Rebel FM
Rebel FM E3 Christmas Special
Tyler, Arthur and Anthony gather to discuss some of their favorite (and least favorite) moments from 2009's E3. Apologies for the quality, we did this in a local Ihop!
>> Welcome to the loudest Rebel FM of all time. >> That's not necessarily loud, it's just the most ambient Rebel FM that's ever been. >> It's true, so when we talk, we are going to have to kind of direct the microphone in your direction for best effect. So we are here to talk about E3 and we decided to do it from a diner because we all wanted food and we had to get out of the house. Can we call this the E3 Christmas Special? It is the E3 Christmas Special? >> Yes! >> I think actually it works fine as long as we are all close to it. So that just might become problematic once we start eating, but we will see. >> Yeah. >> So I guess we can start off by talking about, we are not going to talk about motion controllers. That's what I told Arthur. >> Okay. >> Because we are going to save that for the regular show. >> That's fine, yeah. >> I am fine with that. That's a deep, that's a deep ballet to go down to. We are going to move it closer to Arthur, our single mic because we need Tyler to pick up way better. >> It's my deep voice. >> And so let's, I don't know, what do you guys want to kick it off with, press conferences? >> Actually, I would like to kick it off with the plane ride, or almost the lack there of a plane ride. So I get in a cab really early in the morning, you know, pay for a cab so I can make it there on time to catch my 645 in the morning flight so I can see Microsoft's press conference. Yeah, so I wake up super early, I get there, you know, no cup of coffee yet, but that was remedied when the lady said, "There's no flight at 645 a.m. There's one for 645 p.m." >> Are you serious? You booked him a flight at 645 p.m.? >> That was my doing. Luckily they got Tyler on like what, at 9 o'clock flight? >> No, there was one, exactly an hour later. >> So Tyler still made the conference, that's the important part. >> Yes. >> And he sounds like he even got a better seat from where I was, you couldn't, I could not even see the stage directly. >> Which airline was this? >> This was Southwest, I think. >> Yeah. >> So there's a plug for Southwest. >> Yeah, they totally helped me out. >> They will help me say it for random posts, like us. >> So yeah, so it went to Microsoft highlight of which was for me Felicia Day coming on stage. >> Felicia Day, who looked more nervous than I've ever seen anyone at a press conference. >> And I think she comes across that way all the time. >> Right. >> Yeah, yeah, she came across as like a nervous nerd. >> But in a good way. >> I think that's what she was. >> An adorable way. >> It's part of her charm. >> Yeah. So yeah, seeing Alan Wake on screen was pretty awesome. Although it's still like when is that game actually ever going to come out? >> It was the only game they really went into on stage that's not coming out this year. >> Yeah, that's true. >> I feel like at this point they were just like, well, even though it's not coming out this year, we have to show it anyway. >> Yeah, it was a make or break. >> It was to prove that it's not dead when people thought it. >> And it's far enough along to where they can show. And it was running really smoothly. And I actually got to see a behind closed doors demo of it later on. >> Did they show different stuff? >> They showed what you got to see in the press conference, but they didn't stop it when the tractor started coming towards you. They showed how you defeat the tractor and they showed quite a bit afterwards. And it just went more into the sheriff that he was sort of chasing after. >> So I don't get it. Is it your flashlight? Are there things that are light sensitive? Is that what it is? >> Well, here's the creatures and they're light sensitive. >> It's the never ending story, the psychological thriller. The darkness is spreading through the land. And basically the darkness has taken over inanimate objects, people, anything. So the way you destroy the darkness is with light. So it's kind of like. >> The one you shoot it with. >> Yeah, you shine the light onto them until it breaks off basically. >> It's like the never ending story with shotguns. >> Yes. >> In the Pacific Northwest. >> So you might think like, wow, that doesn't sound very innovative. But when they start mixing in things like flare guns, where you just hold up a flare that you just stroke open. And it's kind of like a force field, or having the power of generators creates a little barrier for you. Because a lot of times they'll put you against odds that you can't defeat. So it's kind of like, in some way, some of those old school like Silent Hill games, or like Resident Evil, where sometimes it's a better idea to run away. >> And this is a quick aside, Bruce. You're going to hear our food get brought during this. So if we stop for a second, you hear clanking in a nice Hispanic gentleman. >> Yes. >> It's because our mozzarella sticks are coming. >> Yeah, and he's trying to get me two extra biscuits in the back. So let's hopefully hook it up. >> But one thing I wanted to mention about Alan Wake that I thought was really badass was one moment when they shot the flare gun into the air, like just behind some trees. And the lighting renders so well with that engine. It looked like a scene out of fire in the sky. I don't know if you've ever seen that movie. >> Yeah, I do. That's where Christopher Walken is stolen by the aliens. >> Yeah. No, no, no, it's not Christopher Walken. >> Is he? >> I don't know what the actor is, and I was actually just trying to think of that this other day. I can't think of his name either. >> He's really good, though. And he's a good actor. >> He's a good actor. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I thought that the atmosphere looked really good. The light and dark contrast. They look amazing. The lighting, like when he pulls out the flare and holds it his hand and locks, that part was played perfectly. >> Yeah. And they kind of like slow everything down. That happens to make it really dramatic. >> The part that concerns me is that it's supposed to be such a narrative heavy game. And all the voice acting sounded not that good. >> Maybe that's not the final. I don't know. >> I really hope it's not. >> A lot of times they do stand in with the in-house people until the end. >> Yeah, and that's definitely a possibility. It just seems like there's so much in there, and it just comes out. The delivery is so off. >> See, I wasn't paying attention to the voice acting, but I was. But I remember specifically writing in my notes that I felt like the characters' facial animations and their body language and their character acting was really good. Now, I didn't know the voice acting, but I just felt like the characters themselves can convey the emotion in the scene very well. But yeah, so I have to go back and listen to the actual voice over. >> I mean, it looks cool. >> That besides that and the motion control reveal, I can't really think of anything else in the Microsoft press conference as far as game wise. >> It was like, I mean, Halo's was like, yeah, I know it's coming out cool to see it. Yeah, it's like I'm really cracked down too. >> Yeah, even though that was just a teaser trailer, which is still better than nothing. >> It was the cock teaser trailer since that game was not coming out this year, and they didn't show any gameplay whatsoever. >> I bet that game's not even coming out next year. >> I have a feeling they're going to try to do it for a fall release next year. They feel like cracked down is big enough now that they can actually release and that. >> Yeah, I'm just thinking at this point, I doubt nothing exists far beyond concept art. >> And they showed, yeah, they showed a few, didn't they show it like a screenshot or something? And it had a similar art style, but a little more growing up. >> I think that it's well in a development. This one is probably about six months. >> Yeah. >> It's being made by a former, we don't have more of the guys to rough in. And I mean, there was like four or five months back that our ambient was being contracted by Microsoft to work on something. >> Yeah, the four months or five months in development still means probably concept art mostly. I mean, and maybe. >> It depends. Let's see, the Splinter Cell Conviction. >> Yeah, that demo was, what did you think Arthur? Did you catch the video of it? >> I did, I saw all the press comments. >> Okay, cool. >> So, I'm a huge Splinter Cell fan. A huge Splinter Cell fan, I own all of them. >> Cool. >> This one's obviously not a normal Splinter Cell game by any stretch of the imagination. >> I feel it's a departure, but it feels like a more natural departure than the last game was. >> I'm just saying, being stealth and stuff in this one clearly doesn't matter in the same way that like it didn't. One thing that I was talking to the team that made it, they said, was that in the first one, if you got caught, it was kind of like you were dead. >> Yeah. >> And then this one, it's very much not like that. >> Well, they've all become less trial and error as time went on. Double agent took a couple subs back, actually, for some reason. But Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, if you got caught, you could definitely just shoot your way out in our mozzarella sticks or about show up, so I apologize right now. >> Well, and the good thing about that is- >> All right. >> mozzarella. >> Thank you very much. >> Yeah, really cool. >> Yeah. >> There you go. >> Enjoy. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. [BLANK_AUDIO] >> See, I told you he's a nice, a nice Hispanic gentleman. He's filming so. >> That was delicious. >> Well, you know what, but you know what I think? I think it's sort of just the same thing that the Metal Gear 4 faced, you know, when they were trying to decide how to make it more accessible to more audiences where they're just giving you the choice. I mean, you can clearly go in, you know, through every area stealth, or now, you know, you can go in guns blazing if you choose. >> I think they weren't kind of an awkward situation just doing the game. But in a way, I feel like all the bad facts has been kind to the game. There was a lot of presidents and a lot of worry when people thought that conviction was going to be the emo, older, Sam Fisher outside. >> Mm-hm. >> I still thought it was great. >> Yeah, everybody was just kind of tripping because he had a beard. >> It just, it looks like this weird sort of complete departure from Splinter Cell. Whereas they had time to see that reaction and take a step back and say, wait, this, maybe this isn't going to work. The game isn't shaping up how we want it to be. People weren't going to be as kind to it after double agent because we had our, we had our gimme game. You know, I mean, the Splinter Cell has operated on an even odd sort of bad good. >> Right, yeah. >> Whereas the first Splinter Cell had better level design than Pandora tomorrow. The reason people really liked Pandora tomorrow is because the multiplayer chaos theory was a revelation as far as those games went graphically and gameplay wise because it was much more open and flexible. >> Double agent was, was technically a mess. >> Double agent is the only Splinter Cell I haven't played. It's the only one. >> You're not missing a lot. If you decide you want to play it, the Xbox version and the Xbox 360 version are actually different. >> Whoa. >> No shit. >> Like they, they deal with the same rough plot outline, but they actually cover different ground and their stuff. They go over and the Xbox version of the PayPal. >> This property is not very good. Is that just me, Tyler? >> Yeah, I mean it's, you know. >> That's how I help coffee. >> Yeah, it's how I help. >> All right, pass me some coffee. You get to hear all the ambience of me asking for things at the table too. >> Tastes a little bit. I got that little bit of pencil shaving taste. But like, you know, sometimes I'll drink coffee if it's like been sitting around in my room for a day. >> It's got a cigarette but in it. >> No, I don't smoke cigarettes. But not that far. >> So, so anyway, I don't know. I think the conviction looks really cool. >> Definitely. >> The stuff they're trying with narrative is really interesting. >> Oh my God. Any, you know, anytime, no, like Splinter Cell when I saw it, it was just one of those moments. Like when you hear a band that you, you know, you just say like, where has this band been all my life? Like when they, when they showed it every time I ever complain about games that have bad UI, like user interface or games that have bad, like typography and the design of, of menus and just, this little things like that. >> Splinter Cell does exactly-- >> The way I projected it on the wall is it was fairly ridiculous. >> Oh man. >> Yeah, so I was actually, I was on a, I was on a, another podcast, a giant bomb community podcast this week. And one of the things I told him is I'd really like to see better UI and better sort of menu design in games and that European companies seem to be doing it better than anybody else. >> Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I just want to clarify something. Am I the only one who's fucking up these onion rings? >> Oh, I'm about to fuck you. >> All right, cool. >> She don't smell like onion rings. >> So, so this just sort of reaffirms that this is another example where a European company is doing something really, really interesting with the interface. >> Yep. So, yeah, so if you haven't seen it, things like mission objectives that get updated instead of just a text prompt that flashes in front of you on an opaque background or something like that, it actually looks like it's this type treatment projected onto the side of a building or projected onto two sides of a wall inside of a room and they also handle flashbacks this way, you know, the storytelling in Splinter Cell is amazing. And it reminded me a lot of Alan Wake's storytelling as well and again alone in the dark because they're basing the story structure and pacing off of TV shows where they literally say last time on Alan Wake. >> Well, I don't know that Splinter Cell is doing that, but for sure Alan Wake is. >> Well, well, Splinter Cell, its transitions are more like the born movies and it's funny that you said that because so a game spy was doing these things called spy libs where we had like these five questions and we wanted like one word answers and we'd give them two bunch of people so I gave them to three different people from the Splinter Cell team, including the guy that demoed it on stage, the friends guy, I can't remember his name. He was really drunk and he was like one word to describe your game and he said panther. And then he said the emotion that this game elicits and he's like being the ultimate predator. And he said that the three things like basically all three of the people I asked basically all said that if you like blank you will like Splinter Cell. And they said it was the three JB's, Jason Bourne, James Bond, and Jack Bauer is the third one. >> I heard them compare it to Man on Fire. >> Oh, that was another one that was compared. >> When I heard that, it really fucking clicked with me because Tony Scott. >> Wow. >> He's been doing really crazy experimental shit with his directing. He's the guy that directed Tom in there as well. >> Oh, okay, I didn't know it. >> And that clicked with me. He definitely likes slowing things down and putting text on the screen and doing strange subtitles at moments just to underline points. And I feel like those are the narrative influences that they're going with. >> Okay. >> And obviously the James Bond movies, the text on surfaces is in a fringe I think and it was in Quantum Solids. I think that it could have the possibility of being the most narratively successful Splinter Cell. >> Which would be really awesome because Splinter Cell has almost always been amazing. >> I mean, based off of what we've seen in the demo, who knows, but I'm hopefully the story time stays like that. >> It's because it's so much effort into the storytelling that you would hope that there's a story there. >> Yeah, I know, I'm just saying the demo is very clearly a slice of the game. I mean, it literally cut out in a way that you know the real game won't and stuff like that. >> Yeah. >> But I mean, it could be the first Splinter Cell game that has a story that people remember. The other Splinter Cell story is roughly bad. >> Yeah, I couldn't tell you anything. The other Splinter Cell story is really, but I mean, I can follow them when I was playing them. >> Okay, so what's the game that you saw, the game that you dug? >> All right, so let's just get this one out of the way because it's clear that it's going to be on every podcast. And it's not thinking everyone thinks, I mean, yeah, there were the Left for Dead 2s and the God of War 3s. There was basically a ton of sequels that it was like, yes, it's cool to see all these, but they are basically more of the same. And that's not a derogatory thing, it's just like, okay. But the things that stick out for me through, you're always like the game that you go and you're like, man. And then all of a sudden it turns out to be badass. Which in this case, for everyone I know, was Scribblenauts, which Tyler did not get a chance to try. But the basic premise is that it's being published by Warner Brothers Interactive, I believe, because it was in their booth. And then the basic premise is that you can draw anything like an animal, an object. Basically, the only things you can't put in, you can't not drive and you type it in. Basically, the only things you can't type and have them appear are things that are licensed or things that are dirty because it's an E for everyone game. So you can't say dildo, or you can't say Godzilla, but you could say monster, you know. You could do gorgiara. You could do Cthulhu, that was the one that everyone tried. Cthulhu totally dropped into the world and started wandering around. Well, that's public domain. Exactly, that's what I'm saying, so certain licensed things that maybe at one time are licensed. I read that some memes weren't really showing up. Like, "Lawcats" was a tall cat, instead of a wall cat. Lawcats didn't show up at keyboard cat. Yeah, keyboard cat is the same thing again. At the point, do we need a wall cats, though? It's a, so... I would be curious, too. But the thing is that is that wall cats actually is trademarked as well, though. In turn, wall cat. Really? Yeah, I mean, that website, lolcats.com, or whatever, I'm pretty sure. That is a trademark. What about fail dogs? I don't know. So pretty much they put in, they spent, like, basically these people went through a dictionary and put in tens of thousands of words. And I could not find anyone that, with the idea of licensed or dirty, could not find, like, no one found what they put in did not work. So, like, when you start in the menu, the menu before you hit start and play the game is basically a little sandbox. You can play in and just summon stuff in before the actual game, which is what most people spent most of their time doing during the demo. The actual game is to gather, the point of it is to gather stars, and the way you gather stars is either just getting to them, or there will be, like, a specific little mission objective. Like, one I saw was, like, Reunite Girl with her cat, and the cat was stuck up on the roof, and she was on the ground. So I typed in wings, and summoned a pair of wings, and attached them to my body and flew up there and grabbed her. Alternatively, I could have summoned a Pegasus and flown up to her, or I could have said ladder, and put a ladder and climbed up there. I was a tribal lady. Maybe I could have maybe done bulldozer, bulldozer the house. Not sure, because I know that there was one where it was, like, a whale on a beach, and that's what someone did. They just bulldozed the whale into the water, to get it back into the ocean, to get this done. That's amazing. Well, there was somebody around. Or, like, one I did was, like, there was a wall in my way, and underneath it was water. So I could have either figured out a way to go over the wall, but I set scuba, and I summoned a scuba tank, and went under, and climbed out. But, yeah, like, in the world, I definitely summoned Cthulhu, and then I summoned a Wyvern, and had them battle. And for some reason, the Wyvern killed Cthulhu, which is dumb to me. A fucking Wyvern, a mythical creature that it is, is not going to kill Cthulhu. But I know Matt Chandranay was telling me that he summoned three vampires, and then typed in Vampire Hunter, and a guy straight out of Vampire Hunter, he came down and just started slaying them all. So... That is pretty fucking rad. Actually. So everyone I know said, like, literally, like, they put everything, even keyboard cat, and keyboard cat appeared. So, 'cause it's not trademarked at this point. And, uh, so yeah, I mean, it was just, it just literally blew everyone away. They were like, "Yeah, sure, I'll break this game in a minute." And this is a DS game. Yeah. So it's maybe the same people that did "Drum to Life" and "Locks Quest." It's... This time there's no drawing. Oh, there's no drawing whatsoever. Like, originally the video showed, like, from a year ago when they first did a trailer, so did you writing in the letters one at a time? Yeah, yeah. I remember saying that. But I think they got rid of that, because then it had to recognize the letters first. Yeah. Yeah. So now it is... Yeah, that's two recognition actions. Now it is just a courty engine. A courty keyboard pops up, and you type it in real quick, and it works pretty damn well. Cool. So yeah, I mean, that was easily, like... That game was ridiculous. I mean, at the Warner Bros. booth, I was just a Lego rock band, which is cool because it is a complete... Like, none of the songs are repeats from the other rock bands. But at the same time, like, besides things like the final countdown, most of them are songs like "Pink" and stuff like that, which will resonate more with the child audience. Yeah, it's a more family-friendly, less hipster/20-something. Basically, it's just a way for them to... I mean, literally, there's no difference between it and rock band. Besides the fact that the buttons that scroll down are bricks, and beyond that, the Legos are people on stage instead of the traditional people. And the rock meter builds up with Legos, right, I think? Yeah, you can... you have like... It's just like the other Lego games where you gather the little Lego things, and when you fuck up, they all go scattered, which you have a few seconds to gather them back. You know, like, when you die, and Lego Star Wars and stuff. And then the other difference is that there's a super easy mode. So, literally, like, the tiniest child can come up and play, and probably play, like, one out of every ten notes or something, probably. But, I mean, it is still developed internally by harmonics and stuff, so it is, at least, like, it's not like they just were shitting it out. And I imagine they picked pop songs that they liked. Yeah, I mean, like, the final count on this, obviously, that has to play no matter who you are. Yeah. But... and, uh, Jackson 5 is on there? Jackson 5, he's seen something. I mean, he's Jackson 5. That is obviously made for children, because who else is gonna sing that? So... Every time I hear that song, I think it was Aria Dawson that clerks too, dancing. Um... and then, uh... 'Cause I have a crush on this Aria Dawson. So, that was easily, like, the game I saw that impressed me. I mean, also Brink, which is the Bethesda published, and it's developed by Splash Damage. Which is the game that they did not show in London because it wasn't ready. Which is weird, because, like, by the time I saw it in the behind-close demo, it looked way farther along than any of the ready games that they showed you in London were. Like, maybe it was Splash Damage that they made the call that it wasn't ready, and not Bethesda. Because maybe Splash Damage just didn't want to show something like Bethesda was ready to show with the rest of the crap. And on, like, Ruggles, they wanna be the stand-out. And, like, all those games, like, they're just very generic, like, wet, pretty much to me, this looks like a stranglehold with a girl. And... and, uh... Our food is here, just to... Pause. Here. Um... here. This is for you. Oh, great. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. This is for you. Thank you so much. And I have a toast coming for you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You don't need this, can you? Uh, actually, I'll keep going. You're gonna use it? Okay. Tyler, if you don't fuck with your toast, I will. Ooh. So, so, uh, yeah, so, uh... Brink. So, it was... Oh, actually wet. You know, the rogue warrior... Wet just looks like stranglehold with a girl, and... Rogue Warrior is, like, a very generic looking... Like, stop-and-pop for a person-action game. The only cool thing about it is if it's reading about the story of it, how it's about this guy that his name escapes me right now. It's Richard Mercingo. Yeah. Who is, like, a real-life mercenary slash. Real-life worked for the Navy Seals, killed a ton of people in real-life. I mean, he's basically a real-life badass. Like, he writes a lot of fictional stories loosely based on his life. And, uh... Um, after... this is after writing an autobiography, which is also called Rogue Warrior. Right. So, really, the coolest part is, like... I mean, it was kind of unnerving seeing him in there. But, uh... My, uh, Boss at GameSpy described it as the first game... A GameSpy that will get six stars without being reviewed. Because he doesn't want to be murdered in his sleep. So... But, uh... Fair enough, man. It looked pretty... pretty generic. Which is too bad. And it had a ton of swearing, which is not... I'm saying that's pretty realistic, but... Like... Mickey Roar literally was throwing out one-liners all the time. That was like... That was it. Thanks very much. Um... How did the... how did his voice acting sound? 'Cause when I saw it a couple months ago, his voice acting... It sounded terrible. I couldn't really hear it 'cause the room was so loud. Like, you just occasionally hear something like you fucking dirtbag. And I was like... Yeah, like, all those demo rooms in E3... It's like any time there's... Any time there's a quiet moment going on in the game you're viewing, Chances are in the room very next to you. It's like they're... Giant fucking Jerry Brockenheimer explosion and... Yeah, exactly. That's what made Brink so nice was Brink was shown in upstairs of Bethesda's booth. And even... And it was just like... They'd had done a pretty good job of... Like, uh... Keeping it isolated. As far as sound went and stuff. But yeah, Brink looks like, uh... Like, uh... Excuse me, sir. I'm gonna get the pepper here. It kind of is a shooter like we've all played before. In the sense of a first person one 'cause it... These are the same guys that did the enemy territory Quakerce for PC and stuff. So it still feels like a... A first person shooter but, uh... By feel I mean, looks like 'cause I didn't play it. Okay, I was about to... I was... I'm curious to see how it feels. But yeah, like, it has a sprint button that allows you basically just by holding down the sprint button to... We can't play it from the other side. Yeah, without having to time any button presses or anything like that. Just kind of does it all automatically. Which in a first person shooter, like, the fact that you're shooting at the same time doesn't seem cheap to me. You know, it doesn't seem like a... You can't shoot while you're doing that. Right, oh, okay. So it's more like a... It looked like it was more like a getaway button out of combat when things go really bad. Um... The thing that was really cool about it was the way that it had dynamically changing objectives. Kind of like how Quakerce always had... Updating your objectives, except this one's like updating in a really weird way. Like, you can change your class by going to a station and when you change your class, it'll present you with like five objectives worth varying amounts of experience based on how needed they are. Um... But then, say, Tyler chose a medic, then I chose a... I was a soldier, all of a sudden it might pop up on my objective things, like, protect the medic. While he tries to do this, like, would be an objective that might just get added based on who was what class is on the field. But the art... Sounds like they're refining the stuff that they developed for Quakerce. The trailer looks pretty terrible when you see the trailer, like, because it doesn't show the game at all. But the art of it is kind of like a... It's kind of in a way, it kind of reminds me of the... It looks like Crackdown meets Team Fortress 2. Yeah, it almost looks like it's the blend of realism, cartoony that the Old Republic is going for, in a way. Yeah, for a little bit like exaggerated, stretched or pulled faces. Exactly, but it's still obviously supposed to be, like, it's not totally just being cartoony. And the subject matter is supposed to be serious, despite the fact of what they're doing. It's not like in Team Fortress 2 where there's, like, ha-ha jokes about sandwiches and shit. But, um... Sorry, are you saying that? Like, it's a bad thing? No, I'm just saying that that's what Team Fortress does, that's obviously not what this game's trying to do. See, now that, that to me raises a little bit of a concern, because it almost seems like... You know, we're going to experience this disconnect where the characters look like they could be doing funny, ha-ha jokes about sandwiches, but they're, like, talking about their fucking wife who is... You don't want to hear Fuzzled Bunny talk about the meaning of life into... Right, exactly. That's what it is. I don't know, I think they do a pretty good job with distinguishing. Like, when you're playing, when you're seeing it, you won't really be thinking about that. Oh, okay. But what was the game you saw, Tyler, that blew you away? Well, I mean, that's... Most of the games that I came away most impressed on a technical level, you know, were games that... We weren't really able to get our hands on with, like, Uncharted 2. I mean, they had the multiplayer going, but not the single-player campaign. And they had co-op, which I didn't get a chance of. They had the single-player campaign going on upstairs. Oh, really? Yeah. The guy who was demoing for me wouldn't let me play, so I guess... Well, he didn't let us play, I was saying, or could see it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The single-player going right there, but, yeah, no one could play it, unless you were a judge, I think. But in terms of, like, the game that I played that I came away with, just the most impressed about was Battlefield 1943. I just saw... I felt like Battlefield's bad company, basically. It is. It is Battlefield Bad Company with World War II weapons. I mean, and for $15, I mean... You could blow up walls and stuff in it? Yeah, you can blow out walls, everything. And it's the same control scheme, exactly, from Battlefield, you know, which... I never played the original, was it 1942, the original? But it was one of those games, you know, I never owned a PC that I always wanted to play, you know, just like from the outside looking in. So for me, you know, I really can't speak if, you know, the graphics were improved. You know, because I really don't even know, and I don't have any intimate knowledge of the previous version, but... To me, it's more than enough sufficient to where I'm going to be excited and happy playing that until Call of Duty... Until Modern Warfare 2 comes out. And that's for sure, because... Well, even maybe afterwards, I mean, it is totally a different game in a way, because everyone's operating. It's slower in bolt-action rifles. Yeah. That's what I always liked about those. I mean, that's even when I, to this day, really loved about Call of Duty 1 and 2. It was, like, it was a lot more rewarding to me to, like, get into a rifle battle with someone and win. And not just when it was a sniper battle, but when we both had, like, bolt-action rifles. Yeah. And get that fucking lucky shot and be like, "Yes." Yeah, and you have much more opportunity, like, to turn the tables on. Like, Modern Warfare 2 is totally satisfying as a multiplayer game, but I'm saying that there's something about when 2 and 1, when you would hit someone. Because it was, like, it was very hard. Do you want more soda? Oh, okay. Can I actually get a Diet Coke, too? Diet Coke? I mean, you didn't put any of the fixings on your burger. I just, like, point this out. You're gonna happen if you want. No, I'm just saying. You've lettuce and onion. You hate when things taste good apparently. I don't feel like... I don't know. It's too hungry. It didn't feel like... So, Tyloro. So, did you also play a heavy rain? Well, yeah. Well, I sucked it up in a heavy rain, huh? I was surprised that that wasn't at the press conference. You know, me, too. But I think that they had Sony. Their press conference, they had a lot of surprises, still. I felt like they said, you know, I don't know how heavy rain's gonna do that demo. It's a game that definitely needs a few minutes. And I don't think they could have truncated it to, like, a 3-minute demo, which is probably all they would have had time for. I kind of wondered if it needs an explanation going in and how the controls were. Uh-huh. I'm kind of wondering if it was originally in the press conference and they got a bucket. No, I don't think so. I think that... I don't think that would have shown too well to investors as the thing. Maybe. I just feel like... I mean, I know that the Ubisoft press conference there was stuff they got launched. According to who? According to the Jai Pong guys who talked to Mitchell. It is they had no more heroes trading or something like that. Oh, yeah. Right about that, yeah. Because James Cameron talked for 17 years. I thought a lot of that was one thing that really bothered me about a lot of the press conferences. Like, at least when they brought out James Cameron, he got to talk. But, like, during the Microsoft one, they brought out, like, 10 people and it was like, "Look at this person gone." It was, like, so stupid. Like, why did they didn't need to be there? Right, exactly. Like, just for day's sake. Like, how much did they pay to have Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr come on stage? I think they're having Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr there to give their public blessing at a press conference. Right, yes, yeah. It could have easily been a video of them saying, like, "Thanks, blah, blah, blah." They didn't need to come out for 30 seconds. Or even worse was, like, Yoko Ono. Right, oh, yeah, they brought out. That was even more terrible. Like, they literally walked out and walked off. It was, like, so stupid. Yeah. They were there at all. And, you know, Steven Spielberg walked out and was like, "How cool is then it's all?" Yeah, but we can't talk about that. Oh, no, we're not. We're just talking about how dumb it was that they brought out people just, like, at least when, like, the EA one, was it EA where they're making the soccer game? Or who was making the soccer game? Was that Ubisoft? Yeah, that was Ubisoft where the... Like, I mean, they at least let 'em talk and stuff like that. And you know what, Ubisoft, like, they had the most entertaining press conference. It's nothing else. Really? Yeah, 'cause the host was really good. He was funny on a regular basis, actually. They got it from the talk, too. Yeah, like, like, I'm not saying that they had the best conference for what they showed or anything, but just for being entertaining, like, that guy was, like, of course, the easiest on the ears. And it wasn't, like, other times when they've tried hiring comedians to do speaking things that ended up terrible. Like, this guy was actually really funny. Hey, man. It's really like saying... Questions, toast. And, uh... But, yeah, that's kind of like, last year I thought EA had a really entertaining... ...but, um... ...you know, entertaining press conference. So it was, uh, EA was great. And there were some really magical moments in EA, like, when they were showing the charm girl squad. And everyone in the audience, like, decided, "We're gonna get behind this game." And, like, people were cheering enthusiastically about it. It wasn't necessarily like a... Yeah. The meme it, it, E3 this year, became clap at anything tween-related. And it was amazing, I don't know. I love that moment, 'cause, you know, they had the little tween girls out there playing, like... That was embarrassing to me. Teaser here. What? I'm sorry, what did you call it in your, uh, your live vlog on GameSpy? I said... I said charm girl squad in my first period. That's like the one I'm waiting for. You're a terrible person. Um... It just... Thank you. Yeah, wait. Um... It reminded me of the Nintendo press conference last year where I just wonder who they're talking to. Like, who they think they're aiming. Well, I guess the whole thing is that... I think this year, more than any other year, a lot of the conferences were clearly directed at investors. Like, like a lot of, yeah, a lot of suits were present at all these things. Including people from GameStops, Incorporated and all kinds of stuff. I really think that they knew that they were presenting as much to people like us. As they were to people that were going to be buying over, basically, on the stop-wise. I don't feel like... I feel like Microsoft's conference was in that way so much. Yeah, because they even specifically made that point. They were like, "We're not going to show you any numbers." The Ubisoft one was like that, and then the Nintendo one definitely was. Yeah. Um... I don't know. Uh... So, other stuff at this Sony press conference? I don't even... I think we should just move on from the conferences to talk about show room floor stuff because all the things we showed up at the conferences were shown on the floor and the differences got to play them in some instances. Yeah. Like, did you get to play God of War 3? Yes, I did. What'd you think? Well, okay, the first of all, I've never played through any of the God of War games, although I haven't played them. I know, yes, I know that's terrible. I've never beaten any of them. Well, see, but God of War came out when my PS2 died and the next PlayStation I got was the non-backward compatible one. To be fair, the reason that Anthony hasn't beaten God of War 2 is because he decided to play along on hard with me. I'm like 10 minutes from the end. And I lost my memory card, so it'll probably never get beaten. Really? I mean, if you put it on on one, you could probably tear through that game in like five hours. Maybe. Anyways, we're moving on. Bouse. God of War 3, I like to... It's funny, too, because it's like, you know, when we go into a single video, we know we're going to see a lot of violent stuff. Yet it always catches everyone off guard like when he fucking does, but what I kept on referring to as the "ton-ton" on that centaur, where he would gut it and spill its guts open. But one thing I thought was really cool was that now when Kratos fights, he gets blood spatter all over him. Yeah, and it stays for a little while. Yeah, but then it goes away, which they were like, we know it's not realistic that it goes away, but the whole point was that if it didn't ever go away, you would never know that it was happening. It was the problem they were running into. He was too red. Yeah, so they were like, so we had to make it go away. So you would have a reason to keep going and getting bloody. I mean, everything in God of War 3 is designed for spectacle. They didn't show, but there's a part. Did they show you ripped the head off the guy in the demo during the press conference? Yeah. Oh, no, not during the press conference. Yeah, that was only on the floor. Yeah, people didn't see that if you didn't go to the show. It wasn't so close. So you see what's the name of the God of Destruction, the Titan of Destruction. No, Percy is just Percy's, Percy's, Percy's. Yeah. So you see Percy's and he's battling Helios who's going around on the flying chariot. Yeah. So at some point you take down the flying chariot and Percy's catches it and throws it into a wall. And so then you fight your way over there. And Helios is on the ground and all his, like, personal guard comes out and forms a phalanx on him. So then an ogre comes out or cyclops. And you get on top of the cyclops and you are controlling it, so you're, like, using it to, and you immediately attack and kill all his blanks. And how are you controlling it? Well, you just have your hooks in the back. Yeah, that's what I want to do before. Nice. But then, but the worst part is then when you kill it, you rip out its eye. And it is, like, the most violent eye-ripping or anything that God wears. Like, literally, like, the optic nerve stretches and then snaps. So then after that, you go to-- What do you think they've been spending four years doing? You go to Helios on the ground and you rip his head off his shoulders. Like, you just rend it from his body. And it shows us that, like, the flesh in between his head and shoulder starts to slowly tear and then to expand it. It's like a George Romero/TomSubini head bolt. Yeah, so that would-- I mean, it had a lot of really cool moments. And I think that it basically is just going to be, like, more about a war with-- I mean, literally, then in this one, they're still doing, like, the great-- You don't have control of the camera, just like the little ones. And they're still doing, like, the great moments where the camera pulls back and you're running on some epic scene you can see Percy's wandering in the city. Yeah, everything is-- everything you go to a war is designed for maximum spectacle. Yeah, well, it kind of feels like the equivalent of, like, someone-- If I'm a Greek sitting around, like, a thousand years after when that's supposed to have happened and someone's telling me about what my great-great-grandfather experienced or something, and, you know, they're embellishing the shit out of it. I remember, um, a few months ago, like, a mini fanboy playing more started because God of War III doesn't run real-time physics. What does it need to do? No. It's-- I mean, did that affect your phone at all? Well, when it got a war, the physics don't really apply. When I jump in the air and I'm tacking and I'm slowly floating down to the ground and stuff like that, I mean, it's just-- it's not about that at all. God of War is not to be real in any sense of the word. Like, that's-- and that is not why I play it either. I don't know. Yeah, and one thing they were telling me about a difference with God of War III that you'll see a lot is the camera pulls in a lot closer to Kratos than it ever has before because, you know, because he's just such a detailed character model. So, like, I always thought those were the most badass moments when the camera would really pull in and kind of, like, point your attention in a certain direction. I also was pretty impressed when I saw Mass Effect being played Mass Effect II. Who's-- I hear that the frame rate is significantly improved. Yeah, I mean, the frame rate's better, but the thing that it actually stood out the most to me was that it looked-- and I didn't get to play, but the way it was looking, it seemed like it operated way closer to a Gears of War style shooter than the other one had. 'Cause, you know the other one, you could play that way, but it was pretty challenging. Like, you shot and stuff, but I'm saying, like-- That's the only way you could play it. Right, but you were constantly using your squad to give orders and stuff because you really needed to rely on them to get through things. Like, in this end, plus, when you were shooting, you were a lot-- it was kind of hard to be accurate and to move from cover effectively, like, from cover to cover, this node. Don't shut up for a second. Well, I'm just going to say that the character class I played as was-- I mean, I was the pistol lead. But I'm just saying, the stop and pop in that game wasn't, like, anywhere near on part with other games that do cover. Yeah, if you wanted to play that game as a shooter, you had to choose a shooter-- the soldier class, really. And there's nothing-- that's not knocking us. Yeah, and that's not what it was trying to be, but in this one, they've definitely tightened up the shooting in it a lot to where now it feels like-- More water? It feels like a shooter like that. What about coffee? I'm OK. Yeah, you're OK. You're OK. Thank you. But now it feels like a shooter that then has all those awesome RPG elements thrown on top of it. I mean, is it as intense as a shooter? Yeah, they're the parts they showed anyways. They were pretty intense shooting. They did it like a more invested animation system in, like, body part removal. Yeah. I didn't see any of that. I didn't see any body part removal. It still looked like the old Mass Effect were when things die. They kind of just collapsed in on themselves. They shown footage of things, like, get their legs, like-- Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they showed like there's some new kind of guess, or maybe it's not a guess. It looked like some kind of robot creature, though, and it had its leg blown off and was like crawling towards-- But I didn't see it in the time when I watched. Another thing that was really great about Mass Effect 2 was they showed how the conversation system this time around isn't just you standing in front of another person. Conversation takes place now. Like, while your characters are moving through a scene, sometimes, like, in a car, like, speeding through this guy highway. Or even towards the end of the demo, when you're looking for this new character, he's an assassin. And you find the person who's there to assassinate. And it's just a really tense scene. And the camera angles are just much more dramatic than they were for the first Mass Effect, which is, you know, that was one of the main feature points of it was that the, you know, dialogue was really dramatic. And now you can get Shepard killed. Yeah, I guess just one of the things that really bothered me in the first game was that it was hard to play it. Like, you know, you had to play it as a shooter, but playing it as a shooter was still pretty hard, like, just 'cause the shooting wasn't-- I mean, you were that great. I played, like, the first 10 hours in Mass Effect when I borrowed it from you. Oh, that's right. And then other games came out and I left it in the dust. Yeah. But, yeah, you know, I just found it was pretty hard. But also, I don't think I was playing as, like, the right class, either. Right, yeah, the first Mass Effect, like, whatever class you chose and, like, whatever weapon they specialized in, it's like, you should just, you should just, like, only use that weapon in the powers, you know? So, it's like-- I'm not knocking it out. I still think it was an amazing game. I'm just saying that this one with the way the shooting looks now, like, I'm like-- It just looks like they've improved it in the regards where it could be improved. Yeah. And also, like-- Good to see you. It's for you tonight, guys. I think that's going to do it. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. I mean, the-- like, we talked a few months ago after GDC about how their development cycle has changed and how they're doing that to avoid technical issues, lots of stuff with the elevators and the frameries, those were all things that entered in late in the game because they just couldn't get their shit together enough to develop and process, and it seemed like they're fixing that. Yeah, one-- Sorry, go ahead. No, it's going to say even things like planet exploration. It seemed like they showed a little clip during one of the-- during the trailer that they showed before the demonstration where it showed you, like, scanning a planet, and it's almost like there was a cursor that was moving around on the planet, like, saying, "This is where we want to drop." Like, they didn't say anything specifically about it, but, you know, that's what I sort of, like, gathered from that scene. Look at that travel thing, almost. Or, you know, it was like you were just looking at a readout of the planet, and, like, it was like, you were selecting where you would drop, so I don't know if that would mean, you know, you're going to have more than one little plot to explore on each planet now. I don't know, so that was another part of that game that got boring to me quick, was driving around like planets. Very quick. 'Cause all you would do is, like, go to the planet and then drive forever, either around or through all of them. It was, which you could argue was realistic, 'cause I'm sure the real life-spick's playing of a planet would be a lot of driving. Exactly. 'Cause it's nothingness, but that's not what I want out of that. But since we're already on the thing of Bioware, Dragon Age, that pretty much was not even talking about that. Well, it's been covered. Here's the thing, though, man. Every female character model in that game has man shoulders. Man shoulders. Well, are they wearing armor? 'Cause I've seen her call seeing a half naked female character. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We saw the half naked female, so they showed it for a split second. Man shoulders. But I did get to see Knight to the Elder Republic being played. I mean, just the Elder Republic. Old Republic being played, but it's really Knight to the Elder Republic. Three, four, five, six, and seven, according to Bioware. So, it takes place, like, what is it? It's a thousand years before the events of Knight to the Elder Republic, I believe. I didn't think it was that many. Oh, no, it's after. Is it after before? I don't even remember what they said. I want to say it. I'm pretty sure it's before, but I don't think it's two. It might. I thought it was like 20 or 30. There's a big more that you played before. It's at least a few hundred years before, yeah. Oh, shit. If I'm being totally wrong and I'm losing my Star Wars and I'd credit, I apologize. I really just don't remember what they said, but I'm almost positive. Because, yeah, because in the, uh... In the old Knights of the Republic, there were Sith still, right? Like, Sith people, but I thought you still- And the first Knights of the Elder Republic know. There were no Sith. You didn't fight, like, just Sith soldiers? Uh, I think you fought them later. I fought. There were Sith in Knights of the Republic, but like, is that like, they were exclusive? Okay. They thought that you're a stincter. And it's been a long time. I can't say on the finanote, right? Like, are we past the Statue of the Limitations for spoilers? Hell, yeah. Yeah. Your character was a Sith. A Sith. Like, that was my wife or whatever. Yeah. I mean, either way, I just- I'm having a- You know, I mean, it started out where the Sith chased you to the planet and you had to rescue people, or whatever. Yeah, don't get me wrong, I know a ton about Star Warship, but for the life of me right now, I can't remember if it's before or after, and I don't know why, and they started me in the same. It doesn't matter, right? But either way, so the point is, is that- that trailer, actually, what that trailer shows, uh, is events that happen before the events of the game. Because- Because when the game comes out, um, there's like a- If I understand right, there's like a very loose, like, treaty, like, peace treaty between the Sith and the Republic. So that showed when, of course, like, got attacked, and that was when the war broke out, which is like, in the game, it's kind of like, wow, in that sense, where there's like a very loose alliance. Or like, treaty, but they're still- They're sniping each other. Yeah. Um, but it looked great, like, when you saw all those early screenshots, it kind of, you know, everyone was very harsh on it, and it did look pretty dumb, like, the cartoon-y stuff, but when you see it running, it actually is, like, a really cool-looking style, and, and, uh, I could tell, like, on a high-end PC, it looks great, but then, of course, what they're shooting for is people with, like, you know, uh- Good play, wow. Over people on- on-board graphics and stuff like that, they wanted to be able to scale really well, and I think there will, but the cool part about it was that lightsaber battles, it isn't like, like, when you see in World of Warcraft, when two people go to each other and they're just standing there and they're, like, swinging axes and hitting each other, and it just kind of looks bored, boring, and this one, like, when two- when a- when, like, a Jedi Master came out, and him- and the Sith character was sitting there battling it, it looked like a fucking, like, kind of, like, a battle out of a movie, like, there was sparks going everywhere, people were doing flips, and kind of- I mean, I think they did that nicely, but the Republic did that, like, where- Well, they would duel, yeah, that, you know, you know, and just, like, a nice little Republic, there was still some- some of that feel where it's two people just kind of hitting each other. RPG Trois, but they also tried to put in an animation system. Right, yeah, they had a little bit of random damage. It's just this is, this is, like, way more, and, like, when you finish someone off, it totally does, like, a move, where it's, like, through the chest, and the guys, like, several, like, turns off the past the playground, so- Bad ass. And there was, you know, crazy parts, like, the part we saw was a bounty hunter and a Sith running around, and, like, there would be, like, a door they couldn't get through, so the bounty hunter would plan a charge, even the door would blow in. It didn't look like this, like, pre-rendered, like, animation that happens every time, and they also showed a, a new class, which was, uh, the smuggler. Oh, shit, and so this- and so the smuggler plays different, uh, high charisma. He's gonna be the first character that utilizes cover in any MMO, like, that's his- that's his thing. So, I guess they're gonna design, you know, instances and terrain, so, like, when he scrolls upon enemies, and he sees one, and he selects an enemy, basically, it'll show up anywhere on the map now, like, it'll have, like, a silhouette work, kind of like in, uh, Republic Commando where this- these are the places you can go for defensive cover bonus, and that's how he fights. He always fights from cover to give himself an edge, and then if you ever do roll up on someone, he has, like, special excuse moves, like, when he rolled up on a stormtrooper, he, like, rolled up, crotch kicked him, and then the guy bent over, and he just shot him in the forehead. Oh, shit. So, even though it has, like, a kid-friendly appeal, like, it still has some of those badass Star Wars moments. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. That's what he said, like, I emphasized that. He's, like, bounding. Smugglers will always shoot first. Oh, that's what I'm doing. Here. And then, uh... I feel, like, such a huge or dark through making that reference. But, uh... I don't even care about that. So... We should! The, uh, the part they showed was, uh, they were also were trying to show how, you know, playing through that game, you'll have to make decisions story-wise that there will be no going back from, and, like, one was, like, the- it looked like it must have been an instance, which I'm still curious how that would work. Like, if you and your friends do an instance, that makes you do a decision. Does that mean you can never go through that instance again? Like, you know, and wow, you go through an instance several times. It seems to be what they're indicating. Right. This is that every character class has a specific narrative park that lasts the entirety of it. Right, it does, but they also made it pretty clear that, if that's the case, like, that mission I saw with the- it was very clearly a Sith and a bounding hunter, and they were both players playing together. So, I'm just saying that you will be able to tag along with your friends to help them out on things. So, like, maybe the instance are- Is it holy mind about- Are specific to a class and other classes can tag along, so the results would be specific to that class? Right, so, yeah, so the premise of it was you were on a- a Star Destroyer, or, like, an early version of the Star Destroyer, and the moth in the area sends out a thing, like, go and attack this Republic ship, and the moth just ignores the order, and so the moth calls you personally and is, like, go to the fucking deck of this thing and deal with that guy. So, you basically murder all the crew from where your room is up to the deck and you confront him, and he tells you the reason he didn't do it was that the ship has, like, 20 times the firepower, and it was a suicide mission, he didn't want to- he thought it was- he didn't want to risk his crew. No, it would matter then. And so, you have to make- you have to make the decision, like, are you okay? Are you gonna let the sky live and be understanding? Or are you gonna- are you gonna just kill him and- and then to show everyone else the price of disobeying orders? And if you let him live, then the Sith police come and give you a stern look and see the way he is. So, yeah, so- so we in the room had to vote. They made us who were in the demo vote. Okay. 'Cause there was, like, 10 of us in there, and we voted- we voted, I guess, to kill him. It was pretty close. I said we should let him live, 'cause I was curious. But, uh, yeah, so we killed him, and then the next person in command, it goes- and it's, like, you know, all this fully-voiced cutscene with different changing camera angles of this part where now we're explaining to the new captain, like, you know, we're, like, all right, now we're going to attack this ship, and so then we- we're traveling through hyperspace and we go, and it enters in, like, through the big old viewport. It's just, like, a Star Wars battle. All of a sudden you see the other ship and they're launching all these ships towards you. Oh, no way. And so, the whole time while you're running through the instance, you can just see through these windows, like, fuckin' Starfighter streaking behind stuff like that. Right. So, the game looks- looks pretty ridiculous. I mean, I know- I know plenty of people they went to that and skeptical about that and walked away being pretty- That was a theme going on through a few games of, like, making decisions and then having to stick with them. You know, um, heavy rain was like that and they said Mass Effect 2, you could, you know, like- like Arthur said earlier, you could die as Shepard and, you know, that's fine. I mean, of course they haven't really described what that means, like- Right, like, all this other game. Yeah. But I saw it seems like he's dead dead dead dead. Like, whether or not that means that you keep playing as somebody else? Right. I mean, they doesn't- they have addressed that and I'll be interested to see how they do. Um, so you mentioned, uh, Republic Commando and I have- I've heard, uh, Halo O.D.S.T. described as basically Republic Commando and the Halo Universe. I mean, maybe the- all the, you know, everything they showed, they didn't- you weren't working with the squad. Yeah, you weren't running around- You weren't issuing orders. There was no order issuing whatsoever. It was just- Although, yeah, all those- which to me seems like, to me, it personally feels like a missed opportunity. Because yeah, it is- that's what I thought- that's what I thought it was all about. It was like, you're not going to be as powerful as a Master Chief, so therefore you're working as a squad to get two things. I mean, you're- I'm thinking that- that there's got to be something in there. Well, here's- to me the thing- one of the things that's most exciting about Halo O.D.S.T. is the way that they're telling the story, is the fact that you're playing as the- as the rookie. And you're basically playing four hours after a whole bunch of shit went down, 'cause you were knocked out the whole time. And so anytime you come across some kind of, like, rubble or something from your squad, it flashbacks. Or you're guided to it by that. Yeah, right, and then you play that flashback, which I think is really- you play it as a different character. And this is like exactly what I'm talking about. Like, I don't feel like I need a central character that much in games. You know, I want to play as different characters. I want to see different sides of the story. I mean, it's hard for them to take an O.D.S.T. like a faceless human and make him an invested character. Yeah, I don't know. I will say this, I mean, like the- I'm- I will tell you right now that Anthony will buy the same the day it comes out, because, like, the main sergeant is voiced by and based on Nathan Filion, like, including his face. Yeah, he looks exactly like him. Yeah. I thought the same thing too. I didn't know that fact, but he- I thought I was like, "Wow, he looks just like from Firefly." Baldwin, isn't it? Baldwin did a lot of voices in the Halo 3 as well. I'm trying to remember- you can hear him all the time just saying. The guy that played in the background is in it as well. So, Halo- the single player doesn't look that cool to me at this point. I mean, it looks like more Halo, which is good. I'm just saying it was another one of those games that was like, "Ah, it's more of this." But the multiplayer is really cool, because it's called Fire Fight, which is basically board mode, but with Halo, and it adds a different skull to the enemies each round. So, one round might just be like, "Everybody is grenade happy." One round might be like, "Everyone has double health." And then, after, like, the fifth round, they always send, like, two- A group of brutes. And a brute chieftain, yeah, and if you get through that, then it gives you, like, extra life to your team, because you all have, like, a set of round lives. What I thought was weird is that there's totally health attacks in Halo, what it used to be. 'Cause you're human. Right, so the way it works is that you lose, like, your stamina, and once your stamina goes down, then your health can start ticking down. And you'll always, fully, you'll always recharge after that last little chunk. Like, you, you, it's either, if you don't die, it'll always, at least, go up to that last little chunk. It's like a combination of Halo 1, and the chronicles are pretty slash-resistant type health system. Yeah, and I guess it makes more sense. And what I noticed, you know, there are some things that are very different. Like, you jump off a, like, a, the second story, like, you would do all the time in Halo, and your guy instantly goes to, like, in trouble, if he jumps off the second story. So you got to actually, you, you cannot be, like, a crazy asshole. And also, like, when, I think they did a decent job, like, you mean, you can't de-wield any of the weapons the Master Chief de-wielded, like, ever. You can't even de-wield, like, sub-machine guns, or... Yeah, because sub-machine guns are... That's what I'm saying. I mean, that's what I'm saying, you just can't do it. As far as I could tell, there was no de-wielding whatsoever. Like, these guys could only ever wield one weapon, so... Yeah, like, it showed you... I mean, it showed you, like, your, your, all the enemies looked bigger, because you're so much shorter. Mm-hmm. And, like, the two new weapons are the, basically, the pistol from Halo 1, but suppressed, and the SMG suppressed, and it has a scope. Like, you can... These are a lot more accurate. Yeah, yeah, a lot more accurate, and it could zoom. So, and... And just in case anybody doesn't really know about the storyline, you know, I... To me, the campaign seemed like it had a lot of promise, because when you're playing as the rookie, and it's nighttime, the whole... Like, they have this open environment where you can kind of explore it as you want, and there are these, like, waypoints where you go to, and it shows you, like, a point of interest, and that would, like, trigger a scenario. And so, it was, like... These scenes when you're as the rookie, they have a different pace. It's that whole stealth sort of thing they were trying to do, where you're using, like, your night vision goggles to, like, to spot enemies, and then when you hit the flashbacks, and see the other squad members who are, like, who have voice actors, that's, like, seemed to me, like, the scale of, like, the Halo 3 battles. Like, that's where you're gonna see the big battles, like, from Halo 3. So, what's up with the fact that Bungie's doing another Halo game? I thought they were... Halo 3... I thought they were moving on, is what they told everyone. I didn't get that impression. I know if that's Bungie, if that's the Peter Jackson Halo project, or... No, I got the... Everyone I talked to seemed to think that that was a Bungie game. Like, it is Bungie doing the fall of the reach game. Yeah. Which is like, okay, I thought you guys were done, I thought you were moving on to something else. I don't know. I was... I mean, we know that it'll be a shooter, and probably a first-person shooter, but... Yeah, yeah, first-person is a... Well, it's probably gonna be about... It'll be about, if it's about reach, it's gonna be about... You're gonna play Spartans again. Yeah, and there's gonna be more than one Spartan around you, 'cause that's, like, where most of the Spartans were killed. So it may be a cooperative Spartan game, but it will be, like, Halo 3, but made from the ground up for co-op. Yeah. I thought that Halo 3 was basically made from the ground up for co-op. No, but I'm saying the story line wasn't made for co-op. You know what I mean? The way that... You dropped in with... You were all playing separate characters, but it wasn't like it was made to do that. You know, so this and the... This, I think, could literally be, like, maybe... It is, or maybe it is gonna be the Republic Commando, but now with the Team of Spartans, there's something, you know, I don't know. But... I mean, it could... It will be... I'm sure it will be good. Yeah, I mean... The other Halo games have been really good. I mean, there's not really much as far as gameplay or game design to relate into it, 'cause... You could tell, though, that, I mean, even that didn't elicit very much of a response. It was just kind of like... I was excited for it because I loved the book. It's just such a predictable thing. I mean, okay, so we're gonna do Halo Reach now. I mean, if Halo Wars had been the Apollo Reach, that would have been cool. Like, that would have made sense. But... But, uh... So, you know what else I thought was kind of weird? During the Sony press conference, that quick announcement of that Rockstar thing, and then just moving on. Yeah, I was actually gonna mention that. And... I think I asked somebody about it. Do you guys think that's what happened with LA Noir? Like, it turned into this... No. It's called Agent, and it's supposed to be like a '70s espionage game, right? No, I don't think so. I think that LA Noir was always positioned more as like a... a Bogart sort of thing or a Chinatown type of setting, whereas the Agent is more like... like a Cold War spy movie. And how do you even know that? All they showed to the Agent was the title came up. Well, no, they said that... Yeah, they said that it was supposed to take place, like the 1960s or '70s, and it was gonna be like... Like, the way the chain spawns... Yeah. Was that an interview that came up during E3 or something? That was the first time... That was the first I heard about it at the press conference. I thought they mentioned Sony during the press conference. I think they said that in the press conference, like, here's Agent, it's a 1960s. Um... But so, okay, so do you guys think that LA Noir is still coming? Not need time soon if it's being made by Rockstar. They're too busy with other things. Like, GTA 4 DLC and Red Dead. Yeah. So, I would not count on it. Well, they said that this Agent game is coming from Rockstar North. Is that like... Or, and I know that they're using all their houses now for all their games. Yeah, well, they're supposed to help out. Everyone helps. Yeah, like I said, if Red Dead's... They're shooting for Red Dead to be early next year and still working on that Ballad of Gaitonie. They bet you they have their hands full at this point. Yeah. Plus anything else that they haven't announced yet. I'm sure that they have at least pre-production going on something else. Yeah, either a bully, warrior, or something? Neither of those probably just more GTA. I wouldn't be surprised that there was more GTA DLC coming out and it was going to be on 360 and PS3. Um... Did either of you get a chance to play Assassin's Creed 2? No one got to play Assassin's Creed 2 unless you were a judge. It makes me so sad because it looks so good. Yeah. It looks like the Batman game I've always wanted. It looks like a lot more Assassin's Creed. I mean, that's just another one that looked more the same. Like, it didn't look like it wasn't like I saw something in it that was like... They're just doing everything so different. I mean, the glider, the glider by itself is a big change. I mean, that's a big, there was never anything like that to break up the gameplay in the original. I'm just saying, I mean, it's like, it's like, you know, it's like a sequel. They added a few things but it's still very much the same game. I mean, one of the major complaints of the last one is that it was drab and that it was sort of monochromatic and that's definitely not the case of this. Yeah. There was force rating in the first game as well. That was good. Yeah. I know, I said that, like, in the first one there was only force rating to break up, like... I think the thing about Assassin's Creed 2, what we don't know yet is some of the biggest complaints they really hadn't addressed. We haven't seen evidence of, like, the side missions. It's like, yeah, if it's like, pickpocket somebody, listen in on someone, you know? I think they said that they dropped all those though. I mean, they said that in the game informer cover story. Yeah, but we didn't see anything. So it can't. And again, as cool as the glider is, like, and I love Assassin's Creed, like, don't get me wrong. But, like, I felt like the way it was implemented kind of struck to that, like, old, kind of weird Assassin's Creed. Like, what, or why? Like, okay, so basically they're the way it glides. Are there these giant pits of fire throughout the streets? I guess that people just, you know, there's... You're right on heat vents. Yeah, and they're like heat vents, which is kind of like... You know, it reminds me of the haystack thing or something, like, just kind of like these things that are scattered all around. They just... Oh, so it happened to help me out so well. Not to mention, I don't even think that flying machine would actually work. Right, no. That's okay. Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty sure it doesn't. Yeah. That's what I'm saying again. I was one of those ones that was, like, tears. So... But yeah, I mean, I'm... I don't know. I guess that's the big thing is whether or not... If the missions are repetitive or not... But they did show in the teaser trailer that it seemed to imply you could swim, right? Yes, there's a guy diving into the water at the end, like... Unless it's just, like, goodbye world! Yeah. Fuck it, I'm not, I'm not going back to jail. Mm-hmm. You know what I think, though? It's like... I... At the end of the first Assassin's Creed, when they talk when, you know, they showed a map of the United States of, like, where all the assassins were, and there were, like, there was, like, a cross in, you know, Japan and some of the Asian countries. It's like... You wouldn't have thought it was cool if it was just completely different. Well, no. Like, how cool is it going to be if they ever make Assassin's Creed the Ninja game? Like, they basically would have the old... It's called "Tinchu." Yeah, no. They, I mean, they would nail it. How about if they made a good Ninja game? Yeah, that's the first "Tinchu" and the second "Tinchu" were good at the time. Yeah, but what they were. Yeah, I'm saying, I'm not saying they hold up now, but I'm saying at the time it was, like, badass. Yeah. Being able to do assassinate moves on people and stuff. Agreed. Putting out poison rice bowls and people eating it. Why would you eat that rice? Look at the color. Yeah. Um... Let's see, was there anything else? I mean, the bag was on the floor. I mean, we saw, we saw Left 4 Dead. You played Left 4 Dead. Yeah, I played Left 4 Dead. I played through, like, a couple parts of one movie. I already know which character. So, every movie now in this game, which I think there's going to be three or four, I think is going to be a surprise. Um, every movie will have its own intro trailer. Like, you know, when you played Left 4 Dead 1, it started with Edge. Ohh! But now there's one for each in every movie. And the big thing they added, of course, was melee weapons. Pistols still do have infinite ammo, which was one of those things I was wondering if they got rid of that. Okay. That's why they added melee weapons, but Pistols definitely still have infinite ammo. The melee weapons, they only, the only downside to having, hold on, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Lots of background modes. Um, the downside of having is that you can't use ranged weapons whatsoever. Yeah. So, whenever you use a ranged weapon, you basically throw the melee weapon away, so you have to go back for it if the shit gets thick. But the melee weapons are pretty devastating. I mean, they don't ever break, either. So, it's pretty good having at least someone in a good gore-covered fuckin' frying pan. It's pretty good having someone with it because if they can crouch in front of everyone, just like taking the legs off of some of these, they approach. Did you notice, uh, do you receive melee fatigue when you're using the melee weapons? Uh, no, no. I don't have to imagine it. You don't have melee fatigue, but, no, I don't think so, though, because you swing, like, something like the sledgehammer. You swing it so slow. So, you're only gonna swing it every couple of seconds anyways. But when it does hit, you can, with the sledgehammer too, you can, uh, or it was a sledgehammer fire exit, I remember, but you can, you can one-shot any, anything but the tank, including the witch. Like, when I was running around, when I was running around, we definitely one-shot of the witch when she came in. Oh, shit. And the witch now wanders, she doesn't just sit in one spot, so she'll just, she'll just, she'll just prowl. Apparently, and, uh, and the other big thing is that they showed it, at least in the thing we played, which was, uh, instead of, like, they got kind of tired of the fact that they had those, like, summon hit-the-button things and zombies come, and you just, you just find, like, the best spot to hole up. 'Cause now, in the one I did, it was, like, perceived through the door, and it didn't warn you at all that this was about to happen. Just, like, open the door, and it was, like, what? An alarm went off, and it's, like, get to the switch. So now, you and your team have to get to it to get the zombies to stop coming, and you had to run through, basically, this big, old, like, Disneyland-style giant line to get to the end. Which is kind of cool. Yeah, so you were fighting, obviously, so you had to just shoot and stay together and... Wait, I mean, it adds to the tension, which is one of the things they wanted to keep going in the original. Right. There was no just tolling up in the spot. The way cooler was that now you actually had to be on the move, and it, yeah. And I know what character I'm calling Dibzon. Who? The, uh, the coach? The coach! Ow! He seems so cool! Yeah, but he's voiced by the guy that plays Kettie under the wire. Oh, no way! Amazing. Fucking call of Dibzon coach. Go for it. So, yeah. I can teach those zombies to box. There was the, um... There's some new weapons, as well. Like, uh... I mean, are there more weapons? No, it's pretty much just like a different skin, like the one I saw was like... The new rifle is a scar, instead of a M16, and the new shotgun is a Spas 12. I'm kind of wondering if they're going to get into a little bit of a political commentary or social commentary in the game. Why, because it takes place in the south? Yeah, because it takes place in a Katrina, like, post-Katrina New Orleans. Hmm, I don't know. But he's goable black people. I got it. Yeah, no, and the white mechanic just looks like Jason Stackhouse, I'm sure blood, so someone else can be that guy. I thought he reminded me a lot of the scout and the team fortress, the way he looked. I don't know. Looks kind of like a messenger guy. Yeah, I mean, that looks good. Yeah. More left for dead with a few changes. The eye director, apparently, will dynamically change the weather on you. But, I think, if there's five levels, I know all but one of the levels takes place in the day, and only one takes place at night, supposedly. I think fog rolls in. And the one that takes place at night is supposed to be, like, a Louisiana swamp. So, while you're going through the swamp, it'll be at night. Oh, shit. There'll be zombie gators. Oh, fuck. Or even with normal gators, it'll be bad enough. Anything else? I don't know, I mean, we saw lots, but... Do we want to talk about any, like, the peripheral stuff we saw? You could tell everyone about evil controllers. Oh, god damn. We already said the name. Yeah. Dude. We talked about this in a voice of condemnation. Now, go out and buy one. Yeah. Fuck these guys. I saw this shit, and it got me so angry. These are Xbox 360 controllers that they sell. It's basically kind of like those old NES rapid-fire controllers. The advantage? Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like that. So, if you have that weapon in Call of Duty 4, is it the G4? That's that semi-automatic shots? The G3. The G3, sorry. Yeah. The G3, for example. And, you know, you can only shoot, like, pop, pop, pop, pop. Well, they showed it with the evil controllers on, and it shot like an automatic weapon. Or they showed, like, they had Halo 3 running, and the SMG, they showed, you know, before evil controllers, and it was the normal shoot, you know, the normal rate of fire. And then they turned on the controllers. It was just, like, ridiculous, you know. Just more shit to make you angry in there. Like, it's not detectable online, online at all. It's basically sanction cheating, or un-sanctioned cheating, but undetectable cheating. Mm-hmm. So. Until they put in algorithms that detect buttons faster than any human could ever do. Everyone's gonna take the time to do that. Like, I don't know. It's just shitty. I mean, obviously, they're not thinking too hard about that 'cause they read a fucking trade show showing it. So. Yeah, yeah. I overheard them saying, like, oh, well, no, nothing we're doing is illegal. Nothing we're doing is, like, breaching any of the clauses that Microsoft has set out on their controllers. Like, they were saying this is totally legitimate. And it probably is. Microsoft has also reserved the right to basically do whatever they want as far as the terms of lives. Which I hope that they fucking shut the doors down on it as good as bullshit. So, another thing I saw that was rad, just before we wrap up was the Monkey Island games. I mean, not only the fact that they're releasing the original to XBLA, but now. Telltale is doing epicistic Monkey Island games. And the first one comes out July 7th, so that's, like, a month away. And Telltale is the only company, basically, that has done episodic content, right? And the voice actors of the game are the same ones. Like, it's the guy that did the voice acting the original Monkey Island game. Wow. And they brought back the same girl that did it. So, I mean, if anyone's going to do it right, it's them. I guess, you know, we asked them if they'd ever do a crimpan dango, but they said only with Tim Shafer's blessing. So, like, I think Tim Shafer gave his blessing before they went ahead with this one, too. Yeah, and Kasey wrote on Monkey Island, I think. I think so. I guess that's it. I mean, anything we kind of missed and stuff, I'm sure we'll talk more about games we've played. Yeah, I mean, I'll play the battle filled bag company, too, which was one I was really excited to play. Why don't you talk about that? Well, the player is no later in the week. Okay, yeah, because I do have something I'd like to bring up. We can't give it all away on the first date. We need them to come back. All right, that ends our IHOP podcast. Thank you for listening. Subscribe to the podcast. I rarely move. Dig the podcast. And, uh... We don't need to do any of that shit. Subscribe to our Twitter's. Don't forget to tip your waitress. Bitches. 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