constantly, curse for the ever living.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

Something like that, yeah. You know, I think that'd be great.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:12

Like Highlander.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:14

Yeah. Why not?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:17

I think I think that'd be great. Fine. Well, we'll write that off there. Get the um what's it called? Get the Kickstarter going.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:25

I knew what the hell I was gonna say the other game because it was so interesting to bring that back.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:29

I think what it was, Bobby, it was probably one of the most profound things a human being would ever have said on the internet. And actually, some way or somehow, fate intervened to make sure that that comment wasn't attached to you. It's too heavy. It's too heavy, yeah. For a video game show as well. Uh it it was no doubt gonna be an absolute mind mind-mangler. I don't I'd just make up the word mind-mangler.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:54

Mindmangler, I like it. I like it. Yeah, there are some games I think that would be that can be redone now. People would enjoy. There's just as much as the same, whether it's first time or you're playing it again now. There's plenty out there. Plenty.

Gift Cards New Games And Censorship

SPEAKER_04 1:01:10

Let me ask you this question. What are you hoping to play?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

Definitely finish Hades. Well, not finish, we'll keep playing Hades 2.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:20

Unfortunately, I'm gonna go back to Cat Quest because I played two and three, they're co-op games. Cat Quest 1 is not. Oh. But I'm so involved in the storyline of this game that I have to go back to the first game and play by myself just to get it there. Um and then I downloaded I got a two, I got two 250 PSN gift cards. Okay. You can only pop 250 in a time. I I couldn't put both. I see the limit of of money. Hang on. Where did these cards just appear from? Work. Friends call friends from work. They were like, you're gonna be with the baby, but we know what you're gonna do. You can play video games. So we got you some cards. If we got together, I got you.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:07

Get me their names, say their names now. Are they gonna be okay with that? Yeah, they would. Vinny.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:13

Vinny, you got Mimi, Linda, um Tyrone, Angelo, and Jonathan.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

I can't remember all those names, but guys, you understood our man Bobby better than his own anyone. And you hooked him up with 500 bucks, Pierce Ncott. You're the sort of workmate that someone comes back off paternity for.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:44

Yeah, I was buying things that I had on my list, my wish list, that I was having that bought my own money, and I've enjoyed I've enjoyed quite a few of them, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:55

So, how much of that 500 bucks is left?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:00

A hundred.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:02

A hundred. Yeah. And what are you gonna say? What are you gonna save that for?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:08

Well, you know what? I was gonna buy the Lego Batman game because I'm buying that day one, but then I can't, I'm not gonna buy it digital, so I bought it physical from Amazon. I don't I just want that box.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:21

Do you get a character? Do you what what is it?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:22

Special edition got a little bit of a little bit. It's the same thing. I know I don't think there's anything special. I just think it's a disc. I didn't see any special um whatchou call it? Like box or with a Lego toy. I didn't see anything. I looked, I Googled it, I didn't see anything. So I just bought the game. Um and I bought so do you know the TV show, the movie, the Ocon book, The Phantom? You ever heard of that? Like 1920s, The Phantom. Billy Zane played him in a movie in the 90s.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:58

Yeah, in the purple. So it was a beat-em. He was one of the defenders of the earth, Bobby, wasn't he? I don't know if he was. Maybe he was. I don't know too much about the guy, but I know that he was old school. He was mates with Mandrake, he was master of spells and illusion. Really? Enemies crumble in fear and confusion.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:17

Oh, you see? So you know more than I do. So I love beat-em-ups. This looked like a really cool comic book style art beat-em-up. So I bought that with on sale. And then there's a uh Lady Death Strike, who's very not clad at all. She's 90% naked. Um, I bought that game, which is being released soon, just because of the art, you know, and when someone's 90% naked, Bobby, let's investigate this.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:45

Yeah. Are there Arioles covered?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

You have to have them covered. You have to have them covered.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:53

So they're covered.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:55

But you can have all that asking, no problem. Wow. For some reason, humans uh censor the nibble.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:05

Yeah, yeah. I what has always made me laugh is the American kind of film board are quite happy for you to watch at 15 years of age. 300 men get their throats slit in front of you. Fine. You see one millimeter of the corner of one female nipple.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:27

It's done.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:27

It's the next rating. Flush morality down the toilet. America's lost its brain. If someone saw more than that, but hang on a minute. An American just pick up his phone, type in booby, and he's there. See it. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:40

So what's happening? What happens is with the film board that I've learned from listening to podcasts of movies, particularly What Went Wrong, which is a very in depth podcast about how the movie was even made and on screen is a miracle. Basically, every movie is a miracle because there's so many out there that don't make it. And the fact that this made it and XYZ, you learn so much about it. And then Podmortem is a horror podcast. They get really into the horror. So those two podcasts I listen to all the time. So you can either show lots of flesh and no violence or extreme violence and no flesh. But you ain't doing both, brother. So if you're gonna do both, you're gonna have to do a really good balance and act. Like, let's say, for example, like a Hellraiser movie. You got some violence, some BDSM, and you got a little bit of nipple. But you can't do too much nipple, and you can't do too much violence, and you gotta take out one of the letters in BDSM. That's the balance.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:45

So you're doing BDM, basically, you know. So I I just woke up in a world where I was on the official controller podcast, and you said like you said.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:56

But listen, that's uh that's what it is. So if you're having like a Mafia movie with lots of violence, then you can't have any kind of you know sexual scenes. I think it's because then apparently it's too much for the viewer. Like a lot of movies, like let's say, for example, you ever see the movie The Road with Vivo Moritz? Oh my god. So the whole movie's bleak, right? Very bleak. The book is apparently is even worse. Um, but there's a lot of things happening in that movie, which they couldn't even do half of it, because the movie's so bleak already that they had to have you. They had to give you something, right? Because the view is like, who's gonna watch a movie like this? Well, people like movies like that, but you can't put everything in that movie because then it's terrible. So you have to find a balance again, which is crazy. Unless you do like an independent release, then you do whatever you want. Because then they don't care because it's not being released by it's not gonna be in theaters, basically. It's direct to video, and you know those movies can be not rated, and you know when that happens there, then forget about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:03

Yeah, I don't think many people buy not rated movies, unfortunately. Stingray does, but uh you know, not many people. Well, that's where I got a lot of them from.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:11

I mean, I have a whole stack of this shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:14

Is there anything else out there that you're thinking, oh god, George, I've got to play that baby. I need it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:21

You know what's funny? I don't really try to go too much far ahead because then I just um get really anxious and anxiety about the question then before we hit the tracks, good sir.

GTA 6 Indifference And Wolverine Hype

SPEAKER_04 1:08:33

GTA 6, day one purchase or no?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:37

No. What no, the last grandfather game I played was um oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:45

Four Winniko Bell and Andreas. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:49

They didn't play four at all. They didn't play five. You'd love four. I'm sure I would love them, but yeah, I don't know. I just think it's I missed in my mind. You could always play it, you can play any game you want at any time, but I think I missed the train, and I don't want to get on it now. It's over. I missed five, and I I can care less for six.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:13

The problem is I have I missed five, but played it retrospectively, and just it just felt like a tutorial for the online game, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:21

When you were done, it was like, oh wow, and that's what I don't I I'm not saying is gonna happen, but I feel that it's been so long, you're gonna get some a banging story, but short, and then online is gonna be gonna go, they're gonna go for it. Okay, so that's what I think, but yeah, what's what what's coming out now? I I don't even know. But I I'm looking forward to those two games I bought. Oh, what about what about Wolverine? You up for Wolverine after Spider-Man 2? Actually, I am.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:53

Have you seen him animation? It's so bloody.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:56

They released a trailer. See, that's what I was worried about. I'm like, don't tell me this guy's gonna be killing robots all day. I I don't have time for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:01

No, he's not though, is he?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:02

Oh, he's not, and I'm I'm gonna buy that for sure now. That I I mean, I was gonna buy it regardless. Would it be day one or not would be debatable, but I'm I'm buying it for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:12

Yeah, all right. Well, Bobby, yeah. I'm gonna say I am absolutely stoked that you've come out of your uh paternity leave from the UCP. You're back with us, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:23

Yeah, like I think I was even looking like a I was a pale ghost because I had no iron with my surgery, so I've it's been it's been going up, everything's been going up.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:32

You've been through a lot. People probably don't realize exactly the full court press that you've been through. Operations, uh uh the whole bag of tricks.

Baseball Fixes And Dad Dreams

SPEAKER_04 1:10:39

But just guess what? Like every good man deserves, it ended up with a happy news story, didn't it, at the end?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:44

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:45

You got through, you got healed, then you spread out a progeny.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:50

Um listen, we're trying to uh get this kid either a soccer ball or a baseball bat because something's happening. Listen, something's happening.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:03

I can't sit in front of you right now as an Englishman and tell you to get this kid into soccer. Absolutely not. There's only one game baseball that a strong American young man should be in too.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:18

I know the best part about it is baseball. This kid is a quarter Dominican.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:25

He was born for this.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

I he is pale, like me. Piercing blue eyes, it could be golden blonde or red hair, we're not sure yet, but something there. He's gonna have my mother-in-law's accent when he speaks Spanish, and this kid will be playing in DR. I would be amazed. That'll be him. Oh, how would I love it? I would love it. If that happened, I would weep. I mean, he's I mean, I don't know if he's I mean he so according to our our pediatrician, he's like slightly above uh he's five months, it'll be six months on the fifth, but he's 19 pounds and like 76 inches. He's tall. He's tall and big.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:13

What you need to remember is this is the son of a man who hit a baseball in his school across a river.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

540 feet with a metal bat. Listen I did one thing in baseball when I played. Swunk. I struck out a lap, but you know what? When I hit that ball, that ball's gone.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:44

I think I'm gonna have to I think I'm gonna have to get involved because Uncle George does not want to care about Uncle George does not want to see this young man blow his career as a batter. He's got a brain. He's a pitcher, mate.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:58

You could be pitcher too, man. I mean, if he's a big pitcher, he's a shoe hag. That's a lot of heat. That's a lot of heat. Did you see the Yankees other player Spencer or something? What's his name?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:10

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:11

Where'd you get another six foot eight guy? Oh, you Aaron Judge is another Judge.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:17

You got another one? Hey, mate, I honestly thought like Judge was on. I genuinely thought Judge was on the wane. Uh you know, but Judge ain't on the wane.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:28

No, he's not. No, he's not. And the Yankees found another one? That's incredible, bro.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:33

To be honest, I thought they had a good lineup when they had Giancarlo and Judge. I mean, they're strong.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:40

Big guys. Even Otani is a massive guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:44

Yeah, he is big.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:45

I mean, this is the era now. Like, if you're gonna get into it, this is the time for baseball. They've improved it so much. Ratings are sky high. Is that right? Because obviously I don't get to see that. Oh, ratings, ratings are way. I think the time management of the game has helped it.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:01

I have to admit tremendously. As someone who's not necessarily into the game just for the big hits, I'm not. I'm into it for the full, you know, science of baseball. So I do prefer like a slower, more methodical, which I know is absolute death to annoying.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:20

No, but it's not really because back in the day it wasn't because everyone's on is on steroids, no one cared. I think you had you had the scientific game and where you're gonna put the players and the position of the field and all the stuff. You st I mean, no matter what you do, bro, you still gotta hit the ball. So being on steroids doesn't help you hit the ball.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:39

No, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:41

So that doesn't make a difference to me now. You know, on it, then you had that weird era of like seven years where it was just like, what is happening to baseball? And now they slowly brought it up, and it's going back in. I mean, the world baseball classic that seven-year window is my favorite window of basic. No, it was what it was. I mean, it was wild. It was just you have 182 games, and it's like, can you make it any more slower? It was too much. The problem is now the pitch count and this count and all the analytics get into it. Why can't you just pitch the game? Why do you have to come out in the fourth inning because you pitched 60 pitches? What what what there's no statistics proving that the guy's armor is gonna blow out in two years? There's nothing in there at all.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:30

No, I've always found like starting pitcher, closing pitcher, you know, opening pitcher, you you have all sorts of different kind of pitches and styles. Like I want to see a guy start and either science his way out of it with a no-hitter with minimal throws, and there keep his pitch count down, or just go out the game, and if you end up doing 200 pitches and your last ones are literally in the dirt, at that point you can get subbed out. But until they're in the dirt, you're all you know what?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:04

Back in the day when you're getting blown out by like 10 runs, the right fielder got a pitch, those are baseball, man. The right field pitching now because we're not wasting the bullpen at this point, you know. I love I love that, you know, just like when you watch the football, soccer. It's like, what happened to forward passing and hitting the ball on a volley? Why does everyone have to settle the ball all of a sudden? Why do we have to keep the ball in front of you? Why are we passing back 900 times? Go forward. Like, it's getting a little bit boring. Everyone's doing this tiki tacker pass, pass, but bro, where's the go for it, man? Go forward. Like, it's sighting, exciting stuff. I feel like baseball is getting exciting again. Football, like American football, is is not as good. You can't even do anything anymore. Like, it's a violent game, but then teach the kids how to tackle correctly without using their heads. Now you have now they're gonna make these spaceship helmets, they're gonna be 20 feet, they're like a marshmallow on your head, like DJ marshmallow. That's what you're gonna be wearing. And what is going on? How come in rugby they don't get hit, you know, hurt like this, whatever. Like, what's I mean I think every sport has their era right now. Right now, baseball's getting up there.

Happy Gaming And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_04 1:17:22

Let's end it there, mate. I think if baseball's high, cash your chip soon, we call it a day. Um, Bobby, it's been an absolute joy to have you on. It's been great. It's a joy to see you again. Back in the permanent rotation, at least while you're on your um sort of father leave. So that's that's good news for the show. And it's good news for everyone listening and viewing, viewing, viewing, viewing, viewing, viewing, viewing, viewing. Um uh let's wrap it up, mate. So uh thanks everyone for this week. As always, thank you for your time. Look forward to the pleasure of speaking to you again next week. Until then, happy gaming. Remember, there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller, it's what you do with it that counts.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:00

See you, Bobby. Peace out, and then we're gonna go back to the first time.