Rebel FM
Rebel FM Episode 45 - 01/01/10
Welcome to 2010! We greet it with a podcast recorded in 2009! This week we're down one Tyler Barber but up a Matt Chandronait and one Greg Ford, of Area5/Co-op and Bitmob respectively as we talk about Bayonetta, Borderlands and more, then move on to some letters. New Year's Diet'ed penis!All of this week's music is courtesy of The Barnstormers (tracks include Misery, Let Me Do Right By You, and The Gift)
(upbeat music) ♪ So close the door behind ya ♪ ♪ It turned out the lights ♪ ♪ Laid me head up on the back of the pedestal tonight ♪ ♪ Laid me head up on the back of the bed ♪ - Hello, welcome to Rebel FM, episode 42. I believe it's 42 because the last one recorded, 641. - This is 45. - Oh. - We've just been using the same file over and over again. - Oh, 45. - It's 45, fuck it, it might be 46. - It's either 45 or 46. And either way, you've downloaded it and-- - You were sure a minute ago that it was 42. - I was, well, I don't, we said it was such authority, you know, I was convinced. - I just went off that number of the save file, so. - It was 2010, it just boils down to you. - So yeah, this is our last podcast for 2009. I'm Anthony Gallegos, with me as Arthur Geese. - Greetings. - The ghost of Tyler Barber. - Uh-huh, hmm. - The mic is all set up and everything. - And that's like, he's like, he's like, he's there. - I wish we had a hat that we had to sit on the track. - And then, and then-- - Oops, they're hat. - I can do my Tyler voice. - Area 5's mesh, Anginae. - Yeah, I can do my Tyler voice. - You're a new Matt. - What do you get? - Hey, I'm Tyler Barber. Yo, that's totally clutched, dude. (laughing) - How do you feel about Donut, Tyler? - Donuts are fucking rad. - I don't know what it is. - Donuts are clutched, too. You got it? - Donuts are clutched, too. And then, last but not least, we have-- - I'm sorry, Tyler. - We have-- - I love you, Tyler. - We have BitMob's Greg Ford. - Hey, guys, how's it going? - Joining us from, I don't know, he's here, but normally you're where. - Indiana. - Oh, true Midwest. - No one cares about Indiana. - I had no idea. - I knew it was Midwest. - It was not in California, right? - Basically, California might as well be its own planet. I'm like, whatever goes on on the other rest of Earth, I do not know. - Indiana is what they call a flyover state. - Yeah. - Nah, I mean, that's cool. I would like to-- - Now, all of your listeners in Indiana have now turned you off. - Perhaps you could muster a little more excitement than, that's cool. - I've seen a lot of states, maybe Indiana's red. It can't be any worse than Nebraska, Arkansas. - No, they're all the same. - I'm pretty sure that it is better than Nebraska, Arkansas. I'm sorry if you live in Nebraska, Arkansas, but I lived in Nebraska for six months. - Yeah. - It scarred me for three months. - Nebraska, Nebraska, I thought when I did this true pursuit question the other day, asked me which is the state with the highest amount of agriculture, like per space. And I was like, clearly that's Nebraska. It's not Iowa. I just wanna know that. - It's been kicking yourself for that one. - Yeah, I have. Yeah, I played, of course, when I get together with my family, we play trivial pursuit and just, and it's always like these ridiculously hard questions like that, like who knows that shit? - Is that what you did for Christmas and suit it instead of seeing Sherlock Holmes? - Yeah, and my family all got drunk while they're playing, so. - Awesome. - On Moonshine. - On Moonshine. - Bad ass. - So we're here to talk about video games. It's gonna be a shorter show. We're just gonna do some games we've been playing, which in a lot of cases will be games that have already evened out 'cause I think people have been doing ketchup. - I have some new stuff. - And then we're gonna answer some letters. I mean, I have new stuff too, but a lot of it we can't talk about yet, which sucks. - Ho-ho, and I didn't talk about all of it. - Or dark ciders. I can't talk about dark ciders, the thing. I kinda wonder how much dark ciders you could talk about 'cause Game Informer posted their review. - Again, that's an exclusive for a reason, you know? ♪ Money, money, money ♪ - I'm not saying that. - Thank you for the audio compliment to my-- - No, it's just, you know, I mean, that Tyler is-- - That was my Tyler video. - Yeah, that was my Tyler video. - I mean, the beginning, like, I could probably talk about the very beginning of the game, but. - So if he's mini Matt, are you Uber Tyler? - Yes, yes I am. - So yeah, let's let Greg kick it off. - That was totally clutch. - Since he's new, since he is his first time here. Greg, what games have you been playing? - God, I've been traveling, so not many. You probably shouldn't have started with me, but-- - No portables? - Well, I have, but they're older ones. - No, I don't carry how old it is. - It's the first time Greg Ford is on this podcast. - No, I think people wanna hear about older games sometimes, too. - Do they wanna hear about Zelda, the Minish Cap? - Sure. - I never even played that. - I never played it either. Is it good? Is it one of the better handheld Zelda's? I don't know. - Put it this way, I've been playing it over the course on and off for like two or three years, and I can't quite get myself to finish it. - Oh, more. - So I typically play on planes pretty much exclusively. - Right. - Is it a GBA game? - Sweet. - So I have to consciously take out the little extra slot, put it in that game, okay? I wanna play this during this break, you know, during this time. - What would you rather have though? Like Zelda game, you finish over the course of three years or something like the Phantom Hourglass, which I played for three and a half hours and walked away from consciously. Never to play again. - Yeah, and I think I did finish Phantom Hourglass in between, and I liked it after I got past kind of like, I mean, I was annoyed by the dungeon to keep going too, but I found it a lot like Wind Waker, which I think was one of the best Zelda's that out there. And it had that. - Did you, have you tried the new one? - No, and actually I just ordered it off and it was like 25 bucks on Amazon, so I finally ordered that. What were you playing that in the next couple weeks or something? - Word. - But yeah, Minish Cap, you know, and it feels like those old GBA ones where you can like, god, I don't even know it. I only played like through one dungeon before I was done on my flight or something. And you can like jump and stuff. It has that older school look to it, naturally. And the weapon seemed actually a little bit more creative though. We had this like, you have the Gus Jar so you can like suck things in, shoot them out. - That's like never, is that in other Zelda games? - Not that, I like how somehow I'm the de facto Zelda. - Well, you've played more than I have, which is to say I've only ever played more. - I don't know, the Kirby mechanic is not something typically found in Zelda games. - Yeah, so it had that, and of course it has the boomerang, and what it was, and it had like those boots that run and it gives you a charging attack, you know? I mean, it's stuff that, you know, it were like, I don't know, I mean, again, it didn't suck me. Like what bugged me is that you have to do that shrinking thing. That's kind of the big thing about it. You have to shrink yourself down and go into different passages. I kind of like don't like redoing parts of dungeons, but this time small, you know, or backtracking so you can come back like, oh, I see a little door there, I gotta go-- - Once you have bombs, you can blow it up or something like that. - You just got a little board of honey, I shrunk Zelda. - Yeah, no, it gets old, you think, okay, I have to go back to the shrinking stump or whatever it is, and a couple of screens back, and then come back through, and then go through it, you know, and then flip that switch, then turn big again. - It becomes this too repetitive for me, and I just, because of that, I just keep putting it down, I can't quite finish it, but when you beat a dungeon, it feels, it does that satisfaction too, you know, I'm like, all right, I got it all, I got the new item, and when you use against a boss, it's pretty cool. You have a pair of digging claws. You put on these like mole claws, and you dig through, I just remember that, that's what I just got. - Was this like a Zelda game that was like very much like a full release, or like I don't feel like-- - I know, I actually, was it Capcom that did mineish cap? Actually? - I don't think so, it, you know, I don't remember-- - 'Cause it sounds cooler than any other Zelda game I've played already when you're talking about digging claws and stuff. - Yeah, it sounds like it had like all-- - It sounds rad! - That's why I mean-- - It sounds like it has a lot of great weapons that aren't so tied to tradition. - Yeah, and I mean, like, yeah, if they didn't have that whole mini part of it, you know, I think it would actually be a lot better for that, 'cause that's almost kind of like the, about the Ocean King thing in Phantom Hourglass, is the part like you just kind of dread doing, like I don't wanna do this again, you know? You gotta keep doing that. But then again, I'm kind of more of a stubborn gamer, so I do try to finish all the games I have, or at least put some time in, so that's why I did finish Phantom Hourglass, and that's why I'm trying to finish this so I can like, put it away for good, you know? That's my goal. And so, I made a little more progress, and I'll probably go back, but again, I'm not loving it, so-- - 2013, Minish Cap will be committed. - That is the most dysfunctional video game relationship. - It's bad, but well, I mean, in general, portable games, I don't play that often. I know I hear that you play 'em in bed each night almost, you know, as you went to sleep or something. I really don't play them at home at all, so it's only when I go on a trip like once or twice a year, and then I usually wanna play like the latest Castlevania or something, you know, something that-- - I think that's true for most people. - Yeah, and so for me, it does take years, even though I've only put in like 10 hours total, you know? It's not like, you know, putting a lot of time into these games, but wanna get 'em done. And the other one I was playing was GTA Chinatown Wars on the DS one. - That's a good one. - Yeah, that's one I've regrettably only got in a couple of, like an hour and a half into. - Yeah, and I, it had been probably six months since I played it. I quickly got back into it. It is really good. And I'm a big fan of the GTA series in general, and this one, I'm just impressed that they have, it has that huge, lived-in city vibe to it. It really feels like a real place, you know, which that just impresses me to no end. - And the fact that-- - Oh, sorry, sorry. I'm just saying the fact that it's like 3D as much as it is and stuff, all that stuff, I thought was like, first when I saw screenshots, I was like, that's gonna run so awful and look so bad, but then when you play, you're like, wow, it's like, it really works. - Yeah. Yeah, and then like amazingly, the driving controls, first, they're kind of a little funny, 'cause I think it kind of straightens you out a little bit when you take a turn. - It does, yeah. - But once it becomes second nature, which it does pretty quickly, now I'm taking turns like weaving through traffic, like I always do on the big boy ones, or GTA 4 or whatever, and, you know, I'm digging it, you know, and then the missions are all just like, basically boil down to, you know, attack, kill this guy or, you know, deliver this. You know, so it's nothing different. - Actually, it's some fun with the drug trafficking stuff. - Yeah, you know what, I always get sidetracked by that. - The whole-- - GTA, man. (laughing) - Why is this the weirdest conversations that spawn up here? - I love drug trafficking. - Yeah, it's great. - Let me know if I could only do it cross-border. - Well, I love, you know, you get the message, like, oh, dude, I'm paying top dollar for crack, you know. - Right. - As much as you can by Thursday, and you know, I get a great price. And in the markups you get are amazing, you know? It's like, you get the market price, you get your purchase price, and you get the selling price, you know, and like, if you get like double, like, one time I got 10 times what I had bought it for, it was amazing. I got like-- - Totally had my stash back at my safe house, was totally always full of drugs, 'cause I would, if I happen to be driving by somebody that had something on sale, I would just buy everything that he had, 'cause I'm like, I'll be able to sell it at some point. - Yeah. - It's like season four of the wire all over again. - And you guys are drug lords. - Fully. It's actually what I'm thinking about doing on the side to make money while we try to make area five work. - There you go. - I'm curious, 'cause we never had you on the show before ever, I'm gonna talk about it again, we've talked about it a lot real quick. Did you ever play red faction, Gorilla? I just feel like that's a game you would love. - And I want you, a lot, because you guys talk about a lot and it sounds great. - Or, and you've loved their other games, I know you like Saint Joe, too, a lot. - Yeah, yeah, I'm a fan of that series, too. - This podcast is actually why Greg is not playing that game, because I'm not fucking shut up. - We just sat you down here to actually ask you that and call you about. (all laughing) - You got some THQ reps in the back game. (all laughing) - No kidding, yeah. - No, I didn't see him back there. - Yeah, and I wanted to play that. I missed a few games of summer, 'cause I was in the process of moving. - Yeah. - Helping out a bit, mob at the time, you know, and doing all that, I missed a lot, I missed prototype as well. - And red faction in prototype came out during E3, which doesn't help. - Yeah, 'cause there were those in infamous, and so I made sure to play infamous, you know, that's the one I played. - You made a good call. - Right, but I always wanted to play, and then the other two were ghostbusters and red faction, Gorilla. And I didn't get to either of those, I think. - You can't fully avoid ghostbusters. - To be fair, as I'm sitting here giving you shit, I've neither, I've played neither red faction or ghostbusters, so. - There you go. - I think I haven't played ghostbusters, but I think red faction is probably a better game than infamous, at least it was for me. - Yeah, I think so. I think it is a lot more interesting stuff. It just wasn't a console exclusive. - So is that all you've been playing recently? - Great. - And then before I left, I played, I did a beat, I sat since grade two. - Nice. - Awesome. - And actually I did it like on a rental, so I took like five days or something, just like kind of blew through it. - Jesus Christ, Greg, five days, man, that must have been intense. - I never rented it for two more, so it was like seven total, but I took six days to beat it. And there was almost like a dumb thing to do because the first day into it, after I got over the learning curve, or like, you know, re-aclamated myself too, the admittedly complex controls, I think you're convoluted, holding down three buttons or two buttons and running forward just to run up a wall. I always thought that was too much, you know? It should be made easier than that. But once I got kind of past that, I got back into the fighting system all the time. I loved it, I was thinking this game is amazing, this game is great. And then by day five, I'm like, I want this to end, you know, just because, again, I want it to beat it. I wanted it to be done, you know, I wanted it to play it, finish it, and be done with it this segment and out, you know, being move on because-- - It does last a really long time. It is a really long game. - Well, especially if you're doing all the side missions. - Yeah, and I did most of them. I didn't do all the feathers, collect all the feathers. - Right. - But everything else I pretty much was on top of. Although I stopped doing the races and that kind of stuff. - Did you feel compelled to discover the truth? - I did, was that getting all 20? - Yeah. - All 20 videos, yeah, I got all those, yeah. - Yeah, those are, 'cause at least they show you on the map where those are. - Yeah. - So you can actually find those. And I mean, yeah, it was great. Like, there were so many layers to it. It was amazing and so much better than the first one. I mean, I was just blown away just by the variety there and how the mission structure is actually a lot like GTAs where you just get a mission from some person. You know, you just go do it and it's always different. It's not like, do one of three things, like the first one, it's no. It's just like a constantly evolving story that you're just following. You know, it's talking to different people. I think that worked really well for it. And just, it was so massive too. And I, yeah, I built up my friggin, my pad, you know, back there and all the paintings and stuff. I really dug it, but yeah, I think I burned myself on it just by doing it too quickly. - So you're not gonna run it again with the DLC, it comes out in a week or two? - Yeah, probably not. - It sounds like a bad idea when you're going to school full-time. - Yeah, yeah, that's the biggest thing, 'cause I just finished finals when I rented it. I'm like, all right, I need to play a good game. - Yeah, and I remember that. - I don't know why I'm doing that again. It's like, I'm like, oh, I forgot how much papers, projects, you know, in finals, just. - Yeah, it is nice though, when you're like, I have five days to do nothing. And I will use these five days for every moment. - Yeah, it didn't mean that I did. And the only other thing I played on, like on my brothers, I played this modern warfare too. - Yeah, I'm talking about that, 'cause I've been playing that too. - Me too. - Yeah, and actually just a lot of, I'd finished a single player a couple weeks or a month ago, and I played some spec off, so I was playing competitive now. I usually just turn on a podcast, turn down the sound, and I just zone out and play it. - Man, that game is super addictive. I played like four hours of yesterday, but at the same time, that game frustrates me incredibly with some of the things that I like, man, more so than the original, when one team starts winning now, it can be like a total landslide, like at least in the games I was playing, I don't know if people were just like a super high level, and they had really good kill streaks, but it seemed like every game I was playing, someone was getting either the helicopter that you can control the turret of, or an AC-130, and then it was just like, (laughing) just steam rolled us. I mean, it was ridiculous. - But if you can get somebody with a stinger though, like the helicopter goes down instantly. - You have to be really, I mean, what level do you unlock the stinger? - 50. - I don't know. - 50. - Are you fucking serious? - Wow. - No, it's not 50. It is. - I saw Ryan get a stinger, and he wasn't at 50. - Is that a stinger, or just like a standard rocket, because I have those, like you get those right away. - Yeah, did those lock on? You know, I hear it, like do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. - They do, but they don't take down a hind, like in one shot, or a hair like a stinger. - Stinger, as far as I knew you had to, you didn't get till level 50, 'cause that was why we were, when that hack was out, or that glitch everyone was doing with the stinger. - Oh. - Well, maybe I had to javelin. - Javelin, never mind, javelin's a little 50. - Okay, okay. - I'm dumb. Javelin's a little 50, stinger, unknown. - Yeah. (laughs) - I mean, the default rocket that you have, you don't have RPGs anymore, you have like the rocket that locks on, which is great, but it doesn't, most of the higher level kill streak stuff, it doesn't take out in one shot. - And I guess, I mean, I really should start taking a rocket, you're right, because I hardly ever live long enough to ever use my sidearm. (laughs) - Yeah. (laughs) - 'Cause I always take like a machine pistol, but very rarely have I ever had a chance to actually use it. - Yeah. - So maybe I will, yeah. - Like, and here I am, like talking about, like I'm some call duty expert, but I, all I've played is the single player in a little bit of spec ops. - Maybe you're channeling your Tyler again at that point. (laughs) - Yeah, Tyler loves that, loves that game. I mean, it is really fun. Like, there's a reason, there were a lot of awards that I argued for at the Game of the Year awards, you know, but when it came to multiplayer game of the year, it was like, it wasn't even a debate for me. - Really? I mean, I do recall us having a conversation a few weeks ago about Battlefield 1943, actually being a more enjoyable man. - Tyler likes it more, but I just think that, Battlefield 1943 is a fantastic multiplayer game that I just think that there's something about, I'd never played 1943 for as long as I would do Call of Duty or the new one. Like, there's just something about it, especially that that mode Team Death Match Express, I would have never have tried that if Paul hadn't tried it first, but I really like that mode. It's just like rounds where it probably takes less than 10 minutes, probably only like six minutes per round. It's just like super fast, the match ends super quickly. - Wait, is that Modern Warfare or is that? - Yeah, Modern Warfare 2, really. Team Death Match Express, it's like six minute rounds, map rotation really quick. It doesn't take very long at all for teams to win. - Huh. - And in a way, if you're carrying them at the level grind, you get that bonus at the end of the game, so you're getting that a lot more frequently. - I should try that. - Yeah, Team Death Match. It is really fun. A lot of times when I would play regular Team Death Match and stuff, I would find that I would join, and then after that one round, I'd see what the next map is and leave, but in this one, because the rounds are so short, I usually stay in one lobby, and so does everyone generally, just like sitting in one lobby for a long time. And it is super easy to get lost in the same way that like when you're doing like really quick fetch quests in WoW, if you lose track of your life, in the same way in this one, it's like every six minutes you're doing a new level, so you're like, one more. - Right. - One more. - And then all of a sudden the sun's coming up, so. - Well, I mean, that was Paul. - Yeah. - Yeah, but yeah, I do really enjoy it. I also find more so than I ever did in the original Call of Duty, because I actually do want to get to certain levels that I actually will switch up the weapon I'm using, because they've made it to where they reward you so much. - Yeah. - For like, if you're using the M16, you never use anything with the M16, you'll never get all that experience. Like, you killed 10 people with this gun, and then I'll be like, all right, now I got that. Switch to another gun. Kill 10 people with it. Switch to another gun. Just like go out of my way to do these little microachievements that I would never care about otherwise. - Yeah, the way that Dan Shoe put it was, it's like 10,000 carats on a stick. - Yeah, and they're always pretty easy to obtain, but there's always a hundred more. - Yeah. - So. - Well, you know, I more adopted Tyler's method when I heard him, he'd goin' through each weapon. - Yeah. - So now I went back to the M4, and I'm just goin' through that. I have like one more part of that to get. And I like that though, 'cause like, rather than outthink yourself, like I gotta, I use this loadout for this level. - You just play. - You just play it, and you get better and better with that gun, and now I'm doin' long range shots for this gun that isn't really made for that, you know? And it's, I feel like I'm getting better because of it. - I think your way of playing is arguably smarter than mine. (laughs) - It's smarter if you wanna win, but if you wanna grind up levels and get-- - I really wanna get to level 19 as my current goal. I'm 16, and I wanna be 19, because then I could play hardcore team deathmatch. - Yeah, I gotta switch over, 'cause I did get to 22 now, and I do wanna, I used to play hardcore. And I just keep doin' big team battles. - I do wanna do some big team battles too, yeah. I mean, in general, I actually find that there, the one thing I will say that I don't like about the multiplayer is I find that there are less maps that I like in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 than the first Modern Warfare. Like, there are a lot of maps that I like grown at on this one. - I hate Infinity Ward forever for calling it Call of Duty 4 than Modern Warfare 2. - I know, I should just call it Modern Warfare 2. - Not a fucking podcast goes by where it's brought up where someone doesn't like get mixed up in what nomenclature number it is. (laughs) Call of Duty 6 assholes. (laughs) - But yeah, I don't know. I've been having a great time with that. - Yeah, no, it is. It still has that hook to it, you know. And I can't wait to get home so I can continue playing. - That's basically, I mean, for me, it's like the next Modern Warfare, I honestly wouldn't care if all it was, was like Spec Ops missions and a new multiplayer. Like, I don't necessarily need or really want that single player thing as much from them these days. The multiplayer really is like-- - 'Cause the single player on Modern Warfare 2 was pretty disappointing. - For me, anyways, but-- - Yeah, no, it was underwhelming. And like, I played through it once. Yeah, I feel like the obligation. Like, play through it once, see everything they have to offer, do some great set pieces, and then, I don't need to play it again. - I didn't even find the set pieces to be that good. I found the set pieces in the first Call of Duty to be better. - They were, or Modern Warfare 1 here. - Modern Warfare. - No, the first Call of Duty. - Like Call of Duty? - Ah, really? - The set pieces in the original Call of Duty, I remember like the Normandy landing and everything. - Well, the first time you saw it, normally landing in that or medal of honor, you were like-- - Yeah, that was, it was fucking great. - I should download that, 'cause it gives you the free code. - It does. - I tried to play Call of Duty the original, and it's real hard to go back. - Oh, is it? - I mean, well, just the jump from Call of Duty to Call of Duty 2 was pretty huge. I don't know if you remember how much people bitched about the changes that they made. I mean, they basically took on a Halo model for almost everything. - Huh. - Yeah, there were health packs the first one. - You have to select grenades to throw them. You have multiple weapons, there are health packs, just the way that it moves and feels. - I just remember feeling like that the set pieces in the first one, and I remember being totally blown away by probably the first couple Call of Duty's by their set pieces. 'Cause that's what-- - Call of Duty 2 as well. - They defined like set pieces to me in terms of first-person shooter action games. - That is 100% true. - Yeah, and Modern Warfare 2, I hardly ever felt that. Like, I thought it was cool to be fighting around a burger town and a Taco Bell or whatever. - I actually really liked that. - I thought that was cool. - Yeah, but like when they bring it to your backyard or something, 'cause that's kind of what you imagine as kids when you're playing guns in the backyard. - Yeah. - 'Cause essentially what you're doing at that point. - Yeah, it is. - My issue with Modern Warfare 2 is just look, like it got so gonzo about it. It's just like piling these ridiculous set pieces on top of each other over and over again. It's like, okay, so we're fighting at burger time, and there's the big boy over there. Okay, we're fighting through this like gated community. Oh, there's the White House, and it's blown up. Oh, we're gonna destroy a space station. - Now planes are gonna fall out of the sky. - Yeah, now helicopters are falling everywhere. Now, something I won't say because it's a spoiler. - We'll see like the battle at the White House and the helicopters falling out of this guy. That was the only time in Modern Warfare 2 where I felt like I was on a set piece. Like everywhere else just felt like, you know, another combat map. - I will say that the best combination you can do if you have access to Netflix is to a, two, it's like wine paired with the fine cheese. You should play Modern Warfare 2, and then when you need a break, you watch future weapons, and you go back to Modern Warfare 2, because it's funny because you'll see all these guns and future weapons that are totally in Modern Warfare 2. - Nice. - Like the AA-12 automatic shotgun, totally an experimental weapon. It's in there, and you'll learn all these things, and you'll be like, "Ah, yes, now I do know about this machine gun." I don't know if you check your profile, whatever gun was featured, that's right. - If I haven't unlocked that shotgun last night, right? - I don't know. No, I used it once, and I was like, "This is awesome." I saw it on someone dead, and I was like, "It's fine." - I think you're about to unlock it, 'cause you're right behind me. - Yeah, I mean, that is such a cool... That show is like a total, see what you will, but it's silly, and it's got the most fuck yeah, dude leading it, but it goes so well with Modern Warfare. Just 'cause it's so, it just stokes that same nerdy part of you that's like, "Yeah, guns." - Nice, yeah. - It's good to have a thing to break it up, because I've noticed that our sort of call of duty play sort of enjoyment curve. It's like, start out sort of minimally interested, have it slowly go up to this really high point, and then have it abruptly drop off. - Yeah, you know, you have like that one round that you're just so furious at how bad it went. You're like one in 20, and you're like, "What just happened?" It's cheating, I just want to... - Maybe we played against Ice-T. - Last night I wanted to call someone out for cheating, and I was like, "No, I will not be that guy." But man, there was just this one guy that was, but when time ends with a tactical nuke, you're like, "No, no, that's not gonna happen." - No, when that never happened, it's just this one guy that was just running around all the time with double pistols, he never stopped running, and like, he was just... - You know, most of the time when people run around in Modern Warfare 2, and they run around like a psychopath, they usually have pretty even killed to deaths, like they may have really high kills, but they usually have a lot of deaths, 'cause they're just running and everyone. This guy was like fucking, I don't know, Steven Seagal, circa 1990. He would run in and fucking just kill everyone. - We would all drop. - We were all marked for death. - Yeah, he would just roll in and kill everyone, and we were like, "No, wait." (laughing) - What were the pistols he was using? - USPs, I believe. - Dual USPs. - Dual USPs, yeah, and he would just open that. He had infinite sprint, and he would just run at us all the time, and dude. - What did he kill me with a USB again? - I can't think of what it is. - Yeah, it was just amazing. - I've seen those guys with the double shot guns now. - The ones that they've twirled to re-order. - Yeah, but the thing is, they're killing me at range, which, that just pisses me off. You know, farther than I think they should be able to. - Yeah. - And like, one time I just flashed by his screen, like, through a crack, and he had shot and I went down. I'm like, there's no way you even hit me, you even saw me in enough time, I couldn't believe it. - Yeah, earlier today I had a really good game where I'm pretty sure people might've thought I was cheating, because for the first time I decided to take a machine gun, and I realized how big my clip was. So as soon as I got that, I'd see someone run through a doorway, and I would just start doing the guessing game. Like, you're probably over here. And then eventually, you see that little hit indicator, and I'm like, okay, then I'd kill 'em there. I know they're probably just thinking like, what the? - I was doing last night, and I've never done that, and they call it duty game before, but for some reason it's just super effective. - And they love rewarding you for that. They gave you the, like-- - The see through walls, yeah, yeah they do. I know they reward you for everything. And then I would do it while crouching. They'd be like, you killed 10 guys while crouching. I'm like, all right, now I'm gonna go lay down. - I'm gonna channel that gold my perfect dark thing. - Yeah, we're against people. - What else have people been playing? - You're looking at me, so I guess I'll go-- - Shandering. - Tyler. - Uber Tyler, what have you been playing? - So it's a little bit of older games for me too. We did a multiplayer special on co-op for this week's episode, and we talked very briefly about tribes. Like I think I just mentioned it. - Tribes two actually, so I-- - Are people still playing tribes too? - Yeah, there's a community, well the game was released for free after Sierra closed down all the servers. They released tribes too, yeah. But there wasn't anybody running servers. There was no like, 'cause tribes too, you had an online account that you signed into, like through Sierra's online thing or whatever, I guess. But anyway, there's a community out there, you can go to tribesnext.com, and you can download tribes too, and then you download their tribes next patch, which creates an account on their servers, so you can play it just like tribes too. And then it has the full on server list and everything. Yeah, there's totally, there's enough, there's a good 20 or 30 servers running at any one time, and there's always at least one that has-- - Like a good population? - Yeah, it has 30 to 50 people in it. So I downloaded it and I started, and tribes too, people have probably tired of me saying this by now, but tribes too is my favorite multiplayer game of all time. - I know plenty of people that would agree with you. Tribes too is one of those games that either you love it or you just don't understand why people do. It's just 'cause it's so fast. It's like the same way that like playing quick three or using the environment and doing absurd jumps and shooting people out of the air, it's like tribes totally has that, except then it has like absurd vehicles. - Yeah, and you have fucking jetpacks. - Exactly, and the whole skiing thing. Like you can dress in super heavy, I'm hardly ever a heavy, but like you can dress in the super heavy armor where you walk at a snail's pace, but you use a little bit of a jetpack, you go skiing down a hill and then you use your jetpack up the other side of the hill and you rock it, and you're fucking going like 300 miles an hour like in this heavy armor like over toward the enemy base. And like you just see shit like that happen all the time. Like the crazy stuff that happens with vehicles in that game and the base deployment. And my favorite thing is to be a sniper usually, but, and I usually try to be a sniper on defense, sometimes on offense, but that game has just totally sucked me in again. Like I just captured a little bit of footage for our show, and then I played it for like the next five days straight. Like just like whenever I had a few minutes to sit down, I would hop in and play a game. And I'm like, man, this grabs me just as much as it did back when I played it, when I first played it. - I had no idea that it was free. I mean, I had an idea that it was awesome. - Yeah. - I just haven't played it since like years ago. - You should totally give it a shot. It's just as playable as it always was. Like it blows, 'cause like a lot of games, a lot of shooters, I don't think age well, you know. Quake, age is very well. 'Cause you can play Quake for free now too. You can play it in your web browser at Quake. - No, I try to play arena that is. I try to play Quake in the browser back when it was still in beta and I just couldn't get into it. But I mean, maybe I just was never that into Quake enough. - Well, yeah, I mean, you know, you have to have played enough of it to like, I think be into it or whatever. But I think at age as well, like it's still, it's so fast and it's such a skill game, you know. And tribes too, I think actually age is very well too, especially because that massive open world formula that tribes too has, nobody has done since. I mean, like the battlefield games kind of do it, but you can't do. - They're not fast enough. - They're not fast enough. And you can't do all of the base building stuff that you can do with tribes. Like tribes, you can deploy sensor jammers, you can deploy remote inventory stations, you know. The missile turrets and like, there's all kinds of crap you can do in that game. And it's surprising, I'm like playing this, I'm like, man, I can't believe how well balanced this game is. For as much as you can do in tribes, it is very, very well balanced. You know, it's like, there can be, you know, I'm a sniper in my lightweight armor. There can be a heavy coming straight at me. And as long as I'm skilled enough, I'm gonna beat that heavy. - Well, even though he's skilled enough. - Or if the heavy's skilled enough, he's gonna beat me. You know, like there's no real 100% always winning combination in spite of all of the crap that you can do in that game and all the combinations of weapons and gear that you can have. So yeah, I've been playing that and I've been playing Mass Effect again on my PC 'cause I wanna have my PC save ready for when Mass Effect 2 comes out. - Yeah, I need to, I restarted Mass Effect a while ago. - He used to have a completed save already, don't you? - I don't know if I still have that completed save anymore or not. - That's why I had to play it again is I played most of the way through again on my PC and then my hard drive crashed, so yeah. - First you lack of Steam Cloud support. Yeah, I'm supposed to do the review for Mass Effect 2 and I'm hoping that we get retail code for just that reason. - Yeah. But yeah, Mass Effect is still a great game too. It's funny because after playing Dragon Age and loving Dragon Age so much, going back to Mass Effect, it really does feel like, wow, they've totally improved on some of the, some essential things like characterization and writing is improved in Dragon's 8-over Mass Effect and it was funny 'cause I remember the first time I played Mass Effect, it was like the RPG pinnacle for me at the time and now that's Dragon Age and I'm only hoping that Mass Effect 2 even lead Frogs Dragon Age. It's weird to think of franchises and competition from the same developer but it almost feels like they are. They're trying to, like BioWare is constantly trying to one up itself with every RPG that comes out. - Yeah, that's a good sign. It shows that they're evolving and always pushing the bar for, you know, and that's good because rather than just kind of repeat the same thing over and over. - Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I like internal competition actually, that's a great idea. - I just don't know who I have to fucking BioSoft to get a good inventory system. - BioWare. - BioWare. - BioSoft. - But yeah, I know it. - BioSoft. - Well, maybe I have to fuck some of the BioSoft in BioWare to fucking inventory system. - I don't know, is the inventory system in-- - It's not great in Dragon Age. I don't know what the inventory system is like in Mass Effect 2. - It's not, yeah, it's better in Dragon Age. I mean, they have the one menu that's like the other menu that has way too much crap in it, but-- - Yeah, I mean, Fallout 3 actually did a pretty good job with its inventory system by making health items and ammo not count against that because that really sucked and it blew in. But it's definitely not the case in Dragon Age. Like, you have all this alchemical stuff taking up a bunch of room and-- - Yeah, I just sold all that crap. - Yeah. - I'm a rogue, I have to make stuff. - I can't buy it pre-made. - It's cheaper, it's significantly cheaper. - It may be cheaper, but inevitably in every RPG I've ever played, by the end, money ends up being like the most worthless thing on the game. - Gold in Dragon Age is pretty huge. - It's actually, they are pretty stingy with the money in that game. I did have a lot at the end, but like I did just, I got rid of all of my trap making and alchemical stuff or whatever, unless it was, you know, how you can give your stuff to the people in your camp so that the end battle goes better for you. So I gave a lot of my stuff away, but everything else I just sold just to clear out inventory space. - I don't know, I've had a lot of luck using traps and flasks as a rogue. - I never used any of them. - That's my oh shit button. It's like, I am surrounded by four dudes. Time to throw it on an acid flask and do like a hundred damage to everyone. - Yeah, I should totally have done more of that. Like, I tend to do that a lot in games as I don't use those, in RPGs is I don't use those periphery abilities enough, even though they can tend to be really cool. And this time while I'm playing Mass Effect, I'm playing a Vanguard again because I just wanted to imitate my Xbox save so I didn't want to try something new. But I'm playing a Vanguard again. - The unknown is scary. - Yeah, that seems like a waste though. - I know, I play the game again. - I know, but it's like, it's kind of like I want to transfer my Xbox save to my PC and since I can't do that, I'm playing it the exact same way. - There's anything Mass Effect has taught us is that the unknown is frightening. - Do you play with a custom made looking character in Mass Effect? - Yes. - Is he made to look like an amalgamation of you and superhero if you were a superhero? - Oh, no, no, I play as a woman in Mass Effect. - Oh, okay. 'Cause Arthur's is roughly made to look like him in the sense that it's like-- - If he was like a super buffering-- - If Arthur went and robbed the liquor store down the street and they were like, "What did you see?" They'd be like, "I saw a white dude. "He didn't have hair, he was about this tall." - So that sort of deep set eyes and this weird chrome magnum brow thing. - And so then they would make Arthur's character on Mass Effect, just like mine. I tried to kind of lean towards making an adventure I just gave up and just made the most generic looking. - 'Cause there's been no character creator that does curly hair effectively. - Yeah, that's true. - But I mean-- - That's true. - Even still I tried to do me with a flat top. - I feel like you are in a stage that I was in when I would play D&D as a teenager where I would pick these classes where I don't wanna pick anything where I could run out of stuff. And then as I got older, I was like, "I kind of like using up stuff." - Well, I just don't like to play where I know I'm gonna play a class that will make it considerably more challenging for me. - You don't or do you? - I don't. I don't. Like playing the way you played Oblivion where you play as a character that shoots arrows and stuff, it's like slower. And you have to-- - I did that with Oblivion. But with Oblivion, I played as a stealth rogue character. - Yeah, that's what I did. And I mean, eventually in Oblivion, just the shit you do with arrows is ridiculous. - Yeah, it is. Like you'll see like this giant demon thing and you have like full 110% stealth or whatever. So he can't see you even when you're standing right next to him. So every attack is a sneak attack and you fire your arrow once into his head and his body ragdolls away like he got shot with a cannon. - That, I mean, like it got to the point where I could do an Oblivion gate run in about three minutes. - Well, Arthur just got to where he didn't even care about whether he was seen running their full speed and go grab the gem and just destroyed the whole gate and everything would be chasing him one time. - Yeah, well, I would get into one and then I'd realize I had to go into another and I had basically base jump out of the tower. Like I would jump and then hit like something I probably wasn't supposed to on the way down, stop myself and do that again and again and again. - Plus there were only like three into Oblivion. There was only like three tower, like three demon hole. - Set up. - Yeah, so he would be like, okay, this is, we're running plan B. - Yeah. - It's like a football player. (laughs) - The Mass Effect. - Mass Effect in Tribes 2 are the two most recent things that I've been playing. - Is it any more stable on PC than it was? - The last time I played was on Windows XP and it was terrible, it was crashing all the time. But on Windows 7, it's been fine for me this whole time. I've been playing it 1920 by 1200 with everything turned up and it runs like a dream and people's faces are awesome. And they still, they never did release a patch that fixed Garris's face. The Turians in your party. - Yeah, what's wrong with Garris's face? - On the PC version, his face is super low res. It looks like even lower res than the Xbox version. It's like a really, really awful terrible bug and they've never fixed it. So the entire time you're talking to Garris, like the model is high res, but the texture on it and everything, it looks like he's got a facial mask on or something. - It's like he's a character from the last gen game. - Yeah, exactly, it's so off-putting and it's just something they never fixed. - Am I up? - Leave him out of your party. - No, I have to take it with me 'cause he's the only one that has a high enough decryption skill to hack a lot of things in my party. So I'm always having to have this muddy-faced guy walking around in my party, ruining it for everybody else. - I use my special dice. Sorry, this is what that sounded like. - What about you, Anthony? - Well, it's been a ton of modern warfare too and then I've actually been playing through the Curse of Monkey Island, the special edition one. - Oh, nice. - The Secret of Monkey Island, special edition. - Nice. - That game is really hard. - It is. - I mean, I was really grateful that I remembered about-- - Oh yeah, I had to play the original. - Oh, okay. - So this is my first time. - Do you get it on Steam? - Actually, I have it on my iPhone. - Cool. - How is it gonna be playing that? - Wow. - 'Cause it works actually really well. - Yeah. - But it's super challenging, like it's probably sad how many hints I've ended up using because there's been a couple times that I know it keeps track of the amount of hints you've used, but I've had to use a lot because it tries to do the whole route of the first hint it gives you is only kind of indicative of what you're supposed to do. And then by the third one, it's like idiot go here. - Yeah. - There's been a couple I've been so lost that I've just had to go straight to the idiot one. And it's good and the storyline and the writing's really funny and I think the special edition one makes it even better because I've played the other Monkey Island game. - So having the original voice actors there, three done artwork, that's all really cool. But yeah, just those puzzles are like so, like they really don't make sense. It's like at one point I had to combine like a chicken and an egg beater or something to make like a pulley system or something. - Yeah, you have to make a pulley chicken so that you can get across the road. - Yeah. - Exactly. - It's a kind of logic that's just sort of been lost in game designs. - Well, but the Monkey Island as far as adventure games are concerned is kind of unique because like other adventure games never made any sense to me at all. But Monkey Island, when you look at it, like the stuff that they have you do makes comedic sense. You know, it doesn't make like straight up logic sense but it makes like if you're thinking in terms of a comedian, it kind of makes sense. - Well, there was even little things that like, you know, there's a part where you have to find a helmet so you can do a cannon trick to get money. But I was like, I don't know what to use for a helmet. - Right. - I never saw that there was a soup pot I could use and put on my head. Over that it even occurred to me. - Right. Well, that's just common sense right there. - Yeah, apparently so. Yeah. - What do you use for soup pot? - I'm still only 18% of the way into the game, you know. And I took like this most slow going process. - I mean, that is indicative of just that type of adventure game. I mean, I paid through all the King's quest back in the day. - Oh, yeah. - And that's what it is. There's these, they really don't make sense at all. And you just have to think as a developer and just like what items do I have and what can interact with something on the screen. - And at some point, yeah. - And just doing the whole like every item. - Yeah, for some reason that was acceptable. Like we did that. - I loved Sam and Max, the original and Sam and Max definitely had one puzzle that I can distinctly remember that my grandpa's house and I could not beat it and there was no internet back then. And I called my friend long distance, which my mom did not like because they did it without her permission. And I called him long distance to ask how to get past this one part and Sam and Max. And he was like, okay, you just combine the fur and you combine Max together and you'll form a Yeti. - That's like a very key part in it. So yeah, it didn't make any sense. But yeah, I mean, I have played these before and I like it enough that despite how challenging and fucking frustrating I can get when I stop dead, I'm still playing it, you know. - Yeah, I get to play. - I picked it up on Steam when it was on sale and I haven't played it yet, but I realized I never played the original. So I know it's gonna be a pain in the ass. I'm almost afraid to do it because of that. It's like, do I want to put myself through that torture? - It does conveniently have the really good hint system. - That's good. - On the iPhone, all you do is you shake it whenever you want a hint. - Oh, that's cool. - And put it. - Logical. - What if you're on like the bus and you know, you have to get a pretty good shake to get a hint. - Again, it sounds perfectly logical because by the time you're that frustrating. - Yeah, I mean, you know, and it does cool things like turning it vertical is how you save your game, brings up the menu and turn over ankle, stuff like that and two swipes of the finger will switch it back and forth between the old and the new style. - You're getting brilliant, yeah. - But yeah, it's a fantastic like iPhone port. Like I would love to play all my old adventure games on an iPhone, but yeah, but beyond that and Call of Duty, I really haven't been playing all that much because now. - Nothing new has come out, right? - No, and I'm not missing anything big here. - And I was addicted to Fallout 3, and that took up a lot of my time. - Did you finish that final? - I haven't beat the storyline. I'm doing the broken steel stuff. That's it for me though. Once I finish broken steel, the game's-- - You're not gonna do the other expansions? - I've done it well. - Oh, okay. - He is actually, at this point, played through more Fallout 3 content than I have, I think. - I believe that's right. - How many hours are you out on your side? - I don't even know. I have a little 30K here though. - Yeah, I've played all the expansions too. It's great. - The expansions in particular are just, I mean, no other game does DLC, except for maybe Borderlands with the first one, I don't know about the second one, but the-- - I'll talk about that in a minute. - The first one's a lot more. Well, I mean, talk about it now. - Well, no, I was just gonna say, I feel like Bethesda has just like come so far from the horse armor era to this, like from offering the thing that was, what everyone was afraid of regarding downloadable content. - Yeah, but even offering what everyone had hoped downloadable content. - But even within a couple of months of horse armor, they had content that was what people wanted. - Did you ever get any of that stuff? - I had it all. I played it all. I beat every single piece of that, those extra quest content. - I did a lot of them. I just didn't feel like they were particularly that interesting, especially for my character. - I downloaded the Pirates Cove one, and what was that called? - 'Cause it was free. - Was it Pirates Cove? - Pirates Cove was the most interesting, but the ones like Knights of the Nine was great. - Well, Knights of the Nine was more-- - And the Shivering Isles was amazing. - Well, yeah, Shivering Isles was great. - That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about like the very like minor quest updates that they would release, like the Pirates Cove and stuff like that. - But the only ever did like two of those, and then they went on to these larger ones. - More than that. - But I'm just saying that you were just saying that the Fallout 3 shown what they should be doing, but even within the life of oblivion, like a few months afterwards, they were still doing some magic content that was like unlike what anything. - I think Knights of the Nine is similar to what they did with Fallout, but I just don't think that it was as well realized as the Fallout DLC it was. - No. (laughing) - Don't you bring your logic to me, I have my gut. - But yeah, I actually have been playing a whole lot outside of that, just because I've been at my parents. And when I was at my parents, I had only my DS. And even then I pretty much didn't, I just didn't play all that much. So I played the, hanging out with my parents while they watched Foreign Movies, a game, which is not fun by the way. 'Cause my dad can't read it, so my mom reads all the subtitles aloud. (laughing) As they're appearing. - I saw your tweet about that. - Oh my God, I missed that. - I was like, I'm gonna die. (laughing) - Yeah. So tell me about this Borderlands DLC. We already know it's nothing like the first one. - No. So I think that I briefly talked about my impressions of the Borderlands DLC a couple of weeks ago and that I hadn't really played very much. So it's the three arenas that are broken down. Basically there's like a hub and then you start out with just these three minor versions of it unlocked, which are five rounds of five waves each. So basically it's a 25 waves of enemies to fight with that. Like there are horde waves where it's a bunch of the psychos running around and there's the badass wave, which is self-explanatory and the gun wave and stuff like that. So today I finished the beginning waves, like the beginning arenas and found out that that unlocks new arenas, which are 20 rounds long and five waves each. So these are 100 waves each, which, yeah. - It's a lot of waves. And you can't save them midway? - No, you have to do it all at once. This is not single player content. If you do not have a group of friends you can play Borderlands with, like for a good two hours to three hours in a stretch. Like if ODST seemed like it was pushing it for you for Firefight, then this is not for you. - Well, it does seem though that this is like, like the Islander Dr. Ned was for people that wanted a more storyline experience. And this seems like it's very much for people that want that horde mode experience. - Yeah, and in that respect it's fine. - Except for the time commitment part. - And it's much, it feels much more manageable. Like when I was playing single player it's not manageable at all. Like it was a struggle to get through the five rounds, which is 25 waves. Like past that it would be literally impossible, I think, for someone to get through it. Because it just keeps getting harder after that fifth round. Like at the very end of the lower tier arenas like it'll have two modifiers per match that affects what's going on. And then that just keeps going up. So then it'll have three modifiers. - Wow. - And it might be like, oh well, this is the vampire modifier. So you're always losing health, but you have to shoot things to get it back. And it's the spastic modifier, which means everything runs super fast. And then we're gonna throw in the shotgun challenge, which means the only weapon that will do really any damage worth doing is a shotgun. - Wow. - My character is perfectly equipped for this. - Or it'll be shotgun elemental. Shotgun elemental critical, meaning that you can only do decent damage with elemental shotguns with headshots. - Ready. - Or it could do sniper rifles, where it's only sniper rifles that do elemental damage and headshots. - I keep one of each. - Yeah, I thought I kept one of each until I realized I didn't have a machine gun. And I was just standing there while Andy and Mitch were running around and killing things. - Oh. - And it keeps track of who kills what. So there's definitely. - Well, that murals are playing with people who are vastly higher level than you. - Which was, which is really probably the only reason that it seemed so easy to get through was because there were higher level people against level 36 enemies, but. - Little 50 people. - But I mean, by wave 50, they were actually going down fairly regularly. So like they'd need to be revived. - I see. - So it's just, it's fun. I don't, I feel like the thing that sucks about firefight is that firefight just goes for manageable to break your balls basically over the course of a round. And this is a much more gradual increase and feels much more doable. But ODST is a better shooter than Borderlands is. Like the shooting itself in the combat mechanic is better than it is in Borderlands. I mean, in my opinion, I don't, I would. - No. (laughing) - Borderlands is much more, I think that's great, like greater than the sum of its parts. - Right. - Where the ODST is like, the parts is all it has. So I mean, Mad Moxie is fine if you have three friends who are some more level that you want to play with. - Gotcha. - But the loot so far has sucked. - Yeah, I mean, eventually when you get to like level 36 though, like even when I played through the entire island of Dr. Ned, I think I only ever got one gun that was like, I would use this at some point. - Which is weird because I mean is when you're playing single players, you're getting through the game, you're definitely finding better ways. - Right, I just don't think that the DLC from what I've seen is well planned out where they want to continue to upgrade your gear as much as by the end of the game they're like, you got what you need? - And there was definitely stuff in the preview build that's not actually in the retail version of Mad Moxie. Like there's this weird gun scanner thing that had like a visual, one of those visual barcodes, like the weird square barcodes with a code underneath it that you would enter on their website to unlock a gun, but they took all of that out. So I mean, as we were about to record the podcast, I literally just left my 360 running with other people in my party finishing this thing because we've gone 60 rounds into a 100 round thing. - God damn. - And I mean, there was definitely happening as we were talking a little while ago. I think they've got to be done at this point. They have to be. - I would hope so. - They have to be, right? - They got their own level 70. - Damn. - I don't know if you got the achievement. - You have to finish all three of a tier. So yeah, it's a huge time commitment. So if that's what you want, there's a lot of content there. But if you don't have that core group of friends that's willing to sit and play Borderlands with you for like 15 hours through this content, then it's probably not worth your money. - Jeez. - So what else are you playing? - Unless you want a bank, it does have a bank. - Oh, that's nice. - Or a store gear. - I finished and reviewed Bayonetta. - Crazy? - Yes, Bayonetta is very crazy. Bayonetta is Japan the game, as we discussed last time on Rebel OFM. I, right now I'm currently the low score for Bayonetta on Metacritic. - Overall or just-- - What would be the long score? - What is a low score? - The low score is an eight out of 10. - Wow. - Everyone else is airing or not airing, but they're giving it extremely high reviews. IGN gave it a 9.5. - There are plenty of sites that have given it an eight 10. - Yeah, you're a gamer gave it a 9.5 or 10. - I mean, that's great. You know, I'm excited for this game now. Like, I mean, that's all the 360 version. I doubt most sites will do the PS3 one. It's like the first game that I can say that I've seen that is like the PS3 version is awful compared to the 360 version. - It's like Assassin's Creed PS3 version is less. - Yeah, but this is like, I mean, this is like-- - This is night and day. - Yeah, this night, like it turns into a slide show during like parts where it gets really intense. Like literally like sub like five frames a second at times. - Wow. - And then it, and then it has like no textures on anything. Like everything looks like they forgot about textures. - No, I mean, I don't think that it's that. - On the environments, in the environments, a lot of times it is-- - The textures are very blurry and the resolution is a little-- - And IGN people would walk by and they'd be like, "Jesus Christ, what's wrong with your console?" They thought there were things wrong with this thing that it wasn't loading them. - Wow. - Because they had all seen the 360. I mean, the 360 one does look good. It looks like it's a pretty game. - I just feel like the things that I had to complain about Bayonet are things that were completely glossed over in a lot of positive reviews, which surprised me because they felt like pretty fundamental issues. - Like, what were some of them then? - Like the fact that-- - She doesn't get fully naked. - I mean, it is the most objectifying thing that I've ever seen in any piece of media shy of porn. And honestly, I have seen porn that is less objectifying than Bayonet. - Wow. - It just, it, and it basks in it. Like, your reward for finishing the game is a seven minute dance routine where she is doing stripper dancing basically along with different characters out of the game and different environments. Like on a crumbling building, she's doing this-- - Dude, 9.5 out of 10. - Hey man, this is a super Metroid. It was enough to see Samus in her suit or whatever. - Yeah. - Yeah, that's-- - Or like, as you, like, as the game progresses and her super attacks, like the giant ones that do, like, the animals out of hair. - Right. - Like, there'll just be, like, a crane shot that, like, dives between her legs or, like, up her crotch or, like, down her cleavage or just in-- It just, it tries to erotify her and I have never seen a game that successfully erotifies as anything. Like, I have never seen a game that's titillating, ever. - Well, it's also, like you said, it's deliberately objectifying. - Yeah. - To somebody who's sensitive to that, which I wish more people were, it actually makes the game less enjoyable. - Well, and then there's this whole other audience where, like, people on NeoGaf are talking about masturbating to the game. Like, just flat out. Like, not, like-- - Not allusions. - Not allusions, like, someone said specifically, "I rubbed one out to this game." - Yeah, but-- - Like, I put it on easy. Easy mode lets you play with one hand. (laughing) It's not easy with one hand and rubbed it out with the other. - Is it a DOA or something? (laughing) - It makes DOA look conservative this game. - All right, but then again, they're not covering this up, right? - No, no, it's very obvious. - You go in here knowing that that's gonna be part of the package. - Yes. - And, all right, so assuming you're gonna accept that, you know, at that point-- - Even barring that, like, there are moments of real brilliance in Bayonetta. The combat system, the which time mechanic in particular-- - Right. - Really does something special. It makes dodging an important thing in this game, and that's honestly not been something that's typically used a lot. Like, a ninja guide and you were moving around a lot, always quickly, always countering, but dodging wasn't necessarily, didn't have that kind of priority-- - Well, like, in God of War, you would do it just to keep combos going. - Yeah, whereas in Bayonetta, I mean, you want to wait 'til the last second to dodge to invoke which time, and then just absolutely wail on people with combat that is much more fluid than anything the devil may cry ever. - And it happens naturally. I mean, I've only played the demo, but I quickly got accustomed to that. - Yeah. - And wanting to keep doing it to get that the purple screen, you know, and to start mowing enemies now. - And that's all great, until they start throwing enemies at you where it's so invested in it looking cool, or the style being overwhelming that you can't tell when you're being attacked. Like, not just, oh, well, that guy's patterns are weird, it's maybe there's a giant enemy that is literally blocking the camera entirely, and I'm just flailing on the buttons, hoping that I'm doing some kind of damage, or there are enemies where it looks like they're attacking, but they're not, and when they are attacking, it basically takes effect immediately, and you can't tell, and there are other enemies where you'll encounter a version of them later, where it is impossible to invoke which time. - Best action game of V3. - Yeah. - 1up.com. (laughing) - Go in the box. - There were other enemies that, I mean, there were enemies in Ninja Guide, and that would kill you really quickly near the beginning of the game. - Right. - There are just mid-stage enemies in this that will take off half of your life if they get you in a combo, with no way out of it. And these are the same enemies that you can't invoke which time against. And-- - Yeah, that's kind of strange, 'cause you can break your combos, right? - Yes, you can break your combos at any time, you can always dodge, right? There's an item mechanic to it, but it's very underdeveloped, in that you don't get enough rings, really, to justify going into the store over and over again and buying stuff. - Is this like a game that you collect rings in? - Yes, it is a Sega game, after all. (laughing) - At least it leaves an unfurr something, though, right? - And it's just, there's a lot of trial by death, as I think Sterling put it in his review, which is totally apt, like there are parts where you will not know what to do and you will have to die, and the game punishes you for dying. It keeps track of how many times you have to continue, and just brutalizes you, and your end level score for it. - It rates you for every battle, basically, so when you get a bad score at the end, it's just like-- - Does it post to an online leaderboard? - I don't know, it probably does. - I was gonna say, 'cause that's the only reason that there's to carry, 'cause otherwise, your score, who's gonna see it? I'll tell everyone I got an S, S rating all the time, after the segment, they kind of give you that score screen, right? - Yeah. - Does that feel intrusive? I mean, would you rather just keep going? - I mean, it doesn't freeze the screen, like it's like an overlay with it covers a lot, but you can still move around. - All right, right. - Do you find that that reminds you like, "Oh yeah, I'm playing this dumb action game?" - No, well, because usually I did really well, like seeing a gold or platinum or pure platinum medal was like, "I did that okay." And then there's other times where it's like, that guy got me in one combo and took away half my life bar and you were giving me a stone award for it, because you took away my tools and didn't say anything. It's just, it seems to have a real identity problem between wanting to be this crazy over-the-top thing where every button push is just the most orgiastic display of violence and tits and hats on a console and wanting to be this super ballbusting challenge that makes Tomanobu Itagaki look like a giant pussy. - I thought that I didn't get the impression that game was nearly as hard as a Ninja Gaiden though. - There are parts that are just stupidly hard, for no reason. - But overall, it's not like Ninja Gaiden with the first enemies going to be angry. - Because the enemies aren't as smart, like it just surrounds you with more. The enemies are not, Ninja Gaiden is what it is because it feels like you're in a fighting game all the time, and Bayonetta does not feel like that. Bayonetta feels better than Devil May Cry, like the enemies are smarter and they do a lot more, but they're still much more pattern oriented, I think, than saying Ninja Gaiden, and people got really mad when I brought up these comparisons in this game. - This game sounds awful. (all laughing) - It's like, I mean, and the other thing is a lot of people that have given it really high scores that have talked about how wonderful the atmosphere is and how much they love all the visuals and the music and the kojima length cutscenes, and I'm not fucking joking you. There are about six hours of cutscenes in this game. (all laughing) - Not just that, and then it's just Japan pop music the whole time. - Yeah, it's jazz-y, J-pop influence stuff. It's not actual J-pop 'cause they're singing in English and people felt the need to make that point on message boards over and over again. Anytime it's brought up, it's not J-pop 'cause it's in English, it is J-pop inspired jazz that I, it's just super repetitive. - So I mean, can you see how it got the higher scores then? I mean, these complaints sound pretty legit, you know? - I think that there's a divide between people in the gaming community that love Japan and Japan Japanese things and people that don't get it. And often, these people can meet in the middle over like game mechanics and design and stuff like that. Like Mario is pretty Japanese, but it's still extremely accessible. - Oh yeah. - And even Zelda at times is pretty Japanese. But this is, I think that if you are a hardcore Japanophile, like this game is everything you've ever wanted in an action game. And if you just do not get the obsession over the craziest elements of Japanese culture on the other side, there's just gonna be parts where you're like, I don't, this is like, not only is this from another planet, it's from a planet that I wish would be destroyed by a giant meteor. And you might be thinking that to yourself during the fourth credits sequence. - You have fourth credits sequence? - There is a boss fight. There is, there are 18 chapters, not including a prologue and an epilogue. The epilogue, you would think, would be the end, but it's actually a giant longer than anything else in the game boss fight. And then credits start and then they stop and you have to do another fight and then credits start again. And, or credits don't start, then it shows another ending movie, then you get in another fight. And, and credits start rolling and then they stop and you get another fight and credits start rolling and you get another fight and then they start rolling. And then it cues into the seven minute fucking dance movie. - Wow, you've earned it by that point. - Like during the break, one of you has to pee, I can actually show you that because it unlocks in the menu, it is, I-- - Yeah, we do have to check the following. - And that, it sums up pretty much everything about the game. And the only reason it's so frustrating, the reason the review was so hard to write was because there are times when the game mechanics are just so good. And I mean, I was really disappointed with Ninja Gaiden 2. And at times I'm like, this game is, is better than Ninja Gaiden 2, but at other times I'm like Ninja Gaiden 2 is much more consistent with what it expected of you. So that's Bayonetta. That's why Bayonetta got an eight out of 10 because if you're super into these kinds of games, yeah, people are, I got the why solo joke from some people, but there were other people that were genuinely surprised by how low my score was and said, oh, well, you don't need to read this review. It's so much lower than all those other ones. (laughing) Sterling from G4 gave it a four out of five. But I feel like that's a little different than an eight out of 10, but that could just be me. Manicritic does what I think it is. - It's the same thing in the scheme of, yeah, of the points that the number of clinicians would have for you. - I feel, I mean, I just feel like a four out of five on G4 is a little more emphatic recommendation than an eight out of 10 is on Team Xbox. - It is only 'cause they don't have half stars, and it's full stars or nothing. - Which is how it should be, damn it. - Yeah. I mean, I'm definitely, I'm probably the weirdest about scores right now at work, but who knows where that'll go. - That's 'cause you're so edgy and different. - Especially because they don't have, they don't have a rubric of what numbers seem. - Well, hang around with one up people for so long-- - 'Cause they don't have a rubric of what the numbers mean at Team Xbox. - That's true, we don't have a rubric, and hopefully that can change in the new year. - Man, but you know what bugs, the six hour cutscenes is what worries me. - Yeah. - I'm gonna stick with cutscenes in games that just don't need it. You know, I can't stand them. - Well, and then the other thing is-- - Especially in action games. A lot of the coolest shit you see in Benetta is done in cutscenes, and you're like, well, why can't I be doing that? - Yeah, yeah. - Even if, even like, I like quick time events, even more than I like, really long point. - And the quick time events in Benetta are bad. They require two button presses, and they always mix it up, so there's never any like, established pattern where you know, oh, well, if I have to jump left or right, then I'm gonna have to do this. - I really like the way God of War III does their quick time events, because it has the button, the button press, but it has it off to the side of the screen, the same orientation that it is on your pad. So you can still be concentrating on what's going on in the middle of the screen, and I know that if I'm playing on the, and I know that if the button's over on the right-hand side, then I'm gonna be hitting that button on the controller. - Right. - You know, I'll be hitting circle, yeah, or if it's on the bottom of the screen, I'll be hitting X, so I don't even have to look at the button, I just have to think of the location right-head. - Just hard-biting your brain, yeah. - Yeah, that's a good way to do it. - So, yeah, Benetta has a lot to like for people who like that kind of game. But if you've never been into character action games and you're not obsessed with Japan or Japanese culture, you will look at Benetta and wonder what the point is. - Interesting. - In my opinion. Because otherwise everything I say is obviously fact, unless I pre-preface it by saying this is my opinion. (laughing) - All right, to the internet. - To the internet. And then I've been playing a bunch of Dragon Age, but. - Nobody cares about Dragon Age. - I do. - You care about tribes. - You care about games older than tribes. - If I can boil Dragon Age down to fingers. Fuck the fade. - Wrong. - Fuck the fade, fuck the fade, fuck the fade. I really like the characterization. - You just suck at games. - Yes, that is definitely a good game. - Yeah, all right. - And the inventory system is better than Mass Effect, but still not good. - Yeah, I agree. - Nice. - All right, let's take a quick break and then we'll do some letters from you folks. (gentle music) ♪ I made my way into the dark ♪ ♪ I'm gonna be tender, love me down ♪ ♪ My salvation laid in a light ♪ ♪ In a single breath my life ♪ ♪ So let me do right by you ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Let me do right by you ♪ ♪ When the dark times plot the sun ♪ ♪ I was lost in this nighttime ♪ ♪ I wonder blindly when the dark ♪ ♪ I was lost in this ♪ - I was down. - Welcome back to our letter segment. I have this, the first letter is from, okay, so his email name says his name is Aldous, right? But the Andy signs it Rob, so I don't know. - That's cool. I prefer Aldous, actually. - Yeah, we're gonna call you Aldous. - He says, "It has become a trend to give players free choice of actions, presenting us with moral choices." He says, "I myself am a player who likes to gain bad karma in games. I didn't just march into Megaton and fall out three to blow everyone's faces off, but I wanted to kill Moira. He calls her a meth snuffer." I don't know why. (laughing) You know Moira is, right? She's like, "Okay, okay, okay." - And I hope that he really enjoyed what happens with Moira if you do blow up Megaton. - The second she sent me to get eaten by Merlox is what he calls him, but they're called whatever those crab things are. - Yeah, I know. - Could I continue my quest if I blew her into the other side of hemisphere, would I gain anything by killing her? He doesn't say what he chose to do. What happens if you try and kill her? - She turns into a ghoul and you find her somewhere else. - How do you know this? - Because I read the Fallout 3 Wiki. (laughing) - Okay. - So not only does he not kill Moira, he makes her live forever. - Nice. - He says, "I feel like Fallout 3 is a bad example 'cause you can loot practically everything." But he says, "But oftentimes in games, I feel like bad choices are nerfed." For example, this guy walked up on in, what game is this? Oh, Dragony Georgians, I was confused. 'Cause he had a DA colon O. I was like, "What is that?" Dragony Georgians. He begged for my help to get to safety. Second Slater, I decided to leave him. One of my companions wouldn't leave with an injured man on his feet, so I decided to kill him. I'm certain that if I had helped him, he would have rewarded me. No option to loot his pockets or take his shining sword. Now once he's dead, I have to carry on with two bitching companions, which now I will probably not have sex with. How is this for reward? (all laughing) He just says, "Have you encountered situations where you get frustrated with moral choices or dialogue tree options?" And probably not in my and Arthur's cases, 'cause we tend to play good. - I always play the good guy too. Like, I was gonna say, you know, well, oldest, if you choose to be the bad guy, then you have to face the consequences of your actions. - Not only that, but a lot of games actually, it's my understanding that you can be more powerful being evil than you can being good. It's harder to play through, it was good. - I always felt like whenever, 'cause I tried to play evil and kotor for a little while, like after I beat it the first time, I tried to play the evil route, and it just, I can't do it either. I could, I did it for a while, but it seemed boring. And I totally agree with him that like, I think the, I don't necessarily think your character is nerfed, but I think like the story is nerfed because it's like, you end up, it's like, well, what do we do here, kill 'em? All right, so what should we do here, kill 'em? You know, it's like a-- - You have fewer evil options. - Yeah, your option every time when you're evil is just to kill everything. And like, but then again, one of my roommates at the time played through the evil part of kotor, and he said, man, it got so rad toward the end. It was like, it was great, like I did all this stuff, you know, like I became evil, Revan. In kotor, you get super manipulative when you're evil. - Yeah, so like, but for the most part, I'm like, I'm like you and Anthony, like I just won't know most of the time 'cause I always play the good guy. - I mean, the thing I'm noticing about Dragon Age is that there's not, there's a lot of points in Dragon Age where there's not a good or evil option. It's just like, there's no good decision. - Yeah, well, there's no good or evil in Dragon Age. Like there's no karma meter or anything like that. You make whatever decisions you want to at the time. - I guess it's only good or bad in the sense of how your companions react. - In the sense of how you feel about it as the player. - And you never make all your companions happy. Like especially if you have Alastair and Morgan in your party, like you were always pissing one of them off. - Yeah. (laughs) - Which is great. - That's what gifts are for. - Adam writes in and he says, I have two questions. One, what games would you like to receive the Pac-Man championship edition or by in a commando rearm treatment? Personally, he said, I'd love to see Joust reinvented for this generation. Anybody? - I'm sure we'll get a nice Joust redo when the movie comes out. - It's not based off the game, is it? - Yes, it is. - What? - We're making a movie out of the Joust game. - Really? - How can they make a movie out of the Joust game? - It's just like ostriches. - How are they making a fucking Asteroids movie? Joust is like the Bible in comparison to that. Yes, where have you been? - I didn't know this. - Well, they can make a movie called Asteroids and it's not based off the game. - It is based off the game. - No, they bought the license for the Asteroids game to make a movie. - Did you pay for buying a new crop of games? - No, this is like a legit production deal where they're talking about-- - Yeah, but it just seems like calling Asteroids would be like saying that-- - Meteor. - Like any movie that involved with the meteors is like, that was the Asteroids movie. - Yeah, welcome to July's conversations. They're making an Asteroids movie with money, like after buying the license to Asteroids, the game to make a movie out of it. - Well, probably 'cause they couldn't make a game called Asteroids, otherwise, would be my imagine. - Well, what's-- - Why would you want to? - 'Cause your movie's going to be called Asteroids. - And then yeah, Joust has been in sort of development like for a long-ass time. - I think I got some kickass like CG ostriches that fly. (laughing) - What's this question then with that? - What other games would you like to see like classic games get that-- - Well, the different types of treatment, like Pac-Man was kind of reinvented for CE. - That's true. - Where he'd find it, man, it was just kind of reskinned. - Yeah. - That is a good point. - But so if you could have a game that would be reborn, though, in either of those kinds of treatments or maybe a new kind of treatment, I guess what would it be? - I think it'd be interesting to see a Cubert redo in the same vein as Pac-Man CE. - Yeah, I mean, if I don't think it back to that era, well, I mean, like Space Invaders extreme was put in that same category. That was just amazing, you know, right? I want to see other classic shooters done like that, you know, like Defender or something. - So you're saying it was extreme? - I wouldn't like to use that, particular wording, but it actually, I think it's actually a very appropriate. - It's okay, man. We're taking it back. - Take it extreme back? I don't know. - It goes right next to red. - I think the '90s, once they hold onto it with it, like a death grip. (laughing) - What about you, Matt? What do you think? - I always thought Tempest could be a good one. Do you ever play Tempest? - I know, it's just, they've done Tempest over and over again. Like, they did Tempest 2000, and it seems like every console generation has like a-- - Yeah, but those are crappy remakes. You know, like, he was asking, you know, what could get a good remake? I think Tempest 2000 was the reason to own a Jaguar. - That's true. What about like-- - I never played Tempest 2000, but that was kind of the one that just stuck off my head. I'd have to think about it more. No, actually, I do know, elevator action. - Oh man, I played that game the other day, and it was awful. I'd never played it before. - That's insane. - That game is great. - I think because I don't have any nostalgic memories, I just booted it up and amulated the other day 'cause someone told me how awesome it was, and I was like, it's like the most fucked up building. - It kind of let you live your dreams to be in a spy. - Yeah. - I have very fond memories for that. I would love to see that. - I do. - You have to get really, you'd have to get really used. Like, it's, I had to get really, really good at using the elevators, you know? It's like, it was, you know, move 'em up and down at will. Like, each by inch, you know, and you can shoot guys, use it to dodge them. - It was really fun. - Like, another one would be, I wanna see Burger Time. - Burger Time, that would be pretty cool. - One of Out Magazine's 10 gayest games of the last 25 years, I believe. - Burger Time. - Yeah, they just had together this list. They was intentionally designed, I think, to generate a little controversy amongst gamers. - I mean, what was the reasoning behind Burger Time? - It was like a thinly veiled thing about gay hookup culture from the '80s. - What was? - Burger Time. - I don't get it, I still have all of this, yeah. - Of course, it was a tongue and cheat thing from Out, I think, which is a magazine for gay, lesbian and transgendered culture in case you're not familiar with the magazine Out. - Okay, the other question he asked is what, what, if anything, would make us use PlayStation Home even on a regular basis? - The weird thing is, I actually went into PlayStation Home like a week and a half ago, just 'cause I was really curious. - Yeah. - And I was walking around asking myself that same question and unable to come up with an answer. - A good game inside of it, I mean. - Actually, you know, like, I just remember one thing I did think of is I walked into the movie theater and they have the trailers and stuff that are playing there and I was like, you know what? If I could actually like walk into a movie theater with my friends, see an actual, you know, maybe current runner recently run movie and we could all sort of like, be online together and while watching this movie at the same time and maybe chat to one another, that might be something I could do in home. - If you could get a virtual movie theater with a group of your friends and just sit down and watch it. - Yeah, or like even if I thought it would be super awesome if I could put in a Blu-ray in my PlayStation if I had the bandwidth stream it to my friends so we could all watch it, you know. But I mean, like, if you're gonna have a shared environment it's gotta have shared experiences and PlayStation Home does it wrong. You know, you go in there into this shared environment but everything that you can do this interesting is an individual experience except for the occasional game of pool. - Yeah, they have to make it interesting though and do like a, kind of like a direct to DVD but do a direct to home. Make it like joust or asteroids, the movie. (laughing) - You know what, if Home were more like big trouble in Little China, like the Chinatown of big trouble in Little China, I would go into home all the time. That's all I'm saying. With funeral possessions and trucks. - Another listener wrote in just to let us know that we had won some awards from some website called Cast Medium. - Oh, nice. Cast Medium, I don't know who that is. - Best format actually went to the mob cast. Best production went to winter is a life full-waisted and the runner-up was co-op. - Oh, yeah. - You know, I feel like those are reversed. - Yeah. - Really? - Yes. - I really like a life well. - Yeah, I also like a life well-waisted too but you know what, you guys do something, you do it extremely well and you do it-- - Weekly. - Weekly on a regular schedule. - Best opening theme went to us. - Yeah. - That's not really an award for us. That's a award for Chris. - Yeah, Chris. - Yeah, and I'm glad they got props. Because I was telling you guys before the show, I was mad about that person who wrote in saying he didn't like it. I'm like, come on, this is the most unique and creative and fun one out of all. And it's not something like tech music or gaming music, you know. - Yeah, he did a really good job of just being unique in that way. His band is called The Barn Stormers. - And you'll hear them in the breaks. I might actually just use one of their songs as the intro songs. - I think you can buy their album off of either CD, baby or iTunes and it's just Barn Stormers is the name of the art string, but it's pretty good. - That's awesome. - Murdered by Deathy. - Yeah. And then Best New Podcast, 2009. Us. - Wow. - Oh, he's congrats. - Right behind, right above. - You've gained that pull. - Right above four guys went up at my dad. That's not really a new product. - Well, maybe they had to, maybe it got split between the listen up and four guys went up and vote. - Yeah. - That's how we want it. - I mean, but yeah, that was all. I just thought that was interesting. - Thank you, Cass, medium. - Yeah. - We're up dogs. - I don't know if we're both on there. - We're instituting new poll security to make sure that Tom Flory doesn't go down again, but in the meantime. - Thank you. - That's right. - This guy named Karen just wants to know. He says, most of us started listening to the show in the beginning did so because of one of the X1 uppers. We all know Anthony, but I don't think we know where Arthur used to work before he was unemployed. I remember in one of the first weeks he mentioned he was laid off, but he didn't specify from where. Arthur's mentioned that he's a writer and an artist. He's just curious about a question that I don't believe has been answered. Thanks for all the hard work. He just wants to know where you are. - I worked for .coms and stuff before at the podcast and did some freelance a little bit here and there. And then before that, I graduated from college in 2007 and then we moved out here so Anthony could work it one up and I could try to work for one up. - You see .coms have been gaming sites? - No, no, just .coms. Like I work for stuff. - My companies are like, I got a great fucking idea. - Like, you know, any of those 8 million tech companies that live and die in the mission and the financial district? - Sure, yeah. Lies, all lies. It's a true San Francisco experience though. You know, unless you do one of those, you haven't really done the city. - Foos ball tables and break rooms, rock band setups and break rooms, weekly lunches, Friday bagels, and that shit. - Okay. - .com. - .com. - He said, this next letter from Alan and I haven't even read it, but it's just titled by Sincerest Apology. So I wanted to read it. - It could be since he says greetings for both of them. I'm writing you today for my iPhone to tell you a little story and apologize for past mistakes. We've also become priests, along with a marriage advice. (laughing) - I felt married too. - I am completely honest because I deeply respect the three of you and your opinions. I've been torrenting the last few game clubs on PC because of my misguided idea that I shouldn't pay for games that I can give for free. - Oh, that's what he's apologizing for for being out there. - Please do not judge me as some douche pirate for this. - Dude, as far as the thing goes, especially. - That's the only way you can find it now. - Yeah, you can't even buy it. There's no way for you to directly support the developer. - Well, just flat out say it. I looked for a torrent of the thing on PC so that we would have a way to distribute it among us. And the only version I found is a version that does not have broken security like it will not run. And all the cracks have a virus. So for you guys' sake, I hope you have not been playing the thing on PC with a crack DxE. - Ouch. - Because window security essentials caught that shit right away. And it was like, this is a really nasty Trojan. - Chuff gave me a PS2 disc now more than ever grateful for that. - No Trojans on that. - No. - This letter is from Jocelyn, which we've read letters from before. - Wait, did that other one not go anywhere else? It was just-- - Yeah, he just wanted to apologize. I mean, and then-- - Said to get that off his chest. - Yeah, he's really wonderful. - Yeah, I mean, I download music from torrent trackers. - So we have read, 'cause I recognize the signature. We've read letters from Jocelyn. It says, but it just wanted to say, it's titled, I'm a guy. That's the end. And it just says, I just wanted to let you know I'm a guy. I've been writing a couple of times. He always referred to me as she. I guess my name is a female name in the US. But I'm part of the French part of Canada, and this is a common male name here. So he says, now my question. After seeing Rogue Warrior review terribly, I'm a little bit concerned about the upcoming Alien vs. Predator. You should be. I'm a big fan of Alien vs. Predator 2. And I seriously hope that Rogue Warrior is not an idea of things to come. Revealing did develop the first AVP game, which was excellent. And I say so if they get this one just as good, what do you think? - I think their last game was Alien vs. Predator Requiem on the PSP. - Yeah. I would now hold your fucking breath. And I definitely would not buy it when it comes out day one. - I have not heard a lot of positive buzz about Alien vs. Predator, but I mean, that's just what I've heard. I haven't played it. So. - So you still pronounce it, Jocelyn, even though it's French or is it? - Jock. - Jocelyn. - He didn't correct the pronunciation, did he? - No, he just said it's just that's a common name for you. - I guess what? You're still a girl, Jocelyn. - Yeah, I've only known female and Jocelyn. - I mean, I work with a one lone female to write in. - I work with a dude named Hillary, you know? - You know what, Hillary, I've heard it's a guy's name. I've never heard Jocelyn as a guy's name. That's like a dude named Catherine. - No offense, Jocelyn. - So, Hannah. - Correct us on the pronunciation, if nothing else. - Hannah writes in, and she says it's a guy, girl. - No, we have met Hannah. - Hannah is a female. - Okay. - Hannah is a female. - It's a female. - Okay. So she's gonna have to spend a crazy 12 hour night shift the day of and the day before her birthday. - Aw. - In a hospital. And she wants to know if we can help her out by listing a book and an album that we've enjoyed this year. That way she can fill up her Kindle and iPod with stuff to kill the time. I'll go first. - Sure. - Album is called, well, album, you can get either one by this band named Vadara, I like them. And then book, I would get the paradox of choice. There you go. - Well done. - It depends on if you like sci-fi and fantasy trash, like I do. - She listens to this podcast. - Oh, she likes sci-fi and fantasy trash. - Then pick up the author's name is Robin Hobb. The, oh, I can't remember the name of the book. Somebody else going to look it up on my Kindle app real quick. - Yeah, I don't know if I have any. I'm trying to think of any books I read. The last one I read was The Road. - All right, how was that? - Was it good? - It's great. You know, it's kind of one of those you have to be prepared to be, it's very like, let's say, a great novel, just kind of like almost depressing, but it's well written and it's a good story, but don't expect to be like jumping up and down when you're done with it. And albums, I don't really, like last, I don't really listen to much music. So I bought like The Watchmen soundtrack. That was actually a pretty good in terms like mixed tape of like 70s music. - Yeah, that's a really good soundtrack. - Yeah. - Album wise, if you're looking for something rock or heavy, Baroness's Blue Record is really good. If you're not so much into the heavier stuff, Bat for Lashes is my other favorite album, Two Sons. They release this year. Book wise, this didn't come out this year, but I didn't read it till this year. The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan is really good on original fantasy. One. - Choices. So make me quote Garnetly in here. Yeah, The Steel Remains is really good. The narrative is a little whacked near the end, but the characterization is awesome and it's a very unconventional main hero. Okay. Matt, you can borrow my copy when we get them. - So I can totally recommend Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, which is, you know, it's a good take on the fantasy genre and it's done in the first person, which is kind of rare. And-- - It's more of a noir detective novel kind of thing. - Yeah, except it's fantasy. And when I got it, it's the first part in like a trilogy or is it four books, I can't remember. But anyway, the first book was actually free on Amazon when I got it for the Kindle edition anyway. I mean, that's how they rope you in, is they give you the first book of the trilogy for free. And then-- - You're quitting Amazon with drug dealers? - Yeah, I am. So first time's free, man. Come on, everybody's-- - So they get you the Amazon Prime two months, two months. - But anyway, since you mentioned Kindle stuff, you know, like maybe you could get that one for free and if you like it, then you can buy the rest of the series. - Music? - I am a musical music idiot. I don't follow it, I don't keep track of it, so I have your recommendations. - I have even one record-- - I have not bought a single record in probably three years. And I'm not saying that I only download music, I haven't even downloaded music in probably three years. I just, I don't listen. I have music that I listen to, but it's only like, if somebody gives me an album of something then I'll listen to it and I'll go, "Hey, this is great, I should listen to music more." - And this is why Ryan O'Donnell is better than Matt Shanderne. (laughing) - Ouch. - Except he wouldn't have any book recommendations. - I'm trying to find an excellent letter to end it with. - It's a good point. - So many are longer winded, I feel, than what we want. I just wanted to find someone who says something. - Do a longer winded one and then do a short one. - Well, that's the thing is that I don't see a whole lot of either. - Too much text to read. - You said you saw a lot of those. You mean good ones, you're trying to fly? - Yeah, well, what, plenty of these I read, like I basically read almost every single letter we get. I just don't always read them on the show or respond to them 'cause sometimes-- - You should create like a subfolder. - They're longer winded. - They're longer winders and drop them in there. - That is way too much preparation that you're expecting. - Then what we'll make. But here this can be a particularly good question considering most everyone here. He says, so this is from Conrad, and he says, "So the time of year had me in a mood "to revisit the one up UGO buyout, "and as I found myself perusing dead threads "dedicated a topic, "I felt the need to ask if a year later anyone "has any additional thoughts to share in the matter. "Has the distance from the incident "given you a new perspective on it? "Do you feel you're in a better place now? "Or was there something special at one up "that your new position hasn't been able to recapture?" And that's, this is a good one 'cause all three of us here got laid off that day. - Yeah. - Right. - I mean, one up was pretty special. I don't think that's gonna be recreated anywhere. - Yeah. - But I remember that day when we all were in that room, looking around that room of the people to be fired. - And we knew. - Yeah, it was just like, I'm like, wow, the amount of talent in this room right now as being let go, you could make like a new site that would be like of such high quality, you know? And so many respected people, like they should be able to succeed. And this is ridiculous that we couldn't succeed. And he just realized that as a favors, this didn't care to make it happen. You know, and it's a business decision. They wanted to make money off of this. It wasn't working at the time, but they weren't putting money into make it happen. You know, it's a long convoluted problem there. But they didn't want it to happen. So it wasn't going to and UGO just wanted a website. And they understandably did not want to buy a magazine. - Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna lie and say I don't miss the way one up was then. I'm glad in a lot of ways that I'm still not there now. Just 'cause it wouldn't be the same. And I would feel weird working into like a skeleton of what it was. But I'm happier now than I was right when we got laid off. I have a job and everything. And it's been, I always thought when I worked at one up that I wouldn't be able to work at another outlet, but that is not true as I found. - So I think we're in such a passion industry. I think you can find wherever you go. You can find people who have that passion. - It helps that I work with Ryan Scott who I used to work with before. - Yeah, definitely. - Yeah, Matt, do you feel happy or happy-ish? - Well, it's weird because, you know, I had only been working at one up for a year. - And I've been there much longer. - Yeah, but I absolutely loved my job as producer on the one up show. You know, it was like, it wasn't what I thought I was gonna do with my life, but I felt like I'd landed somewhere that I belonged. So when I got laid off, it was pretty soul crushing. But it was also this weird kind of free thing like, all right, now we have this opportunity to do this thing where we'd always been talking about when we knew shit was going downhill at one up and we knew things were gonna go south. We were like, well, what can we do afterwards? Well, here's our chance to actually implement that and give it a go. And so I'm really glad that we've done it. And I've really been very happy with what we've been able to do with area five, even though we're not making any money yet. I still feel like we have such amazing potential there that if we can just hang on long enough, we're gonna hit some kind of point where things are gonna start just looking up and up and up. And so it's been a very, very hard year, financially and work-wise 'cause we've been working so hard for so little money. But when it comes down to it, I can't help but think of that layoff as overall a good thing in my life. And as far as my perspective on the companies go, like, you know, if I was some of the people over at UGO, I would be thinking that I made a very bad decision by having things go down the way that they did. I don't know if that's what they think, but it seems to me like it's gotta be pretty obvious that when they bought one up, the one up that they bought isn't the one up that they ended up with. Right. And it's, you know, like everybody that's there still does fantastic work. And it's still a good site, but it's not the same thing as they were buying. And, you know, it's like there's no way to sugarcoat the fact that they dumped over half the talent there. I just thought we didn't own that somber letter. (laughing) Yeah, I don't know if I didn't have a fun one now. (laughing) No, I mean, it's the end of your podcast, so. I think I'm a happier- Everyone knows Christmas is a melancholy time. We are kind of a happier person now than I was at the end of the days of one up. We're not waiting for that shoe to drop. Well, it's nice too, yeah, that happening. And the fact that at one up, I had only been hired for like three months. And now I feel a lot more confident as an employee and as a writer, and I'm still thankful to have someone like Ryan Scott with magazine experience lording over me and sending my work back to me when I fuck up. So. No. Yeah, it's very good to have someone like that. I mean, that's the good thing. It's like, yeah, it sucks that I got laid off, but me at least, I'm really fortunate to have moved at least with one person that I really liked working with, not completely on my own. Yeah. So. All right. Well, where can the internet find you? Arthur? Twitter.com/AEGIES. You don't have to tell them Twitter anymore. Just say my Twitter account, it's AEGIES. And you can talk shit about my bayonetta review at teamexbox.com. (laughing) That's not gonna happen. No, it already did. (laughing) So I do lay. If someone on the internet wanted to find you and if you wanted to share that information, Greg. Yeah, my Twitter account is gregfood. And you can see my work on occasion at bitmob.com and on a couple of podcasts that sports anomaly for one up. And it's like your one podcast. Nice. By some former EGMers. I listen to their own podcast sometimes, I do. Matt. The area5.tv, my Twitter account is Talking Orange. And we can also watch our show at revision3.com/co-op. It's also on iTunes. I was gonna say all that, but I will add that you can listen to the mobcast at bitmob.com. You can listen to the Geek Box, the Geek Box.net. And you should also check out our other podcast, if you like, or both of them, which is Game Club, before we're currently playing through the thing. You can send us our letters at letters@eat-sleep-game.com. And you can follow me on Twitter. Well, I'm not even gonna say that 'cause I just give you shit. Chuff Money. Chuff Money is my Twitter. It's too weird. You can totally handle. You already look like a hypocrite, it's fine. So yeah, enjoy the Barnstormers album music that you hear on the way out. Barnstormers, check 'em out, they're good. All right, we'll see you all next week in 2010. (upbeat music) ♪ But I didn't care about your pain ♪ ♪ No I didn't care about your suffering ♪ ♪ I had my own ♪ ♪ This is the guilt I gave ♪ ♪ The thorn in your side ♪ ♪ And the hole in your chest ♪ ♪ So hang up the phone ♪ ♪ There's nobody home ♪ ♪ No one to hear me cry ♪ ♪ I'm all alone ♪ ♪ I'm all they could do ♪ ♪ With the phone on the floor ♪ ♪ With my hand ♪ ♪ Spam 'round I can't take it all ♪ (upbeat music)