The Closed Envelope Awards of 2022

Fred and Mike talk about their award winners of Summer Games Fest / Keigh3 / E3 2022! We hit a bunch of fun news topics and talk about the video game libraries we've missed.

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Welcome to Level Select to show aboutgames and game development. I'm your host
Mike Devir, and I'm your hostFred Wood. How are you doing?
Fred? I am good. Thisweek has been a smart gus board of
me doing all sorts of ridiculous,small and random things, any any of
them noteworthy in particular, or aproject that I started on that I we're

(00:34):
just getting right into it. Sorry. That I've been working on this week
is I got a Raspberry Pie fouryea because I saw one in stock for
a second somewhere and jumped on itimmediately, And I'm installing a software called
retro nas on it. And aNASA is, of course, network is
attached storage, which is a harddrive that any device on a home network

(00:56):
can access. And retro NASA isspecifically for managing your ROMs. So,
okay, backups of all of youryour personally definitely illegally owned games that you
yourself have dumped, you can putthem on this hard drive or on this
Raspberry Pie attached to a hard drive. And so if you play games on
your phone or on a Steam deck, or on a computer or on an

(01:19):
Xbox, then you can just loadany of those ROMs directors to there.
But this thing also has some reallycool functionality where you could load up a
bunch of PS two games on it, And if your PS two has a
broadband adapter on it, then youcan actually plug that in directly to the
network and stream games directly over that. So that's really neat. Yeah,

(01:40):
and so you can just really neat. Yeah, you could just have one
hard drive that has all your stuff. It also works with the original Xbox,
it works with the PlayStation three canyou can dump stuff on your three
DS and it'll generate a QR codethat you can scan with your three DS
and it will copy it from thathard drive onto your three DS. Like,
there's a bunch of very cool littleuse cases for this thing, and

(02:02):
it's it's totally free. You justhave to have anything that can run Linux,
and it does not have to bea pie for it could be I
think like a pie zero. That'sa hard wild Yeah, it's cool a
sec It's a great little thing thatI've been wanting to do. Yeah,
Well, we've talked you and Ihave talked about odes in different ways to

(02:22):
play backups on original hardware hardware.So, like I've been looking stuff like
the Dreamcast exactly, just because that'sI mean, the districts die. Yeah,
I got great on that Dreamcast.I got a Dreamcast for like five
bucks that didn't have a working diskdrive, and I was like cool.
And then I bought a GDMU,which is an SD card slot for your

(02:45):
Dreamcast that you just rip the laserout of your Dreamcast and replace it with
the SD card slot and it works, which is better than a disk drive.
Yeah, which is like for me, It's like stuff like that is
great because I have a lot,like, not like a ton of but
I have a lot of especially PlayStationin one, PlayStation two and Dreamcast games,
and you'd rather leave those on theshelf rather than get them scratched or

(03:09):
whatever, right, and especially withlike the consoles, Like I mean,
there's jokes. There have been jokesabout the Dreamcasts disc drive and it's laser
since as long as there's been aDreamcast, like that thing sounded like it
was struggling to hold together in itsprime. Yeah, you know, like
I remember any time, like doinganything in Fantasy Star Online as a kid,

(03:30):
and like, okay, the game'sloading and they're even dead battery in
your VMU yelling at you the momentyou turn the system on, screaming at
you to please replace me, sothat way your chow can go on a
walk. Yeah. Um so retronasalternatives, it's great. It totally is.
And retro Nast is awesome because it'sopen source. They've got their entire

(03:53):
roadmap for things that they're wanting toadd to it. One of the things
that I'm excited about is there's aSega Saturn ode that I have. It's
called a Fendrier, just the samething. What's cool, damn. Yeah.
But there's the Fendrier and the Phoebeare like the two good ones,
and then there's this other one thatis from a company that I dislike for

(04:15):
a whole lot of reasons that Idon't want to get into. Um.
But the Fendrier has a Wi Fichip on it, but that Wi Fi
chip is really only so that wayit can update its own firmware. Retro
NAS is working with the creator Fendrierto make it so that way it can
access your retro nas via the WiFi chips, so you can just like
load games wirelessly over your network toyour Sega Saturn, which is crazy.

(04:39):
And then you've got like the MisterProject, which again, like we've touched
on it before, but it's aD ten nano that has an FPGA chip
in it and it can run damnnear or anything. It's got a fully
working PlayStation core that can access theretro nass, and then it's also got
a Saga Saturn core that's almost finished, it seems like, and that can

(05:00):
so of course access the retroness.So tons of ways to play tons of
old games in tons of cool ways. That's yeah, that's awesome. So
that's what I've been working on,is just just hoarding more video games and
not playing them. You're Yeah,sometimes you're like a dragon. It's just
instead of gold, it's old games. Yeah, I'm over say, I's

(05:20):
gonna say, I'm gonna come overand visit, and you're just gonna be
sitting on top of a pile ofall your games. Yeah, everything that's
behind me in the camp just gonnabe sitting on top of it. Um.
Yeah, I've mostly just been workingon the tabletop game. Um tentatively
it's titled Guilded Kingdom for now.Because you're asking me, I do too.
I just don't know that it's theone that I'm gonna keep but right

(05:42):
now I'm just calling Gilded Kingdom.Or I guess I could do like I
could do like the game dev thingand call it Project Gilded Kingdom, the
Project Gilded Kingdom, and then itcomes out and it's called Guilded Kingdom.
Yeah, it's called something completely different. I thought we were doing the square
knicks, like the like from stuffProject Dark Dark Souls, Project Beast Blood
Born, you know, that kindof thing, although that, yeah,

(06:04):
that also works. But yeah,so I've been working on that. I
had a small, little little playtestwith the character creation systems that I've worked
on for it, and that wentreally well. And then I'm doing a
larger playtest that will be being conductedthe day that this episode goes live,
but it is a couple of daysout from now during time of recording that

(06:25):
I'm really excited about. And yeah, it's like the game's coming together really
well, and like it's one ofthose things where now that I've got forty
two pages of a Google doc andtwelve thousand words written, um, you
know, and just so many tables, just so many charts, you know,
the game is sort of for me, a love letter to all the

(06:46):
things I enjoyed about older versions ofD and D. So there's like there's
a subset of those games called oldSchool rules, usually short in just to
OSR and OSR games usually are pullingdirectly from like the deep pre like first
edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules.There's something that's called known as like the
Red Box, which was made byprimarily by two guys whose last names are

(07:11):
Mulvey and Cook, and it comprisesof like basic and expert rules and so
and then there were like other onesthat came down the line. But like
if you hear like OSRB slash X, they're usually talking about like this is
a game that's based off of thatversion of D and D. That's great.
There's tons of stuff like that.You also get games that are retro
clones of other versions. And usuallyall these retro clones are they're that version

(07:31):
of D and D with some houserules. I love them, I love
them dearly, but like I'm goingto call a spade a spade. Usually
there are those rules repackaged with somehouse rules attached and usually one or two
fun mechanics. And I was like, okay, if I'm gonna make this
I need to do something different.So the first thing I did was I
went no classes. You have acharacter, when you level up, you
choose some abilities, you put somestuff into stats, like I'm kind of

(07:56):
wanting it to be a kind toother games. I like the Souls games
where you start out with like abass dude with some base equipment, but
your adventures shape how you evolve.Obviously, I having to make some concessions
to how like the rules work,because what you do in a tabletop game
is often very different than what you'redoing in a video game. But the
process of building a character is largelycontingent on acquiring abilities, boosting stats that

(08:20):
you feel are important to your character, and then going on these adventures to
find a loot to engage in whateverstories you're telling to create. Not like,
you know, your character is nottypically going to be like, oh
I'm a wizard or oh I'm aclarity. No, here's here's my adventurer.
Here's what they're good at. Andthey might be good at like a
couple of things. They might besuper specialized, they might just be a

(08:43):
jack of all trades. Because youknow that character might just be the only
one that survived several dungeons encounters,and while your friends are building all these
other ones, this guy's had tolearn to adapt, you know, and
and just be like, Okay,you're gonna like you're gonna die, so
I have to be the one thatyou know, keeps me safe. That
sounds cool. I like that approach. Yeah, I'm really excited. It's

(09:07):
it's caused a lot of it's gousea lot of stress and be like I'm
looking at things from the macro viewand I'm like, I don't know that
this is gonna work, but we'regonna try anyways. Um, you know,
but so far, nothing, youknow, everything I've tested internally as
I'm making things, nothing's blown up, which is hardcore exploits. Yet there

(09:28):
are just there are probably going tobe those, um and I'm gonna be
very real right now, and Idon't know that ever. I'm really gonna
like it's a collaborative storytelling adventure actiongame. If someone finds a way to
make their character a little bit busted, okay, it's fun, right,
Like, you know, I don'tknow that that's necessarily a bad thing.

(09:48):
There's usually a lot of talking tabletopgames like this class is broken and I'm
like, okay, cool, butlike can the other classes also do really
cool stuff? Like can everyone getthere? Because of so then like I
don't want to see the problem isright, you know? So Yeah,
So that's been going along, andthat's kind of been the bulk of what
I've been doing. Um yeah,I'm excited to have more more stuff.

(10:09):
I'm gonna be I'm gonna be doinga couple more private play tests stuff for
the one on Monday, and thenafterwards I'm gonna be opening it up to
public feedback. Um yeah, yeah, I gotta get in there and play
a game. Yeah, absolutely absolutelyfun as having played any D and D.
In like six months to a year, my D and D group started
getting together and watching bad movies insteadof playing D and D, I mean,

(10:33):
which has been fun too. Yeahyeah, but yeah, I mean,
hey, I'm gonna be doing I'mgonna be getting together with some people
I played D and D with andrather than doing anything for my game,
we're gonna watch the second Coney inthe Barbarian movie. There's fun in that,
which is not the good one,but it is a very fun movie.
Yeah, And honestly, fun isthe important part. Yeah, I
love fun. And also, thisis not a movie, a video a

(10:54):
movie podcast, and this is nota video game recommendation. But hey,
if you haven't seen Coney in TheBarbarian and Conde in The Destroyer, you
should go check those out. They'refun. While we're talking about video the
reason I haven't played many video gamesto any kind of focal point is because
I did watch all of the NewSeason Is Stranger Things. Oh yeah,

(11:15):
I guess we should probably mention that, like, neither of us really did
much in the way of playing videogames this week, So I wouldn't say
that I definitely played a lot ofvideo games this week, but I didn't
play one video game enough to haveany salient points about. Yes, yeah,
and I have been so nose tothe grindstone on my game that like
I literally have just been watching arefamiliar with like Dimension twenty. Yeah,

(11:37):
I've just been watching one of theseasons of that while I work on stuff.
So I unfortunately have no opinions ongames that I've been playing other than
my own. I will say thatNew Season Is Stranger Things. I might
have said this in a previous show. I've said it a few times,
but like the way that each seasonof Stranger Things ends is like, Okay,

(11:58):
cool, this is a good endingpoint. You don't have to make
more, And every time they announcedthat there's more coming, I'm like,
but why, Like you have toconvince me that there's like a good reason
to do it. And everything leadingup to this new season where it's like,
okay, well, every episode coststhirty eight million dollars to make and
every episode is an hour and ahalf long. I'm like, are you

(12:18):
guys just trying to get paid becausethis doesn't seem like like why would you
do this? Right By the endof the first episode, I was like,
Okay, you guys actually have somethingto say, and there are no
there's no fat on those bones.Every scene in every episode is valuable,
incredibly well shot, Like it's phenomenal. I don't like horror things because I'm

(12:43):
not a fan of being scared.They went so hard into the horror with
this season, and they executed onit so well that even I'm like,
I will continue hurting myself to enjoythis. Yeah. So I completely missed
season three because everyone I knew thatwatched it. I think barring you because
I just don't know. Three wasbetter than season two, really, okay,

(13:07):
because everyone I talked to said theopposite. Yeah, you're the only
person I know that has said thatseason three was better because I watched season
two and I was like, yeah, that was okay. I know I
would recommend watching season three because it'sfun, and then because man, you
should watch season four. I'll giveit. It's real good. They're like

(13:28):
they've cut it up into two chunks. The first seven episodes of season two
are out and then the last threeepisodes come out in July, and they
ended it in such an exciting placewhere they have like revealed a bunch of
the things that you'd want to know, but there's enough, like the steaks
are very high and everything is veryexciting, and you still have questions about

(13:50):
like, okay, but why thisso that like, I'm really glad they
went for a big binge abole chunkand then there's going to be another bingeabole
chunk and then that's it for thisseason. Yeah. And also everyone's getting
introduced to Kate Bush, which isa secondary bonus to that absolutely, because
that's all I know about that seasonright now is that people are like,

(14:11):
man, that song we' running upthat hill is like really good. I'm
like, yeah, dude, yeah, how did you not I've always known
this right right, Like it's justlike, yeah, Kate Bush is amazing,
Like where have you been? Yeah? Yeah, you should definitely watch
that new season, Mike, you'lllove it. Sinking of loving that next
season, we're gonna have to takea quick break and then go to the

(14:31):
next segment. Yeah no, don'tmouthen me. I know, I know
that was a bad transition. Ishorrible. We should uh, we should
probably get back to talking about videogames. Yeah, I'm cool with that.
Yeah. Yeah, it's kind ofour thing. And also there's a
lot of them announced at Key three. Yeah, the Summer Gaming Fest Nope,

(14:54):
sorry, Summer Games Fest. Thehashtags are important. The branding is
the days of the game's yeah,dev's that was yes, the Icebox Game
Fest conference, yes, yes,host Square Nicks also that and also Capcom
with their days. I mean that'snormal, right, that's that's the E

(15:15):
three standard is it starts on Saturday, sometimes on Fridays. Talking about how
like they were like, hey,we're gonna have all these announcements, but
also we're gonna have more announcements tomorrowin the day after, so right now
when we're having our announcements. Ithought it was interesting that Microsoft did a
second show the following Wednesday. Itwas like just kind of a hey,

(15:35):
we talked about we showed these things. Now let's talk about them a little
bit more. Yeah. Yeah,and also we here's some other things.
They're all ports, Yeah, everylast one of them. That's okay,
that's okay. But yeah. Soit is the tradition of people who talk
about video games to give very meaningfuland not at all trite awards to their

(15:56):
favorites that year, which are definitelybased on education and a foundational knowledge that
is based on objective truths and notare very specified and likely not that nuanced
opinions. Yeah, and Fred andI both have our favorites from Jeff Keeley's
Key three hosted by Capcommon Score,Unix Co starring Xbox and Double Fine.

(16:22):
Indeed, we have a closed envelopeselection. The two of us do not
know what the other person shows foreach of these these categories. Yes,
so you're getting a double dose ofawards, I guess. So where do
we where do we want to startwith this? Do we want to take
it from the top and go ondown. Yeah, I think I didn't
put any effort into ordering this,so okay, do that. Yeah.

(16:45):
So, Fred, what is yourmost surprising announcement? From key three?
So I have two and on acouple of these I have too. So
i'll i'll, I'll start with mysecond place announcement. You can go and
then I'll go for my first.But my second place was simply the fact
that Hollow Night's Silk Song was shownat the Xbox Conference after everybody had speculated

(17:07):
it being at the Nintendo every singleNintendo Direct since it was announced, right
and just nope, yep, wesaw very little of it. We did
not get a release date other thansometime within the next twelve months, because
that was the promise for the Xboxconferences that every single game they showed would
be out in the next twelve months. So what about you? What was

(17:32):
your most surprising announcement? So mymost surprising announcement it wasn't so much a
game as it was a game's releasedate, and that was Scorn. Yeah,
Scorn has a release date of Octobertwenty first, twenty twenty two.
Now I'm going to be very frank. I am very excited for this game.
I don't believe it's coming out.It's been coming out for so long

(17:53):
that I'm not going to believe ituntil I have it in hand. I
think it seemed okay. I don't. I have seen that game, I've
seen gameplay of that game, I'vewatched trailers about it. I've made censored
joke posts on Twitter about it.I don't know what this game is because
it's clearly not like it's not thefirst person shooter. No, it is
a survival horror game where you arelike a weird alien dude and a weird

(18:17):
hr Geiger inspired hr Geeger. Inever how to pronounce. I think it's
Geiger. I think no, Ithink it's Geeger because it's Geiger counter but
he was prosounced the other way.But I might be making that up entirely.
Ye, going through this like weirdbiomechanical alien space station, and that's
really all, like you kind ofknow as much as there is to know.
Yeah, right, Like the gameI believe they made an announcement has

(18:38):
like no dialogue. It's just allgoing to be visual and auditory storytelling without
the use of dialogue cues and thatkind of stuff, and it looks neat,
and it's looked neat since it gotannounced what seems like five hundred years
ago. That game looks offensive ina way that I can't like, particularly,

(18:59):
iiculating. There's just something about thevibe of everything about that game that's
like, you're you shouldn't be allowedto show this. Yeah. Yeah,
I'm really excited for it, ifI'm being Honestum, and it's gonna be
day one on Xbox Game Pass,Yeah, which is super rad. Um
day one on Yeah, day oneon game Pass. I don't know.
It just it looks mean, I'mreally excited for it. That That is

(19:21):
absolutely My most surprising thing is thatit's like finally coming out. Um,
I just you know, and I'mjust hoping it's it's going to live up
to what I wanted to be.Yeah, how about you? What's your
number one most surprising them? Mynumber one most surprising was a thing that
I saw leaked or like rumors of, and I saw that and jokingly tweeted

(19:42):
that out as one of my predictionsand something that I actually am excited for.
It's something that I played back inhigh school and my most played console,
the PSP and that's final Fantasy sevenCrisis Core is getting a big budget
remaster. They're called a remaster,not a remake, despite the fact that

(20:02):
like it basically is a point remake. Yeah, it looks great. I'm
great. Who thought that was athat's like them deciding next year, like
you know what, Derega Cerberus,let's get on that. Yeah. Yeah,
oh my god, and that's ourthat's our next esport. No oh

(20:25):
no, uh, it rules thatthat is a thing that is coming out
this year on every system everything.Yeah, they didn't say Stadia. We
did see Stadia listed for multiple gameson Capcom's thing, which was a little
crazy. But I wonder what thatGoogle under the table money must be looking
like for that to be happening.Yeah, um, but I can't can't

(20:48):
believe that's happening. That's cool.Yeah, no, it looks like seeing
the model updates was me. Andthey're also like rearranging the music like they're
doing they're redoing all the voices andthey don't they don't sound better, but
they're there. I think they're justusing the new voicecast from seven remake Forever.
From what I understand, it's notthe same dude that plays Zack in

(21:11):
that one cut scene in remake.Okay, I'm gonna be very honest with
you, that's probably for the best. Yeah, well that was like I
had no offense to that guy.Like if if by some miracle that guy
happens to listen to this, thisis nothing against you. That just wasn't
great. I liked the original CrisisCore voice acting lot. I kind of
wish they got that guy back,but like it was great fun. But

(21:33):
I will such much like Funiface sevenremake, I will probably play it in
Japanese, so I will honestly sayit. Like I really enjoyed all the
recasts for the f of seven remake. I thought everyone sounded better. They're
all good, it's just something aboutthe performance is always a little off in
in JRPGs that have been voiced inEnglish. Like I don't know, maybe

(21:57):
that's just me, but I mean, I think for me, it depends
on the game. I grew veryattached to several of the voice actors in
the F Some remakes English class casts, specifically Reno's Riths and Barrets. Yeah
was incredible those three. Like Barrot'sgood too. Yeah, Like those three

(22:19):
actors did so much heavy lifting andthe scenes that they were in, you
know, and like Cloud, likethe guy that pa Cloud did a good
job of, like Camp, makingthem like dark, broody and edgy,
but also like kind of a goober. Yeah, because like I mean,
he is right well, especially inthe Rose I seven like something that I
think gets forgotten. Is it likeCloud's kind of a dork. Ye,
Like he kind of sucks, Likehe's cool, but he kind of sucks,

(22:41):
he says, let's mosey, right. Yeah, we should probably move
on rather than talking about file faceywhere you make one but most exciting announcement.
Yeah, let's talk about the mostexciting announcement. What was your number
one most exciting announcement? My numberone most exciting announcement was Capcom's worst kept

(23:02):
secret for like the past six months, Dragons Dogma two. They showed me
nothing. They showed me a Tshirt after twenty minutes of developers being like,
god, yeah, Dragons Dogma Manthat game rules loved playing Dungeons and
Dragons, worked at Capcom for solong. Made this video game somehow it

(23:22):
did like really well despite it basicallybeing made to serve my niche and my
niche only love that for us,and Diego Kenno being like, heck yeah,
love writing not doing art for fantasydefinitely, and the reason why you
can climb all over the monsters becauseI was like hitting monster, big monsters
and the ankles blows, and whatthe level director being like, hell yeah,

(23:44):
dude, whales. We did somuch research on the Welsh countryside.
And I'm saying like I'm sitting herelike enraptured by it all just wrapped,
and they're like, now we're goingto dramatically take off our hoodies to reveal
that we're all wearing Dragons Dogma twoT shirts. Look out for more from
Nation next time. And I waslike, fucking yes, Kings, give
me nothing, give me. I'mhere buying it day one. I'm so

(24:07):
fucking excited. Is that game gonnabe on the R engine. I don't
know, but certainly right yeah,but con that engine, much like the
MPT framework engine, is just capableof miracles, like of biblical varieties.
It's gonna look incredible. I'm oh, I'm so excited. If you haven't
played Dragons dog Well, you shoulddefinitely check it out. It's ten dollars

(24:29):
on the shop right it's always onsale. It is, like I mean,
but the E shop version usually isn'tbecause it's Nintendo. But right,
oh boy ten bucks. I almostpicked it up and then remembered I have
it on Steam and I have aSteam Degg now, and I had a
new moral quandary that I've never hadbefore, which is, you already have
a portable version of this game.You don't need to buy it again,

(24:52):
right, um it is. DragonsDog was one of those games where it's
like I hadn't describe really well tome that It's like it is a game
that, despite having so many flawsand being so JANKI, is in fact
perfect. Yeah, because it justis what it is, and it is
that thing unapologetically. I really gottaget around too. It's spending more time

(25:15):
with it. It's so much fun, and it's one of those things up
from like a design perspective, Ithink you would appreciate it from that perspective,
just because design wise, seeing allthese weird combat systems and how there's
like, yeah, it just works. I I loved climbing all over stuff
in my time with it. Itwas dumb and hilarious. It's really so
especially what you get like it's onMonsters button. You're just just wetton.

(25:37):
It's so good. Go play RagonsDogma. Please be excited for Dragons Dogma
two. As developers say, whatwas your most exciting announcement, The one
that got me the most pumped,The one that made me actually like clap
in my chair like a child issomething you already alluded to. But Persona
three Portable coming out on Xbox,also coming to PlayStation five, also coming

(26:02):
to PC place. So Percenta threePortable was the PSP remake Persona three,
where you could play as a femaleversion of the main character as well and
had more story beats. It isn'tFS, which is the version that had
an additional story bit at the end. Yeah, like a substantial one,
but it is cool. It isweird that Persona three Portable is getting rereleased

(26:25):
on every system that isn't portable.But yeah, and they're keeping that name,
you know. Uh. That's sothat was That was the thing that
got me the most hype for amoment, because when I played Persona three
was a few years ago. Itwas after i'd finished four Golden on Vita,
and I was playing an emulated versionof PERCENTA four FS or sorry,

(26:48):
PERCENTA three FS, and my sayfile got corrupted after like sixteen hours of
play, and I just couldn't evergo back to it. Like, I
enjoyed my time with it, butthere's no way I was going to go
through sixteen hours of like it's verystupid school questions and like making very small
menial conversation choices. I was justnot going to do it, and you

(27:11):
can fast forward through that stuff.But the idea of them rereleasing it now
and being the portable version, whichis much faster, I am excited to
get back to that game and thenmaybe I'll finally play percent of five because
they're also doing that on It's funnythey announced that it's coming to PS four,
which is ridiculous because that game hasbeen on PS four for since the

(27:33):
PS four came out. Yeah,and it's coming to Steam and Xbox as
well, so pretty cool. Mysecond place, I just want to give
a shout out Jeff Carlson, whowas one of the creators of Inside and
Limbo and two of my favorite veryweird horror indie games, Thought, which

(27:55):
is a geometry Wars like dualstick shooterwith a horror Buying soundtrack. Uh,
and one forty, which is areally cool minimalist platformer, showed off his
new game, and I had spokento him before this and had no idea
this was coming. Is Cocoon,which I don't know. I'd say,
just watched that trailer because I wouldn'tbe able to describe it to you anyways,

(28:18):
Right, it looks cool as hell. I'm excited for that. But
those look good. Yeah, sowhat's our next category? It's um and
the most of course that's what itis. Announcement is for me, it
was Starfield. Yeah. Same Likethe second I saw Todd Howard come out
and that in that brown leather jacket, I was like, yeah, well,
I mean I meant the game,because yeah, I've known very little

(28:41):
of it up to this point.I saw that game and I was just
sort of like, yeah, yeah, of course, yeah, it's all
right. Anyways, it's no,no, no, let's let's talk about
it for just a second because Idon't have much to say. Um,
I will the person who said,no, man, Skyrim is the most
brilliant person to come up with it, because that's exactly what it is.
That's Skyrim with procedural generation. Butthe thing is that like Skyrim was good.

(29:06):
Skyrim was good in twenty eleven,and since then they've released fall Out
four and fall Out seventy six.Yeah, fall at seventy six is gotten
to the point that it's good.Apparently, that's what I've heard. I
haven't played it, um, butFallout four sucked. It was so bad.
Yeah, And so I'm gonna beI'm gonna try to word this because

(29:26):
I tend to get a little hyperbolic, and I'm trying to avoid that.
I am not the biggest fan ofthe THEESDA games. Sure, I never
have been. There was like aweird like I didn't you know, I
played Morra Wind. Okay, I'ma fan of Mora Wind, but I'm
not really a fan of everything anythingthey've really done post and I remember watching

(29:47):
Starfield and just not I felt nothing. Yeah, yeah, you know,
I think because it was one ofthose like, you know, No Man
Sky took a bit to get there, but No Man's Sky became an incredible
video game, like absolutely they deliveredand then continued delivering that, like they
keep making huge, massive updates tothat game, even within the last couple

(30:12):
of months. I think there wasa big one. Yeah, and so
No Man Sky went from being thisgame that came out and was you know
this this thing of the broken developerpromises to this massive redemption arc. Yeah,
um that you know, I lookat I look at not you know,
I look at Starfield, and forme, I'm just like, I

(30:32):
don't like Bethesda game. So I'mjust gonna go play No Man Scott Like,
yeah, I So I watched thatand I'm gonna be mean about this,
which is something that we don't doon this podcast, but I'm gonna
be mean. Fallout four wasn't verygood and it was one city. Todd
Howard's up on stage saying, thereare a thousand plans you can explore,
you guys can't get one right,Like, I have no faith that this
is going to be good. Here'sthe thing. I'm gonna play it because

(30:56):
it's available day one on game Pass. Ye've already, like I've, I
can go ahead and give it atry. And I would love to be
wrong. I would love for thisto be an amazing game where the storytelling
is phenomenal, where the world's areexciting, and where you get to like
really realize your own character. Ithink you and I are usually both of
the same mindset that when we're criticalof something, especially something that's not out

(31:18):
yet, we want to be wrong. Like anytime I'm like, oh this
looks rough or oh this this uhis not hitten for me. Um,
I want to be I want tobe proven wrong. I would rather be
wrong and have to eat crow thanthan that. So it's like with Starfield,
like, yeah, it comes outand it's like genuinely amazing and not

(31:38):
like people are saying it's good,and then after the honeymoon period wears off,
everyone's like, oh what's this Yeah, um, yeah, that would
be incredible, but yeah yeah.Didn't like follow three, didn't like Sorry
You, didn't like Oblivion, didn'tlike follow three, didn't like Skyrim.
I love follow three, I wouldlike I really didn't like Fallout four.

(32:00):
Didn't play seventy six. I say, like Attle of seventy six and it
kind of didn't work. I'm owingfour on Bethesda titles like. The last
followut game I liked was New Vegas, or as I like to call it,
follow Out three. Follow three wasgreat. I love three. That
was my introduction to the to theseries, and really to Bethesda writ large
sure, and I think that's abig part of it too, is that,

(32:20):
like specifically with regards to Fallout franchise, I came in on Fallout two
Gotcha, which is still to thisday one of the best written video games
of all time. Like, HolyMolly, those first two follow Out games
are a masterclass and how you writea video game. Yeah, but that's
not what we're talking about right now. We'll go into the history of video
game writing another time. So that'sstarfield most disappointing announcement. I've got a

(32:42):
two fur. I'm gonna start withmy number my and my my first one
and my runner up, and thatwas that gun Grave Gore isn't out right
now for that needed to play sucha cop out, nod my next one's
a cop out. I'm actually genuinelyexcited for gun Grave Gore. I am
doubt at how little they have shownfor it and how like that, like

(33:02):
they made that trailer, and thattrailer did show off new gameplay, but
like it's just I don't know,man, I love the first two gun
Grave games. I will honestly saythat with Gore, um, it doesn't
look like it's hitting the same,the same notes that the originals did,
Like they traded in the cell shading, they traded in the the traded in

(33:24):
a lot of stuff and they didn'teven enos or release date for it.
Like this game has kind of beenfloating around development for like what three years
now, I think I want tosay um and it's just it bummed me
out because, like again, I'vesaid it before, I'll say it again.
I will say it until I'm bluein the face. I love ambitious

(33:45):
jank. I love ambitious jank.Like you look at my list of favorite
games, and they are mostly gamesthat are very ambitious and have a lot
of jank to them. Even gamesthat are critical darlings like Shadow of the
Colossus have a little bit of jankat all. Because I want to see
a game that I can tell hadsomething that it wanted to say, desperately

(34:06):
wanted to say, and was madeby humans, a game that was trying
to do something right, a gamethat was trying to do something and maybe
it doesn't do it do it cleverlyall the time. And like with Gunrave,
I don't think those games are tryingto say anything dramatic. They just
wanted to make like arcade shooters thatwere like, you know, ridiculous,
Yes, I hear in EA.I was like, what if guns in

(34:28):
a video Yeah? Yeah, yeah. It was like what a guns in
video game? And people like,yes, there's tons of those are He's
like, no, no, no, no, no in a coffin in
a video game and people are like, like in Desperado and he was like
yeah, but yeah, seeing thenew one, like, it looks it
looks like the older games in theregard of like the really you know,
button mashing game play and all thatstuff. But I don't know, it

(34:51):
just looks like there's something lost.It looks like there's like a cheekiness.
Yeah lost. That bums me out. So that's been my disappointing My second
most disappointing one. What about you. Hideo Kojima announced a new video game
at the Xbox Conference. He suredid. He said, I am making
a video game. Goodbye he left. That was definitely the most disappointing thing

(35:14):
for me. It was like,okay, cool, let's hear anything said
one other thing about it, thatit's gonna have cloud cloud structure. But
that's been like, okay, that'sthe the thing I was thinking. But
he also said something else. Okay, he said that his relationship with Sony
is fine. Yeah, but thatwasn't on the conference. That was like
that was damage control afterwards, rightright, Yeah, Kajima came out,

(35:36):
he said, didn't come out.He was very much in Japan at his
office doing work, and he waslike, yep, working with Microsoft to
make the game I've always wanted tomake. It's gonna use cloud technologies because
that's something that Microsoft has and newsas well, and I see a lot
of people crapping on that. Butthe thing is that Microsoft's cloud technologies worked

(35:59):
really well. Yeah, It's it'slike Microsoft Flight Simulator uses it to amazing
effect, not because there are clouds, but because you can use the entire
planet Earth as as a thing,and it's all about streaming and that stuff.
And it's like, I would loveto see what Hedeokachima decides to do
with that kind of power at hisfingertips. Oh absolutely, it's going to
be insane. And that's why I'mso disappointed because we did not see what

(36:22):
he's doing. He just came outand said I am going to make a
video game, and that was it. Yeah, what about you? What
is your actual most disappointing. Mynumber one most disappointing thing was that Square
Enix did not announce he re releasefor Final Fantasy seven Dirge of Servers.
Okay, all right, get outof here. No no, no,

(36:42):
listen, listen, listen, listen. That was because my predictions list as
well. No saying it was likein my blissen, I think both of
our Square Enix predictions, the listfor that FF seven thing, we I
think we got everything butt Dirge ofServers correct a right independent, which is
buck wild, considering a wild,considering some of the Prediction seven Crisis Core
remake master writing. Because okay,because and he here's the thing. They

(37:06):
keep showing stuff from like dirgs ofCerberus right like they can't character are in
F seven remake, Integrade. OhI didn't know that. I haven't played
yeah yet that yeah, like twoof the bosses are in that game.
You go into the like does itdeep down in F seven remake like they
keep teasing gacked. I mean,but we got it. We got gacked,

(37:30):
right, Well, we're like gettingghacked now in the the F seven
Crisis Core rerelease. But I'm likethere's one piece of the puzzle missing.
Yeah, there's one piece of gackedpuzzle that we don't have. I want
so yeah, I want so badlyto play Final Fantasy seven every crisis.
It is exactly what I wanted outof remakes of Final Fantasy seven or of

(37:55):
Final Fantasy games, which is chunky, low poly boys running around in over
worlds, and then when it getsinto battle time, you've got the crazy
high fidelity the way if of sevendid it. Yeah, with its model
models. Give me that Krono trigger. That's actually what I want. Just
do that, get get on it. I was about to be like,
give me that Zeno Gears want Imean, yeah, Zeno Gears deserves like

(38:19):
I want whole remake, big money. Yeah, I want. I want
to see those I want to seethose gears in fucking four k. If
you keep swearing, I'm just callingthe at on so sorry. Uh.
Final Fantasy six in that style isexactly what I want. Not the HT
two D stuff like that looks fine, Just the really biggest grandiose No,
no, no, no, Iwant the ever. I want it to

(38:43):
look like it looked like on theSupernintendo, but with the graphics of today,
which is to say very fun CGmodels of those things, or or
give me the earth Bound remake withclaymation. Yeah, the with the throwing
that out there, that would begood. Going back to Jermy of Serbers
though, oh great. Um No, it's because I think I think that
there are screen Enix has done alot over the years to improve how they

(39:06):
handle action games. When Gers ofCerberus came out, they didn't really have
a lot of those. They hadlike the Kingdom Hearts games and what like
Bushito Blade. Like I'm not I'mlike really stretching to think of like action
Oh the bouncer, the bouncer right, um, But like they've learned a
lot since then. You know,the the the recent year games played wonderfully.

(39:29):
I F seven remake played incredibly well, yeah, you know, and
so I think and then you know, the the F seven First Soldier.
You know, for a mobile game, it's function. I played that today.
So they added controller support to it. So now it's actually like I
got first I got twelve kills andI got first place. Yeah. I
was like, yeah, this gameis good. Yeah yeah. Fine.

(39:51):
So it's like I think with allthat knowledge and all that skill, now
they could go back to terms ofCerberus and remake and redo those mechanics and
really make that game probably what itcould have been had the shooting control has
not been so rough in the original. Did you ever try playing Out with
a mass and keyboard? No,actually haven't because it's got full PS two

(40:12):
mass D Yeah, it has USBmouse and keyboards two mouse. Uh No,
Yeah, that's that's a ridiculous Ididn't even know that that would change
so much about that game because Igame on controller is rough. Yeah,
I've I've thought about wondering. I'vewondered if the emulated version of that game
still has mass and keyboard support,because yeah, they basically got a PC
port at that point, right,I would absolutely check that out. But

(40:36):
we should we should maybe check thatout. Yeah, we should maybe check
that out. I've still never actuallyplayed Dirjit Servirus. It has always been
kind of a funny joke in thebackground. I mean, it's kind of
what it is. Yeah, butit's got like, it's got some interesting
things. There's some interesting design,character designs in it. There's two gaged
songs that I don't know that they'llre license, that they ever do a
rerelease. I mean, they gotthey got him back for for crisis score.

(41:00):
I guess they're in business with gackedagain, that's true. Yeah,
well more on that in the future. But we've got one more category,
yeah, that we're gonna move onto. And it was most what the
heck is this? What is yours? Sonic Frontiers? That's fair. I
am still somehow weirdly excited for thisgame. In fact, I'm actually more

(41:21):
excited for this game than before becausewhen they said we're making an open world
Sonic game, I was like,you shouldn't, right, and not specifically
like no one should, but likeI look at Sonic Team, I point
them dead in the face and Isay, you shouldn't do this. Yeah.
Yeah, And the reaction to thatgame has been so overwhelmingly negative talking

(41:42):
about ambitious Jank, that game lookslike, genuinely, I'm with you.
I am so excited. It looksreally kind of very cool. I love
the idea that they didn't know howto make the esthetic work with like rails
and platforms in the sky, sothey didn't even try. Yeah, they're
just stuck them in there. They'relike, this is actually the gameplay,
this is our level design is likeyou don't care what this looks like you

(42:06):
just want to run up it.I'm like, you know what, you
know me, that is actually whatI want to do and if I'm just
gonna keep running from place, likethe only thing in that game that looks
genuinely bad is the combat. Andyeah, with a HUD maybe it makes
more sense, but they've for somereason removed the HUD from every want a

(42:27):
piece of free release material. Iwant to see that HUD I want,
and I hope it's like the mostgarish offensive thing right, Like I want
to see, like because they showedthe rings popping out and everything, but
like I want to it's rough,but I want to see like you have
a health bar, but it's likemeasured in rings, like something weird banjo
kazoo style, honey ye please pleasecan we go? Like I want a

(42:52):
game that goes back to that likeera of barely understanding, like actually because
it's fair easy, but like Iwant to like early legible HUD design on
this video game. I love thearrogance coming out of Sega and Sonic Team
on this one because like the fansand the game's press have been just overwhelmingly

(43:13):
like, please delay this game,Please delay this game please, And they
said that they've been working on itsince twenty seventeen and that there's been multiple
challenges what with especially over the lastcouple of years of having to work remotely,
but they are not delaying the game. They said, fan feedback will
not make us delay the game becausethe fans don't know what this game is

(43:35):
yet. And it's like, I'mlike, you know what, go for
it. That is exactly the rightresponse. Here's the thing. This game
is gonna sell really well no matterwhat, because it has Sonic that hat
Jog gone it and they've had twovery successful movies. So oh yeah,
you're right, like, oh mygod, it's gonna come out and make
or this game is gonna come outand make ridiculous money. Yeah, just
as long as running around in thatworld feels all right, I'm actually gonna

(44:00):
be totally cool with that. Yeah. So, um, what about you?
Did you have what the heck isthis moment? Yeah? It was
Obsidian's game Pentiment, which when Iwas first watching it, I was like,
Oh cool, this weird indie gamelooks neat, and then the Obsidian
logo popped up and I was like, what that game looks cool, it
looks neat, weird. I'm reallyexcited for it, and the fact that

(44:22):
they're like, yeah, we're makinglike a little adventure game styled after like
medieval art and stuff, um,you know, which is like harkening there's
been there's been a couple of gameslike that, like Road to Cavalry,
Cavalry and other stuff that have thathave been popping up, and like it's
just a really neat way to likekind of bring that esthetic for the story
that you're wanting to tell. Andso yeah, Pentiment looks like I'm Cidian

(44:43):
games always have ridiculously good writing,right, Like that's just everyone knows that,
um, And so seeing them justbeing able to kind of like not
have to focus on really anything elsebut that and like the choices that you're
gonna make along the way, Um, I'm really excited to see what they
do with that. Like it seemslike that Microsoft acquisition is doing real good

(45:04):
for them, because like, Idon't know that this would have been a
game that other that would have comeout otherwise. Yeah, I mean even
their recent slate of releases, it'sthat and Grow Home, and neither of
those are the games that I wouldexpect of City and to be making right.
But but it sounds like both ofthose are doing well. Like Grow
has a large player base, likewhich is awesome, And so I'm just

(45:25):
I'm really excited. I'm really likewhere that company has gone, especially with
like some of the more public troublesthat they've had over the years. Seeing
them just like now they're kind ofin this power position and they're just crushing
it. I'm I'm surprised that NewVegas has not gotten to rerelease yet now
that it is owned by Microsoft inall regards and Bethesda. Yeah, almost

(45:52):
bafflingly. So yeah, um,that'll probably end up being like a really
big remake and it'll probably lose allof the charm. Yeah, but yeah.
But yeah, So that was thatfor me, and like it almost
because like, had it seriously,had it not been like Dragons Dogma,
that probably would have been my mostexciting because like I just kept like really
going back, Yeah, Pantam,it just looks like a game that's gonna

(46:12):
like be something I get really into. I would say there were a lot
of very cool looking games that didn'tnecessarily strike enough of a chord with me.
Most of them were at the XboxConference and yeah, a lot of
right right. The thing is,I'm not really worried about following the development
on those games or putting a preorder or anything down because they're just gonna

(46:37):
show up on my xpots through gamePass. Yeah. What was the train
horror game? Um being chased downby the demonic Thomas the tank Engine?
Oh jeez, I cannot remember that. But yes, that game also is
another one I'm like really excited forand like I knew about it before uh
Summer games fast and everything, SoI can't qualify for most what the heck

(46:59):
is this? But that was like, that was a game I saw and
I was like, what, thislooks really silly, and then by the
end of that trailer, I waslike, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna
play this. This looks neat.So yeah, I don't know. There's
a lot of great stuff going onin games right now. Yeah, video
games are exciting. It's not justthis pac Man anymore. So it's come
along. Video games have come along way. Yeah. With that,

(47:20):
we'll be right back. Hey,do you want to answer some questions?
I would love to. Yeah,we got a couple of questions in here.
Today. Our first one comes fromfriend of the show, Mark Lentz,
who writes in Greetings and salutations,love the podcast in the Banter.
This question is for Fred and Mike. If you had to time travel back

(47:42):
and play any game for the firsttime, what would it be Your Our
options are Duke Newcombe, Land ofthe Babes. Thanks guys, and good
luck on the operation. I mean, I think we have to go back
in time and play Duke Nwcomb Landof the Babes. I've never played Duke
Nukem Land of the Babes. Idon't know that I knew that this was
a thing that I existed. Idid some independent research when this question came

(48:05):
in. Yeah, because I hadnever played it. Okay about it?
So okay. So the only thingI can really tell you about it is
how much I don't know about itand why that's interesting, which is to
say I played the appage Duke Nukemgames one, two, and three back
when they came out. I guessI played them a little after they came
out. I had like, nowwe're we talking about like the like the

(48:28):
side scrollers, Yes, okay,cool? Cool? The originals, Uh,
those are what I played and thenDuke Nucamb three D came out.
I was like, oh my goodness, right, oh my clouds, like
Bruce Campbell, Yeah, a hugelanemark moment in games at the time,
if it was huge, and it'swhy we, you know, talk about
it as much as we do.We're never completely unprompted. Uh. And
the thing is that, like Iplayed the heck out of Do Nucam three

(48:50):
D. I played. I playedevery version of it, not the Saturn
version. I never got around toit. That's what I really want to
especially because it's such an interesting port. And then Duke nukembe Forever was something
that was just talked about forever fromwhat like ninety eight to twenty twelve,
I think twelve um. And it'slike, so I forget that, like

(49:14):
a whole lot of Duke Nukem gamescame out between those times, but the
specter of Duke nukembe Forever just yeah, totally oversho and it overshadowed and like
a lot of what you know,It's like there's a lot of stuff out
there about Duke Nukem Forever that justlike still is getting talked about. And
how like the amount of like fingerpointing and where you should actually be pointing

(49:35):
your fingers is even a discussion.Yeah, that game just continued to be
just yeah, over over encompassing,and I mean like it's relevant again this
year with the leaks from the twothousand and one version of the games being
out on the internet, which Idefinitely haven't downloaded because that would be some
form of piracy. But I alsocouldn't get them running, So at some
point, at some point, Iwill have to take a look at the

(50:00):
that version of Duke Nukem forever.Yeah. Um so, Duke nukemb Planting
the Babes. It was a PSone game. Uh oh, it was
a PS one I believe, firstperson shooter three D Duke NUKEMBE game.
I just never played it. There'sbeen a bunch of like Duke NUKEMBE leaks.
Recently. There was a Matt mcmussell'sour friend did a video on gosh

(50:21):
what what was that? It wasa PSP Duke NUKEMBE game that never got
at least and a full leaked debugbuild of that game that is surprisingly content
filled is available to play now.So maybe, I don't know, maybe
there's a time we could come upwith and like explore some Duke must We
may not be able to go backin time, but we could still check

(50:44):
out Duke nukembe Land of the Babesfor the first time, and that's like
time traveling. Yeah yeah, umyeah, So good luck on the operation.
Our next question comes in from Abduel, who writes, are there any
lesser known indie games that you'd recommend? Boy? Howdye we? Yes?
Of course, Like I'm I've literallyonly written one game because otherwise we'd be

(51:07):
here all day. And quite frankly, I don't think either of us have
that kind of time. No,and but but I think that we should
try to find time on this andjust in our day to day to highlight
games that the indie games that arenot the colossal successes that some other indie
games end up being. Yes,absolutely, It's not that we have a

(51:29):
platform. It's just that, likethose games, there's a lot of good
games, and there are a lotof good games that are ever green good
games. I've got a couple ofgames that I have released to myself that
are like going to be the samegame in twenty years that people can play
and enjoy that way. Yeah,and I think that there are a lot
of those that just need to benot necessarily discovered, but just shown to

(51:51):
more people. Yeah, absolutely,so we should do that. Um the
first game that I've got written isit like it did fairly well for itself,
because for being a game that initiallyonly came out on h dot io.
Yeah, and that is mix Alumia, which is a hexagonal puzzle game
with a reactive music soundtrack or areactive soundtrack. That is a phenomenal game.

(52:17):
It's ten bucks on Steam and onItch. It might be on sale
this week. I'm not sure worthgoing looking up, I guess. And
that game is fantastic. It's gota bajillion color modes too, so that
way color blind people like myself canreally enjoy it. And it is the
kind of game that as you sitdown and play it, even if you're

(52:38):
having a hard time wrapping your headaround it, even just slamming down blocks
and hoping that they connect with oneanother is just like it ends up making
such cool musical patterns as you're playingthrough it that it's totally worth your time.
It's fantastic. I like which moregames did stuff like that? I
just miss games it's hard. No, it is, it's super hard.

(52:59):
Like games that do use music well, um, which there are tons these
days, are always games that tendto stand out to me more like it
is no surprise that like part ofthe reason why I love the games I
do is no one is in nopart do their soundtrack like yeah, like
Dragon No small part I should saysorry, yeah yeah, do their sound
track be the music conventionally good oryeah? Like you mentioned with Dragon Guard,

(53:21):
this bombarding nightmare is wildly unpleasant thingto have happened to your ears,
right, But that enhances the experienceof what's going on around you, or
at least informs the experience of what'sgoing on around you. Um yeah,
I don't know. That's really rad, what about you? My Big One
is a trilogy of games that areknown as the Pagan Trilogy by Oleander Garden.

(53:45):
The three names of the games arePagan Technopolis, Pagan Emporium, and
Pagan Autogenny, which are three gamesthat deal a lot with the I guess,
bodily autonomy and the exploration of beingtransgendered. Oh okay yeah, and

(54:07):
doing so in a very low fihorror game themed way. Only Andrew Garden
is a developer that is in partthat is largely a part of the low
fi PS one indie game scene,which if you're not familiar with, have
made, at least for me,in my opinion, some of the most

(54:30):
engaging, some of the most exciting, and some of the most transgressive horror
games, and honestly just games ingeneral that I have been playing over the
past few years. A lot ofthose games are raw and emotional and just
about just exploring these emotions, oftenin very passionate, violent, in loud

(54:53):
ways like these aren't games that Thesegames aren't just confrontational by their design,
and the Pagan games all explore thingsin different avenues. Is like the third
game and final game, and alsothe only one that costs money. Pagan
Autogeny takes place that can't be howthat's pronounced. It's auto g e n

(55:15):
y autogeny autogeny autogeny right, guessI don't know I've been saying autogeny.
It's it's a made up word,I'm sure, but or maybe it's not.
I don't know, but uh sorry, But the artifice of that game
is that you are a player thatis uh in a like lost dying MMO

(55:37):
in its last days. That soundsso cool. And there's a couple of
PS one PS one style games thatare coming out exploring that idea, because
there's a lot of old MMOs,especially ones that people have been playing,
that are going away, and thereis something special in haunting about being in
those games, and so the explorationof that and then also be being like

(56:00):
a player in one of these gamesand exploring something that's like kind of forbidden
right as the game is dying isinteresting and me, man, yeah,
I want to check that out.That's really good. It's it's they're they're
fascinated beautiful. Are the Steam orthey're doo? Actually I think the third
one is on Steam though, Um, but yeah, they're on itch dot

(56:21):
io. The first two are free. I think they're paying what you want.
I would highly recommend throwing money atthe developer. The third one was
a game is a game that Ijust I think about a lot um both
That is the Pagan series Paga NYes. I would search them specifically by
their names because there's a lot ofgames that have the word pagan in their

(56:42):
title. Um. Yeah, andit's like I think about those games a
lot especially as like a queer nonbinary person who deals a lot with the
like, oh God, like queerpurity, politics and that sort of stuff,
and so seeing a game that's like, forget all that, we're here
to be messy, We're here tobe messy and human, and you let's
go and just loud and screaming andlike, I'm not here to quietly ask

(57:05):
for my validity. I am hereto scream and shout it as though I
am, you know, a godcalling down the very thunder and lightning from
the heavens. What a hell ofa game for Pride Month. Yes,
yeah, that so I would highlyrecommend checking it out. It is an
incredible series of games. Are theyparticularly long? Fairly sure? No,

(57:27):
they're fairly short. That is whatI want, is yeah, I want
smaller games that take less time anddon't cost as much and are made by
fewer people. Yeah. Um Autogeny. Autogeny has like multiple endings, but
they're they're quick, you can blowthrough them. Okay, Um, yeah
another game on here that Yeah,it's a lesser. No, it's a
game that you and I have playeda lot. I don't think not on

(57:52):
here. I don't think we've evertalked about this game, but ever,
Risk of Rain. It's it's anMBA made by by two people, two
wonderful human beings. One of myfavorite games ever. Yeah, no joke.
Risk of Rain one, specifically talkingabout one is this very small,
very amazing roguelike game. It's aside scrolling platformer where you are continuously powering

(58:19):
yourself up by killing enemies, gettinggold and then getting Randoway dropped chests that
have all sorts of different effects thatcompile on you. And here's the thing.
Go play Risk of Brain one.You're gonna have such a good time.
Spend hundreds of hours playing that game. And then there's a game called
Risk of Rain two, which isthat game but in full three D as
a third person shooter that has noright to be as good as it is.

(58:44):
But I would so recommend playing theoriginal. First, get the original
and switch, and then get thesequel on some very powerful gaming console,
because as after you've played that gamefor an hour and you've leveled up and
there are crazy things happening around youall the time, your your frame rate
will just tank. And that's great. Yeah, And same for the two

(59:07):
D side scrolling version. You yourplay rate will still chug because of how
much you can get going so ridiculous. Maybe it's not a lesser known indie
game, but boy, it's oneof the best ones ever made and spectacular
and the music is incredible. Ijust bought the second game soundtrack. In

(59:27):
the second game's DLC soundtrack, HunsVinyl Love Love Love Love, christ Christopher
last name I cannot pronounce. Hismusic is so good in those games.
I don't know that it fits,but I am so glad it's playing while
I'm playing that game. Yeah,so, uh yeah. We got one
last question from crashkers. It says, what's the console slash handheld that you

(59:52):
have the most that you have themost in discovering their live Boy? Sorry,
uh, probably the half had themost fun discovering the library on,
but haven't had the time or energyto do so. The saga satur In
the Wonder Swan, Japanese Rhythm,Marcade, Arcade game Machines, or something
completely different. Do you want togo first on this one? Because I
feel like my joy pretty short,My answer is the saga Saturn. So

(01:00:15):
I got a Sega Saturn after theDreamcast was dead way and I got it
for like twenty bucks and started exploringits library of fairly inexpensive at the time
games uh and I loved that littleweird machine. And it died a very
fast death, of course, becauseit was a console that was announced and

(01:00:37):
released on the same day before retailersknew about it, before the games press
knew about it. Like it wassent to die in America. M But
in Japan it lived this very excitinglife. It was like the last of
the platforms that was doing weird andinventive things with their games before things got

(01:00:58):
fairly standardized, right, And alot of those games are Japanese only.
Thankfully there are passionate fans translating thosegames now and making them very accessible overseas.
But that system, I wish Ihad the time to play every single
game that I want to on thatsystem. Hell, there's a Police Knots
by Hideo Kajima. It's a gamethat I have still not had time to

(01:01:20):
play. But the Sega Saturn versionis apparently the best one, and that
was the one that the fan translationcame out. Yes, actually yeah,
I can corrobs someone who has playedthat version of the game. So the
Sega Saturn is that answer the arcadearcade machines are also totally a thing that
that in college I had downloaded asixteen gigabyte at the time was an astronomical

(01:01:40):
number amount of space of every arcaderam ever made, and just like strolling
through the list and picking a randomone and playing for a bit, so
much fun. I love arcade gamesfor that reason. Absolutely, What about
you? So I've got kind ofa two first since you mentioned arcade games.
So my number one is the Dreamcast. I think it's always going to

(01:02:04):
be the Dreamcast. That system isnot. And I'm going to have some
roastinted goggles on this because it wassomething that I discovered as a kid in
a period of my life where Iwas. I had just moved and I
was very alone, you know,and I moved away from a bunch of
friends. I didn't have a lotof things to do. I didn't really
know a lot of people yet.But I had this weird, little eggshell

(01:02:24):
white console with it's really, inhindsight, not that comfortable controller. Despite
how much I've defended it over theyears, that controller's fine. It's fine.
It's not fine, it's fine.The thumbstick is real bad and it's
horrible, but you know, butI had this game, and I had
an internet connection to play one veryspecial game in my heart, and I

(01:02:45):
had all these other games that Icould check out, and so the Dreamcast
for me was sort of this likeweird little lifeline of escape when I didn't
really have a lot going on,and so like, those games mean a
lot to meet. Those games continueto mean a lot to me. I
mean, like fantasy Star Online.You want to talk about a game that

(01:03:06):
like mechanically not ahead of its time, but like the fact that we had
an online console MMO in like nineteenninety nine, Yeah, that's ridiculous.
Yep, that we're playing over afifty six came out him like right,
like what yeah, like holy mollyou know, and people like, yeah,
but online games look so common.I'm like, well, okay,

(01:03:27):
yeah, but it was now nowlike because the Xbox is basically the Dreamcast
too, and went and Jack builtinto it right, right, because because
like you, you look at likeeverything that that the Xbox did to standardize
that, and it's a lot ofthem looking at the Dreamcast and going,
oh we can they had a coupleof good ideas we can read. Yeah,
they there's some good ideas here.Um, the Dreamcast library is another

(01:03:49):
one that waits stacked. It's stacked, and if you dip into Japanese games,
it's even you're stacked. But evenif you don't, I mean,
you have the Power Stone, youhave power don't you have Street Fighter three
Third Strike in like what was untilthe PS three version, the best version
of that game, the first Soulcaliber. You have role playing games like
Grand Radio, Grandios two, jetSet Radio like you know again, Fantasy

(01:04:14):
Start Online, Shoot You, RocketSpace Channel five, a c Man for
Better or Worse? Move Yeah,shen move for Better or Worse, which
like if we didn't have shed Move, we wouldn't have Yakasa, you know.
Like there are just so the thethe first Berserk game, which is
aged a little roughly, but withoutthat Berserk game, we wouldn't have gotten
the incredible Berserk game on PS two. Like there are so many games and

(01:04:39):
even like lesser known ones like forFighters, which are just these like weird,
quirky little games that exist, AlienFront Online, a little game called
rez Yeah Reiz, oh my god, yeah, like there, I mean
we didn't get it, but itcame out in Europe, and in Japan
exactly exactly. There were just somany games on that console that it just
like yeah, it just it justwas incredible. But like you were the

(01:05:02):
dream the Saturn was sent out todie, the Dreamcast had to fight the
unwinnable battle against a juggernaut. Andthen all the people people owned CD burners
and found right Way crack protection,like the unending march of technology, and
then Sony coming out with like probablythe most important home console of all time

(01:05:27):
since the Nintendo. I'm making aface. Sorry, yeah, ahead,
I don't agree with you, butI think I think what would you what
would you put it instead? Maybethe Xbox three sixty okay, but that
came after, Like yeah, butI'm talking about the Super Nintendo as well.
Like sure, but I think thethree sixty is actually more important to
modern games than PS two is Ithink. Okay, that's fair, but

(01:05:47):
still a very like the PS twowas this unassailable juggernaut, like for sure,
you know, it just lives likefour lives, that's four lives,
and no matter what anyone did,no matter what anyone came out with,
you just couldn't touch it, LikeHalo didn't give Microsoft, like and I
love it like I love the firsttime totally right, right, Halo didn't

(01:06:10):
touch the PS two. Yeah,and like even that as like absurd as
that sounds. So it's like thedream has just unfortunately died. Um.
Additionally, when I worked at asmall little mom and pop's game shop for
about a year or now, Iwas like, two years, Um,
we have this little console come in, this little rectangular, shiny silver brick
of a thing with two buttons anda little screen and a little micro switch

(01:06:32):
thumb stick. Sorry, I thoughtyou were talking about the UA for a
second. I was like, Oh, the UEA had some good games,
but I wouldn't have no. Butit was the Neo Geo Pocket Color,
one of the best systems ever made, really incredible, like a really neat
little thing, um, really funlittle bite sized games that managed to translate
simplifying but still managed to translate thefeeling of a lot of smk's greatest Um,

(01:06:56):
you know, And unfortunately I neverwound up owning one, and now
the prices are getting silly on them. Yeah. Um, someday I'm gonna
find a broken one somewhere and that'sgoing to be the version that I am
able to finally pick up. Yeah. Yeah, and it's like one of
those things where yeah, it wasit was like I remember like playing it,
like man, in another life,I would have been the weirdo that
was like, no, this isbetter than the GBA that game that system

(01:07:17):
had I think sixteen games. Yeah, like not a lot. I mean
one of the best two D Sonicgames. Yeah, for sure. It's
just what's there is ridiculously good.An amazing card fighter, an amazing fighting
game, like it has a versionof Capcom Versus SNK that kicks s.
Yeah, it's an SNK made CapcomVersus SNK game. Yeah. It's like

(01:07:40):
there's not a lot there, butwhat is there is really great, and
like it is something that Fred andI will joke about because for like a
year I wouldn't shut up about ituntil he was able to touch it and
corroborate with me that that little microswitch thumbstick might be like it's the best,
Like it's the best if you Ican't believe no one has made to

(01:08:00):
eat eating crazy, Like it wasone of those things that like I remember
picking up a switch being like isthis the time? And then I tilted
the thumbstick and just I just myheart dropped. Here's the thing that that
thing only works as a dpad replacement. It cannot analog replacement. You're I
saw some guys working on a recreationof the UM the homepad for the S

(01:08:27):
and K system, which has thecookie buttons. It's not the same thing.
But if those people just turn theirattention a little to the left,
they might find it. I mightfind it, and then it's right there.
Um. Yeah, so like thosethose are my two. Uh.
Like, I know, I geta little like quakey in the voice about
the Dreamcast, but like that isprobably I don't know, man, I
love that console. Go check itout. Yeah, ten out of ten

(01:08:48):
means a lot to me. Speakingof ten out of ten, Uh,
don't forget to like comment I'm badat transitions today. I was like good,
But that is going to bring usto the end of this week's episode.
If you want to write in andhave us wax cathartic about something you
love, you can do so byvisiting level select dot cool, by emailing

(01:09:13):
mail at level select dot cool,or by leaving a question in the Questions
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and hang out with us as wetalk about things that we're excited about.
Level Select dot cool. It isa small, book grown little community there.
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(01:09:33):
if you're listening, thank you guysfor making this like a fun little environment
for us to come and check it. It is one of the few discords
that I check into every day andI look at the people who've posted stuff
and I don't ever, like reallyget upset. Yeah, which is wonderful.
Also, we only took I thinklike two breaks this episodes. That

(01:09:55):
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We have to do advertisements or elsewe can't have our podcast hoster for
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(01:10:18):
outraust. Thank you to Toby Foxfor composing our lovely, wonderful theme song
Level Select. Again. I knowwe've said it before, and I'm gonna
keep saying it not a thing youhad to do, and forever we'll be
appreciative of that. I think that'sgoing to be for us from this week.
This has been Mike, this hasbeen Fred and yeah, thanks for
listening. We'll see you next week. Good bye. Do you want to

(01:10:51):
answer some questions? Do you wantto take that again and make it sound
like you're less exhausted by the ideaof answering questions on our podcast? Yeah,
that's her.