GameStop Salary Cuts - Busted Buttons Ep. 12

Red and I begin by addressing GameStop's recent decision by executives to cut their salary.

We then discuss Nvidia GeForce Now's rough week as they lost some more publishers.

Afterwards, we analyze March's video game sales and how MLB The Show 2020 is the 3rd highest selling game during the Coronavirus pandemic.

We end with Red talking about some of the games he has played recently or is thinking about playing. These include the Final Fantasy VII remake, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Assassin's Creed Origins, and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

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Transcript

Hick: 0:17

Welcome to Episode 12 of the Busted Buttons video game podcast. We got another great show today, I'm probably going never going to acknowledge that we've ever had a bad show. So they're just great. But today we're going to talk some GeForce Now we're going to talk a little bit about video game sales in the month of March, we're going to talk about MLB. The show that you might be wondering why the hell we'll get to that we'll get there. We're going to talk about some games that red has been lately, and then kind of give an update on the games are playing. And then we also might have some time, this will mostly be red. We're going to talk about the Final Fantasy seven remake. But wait, hold on a second. Hold on. Get over here. Get over here. Sit down. Sit down. You're not gonna believe this man. You're not gonna sit down. I am not done with you yet. You know the way this crap man GameStop is trying to sneak away from the outline. Man. You wait till I'm done with you. I'm not done with you yet. Or we're never done with Yes, we are not doing GameStop you sit right there. GameStop Do not try sneak away from the outline. I see you. You pissed us off again? Fucking GameStop I don't know what it is with your shit. But here we let's go ahead. Let's go right into it. Because I got GameStop sent down over here on chairs a little notch here. It's on the last. Imagine something sitting on an outline. That's what's going on right now. And George Sherman, CEO GameStop you're sitting right there too, because you're part of the fucking problem with all this. As y'all get to GameStop it's route us up again, I thought we were getting done with GameStop. But red. Let's just go ahead and jump on into it. And Kat you know what you take over? Just kind of talk about what's going on with GameStop this week and how they pissed us off again.

Red: 1:58

Well, as usual, they're in the news for mostly the wrong reasons. First and foremost, you mentioned CEO George Sherman, he decided he was going to take a pay cut 50% pay cut from whatever the hell his salary is. I didn't look too hard, but I'm sure it's

Hick: 2:11

in the millions probably.

Red: 2:12

Yeah, I'm sure it's way more than you and I will ever see in our life. Yeah, the other executive leaders took a 30% pay cut as well. This guy was appointed CEO in what? April of 19? Yeah, about a year ago, they have had one of the shittiest views of a company. I can imagine a 50% pay cut is not fucking enough for Mr. CEO, George Sherman, that guy should have been taken like a 90% pay cut from day two. Yeah, on the job because the news from GameStop for the left since he has taken over and let's be honest, even before but he has not improved it. No at all. It has just been bad news after bad news after bad news and now not you know, they took the pay cuts which you know, yeah, they're trying to help their profits, I get it. That's kind of admirable, you know, whatever. But now, fucking they can't do one good thing without kicking themselves in the ass on the other end. So of course, they're saying now we're gonna start reopening some of our stores. A couple of the states I think they mentioned were what Georgia and South Carolina i think is the other one. Anyway, it's like, dude, we are still in the middle of a fucking pandemic. And you're talking about opening a video game store. Come on, man. You try to do one good thing, and then you just bury it with this. Nope, we're opening stores.

Hick: 3:28

We're just taking a 50% cut. So he's only making like, I don't know, what, three, four or 5 million right now or some crap like that,

Red: 3:34

again, more than I'll see you in a long way. In a lifetime. Let's go.

Hick: 3:37

Here's the problem. Like, you know, Georgia, they've been talking about opening everything. Not everything. But a lot of businesses like you know, nail salons, barber shops, stuff like that. They talked about those opening up may 1. So, you know, yeah, I won't bash GameStop. But at the same time, these other businesses are opening up and thinking stop, you know, I don't know why the hell that turns so nice. All of a sudden. I was not planning on going this direction. But I am trying to say that there are other businesses open up I still don't think GameStop really needs to open up because I would say like a barber shop is really more essential than game stores right now. Because you know, people need their hair cut. You know, not everybody, like everybody's been doing it at home. Some of them if you've seen the pictures, not all of them have turned out great. So a barber shop. Yeah, you might need a barsh barber shop that might be essential. Now, I don't know about nail salon, a gym? Not really, essentially, you can exercise different ways. But again, no, I do understand it. But gaming, like you know, has went to digital and you can still get your gaming fix digital during this pandemic. And this is where I think GameStop has messed up, like Yes, I understand your physical store. But I don't know exactly what they're doing digitally, but they not done enough of it. I don't exactly what they can do. But I feel like they can give out some I don't know digital codes or somehow work with the game publishers to get discounts but maybe something Like that, but they've not done enough up into this point like to be prepared for this. And yeah, well all these other stores are opening up. Like you've already got a bad rap with all this essential crap and you're still trying to fight it, you're still trying to fight it. You are not fucking essential for working from home. So just stop at gamestop

Red: 5:20

it's just I mean, it's it's just another piece of evidence of how desperate they are. And I know Yes, a lot of businesses are desperate right now we're going on over a month now of people being quarantined, or in this you know, shelter at home stay at home, businesses being mostly shut a lot of businesses being shut down. I get it. A lot of industries are hurting right now. But they're not all opening their damn mouth and sticking their foot in it. Yeah, quite the way that GameStop is. And I know a lot of states have their stay at home or shelter in place orders are shipped seps shit are set. On May 1, I can't talk I'm worked up now. But uh, are set to lift may 1, and I don't know about you, man. I just think that that is way too soon. Oh, yeah. I mean, I know in the state we live in the number still keep going up. And part of that, you know, testings getting more available. But still, it's like, I don't think we're at the point where it's time to flood streets and stores and businesses with a bunch of people again, I know, they keep talking about like, a measured rollout, you know, like, limited, still keeping crowds under a certain number still try to stay apart from each other. You think people are gonna obey that it's not say the bars open. I know what I'm gonna say the bars open, my eyes is gonna go sit at the bar next to some other regular promise, when everything does

Hick: 6:32

open up, people are like, they're so isolated. They're so tired of it already that, yeah, they're not going to obey all the rules, they're going to want to go out, they don't care how many people are out. And I'm with you not to get too much into the whole pandemic, because we've already talked about it. But I'm with you. Like, we're getting new cases. Like I think Indiana got something like almost 400 cases, like you said, there's more testing. So there's more coming out. But there was like 400 cases in like, a very short stretch. So this is not over yet. And so the fact that all these places are opening up, I know people are struggling. But here is my concern is that if things do open up like this GameStop part of the problem, you know all the problem GameStop. But when it comes to gaming, you are most of the problem. But

Red: 7:14

a little universe, they are most of the

Hick: 7:16

problem. Yes. But here's what I'm worried about is like everything opening up is then like the pandemic peaking or going like rising again. And then we got what we got to do, we got shut everything back down again. And if if that happens, the second time is going to be a lot worse, because we're going to learn from our first mistakes. And we're going to stay in isolation longer. And my wife has been putting stuff on Facebook, I believe I've not had a chance to read it. But something about the Spanish Flu back in the early 1900s, where a lot of people had it and they tried to go back too quickly. And then the second like occurrence of it was a lot worse. And I think things open too quickly. That's what's going to happen. That's what we're going to go through and just GameStop you're part of this, you are fucking part.

Red: 8:04

A GameStop is obviously a popular whipping boy of ours. Like we'd like to kick him when he's

Hick: 8:08

ready. I was so upset about all this that I search Google stadia just to see if there's any negative news on Google stadia. And there was that I was like, Damn, maybe next week, but go ahead.

Red: 8:19

Well, that is a nice segue because while there may have not been bad news on Google stadia, another game streaming service definitely took a little bit of a kick here recently. New videos GeForce Now has more publishers that are pulling its games from the service I think, recently they lost as Xbox Game Studios and Warner Brothers interactive, which of course, Xbox Game Studios has your halos your Gears of War Forza Warner Brothers had the Batman Arkham games which had been a hugely popular for almost a decade now going all the way back to Arkham Asylum. The Mortal Kombat games are on Warner Brothers so GeForce Now like so we don't have stadia to beat up like we'd like to but GeForce Now is doing a nice job of filling in and it's just I kind of get it from xboxes standpoint because I know that with you know, the series x and all that they're trying to get their own streaming service really up and going, I get it, but man, GeForce is just fucked up its entire rollout. It seems like every other week, there's an item on our outline about another publisher. Yeah, pulling out and it's just it's sad because I think the positives are there with GeForce Now you don't have to buy the game. Again, you'll pay a little bit of a subscription. You can play it on just about whatever you want. It's just thinks they fucked up. They didn't talk to the publishers. Yeah, it's that simple. It's in it. I need a beer.

Hick: 9:38

Like, you know, I'm worried about where this is going. Because we're seeing this a lot with video streaming is where these own companies are opening up their own streaming services, the best one recently being Disney plus, and they're putting all their stuff on there. And then like, you know, they're not allowing Netflix or Hulu to have it. It's only on that app. And it sucks. I really hate this because one I like going to one app and getting you know Everything now I know yeah that's impossible with video stream but that's I would like everything to be on Netflix or Hulu but you're seeing these Disney plus like you know in a lot of the national television stations like abc nbc I don't know if they're doing it yet but i think they're talking about doing it they are yeah and we're just we're seeing this now I'm worried that this is going to carry over to gaming where Xbox shall have their x cloud you know PlayStation is going yeah, I think it's PlayStation now correct. Is that the string get one Okay, that's right. And then when the tendo doesn't have anything good Jonathan Oh, get on that shit Nintendo. But like we're both the console makers you know Nintendo put will not Oh no, no, isn't it No, it's no Sony and Microsoft for some reason I thought Nintendo wasn't the company there for a second because well because PlayStation is Sony, Xbox Microsoft so I thought Nintendo was something else but no Nintendo is I'm just worried about them and then also some of the game publishers like Ubisoft even though I think they're like one of the main people on GeForce Now but we're all them like kind of doing their own streaming thing and then next thing you know you got pay $5 here you got pay $5 here$5 over here it becomes too much because one guy have all these apps to you got download all these ads three guy have a place you know under desktop or whatever with NVIDIA GeForce Now it will be under desktop but somewhere to put all these apps and then you got to pay for all of them and then people are sitting there bitching about cable well when you get about 20 fucking apps it's the same price so what's the big difference but

Red: 11:27

so you know that's why I don't pay for fucking Nintendo online it's another subscription

Hick: 11:34

read Don't get me started I'm are pissed off about GameStop do not get me

Unknown: 11:39

online.

Red: 11:42

But I mean, it's it's kind of funny because we've already seen like I said, the video streaming services really start to go this way. And another realm that's kind of gone this direction is PC games. Like it used to be to buy PC games, You almost had to go through Steam. Like they were the gorilla in the room. You were the one storefront if you wanted to be profitable, your game had to be on Steam. Then EA came out with origin and Ubisoft came out with you play and you know, Blizzard Activision has battle dotnet and and now we've got, you know, Epic Games, I mean, all these different storefronts and they all have their various advantages and disadvantages, both for customers, and for the people selling the game. So like, on the one hand, I think the competition and the options are good for innovation and things like that. It forces them all to try to be better. But as a consumer, I'm with you. I missed the days where Netflix had everything streaming that I wanted to see steam had every video game on the PC that I wanted to buy. I mean, I cuz that's one of the big reasons we cut the cable cord, right? We're tired of paying 150 bucks for 500 channels. We're never gonna fucking watch. And unfortunately now with both games, whether it's buying them on PC or streaming them, it looks like we're going the direction of we're, like you said, you're getting nickeled and dimed. Now to the point that, you know, you're gonna end up paying 250 bucks anyway. Yeah, and I get that at least we have a little more say we have a little more control over what we decide, you know, I can choose to do Netflix and not Hulu. I can choose to you know, stream on your Xbox cloud and not on you know, GeForce Now. But it's, it's the fact is that nickel and diming. And that Nintendo one is the one that finally pissed me off. I'm like, just put the Virtual Console out there. I'll give you five bucks a game if you put the whole Virtual Console out there. So that's a whole different rant and tangent that will get pissed off about it. Yeah. But I think we spent our first what 1213 minutes here talking about, well, salt. We're

Hick: 13:44

all salty man who just I know, salty, grumpy, but that's what makes us happy. So I don't know.

Red: 13:50

Sometimes it's nice to vent especially we've been cooped up in our houses for almost six weeks or longer now. Yeah. It's nice to vent every now and then. So that's enough. The bad news. How about we talk about some good news? Let's talk about March video game say Yes, sir. So can you go ahead and start?

Hick: 14:04

Oh, okay, Tommy. Okay, I could talk for a little while. That's no problem. But anyways, like the March, this is not shocking whatsoever. But the sales for March digitally Not, not physically. Because you've heard GameStop bitching about non physical games. So this is what happened. But uh, anyways, digitally, the games did very well. Like I said, that shocked me with the whole pandemic. People are staying and people aren't going out to shitty places like GameStop to get their physical games and talking to douchebags like George Sherman. But anyways, but it was just kind of cool to see because it's the biggest, I think, is a 35% increase over last year's March. And it's also the biggest March that the game industry has had since 2008, which I believe that was kind of near the recession. I'm not sure if the recession and unemployment had anything to do with that. But it's been like, well, it's like the biggest month well guess the biggest march in 12 years. So You know, with, yeah, it sucks to see people struggling. It sucks to see all the unemployment going on out there. It sucks to see all the businesses, like, you know, just having a hard time. Yeah, well, you know, at least there is some bright news. Like I said, some positive news. In that video gaming video games in the gaming industry did see a huge increase in margin is really, in my opinion, help people get through some of this pandemic. And people that got away from gaming, were able to get back to it. So maybe they find their love again, for gaming. So, you know, in a very dark time, I think gaming has been a very good bright spot.

Red: 15:36

You're absolutely right. And it's not just maybe like people who used to be gamers lost the love for it and came back to it. Seeing families play games together now. Yeah, what the hell else are you gonna do when you're stuck in the house, talk to each other, you talk about your day, it's terrible.

Hick: 15:54

I was not gonna say anything right there, I'm keeping my mouth shut.

Red: 15:59

But it's like, it is great to see that at least this industry can help like, kind of fill that void that people have. And I've seen the Facebook posts, the Twitter posts, all this stuff. Now people playing games with their spouse who maybe never gained before getting their kids into it a little more. And you know, of course, Nintendo games are perfect for that. But there's a lot of good casual games out there, whether it's, I don't care if it's on your cell phone, or frickin Xbox One X, you know, if you're playing games, I support it, you get your family playing games, you know, I think that breeds some healthy, like, it's fun to smack talk to your, you know, your significant other, your kids, you know, as long as you keep it, keep it decent. But you know, it's fun to have something competitive, just some kind of outlet like that. So you're not just stuck sitting there pent up and pissed at the world because like you said, He's gonna have a shitty time. So I was happy to see some of those sales numbers. And it does make sense because you cannot find a damn Nintendo Switch anywhere. No, apparently there march was also like record setting for consoles. And you're like, we're how many what three years into the switches lifecycle. And it's still setting records. Because what do people want to do? Play some family friendly video games, you can play them on the go while you're on the go right now, but on the couch while someone else has

Hick: 17:14

to go. I mean, you got to like fields and stuff like to fill but you can go out other places and still, you know, be farther than six feet away from people so you can still make it on the go. Just not maybe the way you would in normal life.

Red: 17:25

You're not going to the bar to place

Hick: 17:27

No, No, you're not. No, you're not.

Red: 17:29

But so one little quirk, though, that kind of came out of those sales numbers. And we mentioned it there in the intro a little bit, though, that kind of caught both of our attention. The top two selling games in March weren't really a big shock. And yet no Crossing New Horizons. You know, it's a first party Nintendo game, the way switches are selling right now. Not a surprise at all. And then, you know, Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Also not a surprise, year after year, it's more of those popular franchises. Even now, it seems like its peak was like eight years ago, but it's still going really strong. But number three on the list.

Hick: 18:01

Well, hold on a sec would call Do you hit the whole war zone thing that came out in the front? I think that's why maybe the numbers jumped up a little bit because he has free to play but then you get all the microtransactions. So yeah, I think that's why I see that there. But go ahead.

Red: 18:13

No, I was gonna say but number three, how about MLB the show? First of all, it is a PlayStation exclusive, which granted that in stop Animal Crossing as a Nintendo now. But you know, it's just weird to see a non Madden or NBA touquet sports game. Be that high on the sales and it's it caught your attention first. And then I looked into it. I'm like, wow, what the hell? So how to talk a little bit about MLB the show?

Hick: 18:39

Yeah, I mean, I was really shocked when I saw that because, like said usually for sports games you see FIFA, Madden or NBA touquet. So I saw it. I was like, What? And that's like, okay, there's maybe a couple reasons why that happened. One I think it was I think it came out around March or April. So you know, it's a new again, still a newer so that was one reason why it could jump so high to baseball was about to start and it didn't so that could have helped itself. Um, but really, it's just I still think it's just kind of random. And I don't exactly understand it. Yeah, there's some reasons that you can give for it. But to be the top third selling game, like during this whole pandemic, there's absolutely shocking. Here's the one thing I will say, I played MLB the show, I believe it was 18 is like right there. I got the PlayStation. I absolutely loved the game. Like I didn't know it kind of gets a little bit redundant. But what I loved about it,

Red: 19:28

that's baseball in general. Yeah, yeah. Well, here's

Hick: 19:30

the thing, though, when you play that game, like you don't play a full game, like it just goes like when you go to bed like that's when you play and then in the field, like it doesn't go through every batter. It just takes you to the batter, like the simulation, however that works behind the scene. It takes you to wherever you're part of the play. So all you're doing is hitting bait like you're going there swinging the bat and then on defense, like whenever the ball is coming to you or you're part of a double play. That's when the game would like you know, that's when you play the game and so that you actually could go through games very fast because You are not going through a full game. Now the reason that I didn't keep on playing MLB the show and they might change this is because like you couldn't really select who got drafted by like if my favorite team is the Cubs, which it is, like if I'm playing MLB the show, I want to be drafted by the cubs. That's why select the favorite team. And when I get done my triple A, you know, my single egg my double A and my triple A, I want to go to the cubs. And when he sent me to the freakin Oakland Athletics, which is like the worst place to play fucking baseball, and I got played like 90 was it 80 games in that stadium or I was upset.

Red: 20:34

I was somewhere we have a fan in Oakland that's writing an angry letter.

Hick: 20:39

But that's the reason I quit playing. But my opinions of the game are very high even though I've not continued to play it. So but really, I mean, d&d reasons before was the third highest selling like I gave you a couple out do you have any more or anything that you can think of? One thing that actually caught

Red: 20:56

my eye? Because of course, you know, ESPN has been desperate for any kind of cause. Yeah, I saw I saw a not a not a video but like a news blurb type thing. Apparently, there are 30 major league players, you get one from each team, who is actually doing an MLB show the show season and they're streaming it on like Twitch, Facebook, you know, whatever other streaming platforms there are. We're not streamers, in case you couldn't tell we sound sometimes we

Hick: 21:23

I don't think Facebook is streaming but it might be I don't know, but I don't think it

Red: 21:26

is. And maybe YouTube. I don't anyway,

Hick: 21:29

but definitely Twitch and YouTube are definitely there.

Red: 21:31

But yeah, so apparently like 30 MLB players and some of them are stars, I was kind of digging into this a little bit like you have, like for NATO status, the really popular young guy, pitcher for the race, I'm drawing names. I'm not a huge base. I love that you tried to go

Hick: 21:49

through baseball and start naming players and you got to one and that's

Red: 21:52

I got I got one players there's a carpenter from the Cardinals was one so I got two. But one Soto was another young name that is doing it so anyway, but the point is, like, I love that these people are losing their seasons like in real life. So why not do something like this where you play like a quick abbreviated season just online on a video game, you stream it you know, either do it for charity do it for to raise money for first responders or for your like the ballpark people who are now out of your job because the season's canceled the arena workers, the stadium workers, I love the idea that they're doing something like that. And I wonder if that kind of activity isn't helping get some awareness and popularity up to the game. And that's what helped push it up the sales charts a little bit. I know that like Like you said, You let you've enjoyed the game. It's always reviewed. Well, it's always been considered one of the best sports games and somehow it's always been an exclusive up until next year, it's finally going to go multi platform. I don't know that the I think Xbox or I think MLB Finally, like negotiate some rights with Microsoft or something. But I mean, it's like

Hick: 23:04

really it's the only baseball game kind of like for the only racing game and all you other racing games and publishers out there. They're saying oh, we're racing gamer No, you're not Forza is it? That's where it's at. That's where it's gonna stay in like when it comes to baseball. MLB the show that is really the one franchise and they do a really good job. Whoever makes the game I'm not sure who makes the game. I'm not

Red: 23:24

sure either. It's not a but it's really good. But I would just like to see other sports leagues try this. Like Yeah, get some NFL players, one from each team to play a frickin Madden tournament or season, whatever. Get some FIFA players out there and play your own Champions League. I mean, we're all missing out on our sport. Those of us who are sports fans anyway, are missing out on sports hardcore right now. And yes, watching these guys play video games is not the same. But look at eSports people love watching people play video games, look at Twitch. It's a billion dollar platform now. I mean, I think it's a great way to keep people talking about your sport, talking about your team. And if it raises money for a good cause, like they said, Do it for charity, do it for stadium and arena workers do it for first responders, whatever, like and plus it brings attention to the video games. I mean, clearly, it's not hurting MLB the show isn't sitting there and third insane,

Hick: 24:16

but they'd be making a lot more money though the MLB season was going on. But you know what, at the same time, you could say that about all the sports leagues, you could say that all the businesses, they're struggling so you know, just try to do your best to get back and kind of create something differently during this time that you might not do otherwise, obviously, because it's a very weird and unique time. But let's kind of keep the good news train rolling, because man, we were real salty, and negative in the beginning. But a few weeks ago, I'm gonna kind of let you talk about this because I know nothing about this. But um, a few weeks ago, we got the release of one of the most anticipated games of the year, the Final Fantasy seven remake. So Candace, go ahead. What do you want to say about it?

Red: 24:52

So full disclosure. First of all, I have not played the Final Fantasy seven remake. I never played the original Final Fantasy seven but Just know from you know, the gaming websites, our Discord server, just the general chatter that it is it has been on everyone's radar for a long time. Like it's greatly anticipated the original Final Fantasy seven is considered one of the most like popular games ever. So this release was a big deal. And it has reviewed Well, I mean, I think right now today it was today like an 88 on Metacritic. So that's pretty damn good. It's not quite, you know, Game of the Year type thing, but it's pretty freakin good. Everyone who's talked about it, who's played it on our Discord server has been very happy with it. I've heard nothing but love for it. It seems like the the updated visuals that they've gone for, they really hit the mark, they've made the world and the characters look really gorgeous. And they've also kind of used this opportunity to flesh out some of the side characters and the rest of your party a little bit more, just give a little more personality give them a little better story. So first things first, I'm happy to hear all the positives for a game. I know a lot of gamers have fond fond memories of the original Final Fantasy seven. So I'm excited to hear that the the remake is doing well. People seem to love it. Even though I haven't played it. I have some thoughts. I figure

Hick: 26:13

I don't really have anything to say because I know nothing. I mean, I have heard a little bit about it. I'm not really a fan of the JRPG. Although partly kind of changed that in the remake a little bit. I don't know if that's correct or not. But I'm not really a fan of that whole term base style game. You know, I played like one or two games like that. paida, one of the Fire Emblem games. It's on 3d awakening back on the 3ds. Right. What was Yeah, yeah, I think it was on the 3ds. But um, I don't know, man, it's so long ago. But like, I'm just really not a fan of it. I might try one day. But like I kind of talked about, like I at this point in my life, like, I am willing to try new things like I try to Animal Crossing. Love it for three days, four days, like I don't feel like paying off debt. I'm done. No, but I want to try things, but also usually know what I will and will not like, yeah, and so I don't think JRPGs are for me, I'm fine a game, I might give it one more shot. I'm like I said, I don't think the game is based that way to kind of change some things. And maybe you've probably looked into this more, but it's kind of more like episodic, they can just change. You know, I don't know what else they change. I'm trying to look through the nose. There's so many fucking words like, hey, pick out the little important bullet points and everything. So just go ahead.

Red: 27:24

Well, it's so as most people know, they took Final Fantasy seven and turn it into an episodic release. Like this first game, even though they're still charging 60 fucking dollars for it is basically the intro and for how much work they've done. I will I will say, or it looks like they've done just from like I said, from reviews from some gameplay videos. It looks like the work they've done kind of justifies, hey, we can't develop this entire game the way we want to, into one game, it would take 20 years to put the damn thing out. So I'm the episodic thing rubs me a little bit the wrong way because it does feel like a cash grab. I'm like, you guys managed to make this all into one game in the PlayStation era. Granted, I know it was on multiple discs back then because it was just CD. ROMs it wasn't even damn blu rays back then. Yeah, or whatever kind of discs are putting games on. But to me, it sounds like a cash grab. You know, we've already bashed GameStop for their cash grab. So I'm gonna bash I think Square Enix. So I didn't like them breaking it up. And then when I heard that this, you know, Episode One, whatever you want to call it is only like the opening city of the apple of the original game. Everything I've read is like that opening city. I think it's called made guard took like, four to six hours to play in the original. Yeah. And somehow, they have managed to pad that and stretch it into a 40 hour full release. And I'm like, okay, like I said, they've developed the characters a little bit more, probably a lot more side missions and sounds like it looks beautiful. That sounds like there's going to be so much filler. Like I can't imagine stretching four to six hours into a 40 hour slog to me that sounds like so much overkill. And in one of the best analogies, I saw it on Twitter, I can not remember who it was. But they said it's like when Peter Jackson took a kid's book in The Hobbit and stretched into three, three hour long movie.

Hick: 29:23

Yeah,

Red: 29:24

it's like that's one of the biggest criticisms of The Hobbit it's like the book did not have this much stuff in it. So I'm looking at like, how do you take a four to six hour intro and make it into a 40 hour full, you know, quote unquote, full game without so much filler and padding that it just becomes redundant and you get burned out on it. So and I know you kind of hit on this a little bit they did change their combat system from the traditional turn based to kind of the more real time Yeah, combat the more recent Final Fantasy games have had, and I know people who are fans of the original system and fans Have those old like Super Nintendo era JRPGs your Final Fantasies your Chrono triggers who love that turn based system? Yeah. And it's in such a beloved game and you change it that radically is like I can see why it took him so long to develop this because they changed so much but it's just to me it I don't know it doesn't feel like a money grab it does feel like they're trying to do too much with it and and change too much

Hick: 30:27

I mean, yeah, but here's the thing I could I did not know all this like this is actually news to me. Like I kind of looked at it like epicycles like I don't know exactly what that means. I did a little bit of research on it but yeah, I had no idea like you had a note about like you know, the intro been for six hours but stretching out to 40 I thought this was the full game. Oh, hell I thought this was the full game and so when you're sitting here telling me that this is basically just the intro that they stretched out like I'm against this I did now like I know people are loving and stuff but Okay, first of all, a cash grab between Final Fantasy and Square Enix is a lot different than these douchebag CEOs at gamestop Okay, don't you dare compare them to GameStop but it was it does feel I wouldn't necessarily call it okay. I'd understand your cash grab point. But same time they had made the game beautiful day I'm sure they've put the time into everything but it seems like it Yeah, yeah, I just I don't know like I don't really know much about Final Fantasy. I've never played a game but everything you're telling me like I'm just kind of like I'm good like how are you gonna give me a remake when it's actually not a remake of the entire game? It's just a remake of like you said the intro basically and they had yeah CDs should it will digitally you can download the whole thing digitally now might be maybe gigabytes or something like that. But you can usually put a large game like I mean look at the games we have out now like you know Witcher three Red Dead Redemption to like you can put large games on this now so yeah, not i'm not i'm not filming this idea. But like, you know, let's go ahead and switch it up from a game that neither one of us have played. And let's talk about what we're playing right now. And I'm gonna let you have the floor right here because I know you want to talk about you finally be Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze 20 years after its release. So kind of what was your experiences with that? I gave me the joy Did you know enjoy it? Oh,

Red: 32:15

I absolutely loved it. Like Donkey Kong Country was the first game I ever played on the Super Nintendo it was it was the game that sold me and one of my brothers on like saving up the allowances and all that shit and getting a Super Nintendo so that franchise will always have a very very special place in my heart anyway, just from like those old days I love the original Donkey Kong Country. And the second one did his conquest are like two of the best Super Nintendo games. But Tropical Freeze First of all, Nintendo continues to nail their art style like it is unbelievable to me that they can make games this gorgeous when everyone's like yeah, you know, you know photorealistic graphics, you know, Ray lighting and all the you know, HDR all this stuff, which is great for some games, but Nintendo with their you know, quote unquote, inferior hardware continues to put out absolutely gorgeous games. I mean, don't young Country Tropical Freeze is a 2d platformer. And it is stunningly beautiful. The backgrounds of the levels are so detailed with that Nintendo artstyle it blows my mind. They can do it. The difficulty level is okay. It's a challenge. It is not an easy game. There are some levels I dropped probably 40 lives. I'm looking at you every single rocket barrel level. But it's just it. It continues to be like it keeps that old school 2d platformer charm. And yet, it still kind of innovates a little because there's always some new twists. There's always some new just mechanics that they introduce. So I absolutely love it. You're right. It's originally a Wii U game. I finally went back to and got on the switch. Say man I remember like

Hick: 33:58

getting drunk. Well, I don't know if I got you drunk. You were just getting drunk yourself. I was the one talking you into buying Donkey Kong. Country Tropical Freeze. That was before I think I was even married man. When you did. And like you're still like, you're just finally getting around the plane. It sounds like about you know about damn time. But like, it's uh, I mean, I played it a long, long time ago. You probably

Red: 34:19

you played the Wii U version. Right?

Hick: 34:20

Yeah. Played the we Oh, yeah, that's right. There's a switch version. You know, it's a good price. I might think about Guinness, you know

Red: 34:26

20 down and it's still 55 It's a Nintendo first party game they never fucking go let's

Hick: 34:31

not know about this game that came on the Wii U but I absolutely loved it. Like I said the game is beautiful. And the whole tropical and then the freeze like those two different elements play out so well in the game did and like you know, it's a great art style. Beautiful Nintendo. We know what they do they do it well, 2d platformer like, you know, yes is difficult, but not as difficult as some of these damn 2d platformers or in the Blind Forest Ram. I don't know if rambles difficult but I struggled with Ravel and then there's another Celeste is a big one. Yes, les is a difficult one. You know like so like it's difficult but it's not difficult. Sorry, red pipe there, right? Yeah. Try not to do it. But sometimes you just get to that point where man you just lose your voice and you just got tagged

Red: 35:15

just tag me and if you got it Yeah, but

Hick: 35:18

I mean yeah, it was just nice it Yeah, it's difficult but it's still even though I never beat it. I got to the final boss. I could not beat that final boss. Oh, he was hard, man. I don't know how many tries that gave it. But it was a decent amount of trust. I could just like you pisses me off about Donkey Kong is those two hits, like you get to think. But like, you'll get like two or four hits, and then you're dead. And just it's like, I need more hits. I need like more hits on me before I die. That's why I never like called duty. And I love the halo so much because I could get shot like 50 times in Halo and still not die. And that's what I need in Donkey Kong Country. Tropical Freeze. I needed something like that where I didn't die so quickly. But all my thoughts are the same as yours. No, I didn't beat it. But I did get to the final boss. So in my experience, I did experience the game and like everything he said about it. I absolutely love but you also just got done recently. You've been a lot of games recently with Assassin's Creed origins, not origins, origins. So can you talk about like, you know, what are your thoughts on that? Like, did you enjoy Did you not enjoy it?

Red: 36:23

Well, I know I've talked about it a little bit the last couple episodes because I mean, it literally is a 200 hour game. I loved the world the Egyptian world was beautiful. The story was a good classic revenge story for like nine tenths of the game the lat the ending, I won't spoil anything more than I did drunkenly on Twitter the night I beat the game, but but like the ending kind of goes off the rails at the end, which I feel like is a little typical of Assassin's Creed games because they try to do too much of the current day in the past all that crap, but it is definitely it was worth playing. And I think it evolved the Assassin's Creed formula, just enough to keep it fresh because it's my third Assassin's Creed. I know a lot of people out there have played everyone and I don't know how you don't get tired of them. Yeah, I really enjoyed

Hick: 37:08

it just playing them as they come out. Like it's not as big as have as big of a deal because they're released. I'm not sure but you know, every two, three years, maybe more than that. But I mean, installments. But if you're spacing them out, you can't play them, but go ahead.

Red: 37:21

Yeah, it's just it was one of those where at first I was trying to do all the side quests because I did really love the story in the world. And like I know I talked a little bit like the socio economic stuff and it's like I enjoy it all. But I hit my wall. I finally got to the point like I'm tired of clearing out enemy camps and captives blah blah blah. And it took me hours I will give the game credit. I love exploring that world for almost 100 freakin hours. So before I finally said I just want to go finish it so it out it of the three Assassin's Creed origins of games, or sorry Assassin's Creed games I've played. I'd probably put it second I still like the pirate setting of black flag. Yeah, but I thought it was better than syndicate. As much as I enjoyed like the Victorian era England as well. But it was mechanics wise, I thought it was the strongest just setting wise I kind of preferred the pirates a little bit. So that

Hick: 38:10

brings up a conversation from last week really, we're talking about how many games did you play like one time, like, you know, you talked about getting like 80 hours into it and kind of hand your point like, you know, with all these camps and everything, you kind of understand because I'm going through the same issue. I would say the same issue Bowery kind of see like with Odyssey you're like oh, there's gonna be a lot of that and like I don't mind it right now but you know, it will get kind of old and the same thing happened in my favorite game ever Witcher three like we got to scale ago and you had all those muzzle catches are conscious or whatever they're called. what's the what's the pronunciation on that one red cat I think it's just cash catch okay whatever I think so I don't think like there was a too many of those and so like you know, I kind of got away from that just said okay, I'm gonna go on and beat the game but like said can go back to our conversation on last week we're talking about how to game should you play which you know I started there that golf tangent and now back back there now I am back there now. That's why I love at least having two games to play because you can kind of break that rhythm a little bit like I'm playing Odyssey right now and control so when I kind of get tired of that whole open world thing and go into all these camps and the question marks and everything I can turn on control you know go shoot some people a very linear game so far I'm not very far in it so that's why I think it's always great to have two games because Did you play like 80 hours straight up like without a break? Or did you have other games in between there?

Red: 39:29

I was mixing it in a little bit. I was playing I was playing shoot I was no no hell I pretty much just focus on that. I was playing a little bit of Donkey Kong Country here and there but that'd be more like play a couple levels get pissed off a donkey on country for killing me over and over. Go back to Assassin's Creed so I actually did part of his courses being in this stay at home thing where you just sit down and exploring an open world desert great way you know I live by myself I'm not in the same boat with you with the kids, spouse all that like So for me I can just sit here and get lost in open world for you know, four or five hours an evening, you know, because God knows we don't work during work hours because we're working

Hick: 40:09

Yeah, you don't play you don't play during game hours because you're working you don't work during working hours because

Red: 40:15

we'll play during work hours sorry that that is absent sometimes. I don't know some of these games feel like work every now and then. But But no. So I actually did kind of do origins pretty much straight. And once I was done with it, though, I had to go to I had to do a palate cleanser. I did knock out something linear and quick and you actually turned me on to Uncharted The Lost legacy, which you've spoken very boys

Hick: 40:37

asked her john to the last legacy, that's what

Red: 40:42

but I will say it's like, it's just it's more Uncharted. And that is exactly what I needed after a long open world game like yeah, Uncharted has puts the fucking fun in video. Like they're just perfectly fun games. They're the summer blockbuster of video games. You know, the writing? Yeah. between the characters is really good. The worlds are beautiful. The stories are a little out there of course, because they kind of get into you know, the treasure hunting and all this Yeah, some of them kind of hit on some supernatural stuff. Don't get me wrong, but they're still just a ton of fun and a quick eight to 10 hours. I think I put it in like just under 10 hours. Yeah, in the less lost legacy to beat it. And I absolutely loved it. And I think at some point kind of like we did with God of War a couple episodes of our podcast back, we will probably spend one talking about the Uncharted. Because I know we both loved it

Hick: 41:32

if we will definitely talk about the whole franchise on an episode and maybe talk about one or two games for a full episode, we might break up a little bit because if you and I had a chance to play the Uncharted franchise, go play it. I actually believe that the Nathan Drake collection which is one two and three, I believe that maybe free on PlayStation if you're part of the PlayStation Plus network, which is basically their their subscription service yet for like, you know, the 60 or subscription service that you have. I believe it's free. I'm not positive I can't remember exactly when that went on sale. But um, I think it's free right now. runs through April. I think it was through April actually, I think it like goes like five or six days in the may actually. Okay. It's okay if you're a PlayStation Plus meme actually, if you're not PlayStation Plus member become a PlayStation Plus member just so you can get the Nathan Drake collection for free. I would highly, highly recommend that because the Uncharted franchise, I absolutely had a blast with it all the games that I believe are well, they didn't. The first games didn't come out until the PlayStation three but I believe that they still might have been remastered in the collection. Do you know?

Red: 42:36

Yes, one, two, and three were all remastered and then four was a PlayStation four game. And then the last legacy was PlayStation four as well. So I mean, they are all

Hick: 42:46

three of them. Yeah, one is still a little rough around the edges, but it still looks good. But like I mean, you could play through them. They're not that old of games, each game is really I would say 10. Let's give it 10 to 15 hours, depending on how much exploring there's not a lot of exploring because it's a linear game. But if you can kind of go out of your way to do a little bit I highly recommend it. Like I said, it's free right now if you're not PS Plus member, get it, get Nathan Drake collection, you'll absolutely love it. And then man force beautiful last legacies beautiful, but you know what, we're gonna save all this for a podcast some other time. Because Yeah, sadly, once again, I don't need to really give an update on my gains because we kind of talked about him a little bit. So let's go ahead and just gonna fly past my part. Let's go ahead. All these links will be in the description. But if you want support us, you can support us on Patreon, or PayPal and Patreon is a monthly thing. Pay Pal is a one off thing if you want to do it. If you can't do that, fine. If you can't help us financially, which is fine. We love to have a review or rating rating very easily just click that five star button on the ad that you're listening to. If we're not five stars, just lie just fucking lie. We're okay with you lying Okay, it's not gonna do anything. But like I said in a review really helps us out. And then we do have merchandise on our websites that have merchandise on the Zelda website, all kinds of video game merchandise on the tg PC gaming website. And we may earn a commission on purchases through our links and read Do you want to talk about our Facebook or YouTube? Our discord, social media, all that good stuff? Well, I think you just did but a

Red: 44:25

couple. We do have a couple of Facebook groups out there. We have gaming room where we talk about all video game stuff, and we have Zelda realm, which as its name implies, is focused on Zelda. You can find this on YouTube as well. We have a discord, several discord servers where we talk about, you know, so I have one server, sorry, one server lots of different where they call channels. channels. Yeah, so we talk about all kinds of gaming stuff, you know, it goes we have PCs, PlayStation, Nintendo, Microsoft, you know, we talk about everything on there. And of course, you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and as we mentioned, we're on Facebook as well. So hello Everyone continues to stay safe. Hopefully next week, we don't start out with so much negativity, as always

Hick: 45:05

do something good for once. GameStop. We want to hear good news. In Google stadia, you better be good too, because I'm going to look at Google. I'm going to google google stadia, and you better be good this week too. Because if you're not, we're gonna go off on YouTube next week. But like, everybody say, stay safe. Stay healthy, get you some gaming in during this whole isolation, and we'll see you on the next episode.