Rebel FM
Rebel FM Episode 39 - 110509
Greetings, and welcome back to "the usual routine"! This week we're joined by 1up's Tina Sanchez as we talk about Dragon Age, R&C: A Crack in Time, L4D2, the hullabaloo about Modern Warfare 2, and more, then move on to your twitter topics and letters. Cordial Penis! This week's music, in order of appearance: Ken Andrews - Secret Things; Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X; Supermodel Suicide - 1996;
(upbeat music) ♪ You'll never run ♪ ♪ There's nothing good on the radio ♪ ♪ Once again, I didn't know ♪ ♪ It's just my turn to ♪ ♪ You'll never let go ♪ ♪ You'll never let go ♪ ♪ You'll never let go ♪ ♪ You'll never let go ♪ - Rock it. - Rock it. - And welcome to Rebel FM, episode 40, I believe. - Really? - Yeah. - Wow. - Over the hill of the episode. - Well, is 40 over the hill or is it like 41? I guess no 40 is when you're over the hill. - I would think 40 is over the hill, but I could see where it's like, what do you want now? - There are 52 weeks in the year, so that means we're 12 episodes from our one year. - No, we're not because there have been weeks that we didn't do one and we have-- - I thought we always did a Rebel FM or if we've just never missed a game club. - I think there's at least one week where we do a Rebel, but there's also weeks where we didn't count them as official numbers because they were specials. Holiday specials are like three of them that are like that. - So there's like less than that. There's like 10 weeks. 'Cause we did a couple, I think we did two or three specials now, three. So after school, hello, hello. - We did the Thanksgiving in July. - My name is Anthony Gallegos and I'm here to fucking host some shit. Now, and then with me is Tyler Barber. - Hey, how's it going? - Arthur Geese. - Hello. - And our special guest returning champion, Tina Sanchez. - I didn't know your last name was Geese. I thought that was Geese. - It's not Geese. It's Geese. - Oh. - Like the flock of birds. Geese, drags the ass. - Geese, Geese. - I don't know, that's good. - Yeah, there's a big fucking difference there. Just get your wondering. That's like my-- - What are you saying, Mr. Gallegos? - I think there's a distinct difference between Geese and Geese and then Gallegos and Gallegos. (laughing) It's like one's totally wideed up. Anyways, so we're here to talk about video games. So let's talk about games we've been playing and since you're our special guest. - This is Rebel FM 39, asshole. - Oh, Rebel FM 39. - God damn it. - Oh, whatever. Now it's 39/40. - We're gonna leave it in. - That's how I wanted to go in the notes, 39/40. - Yeah. - No, it'll be 40 or 39. (laughing) So let's talk about games we've been playing. You first, you know, what have you been playing? - Anything or new old-- - No, it doesn't matter, whatever you think. - What have you been playing in the last week, ideally? - Okay, well, I really like the Left 4 Dead demo. That came out yesterday. - Left 4 Dead 2, though. - Yeah. - Mm-hmm, cool. - Have you guys tried it at all? - I haven't played it yet. - I have not. - It's really cool. I mean, I really like the-- - What level do you play in the demo? - It's the daylight one, right? - It's the parish. - Yeah, the parish movie. You don't get to play the whole movie. - It's the two sections before the bridge, I think. - It's probably the same two sections they were showing at E3. It is. - Okay. - It was not the section that we played at PAX. - Right, that was totally different. That wasn't even parish, though. - Yeah. - That was the swamp level, right? They were showing at PAX. - Yes. - I'm trying really hard to love the characters. I don't hate them. I don't dislike them at all. It's just, I'm not used to them yet, you know? - They don't have that instant appeal that the first four did. - Yeah. - That's interesting to me because, I mean, watching like the trailers that they've released, it seems like they're putting so much more emphasis onto a narrative and like developing-- - Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, they definitely are. It's just, I don't know, it's just different. - I mean, it's a demo. So maybe that's it, but. - To me, the only one that seems sort of like, really, Valve really is like the guy in the suit. Like, really. - No, that's the Juneteenth character right there. - Like, that's why he looks like he's just came from shooting a Miami Vice reunion. - No, he looks to me like he just got down on a river boat. - I think that's his story, is he's a river boat gambler, right? - Yeah, he is like a gambler, I don't know. That one to me just felt comfortable. - The whole game takes place. - He's like, okay. - In the south, yeah. - Yeah. - Oh, in Louisiana, like in New Orleans. - I want to say it moves to other states too, right? - Maybe to Texas, like everything else. - I know, at the end of one of the ones I played, you do leave in a helicopter. And if they are actually connected, then it could take place. - Yeah, I'm pretty sure you go to a different state. Like either Mississippi, it's right there. - I guess we'll know soon enough. I mean, once I come out. - Oh, the game itself next week? - The first, next two weeks, I promise. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Same day as Assassin's Creed. - I appreciate that there's like new things to tinker with. You know, like you have the adrenaline that you can use to speed you up. - How does that work? Does it just make your adrenaline run faster? - You carry that instead of a med kit, right? - Not the med kit, the pills. - And then when you take it, you can't be slowed down by zombies when you run through them. - That's right. - And you can immediately attack for, there's no, it won't start a timer on your melee attack. You can just go nuts with the melee. - I feel like that might break multiplayer a little bit. - Well, it's just used so that you can push through real quick, like a quick group of zombies. But I mean, you have to take it in place of pills and it doesn't give you any health. And you know, if you're running through zombies, they may not slow you down, but they're still hurting you. You know. - They also have a, I am gonna butcher this defibrillator. - Defibrillator. - Demand, did they actually put that in? 'Cause I remember when I played it, they were like talking about it, but they weren't sure. - Yeah. - They do have that. It's a med pack, right? - You don't necessarily, no, you take it in place of your melee weapon or your pistol. - Okay. - Is it a melee weapon? - It could be used as one. - Okay, so what does the defibrillator do? Like, does it bring just people back immediately or whatever? - Or brings people back with more health, maybe? - Brings you back, you know, from the afterlife with like 50% health. - Oh, it says, yeah. - So, like, is it the 50% that dwindle was? - Six down? - Like, 'cause when you're revived, like normally, it has-- - You get like 30 or something. - Well, you have a certain amount of health and then it ticks down. Does it tick down? - Yeah, it's like when you have pills, it ticks down. - Oh, no, it doesn't tick down. If that's what you're asking. - That's rad, so it's like one person can almost play. Like, hey, guys, I'll be the medic. Like, okay, I won't have infinite ammo with my pistols, but-- - How many times can you use it? - I don't know if there's a limit. I mean, it was only the demo, so I only used it once, but I purposely had my teammate kill me, so we could use it to tell him to see how it worked. - I'm sure you had to ask really nicely to have someone kill you in a multiple-- - You tried to get you killing the teammate? - Yes. - And what else? I was beating people up with the guitar. That's pretty cool. - Does it make a noise when you hit people with me? Like, if satisfying-- - Yeah, it has the echo. - Sweet ass. - Yes. I don't know, have you guys tried it at all? - Yeah, I've played it like three different times now. - Yeah, we played it at PAX. Except that the figure later was in there. - Yeah. - That sounds cool. - The female characters, the zombies, special zombies are so funny. - Wait, are we talking about the spitter one? - Yeah. - Like the one that looks like-- - Well, even the boomer. Have you seen the female boomer? - I haven't seen the female boomer. - No, I thought that-- - She has like a bra, she has a huge gut. - So there's a male and a female boomer now? - Yes, and a female spitter. - The female spitter, yeah. - Like I was-- - She has her thong popping out of her eyes. - And a pigtail, yeah, she's like-- - She's the white trash, she's the white trash zombie. - Yeah. - I was looking at Giant Bomb did a quick look, and I don't remember, I don't think they, did they remodel the hunter, is the hunter the same? - Oh, I don't know, I thought it was the same. - Yeah, I think so. - I mean, the jockey looks kind of like the hunter almost sometimes, I don't know. - Man, I really think, I feel like the jockey just looks like Igor, like with big-ass arms and tiny feet. - That's true, I guess he does kind of lumber like that too. - And then the charger has got his tiny little, tiny little like-- - Big arm and little like-- - Two auto arm, from Total Recall. - Yeah. Well, there's definitely like a lot of new additions and you know, just the fact that they're spending so much time with building up the characters and stuff that it definitely feels like a sequel more than just, you know, something you would download. - And it looks a lot better. - Yeah. - Well, the faces in particular I've been told and look excellent. - And just the lighting effects and like the particle stuff, like it just, it's much, it looks more atmospheric, like it looks like it takes place in a sweaty Louisiana town. - And it might just be me, be me, but it feels like it controls a lot better. - I don't know why. - That could just be you. I don't think they've done much with that. - Oh, you were playing the 360 version. - What other games have you been playing? - Fortunately, I'm gonna be on a show for this, but I've been trying to be a Call of Duty 4 and veteran. - You didn't have the 4? - You didn't go through the campaign? No, I only beat it on hard and-- - I haven't gotten my high club. That's the only achievement I think I don't have. - Well, that and the teachers. - Where are you at in your playthrough? - I just saved, I forgot his name, the Russian guy. And now we're going through like the fields at night. Yeah. - Man, where I stopped on veteran was the stage where it's in the missile side level and there's like two doors on either of your side and there's guys that like throw grenades. It's sort of an infamous part. - Yeah, like there's hallways on either side and as soon as you pass there, they just kill you. - Yeah, that's a whole veteran. - A whole game on veteran is just a fucking whore. - It is. - I mean, even on hardened, they throw pretty excess with my other grenades. Like anytime you're like, how are you standing still? Here's what I want. - On veteran, it's like your survival chances like someone on Normandy Beach. - Right. - Now, well, yeah, that is true. - Yeah. - I feel like someone that enjoys torturing themselves, like physically. - Yeah, I mean, that's why I do not play on veteran 'cause it ceases to be fun for me on veteran. - Yeah. - I don't know. - For some weird, crazy reason I thought that I would be able to beat it in like seven days before the new one came out and I don't think that's gonna happen. - Well, if you wanted to beat it just to beat it, you should just put it on normal or something just to go through it real quick to refresh yourself if that's what the concern is. - No, that's not why I was gonna go through it again. I wanted all the achievements 'cause you know how that goes. - Is it weird seeing a Call of Duty 4 after seeing the footage of Modern Warfare 2 and you think, oh, well, that looks a little better but it doesn't look that much better than going back and thinking, oh, it really does look a hell of a lot better than Call of Duty 4 did. - I really tried to avoid as many spoilers as possible, so. - You haven't seen any video of it yet? - Well, you were the one just saying you were gonna go home and watch the new trailer that's going up tonight. - Yeah, I mean, I think it does look a lot better and I'm excited for the story. I think it's going to blow the first one out of the water, so. - Thank you, Infinity Ward PR. - That is a game that I hope people just. I apologize if you can hear the sounds of cats wanting to get humped in the background. - Is that what it is? - It sounds like one of them does not want to get hummed. - That, 'cause cat does it every night. - Oh, that cat was doing it all day. - So anyways. - Wow, that's all he just showed me. - I mean, you guys, now I'm distracted but not the cat from the guys. - You know, there's something that is, that's kind of bugging me about Modern Warfare 2 is the blood splatter that you get when you get shot. - I don't like that either. - Yeah, because it's, well. - I prefer the red on the screen. - The sort of like burned out stoner eye effect. - Yeah, I liked that a lot better because now it's like, it really blinds you in some spots, like really bad. - Yeah, I mean, if you were shot in Modern Warfare, it wasn't that hard to recover and, you know, kill your enemy. And this one, if you get shot blood splatters all over your screen, it's like-- - By the time, the thing I did notice though, is that by the time in Modern Warfare 2 that you see blood, it's like really bad. Like if it's gotten that bad, it's like really bad. Like you're probably just gonna die anyway. - Which I think is, I mean, like from a multiplayer standpoint, I think that's a good thing. I think it's good to penalize people for getting shot over. - Yeah, I mean, a multiplayer that should never even happen. It should just be you got shot and you died. There shouldn't be-- - Well, yeah, that's why we play hardcore team deathmatch. - Assuming we'll be playing hardcore team deathmatch, assuming fucking party chat works and hardcore team deathmatch. - Oh, I will not. - I know that it won't work. - Yeah, see, that's fucking tough. - It won't work in hardcore team deathmatch. - And any of the hardcore modes it won't. - Oh, I guess I won't be playing hardcore team deathmatch. That's what I think. - I never liked that much. - Oh, man, Tyler's the only way to play. - Yeah, that's the way I prefer to play it, but I will not be playing. - I mean, yeah, I hope that people, when they review that game, just close people. - Isn't that a bargain still? - But I know that we'll be, well-- - That is a bargain still. - Yeah, you're not even allowed to talk about it. - It's like how the (beep) - Yeah. - I'm gonna say you've been to a place. - I'm gonna have to like bleep out all of that. - That (beep) - Yeah. - That's what (beep) - Isn't that what (beep) - So, didn't (beep) - Do we want (beep) to be the high watermark for not breaking-- - Are you gonna edit all this out, obviously? So anyways, yeah, that'll be an interesting set of reviews when they go up. - It sucks that we have to be so cryptic after that. - So, yeah, the party chat thing did that. How'd you guys feel about that? - I think it's fucking bullshit. - Yeah. - Like the private servers thing is one thing, but I am paying for Xbox Live for party chat, among other things. - I mean, there are certain things that I, yeah, I thought Arthur was right. There are certain things that I didn't think you could break when you make a game for Xbox. And it seems like people keep doing it all the time. - Well, I mean, party chat wasn't necessarily available when the first one came out. - No, it wasn't, but I mean, it's the nature of the guide means that they can implement new features without breaking existing stuff. Like, and the fact that they're prohibiting-- - I mean, what is it for it to prevent cheaters? Because then why can't people just be an event on a computer talking if they wanted to cheat? You know, it really doesn't do anything. - Yeah, I mean, to me, it really looks like a, to me, it seems like Infinity Ward is really going like complete control freak on Call of Duty 2, and they're just like, we are going to say how you're going to play our game. - It's like for PC players, they're like, well, we want to make it a more accessible experience for everybody. And then for console gamers, they're like, we want this play a certain fucking way. If you're not hardcore enough, then you play a different mode. - Yeah, I mean, that is the direction they're going, but I think that a lot of the hardcore, super hardcore niche fans are going to appreciate that. - I mean, yeah, I have seen some people that do appreciate that, but-- - Well, like, the thing that pisses me off the most is they're like, good, that will solve cheating. I mean, first of all, it won't. - No, you're not at all. - And so if they want to fix cheating, then they should make some, then first of all, you should not be able to see what the other team is doing when you're dead. - And that's the whole thing is that like punk buster, you know, like, punk buster proves that putting up an impediment does not fix cheating. Because you put up punk buster and then people are like, oh, you put in a new version of punk buster, I better find a way to make my cheat work and they fucking hack through it and do it. Same thing, if you put up a thing where people can't talk in party chat, they're just going to call each other on their cell phone or something. - Or text? - Yeah, or to order to talk over like their PS3 or something else, I mean, they will find a way to do it. - Arthur does have a point though, like, if they don't want people cheating, instead of like getting rid of party chat, they should have just made it so-- - Like get rid of the ghost cam in those notes, like have someone just fucking stand still, or-- - That would have made more sense. - Or make it so that someone can be useful when they're dead in a way that isn't like spying on the fucking other team. - Or do you, like they do in a lot of other games where you can't talk to your team when you're dead? - Well, that would still circumvent party chat. - But I'm just saying that you can do that. - Well, when you died on the hardcore modes and regardless of the current modern warfare, you can't talk to your teammates when you die. - Okay, yeah, I just didn't. I don't know that because I don't play with my headset. - Like it's such a chat enough. - Like A, it's such a fucking half-assed implementation of a way to fix cheating that isn't gonna fix anything, and B, it's circumventing like my ability to socialize with my friends in the way that I want to do more because-- - Or talk to people that aren't even in the same game as you. - Yeah, I mean, like how often do we like jump on Xbox Live and we're in a party talking about shit that has nothing to do with the game? - Yeah. - And also, it just seems like complete bullshit to me and I played a lot of modern warfare online. And I mean, like I said, I can count on one hand like the amount of times I felt like the other people were genuinely some way cheating. But like, can I count on two hands the amount of times I've been completely annoyed by a bunch of loud mouths and on the servers? Like, no, I mean, that is much more of a problem for me than cheating. - It just means that I'm gonna, I'm not gonna play those playlists. - Yeah. - Yeah, play hardcore with this. - No, I'm not. Why, so I can, so I can either hear grief everyone or hear a bunch of people saying faggot and the N word over and over again. Like, that's not interesting. - Oh man, there was a funny thread that went up on the Xbox official forums about some parent that was like, I'm gonna bring my lawyer into this. You've now banned my son from your service twice and this is not right. And then the-- - Dude, that happens all the time. The administrator responded and he's like, I would just like to pull a quote from your son's biography for you. And it's like he talks about all those lazy and blank, blank, blank, and all this stuff and the mom's like, oh, oh. (laughing) - She's not. - Maybe I shouldn't have taught him those things. - Yeah, like I tweeted, I think earlier in the week, if you really want to just read something and be amused, you should definitely look, like go to the official Xbox forums and read that my console was banned or my live tag were banned threads because people will just post the most bullshit reasons and like, freak the fuck out and the live team just shut them down over and over again. - Yeah. - And although a listener did alert send an email to us learning us to an issue of with Forza, right? Was it Forza? The guy who did a pro like breast cancer thing and he got banned because it said breast cancer. - Really? I mean, did he appeal and did they reinstate his shit? - You know, I'm not sure when I, they probably just have bots that search out. - I mean, banning gamer tag is one thing. Like, people have definitely had their gamer tags banned for stupid shit, but banning of consoles, like they go through such a strenuous process to do that. And they don't even, I mean, you really have to be obvious about modding your console to get your fucking shit banned. - Mm-hmm. - So. - Anything else? - Yeah, what else? Is that it for you? Is that all you've been playing? - Did you guys hear about the nine versus nine news on PC? - Yeah. - The what? - Yes. - The 16 player cap on PC. - I just heard that today 'cause Tyler said something about it. - 16? Oh, did I say, oh, I mean, 18, I'm sorry. - Yeah, I mean that person played. - The PC players I know to some extent, that's like a mixed thing. Like they like it and don't like it. They like it because a lot of those maps are designed around that idea anyways. And sometimes when you get down those maps and there's like 12 on 12, it just starts feeling really stupid. So that could be a really good thing that the maps are designed. - They were like crippling the PC audience, so. It just really is. - Yeah. - I agree. - I'm really shocked because a lot of the people at Infinity Ward came from the mod community and it just, it baffles me. - Well, I mean, it probably comes down to the fact that they know where the money's at. I mean, it's- - Activation or infinity? - That and both. - Both. - I just really think that they've let, you know, I mean, Call of Duty is an amazing game and I think it's like they're just letting it go to their head and they're just going to dictate how you were going to play their game. - Like the stories that I hear are that they wanted modern warfare to be Call of Duty 2, but they basically to get console development kits, they said that they would do another World War II game. So this is why, like they've wanted to go in the console direction since Call of Duty 2. - Now people I know that have been this industry for a long time though, Tyler have told me that those dudes that made the company have had pretty big heads about how great they were ever since they first left. Yay. - Well you'd have to be pretty confident in your ability is to leave Medal of Honor to go make another Medal of Honor game. - Yeah, I mean, yeah, and that's cool. And like, you know, I'm a Kanye West fan. Cool and like, you know, someone who's opposed to like being completely full of yourself, but at the same time, like I've really been feeling lately like a, I'm not a big PC gamer, but I don't like to see PC culture being taken away from them. - Yeah. - And that's what I feel like is happening. - Like the matchmaking thing makes sense to me if they were gonna run their own dedicated servers and they still haven't really given a definitive answer on whether or not that's what's gonna happen. - That, did you hear about the Infinity Ward Net thing that they're doing? - Yeah, I know about IW.net, but they haven't said if that's just gonna be a matchmaking service or if it's gonna be matchmaking with their own servers. Like they, their new line for everything that anyone asked them is wait until the game comes out and experience it for yourself. And I just don't understand what the fuck their marketing department thinks like is doing, like what their PR is thinking. Like it's like they've decided that they're gonna try to fucking hobble themselves as much as possible in the two weeks before that game comes out. - They know that they're a mainstream title now and they don't really. - And they know that game's gonna get nothing for fucking 10. - Yeah, I mean, that's gonna get ridiculous. - And it's already the most pre-ordered game ever. You know, they just, at this point they do know. They look at the pre-order numbers and stuff and just think, well. - Fuck it. - Am I got? - Yeah. (laughing) - Put it in gold on my helicopter. - Have you seen the reviews on Amazon for the PC version though? It's like one star. - Yeah, but I mean, that's cool. - Obviously, Amazon user reviews, they can go throw that up there. You can go look at anything on Amazon and it's like one star and five star. - Amazon is so easily gamed with their reviews and their ratings and their tags. - I mean, people have done that in the past too about other products or people that have said bad shit, they'll go on and just troll that person's product on Amazon and just drag it down. - And we're right of script to do it. - Yeah. - I mean, it's all of that even like I could live with, like that's like a gameplay choice, but then you have the whole video thing that we were talking about in the car, like the Fags video. - Yeah, man, that's crazy. - That's absolutely insane. - Like, I don't know, it wasn't an official video, but it was put in their official video channel. - Oh, they got so much money. I just imagined them all sitting around in the room being like, we have so much money, what are we gonna do? Let's fucking, let's go out and fucking kidnap a homeless person and hunt them with guns. (laughing) We can afford that. - You know what? Can we get ice? - John Claude Bandam. - Yeah. - Can we get Ice Cube or Ice Tea? - It was Ice Tea. - Ice Tea, yes. - And what you're thinking of, but John Claude Bandam did the same movie, basically, with Lance Henriksen. - There was also another movie called The Pest, with John Lukazama, where he was hunted. - Yes. - Yeah, same. - I don't know. - I'm not surprised that she brought up the John Lukazama. - So all three of those actors need to do another movie. But I honestly imagine that anyone from Infinity Ward or Activision at this point would drop money on the floor and then make them disappear, you know? Like Batman or something like that. (laughing) - 'Cause they're like smoke bomb. - They're like, what about that? - Like, what about that bad video? Throw money down, shh, I'm gone. - It's funny. - I mean, I don't know, this is the way that EA started behaving before EA when it took a nosedive, so. - Well, and then there was that thing today, too, where they had some community event talking to people through Best Buy, somehow Best Buy community event. And someone brought up the petition and their response was like, oh yeah, we heard that 400 of those signatures were illegitimate and signed two times or four times or whatever. It's just like, come on. - Internet petitions mean nothing. - Right, yeah, yeah. - I mean, that's not true. There are internet petitions that might mean something, but internet petitions about video games mean nothing. - Do you think so? - To video game companies, yeah. - Yeah, for sure. - Yes, they don't care. - But still, you know, I mean, I'm just saying like they didn't have to respond that way, I don't know. - Yeah, maybe, maybe if I was in their shoes though, I'd feel the same way, like. - They're dusting the shirt off their shoulders, man. - That's what I'm scared of, like one day they're gonna reach a point where they just don't care, they throw a bling on whatever they want and then expect people to eat it up, you know? - Well, so far that's working. - I mean, so far every game infinity award has made, has been a sterling example of like the best gameplay of that genre for the time it was released. - Yeah, I mean, just go read the previous though of this one too, and it doesn't sound like this one's going to be any different. - Next one's gonna be like, "Tint my ride, my warfare edition." - I bet you'd be good if anyone could do a good "tint my ride" game, apparently it'd be infinity award. - Yeah, I mean, as much as I don't like their behavior recently, like I fully admit I'm going to love the shit out of modern warfare too. And I wrote a new story saying something like that on "Games Finds" when replied like something like, "You're dumb for supporting a broken game." (laughing) - On "Games Let's Be Clear in Games" by someone who will always find something negative to say. - I think they're hilarious to come in. - I think some of them are, and then I think a lot of them are just idiots. Yeah, I said it, I don't know if I can care too. I do it all the time. - This is especially funny to me 'cause right now your hair is standing up more than usual. - It's 'cause I would probably run my fingers through it and I had a lot today, but today some guy emailed us to the GameSpy feedback and he was like, we get all the feedback emails, so when people email about GameSpy technology, we get those too. You can know that has nothing to do with us. - I've sent you like 10 of those. - And so we got one today that was just titled, it was titled "No Shit." It was titled "Left Behind." And I was like, "What?" And this person was like, "Hey, I'm trying to play Left Behind online." And I don't know if, how to, is there like a book or something I could read that could teach me how to play? And I wrote out the email and then I was like, I can't send this, I'll get in trouble. 'Cause I said, this is the only book you need and I linked them to a Bible. (laughing) - Here's your strategy guide. - That's when you like sign on to Ryan Scott's computer and send it out. (laughing) - You know you look like, you actually look like a mini-sterling. - Oh wow, well, except I'm not black. Like, you know. Okay, you look like a slightly lighter mini-sterling. - Yeah, 'cause Charlie's a big dude, man. - You're giant, you're diet-sterling. - Yeah. - I had to deal with something ridiculous today. Not that you guys care or anything. - No, but I do. - What was it? - I do care. - I'm curious. - This is a dude who made four accounts with the same IP, same guy. And he kept saying, I banned him. And then he was like, you know, what the fuck you being my friend? I'm gonna like, tell everyone that you know-- - So he was signing in as his friend? - Yeah. - As himself? - Like three friends and he was threatening me each time with like something ridiculous. - Like, I'm gonna tell everyone that you're an ex-spot. Like, I'll do it. I'm just like, all right. - You don't know the clout I have in our community. I'm a big shot here. I'm such a big shot, I have to make up my own questions. - I'm gonna tell everyone that you really don't play games. - Next week on Rebel, if I'm gonna talk to you about the few listeners we have left. We didn't insult the show. - No, I mean, that's the thing is that our listeners and stuff in general are awesome. - Yeah. - I'm being totally serious. They are like-- - I know you are. - That sounds like the biggest, like, backped away. - No, no, no, it's not backpedaling. Look, I mean, GameSpy has some people, a minority of people, in my opinion, that comment and are really smart and appreciate what we're doing. And then we just have all these people that are just like in-consolable rage knots. Like, it pisses me off to no end. - I wouldn't say a minority of smart people. - I can start a funny band called in-consolable rage knot. - There's some pretty funny comments on GameSpy. - Sometimes, that's the thing is that we, is that some of the old audience is really, some of the old audience that's been there for a long time, they're really smart. And they have some really intelligent things to say. It's these new people that we get that are coming from our dig traffic and stuff, that come on the site that are like, they just say the stupidest shit. I mean, I don't hate all of the GameSpy audience, but it is sad that it is a minority of people that have good, intelligent things to say. - Speaking about your listeners, when I was at PAX, one of them actually said that, like, you're Tina from that one Rebel FM episode, right? Yeah, I heard the name from her. (laughing) - Oh, man. - No, it was cool. - What's up, man? I got my own pop. - Yeah, I was so ready for this really tiny website, one up. - I didn't even know, like the sign was right up above my head. They were just like, "Oh, you're Tina from Rebel FM," right? So, you guys have good listeners. Anyways, off track. - We do have some really cool listeners. - We do. - We need to eat those cookies at some point, but, like, I brought us from Japan. - Oh, for real. - Yeah, those are still the same in our cabinets. It's not the, I just don't eat sweets that often. - Yeah, and it's in such nice wrapping. It's like Christmas. - It is true. It's very beautiful. - We should get a Christmas tree and put them under it. - Yeah, we will. So, we've gotten a little off topic, sorry. What have you been playing, Tyler? - Dude, I finished the Ballad of Gay Tony. And it, you know, I loved-- - When did it come out? - Tuesday. - Last Wednesday. - Okay. - Oh, last Wednesday? - Wednesday, yeah, because I guess Wednesday is when the PSN stuff goes up to you, right? So, they came out the same day. - Yeah. - No, Thursday is PSN stuff. - Okay, well, it came out last Wednesday. And yeah, man, I played all the way through it. And as much as I love Lost in a Dam, as much as I love GTA 4, this really is the best, like, Grand Theft Auto 4 package out there. Like, you know, if you weren't too sold on the missions and the original Grand Theft Auto, Gay Tony really might could convert some people, just because it's like, it's insane. It's Grand Theft Auto stunt missions, basically. They just find reasons to put you in a helicopter, take you above the city, and say you jump out. - I heard this guy name, he works really well, too. - Yeah, yeah, you know, it's super fun. I mean, it controls a lot like the skydiving in San Andreas. And they even like, they even have, like, moment straight out of, like, point break, you know, that old Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze even-- - Yeah, I know about that, because the other day Arthur was fucking watching it. - On TV and HD. - Hey, and you know what? - That's such a great movie. - They cover that movie on Mythbusters, too. They did the-- - Yeah, I saw that one, how they would have died. And that's the scene they recreate in "Grand Theft Auto." - They would, they would. - You jump out of a fucking helicopter for some life. - As Patrick Swayze said, they would have been meat waffles. - Yeah. But man, I, yeah. Ballet Gaytony and not only are the missions really great, and they just instantly throw you into a lot of action, where like, "Lost in the Dam" felt like a lot of sort of gunplay action, but Ballet Gaytony, what I felt like they've really gotten good at, especially with Liberty City, is knowing where to put good chases, and like, chases that don't always fuck you up, because I felt like in "Grand Theft Auto IV" and "Lost in the Damned." If I was in a chase, I might have to like, restart, because like, "Oh, I didn't catch service. This one jump I had to do just right." Whereas like, Gaytony, I felt like the whole way. It was pretty clear and, you know, where I was supposed to go, and not only the missions, too, man, but the story. It's my favorite story of GTA so far. I don't know, I love it. - Isn't there new weapons and stuff over there? - Yeah, there's actually quite a few. Every category of weapon has a new weapon, so like, there's a new SMG you get right off the bat. That's amazing. And then there's one character that-- - Pretty universally, you, Seth, is that who you're gonna talk about? - Yeah. - I've heard he is like the guy you come away from this game loving. - Oh, dude, he's so great. - Even though he is incredibly offensive. - He is, but it's in like one of those like, teddy bear offensive ways. Like, oh. - It's pretty bear offensive. - Yeah, I don't know. I just made that turn up. - Light racism. (laughing) - Not, not, not like polite. He's just trying to be, he's this Arab dude and he's trying to be all like hip hop culture. So he always says the N word. And like, Luis is always giving him shit. Like, man, you need to cut out with that shit. Man, stop saying that. But he always keeps saying it. - You're not the only one who felt that way. So it's like, anyone that played it, I've always come away feeling exactly the way you feel. - He's so lovable though. I mean, he's one of my favorite characters in all of Grand Theft Auto. - Is he the one that, is he, what's his name's brother? No. - Or, okay. So you also see. - That character's more easy. So you see Brucey's brother. - Brucey's brother. - Which is interesting because you get a complete different view on Bruce. - Brucey, right? - Yes. - I heard about that. - 100%. It's like, what we know of Bruce is he's kind of a-- - Punk bitch. - Well, from Grand Theft Auto 4, we don't know him as a punk bitch. We know him. He's kind of like a, like, let's go do some action shit. You know, he's, he seems like more of a meathead. But what you see is when he's around his brother, their dynamic completely changes his personality and he's basically a punk bitch the whole time. So that's really interesting too. And, oh man, I could just go on and on. Like, wait, you know, there's, there's, there's a bunch of, like, club missions you can do, you know, since Gay Tony is a club owner. You can go in club and, like, basically you bounce. You know, you walk around, you look for douches, causing trouble and you throw 'em out. But the cool thing is, it's just like, the little details, like, when you're walking in the club and you're, when you're in the dance floor, like, he starts, like, jamming his head into the rhythm with the music and-- - There's, like, drinking games in there, isn't there? - Yeah, yeah. - I watched Will do, like, a champagne thing and he won. And then he was up on the second floor of the club and he fucking fell down the stairs and then walked on the dance floor and just started, like, drunk and dancing with these girls. - Yeah. (laughs) Yeah, there's even, you can even get on the dance floor and, like, get in dance many games too. It's, it's really great. And not only are the missions and the story and all this great, but they also, this one has a lot more content than even the Lost and the Damned have had, you know, so it's like they have drug wars just like Lost and the Damned, but they also have a shit ton of parachute missions where, like, everywhere you look on the map, there's an icon, a parachute icon where you can start, like, a parachute game. So it's not, in previous GTA's, the parachute was sort of, like, the rare item you would fly to the top of this one building to get, but in Gay Tony, their general attitude is just, we're gonna give you everything you want and you are not gonna have to pay for it, you're not gonna have to, you know, even the missions where you're killing lots of dudes, you never end a mission with cops on you, not once. It's like you're the most swab fucking muscle in Liberty City. - So if you had to tell someone that didn't own GTA IV, like, would you tell 'em just by the episodes from Liberty City's don't even get GTA IV? Like, I almost feel like the way that people always describe those experiences, it almost sounds like just like the better option, just to get the two episodes. - I would say that. - I was the GTA isn't bad on its own, but if you just were like, you know, it's like you get a short, more concise experience. - What? - It's like, what I would ask of those people, it's like, what kind of person are you? Are you a person? - What kind of guy you are? - What kind of guy you are? Are you okay with, like, a slow burn? So, like, Grand Theft Auto IV, it starts really slow. Like, you know, you start in the slums and you work your way up, whereas Gay Tony, it's like you're starting at the-- - It starts out very fabulous. - You're starting at the end of a Grand Theft Auto. Like, when you have everything. So, in that sense, yes. - The financial resources to do whatever you want. - Finance, good apartment, good car always, you know, guns at your apartment automatically, a full wardrobe automatically, you know, it's awesome. I mean, but I love Grand Theft Auto in the first place, so, and, you know, it's, as much as I love it, I don't think, like, Arthur, I know you have a problem with GTA games, 'cause you don't like the game play that much. - I don't know, I don't know that I call it a problem so much as I'm just not typically-- - Yeah, it kind of gets bored in the same way that I've played Mass Effect and I kind of, I just kind of got over it. - I don't think, I don't think it would necessarily sell you. - Like, once in the day I had a lot of fun the time I played it, but it was like, I had a lot of fun for about four hours and then it seemed like I hit a wall as far as the story was concerned and then it was just doing, like, the Grand Theft Auto stuff that I find boring. - Right, yeah, and for some reason, this one for Gay Tony, like, you know, I love Lost in the Damned, but I stretched it out over a long period of time where I would, like, put it away for a week and come back to it, but man, Gay Tony, I just couldn't put it down. The missions are so fucking good. - Gay for Gay Tony. - I am gay for Gay Tony, yeah, yeah. - And it's, there's some, I don't know, man. It's great because, like, Louis and Gay Tony, they're like the ultimate buddy duo, I don't know. They're just, like, the coolest team. - Or they have a very believable, like-- - Report? - Like, yeah, like, it's a little antagonistic at times, but it's, like, out of love. - Yeah, yeah, it is, man, and one thing I like what they did with Louis Lopez's character is, like, he's-- - Kind of like me and Arthur except I'm Louis and he's Gay Tony. (laughing) - Or you guys have-- - Which means true. - Which means he's successful and does a lot of drugs. (laughing) - Definitely. - Yep. - It's bad, people already think I'm gay. You're not helping. - I'm sorry. - Is, one last question about it before you move on. Is the golfing any good? 'Cause I heard you can actually-- - The golfing, yeah, yeah, so you can golf. I mean, the golfing, it's very typical rock star minigame. - Okay. - Which, in other words, means no. - Okay. (laughing) - You know, like, cool and rock star. - What else you been hitting up? Did you end up hitting up that ratchet and clank that I gave you? - I-- - No, 'cause he was fucking playing Gay Tony. - I did not-- - I love ratchet and clank. - I played a lot of Borderlands. - Did you play, okay, so let's talk about a little bit of Borderlands and then we'll talk about some ratchet and clank. - One of them rinded is on the corner. - Yes, so. - So, like, I played the level 20. That's about how far I am. - That's pretty good. - Which character? - I'm playing the sniper class, the hunter. - Okay. - So, like, at first when I started off, I thought his hawk was really weak sauce. - He's a bat thing. Isn't it a bat? - We said a conversation earlier about awesome sauce being something that now, especially makes me stop reading anything I see it in. - So, that's why when I said weak sauce, I mean, he looked at our-- - Someone used awesome sauce in our piece of writing. - Yes. - What? - People said that we're a little bit of snobby about talking shit about other people's writings, but-- - It's not like I don't think names. I don't, like, talk, I'm a wouldn't walk to their faces and say, "You are a piece of shit." - The thing is that I don't think, and it's not like I'm saying that because I think my writing's perfect, but at least I'm, like, actively aware of these things and trying to improve. All these people are oblivious and are just content to collect a paycheck writing out, writing fucking baby babble. Moving on. - I mean, just because I think something is, just because I find something so offensive to my brain meat that it makes me want to stop reading it, doesn't mean that that's the be all end all appraisal of it. Like, I'm just saying that if I see awesome sauce in something, I am going to step away from my computer and go shit because it loosened my bowels so much. - Really? You got to give those dudes credit. They found a place where they could write like that, you know? - Yeah, it's called e4g.info. - It's the internet of our video games. Fucking congratulations. - But yeah, it's, you know, Borderlands, I mean, I don't know, people have been talking about it a lot and I really probably don't have much to say that anyone else would have already said like one thing I was going to buy. One thing that was interesting-- - Not the version he's playing. - About my experience was, you know, I'm playing with one of my best friends from Houston. You guys met in mirrors. And he's never, he's never played like a role-playing game. He's never played a loot game ever. And so like this was his first experience. And the first night we sat down and played it, it was totally one of those mornings where, oh shit, it's 7 a.m. We've been playing all fucking night. - That was, that was Jeremy, the guy that's housed me. We hung out and shot bottle rockets. - Nice. - Hell, like my friends were holding on to the tips of the bottle rockets. - You felt like a proud father. Intruder assumed to like, baby's first RPG. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did, you know? 'Cause he was like, oh, you know, I'm not familiar with these kind of games. It's in that game. - Dude, you know how to shoot things. - Yeah. And, you know, if any of you out there have played Borderlands, he got to level 30 in like three days. That's pretty odd. - I mean, it's probably that it's like perfect for someone like him because he likes first person shooters and then it's like RPG light. Like, you only have to worry about like a very few stats. - And he's never experienced loot games. So it's like-- - And also, I mean, it's really forgiving and not punishing you for picking the wrong skills. Like the respect-- - Yeah, I mean, you can reset your skills. - Fucking any game that does skill trees like that should have a cheap respect option. And at this point, like that game is just-- - World of Warcraft, I mean, that pretty standard. - Okay, World of Warcraft, but how much does it cost to respect? - It goes up in price each time, up to a certain price and then you're-- - You pay dollars to respect-- - No, no, you pay in-game gold. - I mean, right, in-game currency, what I'm saying is you don't pay, like, okay-- - There's no earth dollars being spent. - There's no experience in the question right? - But what I'm saying, like, you have 10 points into your specialization, so when you respect, you're only gonna have eight points. Like, do they take away? - None of you get it all back. - Oh, cool. - Get it all back, yeah. - It just doubles, and it starts off the first one's like five, and then after that's 10, 20, it keeps going up, doubles. And then eventually, I think when it reaches like 1,000 or something, it resets back to five. - Would you guys say, like, it's best in Borderlands to go down one specific tree all the way for-- - No, I went all over the place. - You spread it? - I think you just sort of prioritize what sounds good like what might help you. - I didn't like the bottom skills and, like, most of the soldiers' trees. I just went for all the skills which were in different trees that basically made him constantly region health and shields. - Oh, okay. - So, I just made him, I just wanted, I just went instead of thinking, like, a tree I went for, I just think of, like, what I want him to be able to do, which was always have a ton of health and-- - Yeah, I heard about that. You would have to shoot your teammates in order to heal them, right? - Are you still not played Borderlands? - No, I have. - Okay. - But, I haven't played Anthony. - So, uh, Rajin Clank? - He hasn't played it. She did, I did. - Well, yeah, you two should talk. You played the new one? What'd you think of it? - I love it. - Yeah, why do you love it? Have you played to other Rajin Clanks? - I played one of the other ones for PS2. I don't know which one this is. - I couldn't tell you either. I never played in your Rajin Clanks. - There's been, like, 11 Rajic games, right? - I think there's actually been five. - Seven? - Oh, there's been five teams. - Okay, okay, not counting, there's been five. - It's just seven, right now. - Five for console. - Yeah. - I mean, there's this third PS3 game. - Yeah. - The booty thing is more like a tiny thing. - They consider Quest, Quest or Booty was like a six, seven hour game, wasn't it? - Nah, it was like three hours. - Nah, I mean, they still consider it like part of the main thing. - It is, I mean, it ties to the storyline. It is a part of the storyline. It's like a, anyways, what is it that you like about Rajin Clank? - The humor, yes. - Yeah, the characters and the writing are really good in general. I mean, that's what I liked about all of that. - The voice acting is good. - The voice acting in that is really good, even though they're going for the whole cheesy thing. They do cheesy in cartoony without being like too cheesy. - Too big. - Yeah. - It doesn't feel juvenile. - Yeah, it feels kind of like watching a Pixar movie in a way, which is a high praise. I mean, it doesn't necessarily look as good, but it's, you know? - Even one of the archives was saying that, you know, those scenes that you see when you get a new weapon, those tutorial parties. - Yeah, those are actually my favorite part of the game. They were influenced by Pixar. - Like, and these are, they're like animated scenes. - That are like when you find a new plasma in Bioshock. - Yeah, it's exactly like that that shows you what it's supposed to do and like how you use it. I feel, I don't know, it's weird because I've seen people say that like the Clank stuff is sort of like the part where they're less interested in the game and they really like the ratchet stuff with the shooting and the platforming. I'm finding the ratchet stuff sort of monotonous and I'm finding the Clank stuff the interesting part. - What's the difference? - Well, Clank doesn't have a gun. Like, Clank, you punch things. And then it's-- - He has that weird stuff. - Yeah, he has a, like, ratchet destroys everything and Clank fixes stuff. Like he has a stuff that will take something backwards through games and videos. - Okay, I've seen videos. - Yeah. - I mean, he manipulates. - Yeah, and you manipulate time basically by throwing these bombs that slow things down. Like, let's say there's like this thing that's centrifuging around and you can't step on it. You throw a bomb and it slows down. You jump on it and then you throw another bomb to the next one and jump before it hits it so that it slows the next one down while you're still in the air 'cause you can only have one active at once. - Oh, cool. - So you basically like the puzzles more. - I still really like the game a lot, but so far I find it less engaging than the first ratchet and clank. - Like the Clank, the Clank recording parts are the, is the thing that I'm having a lot of fun. - People say I just need to get farther. They said it gets better. - How far did you get? - I've only played for like two hours. - I've played about that much like two or three hours and I don't, I mean, I'm doing the ratchet stuff and some of it is fun. I tried, when I first started it up, I tried using the third person shooter controls and that was a fucking mistake. That game does not control well as a third person shooter. - No, you just need to lock on and jump around. - The standard controls, it made the game much more enjoyable but I also like, I don't know, like the art design and the clank levels seems much more cohesive and interesting than the art design and the ratchet levels. Like, one. - I heard, I was that you that posted a new story or something that this is gonna be Insomniac's last game they plan on doing that will run at 60 FPS? - No, no, I didn't. - Yeah, and I totally understand that. That makes sense to me because honestly the cut scenes look more interesting than the. - Yeah, because they said that they were okay with just achieving a 30 frame per second, you know, where it still looks good, like they could do better things with the graphics instead of being so set on the 60 frame thing that they make certain things look kind of dated now. - Okay, good job. - I mean, it's like we were talking about before, like when we went up to, when we went to Houston every fucking TV in that hotel was running everything at like 120 Hertz. - Right. - Like it just looks like this weird sort of fucked up video public access show in some of the film. - I like public access television. - Oh yeah, but I mean, it doesn't look good in comparison to film. Like this is the argument that you were making, right? - Yeah. - Are you seeing Horse and Buggy Red? - I was thinking very quietly Horse and Buggy Red. - I, and yeah, I just think that it would look more like the source material that it's clearly influenced by if it's stuck to that frame, right? And they could obviously make it look better. - Right, in 30 frames a second, I've seen plenty of games that run that way and they still look fine. - I will. - Yeah, I mean, they still look fine. 60 frames per second, sometimes looks even weird at times. I'm just not used to it. - What do you think of the space stuff? - It's really simple. Like it doesn't feel particularly challenging. - Yeah, I think they could have done a lot more with it, but-- - Like, did they, I didn't play the last one. Did it have like Z-axis stuff where you moved up and down in the spaceship or was it always just sort of like, it feels like I'm on an ice rink, like in a buggy, on an ice rink, just like moving side to side, like never moving up or down. - They've had a lot of that, yeah. I mean, that's how. In some ways, like the Jack of Dexter game, at least the PSP one that I'm playing also feels where it's like you're mostly on a horizontal plane. You can move up and down, but you always come back, re-centered to this like flat plane where it's more about sliding to the right to the left. - I've heard some other people complain that the upgrades happen too often, but I like that. Like I like that you're constantly on a flat. - I mean, I like that you can effect when things upgrade by using them. I mean, having using as what equals upgrade is awesome. - Oh yeah, I like it when games do that too. - I appreciate when I can change all my weapon colors to green too. - You can customise the colors of your weapons. - Yeah, I did not know that. - I don't really care. - Just check it out. - Like one of the guilty admit. - What? - I'm not even gonna admit this. - No, tell me. - I was gonna say I'm gonna admit it now. - Back in the day when they first announced army of two, like one of the things I thought was cool is like, well, cool, you can customise your guns and like make them gold and shit. - Oh man, you're like, that's exactly why they did that shit. 'Cause they know people love it. - You and your friends, we never finished that game. - No. - And I suggested it one night and you said no. - No, I suggested it one night and you said, it's like we take turns hating each other. - I suggested it one night and then you said no and I said fine, let's try conflict and night ops. And then we did. - Ooh. - And that was a mistake. - We played, we played about three minutes of it before we were like, this is unplayable. - No, no, we played way more than that. - Also the other day I thought you would like to know that I traded in a copy of a game that I know you reviewed, Golden Compass. Didn't you review that? - No, no, no. - Okay, I traded in a copy of the Golden Compass yet. How much do you think Golden Compass traded in for? - Five dollars. - Three dollars. - Three dollars, this was a fucking, like Price is Right Arthur would win because he's closest but he's, or no, I don't know, 'cause he went over but he's still the closest, 85 cents. He has three. - No fucking way. - 85 cents. - Really? - They're like. - The package, they would sell the case for more than that. - 85 cents. - Wow, I don't think it is Christ. - Yup. - You should like, disemble it like a car and just sell the parts. - The guy like asked me, he's like 85 cents. Do you want this back? And I was like, no. God, I said that game isn't even worth 85. - If you ask me, I would pay you to take it. - At least it's going to GameStop on sitting on their shelf instead of a fucking landfill. Although the distinction between the two is not for much. So. - I wanna go back to the ratchet for a second. Did you explore the environment to get more bolts? - Yes. So I found it weird that I find bolts running through shrubbage. - Yeah. - But I did it. - The pre-order bonus for our new Amazon was extra bolts. - I see, I don't know, I'd prefer to find them 'cause it's like a reward thing for looking. And also I look for the golden, I like that there are things to collect that I'm just like. - There's something satisfying about receiving all those bolts. - Yeah. - Just watching them fly all over and come to you. - I do find it weird that the upgrade mechanic for your ship is finding small aliens and stuffing them into a can. - Oh yeah, yeah, the purple things. - The zony. - The zony, the things that could not ratchet or it could not clank. - So it's like, oh, you could not my friend. I guess I'll just convert you into something to upgrade my ship with. - Well, you're just, you get them and then they'll upgrade it for you 'cause they turn into little hive mind slaves for you. - That's what you tell yourself. - Oh, what, that I'm putting in my slavery? It is what I tell myself. - If you open up the hood of your ship, it's like little zony organs. - No, it's just little zony's pedaling really fast. - Little zony. - Little zony. - I love that the star is so lighthearted but you can still get enjoyment out of it. - It's a, it's a, it's a very lighthearted story but it still has like some pretty depressing overtones. Like, he's the last of his race, something happened. - Except he's not the last of his race. - Right, there's that other guy. So, but so he's looking for the other Lombaxes. That's the whole thing. But up until then, everyone's like, it's a real Lombax. - I mean, I, unfortunately, I think I made the mistake of reading, I can't remember if it was Sterling or Adam Sessler's or VONG4 and they, they would slip a pretty big. - Adam was the guy. - I mean, the crux of the story, like the basically the, the conceit of the story. - Yeah, well, don't say it here. - Yeah, I won't, but I was. - Oh, is it a pretty big deal? - I mean, if you, if you're playing it for the story, yeah. - Well, I mean, I know the two are separated at the beginning of the game. Is that what he's talking about? - Well, they were separated at the end of part two or part two. - Right, and I mean, even when you start the beginning or ratchet and cling feature, the crack in time, it does show you that there's another Lombax in case you didn't know. - Yeah, and also, it's nice that they show you a recap video of what happened before while it's installing, so it's not just sitting there at an install screen. - That is really awesome while it's installing. They show that 'cause they not only show you what happened in the future, but they also show you what happened in the quest for booty expansion as well, so. - So you don't have to catch you up. - So I didn't feel lost, like story-wise. - At all, yeah, that's what's really good about it. And also, Insomnia had a community day that I went to, and they let everyone get like autographed copies of the game, and that was nice. - Oh, see, that's why you have the game. Then I'm like the only person that probably, I bought it. - I'm actually giving my copy. That was autographed away, so. - Well, you're a better person than me because I'm not giving away my Fortune Hunter edition of Uncharted. ♪ It is mine ♪ - I know, right? Do you just open drives all big, Tyler? Will Tuttle got that, and he gave it to me. It's the only video game swag that I've ever really wanted. - To keep? - Because they don't typically send out things for Silent Hill. I would want that too. But that's not a game they send out shit for. - I'm having a hard time thinking of the fucked up shit that they sent out for Silent Hill. - Right, so that's, I mean, they don't say that. If it were the PR team for Dante's Inferno, chances are they'd just do it. - Yeah, they don't typically send out stuff for Silent Hill and they don't typically send out that much stuff for Phoenix Wright. And I have to compete with Ryan Scott for who gets that. - Did you see the most recent thing that they sent out for the Dante's Inferno PR stuff? The Rathbox? - Oh, what's his name? - With Rick Roll? - Yeah, like. - That's not his name though, what's his name? Rick Ashley? - Rick Ashley. - Like you open up the box and it plays never gonna give you up and it's like sealed under all this wood and there's a bag in it that's a hammer. And you basically have to destroy the box to get this fucking sound thing to unplug it and make it stop. - That's at least more clever. - Yeah, I like that. - That's very clever. - Spare it on the lusting. - Or the early the checks. - It was super loud too. Like the dude from Bloody Disgusting did a video of it. It's like you could barely hear him talking over who's Bloody Disgusting and why are they getting sent stuff? - It's like a website that does horror stuff so that ties in with the Dante's Inferno thing. - They didn't send this box to any of the major outlets. So, right? - I never saw one coming our office. - Yeah. Maybe they knew better. Please don't send us that bullshit. - In-stream press have been pretty down on Dante's Inferno on a regular basis. - I just think that game shows poorly. When it's shown, they show like a five minute chunk of it in this little like captivated room where it just makes it like it just comes off as like such a god of war climate. - I mean, I feel like Dead Space got a lot of the same luke arm response. - Yeah, and again, I think it's because the way that they show these games, they show them in such a way that you don't get any feel for what makes this game unique. It just looks like this is a Resident Evil in Space knockoff 'cause they just show you shooting monsters. Like it doesn't show you the crux of all what makes it cool. And they tend to show it in environments where it's like noisy, you don't get an idea for the sound design. It's like some certain games do not show well like that. You really need to have like private viewings in a room. - I'm really interested to see how they pull off the ending if they follow the... - Well, I never read Dante's-- - They'll follow it to an extent, I mean. - I read Paradise Lost instead. I had a whole quarter devoted-- - And they've definitely taken liberties. Like in that game, you get to judge people. Dante didn't go around judging people, but in this game, you, 'cause there is like a good or evil thing, so someone tells you what they've done to get them there. - And then you have to either like forget, let them be forgiven, or you have to punish them. - And you get rewarded, like you gain for punishing them. - And you gain for forgiving them. It's just what powers you're gonna go for. It's almost like a light side dark side, Jedi Academy thing. - When I played the full demo, they only had the punishment built in, so I couldn't forgive anyone. - Okay, I saw both, when you forgive, it's, you know, as boring as you would imagine worth punishing as much more. - It feels very tacked on. Like that's one of the few things in that game where I feel like, this doesn't really make any sense. - Anthony Gallegos, forgiveness is boring. That's why God doesn't forgive you. That's why you're still going to church every Sunday, because you constantly need forgiveness. - I really hope that family and that kid are not listening to this podcast. - Sam, I'm sorry. - No, I'm just fucking trying to get a rise out of people. And if I just got a rise out of you talking about Dante's Inferno. - Talking shop. - If I can get a life. - You've read it though, right? - No. - No. - I've been meaning to, and I've gotten around to it. - Tell us about it, Tina. - I wanna be a dick until you end. - No. - No, don't. Don't, because people get pissed off and the show won't cut it out anyway. - I will be pissed off. I prefer to read it. - What, you got into the poem, even though my God be the same as the-- - It was very political for its time. They have some popes in hell and they're being punished for it. - That is surprising. There's some popes that deserve to go to hell. They've been in the papal office. - I wanna see if they include that in Dante's Inferno. That'll be interesting. - We'll see. - Tyler, was there anything else that you had played that you wanted to talk about? - One game, but we, South Park Tower Defense. - Hell, yes, I love that game. - All right, let's talk about it. - Well, I mean, we've talked about it before, but-- - But Tina's also played it. - As the tower defense junkie. - Yeah, it's, I really, I wanna play it with at least one other player. - I'll play with you. - Really, yeah, I mean, okay. - It's fun, you have it there and call up. - Yeah. - Okay, you can play what, up to four. - Yeah, you can, so. - He wanted to play with me, but I don't own it. - Yeah. I mean, what, you know-- - Okay, maybe he didn't wanna play with me. - You know what is cool though? Like, have you only played it single player, Tina? - No, I've played it with four people. - You've played it with four, but it's like single player. What I do, like, when I have all the three other guys, like, you know, I'll basically use them as turrets too, like go set them in places. - Oh, yeah, yeah. That's actually part of the strategy. - 'Cause they won't move around on them on their own. I thought they would at first and then I was like, well shit, guys. - And actually, if you want one of your characters to power up faster, you let the AI take over. - Ah, okay. - And then, yeah, I used our power. - That's cool. - I'm boring Anthony here. - Right, no, you're not. - I can, I can rally you up. I, I like to use Team Awesome, where I have Jimmy and Timmy on my team. - That is a surprise, man. - Oh man, I haven't got that forward on like those guys. - I know you weren't boring me, actually. It's just, - It's gonna be a late night. - And batteries. - My brain shut off for a moment there. - Butters is a lot of fun to use. - Does he have special powers? - Yeah, well, each character has one special ability that you need to power up. - Man, I would never use anybody but butters, 'cause that's what I thought about. - What does he do? - That's a special power. - I forgot the episode. - In my butt. - What, what? - Are you good if they use that song for his special ability? But they use his tap dancing song. Do you remember what it is? I got something in my pocket or something. - Does the fucking scaffolding fall down on people? Is that what his ability is? - No, that wouldn't have been on sale. - Aw, damn. - But he's like a tornado, and he's tap dancing really fast. - What does he do is his normal attack? - Throw a snowball. - Yeah, like everyone else. - Throw a snowball. - There's snowballs, okay. - Cartman has a cool special ability. He just says. - Goddamn you guys. - What do the handicap children do? The handicapable children. - They have tornadoes too, but yeah. Don't ruin this for me. I live, I love jam-- - I wasn't. - Shut up. I love when he throws snowballs at spat, 'cause he uses his feet. I don't know why that humor is for you. - It's good to know that Tina is comfortable being on the podcast, comfortable enough to basically tell you to shut up. - She thinks I'm gonna constantly give her shit because she makes fun of her tarts all the time. - No, I don't. - No, she doesn't. I'm just messing with her. - Well, so-- - You made it on the other hand. (laughing) - Like that one time he told everyone that I, you know, I did drugs and then everyone believed it. - I know. - Months. - I know Tina doesn't do drugs. - Really? - No. - No, I'm clean. - A lot. (laughing) - So south tower defense is a tower defense, thank you. - You know what's weird? Like it's the first tower defense game that I've played where there's a lot of like button mashing, 'cause you're always throwing snowballs, like-- - Oh, you have to say to her or you have to tell them to throw snowballs? - Yeah, it's like what button presses or-- - Well, if you found out-- - Not for your stay. - Like they throw a stronger snowball. - You can hold the A button down so you don't mash. - Yeah, yeah. - If you hold the A button down, it charges it and then you let go and it throws a stronger snowball. - Yeah, but I mean, if you're playing by yourself or even with other people, you don't necessarily always have to throw snowballs, you can just be setting up and upgrading the-- - Right, okay. - Okay, some stuff. - Yeah, I guess just so far, like maybe I'm just early into the game where I'm not getting a lot of money, so it's like I'll do my towers and upgrade and everything and it's kind of like, I don't have any money anymore, so it's like I got to go through it. - Then you're spending it wrong. - Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. - Yeah, that's me. - You're fucking up. - And you-- - Stop sucking, Tyler. - Yeah, you gotta invest in the fireworks, you gotta upgrade that shit, you only need two or three of 'em and you dominate. - Nice, I have a question, one of the first powers you get is like the power to repair towers, but like how do towers get damaged? - That's what I was thinking. - Like when does that ever happen? - I've never repaired a tower. - The first character, whoever you play right off the bat, Stan or whatever, Kyle, it's like his thing repairs towers. - Oh no, it doesn't repair towers yet, you actually have a health bar at the enemies that get away from you, bring down the health meter and then Stan just, yeah, just gives you more health, basically, he's like a med pack, think of his life. - Okay, got it. 'Cause you, one thing that's weird is like, usually with tower defense games I feel more in control, but I feel like randomly like shit, like a whole bunch of guys just got through right now, like how did that happen? You know, like the last wave I did just fine, but like this wave, like how did seven guys get past me? - It's also about where you play Sierra turrets and it's kind of like a trial and error at some levels because there's no way you can make a maze that quickly, like in your first try, in the short run through of the game and then nowhere like the enemies are gonna go and stuff, so. - Yeah, I see. - I haven't unlocked all the towers either yet, so I'm pretty early in there. - They get good. Like there's a tower that shoots three piece no walls at enemies, it's pretty efficient. - But yeah, so far, like I'm enjoying the little cut same parts. - But any South Park fan would easily love this game. - Yeah, yeah, it does seem like it's full of a lot of fan service as far as all that goes. Like the characters you play as and all that stuff. - Yeah. - It's good, it's cool. - What have you been playing? - I'm only gonna talk about one game. - And that's Metro 2033. - Metro 2033. - Did you end up writing the preview for that? - I did. Do you even know what that is? - No. - I mean, I don't expect you to. Most people don't. It's by a small studio on Kiv and... - And what? - Kiv. - Kiv. - Insolvity at rush, never mind. - Yeah, well, it's a, fuck. Why am I spacing out on what country that is? It's being developed, you know, as Kiv's also. - Is it the Ukraine? - Yeah, yeah, and Kiv's also where Stalker team is from. - It's not gonna be like your, what's that? Game, Hour, Darkness, whatever. - No, no, no, no, no, this is not gonna be like... - The eight man team. - The, yeah, I can't think of what that game's called. I think it's called Hour of Darkness. I think you're right. - Or Darkest, yes or no? - The one where you travel through time. And I talk horrible things about, um... No, Metro 2033 is like, they've been hiding it for a long time 'cause it's way, way far along at this point. It's like probably about as far along as I would say like Red Dead Redemption is. Like when you saw that, you know, you were like, oh, that's pretty done. Which is especially funny because I mean, they were showing Stalker for like five or six years before they actually came out. - Right, so I think they just want to, they said they've intentionally been hiding this. Which is easier 'cause it's in the Ukraine, probably, you know, people aren't gonna come by and walk by and see it. And... (laughing) - It's inflatable. - But I'm saying, you know, when people visit the EA studio and stuff, it's easy to eventually like, and you hang out with these people all the time, it's easy for something to slip. No one's hanging out in Kiv and go and talk to these fools and all of a sudden it gets slipped out. So, it's like 2033. - The EA was nice this time, dude. - 2033 is the premises that, you know, Moscow, a lot of the subway stations are actually built deep enough to work as missile bunkers against nukes. That's why they were made that deep back in the day. - Like for reals and like-- - Like for reals during the Cold War, they were made that way because it was like, if there was a nuclear attack, people could run to those stations and they would be safe. - Why don't we think of that? - And so the premise of it is that nuclear war does happen and the only people that lived as far as they know are all the people that went to these few stations. And so the stations have subsequently during the time, you know, Fallout style have formed their own societies to where they don't even get along with other stations necessarily. The person you play on was born, I think, in the station. - It's like if a marker there was a war with Montgomery. - He's never actually seen the service before. - Will this game be the Fallout Vault game that I always wanted to be? - But the difference about this and Fallout is that this is like a real first person shooter. Like Fallout, you know, the shooting is kind of clumsy and stuff, that's not why you played it. You didn't play it from the FPS. - It's a laser man shooter. - And in this one, this one's still very much shooter. - It's a fucking RPG. - And in Fallout, you used a lot of weapons that were like just beat up looking guns and this one, you used a lot of guns that are like made from parts. Like the shotgun we were using, you could see like the springs and shit that someone had like found shit in the subway and was like, I think I can make a thing that would smack a shotgun shell and fire it. - It's kind of like the bio-shock weapons in some ways. - Yeah. - They upgraded them, they looked crazier and crazier and more cobbled together. - And didn't one of them have like a tomato can so in this game people trade pre-nuclear war bullets. That's their money. - Currently. - Every time you say nuclear, it takes like a day off the end of my life. - Nuclear? - Nuclear. - What was I saying? - Nuclear. - Nuclear. - You were bushing it. - Nah, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say it's funny. Like that's usually like a southern thing to say. - Well, I come from a very redneck part of. - I mean, it was just propagated so much over the last eight years that it doesn't surprise me that someone would say. - Nuclear, yeah, I know how to say it. I know how it's spelled so it's like a, but anyways, so yeah, so pre-war bullets are what are traded for currency. Now I'm going to say it over and over again just to bother you. - And the graphics look really good. - It does look really, really good. I mean, you know. - What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna assemble sound bites that make you say I suck and every time you say that I'm just gonna put that over it. - You would, but that would take a lot, a lot of time. - It would take a lot of time. I win. - No, but yeah, it does look really cool. Like you fight monsters the way you do and fall out and stuff, but-- - What kind of monsters? Why are there monsters? - Well, I mean, what's the generic reason for that, right? Nuclear radiation. I mean, they look-- - They're filtered into the monster. - And that would make sense in Moscow. I mean, they have really bad problems and stuff there with like wild dogs running around in the stations and stuff. - Really? - Yeah. - Like pig monsters probably down in the station. - Mad Bear Pig. - That's actually, so we had to put subheads on the preview. So my subhead was Mad Bear Pig. And so-- - I've heard that before somewhere. - It's from South Park, isn't it? - Yeah, didn't you see the Imagination Land special? - His half-man. - Where Al Gore actually gets a half-pig. - Half-pig. - Mad Bear Pig. - Mad Bear Pig crosses the barrier from Imagination Land and kills Al Gore. - So yeah, it is a really cool looking game. They do like such a good job. It just has this feel of a world that's actually alive in the same way that Stalker sometimes had that. Except this has it even more so. Like just when you see people running around and it almost kind of looks like when you see those really good parts of the original Terminator and they show brief clips of the future. And it's like people living in those fucked up underground little city dwellings, kids killing rats and stuff. It's got that same feeling when you're seeing all this. - So is that a little bit creepy? I mean, I can imagine that's not always like lit up-- - I mean, everything's man-powered. So like during one part I watched, they were like pumping a hand cart and like trying to get from, they were trying to do a piece on boy to another station that they've never gotten along with or something and they were bringing medical supplies. And so they were like one of those pumping like hand carts 'cause there's no electricity. - A mine cart. - A mine cart, yeah. And so they're pumping it along and all of a sudden they get attacked by monsters and you're sitting there fending them off, you know? While that happens and it's all extremely dark and you know, your flashlight will run out of batteries so then you gotta pull out your hand crank because there's no batteries anymore. So you have like a hand crank-powered flashlight. - I can see the Wii port now. - Is it linear? - Yeah, it's a very linear, it's not like stalker. It's like a guided experience. It's a very much a guided experience. - Yeah, 'cause I was watching the trailer and the trailer seemed to elude that pretty much the whole game took place underground but then the trailer-- - You do go to the surface a couple of times. - Yeah, the trailer like panned out and showed this really detailed surface on-- - Yeah, you do go to the surface at times. They said that but they did say that the primary portion of the game will take place underground. The majority of it is-- - In the fall. - This is what I always want out of. - So. - Out of what? - Fall out three. - You just wanted to play in the fall? - You just wanted to play in the fall? - I really like the vault more. - Like, fall out is about the wasteland. - I know. - Not about the vaults. - I just wish that there could have been more time there. Like, I think they did-- - I agree, it was like six fucking vaults that you go to and fall out three. Like, you go into vaults so often. - Maybe in the first one. - But in the first one. - In the first one. - The first one you spend time in? - Yeah, I mean, I think they could have-- - Maybe. - Eh, whatever, let's move on, that game. (laughs) I'm like, ugh. - Well, Anthony, you also played fall out for your first time. - It's true. - But I don't want to talk too much about it. - Yeah. - Only 'cause I've only played a couple of few hours. - Yeah. - I do like it. I mean, even the Vat stuff, which is a little like, like when you watch someone do it, it's very boring. - They do, too. - So when you're doing yourself, it's actually not so bad. - Because I mean, you still like you have to invest in being able to do those things. Well, that and shooting the other way isn't-- - That fuck. - It's not an option. - It can't really do, yeah. - Until you have much heart level. - It is possible, I've done it sometimes, but-- - It's just a waste of ammo when you start out. - But yeah, so, but I mean, that aside, like even with me not being a huge fan of the Vat thing, like just doing those quests and those stories are addictive enough that I just want to keep playing it. So far, I'm playing as a very good person. - Did you get the bobble head and the vault? - Yeah. I'm playing as mostly a good person, to be fair. I play, whenever I play games where you can make choices, I tend to play them the way I imagined that I would do it in real life. So, if someone wrongs me, I'm like, dude, you're dying. Like, that's all that comes down to it. Like, you're not walking away from this. - That's definitely how he is in real life. - So, well, in a world where there's no fucking legal repercussions for that, yeah, I probably would be. So, people I know can be glad. - Oops, I'm afraid to unlike, you know, our society and government fail, and he's gonna come after me at night for making him run in Disneyland. I did just get a shotgun. (laughing) - Unfortunately, he's not really joking. There's a shotgun in our character. - Let's get out for a sound clip. - Arthur, did you want to, I know, fucking rebel of van bitches? (laughing) Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo. - Hey, you're a guitar seller, actually. Arthur, did you want to talk about anything before we take a break? - I started Dragon Age today. - Yeah. - And put about three or four hours into it. - Did you notice how ridiculous the blood effects are? - You're fucking covered with blood. - Yes, you do. - And then it goes to a cut scene. - It pulled your way into cut scenes, and like, you were just covered. - And your straight face a little time, like, it's all over your lips and eyes, and you're just like, yeah. (laughing) - I mean, to be fair, there's this point where you go in and you're like, go into this noble dude and his two guards, and they're like, oh, he's just an elf, get him, and the nobleman's like, look at him, he's covered in blood. Clearly, he killed people to get here. - Oh, they do point that out. - Like, this guy did. - Yeah. - I mean, no one else seems to point out. - And you can have romantic conversations covered in blood. - I mean, I'm just fucking Texas Chainsaw Massacre. - Is there ever like a last action hero scene where like someone just hands him a handkerchief in the next scene, like he's completely clean? - You do get clean, pretty easy. - I mean, not in that scenario, like you would stay bloody for that. - It's funny that I was talking with Will about it, my boss, and he said there was definitely a part like in the beginning where he ran it, and just killed like one rat, and then it went to a cut scene, and he was so covered in blood. He was like, it looked like I just picked the thing up and like smished it all over my face like, (imitates gun firing) - I could see that. - I mean, yeah, there is a lot of blood, and it looks awful. - Did you or anyone in your party die yet? - Yes, I have had people in my party. Well, they die, but they come right back after the battle is over. - Have you started romancing anybody in your party yet? - No, I basically just finished-- - The elf swings both ways. - Oh my God. - I am playing as an elf robe, so I could go after dudes, I suppose. - I make sense of the elf in your party that you'll go to. - Okay. - The reason why I asked if he died or not yet is because I heard that, yeah, you never really die, but you get out. - Well, that's a standard like RPG thing now. It's been that way forever. - Yeah, it's like you're in a final fantasy. You can always use a phoenix damage. - Well, you have to-- - Well, yeah, yeah, but-- - Like there's a separate kind of healing kit. - Yeah, there's like a separate kind of healing kit that you have to use after someone comes back from the dead to repair status injury. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - 'Cause don't they get like, he has a concussion, which now does like X and X negative effects. - Yeah, although it doesn't really like, apparently I matched A or something passed it and it didn't explain or whatever very well, or I missed it. Like one of the, I installed Dragon Age because I always do that because I've got the fat ass hard drive and I might as well and it makes load times faster. Although it is, I do find it introducing a weird sound issue pretty often, which is like the sound will just cut out for a second. - Hmm, you have the dog in your party? - Not yet, but I will probably. 'Cause I saved it. (gasps) - You stupid. - They're super smart dogs. - Yeah, they just choose not to talk in this world. - I actually didn't know that they talked, but thank you for writing that. - You sure you didn't read any of the novels? - No, I didn't realize that truly it was the age of Dragons. I told Anthony earlier that I feel like I'm enjoying it despite the game because presentationally, like graphically, even sound quality-wise, it is such a step backwards from everything that we've come to expect from Bioware over the last couple of years. Like, my friend Joe said he, a lot of it to him, feels like a lot of rehash from Neverwinter Nights. - It does. It does feel like a lot of rehash from Neverwinter Nights. On the 360, I don't know what the PC or PS3 version is, is like this, but I assume that the PS3 version will be because of the console's limit memory. The audio compression they use sounds fucking terrible. It is like the worst compressed MP3 that you've ever heard. - Like, 'cause they have to fit so much more acting. - Like, I remember before I installed it thinking, I'm so surprised that this is one disc and then hearing the audio, I'm like, this is how they got it to fit on one fucking disc. - Yeah, it almost looks like an MMO. Just like an-- - Yeah, like graphically speaking it does look like an MMO. It usually looks on the crappy side of okay and then occasionally it looks good, but generally it just looks okay to bad. - Yeah, we'd tell you to see the love-making scenes. - Everyone looks like they're made of plastic. - I know. - Love-making scenes look like rubbing two naked Barbie dolls against each other. - That's a reason to-- - We did that too. - For real, we made a stop-mush and video of it. - Of course. - We used Elmo's glue. - Oh my god, oh my god. - It burns! - Guys, that's what this is. - I mean, in the stories is like, is a pretty boiler plate and like the twist so far that I've gotten is just like a standard fantasy trope, but the world building is really good and really interesting. - Like what father is evil? You were evil at one time? - No, my mother was a rogue because I'm a rogue. - Okay. - And there's a betrayal that's like just so fucking predictable. - Arthur, what do you mean by boiler plate? - What do I think about boiler plate? - No, what do you mean by boiler plate? - I mean, it's like you have a stack of just like interchangeable things that you grab and stick in to occupy space. - It's just so expected or commonly used, like just so common, it's just not exciting. - It's just like this thing that you keep on the boiler plate like for any random instance where you might need it, like where you've got that space to fill. - This will be on the test later after the podcast. - It will be. - Yeah, but I mean, all those negative things being said, I'm having a lot of fun. The console camera stuff means that it can't be isometric. It's all like over the shoulder stuff, kind of like Mass Effect. And that has the side effect of making it play very much like an action RPG. And since I'm a rogue, I have all sorts of like special abilities and I have a lot of sword skills. So I'm constantly like doing a skill, waiting for it to cool down, doing a different skill, like stunning someone than doing like a special kind of attack, moving around to do critical hits and backstabs. The system is very reminiscent of D&D, except the stat skills aren't limited to 18, like which I didn't realize until I started looking at like different abilities and like they have dexterity requirements of like 30 and stuff like that. - No shit, numbers. - But it's a lot of fun. I can't fucking believe that this is the same company that made Mass Effect because the presentation is so bad. - I think so, it's getting like A's. - I know it's getting A's because it's a fucking 80 hour game with an extremely compelling, yes, I use the word compelling with an extremely compelling fiction behind it and an interesting story, but I mean that is getting those scores despite the fact that every character looks like a Shmooshmorshin. - Shmooshmorshin, I like that. I mean, there's games that you can play that look ugly as, you know, sin, but you still enjoy. It's just one of them maybe. - Yeah, it's true. But Mass Effect looks a fucking good with the exception of frame rate issues, you know? And this does not. - It's true having the name BioWare on it. - It sets certain expectations. And I mean, we've been saying this for months, the Dragon8, that we're like, Dragon8 does not look good in thinking, well, maybe it'll look better when we see it in person. But I've seen the PC version, the PSV version, and the 360 version, and none of them look good. - And most of the dialog is just text, right? - No, it's audio. - No, it's all spoken. You also can't skip dialogue that I've seen on the console version, although that I could be wrong. I might not be hitting the right button, but it never tells you what you're supposed to hit the skip dialogue. - That's when you like, open poem. - Yeah, it's a mess of the controls. - It's like, where I squeeze my hand on the controller in every way imaginable, hoping that it'll skip dialogue. But I will be playing it as soon as we're done recording, because I am enjoying it anyway. - I met with Dr. Greg Zeschuck. - Yeah, yesterday, right, for game night. - Yeah, he actually said that visually, it looks better on the PS3. And his explanation for it was that I forgot what the part is called, but there's this thing in the PS3 that actually makes the visuals better because they have Blu-ray. And they think that because of that, it makes the game look better. - That's interesting, because every review I've read said that the PS3 is the worst looking version out of them. - Yeah, but are they a doctor? I'm just saying. - No, it's true, where were their eyes or less qualified to make that? I mean, I'd be interested to hear him explain that and to really look, but like-- - I'm just giving it a hard time. - Like the frame rate on the PS3 version is-- - Does he talk about it on the Game Club when you guys were recording it, or not Game Club Game Night? - Oh, Game Night, no. It was over at dinner. He also mentioned that you may or may not be able to have sex with a dog. - What? - I'm serious. - There's no way in hell that's in the game. - Me, why would you say that? - I think I-- - Because it was with Tina. - Shut up, what is that supposed to mean? - It means that people like giving you shit, Tina, and I say that because I like giving you shit. - I think they, it's not literally done. It's suggested. - You cannot fuck a dog and drag her. - Oh man, I'm gonna cry. - It's suggested. - That's like, I'm not gonna go after. - We won't actually see it. - I'm sorry, I'm sorry. - Now everyone's gonna go play to see if this is true. - You cannot fuck, we'll go ask your boyfriend, or I'm gonna walk in and he'll be fucking a dog. - The doctor? - Because he's playing it right now on the other side. - Yeah, he's playing it on my 360 right now. - Um, I don't know. - Other than that, this more border lands-- - 'Cause these dogs are smart. - Which I talked about on co-op this week and Torchlight, which I thought really makes me on co-op. - They got really good personalities, makes you love them. - Makes you love them? - Makes you love them for two minutes. - I think you're, that's awfully optimistic. - I'll merge the glue. So, let's take a break. All right, then we'll come back with Twitter topics. - Yeah, and then I don't know if we're gonna do a third segment or not. - I think we should, we'll talk about it over the break. - All right, let me call it Tyler's Improv Songs. (upbeat music) ♪ Someone to see and see ♪ ♪ How can we come to sleep ♪ ♪ In college ♪ ♪ Very never something to eat ♪ ♪ Still see ♪ ♪ There's a punish for me ♪ ♪ Of sleep ♪ ♪ Very never something to be ♪ (upbeat music) - WB, welcome back. - I hate you so much. - I love you. - Welcome back to our stupid show. - At least you didn't do double, double, double, whatever. - QQ more. All right, let's uh-- - I know what that means 'cause I live with loud players. - Oh really? - I don't know what that means. - QQ is like a term for crying, like whining in internet speak, 'cause if you put Q, underscore Q, it looks like eyes that are crying. - Oh, I got you guys. - Don't you feel like a worse person for knowing that now? - Oh, okay. Yeah, delete speak. Let's go on to our Twitter topics. You guys helped us out with topics, yay. - QQ. - It was too hard to think of 'em on our own boo. Okay, so this one's from NTS Joker. He wants us to comment on the somewhat surprising successive Borderlands question mark. Also, is there any chance of you guys ever live streaming a podcast? - Yeah, what does he, how does he know it's successful? - Well, I mean, the GameStop has said that Borderlands is selling really strongly and the sell through is high. - Everyone on like, your friends list. - Yeah, yeah, I'm glad this is the first Twitter post 'cause I wanted to bring this up. Like, you know, Michael Packer at the beginning of the month famously said like, Borderlands was sent to die, but then again, just like you're saying, Tina, almost like all of my friends on my friends list are playing Borderlands. - Everybody. - I would be surprised to see Borderlands at the top of the MPD chart this month. - I wouldn't either. - I think everyone secretly loves sell-shading and they just don't know it. - Mm-hmm. Borderlands over brutal legends. - It's easy on the ice. - Oh, well. - You can play it fancy. - I think Borderlands will outsober to legend. - Yeah. - Remember, the bet is that brutal legend on 360 will outsell uncharted to you. - To, yeah. - That is the bet. - We will see, but we'll see. But yeah, and I'm glad it's doing really well too because it's a great game and it would be a shame if it were a game that has gone overlooked. - It's all right when you play single player, but I think it's the best when you play it. - Yeah. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be single player. - I don't know. - I have the opposite. - I don't know. - I like a better single player. - Really? - But then again, you don't like going outside at all. - I hate people. (laughs) - Oh man, to me, it's way, way the most fun. - So I mean, are we surprised that it's successful? - I mean, that's what he wants to know. Like, what do we think of that it's successful? - I guess yes, because there wasn't much of a marketing budget behind it, right? - And it's a brand new game that I was thinking the opposite. I would be more surprised if it wasn't that I saw commercials for it on TV all the fucking time. - The commercials actually pretty good. - And not only the commercials, but like, ads for it two page spread and wired. Like it has had a decent campaign. - It fucking, it has things in wired that are made to look like articles that are advertisements. - Yeah, but it does say advertorial on it. - Yeah, advertorial. - Do you blame the music group that made that song? - No, I think that song fits the commercial very well. - And the game, right? I mean, that sounds pretty bomb. I like that. - It's fitting. But yeah, I mean, it's a little surprising to me just because, you know, a brand new game and not only that, but it's like a first person shooter with role playing attached to the weapons. You know, I mean, I didn't know how people were gonna take to that. - But it seems like a really popular, I'm glad. - In a way that actually has shooting as opposed to Fallout 3 as we've been stressing over and over again. - Yeah. And also like, it's a good win for Gearbox, you know? Brothers and Arms held highway didn't do that well. - No, it didn't. It was sold pretty disappointing, I don't understand. - Yeah, so, good for them. - I mean, Colonial Marines no longer has any sort of solid release date like Sega. It hasn't even committed to releasing it anymore. - Right. - I think Sega said that the word on that was how Alien vs Predator sells will determine the future of the series and what I've heard about Alien vs Predators, I wouldn't get your hope up. - Really? I thought that the. - Yeah, I heard the same thing. - That was a very somber head shake I got from Anthony. - The people I saw that played it and that I work with that ended up writing stories about it. They got screenshots sent to them, said that all the screenshots they got sent were fucking bullshit. - Bullshot. - They were bull shots. 'Cause they were like, the game does not look like this at all. They're like, the game looks like two years older than this. These screenshots. - That's weird because Rebellion just started on it. I mean, it's not like they've been working on it for that way. It's been like, you're not. - No, I'm just saying that that's what I'm trying to say that the game looks dated, like really bad. - Yeah, really? - When I saw it at E3, the way they were just showing the Predator. - But to be fair, maybe it's a better single player. This was all multiplayer. - Yeah, I'm sure. - Yeah, the impression I got of the Predator was that it played a lot like Splinter Cell. Like it was very stealth-focused. - Except he's a big behemoth that can murder humans. - I don't know, we'll hope for the best. - All right, next one from Locknow. And I mean, I will see if you guys even get this. I'm an art history student. So that might be why I noticed it's talking about. Top of question, is Meezon seen the new compelling? - Let me see. - I've heard you say that before. - What is the point, have you ever heard that term before? Meezon seen? - No, I just want to see what he wrote. Maybe he just spelled it wrong. - No, he spelled it right. - What is it? - Meezon seen as like a thing, is like a French term from film and theater that's like setting or place, like the blocking of a shot, like the composition of an environment. And I mean, I've seen-- - So what do you think about how is that the new compelling? - I think he's been playing that he's seeing it a lot and that it's overused, but clearly-- - What the fuck? - It does not appear to be the case. - I don't think it's overused, but it is a term that I've seen gain popularity recently. - Really? - Yes. - I'm like, 'cause it's a lot of term. And so when you hear it, it sticks out. - So you're reading reviews on PBS or some shit, what? - I mean, it's generally something that's limited more towards like serious critical dissection of film and-- - Yeah, I would-- - Ah, he's only trying to do pretentious critical-- - A film term be used for a video game, I'm just-- - If you're gonna use words that aren't in English, fucking dumb. - Dumb. - That's really insane. - We're gonna have to finish it the last time. - Was it on American? - I mean, yeah. - I think the answer is no. - Yeah, there's your answer to your question is no, and this is America. - Aw. - Speak English, motherfucker. I'm just kidding. - Speak of America. - Simon220 says, "Please discuss why Sony doesn't enforce PSN arcade demos, so frustrating." - Yeah, I don't know that. - Well, you know what's funny, anecdotally, I was just the other day looking through the PSN store, and Jody, my girlfriend, locked in the room, and she was like, she was like, "What is this? It looks so old, it looks antiquated." And I was just saying like, "Yeah, it kind of does." I mean, I was looking at the Pixel Junk Monsters tab, and like if it's on Xbox and it's Xbox Live title, like all the other tabs that you can see scrolling out of it have stuff like videos you can look at, screenshots, trailers. - Associated content. - Other Associated content. There's nothing like that on the PSN store. It's like, it just seems so like long ago. I don't know, antiquated. - Does he want the PR answer? The service is fucking free. Next. - I thought the PR answer. - I don't know. - I think the PR answer would be that we want the PlayStation network to be open and for developers to have as many choices as they can. - That's weird. Spinning it on this. - Whether they want to do a demo or not. - Yeah. - How about developer choice? - Yeah, a demo is something that Microsoft flat out said every game has to have the end. And it's built into the guide. Like it's built into the infrastructure of Xbox Live. - Well, every ex-pieling game has to have it. - Yeah, it's just built in. - All right, no, we don't know. - Sorry. - I'm not privy to Sony's. - I mean, it's Sony basically lets people do whatever. - I'm sure if he posted that question on the PlayStation network boards. - You'd probably get the answer Arthur just said. - Think something? - We give them choice. Choice, choice, choice. Choice, choice, choice, choice. (laughs) Choice. - Tolcover asks, what is the saddest or most embarrassing thing that you ever saw at a GameStop or EB? - Oh, I can tell you this right off the bat. One time I was in a GameStop a few years ago and I overheard a customer say, "What's eco?" And the guy behind the counter said, "It's like an RPG, a role-playing game. "It is the farthest from a fucking role-playing game "I could imagine." Other than maybe it's made by a Japanese company, I don't know. - Usually the saddest shit I hear is like, like when someone's trading in like their whole collection of old games and their console and they're like, "This is $30." I'm like, "Sweet." - You're like, "No, not sweet." You can rip the fuck off. - Or when you hear some mom that's like looking at a game that you know is really bad. You're like, "I should say something. "I could say Christmas." - And then they always recommend like, "No." The kid probably deserves that shitty game. So you don't say anything to have faith. - When I picked up my pre-order for a GTA 4, the guy asked if my boyfriend or brother wanted to also like reserve some other game that was coming up. - Yeah, you probably hear a lot better shit than we do. - I also have been like, they always try to pander pink peripherals to me. Pink yeses, it's nice. What else have I seen that's really sad? - I'd get a pink yes. - I saw a guy that was like, maybe, I want to guess that he was in his 40s and he was with some of that look like his mom and he asked her if he could buy Gears of War. And that was like what two years after he came out? That was cool. - Yeah, that is some sad shit. - Some other sad shit I've seen is when you see like, you know, I don't know, some games that should be really doing really well and then you see it marked down to like 9.99. That's always kind of pressing. One of the saddest things I saw was like when they were trying to get rid of like Max Payne's stock, Max Payne 2. They were selling it for 50 cents on the counter. That was pretty sad. - I get sad whenever I'm in there and I hear parents sort of agonizing over how much the current gen systems cost, especially now. Like I've seen it happen a few times where they're- - I just don't think a lot of them always been. - They've always been. - I just don't think they probably didn't buy consoles before and this is probably their first time. They probably just assumed that they were way cheaper back in the day. - Consoles have never stayed at the price they're at as long as they have. - Have you ever walked into a store where the mom is like super careful about what she buys? Like she'll pick up a Wii game and then still go to the counter and ask, is this on the way, is this, can I use this with the controllers? - I want to put this in my VCR and then I explain to her that it only plays in the Cinco tape player. - And he's somehow convinced by like the GameStop. - Oh, of course. And he's like, you need five memory cards and four sticks. - And an edge card? - You're like, you don't need any of that. - You want an Xbox 360 hard drive to use on the Wii. - You know, I never got my copy of Epic Mickey Game Informer. I just never showed up. - Well, GameStop everyone. - Good for nothing. - Power to the fucking players. Moving on. (laughing) - Mad Max says, "With the amount of games you play "do you ever find yourself bored with the lack of innovation "this generation of gaming offers?" - I know. - No. - No. - I don't agree with that at all. - Just Christ, like I feel so spoiled by games now. Like games are so good. - With the amount of games I play though, I sometimes do sit there and reflect on my life. - What? - That a better purchase might be a fucking bottle of booze in his razor blade. - Oh my, you shut up. (laughing) - I wonder what game-- - You're such an overdramatic bitch. - I wonder what games he's playing though that makes him think that it's kind of boring. - No, I mean, what is it just because like, I think it's just that their games are so, I don't know if there are so many people putting out games now that it's like any given month, there's a first person shooter coming out, right? It isn't like back in the day where there was less games coming out. I mean, maybe it just seems like that, but it seems like there are so many games coming out. - Yeah, I just couldn't disagree with that statement more. I mean, just look at, you don't even have to look at like AAA titles. Like look at, at the arcade titles specifically, like PSN games, Xbox have arcade games. I mean, those are taking not only old standards, but making completely new and interesting game play out of them. - I hope we're not talking about flour. - I mean, I'm talking stuff like explosion, man, where you take like platformer, like how long is the platforming around it? It's like to put a new little spin on it. - Breaking dope PSN this week, by the way. - Yeah, next week. - Oh, it's next week. All right, thanks news, man. - I know, I was gonna, I saw it, I was gonna, I was gonna, I was gonna. - Echo Chrome, is that the one that next set me? - There's a lot of blue shit. - Okay, we, if we did two hours based on that question, we would not have enough time to talk about all the PSN games that next set their legs. - A lot of green shit. - There's a lot of good PSN games, man. - There's a lot of, a lot of games. - Good job. - B-Boy Zilla asks, do you guys still buy print gaming mags? I ask because I just got the new play in edge mags. Man, is it stupid packaging. - Edge is like the only magazine, plays pretty good. Plays pretty good too, but Edge is the only one that I will go out of my way to buy. Most other gaming mags, I'm just kind of meh. - Play has a really good layout. - Play has a great layout. I just think that in general, like play has like one of those, just put, did Play get rid of scores? - I wanna say they have. - I think Play got rid of scores. - It's one of the future's publications to play. - They do a ton of just really long in-depth feature pieces on studios and games and development. - But back in the day, huge art. - Back in the day, Play scores were the ones that you and I always laughed about. - I mean, I still laugh at Play. - I mean, Play is unabashedly enthusiast about the stuff that they cover right there. I think they gave, like, the most recent Sonic game, like an eight or something, like-- - Ho-ho! - Sonic Unleashed, goddammit, I reviewed that. - No, I think it was a Sonic before that, actually. - Okay, the way we were all laughing just reminded me I never met, so. Now I'm gonna talk about something I don't really like. (laughing) - I couldn't get, like, the first next gen Sonic game, this gen, I couldn't get past the first platform. - Oh, dude. - In the demo. - Yeah. - Like, that's how I play the Sonic games. - You don't love them. I love Sonic. - Play a Prince on really high gloss. - The magazine looks beautiful. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I think it's really expensive for them to produce more than, like, any other magazine, right? - Probably. - Just because of the quality of the-- - Except for the new upcoming "Wow" magazine, that's probably pretty expensive to make. - Mm-hmm. - Let's see. (singing) - R. Lowy asks, "How viable do you think "the free to play model of gaming is? "Will we see more or less games like this?" - Oh man, you'll see way too many. I mean, look at-- - I mean, clearly it's viable. - Look at free roams. - Yeah. - Like that game. I had, like, four million subscribers in a month. - And every, like, free game that John Davidson talked about this year, like, with millions-- - I mean, I can't tell you just anecdotally like how many phone calls GameSpy gets a week of some publisher wanting to bring around to free to play MMO. Like-- - There's tons. - There's tons. - Or coming to America than ever. - Like, I think a better question is whether or not free to play, the free to play model for more hardcore genres. - Yeah, I don't know, I'd be curious to see how Battlefield Heroes is doing. - Look at League of Legends. - Look at League of Legends. - Yeah, that was that. - I would consider that game pretty hardcore. - There's also Quake Arena, which our Mac has flat-out said is not making the money that it needs to. - Yeah. - Right, like-- - Quake Life. - Yeah, Quake Life. - And then, and then Battlefield Heroes, I don't know. - Yeah, I don't know how any of those are doing it. I mean, League of Legends is a pretty strong community. - It seems like-- - It's not how much money it's making. - Yeah, it's pretty dedicated to Battlefield Heroes. Like, they keep supporting it and it's going pretty strong. It's-- - Battle Forge at this point is another game, I think, that's free to play. That's another EA game that was originally a purchase, but now it's free. They're just going off the pay-to-play. - And I mean, we've seen over and over that selling, like, in-game items, like clothing works. - I mean, it does work. I mean, there's people that make livings off, livings off of it in second life. - So-- - I think the jury's just out on the more hardcore genres, like, with that-- - Right, yeah, I don't know. See, I think there's going to be failures. I mean, I know this is going to sound like something stupid, but like, the good games are going to make it. Like, look at League of Legends. It's a very solid, very balanced, really fun, hardcore-- - Right, I just wonder how much money they're going to make. Like, people that are playing, are they going to care about different skins for their avatars, for their character they're playing? Is that a game where you get dedicated enough to a character to care about that? I'm not sure yet. I hope it makes money, because it deserves its great game. - Aw, kitty. - Munikard asks, will this year's holiday season for game releases be weaker, because the title's being pushed into next year? I mean, I don't know-- - Honestly, I have to imagine that most people aren't like us, right? Like, most people-- - They don't get them right away. - Most people don't already have brutal legend and all the stuff that are going to get them. You know, they don't. - I mean, yeah, Uncharted 2 came out like three weeks ago. - I mean, like, weaker compared to what last Christmas, maybe but-- - I mean, define weaker. - Yeah, exactly. I just think that instead of everyone holding things till November, like they did last year, you've seen it a little bit August, starting with August all the way through October. - I sure do. It's just much more manageable. - Well, I mean, I just think they realize that all their shit got buried in past years and now they're trying to spread it out. - Oh, go ahead. - Oh no, I was just gonna say like a lot of analysts have already predicted that this year is gonna see actually like a 4% decrease overall in video game sales for the entire year. - Good, because they're such a significant drop in the number of releases, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it is more spaced out, but you know, a lot of that's been attributed to like the declining cells of like the Wii and like the fact that the Wii doesn't really move software and then also the declining cells like music games and stuff. - And also because people are afraid of competing against a particular game. - Well, yeah, I mean, it's not just middle. I mean, one week after Modern Warfare is Assassin's Creed, then after that is Left 4 Dead and then you know, it's just like, it's becoming much more like movie releases for a movie. All these people are like, well, we can't come out that week. Let's vote about this week. Okay, okay, this week. So now they're not, it used to be back in the day. I felt like it was like, well, we gotta come out in November. All these things are coming out. I don't care, it's gotta come out in November. And now it's- - That's why the most people are in stores to see our product. - Right, but nowadays the idea is that if we get it out before November, even the product will still be there. - I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if like they try, a bunch of people try to release stuff around when they think people are getting their tax refunds next year. - I don't know, to me, like this is my Goldilocks Christmas. Like there's just enough games coming out. Like any more would be too much. - Yeah, that's right. (laughs) - Let's see. Mick Lazy J says, with both the Beatles, Rock Band and Brutal Legend, do you feel that the reviewers were blinded by the brand or designer? It seems like both titles were reviewed with very high scores, but both seem average at best and played just in my opinion. - Summer didn't get to distract Beatles Rock Band's a great game. - Yeah, I think Beatles Rock Band's a great game. - I wouldn't, I wouldn't say. - It's not even just the fact that they've designed all these crazy levels. It's just like, it has like the best drum teacher. It has like, it just is like the most-- - Like the visual presentation and styling is just like leaps and bounds ahead of everything. - But beyond that, just is a Rock Band game. It's like-- - And it's accessible to people that are-- - They teach you how to do harmonies. - Yeah, usually familiar with music games. - I don't know that reviewers were blinded by the brand or designer for Brutal Legend. I think that Brutal Legend is just a much more subjective game than perhaps any other-- - Brutal Legend I think is going to make that argument a lot more than Beatles in my opinion, but just 'cause Tim Shafer's such a beloved person. - I think people just get so into the content that they-- - And Jack Black. - And I actually, I feel like Jack Black is almost a liability in a lot of ways. Like, I think he did a fantastic job in Brutal Legend. - I know, I mean, Jack Black is pretty divisive amongst people, like some people like him, some people fucking hate him. - I think on Brutal Legend, it's more like people just love the humor and the subject matter so much that they're willing to overlook some pretty major flaws in my opinion are some pretty huge flaws in the game design. Like, the combat is not fun. How's that? The real-time strategy battles are not particularly well designed and they don't control especially well. Like, the pacing is kind of fucked. - I have just curious, QQ. - We're not all brainwashed by our Tim Shafer handshakes. - Who said I was? - I'm saying it right now. - Trying to help elaborate for the audience. - Yeah, I, we talked on the show before about how I felt about Brutal Legend. Like, and for me, the reason that I found it interesting is because of the content as opposed to the gameplay. And unfortunately, the gameplay is keeping me from going forward and wanting to explore any more of the content. - No, I think that's fair. A lot of people have complained about the RTS. But anyways-- - But it is reviewing really high. Like, I'm surprised that Brutal Legend is reviewing as well as a bit. - Let's start out to give it a D. - Well, that would be the lowest score. - Yeah. - Let's cut it short. - Wanna do one more? - Yeah, let's do one more. And then I'll copy and paste a lot of 'em to save 'em for another time. - This is probably a good one for right now. Andy Bursh asks, "What are some games you feel guilty "for not playing enough of, "or games you always wanted to like but didn't?" - Dead space. He'll guilty for not playing it more. - You haven't finished yet? - Nope. Mass Effect, I didn't play more. I played hardly at all. - The first one charted. - I should've gotten bad about that. - I didn't really get into it all that much. - You feel guilty for that? - Yeah. - I never played any slight Cooper games. Kinda feel bad for that. - The first one charted is... - Good. And worth playing. - Yeah, see you're out there saying no. - I think Uncharted 2 makes playing Uncharted unnecessary. Especially if you-- - I actually think they're both worth playing. - Play Uncharted 1 on EZ. - I just feel like the platforming an atmosphere and story. - See, I really don't like the platforming Uncharted. The only thing I like about it is it gives me a better view of the pretty levels. - Yeah, well-- - But it's really just jump to this ledge, scoot this way, jump in. It's like very slow and I don't like it. Don't like-- - Okay, for the story. - I like the gunfight. - The story is good, yeah. - That's why I'm-- - That shit. - Yeah. - All Metal Gear. - I feel-- - Man, I don't feel guilty for not liking Metal Gear 4. I feel guilty for not playing more 4s than 3. 'Cause I really like it and I really wanna play it, but it's just sitting on my shelf right now. - Yeah, I don't feel guilty about not playing more 4s than 2. I discovered those games just bore me. - Racing game. - Unfortunately, I took you buying-- - Racing wheel to figure that out. - I'll figure that out. - Wait until like, Holmies comes out with the racing game. - Yeah, I just like our cave racers. I'd rather play something like a burnout paradise if I'm gonna play a racer. It's just me though. - I need a new road rash, that's what I need. - Well. - It broke my heart seeing the footage from the canceled mutant league football revival. - It's called Blood Bowl, and it's coming out. - No, there's footage of like EA was working on a mutiny football game and against it. - I'm just saying, Blood Bowl's coming out. - Blood Bowl's not the same. - No, it's turn based, which is even better. - Can you bribe the ref and Blood Bowl? - You could probably kill the ref and Blood Bowl. - Well yeah, but a mutiny football, you could bribe the ref and then if you're the other team, your only option was to kill him. - Well, I don't know. I mean, Blood Bowl is a totally different game based off the tabletop war hammer property, but I'm really excited that that's finally coming out here in America this month. - The board game? - No, the PC, DS, and PSB. - That's fucking been out here for months. - No, that game is on Steam right now. - No, it's not. I checked just yesterday because I wanted to buy it if it was, it's not. - Sex war shocking. - It comes out this month. It's been out in every other country except in America for a while. - That is even Canada? - Yeah, it's based. - I don't know, but it's been all the European times, so. - I feel guilty for tuning you out like this whole time. - Blood Bowl is not very interesting with most people. - I mean, I'm finding it interesting. I'll play with you. - So let's take a break. - Okay, quick break. Come back with a pleasure. (upbeat music) ♪ Yeah, I'll carry no tricks ♪ ♪ The place where nothing gets out ♪ ♪ The secret things I wanna find out ♪ ♪ You can't hide when love is in doubt ♪ ♪ Yeah, I'll carry no tricks ♪ ♪ The secret things I wanna find out ♪ - The show's not done to me. - Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. - Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. - Welcome back. - Hi. - Now it's a segment we call ABCs 'cause it's letters. Welcome to ABCs. - Oh my. So here's the letter section, the first letters from Brian. I'm only gonna read a couple of these, a lot of people, we don't read last names, which is the case, unless they put it, so a lot of people sent letters, very nice letters, thanking us for doing the most recent podcast about Children's Miracle Network, which you can still donate to off her page and they are now taking PayPal, which is big, we had that took a while to get, but you can now donate through PayPal. Thank you guys for donating. So let's read the first letter from Brian, Brian says, "After listening to the recent Rebel FM with the segment "from the Children's Hospital, I felt the need "to send my thanks through an email. "I greatly appreciate your willingness to abandon "the typical games conversation for such an important cause. "While I do enjoy the occasional fat penis, "it was cleansing, in a way, to hear a more somber, "can't think of a better word there topic." So thanks for that. - It's a good cleansing after the fat penis. - And he says, "PS, if you need any TF2 banana writers, "feel free to shout out on Twitter. "I will be standing by watching, waiting. "Fad penising." - Do you use some banana writers? Sick children. - They need you to banana-ride with your money. That's what we should have been saying the whole time. (laughing) - They are calling out for a medic right now. - Medic. - Except you can't shoot 'em with the fucking gun, you got to shoot 'em with some money in their face. Now I'm just picturing them flying to Texas and being like, "You can't serve. "They're still sitting with money." - They buy those t-shirt cannons and fill them with-- (laughing) - There's no spinal tap gun. - Oh man, that would be a painful one. - Guys. - Okay. So, I'm not gonna read this next letter, sorry it was something about Ryan. It's got sexually harassing me on these Game Spidey Briefings. - Why would they send that email to the YouTube game address? - I don't know, because if the Game Spidey Briefings only just now got a mid-tone email. So they probably didn't know where else to email for it. I mean, I know a lot of these are Spidey Briefings. - Is it like our cross listeners? - Is it stepchild@igm.com? - No, it's podcast@gamespy.com, actually, if you wanna email us there. - Nice, I saw what you did there. - Oh, thanks. - Totally get it. - What's the address for yours? - Okay. - Antai. - This next letter is from Gregory. - Oh, what? - And Greg Orie says, "Hey guys, Greg here, "love the pod cast. "Have been a long time listener, blah, blah, blah. "I really enjoy listening to Anthony "defends a stance on the scores he gave O.D.S.T. "and Uncharted 2, and listening to the discussion "made me wonder in your minds, "do you think it is possible to give a game a perfect score "or has the barb been raised so high with past games "that are excellent and innovative "that nothing new deserves a perfect score?" It's too bad that games can just be judged, can't be judged. Yeah, I think he meant to say it's too bad that games can't just be judged on how fun they are to play. That is exactly what a good person that reviews games does judge them on is how fun they are. - Yeah. - I mean, that doesn't change the fact that there are things in every game are not fun. - Obviously the standard can't be set so high that a game can't get a perfect score, quote unquote, 'cause it's not a perfect score. I've actually just never given one, and it's not like I pride myself on that. I just haven't found that game. - You just agonize over the rubric for review scores so much. - What's the highest review score you've given? - 4.5 out of 5, or an A, when I was at one up, I gave Viva Pignada an A, I also gave. - Banjo, Kazooie, nuts and bolts? - A B plus, I think. - Really? - A minus for Banjo. A minus for Banjo, I think. - Okay, I'm supposed to give it an A, given how much you love that. - And then I also gave that PSN horror game. I gave that an A. - Siren. - 'Cause I love that. You know, I've given some A's and stuff, it's just I've never had that game that is like, like I've played games that I would give an A plus is to. - But you weren't on the review? - But I was not on the review for me. I mean, at one up, I very rarely got to review things I actually liked. - What Anthony is saying is he is not Famitsu. - So, yeah, I mean, I just feel like a lot of people-- - He gets paid. - You know, throw out a lot of-- - I did say that. I was just implying that Famitsu gives out a lot of-- - I'll say it. (beep) - Oh shit. - What, Baneta? - Yeah, that's weird that they got perfect scores. I mean, Baneta might be a great game. - Uh, apparently-- - No, no, we'll just cut that out. - Okay, I'll beat that out. - Silence. - Some people wonder what it is. No, it's fine. - Okay. - I'll just beat it. - Well, I mean, the thing that surprised me is that they actually gave Baneta a higher score on 360 than PS3 because of the technical issues. - Like, if-- (beep) - Stop saying things that I have to beep. - I'm sorry. - If this-- - Shut up! - Okay, whatever. - What's wrong with this? We just don't want you. - I don't want to get you fired. - Nathan says, "I was just wondering what games movies or books have made you cry or at least made you..." Let's skip the movies and books 'cause that-- - Really? - Yeah, because movies and books, it's like, dude, lots of movies make me cry. - I don't want to talk about them, it makes me cry. - The only book I can think of in recent memory that made me, almost made me cry was Feed. - That's Feed. - It's a young adult science fiction that I had to read for a class in the end of being so fucked up. - It's like not having it. - I had to look at it, I'm like, "Are you a robot?" - I got it. - Feed, it's actually about when a server crashes on a computer. - You were propped during up. I didn't quite cry, but I-- - Yeah, you are fucking about to see what I was. - Maybe any games, is that made you cry? Is there any games? - So I have cried in a random game. - Well, yeah. - Okay, it's gonna be really embarrassing. - It's gonna be really embarrassing, but it wasn't actually me crying at the game. It was more like just me fucking crying because it was like-- - A punk bitch. - So you know how many you stay up really late? You're kind of like, I'm talking like you've been up for like 28 hours straight, you kind of get that point where you're like, you're just kind of worn out and you're gonna break down. - Yeah, and I'm pretty sure I was playing romance with the Three Kingdoms, one of those. - Oh my god. - And eventually, at some point, something happened. - No, but naga died. - And I didn't cry. I didn't cry, I just got a little missed yet and I don't remember why, but no, it was like, yeah, I would just never feel like, but I'd literally, literally been up for like 28 hours straight. So I was just like in one of those weird states where I was not right. - I got misty, I had playing lucidity actually. Especially toward the end. - Hmm. - I don't think I've ever cried, because of the game, but I have gone to the point where-- - September 10th, a modern warfare when it ended. (laughing) - When I watched an epic match. - I wanted to like, throw stuff when I was watching, or when I was playing Final Fantasy X, and then I thought that wedding between, okay, I'm gonna stop talking. - No, keep talking, I'm gonna stop talking. - Or are you talking about the ending or the wedding or-- - The wedding. - What about it? It was sad, happy, sad. - I just got really angry, I felt like the world was so unjust, I just wanted to turn it off. But then she like escaped, so that was cool. And then yeah, the ending was really sad. Actually, you know what? I think I did cry during Kingdom Hearts at the very end. The first one. The Kairi. - Nah, dude, you don't have to explain shit to me. - You know, like, this is part of me. - Yeah, like the minute I'm playing Kingdom Hearts. - It's a heart, and it makes me feel, you know? I don't know if you know what I'm talking about. Sometimes-- - Don't act like you're a person. (laughing) - I have feelings. - Man, I don't know. I mean, games have made me feel-- - Do I know ooze? - You know, I don't know. They've put me in good, so yeah, I've never come, I don't think I've come close to it even. - I hear Braid is intense at the end, but-- - Meh. - I mean, yeah, it has like a great little like, wow. I mean, thing, I don't know. But no, never in a game-- - Did you not weep when you brought down the final co-horses? - No. - Okay. - But there, I mean, that game, there is a scene, and it's not the Coloss battles, but there is a scene in that game. - We can say things about that game, I think. - When Argo falls into the pit, when you feel like you've lost your horse. - Please, please don't do this to me. - I have to say it. - It's like watching the horse die in the last unicorn, or something. - Never in a story. - Never in a story. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. - Artex! - Exactly. - Artex fight! - I mean, that scene stands out to me, and then there's actually a scene in Gay Tony, where I mean, I wouldn't say it's like sad or upsetting, but there is a scene where I got like, I was like, oh shit, don't do what I think is about to do. And-- - Do do. - I mean, did you play the darkness? - No. - Oh, scary. - The scene in the darkness where-- - The girlfriend couch. - Your girlfriend is killed. - Oh. - Like, they, I mean, after they go through a lot to sort of make you invested in that relationship, and then they shoot her in the head right in front of you. Like, you were staring at it, and they just, like, blow her brains out. - It was more of like me dropping my jokes, 'cause I was like, what the fuck? - But I didn't really feel sad. - Yeah. - I heard a pretty epic part that makes people, that made the one guy that's like the lead rider, by the way, the reason he wanted to work at Bioware was he played in "Night to the Old Republic II." There's like a part where you have a rookie who owes you a life debt. And if you're playing the bad route, you have to, you can tell him, like, he's good with his life debt if he kills the girl that's traveling with you, who's also his best friend. - Yeah. - But he does it, as he's doing, he's like crying. He's killing his best friend, but he's doing it to fulfill his life debt. He's like, that's when he knew he wanted to work at Bioware. So, Kerry writes in, and he just, you know, he thanks us for what we did in Houston. He said he was sad, though, because he said, when we first mentioned the possibility coming to town, he says, I asked Anthony, if you do a meetup, you responded with a yes, but nothing ever happened. - Oh, man. - All I'm asking is that if and when you guys ever come back to Houston, send up the FAP signal and do a meetup, which you guys have more than one listener here, you know, it wasn't that I think we had said that it could happen, but it wasn't like a for sure thing. - And we were-- - It was just that we were pretty white. - That's fucking downer. - Yeah, I mean-- - We would've just been, hey, just-- - We could've brought them over to GP to throw bottle rockets in the air while they were going off. It's true. I mean, I mean, like, I loved actually your friends a lot, but they were already at Hanfield. - You know, I think-- - Dealing with like talking to listeners and stuff too. - It's like a bunch of tie-wers. - I must say it is kind of weird that you guys and your fans always talk about fat penis, 'cause it'd be like, you know, like, I can't do a woman podcast and say like, oh, this razor vagina's in the air. Actually, if you-- - Because vaginas are internal, you could have her say, shake them labia. (laughing) - Yeah, okay. - Uh-uh. - It's like male empowerment here. Raise your fat small penis. - No, that's not what it comes from at all. It just comes from-- - I know, I'm joking. - It's small? - I'm just saying, it just-- - Ah, she had to add that. - I do have a small-- - Well, she is sitting next to Tyler. - No, man, I'm, yeah. I've said it a million times, you know? - You were tiny penis. - Wow. - Um. (laughing) - What, huh? Then we can't-- - Well, 'cause what I was laughing at immediately-- - Come on, undercarriage, let's do this. - Nothing even seems to make me uncomfortable. - Fuzzy writes in-- ♪ Oh, that was a tiny dancer ♪ - Fuzzy writes in-- - Oh, man, we can, I wish we could do like an almost famous moment in the air. - So, Fuzzy writes in, he just says, could each of you go into detail about your schooling as far as college went? I could have sworn Anthony, or maybe someone else, had said that he had only went to college for a few years and dropped out. Maybe I heard that wrong. I'm only asking because I just planned to get my AAS now from Kimmy College and can't afford to go to university. Air college isn't as important as your skills that you need, or the experience you have in writing. I have a portfolio that-- I have a portfolio that, in a blog filled with my writing, would that be good enough to get a job in the editorial business? I think it would be good to get you an internship in certain places and maybe a starting position, but I would try and use that to get freelance first. That being said, you don't have to have college. My college, definitely, they didn't give a shit that I had college. Honestly, when I put college on my resume, for instance, I certain higher up editors at one up, I know looked at that and said, "God, that is such like a rookie resume." Like, when you still put your education on it. Like, I mean, well, because when you don't have job experience, right, people do that, but once you have job experience, they don't even put that anymore. And that, and you know, I don't think Ryan Scott never went like graduated from a college. He tried it and didn't finish and then Nick Suttner, same thing. So you don't have to have had college, but you do need writing skills. Yeah, I mean, there are ways in college to make yourself a better writer, but-- Yeah, I did not do this. And so I learned how to write great term papers. Well, he wants to know what your college background was. Yeah, I graduated from a four-year college, with a degree in history and religious studies. I graduated from a four-year college with a degree in art studio and technical studies with a minor in English. I majored in English and minored in religious studies. I graduated with a double major in psychology and sociology at four-year in the University of Houston. Fucking tree hugger. Really? Houston tree hugger? Sosh and psych. Sociology, psychology. I don't think I've ever met anyone that took Sosh as a major and didn't end up being a liberal at the very least in progressive, more generally. Yeah, I mean, I am very liberal. I'm not saying that as a negative. I'm not saying that in my experience. But yeah, my social deviance class really changed my life. OK, this is the last time where he's from Bryce Decadence. Another Brian? Yeah, Brian F from West Orange, New Jersey. All right, Brian. So he says, "Dear Cat Fancy, living near the East Coast, I have never really gotten a good opportunity to go to any of the major video game conferences. That's why I'm determined to attend Pax Boston and Ex March come hell or high water. I know it's still some months away, but the pass is around sale now. Yeah, and you should get them. And if you have any special Rebel FM plans and if you have any special Rebel FM plans for the show, if you do, we would kind of a podcast and it would be cool to see you all there. I don't know if Arthur and Tyler are going to make it out. I know I am. I'll be going for GameSpy. I think at this point, I will probably be going. Yeah. Oh, so there should be without me. I-- we would be more than happy to bring Tyler with if Tyler can fit it into a freelance schedule or whatever schedule Tyler has. I thought you were going to say if I can fit in a suitcase and I was going to say I can. No, the thing is is that-- I can't think of putting-- OK, just as an aside, I cannot think of people in suitcases without thinking of like the-- when I worked at the adult bookstore, the porn cover that I laughed at, the hardest was for something called Runaway Midget. And it had bridging the Midget in a suitcase. The thing is that I would love for us all to be there. But I don't think-- I mean, yeah, if Arthur ends up getting to go as a consequence of a job, that's one thing. But I don't think that it-- I don't think we could afford, necessarily, to pay two round-trip plane tickets and hotel for two people. That would be a little. I think that could be hard. But we'll see. I mean, for sure, I'm going Arthur, Michael, Tyler, Michael. It's up in the air. I'm the only for sure 100% at the moment because I've been told I'm going. Are we going to hang out? Yeah, I mean, this time, if I go with in theory, I'm supposed to not do as much writing. I'm supposed to be there much more as an outreach person because the people at PAX like me. So can I-- Tastes, I suppose. Can I ask a couple questions? Like, they're not going to have those like skimpy IGN chicks just running around with you, right? No, I mean, I don't know what IGN's planes are. Like abusing your-- You know what? To be fair, I don't think it's fair to criticize the IGN girls that were at our meetup because, honestly, they all worked super hard. Oh, the IGN girls that are meetup aren't the ones that went around passing out the things that on skimpy clothing. Those were girls in a babe mobile. Yeah, but they're not working ladies. No, no, no, no. No, I think the ladies at your meetup were fine. Oh, they were great. They were great. But yeah, I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm just going to be going around with Ryan doing outreach. You know, that being said, even if all three of us go, it's not like the extent of our special plans would be a probably non-sponsored, very low key meetup. Like-- It was super awesome to meet all the people to meet up this year, but man, it was draining. Like, because I don't think any of us are like the kind of people that do that kind of situation. Yeah, I handle it all, right? I think we all handled it all, right? It's just like it grew to be insane. And then the fucking the one-up crew showed up, and then the GFW crew showed up. Yeah, it was especially hard because I had to do all the giveaway stuff since I was actually like employee of the company. I'm sorry. No, it's-- we like that people showed up because you're our buttons. But it just added to the craziness. But yeah, I mean, we'll do something. It just might not be as quote unquote spectacular. We'll just do something. We were not the one-up people we weren't happy to see. But we will also do-- I mean, I assume outside the meetup we might-- I doubt we'll do a panel. I don't want to do a panel. Why? I don't know, because I think it's rather pretentious of us to do a live show recording. What are we going to do, fart on Mike for an hour? Yeah. Aw. There would probably be a good one to see. There are still more credit than that. You guys can-- I try to give myself as least credit as possible. I also try to give Tyroir as little credit as possible. Now, if anything, I would just rather go and meet people randomly. I definitely don't want to do a panel. When you say you're going to do outreach, I imagine you like handing out pamphlets like-- You're right, like outreach. Do you have a problem? I plan on handing out-- I feel like you have a year of work. Have you ever been told the five ways to eternal life? Well, let me tell you, it's farting, constantly. It's eating as much as you want. Crying while you masturbate. Yeah. There you go. You guys are already on the way. This is the true way of the master. Oh, my God. You have to get out all the impurities. Oh, yeah. You get through both your eye ducts and other parts. You'll have Ryan's-- You have to work-- your fate and count needs to be as high as possible. So-- Ryan's going to reach out to like all the married guys. Be like, you guys need our time. I thought Ryan was going to reach out to made women. Yeah. Yeah. The white women? Yeah. [LAUGHTER] Ryan should just go address like the Sheriff in Blazing Saddles. All right. Thank you for listening to our podcast. Remember, you can review us on iTunes. You can subscribe to us on iTunes. Yeah, the white women at. And you can also listen to our fellow Hammer Suit Partners podcast, like the Geekbox at www.geekbox.net, as well as the mobcast at bitmob.com. You can also listen to our other podcast, which is currently going through Crimson Skies. Those come out every Tuesday and on the same feed. So yeah, dig the podcast if you see SoFit. You can find me at twitter.com/chefmoney, as well as on the Game Spidey Reefings and my stuff at GameSpy.com. You can find Tyler at. I'll be on the next episode of co-op, talking about K. Tony. As well as at twitter.com/dirtyt, like the drink. Tina, what can the internet find you? [LAUGHS] On one up and on Twitter. You did a game night this week with Dr. Greg from Bioware for Dragon Age, right? Yes. And so they can find you at twitter.com/t-a-n-a-h. It's a club or spelling of Tina. And then you can find Arthur at. Twitter.com/a-e-g-i-s. I was on co-op this week, talking about border lines. I'll be on co-op next week, talking about Torchlight. Yeah. Possibly some other stuff would be announced. All right, this podcast is sponsored by MeatSpynd.com. Lemon party! That work. [MUSIC PLAYING] Can you feel the pressure? Can you feel the walls there at close the evening? Can you feel the pressure? Can you feel the walls there at close the evening? Now make a bigger mistake. I can't count all the lines I'll take. And now make a bigger mistake today. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Oh, this is me getting fucking crunk with it. Oh, boy. Fucking crunk. Shouts. We're not talking crumpets. We're talking crunked up shits, like when you have the beer shits. I'm not drinking. I'm sinking. Don't get me thinking because they're tripping. What was it? I'll be leaking. (laughs)