E3 2022 - That thing that didn't happen.

On this week's episode of Level Select, Mike and Fred give the rundown on the E3 Season of 2022, talking about and speculating upon the great new video games shown at Summer Games Fest and trying to predict what the next week looks like. Also Fred got a Steam Deck and has some thoughts on it!

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Hello, and welcome to Level Selectto show about games and game development.
I'm your host, fred Wood andMichael just tried to throw me off my
game, but here I am.What do we even doing? Okay?
And I just saw you. Ithought you were going to say something about
how I always give you a hardtime when you're introducing the show and I'm
your host, Michael wi all right, this week we've got a show for

(00:37):
you. Much like every week.We are going to talk about E three,
which is not happening, but weare going to actually going to talk
about his Summer game Fest. Summergame Fest, as a game spot referred
to it, key three, theJeff Keeley Extravaganza. Um, Michael,
how are you doing? I'm gonnapass on that one, all right.

(00:58):
I want to keep the mood light. And it's been a bit of a
bit of a rough one, sohow about you. It's good I have
air conditioning again, so hey,I'm in a better mode for that.
There's all sorts of other things,but nothing that is worth getting into.
So well, that's not true.Nothing that I'm going to get into.
That's the way to say it.Let's see, we would normally take a

(01:23):
break here and then have an advertisementplay, but instead let's just get into
the games are playing, because itseems like the list is pretty short this
week. Yeah, yeah, it'sbeen fairly short. I've been doing a
lot of I guess I can talkabout that. I'm play testing my tabletop
RPG soon, so I've just beendoing a lot of work on that and
really grinding out mechanics and that sortof stuff. So I've never really had

(01:48):
a lot of time to play alot of video games. But do you
want to go first or do youwant me to just continue one as I'm
going? I mean, so,I guess I'll go first. I got
a Steam deck today. Hey nice? Yeah, that's how is it?
So? I haven't gotten to spenda lot of time with it because of
course we just got it and we'rerecording this podcast now. But the first

(02:12):
thing I did was test the gamesthat I've worked on, and none of
my games work on it right outof the box, so that means I
have work to do, which makesit a business expense. We love that
in the game industry. Yeah,yeah, well I was excited that Delta
In runs flawlessly on it. Justmy games don't, so it is cool.

(02:35):
I already switched over to desktop modeand enabled SSH so that way I
can put my own files and stuffon it, and tried to make it
so I could export my games directlyto it. Couldn't do that, But
like having a Linux based handheld systemwith the power with about the power of
an Xbox Series S is pretty cool. Yeah, that's like the big thing.

(02:58):
I remember when they first announced announcedit. The specs on that thing
are pretty neat. Yeah. Iwas watching a Digital Foundry thing on it
earlier today where they were saying that, like the APU on the Steam Deck
is about fifty percent of the oneon the Series S. But the big
trade off is that the Series Sis targeting ten ADP and four K gaming,

(03:23):
whereas this thing only has a screenthat is twelve eighty by eight hundreds,
so you have a lot less overheadand so big games can still run
fairly well. The games I triedtoday were Halo three of course, which
runs a full fat sixty frames persecond looks gorgeous, despite the fact that
it is not technically compatible with theSteam Deck, so you have to play

(03:45):
it an offline mode. Halo Reach, which didn't run so great, I
think that might have just been somebad settings on my end. Metal Gear
Solid five ground Zeros, which beganamazingly well, like beautifully. Yeah,
okay, because that was that's onethat I would figure would be like chunking

(04:09):
right something. I mean that Cogypro engine it ran on the three sixty,
you remember, like it ran well, you're right, you're right,
so yeah, you know, shoutout to Cogi Pro's optimization with that Fox
engine. That Fox engine, yeahfor pro Evolution soccer, right, it's
pretty neat. Uh. And thenwhat else? I downloaded metal Gearizing Revengeance

(04:30):
because it said that it ran wellon it. I have not played that
yet. Geometry Wars has a twelveeighty by eight hundred settings, so I
just played some Geometry Wars, whichis great. Nice. Um, yeah,
I like, I'm excited to havethis thing that I can play anything
on. Basically I might pick upEldon Ring again now that that it technically
runs better on the Steam Deck thanit does on my PC, that's wild.

(04:54):
And also having that game on thego, like, that's that's pretty
wild, that's pretty neat, Like, yeah, that's really cool. And
then also it emulates everything too,like I might finally play through Dragon Guard
three because apparently it runs pretty wellon there, oh better than it did
on the PS three. Oh,I mean listen that game. People talk

(05:14):
about like souls games running on thePS three and how bad that was,
Like Dragon Guard three was for me, the like I stopped playing that game
because of how singular the frame's got. Yeah it's native hardware. Yeah yeah,
when I tried to emulate it andstream it and we got like four
K sixty on my computer, Aslike, this seems like a good way
to do it, But that gamealso doesn't seem that much fun, so

(05:38):
it might lend itself better to affordableexperience. Yeah, I um, I'll
give a little quick mini review ofthat game. It is my least favorite
Yoko Taro game. I think itis his laziest narrative, despite being one
of his most convoluted. Where thereis this attempt to humanize terrible people in

(05:59):
drag can Guard one, not sothat you like them or forgive them for
their monstrosities, but just so thatyou acknowledge them as people. Dragon Guard
three seems almost resistant to that idea. Yeah, Like, even when it's
doing its best to try to humanizepeople, they for me in a lot
of cases, barring some of theDLC, which I'll get to it a

(06:21):
second, they never overcame that thresholdof me still finding these people to just
be not even just reprehensible, likeannoying, just annoyingly edgy. Where the
DLC has some great narratives. It'sa shame it wasn't in the main game,
right, Yeah, and that's goingto be lost to history because that

(06:43):
DLC is on the the shop,the PlayStation network store. Yeah, and
that will eventually go away as thePS three guys away. Thankfully, there
are a lot of illegitimate ways toget those things, so they'll they'll live
on in that regard. But that'sit. But yeah, it's yeah,
that's rad about the Steam Deck.Like I am, I keep seeing like
little snippets from people I know thatI've gotten one. I foolishly chose to

(07:08):
be like, I'll wait told there'slike a version too. I think that
might be the smart way to doit, honestly. Yeah. Yeah,
And I and like I'm now kindof like locked into that decision. Yeah,
just necessity, yeah, well Imean yeah, but also just because
like well just because if you orderone now you're not gonna get it until
too. You're not gonna get ituntil there is a version too, probably
right, exactly exactly. So Iwas like, I'll just hold off and

(07:31):
you know, do things that way, which is like, there's that part
of me this will has like fomothough, sure yea, and tinkering with
it is like, oh, it'sso cool. Look at these games.
I'm playing them, like, yeah, me sitting here at my computer where
I'm also playing those games, right, and you're not going out into the
world to yeah, any but I'mstill just like, oh, I want

(07:51):
to pay that though, yeah,um yeah, I'm The problem is right
now, I'm just like I've gotI think, like two thousand games in
my Steam library. I want tosee good I want to see how everything
runs on there, and I justkeep like downloading thing play it for a
minute like yeah, cool runs neat, Yeah, that's incredible. Yeah Steam

(08:11):
deck seams neat uh, And thenthat's I'm also playing a lot of Fortnite,
but I still have not been ableto congeal my thoughts into being able
to explain why Fortnite is actually avery good video game and not just a
hilarious goof where I play as masterChief with an emogus on my back,
like while doing the rick dance aftermurdering somebody. Right, right. We

(08:35):
did do something really cool the otherday which I think is the meanest way
to kill somebody in the world,which is, uh, we were playing
squads, so you can knock someonedown and then their teammate can come and
resurrect them or whatever. We gotthis person down pretty far away from their
teammate, and so they've got balloonsin the game, and you can keep

(08:58):
attaching more balloons to yourself until youfly up into this guy. Right.
Also, the meanest thing is thatthey let you pick up downed enemies and
carry them around. So you throwseveral balloons on and start flying up into
the sky and you grab the enemyand just fly up into the air and
then chuck the enemy as far asyou can and they just die from fall

(09:20):
damage. That's nothing they can doabout it. That's a new level of
griefing that I's very creative. Iappreciate the hustle, honestly. I also
spent five US American dollars for theGongam style dance just in that way I
could do that in front of peoplewho are downed, people who probably don't
know what that is. People areprobably too young. It's like add people

(09:45):
who are probably too young do knowwhat gongam style is or have just flushed
it from their memory, and you'rejust out here. Yeah, you're absolutely
right. Boy, didn't didn't wantto feel old, but here it is.
Tell me they are about shotgun kingthe final checkmate. I don't think
you've said it with enough oom.Sorry, you're right saying like shotgun king

(10:07):
the final checkmate, so shotgun ging. I will just read from the store
page because I've got that pulled upabout this game chess. But all your
army has gone over to the whiteside, leaving you with nothing but your
royal shotgun and your wounded pride.Carried by your dark folly. You decide
it's time to teach those white piecesto fear the shotgun king. So shotgun

(10:28):
king is what it says on thetin. You are playing chess, only
you have no pieces but the king, and the king has a shotgun man,
okay, And so you have tomove around in maneuver and position yourself
while mitigating your shotgun spread to winat chess. And it's kind of a
roguelike because as you go along youget like various cards and modifiers that will

(10:50):
like give you benefits. Right,so it's like, okay, your shotgun
has two more shells before you needto reload, but there's now like five
more pawns on the field, youknow, or like you can move additional
spaces, but there's like three morebishops, and so it is an insanely
fun game. I kind of justchecked it out on a whim because I

(11:13):
was going through like indie titles.The name popped out at me because how
can it not, And the generalpremise was interesting enough that I checked out
the demo and then I got thefull game. I am having a delight,
like this game is so fun,and it's like it's it's such an
interesting experience, especially if you knoweven a little bit about chest and I
know, like the most infinitesimal minoramounts, but like you know, it's

(11:37):
it's kind of like a strategy game, only you manage one unit against an
army and you've got to keep thatguy alive. It's really fun. It's
it's been a game that, like, you know, I'll be like,
oh, I've got like a halfhour to kill between things that I'm doing,
or like I'm taking a break fromthe game I'm working on or some
other project, I'll just pop itup, start playing it, have some

(11:58):
fun. I think this game isfor me what like Vampire Survivors has been
for a lot of people, Likeyeah, this very I'm playing it in
short bursts, but it's super addictinggameplay. I don't know if there's an
end to Shotgun King, honestly,you know, like there has been like
little story bits here and there,but I've just kind of been like grooving
along with the ride of it.Um. Yeah, and I love this

(12:20):
game, Like, well, Ijust bought it because I was like it's
it's six dollars, six dollars.Sorry. But what clinched it for me
is similar to games you've played,Nuclear Throne, Hotline, Miami two,
Like all right, yeah, butit's chess. Okay's chess exactly, and
it's like and the and like itabides by the laws of chess plus these

(12:41):
modifiers nice. So like the gameif you're playing a king, you know,
since you're playing as the king,the game will be like, hey,
you can't willfully put yourself into checklike moving here, You're gonna put
yourself in check, like this willscrew your run. There is a right
move here, um and that sortof stuff. But like if also think
tactically, because you have to,you know, to reload your shotgun,
you have to like move, soyou can't really you have to be careful

(13:05):
about over extending yourself, you know, because I've had runs where I've been
doing really well and then I'll makea bad move and I'll get squashed and
I'm like, Okay, dang it, let me go back and I'll do
another run and then I'll immediately getrocked because I'm not thinking, you know,
and this night's been hanging back andI'm like, hell yeah, I'll
move here, and then he justl moves right into me and I'm taken
out. Nice. Yeah, Andit's got like a retropixel aesthetic to it,

(13:28):
Yeah, retropixel aesthetic. I didn'tknow what this is going to look
like until I pulled up the page. So right right, very simple,
very restricted color palette to this,like lilac cream red that is. I
don't know, I just really Ireally like it. It's just like they're
very soft colors that are just niceon the Eyes and it's you know,

(13:50):
it's one of those games where likewhen you mess up, you're like,
oh god, that okay, thatwas on me, Like you know exactly
what you did and why it happened. Does it have a controller support or
is it just mouse and keyboard only? It is? I think it's just
mouse and keyboard. Um yeah,oh well no, that's that's cool.
Uh yeah, it's it's neat.I've been thoroughly enjoying it. So if

(14:13):
you know, if you've got sixbucks and you don't know what to do
with it and you're looking for somethingnew to play, this game's super neat
and I would hardly recommend it.Waller. Uh, let's see, I
don't have any other games on thelist. Before we get into the key
three Stragstravijanza, that's the Strava jeffsaUm No, that's nothing that was really

(14:33):
bad. That's really nothing that wasrough. But we'll we'll we'll get back
to that right after this break.All right, we're gonna get into the
news, which is all about JeffKeeley's summer game Best. Yeah, it's
the event where Jeff Keely invites abunch of people out to a beach that

(14:54):
he got with his Dorito's Mountain Dewmoney, and he pulls out all all
of his favorite board games and beachgames because he just wants to play with
his friends and he's not been ableto since the pandemic started. Um.
I don't know why he streams it. That seems a little a little strange,
but you know, it's a joyouscelebration and it lets you get to
see into the lives of Jeff Keelyand his game development friends in a way

(15:16):
that you otherwise might not get toexperience. I don't I was going to
talk about the other Jeff Keeley summerfest, the one that like is, oh
the one about video games focused?Yeah no, I mean yeah, I
guess yeah. Yeah. I didenjoy seeing Hideo Kajima in a swimsuit,
not gonna lie, Yeah, Imean the it was really nice to see
that that one scene from Metal Gearselling peace Walker was kind of autobiographical.

(15:41):
Oh yeah, yeah in many waysfor Kojima. There were a lot of
people who were like talking crap aboutit, but like, you know,
they are going to be ashamed oftheir words indeeds, ye, Jeff Keely,
Jeff Keeley as dissuayed on the Imax, his father's Imax. Do you
not know about that? So,Jeff qu parents were like instrumental in the

(16:03):
creation of Imax. That's really cool. I why that rules? I didn't
know until Harry's foster told me aboutit. So, but it's like,
oh, that's why Summer Game Festwas streaming at Imax. Yeah, because
I was very confused. I waslike, I can you imagine watching that
very blurry rock footage on the ImaImax? S Oh no, okay,

(16:27):
so Summer Game Fest there was alot that happened. Yes, I was
not excited by any of it.I so there were some games during the
Summer game Fest that caught my attention. Um, the event afterwards that was
hosted by Tim Schaefer had a lotof stuff that I was interested in seeing.

(16:51):
Yeah that I can't remember what wasthat? What was that one called?
Yes, thank you Dave of thedevs was really neat. But with
Summer Game Fest, yeah, therewas a lot of stuff that they showed
that, you know, looked spookyand spacey. Right, yeah, okay,
so first off, let's talk aboutthat. Yeah, why are there
so many games about being on aspooky space station coming out, and not

(17:14):
just in Triple A. It's likeeverything right now. Yeah, It's like
did everyone look at Alien Isolation andgo that geems really neat? I want
to want to do that. Yeah. I mean a lot of these are
a lot more action focused than thatis true Isolation. But the thing is,
like I was thinking, Okay,some of these games are focused on
diseases and stuff, like maybe abunch of studios who've had their like disease

(17:37):
based games, their pandemic games,like they've just kind of held onto those
because now was super not the righttime or then was not the right time.
But as some folks pointed out,it's like, yeah, we've all
been locked in small rooms by ourselvesbasically, right, so we don't need
a video game where you're running awayfrom that too, Like right, It's
yeah, I mean Close to Protocollooks cool as hell. It's from some

(18:02):
of the original Dead Space developers.It is a cool space station horrorca Yeah,
I will say of all of them, that's the one, like they
obviously this was not a new announcement, they just had some new footage for
it. That is the one I'mthe most excited for. I love the
first Dead Space and really enjoyed mostof Dead Space too, And you know,

(18:22):
they've been they were pretty vocal abouttheir distaste for what happened with that
franchise, for sure, and Ireally like that they got the opportunity to
kind of go back and and what'sthe word I'm looking for, I guess
try to recapture what made those gamesso popular, and so like Razor focused
in people's minds for what they werebecause it was such a breath of fresh

(18:45):
air for the genre at the time, and the way it used enemy dismemberment
both as a horror thing but alsoas a way to ensure survival. You
know, like that's not a lotof games really interface with that, like
and greaded it's a very grotesque thingto interface with. I enjoyed the scene
of kicking the bad guy into afan. It was good stuff, right,

(19:07):
Yeah, any video game that doesthat, it's a good time.
Yeah, you know, And solike I'm really excited for that game.
And you know that I feel badsaying this because like all the games looked
good. I'm not going to saythat anything look bad, but that was
really the only one from Summer Gamepest that like grabbed me outside of Guyle
having a goatee. Now in StreetFighters it looks real good. He looks
really like I remember like watching this, I'm like, I usually don't care

(19:30):
about this character, haven't really sinceI was like five when he was the
only character I knew how to playin Street Fighter two, he's looking good.
He's looking good. He's looking lookingreal good, real good. But
yeah, street Fighter six in generallooking really good, real good. Yeah.
I saw a bunch of little bitsof blurry game play today from people
who were at the event down Yonder. Yes, that game looks real good.

(19:55):
No one's playing. I'm excited.I'm excited for more clear footage to
come out. I'm also really excitedto see both like more casual player perspectives
because they do now have that.They're calling it modern input Mode, but
it's sort of a more accessible,easy input Yeah, it's just style.
Yeah. Yeah, and um andthen also what you know, more competitive

(20:15):
players and people more entrenched in thefighting in community have to say, because
it's like this game's really on theprecipice of being able to do what Street
Fighter four did, which is bringa lot more people into the scene that
maybe otherwise felt that there was anover an overheard or unable to be climbed

(20:36):
over barrier because of like you know, motion inputs and the weak characters move
and all the different mechanics and youknow, maybe defensive options being a little
more limited or hard to interface withand that sort of stuff. Yeah,
I don't know. MANX six wentfrom being a game that I was like
super nervous about because Street Fighter fivehad such a rocky launch in a lot
of people's minds, to being like, oh, this game is poised to

(20:57):
just take over the entire scene.Yeah, that feels pretty cool. It's
got not exactly fresh blood, butlike with oh no not in charge of
it, it's kind of interesting tosee how things will be different. Yes,
and it's the first one to takeplace after Third Strike, which I'm
super excited for. So no GodBison unless they decided to bring him back

(21:19):
to life, which they might wouldn'tbe the first time. Yeah, yeah,
because yeah, yeah, there's stufflike that. There's just the way
that seeing certain classic characters have changed, like you know, in the trailers
and in some gay lay footage,they have already showed off that like Reu
and chun Lee have new moves.Yeah. Chun Lee has an entire stance
that she can go into that opensup new attack options, you know,

(21:42):
to her. Reu has this likeclose range pushing fireball thing that he can
do. Um that looks like alike a bouncing combo ender to to do
like setups and stuff for juggles.Possibly, I don't know, it just
looks meat. I'm just excited forit, and I like being excited about
fighting games because fighting games are radand exciting to watch. So I'm really

(22:06):
looking forward to that one. Andsay, fact that it's not going to
launch as like a PlayStation exclusive,oh my god, yeah I I yeah,
didn't even you know when when thegame first got announced. The fact
that it's going to be on everything. Yeah, they haven't said switch yet,
but it's r Engine so maybe maybe. But yeah. But the fact
that it's going to be on yeah, on Xbox, PlayStation and PC is

(22:27):
great. My My my little wishlist for it is cross play. Yeah,
I mean, it's got cross playacross everything. That's gonna be yeah,
I mean that's gonna be the bestfive ended up having cross play for
PC and PlayStation Yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, and so I'm I
think with the new people in charge, I think they understand how important that

(22:49):
is. It was sort of likewith Guilty Year Strive, how they understood
the importance of like, hey,we need to have a rollback like delay
based isn't cut into any more.These game games are so global now that
we need to have a way tomitigate those experiences. And that way was
solved with good old GGPO. Youknow, the fans did it. Guys

(23:11):
at Iron Galaxy did a thing,and the problems that they will help you
do it too. Let's up.They are smart about it. It seems
like there are a lot of Japanesedevelopers now reaching out to Western studios to
help with that kind of online,online connectivity stuff. So here's hoping.
Yeah yeah, um, I thinkit is absolutely buck wild that Flashback is

(23:33):
getting a sequel in twenty twenty two. Yeah. Flashback being a old platformer
that was PC Super Nintendo Psycho Genesisgame. I never played it. It
didn't never get back in the day. I never played it either. But
what I do remember are the advertisementsin gaming magazines. Definitely, because if
you're a gamer of a certain vintageand you read like EGM or any of

(23:59):
those older mags. You would turnthe page and you would see this weird
lizard guy looking at you with somescreenshots of a very colorful looking sci fi
game yep. And then you'd seethat sci fi game in motion at some
point and be like, I don'tthink I actually want to play that.
That doesn't look like fun. SoI didn't really see it in motion until
I was like an adult, andafter I had played Another world or out
of this world's depending on where you'relocated. So there's like part of me

(24:22):
that wants to go back and checkit out. But you know, who
knows if I ever will? Imean, I bet this comes with it,
right, they probably have just likea Genesis or Super Nintendo emulator rapper
in that I would, yeah,because if not, then who are they
selling this game too? Right?Right? It's very strange, but yeah,
who knew? Fort Solis looked allright? Another space space horror game

(24:48):
routine looked pretty cool. That one'sgot more of an interesting development story behind
it than anything like that was oneof the early Steam green Light games,
which apparently that game was finished afew years ago and the developers played it
and tested it and had people lookat it and they're like, oh,
this sucks. This is not agood video game. We have to redo

(25:11):
this. And I'm glad they decidedto go that route. Sure, it's
better than shoveling something that you're notproud of out to market and then just
sort of yeah, and we gotmc gordon to do the soundtrack, so
that could be very good or lovebut we'll see. We saw Blizzards now
I'm sorry, not Blizzard, notLizard, the guys that were Blizzard,

(25:33):
which is Frost Giant Studios. Yeah, they're stepping very far away from what
they're used to and making a gamethat does look like StarCraft Diablo. Yeah.
I am going to be interested inseeing how the game shakes out.
It's called storm Gate. They callit a real time strategy game, so

(25:55):
we'll we'll see. Yeah, ohit's gonna be free to play. M
I could see. I could seea way to do that. Well.
Yeah, it's just I watched thattrailer and was like, Okay, this
is really well done. I don'tknow what kind of video game this is.
And then they had the head ofthe studio come out and say,
we've got two pictures for you.And they're like both just photos of the

(26:17):
game, screenshots of the game thatlike have no HUD or information or anything.
It's like, why did you spendall the money on that trailer and
not show what the game is?So I'm gonna be I'm gonna go back
to Street Fighter six for a second. That game alone has changed about how
I look at game announcements because theywere like, here's a trailer. What's

(26:38):
in this trailer? Characters, anew character, mechanics. You want to
know more, go to the website. What's on the website, an entire
breakdown of how this game works,system mechanics, how like you're going to
be playing it, how you canplay it, Like when's it coming out
later? Okay, Like Mike,I have to stop you because that is
not how that went at all.What happened is no, no, no.

(27:00):
What happened was they announced the gamewith a truck sized REU looking very
sweaty, okay, in front ofanother guy looking bad logo. I'm talking
about the not teaser trailer one.I'm talking about the actual reveal for the
game. Yeah, not the notthe reveal for the reveal, you know
what I mean? No, thatwas the reveal for the game. That
was the hey, we're doing streetFighter six much like this trailer, much

(27:22):
like this trailer for storm Gate islike, cool, we hired a production
studio to make a really cool lookingvideo that is not our video. There,
then I will okay, then Iwill amend my statement the second trailer,
Yeah, street Fighter six, Iwant every game to announce that they're
doing it with a bunch of informationabout the game. Yeah. That is
not what we got a lot ofout of a lot of games this weekend

(27:44):
or out of this event. Butyeah, it's like, and he's why
the coolest of protocol want to hitbecause I like, yeah, here's some
gameplay. Yeah, and it's probablygonna have the Like looking at the main
character of the suit that he's in, I'm like, oh, he's got
that green bar on his back,that's the that's the dead space help.
Yeah, which I was like,that's a that was a great way in
those games too, you know,like here's your minimal HUD system. So

(28:06):
you know, it's like if youcan find a way to creatively engage it,
great. Uh. We got Marvel'sMidnight Suns, which is a for
sexist game looks interesting, you know. I that trailer was another just CG.
Yeah, like here's Venom, likegetting up we got Venom and Spider
Man. Now yeah, um,but have we seen what that game looks

(28:27):
like? I'm trying to remember ifwe had, because there's been a lot
of super hero games announced, likethe Gotha Knights one has shown a lot
of gameplay. Yeah, they showedoff like some stuff with Nightwing and Red
Hood during the event for like trailersand stuff, as well as I like
the story mechanics and how you upgradeyour characters for Oh, there has been

(28:48):
some game play. Okay, cool, Yeah, because I'd like, I'm
trying to think, but like itlooks a little rough. I'm sure it's
fun. Yeah, but with withthose kinds of games, I bounced off
of a lot of Western action gameslike that. Yeah, so with both
Gotham Knights and uh what does againmark Midnight Sons. I mean Midnight Suns

(29:10):
is an x COM game. It'sit's by the developers of x Com.
Yeah. Yeah, it's like aturn based action game. Yes, which
is not what I want out ofa superhero game. But like, by
the same token, I wasn't interestedin an x com Mario game either,
but that game ruled. Yeah,so all right, y'all, that's been

(29:33):
neat. I'm also in this likeweird space with superhero media in general,
where it's like, boy, howdy, I just do not feel the love
the way I used to for superheroes. Yeah. So I'm just very tired
of seeing these characters all the timeeverywhere. Yeah, I get you,
but I'm sure, I'm sure thegame will be fine. Um, they're
trying to think of other stuff fromSummer Games Fest that popped out. For

(29:56):
me, the biggest thing they hadto reveal was sadly like sadly for them,
leaked by PlayStation directly via PlayStation Directright before the event, which was
a really gorgeous, seventy dollars unnecessaryremake of the Last of Us Part one,
which, uh, it's that gameagain, and the graphics are real

(30:18):
nice and I guess they're going tomodernize the gameplay. But I'm not sure
who this is for because we justgot the remaster. Yeah, the remaster
happened several years ago, now Iknow, but but like not that not
that long ago, and it seemedlike it was weird they were remastering it
when they did, right and thensof Us two was is not that old

(30:40):
of a game? It's not.And they're doing an HBO Max series the
same story that this game is.So it's like, I, yeah,
I'm in that same boat. Um, I don't know, you know,
like I guess if you haven't playedit, and do you have a PS
five? But isn't the remaster freeif you have PlayStation plus the remasters free
if you have PlayStation So I'm notcrazy and thing, the only person this

(31:03):
makes sense for is people who don'thave PlayStation, which are I guess PC
owners, And it's not coming toPC initially, but they've announced that it
is coming to PC. But like, yeah, I'm just really good it
does. It looks gorgeous, LikeI I will not, you know,
say anything disparaging there, and likeit is a game that really gripped a
lot of people. Yeah, butI just do not understand why this game

(31:27):
needs another remake so soon off thebacks of the last one. Yeah,
I agree, but then again,you and I are not people who eat,
drink and sleep this game. Sothat is true. So like big
fans of that game, probably theymight be like, shut up, we're
getting exactly what very reasonable, LikeI mean, seventy dollars for a premier

(31:48):
game is reasonable. Seventy dollars fora remake of a video game that is
not very old, that is true? Is not? That is not.
I don't think it's I look forwardto eventually being on PlayStation Plus so that
way I can see how pretty itlooks on my PS five. That's probably
about it. I don't think therewas anything else particularly exciting, but we

(32:09):
can we can touch on some ofthat because we did also solicit from the
audience some of their predictions. Yeah, for Key three, yes, I
do want to say before we domove on to that though, I mention
I mentioned Double Fines Day of theDevs that was fantastic, Like I'm Microsoft's
Double Fines Dave. Yeah, butlike genuinely like Day of the Devs looked

(32:34):
fantastic. There were so many gameslike Baron Breakfast um that just like I
wanted to play almost every game thatthey showed. I would highly recommend going
in watching Day of the Devs.I will probably talk about a lot of
those games as they are coming out, especially just because like man, indie
games are neat, they're rad.Yeah, They're doing so many cool things,

(32:55):
and as like more money comes intoindies and allows those developers to make
their vision and have support to makethat vision. I mean, it's just
it's just incredible where it's come from, from where it was like a decade
ago, the kind of growth.So yeah, go check that out.
Um. There was also there wasalso Devolvers showcase, which I missed,

(33:19):
but a couple of the games.Uh, Angerfoot looks cool as hell.
I have played that game before whenit was just like a game on Itch.
Anger Foot rules. Yeah, yeah, Angerfoot is fantastic. Um,
yeah, it's me. I ampersonally very excited that Devolver is publishing Skate
Story. Skate Story is the mostlike psychedelic skateboarding game I've ever seen,

(33:45):
the Like I found about that justscrolling through Twitter and I see this like
a glimmering glass guy doing skateboard tricks, and instantly I was like, I'm
yeah playing this. There are novideo games that look like Skate Story looks
like it's. Yeah, like youcould say maybe res infinites area X a
little bit, but like even so, this, uh, you are a

(34:07):
demon made of glass, risking itall to skate through a dangerous world like
it kicks. Look up the trailer. I'm I'm excited. I hope that
Devolver is giving Simang just so muchmoney to make the video game of his
dreams and end of mine. Uhno, like legitimately, there there were
so many of those games. Iwas like, oh yeah, yeah,

(34:29):
oh wait, no there was onegame was sorry, I've got one more
now, that's fun. It wasit was that that rhythm shooter uh Metal
Health Singer. Oh yeah, yeah, the one that had searash tank and
I played the demo because I waslike, okay, I'll check this out.
It looks me. I like rhythmgames, I like Doom, like
shooters. That game rules. Thatgame is very fun. I would highly

(34:51):
recommend checking up. The demo looksa lot like Bullets Permitted, though it's
so we're bulls. Permitted had theevery every mechanic based around that Metal Housinger
is just the shooting component. Soyou've got like Doom, you know,
your double jumps, your dashes,you've got all your movement is just like
free kind of Doom twenty sixteen style, but you're shooting is based off of

(35:15):
the BPM of the song that you'redoing that sounds cool. So there's a
little bit more freedom of playing aroundthere, and so it starts playing a
little bit more, for lack ofa better term, kind of like a
character action game, because as youshoot, you get like points, multipliers
and that sort of stuff, andlike, you know, if you get

(35:35):
to like the max multiplier and doesthe dynamic music thing, or then the
lyrics kick in and you feel likeyou're just crushing it as you're fighting all
these demons and stuff. It's reallyreally like it look because I had the
same thing where I was like,this looks a lot like BPM, and
like that's already been done. Butas I was playing it, and as
I was like really getting into it, and then like you're playing it,
and you know, you hit thetime sixteen multi multiplier and the lyrics just

(36:00):
or in and you're double jumping anddashing around shooting demons and like timy your
reloads and that sounds great. It'sreally fun. It's really really fun.
I'm on board. And since thatdid continue to stretch on, we're going
to take a small break. Yeah, come back with then we'll come back
to predictions from the audience. Sothanks Hill, I'm just gonna drive this

(36:23):
truck right on into the next section, which, shoot, wait that's a
train. Choo choot indeed, choochoo the truck and go choo choo,
rocket goes the truck. Predictions fromthe audience. We got a bunch from
Trevor, and I think that thisactually gives us a lot to talk about.
So yeah, wow, first andforemost Dragons Dogma two. We're going

(36:44):
to see that at Capcom's thing nextweek. I hope. So yeah,
I hope. So there is apre infamous interview now with Hideachi Itsuno,
the director of Devil Cry three,four and five, the first Dry Dogma
Rival Schools. I think he didsome stuff for the Street Fighter Alpha series.
He's one of those guys that's beenat Capcom like forever interview like Capcom

(37:07):
Games. Chances are he has hadin some way touched that franchise in a
way that you are thankful for.He had mentioned that he had like three
games he wanted to make before retirement, and that with Devil May Cry he
had just finished making one of them. Nice. The other two were a
new rival Schools to finish out HighSchool Never Gonna Happen. Um As much

(37:29):
as I wanted. And then theother one was a second Dragons Dogma because
he just thinks that there's more there. Then there was that famous Capcom leaked
document a bunch of games that hada Dragons Dogma two listed like, and
then he had a bunch of otherridiculous a ton of other localization of the
grade as attorney right, which endedup happening, which ended up happening,

(37:52):
six happening. There's tons of stuffon there, and like for a lot
of people, the Dragons Dogma twomight as well have had like big flashing
me on lights around it, becauseit was one of those like, Oh,
that's never gonna happen, and thenseeing that everyone was like, oh,
this might happen. Oh, thisis like a real campig deal about
the what is the tenth anniversary ofthe first game? Tenth anniversary? And

(38:15):
that's one of those games like peoplealways joke about, like Skyrim being poorted
into everything. That game just likekeeps popping up places like whenever, like
oh, we're bringing to get toSwitch. I remember, like I love
that game. I adore that game, And even I was like why because
he's trying to lay the groundwork forthe next one right right, and there

(38:37):
was like that game had an MMOrelease over in over in the East that
I was super bummed out. Inever got to play because it it looked
like the thing that ever the onecomplaint that everyone that has with Dragons Dogma
one was that, yeah, thisgame is great, but it doesn't have
a multiplayer right, and then therewas an MMO and I was like,
that's it, that's the game Iwant. Yeah that existed, Yeah,

(39:00):
yeah, so it's that wait doesit still exist? Is that the servers
are shut down? Yeah, there'sthere's this like part of you this like
someone makes a private server for it. Man, we shouldn't have had Dragons
Dogma too first on this list becausethere's no way we can continue like this
is that is the game I wantmost next week U I will say,
beyond anything else that we're going totalk about, and like I'll freely admit

(39:23):
I'm a big Capcom fanboy, Likeit's it's one of those things where it's
like, oh, what are thetwo companies that Mike's writer or die with.
It's Capcom and fump Software. Andif I'm going to get another like
wacky silly Dungeons and Dragons action RPGfrom the game where the jank is some
of the magic. We're like,the Yeah, the jank is like,

(39:44):
weirdly almost the best part in alot of ways. I don't know.
If you haven't played Dragons Dogma,there's it's like there's two dollars most places,
so go do It's like two dollarsand like there's just so much video
game jam packed into that video gamethat I just I love it. I
love it so much. So that'sthe one I want the most. All
Right, I'm pulling the record.We can't keep talking about Dragons Taga Dragon

(40:07):
Quest game. We can, butthere's not too much to say, right.
They did announce Dragon Dragon Quest twelve. Yeah, and I would like
to see what it looks like,because really only on twelve for like the
mainlines, I mean, not thenot really just the twelfth game, but
yes, that is I'm just talkingabout like like the main numbered entries obviously,
yeah, because eleven was the onethat got re released a few times,

(40:30):
and like eleven s was the switchone. Um, so yes,
they will almost certainly show Actually,let me take a step back, Square
Knicks is not actually doing a normalSquare Nix thing, and I'll get into
what they are doing towards the endof this list, But so I don't
know that we'll see that because Ican't see anybody else being like, here's

(40:51):
the next one. I don't thinkMicrosoft is gonna be like, hey,
listen up, y'all, dragon Quest, thanks for There was also not that
this would like infringe on dragon Questbecause it's a different franchise at Screen excess,
but there was also just that bigtrailer they had for Final Fantasy sixteen.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.You know, it's like maybe they'll
maybe they'll have more stuff to announced. I'm sure they will, Like that

(41:13):
company is so large and has beenon like their own massive Redemption arc.
Yeah it look oh I'm so excitedfor that. Yeah. I remember the
first trailer, and I think wetalked about this when when they first showed
that announcement and there's a part wherehe does this, the main character does
his like gut punch into upper cutinto rising upper cut, and I was

(41:36):
like, man, that really lookslike the shin shore you can Dante does
in Devil May Cry five, Andthen like five seconds later it was like
from with combat direction by the guywho did the combat direction and Devil May
Cry five, and I was like, that makes complete the story or it's
uh, it's the dream behind FinalCCP and his dream team with connivat story

(42:00):
that by the guy who did DragonsDogma and Douvil May Cry five. Yeah,
right, And so I have notengaged with the Devil May Cry in
any meaningful way. I have alwayswanted to Final Fantasy fourteen, I have
not engaged within any meaningful way.And boy Hatty have been told that story
some of the best stories Fantasy hasever had. And so Final Fantasy sixteen

(42:22):
is those two things that I haven'tgotten around to. I think I'm going
to get around to this one.I am, for the first time since
Final Fantasy twelve, going to pickup a Final Fantasy game, a mainline
Final Fantasy game Day one. Yeah, not counting seven remake. Not yeah,
because that is technically has spent off. Yeah fair enough, right right?

(42:44):
And yeah yeah, okay, itgets into weird territory. Tell me
what your chances are you think fora new burnout game. Okay, So
the only one I'm going to say, not zero, is that it feels
like we're due up for someone topick up the corpse. I mean it's
though, right, someone, We'reabout due up for someone to pick up
the corpse and start shaking and gothrow any money left in these pockets.

(43:06):
Yeah. Um, we've just beenworking on that new need for speed for
a while, so I don't that. I just don't see them. Also,
I actually had forgotten about that,so no, no, no,
you're completely correct. I had alsoforgotten about that new need for speed.
I don't know. Yeah, Idon't think so. As much as I
would like it, because I lovethe burnout games, I just don't see
it. Um. This next onehas a lot of stuff around it,

(43:30):
which is Overdose, which is agame that is allegedly being developed by Kujuba
Productions. Uh God, I can't. Margaret Quality, I think, is
the actress who plays Mama in SetStanding. Apparently this is a first slash
third person horror game that focuses ona character that she plays. I really

(43:54):
would have thought we were going tosee that at the Summer Games Fest with
the Titans of Jeff Keely and HideKajima. But there's also been all these
rumors for quite a while that Microsofthas something to do with Kajima's next game,
and so so we might see thatSaturday, which this is ridiculous because

(44:16):
this episode is going to go upon Monday and everything is already going to
be done and no one's gonna wantto listen to anything we have to say.
But but I think we might.I think we might see it Saturday,
and yeah, if it's real,right, because like it's Kojima has
kind of said on Twitter that likethey're working on something, yeah, whereas
Norman Reidas was like, hey,straight up doing Death Standing two. Now.

(44:38):
Now the real question is does NormanReid us actually know what he's working
on? Was he actually working onthis and not that? I hope so,
I hope so. I hope siris overdose the Phantom pain of Death
Stranding two, which would also bepretty neat because I will say, for
someone like Quibbles with MGS five,I loved the Ground Zero's phantom pain thing.

(45:04):
Oh totally, Like I thought thatwas freaking incredible. Yeah, okay,
I think that's happening. Yea.Trevor says PSVR two game. I
don't think so because Xbox, right, and also that seems like a weird,
like we're gonna real narrow our playerbase. Yeah for this game that's
gonna cost a bazillion dollars, right, yeah, yeah, okay, Um,

(45:29):
Gotti War ragnar actulay to twenty twentythree with the trailer. I don't
think Godi War is getting delayed becausethere was a leak about a release date
I think being November of this year. Yeah, I think they're gonna hit
that and I think we're gonna seeat the end of the month. Yeah.
I was gonna say that's gonna beSony's big Q four. Yeah,
Like I I do not understand.I like, because where would you delay

(45:51):
it to in twenty twenty three ayear end of twenty twenty three, although
I guess, like, like,does Sony do like Q one Q two
releases like Muslim? Yes do?Um? I can't remember any of them
because they don't really spendny video gamesthese days, right, but I'm like
looking up right now Horizon for Binand West. Okay, yeah, yeah,

(46:12):
that was March right or April?So yeah, it's Q one Q
two. Maybe I don't think they'regoing to delay it. Also, Naughty
Dog New game Nope. Neil Druckmansaid, I'm working on something. They
showed a remake of a game theyshouldn't be remaking, and they said,
by the way, we're doing themultiplayer as its own spin off thing.
So I imagine that's going to belike we're probably another year or two out,

(46:36):
Yeah, from something like that,at least Grand Theft Auto six,
I could I could see where wherewould they show that though, Uh,
Microsoft, probably PC, Xbox orI would imagine are their bigger are their
biggest install bases, and we're andit's like also like we're kind of like
do off I think so, butlike it feels like now is the right

(46:58):
time. Grand Theft Auto is oneof the biggest franchises in the world.
Everybody knows what Grand Theft Auto is, even people who don't play video games.
I think that they skip the entireE three summer oh and just do
their own. Yeah, they canmake all the noise they want whenever they
want to write Desney's next big expansiontrailer. I sure hope not, because

(47:21):
the second season of this expansion juststarted, so I was gonna say,
I was like, there was justa huge yeah, content drop for that
game. Though that Desney's schedule isruined now seasons don't line up with actual
seasons anymore because they had to delaywhich queen into this year and so everything
started late. That said, man, I would love to see the other

(47:44):
things that Bungee is working on inpublic. That would be great. So
let's hope that happens. You gotsome hopes and dreams here speaking of yours.
Yeah, I kind of thought.I kind of thought one of Bungee's
things is going to be ansty yesterday. I'm a little disappointed that it's not.
Maybe it's still Bacon Hopes and dreams. Silent Hill game. I don't

(48:05):
want it? Yeah, do weOkay, so do we think it's gonna
happen? Kind of Bloomber Team justannounced their game yesterday, Fears, which
is a frigging phenomenal title. Whatare you talking about? No one.
I don't actually want to play thatgame, but I am glad they called
it that. It looks interesting.Um yeah, it looks really expensive.

(48:25):
I am. I'm gonna softball hardball. I love Silent Hill. I love
those first four games. I thinkthose first four games are are still incredible.
I still think they play tight.I think in any conversation when you're
talking about like horror games of thatgeneration. Usually you talk you talk about
two or maybe three. Usually youtalk about Reside before you talk about Silent

(48:49):
Hill two or three, depending onwhich side of that, depending on who
you're talking to. But right,and you talk about Fatal Frame two.
Those are like the three Fatal Frame. No one talks about that anymore,
no, but like those are thethree that you talk about, and there's
good reason why you talk about thosegames. That being said, the legacy
of Silent Hill since then has beenkind of a rocky one. Yeah,

(49:10):
right, And there have been alot of games that come out. I
think people forget how many games havecome out since it was taken out of
Konami Japan and then given to otherdevelopers, and those games are a varying
quality depending on your taste. Therewas the Remakes, which was a very
public kind of bungling of two greatgames in a lot of ways, like

(49:35):
that was also eleven though. Yeah, and also, and I'm gonna say
this triple A gaming and gaming ingeneral, I feel like has a sickness
with sequels. I'm even I'm guiltyof this. I am also infected with
the sequel sickness. We don't needanother Silent Hill game. We just don't.
Yeah, And we don't need anotherSilent Hill game by people that were

(49:58):
in no way involved hold with theoriginal visions or concepts and things involving that
franchise and what made that franchise special, even with the latter games, which
someone have some good qualities. Ialways came to the thought of why this
could have just been called something different? Yeah, and again why it wasn't
marketing. It's always you know,it's marketing, It's it's franchising, it's

(50:22):
that kind of stuff. But like, I would rather see a new game
inspired by Silent Hill that does itsown thing and carves its own identity out
than ever see another Silent Hill gameever again in my life. Yeah.
And I sure as hell do notwant to remake of Silent Hill too.
So I think we are getting aremake of sound Hill too. Probably.
I think we're getting a full mediumbudget remake of sound Hill too. And

(50:45):
I think we're getting a new soundHill game. And I don't think that
it happens during this time frame.I don't think we're getting announcements at E
three. Yeah, I don't thinkso. When I say E three I
am talking about June and July.Yeah, yeah, E three is now
a season. E three is astate of mind. Yeah, E three
is a season of the year.But yeah, it's it's it'll come,

(51:06):
it'll come. These two games arealmost certainly real that you don't DMCA fake
images on the internet. You justdidn't write uh. Final Fantasy seven Remake
two announcement and story trailer. Sonext Wednesday, I think maybe it's Thursday
is a Square Nix's twenty fifth anniversary. Final Fantasy seven Uh stream seems like
a pretty good time to drop atrailer. I think I think they're going

(51:30):
to give us a small teaser becauseI think that, oh yeah, I
think that is way far away fromhappening. Some Golden Saucer imagery. You
have a little song, a littlea little over, a little monologue over
all of it. Here's one ofthose times I hope I'm wrong. I
think they are so far away fromthat game being anywhere close to playable.
But then again, I felt thatway right before they released PAS seven Remake

(51:52):
Part one, and then that gamewas like incredible. It was. It
was mostly incredible. Yes, theparts where you were going through the story
and seeing the story, we're amazing. Everything else about that game was boring
as heck, this side missions.I mean, yeah, I will grant
that. It's like, I quitethoroughly enjoyed that game. I also one

(52:13):
of those like people that, like, I keep thinking I don't care as
much about Final Fantasy seven until Ihear any negative thing about it. Yeah,
and then you immediately pick up asword and you're like, wait,
wait a second, Yeah, likewhat am I? What am I doing?
What am I fighting? What isthis? Yeah? Why am I
getting so riled up? Yeah?So, yeah, I know. But
I hope we get to see thatgame next week. I hope that it's
happening soon. I don't think itis. Yeah, I feel like that's

(52:37):
a I think we'll see an Xboxrelease and I think we'll see a game
bass announcement right right, Like that'syeah, I think that makes sense.
But here's my pie in the sky. Hope. I hope that they decided
that since they left. Without gettinginto spoilers, the end of Final Fantasy
seven remake is them opening up forthe possibility of things being drastically different in

(52:58):
the future. So how about wejust give it to Yoko Tara I I
would, And also I hope thatYoko Taro doesn't have much reference for the
series. I would oh eight,I would love that be same. I
would love for him to just belike, I've got that, here's my
new toy set. Yeah. Soit's like, okay, so here's the

(53:21):
final phase to see A seven remakePart two. You play through it the
first time, and it's exactly thesame as whatever Disc two is or whatever.
The next game the company mandated SquareEnix, Hey, we see that
you beat Route A. Yea,this is not the end of the game.
Is not the end of the game. Go play Route Go play Route
B. Sincerely the Square Enix designteam. And I think isn't the one

(53:44):
in your automoti from like the CEOor something. Just it's like, hey,
please please don't return this game yet. There's just because you saw the
credits doesn't mean you beat the gameyet. Yoka tar would be weird like
that. Yeah, so much moregame here, you've got a part of
the game or ahead? Right,are like way ahead? Think about how
the fact that you haven't seen thetitle of the game on the screen yet?

(54:06):
Yeah right? God? I sorryfor spoilers to the one dude in
our discord who is currently playing therenear Atomina. That is the best late
title screen in a video game.You quote unquote beat it twice. I'm
not I'm not gonna say what andI and I'm gonna like cut fren off.
I don't think there will be adelayed credits title sequence in video games

(54:27):
that tops that one, not justfor the sheer like audacity of it,
but the like narrative inemotional master strokethat it does in the process. Um.
But yes, Yoko Taro getting hisweird little hands on that final Fantasy
seven would be the best. Butwe also have to move on otherwise we'll
be here forever talking about the possiblehas done. So we got some from

(54:52):
tar Jack too. Sorry I hadto crop these down because while you had
great things to say, this isour podcast, that's where we talk,
so just went with the bullet only. Here's my prediction. Fred Wood's prediction.
I think we get an intended todirect next Wednesday morning. Yeah,
and I think tar Jack mentions Ithink we'll get a lot of information on
the upcoming sequel, The Breath ofthe Wild. I think we will absolutely

(55:14):
that. Fred Woods says, Idon't think it's going to be there much
at all. Really, Yeah,because they delayed that game, what are
they going to do show us abunch of a game we don't get this
year? They know we're excited.Yeah, but they did that with the
original Breath of the Wild. Yeah, I mean, but they didn't.
They didn't dump stuff on us until, like I think the January before it
came out, where they were,true, here's everything about the game.

(55:35):
It is true. No, youare absolutely correct, and I kind of
hope that's the case. I wouldlove to not know much about that game
until it's about to be in myhands. Yeah. No, that's absolutely
fair. But I don't know.I would love I would love it because
I really want to know what's goingon with that game. Breath of the
Wild is my second favorite Zelda game, and I want to see how the
sequel improves upon it. Ye Iget rid of the weapon durability system or

(55:58):
fix it or not fix it,but change it up in some way me
too, that would be great.Um Metal Gear Solid collection. I don't
think it's happening for the specific reasonthat they took off two and three off
of sale because they hadn't renewed thelicense for some historical footage that they used,
and so they have to go andrenegotiate those things and all that,

(56:21):
and that was a while ago.I don't think they care, That's what
I was going to say. Iwas like, I don't think they care.
And if the people that are atthat company or sough at that company,
this is me just speculating. Iimagine there's probably some spite. Yeah.
Also, the thing they are morelikely to do than anything is a
release a remake or sequel to MetalGear Rising Revengeance due to everybody in the

(56:42):
Internet talking about it. And Ialso don't actually want them to make a
sequel to that game because no oneinvolved would be working on it. I
also, yeah, it's also like, where do you did? You just
tell another ridiculous story? You followJack again? Right? No? No,
no, you follow Sam Sam?Okay? Yeah yeah, yeah,
now now you're now you want it? Now you want it? I want

(57:04):
it. But he's dead, ishe? No burial? No burial,
no death. You take his swordand you use it against the Senator of
the United States. Dead people showedup in Metal Gear Solid for Fred.
Yeah, well that was when Kojimawas around. I'm just saying they could
be like, oh he got anew cyborg heart. I don't trust anybody
to make Metal gear Rizing Revengeance too. I don't trust the people who made

(57:28):
Revengeance one to make it so thatway it was, it was sort of
a perfect storm. Yeah, that'sit. Still love to play that original
Metal Gear Rising, the Lightning ActionEspionage whatever. No, not me.
I would like to play it.I don't care about the story. Yeah,
Like that just looks like a realfun tech demo. Yeah. Um.
And then tar Jack also says asilent Hell game. So apparently two
people want it. I'm sure alot of people do. That's the thing.

(57:52):
I'm sure a lot of people do. Um. I am just not
one of them. Like, evenwhen it was even when it was attached
to Kojima and del Toro, Ididn't want Oh. I wasn't actually interested
in it because I just I justdon't want another Silent Hill game. I
like, as much as I wouldlove a horror game by Kojumo with del
Toro on board, I don't wantit to be Silent Hill. Just go
do your own thing. Yeah,and so my pt is kind of neat.

(58:12):
Yeah, let's sleeping dogs lie.Yeah, I don't think they're gonna
be doing another Sleeping Dogs game though, unfortunately, So yeah, don't don't
remind me what is what is somethingthat you want to happen next week with
video games? You personally, MichaelDeviar, I don't think it's going to
happen, especially because elden Ring justcame out Armored Core six trailer. Oh,

(58:34):
I don't think that that's all thatunreasonable. I don't think it's unreasonable,
but like, elden Ring just cameout a few months ago and that
game is still kind of riding thewave. It seems a bit from like
a company perspective to go, hey, here's from software's cool game. Never
mind, look at this now.Yeah, but they made so much money
off that game that it is true, like elden Ring's already hand over fisted,

(58:59):
like you made so much money.Maybe DLC I could see a deal.
Yeah, a deal C for eldenRing, I think seems a little
bit more likely, like like oneof one of the game's expansions. Um,
but like in my heart, Iwant to hear the roaring of an
Armored Cores engine as it overboosts.I want to see because like, if
you're familiar with that franchise, thoselike high res cinematic trailers always look incredible,

(59:22):
and like we're at a point invideo games where the game can just
look like that now, Like Iwant to see a new Armored Core game,
and I want to see what theydo with that now that they're a
company that has money and prestige andthe capability to really make that game incredible.
Yeah, what about you? Um, So it was something I would

(59:44):
like, but I don't think it'sgoing to happen, mostly because people I've
talked to who would know have frequentlysaid, from what I understand, not
happening. Um is a lot ofa lot more WE and we U games
supported to switch, so some Zeldagames to Tide us sober I also maybe

(01:00:04):
I also maybe don't care because Ihave a Steam deck and I can emulate
those games. So what I actuallyreally want is a switch too. I
just want to I want two switchesduct tape to one another, and I
want them to release that as thenext system something they can drive. I
don't know ten ADP content at sixtyfans of a second, Yeah, yeah,
I would like to see the nextswitch. I don't I don't think

(01:00:27):
it happened. It was next weekI was gonna say. I was like,
I don't think, because the switchis still selling like just Gangbusters,
right, I mean, like allof their systems continue to sell Gangbusters.
But if they wanted to double theirsales, they could sell everybody that has
a switch a new switch. Thatis true. I don't know that it'll
happen. It probably won't, rightright, well, because I think they

(01:00:50):
also have to look at like theinstall base, especially considering that the switch
is how many years old though,about five or six. Yeah, it's
so if we're talking, if we'rein the generation of half steps, it's
not that crazy to think of aswitch video actually happening. But no,
for sure, I think so.So this is this is where where I'm
going to counter. I think Nintendohad one really big blunder with a half
step console. Yeah, and thenexcept there wasn't a half step console that

(01:01:14):
was a new console. Yeah,but for a lot of people it looked
like a half step console, yeah, and it was treated as such.
And then the new three DS alsothat did it incredibly well for them,
but it didn't do as well aslike the DS Light. Sure, well,
or the original three DS. Yeah, I guess right, So I
like and so if I mean theoriginal three DS was a nightmare horror show

(01:01:38):
of no sales because they were chargingthree fifty at the gate for that thing
something like that. Yeah, Butthe point I'm making is that, like
if you're doing a half step,you're doing it on diminishing returns. Yeah.
Maybe there's also the parts shortage theparty. And again I could be

(01:01:59):
proven wrong considering, like, youknow, there's all the there was all
the variance of like the PlayStation four, the PlayStation three before that, and
the Xbox three sixty and the Xboxwant you know like those, I mean
we got we got a revamp ofthe switch with the switch o led.
I'm just talking about something that isarchitecturally more powerful, right right now?
Yeah, No, you're right.What I want is for them to release

(01:02:20):
a new Nintenna switch that has fourcolored buttons on the right hand controller and
an iced dpad on the left.And I want them to call it the
super super switch. Yeah, yeah, the super switch. Yeah. Yeah,
Um, that's what I want.It ain't happening, there's no chance
that it happens. Trying to thinkof like anything else I want to see.
I'll tell you what I want tosee the next segment. We'll be

(01:02:42):
right back everyone. So last weekwe asked a question to the audience of
what was the first video game youever played and how did you get introduced
to it? Uh, you know, Fred and I shared ours and you
know talked about that a little bitin the last episodes. You can go
there and check it out. Butwe got some responses from the audience.

(01:03:05):
I'm going to take this first onecoming in from Isaac J who wrote in
my introduction to video games was aroundthe age of two or three because my
aunt on my dad's side gave usin any s with Super Mario Bros.
My parents liked playing it on theiron their off time, and I eventually
picked up the controller on my ownto give it a try. You could
say I was born with an NEScontroller in my mouth. Video games have

(01:03:27):
been at the start of my life, so I can't imagine a time without
them. That's nuts to me,specifically because I had a very interesting like
path to getting into video games.But like that's like a really sweet of
your aunt, but also like,yeah, what a guy, guess a
great way to bond with the folksand like check that out and just kind
of have that at your disposal.I'm sure that was the case for a
lot of people. Like there's tonsof people that have that as their memories.

(01:03:49):
Yeah, I mean I have somememories of like watching my dad play
Safari Zone on the Sega Master System. Yeah, which was one of the
phaser gun games. Uh god,they called it the phaser instead of the
light gun. Love it kind oflove segah. Yeah, Yeah, that
was neat. Thank you for Yeah, thanks for sharing that. The other

(01:04:11):
one that I've pulled for this weekcomes from Terek, which again had to
shorten it. So if you allwant your stuff right on the show,
just keep it a little more concise, because, boy, Hattie, some
of these are very long. Butterrek Ritzon. The first video game I
ever played was Super Mario sixty four. I actually remember telling people about that
game earlier than I can remember playingit. But my father bought it for

(01:04:31):
the ninten to sixty four, andon rare occasions i'd be allowed to play
it. I remember when we moved, we unpacked the ninten of sixty four.
After a few months of living inour new place, the only games
I could find for it were ochreEnough Time and Diddy Kong Racing. For
years, I would spontaneously break outinto searches around the house trying to find
the copy of the game, asif someone had hidden it for me,
and it would spontaneously and it wouldappear spontaneously. When the Nintendo y S

(01:04:55):
came out, much to my dismayof my own parents, I coaxed.
I keep wanting to read that wordas coat next, because we're talking about
old games. I'm the worst.I coaxed for my parents and grandparents into
getting me one with a copy ofSuper Mario sixty four, a situation I
mirrored with a Kreien of Time threeD when the three DS was released and
finally got to play and beat thegame I remembered so often as a kid,
that's bad man. Super Mario sixtyfour holds such a strong place in

(01:05:19):
my heart. So I've got toget a lot of fun memories of playing
that game with a friend and kindof like passing the controller back and forth
as we went through it. Yeah, was the was the DS remake or
I guess re release any decent?I know they added such a playable characters
and that kind of stuff to it. Here's the I am somebody who has
a unique opinion of this game,so I'm I'm gonna start by saying,

(01:05:41):
yes, it's very good. Theyadded a bunch of very cool stuff to
it. It is more Mari sixtyfour, and that's a good thing.
Right now, the Fred would takeon it is that version of the game
sucks. Shit. It was.It was dog water and it was bad
because the thing that Mary sixty fourintroduced to the game, ploy Space was
analog movement, so you could tiltthe stick to walk right and you don't

(01:06:04):
have to write, so you havea dpad to move around, which is
terrible for navigating a three D space, or the weird thumb strap thing where
you touch the middle of your systemthat you're trying to hold while also navigating
buttons. That version of that gameis very cool. They added a bunch
of cool stuff and if you couldsuffer the controls, which I think a

(01:06:26):
lot of people did and didn't evennotice, thank god, like they get
to enjoy this very cool version ofthis game, that that version sucked.
And he went on to write aboutthe DS version in the rest of his
email, also talking about the PCport. It would be very cool if
fans took the content from the DSversion of that game and put it in
the native PC port, which willdefinitely do a conversation on at some point

(01:06:51):
in the future because that it's suchcool project. Yea, But for now
we'll leave it at that. Sothank you guys so much for writing in.
It is really cool to have peopletell these stories. I just love
it. No, same, It'slike sharing that stuff is always you know,
it's always interesting to see where wherepeople's like journey with playing games and

(01:07:15):
doing stuff or you know, ifyou make them making them starts and like
what inspired that kind of thing.So yeah, thank you for writing in.
This week, we have a differentquestion to ask anyone, anyone,
everyone, who ever, anyone andeveryone can come in and answer this question.
But yeah, this week we've gotwhat handheld system do you think you've
spent the most time on and whatgame occupied it the most. I know

(01:07:38):
what that answer is for me,and I know what game that is for
me, but I want to hearyour answer first. So, like,
I played a lot of Game Boy, but when I play a lot of
handheld games in general, and Idon't so here's the thing. Yeah,
when I have never had a driver'slicense my entire life, and so I
have spent a lot of time onpublic transit. The time time that I

(01:08:00):
spent the most time on probably transitwas when the PSP was released. And
so for me, the PSP isthe is the handheld that I spent so
much time with. Uh And Ithink I think the game that actually like
used up the most time is MetalGear Solid peace Walker, because I spent

(01:08:20):
hundreds of hours on that game onthe bus, in the car, in
bed, like, I played thatgame doing stuff on it crazy, and
I never saw everything that was tosee in that game because there's just an
there's a game and it gets realhard. Yeah. And I didn't have
friends who were playing peace Walker becauseyeah yeah, yeah, so I got

(01:08:44):
real good at it, but Inever got to see like the monster hunter
content in that game? Right,how about you, Bud? What was
yours? Similarly, why is thePlayStation portable? I'm not like, I
mean, like I just mentioned,I'm not really big on handheld games.
It is nothing against handheld games.It is just some weird hurdle with me.
It's a meet thing um that Ican't even really explain. But I

(01:09:08):
loved the PSP and I I useevery function on that thing. That thing
was my MP three player. I'dplayed movies on it, played tons of
games. That's actually how he beatFinal Fantasy Tactics the first time. That's
how I beat Current of Sugar thefirst time. Yeah. The game that
spent the most time in there isI'm not even sure if this game is

(01:09:28):
good in the franchise. When we'regonna go back to from Software for a
second, and it was Armored CoreFormula Front. Oh wow, I gotta
I gotta try that. Well,maybe I don't. Maybe I need to
play a good Armored Cars. Yeah. I play Armored Core for Answer and
Armored Core Verdict day or also justgot his Armored Core five. I think
those really good titles. Great titles. Um, But Formula Front had this

(01:09:51):
thing where you could build not onlyjust building your Mac, but you could
build its AI and have it fighton its own. That's cool. So
you could just set up like littlebattles and stuff, and I would just
like do the you know, soI had a lot of fun for me
just buying parts, building little Maxand then pitting them against challenges and just
seeing how they performed, you know, and so that was a lot of
fun. Um. The other gamethat probably spent the most time in there,

(01:10:13):
uh, there was a Guilty GearDouble x Port. Yeah, not
great, it was fantastic. Itwas a Guilty Gear on the go,
but it was Guilty Gear on thego exactly. And then there was and
then in third place would be theStreet Fighter Alpha three Port. Okay,
so that is my third place aswell. I was gonna say my second
favorite PSP game that was a quoteunquote PSP, the one that is a

(01:10:35):
PSP exclusive. Yeah, was RockBand Unplugged. That was really good.
Actually know, I never got toplay it though, I was just watched
friends do it. What was that? A Harmonics game for PS two Amplitude.
It was Amplitude, It was amplicatedwith more licensed music, and like,
that game kicked ass. It wasso good. And then a Rock

(01:10:55):
Band Blitz when it came out onXbox three sixty was very similar. It
was better in every single away.Yeah, and unfortunately that game is also
lost to history because yeah, yeah, it was real damn good. So,
like, surprisingly I did not playa ton of the Getter rooman port
yeah. I think it's because Ihad it on PS two at the time,
so it's like, if I wantedto play it, I was just

(01:11:16):
going to play it on my bigor TV. Yeah. That was a
good port though, right, likerate Port had new content was incredible,
Like arguably the definitive way to playthat game. Have you played? Uh
neon genisis seven Gelian Sound Impact forthe BSP. No, so that's the
one that's three n D. Yeah, yeah, I know the one you're

(01:11:38):
talking about. Yeah, but Ihad to took it out, like do
that this week. You will beso happy you did. It is a
very cool rhythm game with very dumbmini games and a full recreation of the
entire Evangelian storyline and everyone out there. If you want to have a fun
and also puzzling deep dive look intohow many Evan Gellian games there are,

(01:12:00):
because I promise you there's more thanyou think there are. And some of
them are dating sums, most ofthem are dating most of them are yeah
yeah yeah, but like there aretons. Yeah. But sound Impact it's
three as in Sun says sound Impactgood. It's so good. It's a

(01:12:23):
very good video game. It emulatesreally well too, So give that a
try. Okay, we don't havemuch time left on this planet, so
well, I just mean in general. So we're going to end this podcast
with one question from the audience,because we'd be remiss if we didn't at
least give Mark Lentz his weekly checkup. Mark Lenz, Right, it

(01:12:48):
is the year twenty twenty five,not that far in the future. It
is the year twenty twenty five anda crime to not name your children.
Duke Nukem three D, which ofyour children do you say sacrifice to Nitall
the Derek Lord of Blood. Ithink I've actually been pronounced ntail of Dark,
lord of blood over a. Yeah, anyone that knows Umlut's better write

(01:13:12):
in and correct me if I'm wrong. I mean it's all of my children
though, right so, because well, yeah, but you have to choose
one. So which which Duke Knwcambthree D do you love the most?
I but I'm gonna I don't seewhy I have to sacrifice my dig Nucomb
three DS because I have no problemnaming all of my children. Duke Nacam
three D, Right, your childrenare you you have to sacrifice to?
It doesn't say I have to be. It's saying that if I don't name

(01:13:36):
my child Duke NAM three D,I have to sacrifice. And I love
my Duke Nukecamb three d's equally.I don't see I'm interpreting this as like
you have to name your children DukeNUKEMB three D, but also Ntail,
the dark Lord of Blood is hereand he demands a child sacrifice. It's
the second child. It's always thesecond child. Wow, Duke knew Him
three D the second child. Dude. Yeah, I just want to say,

(01:13:57):
it's like Duke knewkeam three D thesecond Yeah, how about you.
I am not selfish enough to thinkthat I am owed children in this life,
and I wish to curry Nietel theDark LORDE of Blood's favor, so
I would grant him all of mychildren. Wow. I would give him
the entirety of Duke Newham three Das to not just give him episodes for
what you do is only give himepisode two. Well, selfish, selfish

(01:14:23):
la meltdown in your desire to keepthe rest of them to yourself. Hi,
I understand the dark lorde of Blood'swant. I feel bad because I
was going to start naming off allof the do Newham three D episodes.
Oh, the only one I canremember is the first one, which is
La Meldown. Yeah, I couldlook it up. I could cheat,
but I'm not going to Lli Meldown. And I remember the space station one,

(01:14:47):
but I don't remember the name ofit. Yeah, so I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna treat Nietail thatway, and I'm not going to treat
cheat you the listener from having agood time. You can write in the
answers to our question, which waswhat handheld system do you think you've spend
the most time on and what gameoccupied it the most? Or you can
write in any kind of question orany kind of thought please again, keep

(01:15:11):
it, you know, like maybea paragraph, like a short paragraph.
You can write those in two mailat level select dot cool, or you
can write it in by visiting levelselect dot cool the website, or you
can visit our discord and you canwrite a message in the questions and answer
section and you will you will bethe only one who can see it except

(01:15:32):
for us. Yeah, so Ihad somebody right in. They're like,
oh, I guess I'm the firstperson in here. Now that's not how
this works. You just you can'tsee what everybody else does. Yeah,
sorry, Bud, you're good.Thank you for writing anyways, Yes,
yes, because we love reading these. We have a bunch of questions that
we're going to be getting to inthe next coming weeks, oh for sure.

(01:15:53):
But we're always looking for more.So if you don't hear your question
this week or even next week,don't worry. That doesn't mean that we
just got over it. It's justdue to time and due to this the
episode, this episode's specific nature ofcovering Jeff Keely's Key three, we couldn't
get to everything this week that wehad on deck. That being said,
I would also and Fred would alsolike to give a shout out and thanks

(01:16:15):
to Toby Fox to composing our wonderfultheme song level select. Do we have
anything else that we got to shoutout anyone else? Thank you the listener,
share, tell them where you canget our podcasts, give us a
review on Apple Podcasts if you can, and tell a friend to do the
same. It really helps us out. And yeah, this has been Mike

(01:16:35):
and this has been Fred. Thanksfor listening. We'll see you next week.