All Episodes

September 16, 2025 83 mins
This week we break down the massive Nintendo Direct, packed with major announcements including a Super Mario Galaxy series re-release, Mario Tennis Fever, Hades 2’s 1.0 release, a Dragon Quest VII remake, and the long-awaited release date for Metroid Prime 4 Beyond. Oh, and yes—the Virtual Boy is back in some form. Steam has added new restrictions after pressure from payment processors, now banning early access games with adult content. We discuss why this is another step toward broader video game censorship. Fortnite has introduced a big change to how players purchase V-Bucks, and it’s a consumer-friendly move we hope more publishers adopt. Meanwhile, Sega is caught in one of the strangest stories of the year—using the London Police Department to harass a random individual after their own corporate screw-up. We wrap up with a fun Post Office segment where we talk about our favorite video game side quests, along with our favorite video game books.
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
What is it? Verybody? Welcome to this week's episode of
the Dense Pixels podcast on your host Brad joined by
my host Kerrie What's Up? We are here to bring
you all the news this week. We're gonna get started
post haste with the largest Nintendo Direct by a lapse
time in the history of Nintendo Directs, which happened last week.

(00:38):
But before we do that, just a little bit of housekeeping.
Don't forget that you can join the discord to talk
with us and other listeners of the podcast by going
to densepixels dot com slash fans. If you want to
check out the show on YouTube, you just go to
YouTube dot com slash dense Pixels and subscribe there, And
of course you can also subscribe using the podcatcher app

(00:59):
of your choice if you for to listen with just
the audio version. To search for TNP Studios, you'll find
us as well as the other t NP studio shows
like The Nerd Pocalypse, Black of Black Cinema and You
Look Forward Political Podcast. And of course, if you'd like
to support us with zeal go to dnspixels dot com
slash Premium and contribute just five dollars a month towards
your favorite independent media podcast network because and look like

(01:26):
I understand that five dollars a month might be uh
hard to part ways with. Because Nintendo has quite a
bit coming the rest of this year and beyond, as
we found out with this new Nintendo direct. We had
a big, a big start with Shagara Miamoto himself to
help celebrate Mario's for well the supe Mario Brothers fortieth anniversary,

(01:50):
not necessarily Mary the characters fortieth anniversary. Correct, Yeah, with
with with quite a bit of news. First of all,
they announced the the upcoming Mario movie sequel is going
to be the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, or as I
saw on someone posts on social media, uh, the you

(02:11):
are mister Gay. Yes, which for those for those that
don't understand that, on the Super Mario Galaxy cover for
the game, Uh, the way that they had all the
words in the title, some of the letters had like
stars on them, a little sparkles on Yeah, it little
sparkles and if you just if you just use the

(02:33):
letters that were sparkled, it's felt out you are mister gay.
It was a very funny, funny two thousand and seven style.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Oh yeah, that was mid late auts humor for sure. Look,
I the only surprise that I have about this is
the fact that it has somehow been almost three years
since the Mario Brothers film first came out. Yeah, the
wise words smash mouth, the year's start and they don't

(03:01):
stop coming.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
It's I mean, I had that moment to this past
week when Borderlands four came out, because it was seven
years between Borderlands two and Borderlands three, and that felt
like forever in Borderlands time, and then like, I don't
there's nobody on earth that felt the same way. Like

(03:23):
when Borderlands four came out, They're like, oh, it's been
so long since Portlands three. It's been six years since
Borderlands three, so like literally almost the same amount of
time between the two games, and yet it feels just
the perception of time passing feels incredibly different between the two,
which is which is insane to me. So so yeah,
So that's coming out next year.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Very excited to hear some of the Mario Galaxy score
in the trailer, to actually hear you know, gusty Garden.
Galaxy is peak peak video game music. So I'm very
excited for that. I will certainly be there opening weekend,
I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
But on the game front, they shifted gears. So they're
coming out with a Mario Galaxy plus Super Mario Galaxy
two collection, which is coming out in just a couple
of weeks here in October. Second, this is a pretty
big deal because this is the first time that Mario
Galaxy two has been available outside of the Nintendo Switch,
outside of the Wii, right, that's what I started the Wii.
And of course, though Mario Galaxy is available on the

(04:26):
Switch you tit, you cannot technically buy it right now
unless you bought the three D All Stars pack. It
was available before it got Disney vaulted, uh by Nintendo.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
That's what this is, right, Is this then, bringing bringing
Galaxies out of the out of the Enda vault for each.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Or seventy if you buy both, if you buy a two.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Pack, I mean seventy dollars for both games, is I
think a perfectly fair price, you know, I I have
I have met any friends who consider the Mario Galaxy
games not simply the best Mario games in the franchise,
but some of the best games they've ever played. I
played the first Galaxy, I never played Galaxy two. I

(05:12):
think my personal aversion to Yoshi probably prevented me from
ever picking up Galaxy Too. More on him later.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
You know I would get upset, but I sure shit
slandered Sonic the Hedgehog enough on this podcast. I think
it's only fair that I'm not that.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yoshi.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, I just don't like him.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
I'm not saying anything bad about him. The thing is,
I know Yoshi games are generally good, Yoshi's story notwithstanding,
but ultimately I just don't like Yoshi as a character.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
I will tell you in a vacuum. I agree with
you as far as the price point seventy dollars being reasonable,
but it's also insane to be like, hey, here's two
games from two thousand and seven and twenty ten. Yeah,
we have it when we didn't really do anything to them,
like they're not like super remastered or anything like that.

(06:15):
Like I think they added some control modes and stuff
like that. But yeah, yeah, so but look, I'm gonna
fucking buy him because I'm that guy. So. I also
didn't play much of Galaxy Too. I did have it,
but I didn't play much of it. I did, I
did play through. I beat Galaxy. I don't know if
I got all the if I got all the stars,
but I definitely did beat the game for sure. So

(06:38):
we also have any Mario Tennis game coming Mario Tennis Fever.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I am baking Nintendo to let Camelot do something else,
anything else.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Well, No, there's one specific thing you want them to like.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I mean, I very specifically want them to be doing
Golden Son, but I would love for them to be
doing something not Mario's sports, Yeah, because that's really all
they've done for basically the last fifteen years. Now.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
I was a little let down by the tennis game
that came out on the Switch. It played well enough,
it is, Yeah, it played well enough with the sync,
but the like the campaign mode was weak. This looks
better at an initial glance, but this is one I'm
definitely gonna wait for reviews for. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
No, I had picked up ACES basically when it came
out because I was swayed by a lot of the
gameplay trailers and whatnot. And Aces is is fun, you know,
and you know, I believe you know, the most recent
golf game, which was also on the Switch, was also

(07:48):
you know, perfectly acceptable Mario Golf game. Marito Tennis Fever.
Big thing is the fever rackets, which allows you to
basically give of your character a specific kind of power,
like a firepower or something like that. I like the idea.
I love this whole, like, you know, the amount of

(08:10):
like customization that you can give any sort of like
combination of a character and a fever racket. I like
the idea. I hope the execution is good. And in
true Mario Sports game fashion, there is a single player
adventure mode, so.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
So looking forward to that, but again with a little
bit of us because you know, the problem, the problem
with the Tennis and the golf is that the game
Boy Advance games in those series were so fucking good
in terms of the single player because.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
They were early stuff like I would seed like the
game Boy Advance ones for sure, but also I love
game Boy Color Golf, game Boy Color Tennis, and then
N sixty four Golf in tennis as well.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, they put like very they basically put like full
fledged like RPG single player.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yes, those games, and they because Camelot is an RP
and we've we've just been chasing we've been chasing that
that dragon ever since and always being disappointed.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
So there is an upgrade coming to Super Mario Wonder
that is going to be an upgrade for the switch
to that will also have a new like mini game
collection that you can play with other players. Yoshi is
coming with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, which is a
new I guess like in the Wooly World, epic yarn

(09:31):
ish style gameplay.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, I really For as much as I don't care
for Yoshi, I really like the art direction.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
But that's the thing with those games amazing. But the
game like.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yoshi's Island, right, like the art direction in the first
the first one.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Like World two.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, okay, you know, I think the art direction in
the Yoshi games has always been very unique and stellar,
kind of across the board, like what there was another
there was a second Yoshi's Island, right there was that

(10:22):
that game like like that game was DS yes, yeah, yeah, yep.
But again the art style was good.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
I mean the games have always looked really good. But
they I mean they they definitely cater to a younger
audience in terms of the game play. Yeah, so which
is which has always been kind of letdown with that.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
I think ultimately, like I misdirect my hatred at Yoshi
when what I should be doing is directing it at
baby Mario.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yes, that is correct, the star of the single player
road in the new Mariot Tennis game, by the way,
a baby of all the characters. So we'll see how
that factor.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
We get baby baby Walluigi for the first time.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Baby are So it's gonna be It's gonna be cool.
So that was that was like the Mario stuff, the
big hitters. Through the rest of the presentation, there's a well,
a lot of people are really into Tomadacci life.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, I'm not one of them.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
I mean, nor am I, but there's a lot of
people who do care about these things that are very
excited about a new one coming out. There is even
called pop ucom that's been on PC for a little
while that I've heard some buzz about. It's a multiplayer
only platforming game, and that's coming out the Switch as well. Uh,
Final Fantasy seven remake Integrade is coming to the Switch

(11:50):
as well, probably gonna take up like a yeah, I
would I would imagine.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
More exciting than Final Fantasy seven. Dragon Quest seven, Yeah,
getting a remaster remake, which is which is very cool.
You know. Dragon Quest seven, I feel like is frequently
overlooked in favor of its far more popular, uh next
entry like DQ eight.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Is I think the more that was Dragon Quest eight.
Did it have enhanced popularity because it came with the
Final Fantasy twelve demo? If that's a great question in
the West in Japan, it's yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
What, I I don't. I don't really know how to
respond to that because that game came out in like
two thousand and five in the United States, and I
was not super into dragon Quest, nor was I super
into Final Fantasy at that time, So I am not
the best person to ask about that. But you know,

(12:58):
I think it's really cool they're doing it in the
dragon Quest eleven style. It is a complete remake, so
I'm I'm looking forward to that. I think that's an
interesting choice from the greater dragon Quest portfolio for.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Those three those remasters must be doing pretty well if
they're getting them out there in such a well.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
This The difference with this, of course, is the fact
so d Q one and two, which is about to
come out, and because Dragon Quest three came out already,
that was done in the h D two D style,
which is much easier and faster to just sort of
like get that out and I believe they're also doing
like a triple pack that it like they're calling the

(13:43):
Urdic Chronicles or some shit like that of one, two
and three, and I might pick that up for myself.
But the difference with seven is that because seven is
in the like modern like it is clearly running on
the dragon Quest eleven engine and is a complete, like

(14:03):
three D remake of something that was like a two
DPS one game. I have to wonder how long was
spent on this because it's it had to have been
extensive compared to the one, two and three h D
two D stuff. So yeah, look, dragon Quest in the
United States is very much like the you know, redheaded

(14:27):
step child of the Square Enix family compared to Final
Fantasy and even smaller series. But I think it's I
think it's really cool that they're doing this with again
with seven of all games and to uh hopefully hopefully
more people will play it because Dragon Quest is good,
Like they're hard, but but they're fun.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
So super giant apparently trying to cause panic and strife
to gamers everywhere.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Fuck up my life.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, they announced that Hades two's one point zero release
is coming September twenty fifth, of course it's available on PC.
It's been available on Early Access, but it will be
available for the Switch too as well.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Wait keeping in mind that it will remain digital only
until November, so if you're waiting on a physical release,
you are going to have to wait until November twentieth.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
But and it's a switch to console exclusive at least
for now. I would imagine it will eventually come to
PlayStation Xbox later.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yes, But the other thing is that you will be
able to do cross progression in terms of your save
which is great for me because I have how many
hours do I have in Hades two at this point
forty three hours eighties two.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
That's pretty good. Yeah, well, it's stressful for you for
different reasons.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Than it's it is for reasons. I mean, it was
very fortuitous of us to start a dedicated Haites cover band,
and then our first album came out at the very
end of twenty twenty three, and then like six weeks
after that album came out, Super Giant announced Haites two.

(16:21):
So pretty immediately people started asking us when we were
going to start doing Haites two material, and we still
haven't done any because we've still been trying to finish
Haities one material, but we have another EP of probably
most of the rest of our Haites one material that

(16:41):
we want to do. Hopefully that'll be out by the
end of the year, and then after we're done with
that EP, then we will move into Haites two material.
So next year, musically speaking, all I'm going to be
working on is haighties to with a premium vintage. So

(17:03):
I am simultaneously looking forward to it and going, oh
my god, I wish they could have waited until like January.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
For most people that are playing Holidaight, they're very stressed
out because now they have like a timetable that they
need to wrap up Silk Song, which itself is a
pretty robust game. And uh, I guess fuck all the
other indie publishers out there, because like that's the end
of this year is gonna be dominated by those two games.
So game game of the Year is gonna be sick
this year. It's gonna be very interesting to see how

(17:33):
that shakes out. Higher Warriors Age of Imprisonment gets a
release date for November the sixth, so that'll be available
playing that quite soon. Uh. Then we got the most
out of left field bizarre announcement of the entire show,
and that is that Virtual Boy Classics are coming next

(17:58):
February to the Nintendo Switch to and in order to
play them, you have to either purchase in order.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
To play them with the stereoscopic three D effect.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Are you sure? Because they said to play it, you
have to get these things during the no.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
So in order to play them to truly emulate the
Virtual Boy experience, you can either get you have to
get one of two versions of like the headset that
you put the switch in and like put your face
on it, and that'll provide the stereoscopic three D effect

(18:42):
that the original Virtual Boy did some thirty five years
ago whenever the fuck that came out. So, uh, you
you should still be able to play them without the
three D effect.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
That but has that been confirmed because that they did not.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
I did not make sure that it's been confirmed.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Okay, I mean there's no reason you can't because they
literally showed the games during the presentation, not in three years,
so like like logically.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Obviously they're they're trying to get you on the upsell
of a novelty headset that looks like the older Virtual Boy, which.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
By the way, like that thing you know when when
they should. So again that the headset that Carrie is
talking about, it is literally like a carbon copy of
what the Virtual Boy looked like, with the exception of
the fact that the top of the headset opens so
that you can literally dock your switch inside it and
then so that you can play the games. The other
one is like a Nintendo Labbo like cardboard version of

(19:44):
the headset, which I would imagine most people are probably
going to go in for because that's only twenty five
bucks compared to the ward that the that the Big Guy.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, four games already confirmed. I mean that's two games.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
It's more.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's more than half. It's more than half. So yeah,
including Jack Bros. Which has the distinction of being the
very first shin mcgammi tensing game effort to be ported
to the United States in any capacity. Look, I'm not
mad at this, No.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
It is. It's a cool thing. I'm glad Nintendo has
stopped being embarrassed by the failure of the Virtual Boy.
And look, the Virtual Boy. Is it a good system?

Speaker 2 (20:34):
No?

Speaker 1 (20:34):
It is not? Is it? Does it? Like? Are some
of the games still like okay? Like yeah, like marios
On there's fun Telearra Boxer's Fun, Mario land On. There
is fun tetrisphere I think or whatever the Tetris version is,
I can't remember what it's calling.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Jack Bros. Was good, Like there's for for a system
that only ever had twenty two total games. Yeah, eight
of which were Japan exclusive, which is probably why the
total number for the US release is fourteen. So look,

(21:17):
was it a good system? No? Did it still somehow
have some mostly quality games on it? Like?

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah? Yeah? The problem the problem that console was the hardware,
not the software specifically.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
No, the folks who actually chose to develop for the
Virtual Boy actually like really made the most of what
that system did have to offer at the time, So
you know, I'm I'm not mad about it.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah, And weirdly, the joy conns also work well as
a Virtual Boy controller because the Virtual Boy controller was
super weird because it had two deep ads on it. Yeah,
it was. It was a strange artifact of time, especially
for a console whose most people's experience with it was
playing in it editoids r us So Yeah. Metroc Prime

(22:05):
four finally gets a release date December fourth, that is
indeed coming out this year. They showed off a section
of the game where Samus has a motorcycle of some kind,
which is which would suggest that there might be some
open ish areas that you can ride around in in

(22:27):
the game.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
The working theory that I've heard the most of which
I'm inclined to believe, is more than likely. The case
is that there will likely be a hub world and
that the bike used to traverse between sort of the
individual leveled regions and more like, will not be used

(22:53):
in combat or anything like that. But I don't understand
why there are so many people seemingly pissed off about
the fact that Samus has a bike. Like It's cool.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, not like, not far fetched for the for the
fiction like it's it's certainly no no, but no more
bizarre than Link having a motorcycle in the Breath of
the Wild, which you can unlock in the with the expansion. So,
speaking of Metroid With with the way you get this announcement,

(23:26):
I finally motivated me to get off my ass and
play a game that I have never played. Somehow, somehow
that's passed me by a little indie title you may
have heard of it called Metroid Prime one which came
which came out on the I'm playing, I'm playing it.
I'm playing the remastered version on the switch to it
was really good, like it's it's it's. I had not

(23:49):
played a three D Metroid game since Prime three came
out way back in you know, two thousand and eight,
whenever whenever that released, so I I forgot how much
fun those three D Metro games are. And once I
finish this, I may even try to beat or play Prime,
to which I'd have to probably emulate because the Attended,
for some reason, will not release a remastered version of

(24:12):
Prime too, even though rumor has it it's in the
can and able to be put out whenever.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
So so I also have not played Metroid Prime because
I'm not the biggest fan of Metroid. The most Prime
that I ever played was playing through like half of

(24:40):
Metroid Prime Hunters on the original DS.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Not the one, not the one to not it, that's
not it.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
No, but uh, I'm I'm happy for everyone who's been
a big Metroid fan for a long time waiting for
four because I think I think it looks good. I
think it looks like more Metroid Prime s does.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Donkey Kong Bonanza got a new DLC that is available
called DK Island and Emerald Rush. Dk Island is exactly
what you think it is. It's a DK Island themed
zone that you can explore and collect things in, and
then the Emerald Rush mode is kind of like a
run based mode that re reconfigures the existing levels and

(25:31):
puts you on like a timed run where you're trying
to collect Emeralds, and based on how well you do,
you'll get like power ups and stuff like that that
you can unlock different collectibles in the game and things
of that nature. It's an expensive twenty bucks for what
it is.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
But yeah, it's like twenty Yeah. Inflation is a bitch,
isn't it. It's like I probably would have gone with
like maybe twelve or fifteen or something. Yeah, for me,
I feel very satisfied with how I like I finished
the main story of Bonanza. I did a little bit

(26:07):
of the post game content did really super appeal to
me personally. This might be something where maybe six months
from now I have the itch to return to Bonanza
and maybe I pick it up. Then the other thing
that I kind of half expect to happen with this
is in another year or so. Wouldn't surprise me to
see this, DLC hit the Switch Online Expansion Pass as

(26:29):
a freebie, so I'm kind of keeping my fingers crossed
that that happens, because I don't want to pay twenty
bucks for something that I don't think is going to
add a lot of value for me personally.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
I am. I'm also going to wait and see on it,
because again, like for what it is, it seems like
twenty bucks might be a little high, and plus I've
got enough shit to play now in upcoming so I
could certainly afford to a little bit. We got, Yeah, Pokemon,
we got a surprise trailer for a game called Pokemon
po Coke Copia.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
I am so excited for this. It is the first
life sim in the Pokemon franchise, and you play as
a Ditto that takes on a human ish appearance, and
then you help Pokemon and you build up this little island.

(27:18):
And I'm going to put a lot of time into
a game like this because I've been a Pokemon fan
for the last twenty seven years.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
A lot of people are discribing like like an animal
crossing style game in the Pokemon universe of sorts, so
it could be really cool. I'm sure it's going to
be insanely popular when it does release, and they also
announced the first expansion for Pokemon Z to A, a
game which is not yet released.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah. No, I want to poke into the discord real quick,
because we did get a post office question from beach
a boy. It's his second question, we'll go back to
his first one, but he said, what the fuck game
freak Nintendo? They decided to put out the paywall before
we've even gotten a chance to play the new Pokemon game.

(28:13):
What are y'all's thoughts? My thought is that this seems
very in line with the rest of the industry right now.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
They're certainly not.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Ultimately, No, I it's it's one of these things of
like one the last two generations of Pokemon have had
dedicated DLC come out after the game, right, So like
we saw it with Scarlet and Violet, we saw it

(28:43):
with Sword and Shield. So I'm deeply unsurprised that Legend
z A would have an expansion to it. What we
do know is that off the because a lot of
people are assuming, oh, this is a day one DLC,
and technically speaking, yeah, but not in the way that

(29:08):
you think you can buy it day one. It's like
twenty bucks, and if you buy it day one, it
unlocks extra like cosmetics for your player character. But the
actual expansion content is not due out until like February,
so there's no rush to get this. The only benefit

(29:29):
is if you really want whatever like outfit, it gives
your trainer. So it's just I feel very whatever about it.
Like it it again, it's very in line with the
rest of the industry. I don't see this as being
any different from like a Battle Pass being announced or

(29:52):
anything else like that. It's just it is new for
the Pokemon Company to do it, but it's very it's
very in line with the rest of the industry right now. Yeah,
and it's not like they're locking like there's no Day
one there's no significant Day one content being locked behind
in extra twenty bucks. You can wait. You can wait

(30:15):
until probably the middle of February to even think about this. Well,
and I look at it.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
The way that I look at it too, is like
how many games come out with you know, the game
comes out and you can buy like a you know,
you can al survive the season pass and yeah, the
season pass, So you're literally buying future DLC content that
hasn't been officially announced or released yet, but you're but
you know it's coming, so you're buying in advance. I
kind of look at it the same way. Here. The
biggest thing with DLC and we're I've kind of landed

(30:43):
on expansion content, not micro transactions, that's a different thing.
But with expansion content, as long as the game, like,
as long as it doesn't feel like cut content from
the game that they then decided to repackage to you, Like,
I'm mostly okay with it. Like, if you're offering something
new that's apart from the main thrust of the game,
that's additional content, that sure, do whatever you want, but

(31:06):
if it looks like that, you literally like, like the
most famous example of this was when Assassin's Creed I
want to say It's Brotherhood came out and there's literally
like you literally skip the ninth and tenth chapters of
the game during the main game, and it's like and
the explanation was like, oh, there's like a gap in

(31:28):
the memory memory banks in the DNA like in the animus,
and so that's why I skipped ahead in time. And
then they literally went back and sold those two missions
to you later as DLC for the like, that's obviously
cut content. This what they showed for the Pukemont thing
is not what I would classify as cut content, So
I generally don't have a problem with it, but it

(31:48):
is kind of bold to be like, Hey, this game's
not even out for three months, but by the way,
here's here's the first DLC pact, which will be shortly thereafter.
So Carrie does get a date for her Monster Hunter
Stories three, which is coming out on March thirteenth next year.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, and then very excited for that.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
The big, the big, one last thing, Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave,
a new Fire Emblem game is coming out in twenty
twenty six, with a teaser shown and not much beyond that.
So far so but very exciting news for those of
you who are big fans of Fire Emblem.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
I didn't play Three Houses. I might, I might pick
this up. Yeah, I got. I got a real sour
on Fire Emblem. And I'm speaking of someone who like
played the fuck out of the Game Boy Advance games.
I really like the Game Boy Advanced titles. I really like,
you know, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, those early

(32:55):
crop of games that came over to the United States.
When Nintendo finally decided to bring fire Emblem to the
US after putting the first six games out as Japan exclusives,
I really felt like because I really liked Awakening, and
I feel like they learned all the wrong lessons from

(33:15):
Awakening and they leaned way too hard into anime bullshit
in uh Fates and Fates really soured me on that franchise,
so I have not gone back since playing through Fates.
So well, we'll see, I'm taking I'm very much taking

(33:38):
away and see approach to Fortune's weave because in my mind,
like three Houses still had a little too much of
the anime bullshit.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
I mean I think I think they've only gotten I
mean it's it's literally like and I you know, Firelmans
have always kind of been this way, but really it
is like you spend a lot of time doing the
relationship building part of the game, and then you go
fight or three and then and then go back and
do it again. Not only have I talked on the
show about how turn based tactical strategy games are generally

(34:13):
not for me, but the bullshit in between is especially
not for me. So I know I know that I
will not be checking out fire on them, but I'm
sure that there are a lot of you out there.
He will, and I am happy for you that you're
finally getting SQL because, from what I understand, Engage was
kind of me when it came out a couple of

(34:33):
years ago.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
So fuckingv tuber bullshit.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Yeah, so I think people have been waiting for a
true sequel to Three Houses, which hopefully this will end
up being for them. So that was the direct quite
a big presentation. There is other news this week, some good,
some bad. Start with a bit of bad news. We've

(34:57):
been talking for the last couple of weeks about how
payment processors have engaged in what amounts to censorship in
some corners of the video game industry by threatening marketplaces
to deny use of their services unless they bar specific
content from showing up in their stores. Of course, they

(35:22):
fired their first salvo at adult oriented games, you know,
citing games that have like a lot of pornography and
stuff like that, because that's what you do. You go
after like the obvious targets, so that people who can't
see further than ten minutes down the road, you know, say, oh, well,
I guess that's reasonable. Not realizing that it is the
first step down a slippery slope. And we've seen the

(35:46):
next thing pop up in this experience as well, because
now Valve has to deny early access capabilities for games
that have mature content. The rationale being that because games
that are in early access tend to get frequent content updates,
they will get updates put out faster than Valve is

(36:09):
able to review them and classify them, and so it
increases the risk of something slipping onto the store that
would be unbecoming of payment processors. And I do want
to point out something that's a point that's made in
this euro game or article that we have linked. If

(36:31):
this policy had been applied in the past, Balder's Gate
three could not have been early access on Steam.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
No, like balders Gate three has sex scenes, balders Kate
three has the ability to customize your character's genitalia. Like
this whole thing. I freacking hate the world that we
live I despise.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
The world that we live in. I mean this especially
only gotten way worse in the past week thanks to
the reaction to specific events from one side the political spectrum.
Yeah this I mean, and and the irony here is
like as I'm talking about that the only way that
you can bring these payment processors to heal is through

(37:25):
your elected officials. But the problem is is that these
same payment industries are throwing vast sums of money at
your elected officials and lobbying them to make sure that
they keep regulation as far away from are as limited
as they possibly can. But if you're gonna do it,
I I I definitely would recommend kind of going down

(37:49):
the free speech angle, because that's what this is. Like
this this is just point blank censorship by payment processors.
It's it's moralizing like that sort of thing like, and that's.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
It's puritanical bullshit, is what it boils down to. Like,
you know, there's plenty to be said about you know,
pornography and certain types of pornography, and you know, obviously
certain types of pornography are outright illegal, but there are

(38:21):
other types of pornography where it's like it's not illegal,
but it's not for everybody, right Like, But just because
it's not for everybody doesn't mean that it's illegal or
like morally incorrect or something like that. So it's just
very frustrating to see shit like this continued to go

(38:44):
on and like there there's been other things recently where
it's like anything that could be considered fantasy is somehow
being labeled as adult content. So like you're gonna sit
here and tell me that like final Fantasy for is

(39:06):
now an adult right, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Like the thing that gets me about it is like,
like I don't even understand the justification for payment providers
because like when when you buy a product or somebody
from somebody, and you find that product objectionable, you may
direct IYR towards the maker of that product. You may
direct IR towards the towards the seller of that product

(39:33):
for carrying it. I have never once ever heard someone
point at something that they find objectable be like, well,
I can't believe that Visa would allow this they think
to be purchased through there, Like because because commerce and
and and apps like you are not apps, but like
payment processors like Visa mastercrests like that are so like

(39:54):
interwoven in the fabric of society, especially now with with
you know the fact that online commerce is basically the
vast majority of commerce that takes place all around the world,
Like you almost have to treat them, And I feel
the same way about this, as I do about like
access to the internet in general, these should arguably be

(40:15):
like utilities like they shouldn't be you know, private corporations
who are there to make profit, like they should be
treated like utility companies are treated who provides you with
gas and electric and water and stuff like that, because
there's such an integral part of the social fabric that
being able to use them in this way to bar
access to certain video games and things like that is

(40:38):
actually against the public's interests to do so. So, like
I wish, I wish someone could have that galaxy brain
conversation with somebody with the elected officials that potentially have
the power to make this happen. And look this certainly
like you're certainly not going to make any headway with
this in the United States, but hopefully maybe you can

(40:59):
find some.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
More worst part about this is this even start within
the US. It started from fucking Australia.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Of course, like already a restrictive you know, like an
overly restrictive society when it's when it comes to like
content and and you know in games and stuff like that,
they always have been. But maybe somewhere in Europe someone
could make some headway to get a European government body
to crack down on these because if they do it there,

(41:25):
then that kind of gives up the game for everybody
else at the end of the day. So if you're
in a country that you know you could make some
ways with this, I would implore you to reach out
to your elected officials and see and make them aware
that censorship is happening by payment providers and they should
probably do something about that because that's generally not great.

(41:48):
And Olivia live in the US. Just continue holding on
for dear life, because that's about all we can do
right now. In the wake of fashion. It's not often
that I get to do this on this show, but
buy gum, We're gonna do it anyway. I'm gonna level
some praise at Epic Games and Fortnite for a decision

(42:11):
that they made recently that it's insane that it took
this long to reach this decision, and I sincerely hope
that the fact that they're doing it means other other
live service games will follow suit. So most people are
aware that the reason why, especially like live service games

(42:32):
that have micro transactions create their own currencies that you
buy in the game is it allows them to set
the prices of the items that you buy to be
in contention with the quantities that you can buy the
currency in. So if you ever notice, like when you
play like a like a Fortnite or something, or like

(42:52):
an Apex legends, usually you can buy the you know,
buy the currency in like five, ten, twenty fifty increments,
right like nice round numbers. But all of the skins
that you can buy with the currency, when you break
down the dollar equivalent, are like three dollars, seven dollars,
you know, twelve dollars. Like it like, it never lines

(43:13):
up perfectly. And the reason that they do that is
because they always tell you more currency than you need
so that when you then you'll always have a balance leftover,
so that when you then go to buy the next thing,
you need to buy more currency to be able to
have enough to afford it. But of course it's never
in the amount that you need. So like that cycle
kind of perpetuates itself because people psychologically don't like seeing that,

(43:34):
you know, they have this money there that they can spend,
but there's nothing to spend it on, so they have
to top it off. So what Fortnite has done is
now they have made put the ability in place that
if you want to buy a skin or something else
that's in the Fortnite shop and you don't have enough
v bucks, there's now an option in the game that

(43:55):
lets you basically top up your account so that you're
only purchasing the amount of the E bucks that you
actually need in order to complete the purchase of the
item that you're trying to buy. How has this not
been implemented before Fortnite in the year of Vishnu twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Five, I don't know. I mean, obviously there's there's a
greater incentivization for them to be like, Okay, well, the
minimum amount is a thousand B bucks, and even if
you only need five hundred, you have to buy a
thousand to get the five hundred that you need, and
then you're going to have, you know, five hundred left over,

(44:36):
and then that won't be enough to get anything, so
you're going to have to buy another thousand. Right. So
it's just a matter of them squeezing kids for their
allowance money, right, more so than anything else. But it
is nice that, you know, God, it only took however
many years for them to be like Okay, well this

(44:57):
is this is how we're going to start doing this,
probably because the dollars are starting to trickle off the
other side of the plateau.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
I didn't pay attention to the last time they released
quarterly earnings, but I would be. I would be curious
to see how Fortnite is doing year over year. Yeah,
I mean it's it's still probably doing better than like
any other game.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
No, probably, but you know, I think I think there's
probably a greater incentive for them to offer an exact
amount now. And obviously there's still the incentive of well,
just spend like you will give you a bonus amount
if you spend more money, and then you'll have that
much extra. But if they're starting to get hung up

(45:48):
on kids who you know, or players, I should say,
b lesbeirals, mostly kids walling Fortnite who only have so
much and then can't forward, you know, whatever the previous
minimum was, where it's like, okay, just give us a
buck then, right, Like that's an easier ask for sure,

(46:09):
going to his parents saying hey, can I have like
can I spend a dollar? And then to spend ten
bucks on v Bucks And I'm.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Sure they have data where they can see like how
many like how many player accounts are carrying like existing
low dollar v buck balances, and how long those balances
have been there. And I mean, you're right, like giving
them this option really just incentivizes you to spend that money,
like gives you reason to come back and spend the money.

(46:36):
So I'm sure this will be helpful for them as well.
But this is just a logical fucking thing. And again
maybe it's the next step towards the absolute logical endgame
of this. Stop making up fake fucking currencies that you
can buy with real money. Just put dollar amounts on
the fucking on the fucking items that you're trying to sell.

(46:57):
But you can't do that because people rationalize it differently,
Like it's different when you're looking at spending fifteen dollars
on something versus you know, fucking twenty five thousand digerido
dollars that you know that that don't have a real
qualitative effect in your mind. So that's why it's done.
It's purely a psychological process to obscure the actual cost

(47:19):
of what you're buying. So so we'll probably never get
actual dollar bounds. But this is a nice This is
a nice step, and I hope that other I hope
that other game publishers follow a suit now as well. Yeah,
the last news story is kind of a bizarre fucking
story that comes to us from the UK that involves

(47:40):
Sega of Europe. Now, so what happened here is so
Sega of Europe had a office in this business park
in London somewhere, right, and basically when they left the office,
they left behind stuff that they didn't want to bring

(48:00):
with them to the new to the new office because
they're like, well, why are we going to haul stuff
that and and store stuff that we don't fucking need anymore,
So they just kind of left it behind in this
old office, right, And so he basically so there's this
dude that worked at a scrap yard and this guy
came one of the workers who like cleaned up the

(48:21):
old Sega office because I guess a new tenant is
getting ready to move in. Had all this equipment that
came from the old office, including like Nintendo Development kits
ahead first for like for like you know, game Boy
Advance and three DS and we and we you and
and and ship like that, right, and also prototype games

(48:45):
from like Sonic Canicles and Sonic Generations and Fantasy Stars
zero and some other ship like that.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
Sole remains I think the single weirdest entry in the
Sonic Canon, and.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Maybe maybe by BioWare by the way, yes Man, go figure.
So now the thing with deaf kids, for those that
don't realize, is publisher developers. Publisher purchased these kits from
a publisher like Nintendo, right, But even though you're purchasing

(49:18):
a development kit from Nintendo, Nintendo still technically owns the
development kit, so you're really just leasing it from them
and Nintendo when when you're done with it, expects to
get that development kit back. Essentially, is how it works,
because you know, development kits are much easier to crack.

(49:40):
They're not fining these hardware, so they're proprietary and and
all sorts of shit like that. So this dude that
works at the scrapyard saw this ship, knows what it is,
and he bought it from the worker for something like
ten pounds, like a lot of fucking money because he
knew what he had, Like he had a lot of
rare a lot of rare stuff that he knew, uh

(50:03):
was superare. So somewhere along the lines. Sega of Europe
realized they fucked up and realized that the that these
development kits and prototypes and all this, all these things
were in the hands of this dude. I guess. They
tracked down the salvage company and the worker there told

(50:24):
them that, hey, I told him this guy that works
in the scrapyard or whatever. Yeah, And so what happened
is this past July, police raided this guy's house and
arrested him for money laundering and basically not what he

(50:45):
was doing, right because basically, I guess Sega told the
police that this guy was like in possession of stuff
that he illegally got access to, and so he had
committed a crime and they need to you know, get
these back and confscate because they realized like if this

(51:05):
dude like put these out on the internet and fucking
sold them like Nintendo was gonna come knocking on their
door and be like, hey, what the fuck, Like why
did you because they can trace that shit back like
everything serial remember, Yeah, and so this guy was like
what the fuck and and and was rightfully like agast
at this. And then later after that, Sega had the

(51:29):
police go to this guy to ask him to sign
like a formal disclaimer that basically says that, like, hey, like,
you're gonna relinquish ownership of these and you know that
that oh, you fairly obtained the consoles, and but but
this way we don't have to charge you. And he
basically told the police to fucking kick rocks.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Yeah yeah, So he refused to sign the disclaimer, which
is the appropriate thing, because he didn't he didn't do
anything wrong. You know, I have in my home things
that were purchased out of uh an auction of things

(52:15):
that were left behind inside the Old Owings Mills mall.
And if fucking Wizards of the Coast sent the police
to myhere, I mean, here's the thing. It's like, I
like that company left behind shit. I bought the store

(52:37):
lot I wanted. Those things are now legally mine because
they relinquished them. They had the opportunity to claim such items.
They did not claim such items. Therefore, those items are forfeit. Now.
I am not going to sit here and claim to
be a legal expert, especially when it comes to ship

(53:00):
in Europe, having never been to Europe, but I have
to imagine the same principle generally applies, is that if
you vacate premises a certain amount of time probably has
to elapse and then anything that is left behind is
then forfeit. Yeah, so that's what happened with Sega here.

(53:20):
But Sega done did a fuck up, and uh.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Well, it's one thing if they had come to the
guy and been like, look, like we understand you have
these things. We fucked up obviously we left them behind.
Hey we heard you paid for them, Like, let us
reimburse you for what you pay so we could like
collect this stuff back Like that would be one.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
But the cops accusaey right on bullshit.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Like I sincerely hope that this dude sues the living
piss out of out of the London PD and Sega
for for this violation of his civil liberties because holy shit,
like what what a just a fucked up idiotic thing
to do by Sega. And I hope the fact that
this story has kind of surfaced and and made the

(54:06):
rounds really does cal them into, uh into doing the
right thing in this situation, because like it like it's
even if this guy doesn't like end up going to jail,
which he's not going to, I think the police have
seen now that like there's nothing to charge with. He's
still out fucking ten grand supposedly for this stuff, for
for doing something that he had no reason to believe

(54:28):
was was improper, right, Like, there's there's nothing that he
could have foreseen and been like, oh no, I shouldn't
have these things, Like no, like they left them behind.
They must not need them. They must be free game.
This dude hasn't gonna pay for him. And and again,
what is he what was he gonna do with them?
I've got no fucking idea, does it? And but it
also doesn't really fucking matter. If he wanted to sell
him on eBay, he's within his rights. If he wanted

(54:48):
to preserve them, he's within his rights. Like like Sega
was being completely stupid here. And I do hope that
they suffer some level of consequence for they did to
this company. So absolutely, that'll do it for the news.
Let us take it into the Dence Pixel's post office.

(55:10):
Don't forget. You can ask us questions that we will
answer on the show every week by going to dince
pixels dot com. Slash fans. Let's see here, we have
to go back a couple of weeks because we've been
Darrel looked here Let's start with Jamal, who asked, what
is the wackiest or most fun side quests that you
have done in a video game? I was recently reminded

(55:33):
of the AI cleaning Mechanics side quest and Like a
Dragon Infinite Wealth on another podcast That may ring a
bell for Micah because he has played those games. Micah
is not here this week. Most fun side.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Quests, I mean, it's not wacky, but like, my favorite
side quests that I immediately think of are like the
Dark Brotherhood side quests in the Elder Scrolls games, because
those are generally like well written and frequently more compelling
than the main quest.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
So here's the question, because I know what my answer is,
but I don't know if my answer qualifies under a cydquist.
Does does DLC expansion content count as a side quest
or is it? Or are we literally just talking about
like side things that you can do, because in that case,
I don't even know if like the Dark like the

(56:24):
quest lines in Elder Scrolls games would would count as well,
because I don't I don't consider those like.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Try I mean, I would consider it like optional optional
content that does not have any impact on the main story.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
I think, well, then I'm going with later in the
Shadow Brooker damn it mass effect too. That's that's my choice,
even though that was a whole ass dlc uh oh.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
I also like the one in New Vegas where you
go to the uh what is it? It's the museum
the rocket Rocket Launch is full of full of ghouls
and then you find like this cult of Gules and

(57:08):
then one guy who isn't a ghoul but thinks he's
a ghoul because he has like male pattern baldness. He's like,
I'm hideous, and I'm just like, you're a regular dude man,
and then he feels taken advantage of. So what you
can do is you can fuck up the rockets and
then like Flight of the Valkyries plays, and then the
rockets just like explode and then it's like quest complete.

(57:29):
I'm like, all right, hell yeah, sick my.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
You know what, I thought of another one? I thought
of another one that works, and this is from Starfield.
Of all games, believe it or not, it might be
the best quality about the game. The Mantis side quest
uh Starfield in Starfield. So so in Starfield you can
happen upon a side quest where you investigate like this

(57:57):
mysterious like Mantis thing, like I can't remember if you
get like a co or something like that. And essentially
what you find is you like have to break into this,
like you have to solve a couple like puzzles and
stuff like that to break into the layer of what
essentially is like space Batman in this universe. And and
if you if you're able to complete it and bypass

(58:17):
like all the security and stuff like that, then you
literally get like the Mantis armor and the Mantis sniper
rifle and the Mantis spaceship that you can then use
to fly around in. And if you're wearing the Mantis armor,
you will like during the game, like people be like,
oh my god, I it's the Manta and you basically
get to be for the rest of the game. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
Hipical, but as the humor at least, So say what
you will about Starfield, but the Mantis Quest, I would
like to actually play through it at some point. I
will probably have to be on like console because my
computer is not running that game.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
Oh really, wow?

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Yeah, I mean, what what chief do you have in there?
I' I don't really know, brother, I really don't know
what's in this thing anymore. My ex husband built this
for me, so it's a few years old. I do
need to get probably an updated graphics card and probably

(59:22):
some additional RAM. It's also Hella dusty, and I just
haven't cleaned it. Don't worry about it anyway. Next question,
film Wanderer asks what are your favorite books on video
games currently? It can be investigative, historical, Nintendo versus Sega, biographical,

(59:44):
or sentimental.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
All three books that Jason Schreyer has written, those are
good about game development, and then the last one was
about Blizzard. The history of Blizzard specifically are all excellent
if you have any interest about like the inner workings
of the video game development industry at all, I would
sort I would recommend all three. What is it It's blood, sweat,

(01:00:09):
and pixels, press reset, and play nice or the three
I still need to read. Play Nice was the best one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Yeah. Truthfully, I haven't read a ton of books on
video games. I've written books on video games. Uh. I
think the one that, like I am probably most proud
of my work on is a guide to Japanese role

(01:00:43):
playing games, which was done through bitmap boot books and
then through hardcore gaming one on one I've contributed to
a handful of HG one on one books, so I
would I would say that, like I wrote a handful
of artic calls for it, but it really is. It
is a It is a textbook sized tome of j

(01:01:07):
RPG information, So please check that out at some point
if you get the chance.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
I'll recommend two more as well, and the and this
will especially appeal to older UH gamers, but also like
fans of game history. There's two books that lost and
call put out. One is called a Handheld History and
the others called the Console Chronicles, and each of them

(01:01:35):
basically takes a look at the history of every major
handheld and console system that has come out in gaming,
and it's done through the lens of a bunch of
UH guest essayists who don't necessarily talk about like the
nuts and bolts history, but rather like their experiences with

(01:01:58):
the console, which I think was a very cool way
to frame it. And then interspersed with the essay content
is a lot of photographs of not only like the
regular consoles and a lot of the games that came
out on them, but also like a lot of special
edition versions of consoles and handhelds that you might have
never seen before that are out there, So those are

(01:02:21):
both really good too. And it's also very europe Centric,
which I've really found fascinating because we tend to think
about the video game industry in terms of the US
and Japan, not realizing that they're whole swaths, like everyone
around the world plays video games, and the European experience
with gaming history is really interesting because they basically came

(01:02:46):
up not with consoles but with PCs back in the
nineteen eighties. And not only that, but like while America
was like, you know, living, you know, with Nintendo and
PlayStation when that generation came around, Europe was really like
had a shitload of stuff come out for like Sega Saturn,

(01:03:08):
Like that was a huge territory for Saturn as well.
So just kind of interesting to see it through different,
a different cultural lens, just because again, the way the
history normally gets told is very far West and far
East focused.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
I actually have one more and it's when I haven't
looked at in a while, but I'll probably crack out tonight. Honestly.
It's The Art of Atari, which was put out a
few years ago. I got it for Christmas. I got
like the really nice like Deluxe Collectors. Addition, Atari is
the only console that I had when I was little,

(01:03:44):
because my parents didn't want to get me anything more modern.
But my mother had a twenty six hundred. And the
thing about Atari box artwork is like it's it's really good,
Like it was all drawn, it was all hand and
so like it's I I love the old Atari twenty

(01:04:07):
six hundred game like box art because like it's they
had to really like put a specific image in the
head of the player when there were only like four
fucking pixels that could be rendered on the screen at once.
And so for me, like when I was a kid
and playing through my mom's old games because she, like me,

(01:04:28):
had held on to all of the old boxes, and
so I spent as much time like looking through the
boxes and through the old game manuals and whatnot, just
because I thought the art was cool. So to see
these like updated like very high resolution scans of a
lot of the original artwork and stuff like that, as
well as like you know, by quick bios on a

(01:04:50):
lot of the artists that did work on specific games,
I just I think it's, uh, it's really cool. My
only knock on the book because that the foreward was
written by Ernest Klein, who's a dumb ass. So Ernest
Klein is not a good writer and ready player. One
fucking sucks. It has always sucked. And nothing about that

(01:05:10):
book or that movie is compelling in any way. However,
art of Atari is a great book.

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
I would say, I I think I would, and I'm
sure it exists, so is shoot hard. I think I
might want to get like a nice frameable print of
the Yards Revenge.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
Yards Revenge. Yeah, that's a that's a classic.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
Well that's that's my favorite Atari game.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
Okay, I mean it's a good one, you know, minus
Frogger because basic. But yeah, yours the Yards Revenge box
art is uh wild, so yeah great anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Uh Camp says the Street Fighter movie cast is official,
please discuss. I mean it is kind of crazy. Now.
I will say I have not heard of many of
these people because I am not hip and with it,
as the kids say, so, I can't really comment on

(01:06:13):
those individuals and some of the and the other folks
that we have known about. I mean we have said
some stuff on the show about like the cast is
completely ridiculous obviously, like Cody Rhodes being guile is very
silly to me, but not as silly as Roman Reigns
being a Kuma and somehow yet not as silly as

(01:06:36):
Jason Momoa as Blanco, which I'm and yet's.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
Also not as silly as fifty cent as ball Rock.
So you've got Andrew Coggi as Reu. Andrew Cogi is
a British actor as well as a martial artist. So
he has done other uh martial art focused films before.

(01:07:03):
Uh so, yeah, sure, why not? Like I have I
have no thoughts on him. He's he's not done. He
doesn't have a ton of work under his belt, but
he has done a lot of like stunt focused work before,
so I think it makes sense for someone with that
background to be Asriu. Uh Noah Sentier send Sentinio something

(01:07:31):
like that is ken background in being on the Disney Channel.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
He was a look here here's what I'll say, like
these people that I have not heard of.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
He was Adam Smasher in the Black Adam film. That yeah, okay,
like like the people.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
That I have heard of, Like, I'm sure they will
actually probably be like the best characters in the movie.

Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
I thought Orville Peck as Vega was especially inspired a
musician who has also done a good bit of acting,
mostly theater. I believe he's done some TV stuff. Street
Fighter will be his first film, but he has been

(01:08:23):
in West Side Story, he has been in the Producers.
He most recently was the MC in uh Cabaret on Broadway. Yeah,
so he's done he I mean, he's done some stuff,
you know. All I know is that he wears a

(01:08:44):
mask all the time, which makes sense for Vega.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
Doing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
He's a fucking gay cowboy, fucking yeehaw man. And all
I know is that my younger sister is really into
him and his music. So I I got I just
I have to consult my sister because she knows more
about the guy playing Vega than I do. I just
know that he wears a mask, is gay, and was

(01:09:13):
in Cabaret on Broadway.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
I that's like how I do. Like how Eric Andre
is mentioned as Don Don Savage, which even Street Fighter
fans wouldn't know who that character is. Like that's that's
basically like ball Rog's Don King esque manager, and like
who's in the background of his stage and street Fighters

(01:09:35):
and like and like most normal people would not know
who that character is, yet they got Eric Andre of
all people to play him. Wow, Andrew Schultz's very punishable face.
So I guess it works that he's Dan Pivici in
the movie. That's a guy that I dislike a lot,
But uh, look, I guess it makes sense with the casting.
Then this movie is gonna be a train wreck. I

(01:09:58):
just hope it's an interesting train wreck. That That has
been my philosophy on the stream better movie since I've
heard the details.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
Yeah, it's gonna be really stupid. Can't wait. I cannot
wait to fucking take a ten milligram atible be fully
zooted in the theater while I see this film.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
Yep, yep. Actually, that's a really good idea to be
able to do this. Ask, besides Mass Effect Andromeda, are
there any games you like to play even though they
are generally considered to be bad video games? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
All of us have.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Bad games that we enjoy playing for one reason.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
Most of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Yes, Like, I'm
not gonna sit here and tell you that Shadow of
the Hedgehog is a masterpiece video game. It is a
seven out of ten at best. That being said, I
enjoy the hell out of it because I know what
I'm about.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
I am quickly scrolling through by my library just so
I can see any recent examples of games that are
generally considered to be not great that I still had
fun playing. I'm I'm having trouble finding some of though.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Because I guess I only I only have good taste
the taste. Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
I mean a lot of people consider Diablo four and
Siev seven to be bad games, but I enjoyed. But
I enjoyed that, So I don't know, I don't know
if those count under under this uh, under this umbrella.
I think people are a little hard on both of
those games, a little un fairly. So yeah, so there's that. Yeah. Nothing,

(01:11:50):
nothing's jumping out is like something that is well known
to be bad that I have spent like a lot
of time and been like, actually, this is in fact
good and you all don't know what you're talking about. Yeah,
but I'm sure. I'm sure that throughout my history of
playing games, there have been several that fall under that qualification.

(01:12:12):
But see, the problem is a lot of mine are
going to be much older because it was back in
the day where we didn't realize that the games were bad.
Because we have games I mean, you made the best
of it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
I think for me, it's like I I've played a
lot of weird like one to three game JRPG series
like Conception. I don't know if you remember Conception, but

(01:12:50):
there were a couple of Conception games, and I really
enjoyed Conception two Children of the Seven Stars. I played
the fuck out of that game. That game has a
Metacritic score of sixty two. I enjoyed it. I had
a good time. I'm not saying it's, you know, a
fucking masterpiece, because it wasn't, but I enjoyed it. I

(01:13:14):
think the Artinellico series, all three of those games I played,
those are all like six to seven out of ten
generally speaking. Yeah, Artenellico won seventy one. Artenellico two also
seventy one on Metacritic. Look, not everything has to be
a ten out of ten video game. There are plenty
of good things about mediocre games.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
For some reason, the one that always comes to mind
for me is when I when I was a kid
on Ens, I had Roger Clemens MVP Baseball and it
was the only baseball game that I owned. And that
game was really bad. But I played a whole lot
of it, like, so it was bad for right reasons.

(01:14:00):
So it had the traditional hitting and pitching view like
where it was at, like from the battery, like from
behind the catcher essentially, but for some reason they decided
to go with the outfield perspective fielding view where like
like when when the ball was put in play, the
camera perspective was like from someone sitting in the bleachers,

(01:14:22):
which is not a great way to do a baseball game.
But yet I played through several seasons of that game,
and I was tracking stats by myself in notebooks as
I played, and it had a really intricate password system,
which was a very obnoxious and annoying, but that was

(01:14:44):
how we had to save games back in the day.
So I don't know why that one comes up in
my head all the time when I think about like
bad games that I really enjoyed as a kid. But
Roger Clemons MVP Baseball definitely on that list for me.
Is t watch esque. Is there a protagonist in any
media that you don't like? Uh? Yes, cloud Strife one

(01:15:08):
of the most annoying. Here's here's another squall. Yeah, a
lot of mine fall into fall into the final fantasy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
I don't. I don't really care for squall.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
Titis is fine. I don't. I don't mind tas.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
I'm very lukewarm on ten at large.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
Here's here's another or another uh game protagonist that I
don't like, Lightning from Final Fantasy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
Yeah, I don't know. It's more like, of course, this
is protagonist in any media. It doesn't have to show
video games, like I don't know, like Cloud is Cloud
is kind of whatever. I just I don't know. I can't.

(01:16:17):
I can't really think of like a super like obnoxious
or even like a dull protagonist, right, Like, I feel
like that that is almost as bad, if not worse
than being like annoying, is just being kind of like dull.
And this is like keeping any kind of like silent

(01:16:37):
protagonist kind of like out.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
That would be would be unfair to knock them. I'll
give you a movie one real quick. Sean Archer from
Facebook or from Facebook from Face Off, but specifically only
when he's being played by John Travolta. Like, I like
him much better when he's being played by Nicholas Cage,
but during the John Travolta parts where he's Shawn Archer,

(01:17:06):
it's he sucks now John Travolta as Castor Troy is
just John Travolta chewing up all the scenery, so we
know that that's gonna be good. But yeah, him as
Shawn Archer is shitty. But then Shawn Archer becomes cool
on once he face swaps with Nicholas Cage.

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
This is going to be a real thirty five year
old white girl answer for me to have. But I
think both of the Gilmore girls are the most annoying people.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
On the packet.

Speaker 2 (01:17:39):
And that's a show that my sister and my mom
both really liked. So it was on a lot when
I was like in high school and then you know,
living at home during college breaks. Yeah, I think Lorelei
and Rory Gilmore are probably my least favorite protagonists in
any media. Ever. I can't fucking stand those two.

Speaker 1 (01:18:05):
Let's see here, Uh, John, Johnny Essen's bread punted virtual
boy on Nso I have to ask, what the fuck
is your problem? Johnny? Look, I didn't ask for this,
but I'm also not gonna I'm also not gonna turn
my nose up at it once it's offered, uh by Nintendo.
It's it's okay to to be excited for this curio

(01:18:26):
UH of video game history. UH, that Nintendo is putting
back out into the world. The funniest thing ever would
be and this will never happen because Nintenda is way
too smart to fall for this. The funniest thing ever
would be like if this gets somehow like massive positive response,
like when it actually gets in the hands of people
and convinces Nintendo to somehow make additional Virtual Boy.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
Games, make make new I mean, yeah, kind of cool though.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
It would be cool, but it's never gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
It's not gonna happen, not that absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:18:54):
I'm gonna ask Phil Wander's question, but I don't think
that the correct panel is on the podcas cast to
discuss it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
If Ron Funches as CEO could turn Microsoft around, what
should he do first? I have no idea what the
Ron Funches as CEO bit is. I know who Ron
Funches is, but I don't know what this uh.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
With the best, I'm not sure. All I would say
is that I hope he kills the AI machine at Microsoft.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
So apparently apparently Ron Funches put out a series of
videos where he's the new black CEO from Target, but
I have not seen them. So I cannot I cannot
comment on what front, what front Ron Funges could do
that would be better than Satia and Adela at Microsoft.
I'm sure up Saftia Adela is ignoring Elon Musk like

(01:19:44):
trying to trying to get people fired at Microsoft on
Twitter for daring to have to speak honestly about current
events in the world. But you know, we'll see what
happens and then uh, beach A Boy, Well, we already
asked this answer to second question, but we will ask
answer ask the first part of the question. Do you

(01:20:05):
think with the Street Fighter movie that we will get
a Street Fighter movie video game of the movie? I
won beach Boy knows that that did happen with the
original Street Fighter movie. There was a street Fighter the
movie the game.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
Right, Yeah, for the Sega Saturn on the PlayStation.

Speaker 1 (01:20:22):
Yeah. Look, I don't think you'll see that happen with this.

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
No. Look, the original by Acclaim featured digitized graphics from
the hit movie. I don't think we're doing that again. However,
it wouldn't surprise me.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
It was the style.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
Was the style at the time. I do think that
a like cosmetic pack for you to be able to
potentially play okay as he looks in the film with
the Roman Reigns portraying him, that wouldn't surprise me. But no,
I don't think we're not. We're going to get another
street fighter the movie the video game, which is sad

(01:21:02):
because I feel like the world would be a better
place if we did.

Speaker 1 (01:21:06):
He also asked how my Beat Saber workouts are going well.

Speaker 2 (01:21:09):
He specifically asked, are you beating off hard?

Speaker 1 (01:21:12):
So, oh, I am beat. I am beating off quite
often in VR, as one does when they get a
VR headsets you do, you tend to beat off pretty consistently.
It's it's going good, like I feel good doing it.
It has not bore results yet on the scale, which

(01:21:33):
is a little disappointing considering we're three weeks in. I
haven't seen much impact there, but it has been a
nice so basically like usually what I'm doing is when
I get off work and get it. When you know,
my commute from work involves me leaving my home office
and walking down the steps, so it's it's very arduous.
But when I when I get off from work, I

(01:21:56):
will usually play beat Saber or I've also been playing
pistol whip, which is really fun via game as well,
for like half an hour just to try to get
a sweat worked up and get some zone minutes going
on my fitbit. And then when you're done, you take
a midday shower with some cool water and that wakes
you up and makes you feel pretty good and I

(01:22:16):
and then I feel pretty good for the rest of
the evening, so that it's it's been a nice routine,
even though it has not been paying the dividends that
I might like to see. So maybe i'd pay it
just a smidge more attention to what I'm eating to
help combine these two things. But it's been fun. And
some of those beatsab tunes, especially on harder difficulties, are

(01:22:40):
fucking ass whippers and very difficult. And I need to
remember to maybe turn off the fail state because it's
no fun to like get halfway through one of these
fucking songs and then you know, you get stopped in
your tracks because you're not doing good enough to complete
the stage. So but so far it's been it's been okay.
Hopefully in a couple weeks second report some more progress

(01:23:01):
with that. So yeah, and uh, and he said, uh,
he's trying to drop some LB's for his wedding, which
about a month away. So congratulations. Oh yeah, and I hope, uh,
I hope that goes well for you.

Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
So I hope it sticks.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Yeah, yeah for sure. So that'll uh, that will do
it for the post Office, and that will do it
for the show this week. Thank you all very much
for watching and listening, and we'll see you all the
next time.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
See you
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