Project xCloud - Busted Buttons Ep. 21

Red and I start with a discussion on the recent announcement that Microsoft's Project xCloud will be getting released in September.

We then roll that into a conversation on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and next gen services.

Afterwards, we dive into open world gaming to address when is the right time to return to the main story and how much can be too much.

We end with an interesting discussion on photo mode in video gaming. Is it something that we use and plan to use into the future?

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Transcript

Hick: 0:17

Welcome to Episode 21 of the Busted Buttons, Video game podcast, as always, fantastic and great show today, which are really synonyms always do, they always used to be synonyms and I really don't need to like you're just you put too much behind it. But anyways, let's get to it. We're talking Project X cloud, we're talking the Xbox game pass ultimate, which I didn't know existed until today. But you know, you gotta have your different tiers of subscription services, you can't just have one, you gotta have three or four that gives you the ask for more and more. Talk about that. That's not the time to talk about it right now. We're going to talk about services, next gen and like, what kind of impact that might have basically on which one we're going to buy. First, we're going to talk about going back to the main stories and games, and how that can have effect on your playthrough. And then we'll have a conversation on how much is too much. I've been playing through I've gone back to Assassin's Creed Odyssey. And there's so much to do so Oh, isn't a good amount of content was too much. But we'll have a conversation about that. Talk about photo mode. And then if we have time, we might get to discussion on headphones. You know, for gaming. Obviously, me will use headphones when they're gaming, and then also how they're putting crowd noise during sporting events in games if we had time to get those last couple of ones but first topics I like it. Yeah. First one I wanna start off with is the Project X cloud. It just came out that it is getting a September release. This is something we kind of talked about, you know, a streaming service for Xbox so reg, kinda thought you was your whole opinion on this announcement.

Red: 1:50

Well, I'm excited for it like when it comes I know streaming services we have bashed on like the the new videos GeForce Now we bashed on the Google stadia,

Hick: 2:00

we've never talked bad about Google stadia.

Red: 2:05

But it seems like if there is a company that can do this, right, that already has the infrastructure in place to make this work fairly seamlessly. It is Microsoft. So I am very optimistic that when the x cloud launches, it ain't gonna be perfect, it ain't gonna be flawless. And so much of it will rely on things like your bandwidth, but I'm excited. I'm really excited about the idea of being able to take your laptop, your tablet, even your cell phone, you know, and play full fledged Xbox, you know, Xbox One and Xbox One series x and Gosh, these names are terrible. name

Hick: 2:37

I just call it Xbox, not eggs, but you've heard my or my opinions, just called Fox five somehow you can get to five you've had five iterations you'll be right there a PlayStation, call it there we go. Yeah,

Red: 2:50

so I'm really excited, just the idea of being able to hook up like because I've got a wired, you know, Xbox 360 controller that I use every now and then on my PC already, just for games that are a little more optimized for controller. So being able to like travel and just fire up I have a Microsoft Surface, it's not a gaming laptop by any stretch, but just be able to fire it up and just stream these games using the x cloud. Like I'm excited for it. I don't know how much I will necessarily use it because at home I'm gonna have an Xbox series x, I've got a gaming PC, I don't necessarily need it when I'm sitting here in my house but when you're traveling, I think it's going to be such a great device and like or a great service rather as long as you've got like I said good bandwidth to actually do it so and the fact that they're including it free with the Xbox game pass ultimate which we're going to talk about here in a few minutes. I'm that's just a perk like that is a yet another thing that made me pull the trigger on game pass ultimate here recently like Like I said, we'll get into that in a minute. But so I'm excited. What are your thoughts about it?

Hick: 3:49

Let me know. Yes. So So is because here's my 95% of my gaming like is at home and that's really do with the pandemic like I'm just home a lot in out like I'm not really gaming because I'm with my kids. It's hard You know, at least at this stage in their lives. It's hard to be out gaming Mobley so Oh yes, all my gaming is at home Um, I think this is cool. The X cloud, you know, even the NVIDIA GeForce Now in the Google stadia, the whole concept of streaming video games on your tablet, your phone or whatever device it is a cool concept is going to really ensure I do like it for me doesn't really matter I'm not gonna be gaming on my iPhone I'm not gonna be gaming on my tablet I do gaming my computer but I game at home hooked up to a monitor so

Red: 4:32

yeah, me and you've got in your laptop can handle PC games for the most part

Hick: 4:39

I know we've talked laptop but you can do the job I guess. But yeah, here's my whole thing like a lot of the stuff that I do in my house like is wired like I have like nine Ethernet ports I can on the other day like a smart home and yes, I run through my house you know just because the internet's faster. Yeah, my yes sir with this always is it's wireless. All these I mean, I guess you could hook up a couple devices like, you know, through Ethernet. But for the most Yeah, if you're playing on your phone or tablet, I've not seen a tablet with an Ethernet port on it. Now, there might be an adapter here, there, but for the most part, you're going wireless. So I'm always worried about that, that mean people going wireless like, you know, all the latency and the lag, which I think is maybe the same thing. I'm always a concern for me, but it is the future. I'm cool. I'm glad that it's coming out. I think they had to was like, you know, the whole pandemic, the next generations come out stadia CMS stadia is still not died. There's also no good job, you, Raji for not giving up on this, you know, it's like, I love the me just like, one day, you're just gonna wake up and steady is gonna be done. And there's not gonna be any conversation about it. Google's just gonna kill it. But you know what to think kind of going off topic off topic. But I think Google believes in stadia. I think they see there's a future I think they see that they don't have to have like a console per se, because it's all streaming. Yeah, I think they see that they can still succeed. They just got, you know, they had some rough spots here and there, but they do. I mean, I think me,

Red: 6:10

I just don't hear you, like, sorry, I keep cutting you off. I'm sorry, I'm kind of with you. Like, Google is not gonna, you know, they've invested a ton of money. And even though Google we've said it before, has fuck you money. Yeah, it's still a shit ton of money that you're talking about investing into a service. And it is really early in the whole lifecycle of streaming games, like I know, like the even x clouds been, you know, it's been beta for a little bit. You know, Google stadia hasn't been out that long GeForce Now hasn't been out that long, it is still a very new technology. So I, I know, it's fledgling right now for Google. But I just don't think that they, you know, I don't think they see it as a sunk cost yet. Like, yeah, if it as Internet access gets better, and the capabilities get better, and the game library and all that stuff gets better. I think that they're hoping it's going to be something that does grow over time to where it's sustainable and making money for them, you know, they've got to work on their subscription model. Yeah, I know, we're a little off topic. But like, it is such a new technology still, in the grand scheme of things. I'm excited to see where it goes. And like having stadia around a, it gives us something to make fun of. So I'm always a fitness thing. But you know, but competition is also a good thing. So if x cloud has a competitor out there, you know, I'm all for it. So Google, keep pumping money in there, you've got the money, you're not worried about going bankrupt anytime soon, you own like two thirds of the world. So just keep it alive long enough for the technology to get there. Anyway, sorry. That's my tangent.

Hick: 7:32

That's fine. It's fine.

Red: 7:35

But while we're speaking about the x cloud, one of the things we mentioned is that it's going to come with no cost. If you're a member of Xbox game pass ultimate. And I'm with you, I didn't really know this was something that was out there until very recently, reading about x cloud coming to the game pass ultimate at no additional cost is what really piqued my interest to kind of look at it a little bit deeper. And I was kind of blown away. I mean, we've talked about game pass on here before and how it really is like, you know, it's the Netflix of games for Xbox, it's a great service, but I just never really used it that much. I never even thought about subscribing for it. But when I looked and saw like, first month is $1 it's only 15 bucks a month after that for for for ultimate. And that gives you your Xbox Live Gold as well as the game pass. And I was like, Well, shit, why the hell am I not doing this? I'm already paying what 60 or 70 bucks a year. Yeah, for Xbox Live Gold. Why do I not add this extra feature on there? And I know, you know, we've been talking more about like PlayStations exclusives, things like that. I think we're both kind of playing a little bit more of a third party games. On the PlayStation side. There's a lot of reasons for that. But like, yeah, I looked at this and I'm like, why the hell am I Why am I not doing this? And he always talked about it as a great service. So I was excited to kind of finally pull the trigger and go and upgrade to game pass ultimate. And it worked out well since I just paid for Xbox Live Gold. Not that long ago, maybe two or three months ago. And I got credit for that what I already paid. I paid for a whole year. It's just a monthly so that credit went towards my first few months of Xbox game pass ultimate. So now I'm excited but it does make my backlog even bigger than it already was.

Hick: 9:14

Exactly like we talked about game pass. But what exactly is this? Like? Like? Is it just a game like you go and download Ricky just like is it streaming? Like what how exactly does that game pass part of it work?

Red: 9:25

So it is like like you literally just go to the game pass app on your Xbox or PC because ultimate comes with both versions of Yeah. And you pick a game that's on their subscription service and you download it and play it as if you bought it. So I know this sounds like a damn advertisement for game pass. And I promise we're not like getting paid by Microsoft to talk about it. But I wish we were Hey, Phil Spencer, you got my number Come on.

Hick: 9:48

does not have your phone number. What

Red: 9:50

the hell are you talking? I wish Yeah, that'd be nice to have friends like that. But anyway, but yeah, it really is like us going to the app. You pick a game you got to wait for it to download just like any other game. Yeah, and As long as you pay for the game pass, you can play it. And it's

Hick: 10:06

gonna stretch. And basically it is what it is. And yeah, like I said, we talked about it, and I kind of knew what it was. But it's one of those things until you get in there and like, actually start messing around with it. You don't know exactly what it is. And that's kind of where my confusion was. I was like, okay, it's a scription. But I didn't know exactly how it worked. And you know, that's pretty cool that, hey, you pay for this service. And, you know, like you said, the backlog, man. Yeah, like the backlog. This is just, I mean, first of all, you do have a bunch of games. Well, that SAS, they take up a large part of your Xbox. Yeah. So you know, you can go out download a bunch of games. So you do got choose. But yeah, then does that that whole backlog, but I mean, you're thinking that some games, I don't know exactly what they have, but you know, games run in 50 $60. And you know, you're paying only $15 a month, but then it comes back to well, how many games? can you fit a month? If you're gaming? Like many hours of the day, then yeah, it is beneficial. But if you're only able to get an hour or two in, you know, is it beneficial? But yeah, it's a subscription things work. You pay for them, you forget about you never assume it's a bank account. They just keep on going and going and going. And they know that and that is how they get you. But this Xbox game pass ultimate, I didn't even know it existed. I just thought there was Xbox Live Gold, and then game pass that was kind of separate. So yeah, yes, it makes sense to combine these two things like, you know, kind of no brainer, if you asked me, you know, charge a little bit more money also makes sense. The first month for $1. Yeah, that's pretty cool. But I think in that, you know, we kind of talked about this, but the fact that they're going to have x cloud at no additional cost when it comes down September. That is absolutely huge. Because I guess you go to game pass you What? How's that work? Exactly?

Red: 11:48

I'm not sure how that's gonna exactly work when it comes to the streaming I, because I know there is like an Xbox app now for tablets, phones, PC. Yeah, whatever. I assume that it's going to work through that app. I do not know, I don't think they've given a lot of details on exactly the process of like, choosing to play a game via streaming versus just downloading it and playing it on your computer or your Xbox. I know people like I said, I know it's been in beta, you can like sign up for like, beta test and everything. But I honestly do not know. Exactly like, okay, yes, I want to play this over x cloud, instead of just playing like a normal video games.

Hick: 12:25

I think I was wondering if you could kind of switch between the two. But it really feels sound like you always says I get to do it separately, like, okay, the Xbox game pass over here, you download those games, you know, obviously streaming, you're not going to download the game. So yeah, I mean, it feels like they have to be two totally different services, which I guess means that they're not going to have all the games, there's no way they're going to have 100 streaming games, I would think,

Red: 12:47

well, there's at least all their first party like the ones that Microsoft puts out themselves, of course, but they're also supposed to be supporting cross save, where, let's say, you're playing on your Xbox, you save your game, and you go travel for work or whatever and fire it up on x cloud, it should still pull in that save game file, because it's all in Microsoft's Xbox ecosystem. So I think that's a great perk, like it's almost like the switch, you're sitting there playing it on your TV, then you just pick it up and take it with you and you're still, you know, you pick up right where you left off. So they are trying to at least have that like flexibility, adaptability, where Yeah, your safe game, no matter whether you're playing on your pc or Xbox, or streaming it on your tablet or frickin cell phone for crying out loud, you should still be able to pick up at wherever you saved your game. So now like so it's gonna be different app, or all built within that Xbox app that's already out there. I don't know. fucking

Hick: 13:40

do it within the Xbox app. There's nothing that makes me more upset than when you have like, okay, yeah, let's say Okay, sounds like three different things. You have your Xbox Live Gold, your game pass and your x cloud when it comes out? Yeah, we don't need three freakin separate apps. Nothing makes me more upset than when app companies are app developers do that. You can put on one app, just please put, you know that's a different conversation. No, it's not different conversation just starts with everything in one damn app. You have to beat three apps. I can see them I can see them doing that it's gonna make me upset whether you know I have it or not like I said this, this really this whole Okay, the game pass. That is kind of cool. And that might be something I look into your PS now I think is the other one. Yeah, but no x class subscription streaming. My whole offer them on that when it comes out kind of see how that goes along. But really, you know, it seems like Microsoft is really starting to focus on pleasing the gamer which is awesome. But um, it makes me wonder, could services be more important? Like, you know, like the x, the game pass and also the x cloud? Could services like that be more important. I want to talk to you on this. Could the services be more important than the actual game when it comes to next generation purchases?

Red: 14:56

I'm kind of on the fence at the end of the day. The games are matters like and I know that yes, almost every third party game is going to be on both systems. So like, at that point, it's just what it comes down to the exclusives. But to me, if the exclusives are somewhat, you know, comparable or they both put out a great number of exclusives, then those services in the margins really are going to be a huge factor. Like I mean, we've been talking about gamepass and x cloud and you know, they're also have their shit I forgot the name of but the program where it's like, no matter what version of the game, you buy, whatever console you deliver yourself smart delivery. Thank you, God, they just totally blanked on me there from it. I believe in the whiskey I'm drinking, right. But, uh, but no, like, so like, I'm excited for those services. And I know that there's no way Sony's gonna sit there and not offer something comparable, I mean, whether it's gonna be exactly the same, you know, we don't know. But you know, Sony can't look at all these services and just say, no, we're not gonna do any of that, you still got to just, you know, we're just gonna stick to the traditional, yeah, you buy the game, whatever, you know, so, but at the end of the day, the services are important, and they do like, add up. But you know, where the better games that were the exclusives, and obviously, I think almost everyone agrees that here in our current generation, Sony blew it out of the water with with the exclusives. I mean, it's unbelievable.

Hick: 16:16

We can't talk about this, like, let's say you both had the third the same third party game, and you have x cloud with Xbox. And then let's say PlayStation doesn't have anything yet. Like to me, like, I'd be more well, not for me, because I game differently. But somebody else they might be more willing to buy an Xbox, just because they're able to stream it on any device. And that's kind of talking about this whole conversation like, yeah, definitely the games matter. Yeah, what services come with those games? Basically, where am I going to be allowed to play these games, and that's what it all comes down to. And I do think that those things are going to matter with next gen, you know, we kind of talked about some of the things are gonna matter, they're both gonna be 4k, they're both, I don't know, they're gonna be at 60 frames, but okay, and they're gonna be over there. I hope I'm hoping 4k at 60 frames. That's what I'm hoping for. But the technology like in, you know, the output, the picture quality, the sound quality, it's gonna be, you know, mostly not the same, but it's going to be comparable. Why I think you really differentiate is like, we kind of talked about, like, all this stuff going on, on the screen with Ratchet and Clank. Like, that's a big part of next generation. But I do think these services, like, you know, what you offer to people is going to be huge is x cloud and PlayStation doesn't have anything, which I don't know if they've announced anything at all or not, but they're going to have something that they have something they got streaming go down by the wayside. But you know, if it has big problems, like stadia does, then you know, that can sink in. Okay, yes, exclusives matter. But you know, also third party games matter. Because, I mean, if you have a system that you call valuable, or party game, if you have a system that you really like, is what you want to do, you're gonna buy most of your third party games on that, absolutely. You're not going to buy like mix and match on one system or the other. It's so for me, like, I go back to you, cuz I'm losing my voice low. That's fine. That's I do think these services matter next year,

Red: 18:04

and I really think they do as well. And I'm excited because like, this is my first time like trying out game pass, like, like I said, literally just subscribed here recently. So if that continues, and you get games like Halo infinite and any of these other first party games that we're hoping to hear about here in the next actually here next couple days, we have the big July, Microsoft showcase like yeah, about that. Oh, me too. And if all those are available day one, on game pass, and I'm not having to go out there and spend 60 or 70 bucks a game like they're talking about now. I mean, that is such a value proposition for Microsoft. I'm like, yeah, you drop your 500 600 bucks for the console, but all of a sudden, you're only paying 15 bucks a month instead of 60 bucks a game gave me

Hick: 18:51

dollars that price monthly is going to go up

Red: 18:53

that imagine a problem. So So to me, I'm completely with you. I think the services do matter. Like you said exclusives are the big headline grabbers and and you know, things like Yeah, I got a war on horizon versus Forza and Halo is a fun argument. But like you said, at the end of the day, most of the games we're gonna play are third party games, and we're gonna play them where a it makes the most sense. And on the system we like more, and I'll be completely honest, I know we mentioned I've been playing my third party games lately on the PlayStation, but it's because I have a ps4 pro ruhs I don't have an Xbox One series, Xbox One X. So for me that was the difference on my latest third party games I bought in the last year or two is because I that I have 4k on the PlayStation and I don't on the Xbox right now. So next generation when they both come out and they're both, you know, they're gonna be close, let's be honest, they can argue over teraflops and all that, but they're going to be close. Like, I'm probably going to play on Microsoft or on the Xbox because I like the controller that much better. I know we've gotten a long way from like services and things like that, but it's like,

Hick: 19:54

like it's always kind of a service if yet I mean, it's not service but it's service. It's a perk or something like that. I don't know why it feels like kinda like a service.

Red: 20:02

It really, it's, it's a preference. It's something that if you like one controller better than the other, especially if you sit there playing games for hours at a time, and one controller is more comfortable than the other one, that's where you're going to want to play your third party games. So like I'm all for, the more services we get the better. And hopefully, both Sony and Microsoft, like really focused on delivering these services, Nintendo, I don't think they're ever going to deliver.

Hick: 20:25

Yeah. This is kind of like, you know, we've talked about this with Nintendo and the whole power thing. Like they're not always those gimmicks are going to run out. And we talked about this a few podcast episodes ago, or last one, I don't remember. But it's, um, those gimmicks are going to run out and they want to compete, they get get on board with this stuff, or they got found a different model, they're not going to survive. Like, we see where gaming is going. And I don't see Nintendo going there. And you can say, Oh, they got this, you know, this charm, and these gimmicks, and blah, blah, they are going to run out or they're not matter as much as they matter right now. Yeah, cool to switch. You had like, you know, work you play at home, and then play portable, basically, like very easily. That's not gonna be a gimmick going forward, you're never going to be able to do that again. And your technology hits a point we've seen with phones, like there's only so Okay, the first iPhone, like interations, like there was so much change between the first five or six or whatever. And then after that, like the changes started, you know, the diminishing, because there was only so much you could do and they are done it. And that's what's going to happen when Nintendo But anyways, let's get away from that. Yeah, here's a service that would like, I would love it. If a game would tell you when it's time to go back to the main story, especially Okay, in a linear game, you don't have this problem, because yeah, you're basically always going along. But an open world game. This is a huge problem. And a service that would love like, This service is never going to exist. No, but it feels like Hey, Hick, get back to the main story. And you'll get back actually, at some point we'll talk about later on. But just to get back to the main story in this is a promise heaven with IC is I hit that little man, where I was kinda walking around. I was exploring in here's the thing, like, when you go back to the main story, like you can get captured in it in like, you know, next thing you know, you've ran through like 10 quests, and Damn, you getting closer and closer to the end of the game. Yeah, a when I'm playing open world games, I don't like to fly through the main story, because I want to do all the other things in the game. But here's where I struggle with it is like, Okay, how much of that should you do? Before you get back to the main story? Should you do everything that you can do? Like all the locations, like collect everything you can do all the side quests, like do that's the max before you move on to the main story? Like, there's really no wrong right or wrong answer to it. But I can tell you that lately in Assassin's Creed Odyssey that I have gone back to the main story, like I hit that law and like, I just I was not having fun with the game anymore. And man, like it draw me back into the game. And the story's not, you know, like vantastic or anything like that. But it kind of made me remember that man, like gives you a low with an open world game, get back to the main story, and it will get you right back into it. Like, is that kind of something new experience? It absolutely is.

Red: 23:10

And I think that like, you've kind of defined what I think perfectly is the best way to do it is you know, you go do some of the side stuff until you get to the point where you feel like you're just doing the same couple of side missions, yeah, over or you know, into points of interest, whatever they call them. And depending on the game you're playing, and you realize you've been doing the same ones for like, hours and hours and hours. And you're like, Okay, this is no longer fun. I'm just clearing out the same bases or clearing the same form, or what

Hick: 23:37

have you been up your experience at the same time, which also does one thing I forgot to mention that also helps you out when you do get back to your main quest

Red: 23:45

now. Absolutely. But to me, it's such a balancing act, because some games have good enough side quests and points of interest, everything that you don't hit that low. And eventually you're like, well, crap. Yeah, I just cleared out the entire map. I need to go back to back to the main quest, because I don't have anything else to do. But you know, like you said that like with the Assassin's Creed's recently, even with like, you know, the Witcher, and we're going to talk about this kind of a little bit later on. But you know, there's just, there's so many to do that, eventually, it gets repetitive. And at that point, yeah, when you start feeling yourself in that low, and you think you're powered up and leveled up enough and geared up enough to go back to the main story, you know, then go back to it because the main story of games should be you know, kind of what keeps you drawn Yeah. and keeps you like motivated. It gives you a goal it gives you a focus, you know, all the side stuff. I love it. I'm glad it's in open world games, it's the charm of open world games is having so much to do, but you know, it still should have a story that keeps you engaged keeps you from hitting those lows and keeps you kind of like feeling like you're progressing more than just an experience points or a level number taking up every couple hours, whatever. You know, so to me, I don't like you said there's no right or wrong answer on kind of when you go but in my Mind you kind of hit it on the head whenever you start feeling that low. Yeah, just jump back and do some do some story missions. You know, it's just most of the time, it seems like a lot of open world games now have like recommended levels that you should be doing missions on. Yeah, at least a little bit of a guidepost like that, or an idea for how powerful the enemies are going to be. So for me, like, I don't, I don't like the biggest challenges in the world in video games. So because I'm just too old for that shit, and don't have the time for it. And so I will go and do side mission side quests. And so I'm a little bit above kind of those recommended levels. I know some people like to dive in and try to do you know, it was you know, it was Zelda, like three hearts no gear, run through go beat Ganon. And the first thing you do, but like, for me, I like at least getting a couple levels above that recommended quest level. And not every game has that I get that. But to me, that's kind of where I draw the line. Unless I know I'm getting close to the end of the main quest. And then I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna go do side missions until either I burn out on it, which I had happened with Assassin's Creed origin. We

Hick: 26:05

never know when you get to the fucking end of a game anymore, because they go off for two more hours. If you think it's going in our complaint last podcast,

Red: 26:12

yes. But like at that point, like when you know, you're near the end, then I just kind of do the side stuff until I get bored. I'm like, Okay, I'm kind of over this game at this point. Let's just finish it and move on. So it is something that I've experienced and and some games are better about kind of guideposts in you to when it's time to get back to the main story. But it's it really is all personal preference. So I know some people who can explore around some of these game worlds, endlessly. I mean, Breath of the Wild is a perfect example that we hear people putting thousands of hours into this game. And I'm like, man, after you find 900 croc sees what the hell are you doing? And this

Hick: 26:46

man kind of goes on to like really our next point, like you kind of hit on this a little bit. But like, you know, these open world games? Can they contain too much content? And like, you know, at a certain point, can it just all but you're not gonna count those back to us? I'm asking a question here. Yeah, can these games contain too much content, and basically can become too much and too overwhelming? Like you kind of hit on it. But let's go into a little bit deeper. What are the pins on just open world gaming and all the content that comes along with it?

Red: 27:13

I do think it's entirely possible for there to be just too much content in a game because no matter how good a game is, like, at some point, you're just going to burn out on it because you have these open world games now that take hundreds of hours to play. At some point. I'm just tired of hitting question marks, you know, points of interest just for the sake of hitting points of interest. And it happens in almost every open world game I've played we've talked about it with the Assassin's Creed games, you know me with origins you with Odyssey, even in a game as great as the Witcher three that we have praised endlessly on this podcast. Like I when I got to scale it, I did not go after every single point of interest at that point. I'm like, a lot of these are kind of a pain especially we have to sail to them and things like that.

Hick: 27:55

We had to mounts to the mountains were hard to get around scale again. It's to also add to it, but remember those smugglers catches man. Like That was one thing. I was like, okay, like up to that point. I'd really gone to almost every question mark in the game. And then I got there. I was like, You know what? I am not going to dive down with all these. I think it was sirens or whatever. All those like most annoying enemy in the well. No, no BTS in depth training.

Red: 28:19

Those are pretty annoying.

Hick: 28:20

Yeah. But like up to that point, those sirens, I think I've came over Exactly. That's what it was. But those things are so annoying now just dealing with all these smuggler catches. But here's okay. I agree with you. I disagree with you on you saying there is too much content again. For me as a gamer. Yes, I agree with that. But overall as like a game for the industry, I don't think there can ever be too much content. Good example, this grand theft auto five, look how much content it had. And look how much content is being added to the game. And people are still playing it in here's thing like me and you like, you know, we're lucky enough, you know, to be in a good financial situation to where you really, if we want a game, we can buy it. Now we can't go out. We're not rich or anything. We can go out and buy, you know, 100 games. But if we want one or two games, we can just go buy it. Yeah. So I think for us, like, you know, yeah, we'd like having a lot of content, but does get to that point where you're just like, okay, I kind of want to wrap this up, and I want to play the next game. But not every game is like that. Not every gamer can afford to go out and buy new game so that when they buy a game, like especially if they're younger, and don't have the capability to really bad games, like you know, they get most of gains from their parents, or like birthday Christmas icing. Those gamers might only get one or two games, maybe every let's say half year. So if that's all you have, like, you know, the more content the better. Like you can sit there you can play game for hours upon hours. So really for me, the answer to this question is no, there can never be too much content, because the gamers are different and everybody's situation is different. Yeah, it might be too much content for us. But I think overall as a whole there are going to be getting gamers out there that love having all that content in that keep on playing the game hour after hour after hour. Yeah, talking about people playing now I think Breath of the Wild there Whoa, our calculation? I think they can't the pot screen because I played I think there's no way I played 400 hours of that game now has it been on my TV for 400 hours? Okay, problem. That's, that's a possibility. Yeah. Like you talk about people playing the game 4000 hours in, like, just No, just there's some people don't like all that content. But a lot of people don't have the capability to bow these games in like, you know, so for them, that kind of holds them over. And they're not sitting there where they don't have anything to play. So

Red: 30:39

I guess for me, there's a couple different kinds of content that that, that we go into here because one, yeah, where you buy the base game and it's got just all these points of interest or forts to clear out smugglers caches like you talked about things like that, where it's, you're still in the same world, you're still in the same area, but you're just clear. And like you said, a question mark, or exclamation point. On the map, you're almost done. And I want

Hick: 31:02

to say something real quick right here, there is a point, especially in Odyssey where like as you get farther and farther along and you build up your rank those places like and less and less value like right now if I clear out question mark, he like doesn't even raise my experience Harley all like the bar. Yeah, it doesn't even raise that Harley at all. So there is a point where it's not really worth it. But go ahead.

Red: 31:21

Yeah, but now if you're talking about content being added later on, like something like any, you know, the Witcher three with its expansions, and I hate keeping going back to that game, because I know we talked about it, I'm always Okay, going back to, but like, both of their expansions were massive expansions that added a ton of new and different content. And I see something like that, or Grand Theft Auto, which you mentioned when they opened up the online mode, and they keep adding to the Theft Auto Online and Red Dead online for Red Dead Redemption to like rockstars gotten that down to a science. Yeah, but like, for me, that's a different kind of content. I am 100% on board with things like that, that really freshen up a game and give it legs beyond the people who play it for you know, maybe like the first month or two that it's out, they beat it and they never touch it again, you know, so I'm all for like adding content in terms of like expansions. I know when you if you're playing the multiplayer games, you you get like you get new characters. Now you get the seasons, you know, fortnight has made a huge thing about like, there's an event every single time a season changes. So that kind of content that is different. I'm 100% for and I think it gives a game legs long beyond like it normally would have and I kind of miss when games had more of like an expansion pack type system. I mean, it seems like now everyone does seasons or little incremental updates, things like that. But I missed, you know, the Witcher three having two massive expansions. Skyrim had several massive expansions, you know, things like that, like that kind of content. I completely agree. Like, I'm all for them, adding that it's just when the base game has 10 million question marks and exclamation points. And I get everyone has their burnout point or the point that they're tired of a game or like you said the financial means to buy a new game, you know, everyone in the world is at a different point on that spectrum. And so I'm fine with having a ton of stuff to do, because like, like we've talked about, at some point, we can just decide, okay, I'm kind of over this game, it's time to just finish the main quest. By the next game.

Hick: 33:21

I think it's hard on people who want one to 100% a game like this where there's Okay, maybe they don't have the time, maybe they can't have the ability to buy like, you know, more games whenever they want. But they get that hundred percent i got complete this game all the way. That's I think that people that probably really struggle with this, because like you said exactly what you said those question marks, they do get kind of like, you know, boring at their wall, because the same thing they're saying thing. And as I said, they don't add much experience, and they don't add much to your ranking. So you do hit a point. But luckily, luckily for us, we're not 100% player. Yeah, like you don't have to worry about that. And like, build up like you know, a lot and try to get a lot of experience points to improve my reign, because I think it makes the game easier. But there is a certain point, like you said, where we can just move on and be done with it. So yeah, since we were complaining here about but you know, we had the choice to move on in the game and experience it the way that we want to experience it. So

Red: 34:18

I say go ahead. Well, people will never understand what it was like when we were young gamers. And we only got a couple games a year. And guess what you couldn't even save in that fucking game. That was your game. If you couldn't beat it in one sitting too bad. You had to start over from the very beginning. So,

Hick: 34:33

you know, they were talking about how good those days were.

Red: 34:37

And they were great days. But you know, now, you know, I think how much content in games now is just overwhelming compared to it was when we started gaming. I know there are gamers even older than us that had even less content than that. So yeah, it's it does crack me up. But you know, you know, we keep talking about open world games. That's something we talk about quite a bit. But one of our favorite things from open world games is just kind of the scenes, the scenery, the landscapes, And something that has recently kind of popped up in video games, it seems like just the last kind of just this generation. Yeah, it's been this photo mode. So many games now come with a mode where you can basically pause the game, move the camera around, apply some filters and edits and stuff like that and take some absolutely stunning, stunning pictures. What do you think about photo mode? Do you like it? Do you use it? Do you want to see it continue? Let's hear it. I think I need to get my ass in gear and actually start using it.

Hick: 35:29

Because the first time I started, the very first time I used it, I've seen it in a lot of games and just never just really never went into it and looked into it. But with Assassin's Creed Odyssey I kind of saw, like I saw, like an instruction that said, Hey, hit the f3 key. And you can go into photo mode. So I was like, Oh, cool. Check this out. You know why I finally did on that game? I don't know. Yeah. Now, here's the problem with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, I don't know where my photos are saving, like, I know where my like, I know where my screenshots are going to. But I've looked around for the photo mode, like, you know, on the P I'm playing on PC, I had no idea where these pictures are going back, keep on taking them. Because I'm like, one day, I'm going to put the time into it. And I am going to find where these photos are going. But I'm

Red: 36:12

sure you play account somewhere.

Hick: 36:13

Yeah, it might be I'm gonna find it one day. But um, to me like, yeah, it's something that I've really not done that much. I did it a little bit in The Last of Us. And it's something I'm going to use going forward because I absolutely love posting our screenshots on our tg PC gaming, Twitter, sometimes plug I would like to do more, I don't do it. I guess. When we started the brain, I did a lot. And now there's so many other things that don't do it as much as I would like to. But I do want to get back to you. But here's the thing. I've noticed that like dark images, like you know, where you can't really see that much like on the image. Obviously, those don't do too well on social media. And what photo mode allows you to do is like you said, you can edit it so you can change the brightness so you can see more of what's going on. You know, you can change the hue, the saturation, the contrast, I don't know what the fuck any of those things are. I just know they but you can change them. You move the levers and they do something with the picture. But yeah, I absolutely love it, it is something that I am going to use more going forward. Because Oh, it also takes the menu and like, you know all the icons off the screen usually. And so like you know, it removes their thing. It's basically like getting an image from a cinematic is what's like so yeah, you know, I want to get your opinion on this. But me I absolutely love it, not use it a lot. I do plan on using it more going into the future. And I think it's a great feature for games going on for however long gaming is going on. But you know, what's your overall opinion on photo mode?

Red: 37:41

I completely agree that it's a great feature. I mean, I'm all for I mean, just kinda like we talked about my services earlier, the more stuff like this that people have the ability to use and the you know, even if I don't use it a ton someone out there is using it and messing around with all those filters and messing around with all those different sliders like you talked about. I do use it but not a ton. I remember like the first time I think I saw it was in god of war, but that game was so kind of like cinematic anyway. Yeah, and there's not much of a you know, like he said the icons and things like that, anyway, that I didn't use it much with god of war. But when I got Horizon Zero Dawn, yeah, I started playing around with that when that was where I really got into into the photo mode. And so I've used it quite a bit with with that with control. It wasn't in the launch version of Star Wars Jedi fallen order, which kind of pisses me off because that game had some beautiful settings. And by the time it came out, I'd already beaten the game. I didn't care. Yeah, but you know, I've been using it a little bit for the last of us part two as well because these games do have beautiful, beautiful sceneries are beautiful like land Last

Hick: 38:48

of Us. Part two is absolutely stunning on the landscape. Yes.

Red: 38:53

So like so I do love it. I don't use it a ton, like you said, just because I'm not a person who knows what a lot of those adjustments mean, you just go into it and move the camera around a little bit, zoom out, zoom in that type of thing, and change the angle and take my picture and call it a day. But you know, just having that functionality

Hick: 39:11

a lot of times are just leveraged and you can move them back and forth so you might not know what they are but you can see what they're doing.

Red: 39:16

Oh absolutely and with how much people share screenshots, clips, whatever onto Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, whatever now like just any more tools that people have to give them that kind of sharing capability. I'm all for like we said the services earlier like more options. I'm all for it they if people don't use them whatever if people choose to use them then you know i'm glad it's there for them.

Hick: 39:42

Yeah library talking about actually a ghost of shoe Sema recently came out it people are talking about like photo mode in the ad said you can do to it and like some of these images are just absolutely stunning. But anyways, as I told you all we're probably not gonna get to the last two topics and that is the case It has it is time to wrap up now. And as always, I never had my notes up for the wrap up. But anyways, all the links for this will be in the description. But you can support us on Patreon or PayPal Patreon, like a monthly thing, whereas PayPal, just a one off, you say, Hey guys, here's $1 to leave me alone, it became support financially, you can always leave a review or rating they help us out with SEO, which is basically rankings you search for video games, if we get more reviews, more ratings will show up better. So that's how that helps out. And then we also have some merchandise on our websites, too, guys playing Zelda, TG PC gaming, and that's an affiliate those are affiliate shops. So we may earn a commission if you purchase things through our links and then ready kind of want to follow up with some of the rest of stuff we got going on.

Red: 40:47

Absolutely. And the rest of stuff we got going on is social media and we are all over it on Facebook. We have two different groups we've got the gaming realm where we talk about as the name implies, just all kinds of video games. And then we have specifically Zelda realm where we talk about Zelda video games. You can also find us on youtube we have two guys playing Zelda and tgp z gaming. Lots of great videos out there especially from our Zelda days back in the day. We were on discord where we talked about Xbox PlayStation, Nintendo sports, booze, just pretty much anything. I mean,

Hick: 41:17

we're telling you join all these things. Go join the discord. We have a ton of fun. That's a fun

Red: 41:21

one

Hick: 41:21

and they're literally here Liverpool City fan don't fucking join.

Red: 41:26

So we do have a ton of fun on Discord. So definitely check that out. Then we're also out there on Twitter. Both of us are on Twitter. We have Instagram page. We're out there on Facebook, so find us. Everyone keeps staying safe during the quarantine and keep on gaming.