T.O.T. – Summer Break Special 5 - Movie Roundup - Lost Soul Aside - Turtle Beach - Ninja - More! - ThisWeekInGeek

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you grow up with him?

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Nest PlayStation star Boss? Can't you said any CV? Do
you like to think you would win in a fight
between Batman and the Mad Star Hick? Comics, Skays, Movies, Music,
Can TV. They're gonna tell you Wethers, thinking me, superheroes
are nothing, Cat sharp back, They're gonna save the world.

(00:23):
Tomcakes Comics, Skays, Movies, Music, can TV. They're gonna tell
you Wethers thinking me superheroes are nothing, Cat sharp back.

(00:45):
They're gonna say the world dom da swear, can't cake swear?
Can't cake?

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Well? Hell, Hello, Hello, and welcome back to another show.
We are actually starting a little bit later than we expected,
about a week or so because, in my particular case,
Alex the producer here, I had to help my mom
out a little longer after her her near replacement surgery
took place later than she had initially expected. That ended

(01:22):
up leading to scheduling issues when it came to some
of the reviews that I was working on, and Berdman
as well having some health things to do and also
finishing up some other odd jobs that he had before
we really got back to the think of things, which
as of this recording, we are starting up full production again,
just again a week or so later. So he has

(01:45):
a bunch of reviews that he had already recorded for
a previous review show and to get the regular show
off the ground running again. And I had a whole
bunch that you know, I had already either pre recorded
or or you know, wanted to do a roundup of it.
So in this show, we're going to round up the
last bit of the summer movies that we received at

(02:07):
the end of the of like the break when we
were coming back. I've got basically all of them. I'm
going to put into one segment where we're going to
do quick you know, I would say first impression or
quick reviews, nothing super crazy in depth, as we want
to make sure that these reviews come out as well
as the fact that some of the movies have already
been released in somewhere, you know, coming out in a

(02:28):
timely fashion that way. I have a bunch of games
that I've been working on, longer form games that take
a lot of time to beat, so in some cases
they're going to be staggered out a little bit. In
some cases, I'm trying to get some of the Indian
smaller titles out and talked about, and we've got some
other accessories and stuff to talk about here, so we're
going to get sort of right into it. We're going

(02:49):
to catch up with everybody's review items from the last
you know, three weeks or so, and then I'll come
back at the end discuss what our program is going
to be like now that we're back in full production,
because we should have be back to our regular schedule
of one to two shows for a week, plus the
extras that we recorded. So without further ado, I'm going
to send it over except to myself. Yeah, I think

(03:11):
I'll do that. I'll start off with the roundup of
all the different movies, so we'll be back at the
end to discuss what's up with this week in Geek
and as we roll on towards the inevitable holiday gift
guide and our winter coverage, that's for sure, So we'll
be back right after this. Look's the producer here, and

(03:33):
this is the final summer roundup, or at least final
summer movie round up that we're going to be talking about.
This is all of the movies that have come in
while we were finishing up our summer break, which would
be the last week or two of August moving into September.
For the first couple weeks of September that we've had
a chance to review, and a bunch sort of came

(03:53):
in all at once, So that's why we're sort of
putting this all together. Otherwise we would have separated them
with individual releases. Now that we're back to our regular
weekly programming, you'll start seeing more stuff spread out where
we do one or two titles a week that way.
But as it stands now, I figured I was trying
to figure out exactly how to sort of put everything together,

(04:13):
and the best way to do that here is just
to do some quick reviews and quick discussions on some
of the stuff that was released that I've watched, not
going to get too heavy into plots for each one,
just mostly going over what the features are, whether I
thought they'd look good, and whether or not I recommend them.
I might go into a little more detail with some
than others, but as it stands, I'm going to try

(04:33):
to break it up a little bit here by by studio,
label or publisher, So at least for the beginning part here,
I'm just going to talk very briefly about some of
the stuff that we receive from Paramount now. Paramount sent
Over nineteen twenty three season two on Blu Ray, as
well as the newest season of NCIS that's and CS

(04:58):
the twenty second season, as well as Watson season one,
which is one of their new shows. Briefly talk about
Watson obviously, you know that it's a new interpretation of
Sherlock Holmes is John Watson. And this is on DVD,
which at this point CBS DVD in Paramoun are pretty

(05:20):
much one of the other companies that are putting out
DVD shows in the regular and I can say this,
it's obviously better than if you watched it broadcast, even
though it's on DVD and not HD. It does contain
just pretty good black levels. It is in widescreen. Five
points around the trade off with not going HD with
this is that you still end up with a cleaner

(05:42):
picture than a lot of times when you get things
broadcast on TV. If you're watching it on TV or
in streaming, you end up with artist acting, especially now
that everything's digital that way. So I would say it's
pretty solid for a new show. It's your procedural obviously,
but it has good acting in it. As far as
you know special features are concerned, this does have a couple.

(06:05):
It's got a couple behind the scenes and a gag
reel as well as some deleted scenes. It's nothing major,
but it is a pretty solid, if not fairly bare
bones release. If you're a fan of the show or
you're looking to pick up something, I guess you know,
mom or Dad. It's one of those kind of shows.
And the same goes for NCIS season twenty two on DVD.

(06:25):
This is a show that I actually actively watch pretty much.
It's one of those shows that I have on in
the background when I'm doing other things too, and then
I you know, pop up whenever anything cool happens. It's
one of those comforty type shows for me. And this
is again fairly bear bones release. It does have some
behind the scenes features as well as a couple of

(06:49):
individual like segment scenes for it, but it's pretty straightforward.
It's in it's original aspect ratio, and it's it's again
comor food. This is still a good one to pick
up if you're into the show. It's not something you're
going to jump into from this, you know the start
and be like, oh, you know, this is not the
season you should start your show with. Basically, you go

(07:09):
back watch the originals and then pick up if you're
a collector, and then we end on nineteen twenty three.
This is season two of that you know, the hell
A Mire and Harrison Ford Show. This is one of
the better shows, at least in top five that are
being produced and shown on like Paramount Plus. It is

(07:33):
I would say one of the quinn essential shows that
that service has. And what you get here is you
get it in TENNDP on Blu Ray. While the show
streams at four K, the bitraate is lower than what
you get on the Blu Ray here, so the Blu
Ray does actually look better. I've done some comparisons and

(07:56):
that in itself is a big plus. Plus. It's got
Dolby lossless true HD surround on there, so you're getting
way better quality audio than what you get if you're
watching it on a streaming platform. As far as your
special features are concerned, it includes a bunch of features Darkness,
cant and Hide, the Shadu of Winter which is basically
production design and cautions, which this show has it in spades,

(08:18):
as well as a bunch of other behind the scenes
features and there's a story explanation and description and behind
the scenes for every single episode, which is greatly, greatly appreciated.
So that's one to pick up. If you've been waiting
for it, you're waiting to own it on home video,
it's definitely one to get. Now. We have other releases
from other companies. These are sort of a hodgepodge of

(08:39):
different companies and our friends over at eighty eight Films
sent the cat Now. This is it's interesting horror. It's
region ab as pretty much everything that Fortune Star and
eighty eight Films put out. It's in a pretty sort

(09:01):
of premium slip cover box cover for it. Now. This
limited edition has artwork created for it, a forty page
perfect bund book inside. That's why it's thicker overall. On
the creation of it. You've got brand new, really good
quality restoration on the actual film scan. It is has

(09:24):
the original remastered Cantonese Monerl soundtrack. There's newly translated into
subtitles that match it quite well. There's audio commentaries included here,
reversible slip covers. It's just overall a really solid release
and it's got a ton of really really good like
rubberized special effects before CGI was around, and it's it's

(09:48):
kind of like a horror film mixed with sci fi,
mixed with you know, gore slash. I don't want to
spoil too much. It's actually a really good movie that
I'd never heard of before, and it's definitely well worth
your time if you're a fan of international horror sci
fi films. We've also got from our friends over at
Neon the Life of Chuck. Now this is the Tom

(10:13):
Hillston movie, and it's not it is. It's interesting in
that it's based on a short story by Stephen King.
So usually when you think that what do you think of,
you think of horror or suspensive thriller. That's not what

(10:37):
this really is. This is if you're unaware. It's more
of it's more of being in line with the stories
and pictures that he's done that are usually he did
under like pseudonyms in the past. But essentially it's about
the exploration of I guess like the wonder of love,
heartbreak and just different connections and relationships people have in between.

(11:02):
That's the best way to describe. But it's got a
bunch of features on here. It's a pretty solid release.
It is rated r if you're worried about it, but
that's mostly just for language. Good set. If you're a
fan of any of the actors, just want to get
a good watch. We've also got bride Hard. This was
provided to us by who is the publisher on this
one or who is it?

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (11:24):
That's right, A magenta light, That's what it was. I
was trying to figure out because I was like, I've
I thought it was like Warner but it's WM independent,
so it's a it's being published by them, but it's
pressed by that other company there. So this one was
one of the films that I remember went to theaters,
but it was out super quick because I think it's

(11:45):
just was timing. It's it's fine. I think this is
going to be a case of you have to like
the stars of this picture. You know, you've got Rebel
Wilson and just you kind of have to know what
you're going in for with it. It wasn't for me,

(12:07):
but I can see why some people would like it,
you know that, I would say. One of the other
critics on the back of the box actually describes it
as a mashup of Bridesmaids and Diehard, and yeah, it's
a little goofy. It's got the wackiness involved, but I
do think it's probably worth a watch, and if you're
a big fan of any of the people involved in it,

(12:28):
then obviously pick it up for your collection. We've also
got some movies here, one of the which is called
The Trouble with Jessica that is from our friends over
at Music Box Films. This is a DVD. Now. In
this DVD you have a couple of extra features. But
first of all, the basic premise of this is the

(12:50):
main character's name is Sarah, and Sarah is I guess,
about to lose everything and trying to find somebody to
buy their home. And it's just sort of a slice
of life relationship issue movie. It's the best way to

(13:11):
put it. Now. There is a features on here that
are for the making of as well as trailers. There's
an image gallery. It's pretty standard stuff. It is a
ninety minute movie. Now it's a DVD. I do think
that in this case, the DVD kind of suffers a
little bit in the visual department because it is in CinemaScope.

(13:34):
It's two point four to one, which even anamorphic Watching
this on a big screen TV, you know, you're taking
four eighty I and then you're only getting about a
third of the picture of a third of the vertical
picture of that, so it's doing its best to blow
it up. To watch, it's the kind of thing that's

(13:54):
best watched. If you're going to watch a DVD in
the scope, you're gonna want to watch it like a
portable TV player, on a smaller TV or at a laptop.
So if you've got a laptop with like a fifteen
inch screen or something to watch it on, that's an
okay resolution for that as it is as it stands.
Visual quality wise, if I'm not even sure if this

(14:15):
has a blu ray, but if it does, it's more
worth searching out than that. But otherwise it's a pretty
solid picture. Five point one audio. It's a straightforward you know,
it's gonna be one of those I think indie darlings
that people are gonna like, but it's not going to
be for everybody, that's for sure. We have also got

(14:38):
from music Box Films Just The Two of Us, which
is a thriller. Now, this was an official selection a
couple of years back at the can Film Festival, and
this was actually pretty good. So the character's name in
this is Blanche and she meets another character at a party.

(15:03):
They have a pretty electrifying relationship at the start, and
then things happen. There's there's the best way to start it.
But I'll say this is also on a DVD, and
this is in one six six to one. It's actually
in that sort of weird British like Instead of like

(15:26):
Matt or the standard one eighty five to one ratio
that you see in most American movies, this is actually
one six to six, which is like the British style.
And this is actually a French picture, which to some
people that might be a little too much to handle.
But the subtitles are easy to read. And being Canadian,
even though I don't fluently speak French, I've seen enough

(15:49):
on TV in that that for me hearing French and
then seeing the subtitles, it goes hand in hand. It's
not that difficult to follow. I do think it's a
solid release. It also has commentary included, there's a director's interview,
there's theatrical trailers and image gallery. That's definitely one to
keep an eye on. Check it out if you're interested
in it. And we've also got from our friends over

(16:13):
at the Criterion Collection. A couple of pictures to look
at here. Now. The first one here is Mister Accordia,
which is one hard word to read, let's say. But
this is a film by Elain Garridal, and this is

(16:34):
one of the releases from the Criterion Premieres, which is
where they take new theatrical pictures and they release with
the Criterion Channel Presents. So it's one of those things
where they sort of helped get it distributed to begin with.
So this is a movie from twenty twenty four. It's
about just over an hour and a half hour and
forty minutes or so surround sound. It's also in French

(16:57):
within the subtitles. But this is a Blu ray. Even
though it's in scope, it looks pristine and great on
a big screen TV. It has I Meet the Filmmaker's
feature on here, which is a Criterion Channel original interview.
So what they've done is this is one of those
things that premiered on their channel, on their service with

(17:18):
the features included. And what they've done is they've taken
that package that put it on a Blu ray, which
in itself is higher quality than he would receive on
a broadcast or on a stream, so that is greatly appreciated.
So this is another thriller, lots of secrets, lots of lies.
It is about somebody who returns to their rural home

(17:40):
and the lust and craziness and the stuff that you
kind of expect from French pictures. That's the best way
to describe it. There worth watching, especially if you're into
foreign films as well. As this is sort of their
bigger release right now that I'm going to talk about
the second release we have here from Criterion Collection, and

(18:01):
that is Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch. This is a
director approved four K Blu ray disc with Blu ray combo.
It comes in a cardboard slip box, and this is
always whenever a New West movie comes out, you pretty
much know Criterion puts it out. He's sort of like

(18:21):
a darling of theirs, obviously, and I have been on
the fence about a lot of his pictures. And that's
mostly because you either really really get his movies or
you really really don't. And I found that some of
his earliest stuff I really really get, and some of
his later stuff I've sort of been head scratching and

(18:44):
been like, I don't know, man, I'm not sure. But
I don't need to really go into details of the
picture itself because I think if you're listening to this,
if you're even considering picking this up, you've already seen
in theaters probably multiple times, maybe streamed it, and you're
just like, had your fingers crossed this whole time, waiting
to see, you know, did they hit it out of
the parking in or not. When it comes to the

(19:06):
release and I can say it looks fantastic. It's quite obvious.
It's a brand new four K digital master supervised by
Wes Anderson. You end up with a five to one
lossless surroundtrack as expected. Now there's one four K disc
with the film, and it's presented with Dolby Vision, HDRUH
and one Blu ray with all the special features. The

(19:29):
four K disc I can say as one of the
best mastering jobs I've seen, with the best tone mapping.
For even me where I have I have a television
that does I would say, yeah, pretty good when it
comes to HDR, but it's just HDR normal, it's your ten.
And then I have a TV that does technically does
Dolby Vision, but it's one of those like barely hits

(19:51):
Dolby Vision quality. It's like just entry Dove Dollivision. And
sometimes that can present itself as not having the best
tone mapping, or at least not as intended by the
producers of films. And I can say that this one
mapped quite well. It handled everything in this that it
could have to do with many factors. A lot of

(20:11):
it is like cinematography and the director of photography and everything,
but I can say it looked great. It's one of
the best looking desks, at least even on my meager sets,
which I would say are just entry level for what
they are. It also comes with a plethora of behind
the scenes features, audio commentaries, storyboard, animatics, what else did
I think? What else was in there? Music videos, there's

(20:34):
interviews with artists that are involved with it. Design, there
is trailers, subtitles, there's essays as you'd expect from anything
with the Criterion collection, and it does include every aspect
ratio because a lot of his movies now are doing
this thing where they switch in between. So you have

(20:56):
one three seven to one, which is actually the old
school Hollywood full screen before television, you know, television's one
three three. This is the one three seven, So like
this is Hollywood full screen from before nineteen fifty four,
and then it will shift to one eighty five and
then a two point four to one. It's all seamless.
It's all pretty darn good. It looks fantastic. It is

(21:19):
reaching A coded so you are going to have to,
you know, play it in Region A, but that's for
the Blu ray. Remember the four K discs are always
reasion free, So even if you're somebody you know, not
in Canada, of the States, or in Japan you're picking
this up, you may not be able to. Depending if
you don't have a region free player, you may or

(21:39):
may not be able to actually play the blue ray
of it with the special features, So keep that in
mind if you're outside of these regions. But you will
always be able to play the four K disc if
you have a four K player. So if your concern
is getting at the highest quality option, and then you're
not and you're worried, maybe oh, I can't watch those
special features, don't worry. You'll still at least be able

(21:59):
to watch the movie. Fantastic. It's one of the better movies.
I actually quite enjoyed it comparatively to some of the
other stuff. So I'm happy with that. And that leaves
us with our last couple of releases to talk about.
And they are from our friends over at A twenty
four and what they have done is they have sent

(22:23):
two releases of their news movies. We got the Materialists,
which I wasn't really sure if I was going to like,
because I'm not big fantage of Coda Johnson. Probably. I
don't know if I've mentioned it necessarily on air, but
in our in our like podcast recording group friends and
that I've mentioned that I just do not like. And

(22:44):
you know, this was one of those cases where fine,
Patron Pascal is greatn't it, Chris Evans, It's this is
one of those pictures where I think it's going to
be polarizing. You either are going to really like it
or probably not so much like it. I'm sort of
somebody that's on the fence. I actually aspects of it
I did like. Aspects of it I didn't care for.

(23:06):
I think I think this is something you're gonna have
to watch before you decide if you're gonna buy, So
maybe stream it first. And if you're a fan of it,
this is a pretty good set. The Blu ray does
have the proper aspect ratio obviously, and it does have
a Dolby Atmos audio track, which is good. There are

(23:30):
English subtitles. There's as far as any other features are concerned,
it comes with a good cardboard slipcase box. There are well,
let me think you there are a bunch of like
little features. There is a filmmaker commentary, There is a

(23:53):
featurette on the making of there is a composer deep dive,
and then little six collectible postcards from behind the scenes stuff,
which is something we've seen actually in some of the
previous releases. Over the summer that from them. They A
twenty four is releasing their blue rays in a sort
of uniform cardboard slipcover box set where you can always

(24:14):
tell when's on the shelf whether they're A twenty four
or not. And that brings us to the last release,
and let's bring her back. Horror film that I wanted
to see in theaters and I just didn't get a
chance to. I just didn't have the time to go.
But basically I'm kind of glad I didn't because I
probably would have been too intense for me in theaters,
but at home where I can watch it at my

(24:35):
own pace and my TV, and I can pause it
when I get if I get too disturbed. I can
say this, it's not necessarily what I was expecting, but
here's the basic premise. I'll read it from the back
because I don't want to spoil anything. And it's in
the wake of family tragedy. Siblings Andy and Piper are

(24:55):
sent to live with their new foster mother, Laura and
a troubled orphan all her. But as their new caretaker's
sunny disposition begins to crack and the siblings unravel the
truth about Oliver's disturbing behavior, they're forced to contend with
a terrifying ritual that puts their own bond to the test.

(25:17):
So it's not necessarily what you'd think based on the poster,
but it is well worth a watch. I actually had
a really good time with this one. As far as
what's included here, there is a director's commentary, a making
of and again the six collectible postcards, and it also
comes in that slip cover case there is. It's presented

(25:40):
in a two points sorry two to one aspect, ratio,
so it's sort of what you see a lot of
the streaming TV shows do now Dobey autmost and it
is got a really good transfer overall. I do think
that's going to be a hit with people. It might
have flown under the radar some because a lot of
other thrillers and horrors and that sort of thing came

(26:00):
out all around the exact same time. So I hope
that people get a chance to watch that. And that's
basically going to do it for our roundup of the
movies that I've received at least during the last few
weeks or so of summer during our break, and I
hope that there's something in here that piques your interests
and that you're willing to check out. I'll have all

(26:20):
the links for this in our show description, and we'll
be back with probably more after the segment reviews of
movies and stuff from Birdman and the upcoming week or so.
We'll have plenty more coming, because I know we've got
some more stuff coming in the mail. But that's it.
I hope everybody at least on something interesting in there,

(26:40):
and I'm going to send it off probably to Birdman,
and then I will be back with more of my
own reviews.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Hey guys, this is Mike the Birdman here. Once again
our friends over at Ninja have sent over something really
cool for us to take a look at. And this
is going to be the Ninja Essentials Ceramic twelve piece
cookwar Set. It's that time of year. You're probably moving
into your first dorm, could be your first apartment, or hey,
maybe it's time to replace the cookwar set that abused

(27:06):
or put together from going down to the Salvation Army
or something. So what this is. This is the every
essentral piece of cook where you could possibly need. That
comes with two sizes of frying pans, two sauce pots
with lids, a large stock style pot with a lid,
and a saute pan with a lid, and also included
her two very durable cooking utensils. It also has this

(27:28):
ceramic lock coating which provides five years of nonstick performance.
While traditional ceramic pans can wear out in as little
as about a year or so, the unique durable design
is even safer up to three hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit,
easily wipes clean, and is dishwashers say this is a
true upgrade to our old Cookwar set that wasn't nonstick

(27:50):
and well really taking a beating. Since we got this
as a wedding gift fourteen years ago. My wife was
really thrilled when she got this. She's like, oh my god, Michael,
thank god you replace this finally. It's kind of cool
how Ninja offers a five year guarantee on this, because
as you learn to cook and experiment with stuff, this

(28:12):
is stuff that's probably gonna stand the test of time,
especially if you're testing all these viral things from TikTok
or YouTube and whatnot, not gonna lie. This is a
very nice Cookwar set. I was actually very surprised when
Ninja sent this over. So if you're looking to invest
in something that'll make your dorm or your first apartment

(28:34):
have a really nice cooking wear set, and you aspire
to be your very own version of Chef Ramsey, then
you know what, not too bad. So you're definitely gonna
gonna want to check out the Ninja Essential Ceramic twelve
piece Cookwar Set. You're gonna make the cook in your unit, family,
your partner, or your roommate. You're gonna make them very

(28:56):
happy when you upgrade to this once again. That is
the Ninja Essential ceramic twelve piece cookwar set. Big thanks
in Ninja for sending this over.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Alex the producer. Here was just a quick review of
Lost Solo side. Our friends over at Sony Interactive Entertainment
Canada sent us avery code for PlayStation five to check out.
I know this has been talked about by other people online.
It's been kind of memified a little bit when it
comes to some of the wonky cut scenes and voice acting,

(29:30):
and you know, it's all funny. You're funny to make
little jokes like that, because it sort of gives the
feeling of like the bygone era of almost like the
late nineties early two thousands when it came to some
of the localizations and some of the animations that were done.
But you have to keep in mind that this originally
started out as a solo project and almost like if
I remember correctly, I think the solo creator of this

(29:53):
initially before they built up a team when Sony put
some financing into it, was inspired by was shown with
what was it, Final Fantasy thirteen versus I think before
they scrap that project at Square Enix, and like just
some of the ideas behind it, and this person was like, hey,

(30:14):
I can kind of make my own Final Fantasy style
of game, you know, with that action aspect and everything.
And you know, it took a long time. It's in
many ways a very printing game. There's many hiccups and
stuff that again, in my mind, kind of adds to
the charm because it makes me feel It makes me
feel like I'm in my late teens early twenties again,

(30:36):
and it's like we're talking like right when like the
PlayStation three was coming out that sort of era. That's
making me feel like that again. So you know what,
I enjoy games like this that go for it where
maybe the team itself isn't as polished or as refined
as you think, and then when they get the voice

(30:56):
acting and like it would almost feel more jarring if
the voice acting was at a certain triple A level,
when the presentation for the cut scenes isn't there, it
would be a mismatch. This alst feels great. I'm not
going to memify anything. We're not going to do anything,
because there's been plenty of that online. There has been
performance issues before, and one of the reasons why this

(31:17):
review took longer to come out. Was every time I
was playing it, it felt like, you know, I was
chart of juggling other reviews and stuff too, But every
time I would go to play the game, there it
was like every few days there was another patch, another
update that was fixing things. This team is working diligently,
and it's like every I swear like every four or
five days there is a new patch that dramatically changes

(31:37):
a significant section of it and fixing issues and performance.
And I feel like if I were to do this
review in another, you know, few weeks, it would be
a completely different experience. Again, so just know that when
it comes to the performance of the game and just
little bugs and fixes and tweaks in that it's going
to constantly be updated. So you can pick it up

(31:58):
now and be fully confident that any quirks or hiccups
you might have with it are probably going to be addressed.
And at the same time, I would kind of recommend
that you pick it up now because don't wait. Some
people say, oh, I'll just wait till all the bug
fixers are done. Well, this is the kind of project
that doesn't have the resources to let people wait, like right,
this is something where the more people that buy it,

(32:20):
the more money they'll go into it, that they'll be
able to do the thing. So it's you're in a
catch twenty two. You know, Damn if you do, Damn
if you don't. But I do think that there's a
lot of fun to be had here as far as
the combat, it's concerned the whole atmosphere, the feeling of it.
It's a pretty fun game. It's like a double A
game wrapped up in a triple A sheet, if that
makes any sense. And outside of the audio hiccups when

(32:43):
it comes to some of the voice direction and some
of the script writing, which obviously this is not a
case of a native English speaker, was the you know,
person writing the script. It's been adapted again. It feels
like something out of time. It doesn't feel like a
twenty twenty five game. Feels like a two thousand and
five game. And in that aspect, I think it's great

(33:05):
and well worth picking up to play. I can't say,
you know how it will play necessarily on like you know,
everybody's experience, but I can say that it works well
enough for me. I'm having a good time with it.
If you're if you're really unsure, maybe wait for a sale,
but as it stands, I do think it's a fun
game and well worth your time. And if you're a

(33:26):
fan of you know, uh, you know, anime the game,
if that's a good way to describe it, then I
think you're going to have a pretty good time with
Lost Soul. Aside and I asked America sent over Claden
x three. This is a series that I had heard
about in the past but not actually had a chance
to play. So when they offered a review code, I went, yeah,

(33:50):
you know what, let's check it out.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
This is an action RPG that is a very unique
twist on things. It is a serious front for I
guess what is it At least over a decade now,
it's just sort of in between releases. It's a pixel
action RPG where you can basically customize everything you choose
from like six different weapon types. There's a whole swath

(34:13):
of jobs, nearly a dozen I think it's ten at
least here yet, and you swap weapons, jobs, recruit custom
characters you have. Each job has different stats, you have
different weapons, and there's just a lot of crazy stuff.
You're trying to survive the dungeon things get crazy. As

(34:34):
far as job classes go, You've got your your warriors,
your wizards, your rangers, your merchants, Saint Guardian, sword Mage, Ninja, Dragoon,
and Shaman. Okay, so what should do is that you
power up your main characters by placing sub characters and

(34:54):
artifacts into like this array that gives them boosts a
little bit of like party item stat management. That changing
the arrangement changes how things work. It's really interesting as
far as other things. There's sub characters that you place
in your magic circle and doing that, they will take

(35:16):
damage instead of you. So there's a lot of like
interesting ideas behind how you strategize getting through the dungeons.
There are if thence conditions, so basically almost like programming logic,
and so for instance, if certain characters learn certain things,
then the reaction would be that other things within the

(35:38):
party can then get advantages of that. So there's like
crossovers and weird combinations and different customizations you can do.
It's wild. For instance, you can basically edit anything, so
you can like edit your weapons. You can make weapons
for scratch, you can, and that's like designing the colors
and shapes and looks and is wild Son. There are

(36:04):
music editing. You can make your own music for the
game with its own built in editor. This part of
me but fucking wild. You can edit the town's maps.
And it's hard to describe it. It's like what if
you were given a game and then you're like, you
know what, the game isn't going the way I want.

(36:24):
I'm gonna freakin alter the game myself, and it gave
you all the tools to do so. So it's like
a game within a game engine, within a myriad of
It's wild. Anyway. If you're unsure about whether it's for you,
check out you know, a trailer or a YouTube or
video or something like that. But it is wacky and strange,

(36:45):
and it's gonna work on basically any platform out there
and work well, I think, and I hope it doesn't
go under the radar for people because it's really interesting.
It's probably gonna make our holiday gift GUIDs. We'll see
how that works, but as of right now, it's it's
going to be one of the better releases in the
later part of September here. It's releasing as of this

(37:08):
recording on September twenty sixth. I hope that you guys
get a chance to check it out because it it
kind of blew my mind and I want to spend
more time with it. Coming, guys, trans fun.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Bra seal stuff, what tax.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Smat. Hey, guys, this is Mike the Birdman here once again.
I am here talking about something that has Bro sent
over to us from their Transformers Age of the Primes line,
and I'm looking at the first combaticon that will eventually
form Bruticus. I'm looking at Vourtex.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Now.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
I love helicopter Transformers. I love things like Sandstorm. I
think it was sharred from the rock Lord's Whirl from
Throwing thirty, which I really hope they do something with
that figure at some point in the future tint Hasbro.
But yeah, so in terms of this Age of the Primes, Vortex,

(38:14):
this is off to a sick start. Like ridiculously, Vortex
looks out standing in vehicle mode. He is easily one
of the best looking helicopters currently available. In fact, my
Vortex I have him in vehicle mode and I have

(38:35):
him resting on the deck of my thrilling thirty metroplex
alongside another fantastic Transformers helicopter, which was the Strength which
was the studio series grind Or and Blackout. So you
might say I've got a thing for like helicopters, but
still no, seriously, this thing is really really good. You
get working rotors with it. He gets multiple guns, he

(38:58):
gets like shoulder or not shoulder wrist blasters. He also
gets a handheld weapon as well, and you can mount
it however you want. If I did have one tiny, tiny,
tiny complaint, it might be where you can place his
chin guns. Maybe if they could sit a little bit
more flush, that might be my only other thing. And
maybe a little bit of the arm kibble I think

(39:19):
might be able to be fixed. But if this is
the start of Bruticus, I can't wait to see what
else is gonna happen. Like the Transformers combiners that we've
been getting pretty much in the last couple of years
have all been fantastic. Like I love Menosaur, I think
he's fantastic. I've got most of Superior so far, and

(39:41):
eventually I'm gonna be talking about the Transformers Studio series
eighty six Devastator as I now have mindfully complete. So
if Hasbro keeps going along this way with its combiners,
I think this is gonna be fantastic. The only thing
I might say that might be a hiccup, and this

(40:03):
is probably something more focused on the collector's market, is
I hope they make these things really easy to find
at retail. I know some of the distribution across Canada
and the US has been a little troublesome of late
with people trying to find parts of this. And I
know Vortex was sited in Canada long before a lot
of US people were able to get them at active retail.

(40:26):
So look around at your favorite retailers. Make sure you're
checking your local stores too, so your Walmarts, your Targets,
your Walgreens wherever or in Canada, Toys r US. Walmart's
been really good at getting these guys in I found,
And yeah, I mean, ultimately, if you pick up Vortex,
you're probably getting one of the best deluxe classes right

(40:49):
now and you are not going to be disappointed with this.
As soon you will be able to form the mighty
Bruticus and that's going to be outstanding. I'm really looking
forward to it. Even if you don't get the rest
of the combaticons, this is a sick standalone deluxe but
trust me, you're gonna want to form the big beefy

(41:09):
brute guess at some points.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Rutilus devastate, devastate. Alex the producer here, and I'm here
to talk about a couple of products from our friends
over at Turtle Beach. That's right. We've actually talked about
productions in the past, and uh even ones in these

(41:47):
series before, but I wanted to pair a couple of
things up that we have received over the last few
weeks and have had time to finally really dig into.
And that is the at Last two hundred headset and
the Victrix, which, if you remember from back in the day,
you used to be under the PDP line, but now
they're all sort of merged into one big, happy family company,

(42:09):
the Victrix pro BFG reloaded. We've talked about the Victrics
uh pro BFG controllers before on multiple platforms in the
last year or so, and this what we have here
is sort of the revitalized, uh you know, enhanced, you know,
quote unquote better version of that. So we'll just sort

(42:31):
of briefly give an overview of each. With the Atlas
two hundred, you have a wired headset. We've talked about
their wireless headsets in the past, and this is you know,
branded to you know, look like you know, the PS five.
It has like the logo right on there and it
comes to either black or white with blue accent for

(42:53):
the white. One sort of match what your PS five
would be like. And what you have here is it
says it has tenpests three audio support for the PS
five consoles. I'll be honest with you, every headphone has that.
If it's wired headphone, it's plugged into your controller. That's
a feature on the system itself. I will say this

(43:14):
is tuned pretty well for it, because that is a
technology that's done on the software end. It's not something
that is like, you know, it's not like a direct
to coding thing that has to do with like wireless headphone. Yes,
that's a thing on Sony's official wireless headphones that they
have a decoder that runs with their own special codec
and YadA, YadA, YadA. But one of the features that

(43:37):
they have is anything that plugs in wired, they do
a simulated effect that way. And I can say it's
pretty darn good and it's clear that the drivers in
here are made to be able to handle it quite well.
It is real lightweight two hundred and eighty grams. For
our American friends, that's about half a pound. It's not
too heavy on the head at all. And I've got

(43:58):
a big noggin where you know, a heavier headphones that
are a little tight, they can really start to weigh
on my head. Not the case here at all. The
microphone is pretty good. It's not the best microphone I've
ever heard, but it's also on a sixty dollars MSRP package.
It's one of the better ones, especially at that price point.

(44:20):
It is quite clear hearing everything as far as you
know it's connection. It uses standard three point five millimeter
headphone jack for that. I think it's a quad pole
whatever the TRSs, I think it's the terminology for it.
It does have really good ear cushions. They're calling it
their patented prospects duel foam. I call it comfortable, is

(44:44):
what I call it. It does have good cushions for
the top part of your head too as well, which
is something that sometimes people will cheap out on. Not
in the case here. Just really good fifty millimeter drivers,
which means you're going to have a pretty good frequency range.
It's not going to have cranked us high to really
push some high quality audio through it. It's solid and

(45:04):
also big trick of the trade here for me is
not just using it on the PlayStation itself. I use
it plugged it into my high fi stereo set, my
you know, my my good receiver where I could really
really crank them and give them a you know, give
them a good here to all. And you know, I
wouldn't necessarily recommend it for everybody because you can crank
headphones pretty loud at damage. Your ears don't do that,

(45:27):
but I can tell you this, you can crank them
pretty loud if you've got them plug into a proper
amp without distortion. So it's pretty good. These are a
pretty solid set overall, especially you know, in that sub
seventy five dollars price point, and you're probably going to
find them, you know, maybe even on sales as we
get closer to the holidays. Keep an eye out on
our holiday gift guidecause we're probably going to include some

(45:47):
stuff from Turtle Beach in there. Maybe keep your eye
on this as far as the frequency response range, you know,
twenty to twenty hurts twenty killer Hurts is in some
of the best ranges you're going to find in a
fifty million drivers in the sub audio file category, so
you know they're no joke. They're pretty good. As far
as what comes in the box, you get the headset

(46:09):
and a quick start manual. Because it is a wired
solution where it's all connected together, that in itself is
good and again it's something you can take with you
in the go. I wish more and more portable devices
still used, you know, a headphone jack, but in my
case to test it out, even on my phone, I
just used the USBC to headphone jack adapter and I
was able to use it as fine, and because it

(46:31):
is a standard connector on her, I was able to
actually make some phone calls through my phone using it
that way, and it's perfectly fine. Good alternative there works
pretty darn good. And even though it's not branded for it,
because it's using the standard headphone jack, I was able
to plug it into my switch to and music just
fine there too. So you know it's not going to
be color coordinated or licensed you know, quote unquote for

(46:54):
that use, but it does have the versatility of being
a traditional analog headset that in mind, it looks good,
it's priced good, it's worth picking up. As for the
Victrix pro BFG reloaded, I was a little curious as
to what had changed because to me, at first glance,
I was like, this looks pretty much like the controllers

(47:15):
that we were viewed earlier. You know, comes in black
or white with the with the carrying case and the
replaceable pieces. It says, this is the controller that you
can flip the modules around so you can have you know,
the layout exactly how you want symmetrical asymmetrical, uh, flipping
over the controllers into a fight stick mo that sort

(47:37):
of stuff. Now, it does have the modules, and what
has been changed here is you've you've got like full
hall effect technology included. The micro switches in the fighting
stick mode actually feels I don't know ever, so slightly
better to me, if that makes any sense. Now there

(47:58):
are five stop hall offfect clutch triggers and hair trigger mode.
So what they've done is they've sort of improved the triggers.
The Hall effect aspect has been improved. You have slightly
better switches on micro switches on the buttons on the
fighting mode. There's a bunch of interchange, a couple of
colonas that can change like your dpad styles, your analog

(48:19):
stick lengths, that sort of stuff. Wired and wireless connectivity
twenty hours at charge of the battery. I don't think
it's different on paper as far as the battery charge
for wireless mode, it felt like it was getting more
out of the box than I remember with, so that
just might be efficiencies in their app. There is the
control Hub Companion app for the PC which you can

(48:41):
use to do firm re updates if you need to.
Always suggest checking it out the first time you do it,
but also built in three point five millimeters audio jack
which supports the Sony three D audio through that, which
is great. And because you have the wired connectivity, it
means that if you plug it in and you don't
want to use the BET, you'll get not just you know,

(49:02):
have it connected and connecting the battery in that if
you plug it in through a USB cable directly into
the PS five, you'll actually be able to control it
as a wired controller for zero latency. And the biggest
features here are the fact that it's got you know,
anti drift thumbsticks and uh, some of the ergonomics have
been updated and it's a pretty solid you know reload,

(49:26):
and I do recommend it. It's not the cheapest controller
out there. You're looking at about two hundred dollars two
nine or so MSRP the US, but with the price
of all like first party stuff going up, this is
still a better option I think than in many cases
one of the first party stuff, or especially some of
the higher end, real expensive pro controllers that are out there.

(49:50):
This is kind of a happy medium if you want
a really cool versatile controller that can like flip around
to have, you know, multi uses for fighting aims for
p that prefer, you know, having their controllers in symmetrical
or asymmetrical. It's sort of a multi purpose all in one.
I do think it's worth it, and it also works
on PC, so that's pretty solid. Probably worth checking out again,

(50:12):
maybe even Parrott with that Atlas two hundred headset, and
you've got yourself pretty cool gift ideas. Stay tuned for
a holiday gift guide on that. But that's it. We're
gonna hopefully check out more from Turtle Beach soon, but
as it stands, these are great going into the into
the fall season. Worth checking out. Great controller, great headset.
At the end of the week, you would be an

(50:33):
entirely different persons.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
What happens in highest stay some time and.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Then then hey, guys, this is Mike the Birdman here,
and we are talking about something we got sent from
our friends over at Warner Brothers Home Entertainment. I'm looking
at The White Lotus the complete third season on DVD.
This is part of the HBO Max series based upon
the White Lotus television show. I will admit this is

(51:00):
something I haven't really had a chance to follow. I've
heard through some friends of mine that it's okay. So
I'm like, all right, well, I guess let's give this
a whirl. So I sat down with my wife Blair,
and well, we dove into this.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Thing.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
And as the box says, same luxury New reservations. So
my wife is the one who primarily wrote this review,
and I'll give you my impressions along the way as well.
So as my wife says. This season features an ensemble
cast of great actors, notably Leslie Bibb, Parker, Posey Scott, Glenn,
Sam Rockwell Loved That Guy, to name a few. Also

(51:35):
returning are some actres from previous seasons. The series follows
the lives of the staff and wealthy guests at a
wellness resort in Thailand. The series follows the exploits of
the guests and staff at during a week at the
fictional resort hotel chain called The White Lotus, and the
first season was filmed and set in Hawaii, the second
season was in Sicily, and obviously now we're here in Thailand.

(51:57):
This is something that I tried to get into with her,
and according to me in my wife, it feels like
not a lot really kind of happens. It's kind of
like a bizarre, dark comedy with like a soap opera.
This is so not my bag, and I feel really
terrible because when I get a chance to review some

(52:18):
of these series, I didn't like the other HBO series
I got sent to Succession. While I will admit there's
some really funny bits in that show that's a lot
more my speed than this, and I really wonder I
feel like that Simpson's meme where it's Principal Skinner going,

(52:39):
am I out of touch?

Speaker 2 (52:40):
No?

Speaker 1 (52:40):
No, No, it's the children that are wrong, And that's
what I feel like this, Like, I don't get this,
and I feel like I'm gonna be the outside critic
that just doesn't like this because of whatever, and that's
whether I'm able to separate myself from the art. But
this just isn't me. But from what I've had a

(53:02):
chance to look around from other of my peers, a
lot of people just don't like the weird pacing in this,
and that's kind of what distracted me. And I'm not
like the type of person where you have to jangle
keys in front of my face to get my attention,
but it just I'm sorry, this just isn't my bag,
and I tried really hard. That being said, there are
some special features, but none of them are particularly deep

(53:25):
or insight insightful. I mean, yay Thailand, I guess. I mean,
it's really weird that they're offering this show on DVD.
As far as I can tell, this is the only
way to get this on a physical format. Why this
isn't on Blu Ray kind of blows my mind. But
I would imagine probably next year or something similar will

(53:47):
probably get like a box set of everything in Blu
ray and higher definition. Especially when you're filming in a
place like Thailand that really has that visual spark, that's
what you want because you really want to see those
little details in a place like that is so amazingly
interesting for all the movies that have been filmed there,
especially here on Twig. We just talked about Mortal Kombat

(54:10):
in an upcoming episode and that really pops. It's just
such a visually interesting place anyway, side tangent, So, can
I recommend The White Lotus to complete third season? Well,
if you like seasons one and two, yeah, sure you're
gonna finish this out. But I know for me, this
is so not me, and I'm really sorry. So that's

(54:32):
where I'm gonna say. I would say this is for
completionists only. However, if you do want to try this series,
you can watch this series on HBO or in Canada
you can watch this on Crave or I think you
can get this digitally through Apple TV as well.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
To Thailand and a week of New Memories.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
Those magnificent facts color me kooky, but something very odd
is going on around here.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
You're not allowed to talk anymore, all right, And that's
gonna do it for the show this week. We actually
have plenty coming up as we enter the fall season
with our regular schedule programming. As I mentioned, Burdman and
I are back. We're recording. We're actually going to have
to record the day that the show comes out due
to some scheduling. So because of that, we will not

(55:19):
have our regular fall show at seven am Eastern timely
we used to do. It'll be some time mid afternoon,
I believe. But after that we should be back to
releasing every one of the flagship shows on Monday mornings,
as well as having some other stuff to come out
in between. As far as programming coming this week, we
have the regular show as mentioned, We also have a

(55:44):
loose cannon on Weird Out coming. We have a bunch
of other stuff in the camera to go and stuff
that we're recording as well, but that's what's going to
be coming early in the week, as well as Earth
versus Soup. The episode coming up will be episode two
twenty five Invisible Agent. That's from nineteen forty two, so
look forward to that this week. We are already planning

(56:07):
to some of our fall programming where we've got stuff
in the mail that we're waiting on to talk about
for review, getting some gift guide plans going. This is
when like the gaming season releast picks up when it
comes to larger games, and that's one of the reasons
why this stuff has sort of been delayed because we
we've had personally multiple games that are like fifty hour
games to go through, all sort of overlapping on each other,

(56:29):
and it's only going to get crazier as we get
into the holiday season. So we're trying to schedule all
that out, figure everything out as it goes. But that's
what we've got going on at least in the next
few days up to a week or so, and we'll
have plenty more to talk about later as we, weirdly enough,
are already planning to release our Halloween content. We've got
a few things already ready to go. We've got a

(56:49):
few things planned, and I'm sure that Birdman will share
more of that over the next few weeks as we
start entering our spooky season, or as Birdman likes it,
pretty much his favorite time of the year. So that's
going to do it. Thanks for listening. We're back talk
to you guys very soon. Right here at this week
in geek dot NEP.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you
even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
Thanks for listening to this episode of this Week in
Geek Hungry for more, check out our website at this
Week in Geek dot Net. You can subscribe to the podcast,
browse our Twitter and Instagram, and leave your thoughts on
today's topics. If you'd like to give us some feedback,
send us an email at Feedback at this Week in
Geek dot Net. Tune in next time, and remember, lower
your shields and surrender your listenership.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
We would be on a if you would join us.
Thank you for your cooperation. Good night,

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