Almost Gamers
Join us in a casual conversation with friends about gaming. It's a humorous journey into what we are currently playing, sometimes poorly and not usually on trend. We also talk new and upcoming releases, gaming news, best of lists, and are never afraid to go off on crazy tangents.
Almost Gamers
Episode 24: Airships and Magic Sticks
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The party is back with a brand new look and a temporary save point. From there they set forth on...not very many quests. Luckily the Boss Battle is mighty. The duo try their best to sell you various vehicles from video games. Matt really gets into the technical labyrinth that is USB tech with a return to The Emporium. Some news is fun, some is sad, but it is almost accurate as always. The Future leads into many tangents as always, so be sure to stick around.
Tasty, tasty, tender morsels. Tasty tasty tender morsels. Okay, okay. Is that your thing?
SPEAKER_01Probably use all of this. Got some cheese. Got some crackers. And we got uh if we will if we want a fish, I guess we could we can't see the fish. We can fish. You can see the fish? Go fish. Go fish. When's the last time you played Gofish?
Intro
SPEAKER_03Hey! Hey, hey!
SPEAKER_01Start the episode. Alright, here I am now. Alright. Wow. Zero seconds in, we're already quoting Metallica. This is gonna be a good episode. So um for those of you uh who have a keen eye might notice that we are somewhere slightly different. Um we shot we shot other episodes here. I can't remember. No, it wasn't the first episode, but it was a pretty early episode. We definitely shot other episodes. Haley, the episode with your wife was uh shot here. But this is uh the wild's abode, yeah. It's um it's here.
SPEAKER_02It's not quite studio-esque. No, but it's it has a fish tank, so you can't see it. No, you can probably probably it'll be post-credits when we show you. We'll show you some fishy fish.
SPEAKER_01But uh other than that, we are also shooting on a brand new camera. Uh, previous episodes were shot on uh my phone, and we've upgraded to a uh Panasonic Lumix GH7, which I will probably talk about in some episode. But this is so let us know what you think, but I don't care because this camera looks fucking awesome, and we already bought it, so it's gonna be used. It's interesting.
SPEAKER_02You didn't go the classic Canon or Ah, Sony.
SPEAKER_01The Sony, there's a Sony range, it's like the H07. And honestly, I looked at this camera and decided I was gonna buy it, thinking that Lumix was the brand name. I didn't even know that that's just like this type, if you will. And then I didn't know it was a Panasonic, basically, until after I decided to buy it. Cool. But you're right, uh yeah, you're right. Uh yeah, uh Canon and uh Sony and uh Olympus are kind of more Nikon. Nikon. Yeah, Nikon's very known. Um but uh uh yeah, Panasonic. Lumix is well known. They make a lot of lenses and a lot of other stuff. Um, so this is like Panasonic Lumix. I I don't quite understand the relationship there, but uh yeah, you're right. Typical for me, I went without the uh the the standard. I decided to go my own way. Just like other audio stuff. We never picked up the Neumann microphones. We always went with uh Yeah, you went your own route. I went I went my own way to quote our old band. Wow. That was so uh yes, yes, yes, yes. Alright, so where are we going? Here we are. We are back with season two, episode 24. That's uh that's uh that's a case.
SPEAKER_02But what's the show that always did the 24 hours?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I think it was called 24.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there it is. Yeah, with uh Kiefer Samlin. Kiefer Samlin. We don't have him today.
SPEAKER_01Uh he's not here, but we don't we don't think it could be in that air event, yeah, somewhere. I've never seen that show. Never watched that. Never never okay. That's good. So I do want to talk about the podcast is uh going global at this time of filming this. Yeah, we are apparently have been heard in 35 countries, which is insane. And most of these have been recent. I don't understand what's going on. Hey, if you're from another country, explain to us why you're listening to this. Yeah, I mean we we appreciate you, it's just it's it's very weird. Actually, as of now, only 74% of our audience is in North America. Um, and we have no Canadian viewers, and maybe one or two Mexican. So we're talking, yeah, 73% um USA. Um, it's insane. It's insane.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I I mean well, we did set out to to conquer the world. Conquer the world, that's true. I mean, uh global dominance was always our goal, obviously.
SPEAKER_02We're like the mice from uh Yakimania or y'all. What was that show? Uh Animania! Yes, yes, so you know we're almost there.
SPEAKER_01So there you go. And we're we're we're 74% of the way there. Yeah, that's how that's how percentages work. Um yeah, so but uh thank you as always to everyone um for joining us, for joining us on uh that thingy Reddit.
SPEAKER_02I have um there's I'm glad you said Reddit. Oh, I got something. You have a Reddit. I had a whole skit planned up, but this this is not a skit type scenario. Um disappointing. It is disappointing. But right now, I want you, everybody who's listening, or watching. We've got to be all you know, obvious. We we haven't been but not if you're watching and not listening. Yeah. Then we don't you're confusing me. It doesn't take much right now. Uh so I wanted to say I'm starting a Reddit thread. Oh no way. And I want you to go out. It's available right now. We're recording this.
SPEAKER_01Did you did you sign up for Reddit?
SPEAKER_02No. How are you? This is why it was a whole thing. I didn't want to talk about it, but now we're getting into it. Okay. I'm future Andy. Future Andy. This is this is future. All right. You know it's future because of my hat's back. Right. That's that's science.
SPEAKER_01Right, right, right, right, right, right.
SPEAKER_02Alright, so right now, if you go to our Reddit, okay. What's our Reddit, Matt? Um, almost gamers. Yeah, just almost gamers. Almost gamers. Go there right now. Even though we're recording this in the past. Okay. Does it make sense? Yeah, because if you're listening, you're in the future. Yeah. So there'll be a I don't know what you call it, but thread subreddit. For yeah. So basically, I mentioned in the past that I was gonna interact with our Reddit page.
SPEAKER_01Ooh, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02And this is my interaction. And I said previous episode, now listen to the last episode, if you're confused, which I obviously you should be. Right. It makes sense. So I said there was a Steve that ate a handful of hot tamales. Yes, I do remember that. You remember that?
SPEAKER_01Yes, and we left it up to the audience to decide which Steve.
SPEAKER_02Which Steve. So, right now, go to our Reddit and decide which Steve you think ate the handful of tamales.
SPEAKER_01Right, right, and I feel like there's an advantage. Um, well, obviously people in our friend group who know both of them, but if you've been listening and get the uh the the the ideas of Steve, then you can figure it out. You could. You could. But you have to be a good, an astute.
SPEAKER_02And there's a chance Steve Miller might be the only person who does answer it. That's true. That's an advantage. Oddly enough, the other Steve is, I think, in town at this very moment. He could. Yes. And so since I'm future Andy, there's more at stake right now. Oh no. What? What so I already you already agreed to this, Matt. I did. I did? Yes, because I'm future Andy. Oh you already agreed to it. Okay. My hat, I don't have a hat, so I can't. You can't go reverse. Right, right. All right. So here's the thing. Uh-huh. You've agreed. If they get it right, you will eat a handful of hot tamales. Uh on camera. Ooh, on camera. Okay. Everybody's gonna watch you eat it. As long as it's not good in plenty, it's following hot tamales. That's fine. Alright. So you have to eat them. Okay. But more at stake. More at stake. What? The fall of civilization depends on this.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, that goes without saying.
SPEAKER_02You might think it happens within what's going on in the world, but it happens with this. With this Reddit thread and some hot tamales.
SPEAKER_01So, folks, do your do your part. And uh Does it make sense? Save civilization.
SPEAKER_02And uh I think that's okay. You think that's right?
SPEAKER_01I like it. It it sounds right. Alright. I'm going back. Okay. Oh, oh, hat is back to normal. So this is uh present time amazing.
SPEAKER_02Amazing. What happened?
SPEAKER_01Uh I'll have to wait and find out. Alright, I'm gonna watch. I'm gonna watch. Wait and see.
What Yinz Playin
SPEAKER_03What Yin's Playing!
SPEAKER_01Okay, welcome to What Yin's Playing, the segment that always uh, as of late at least, is making me look like a a terrible gamer. So it has been serious. Yeah, it is. It has been four weeks since we filmed. Um been a little bit longer. We try to do it every three. This has been four. Yeah, this is a month. Um since since we last we met. I have gamed once for a handful of hours. Really? And that was it.
SPEAKER_02This is the whole reason I wanted to do this episode was to talk to you about this.
SPEAKER_01I know. Earlier today, you were like, I think I have an idea what you were playing. Yeah, I think I have some idea. No, you're you're wrong, because I haven't. I barely. No, and in my defense, one, I bought a beautiful new camera and I've been learning how to use it, and I'm almost there. Uh yeah, I've been busy with the whole job. Um, yeah, man, I just I I haven't I just haven't had the time or I haven't really been into it. So I but I do have another game that I had played previous to this and never talked about. So basically I have two. I have two. Do you I'll start then with my one and only game that I oh and I I marked it and I can't find it. Oh man. See, this is paper. Paper is just uh there it is. Okay, so the only thing I actually played was the Outer Wilds 2. Really? Outer Worlds 2. Shit. Outer Outer Wilds 2 does not exist. Yeah, I was gonna say The Outer Worlds 2, okay, uh, which I was always worried about trying to go back to post um Vallet New Vegas. So I'm like, let's do it, let's do it. Um first thing hit me is I forgot how good that game looks. Like it is a modern game, the lighting, everything. You know, I I I'm playing it on uh GForce now, and it looks fantastic. I had a lot of fun, and another thing that I'd kind of forgotten is how good the writing is. So, this is an obsidian game, oh yeah, and how good they are at like creating characters and creating story arcs and believable real-world characters. Like they're very good at the the gray area. Like, there was this character who the whole quest was a side quest for one of my other characters. I don't want to give any names to spoil anything, but the whole time, like, I wanted to kill this guy. He was like an evil scientist, you know. But long dial, I did find him, long dialogue, and by the end, like he convinced me that he shouldn't die. Like, what he did is kind of justified, and I in turn convinced my companion as such, too. Got it, and I'm like, eh, that's that's crazy. Like, cause uh it doesn't take much for me to go the evil route in video games, like, you know, shoot them all if they if they uh deserve it, but um yeah, it's so that was that was cool. That felt very good, and I had a lot of fun going back into it. Um I think I might never go back again. Where we go. So again, obviously my time is limited right now, and I'm at that point in the game where I don't have a whole lot more I can uh upgrade to. I'm never gonna max out any of the skill trees just because the way I did. I'm never gonna hit like that that uh end cap or the uh you know the the peak of any skill. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do that just because of the way I'm playing. And I'm just like I have another plan I've never been to, plus a whole other thing, and that will just finish up like chapter three or act three, if you will. There's still another act after that. Oh yeah. And I'm not I'm into the side quests, are great. The main story, it's nice, but I'm not invested in it. I'm dying to find out what happens. Gotcha. So, capstone, that's what we're looking for. Capstone. And the tree is always like badass. Because of the way I'm playing, I'm never gonna reach that for any of my skills sets. So I don't have that to look forward to. I'm enjoying the guns, but I'm not gonna find any newer guns from looking at. Like the what I have is what I'm gonna have for the rest of the game. And I'm just like having my fun. I totally enjoyed it. If I had more free time in my life, I would go back, but I don't. So I think I'm officially gonna say it. Let's uh lift one out to Outer World Outer Worlds two. Yeah, great game, should absolutely play it. I didn't finish it. That's why we're all those gamers. And I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. Good, man. Oh, I like that. Sometimes you gotta let a game go. I mean, I could finish it, and then you're done. No. Because I have a lot more to play, obviously. Right, right, right. There's a lot out there right now. There is, yeah, that's how I think new games are coming out. Like my I already have a backlot of games that have been out, and now I'm starting to have a backlot of games that just came out, and then there's gonna be a backlot of games that are about to come out. I ain't got time for Outer Worlds 2. I ain't got time for that. All right. Ooh, that was a timely uh reference. We are so spot on for pop culture. Yeah, that's why the young'uns love us. Alright, Andrew. Uh so what you've you've you've been probably a better gamer than me. What did you do? Wait, no. First, what did you think I played?
SPEAKER_02Well, what I was hoping for, probably should move this a little closer. Um, I was kind of hoping for a Matt. A Matt, true Matt. Uh, what am I looking for? Review of uh Crimson Dencer.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. I really, really wanted to play it. Really, really wanted to get into it, but yeah, I'm like, I I have to get rid of some of my backlog because that's that's gonna be a whole thing.
SPEAKER_02Overall, it seems like it's one of the best open world scenario games. Apparently, the actual storyline isn't great, but right, it sounds like it's one of the best open world games in a long time. Yeah, it does. And if people are comparing it to Skyrim, which is great. And I'm just curious what your thoughts would be because you're a real person, and I want I I trust your opinion.
SPEAKER_01I'm curious too, and I would love to know my own opinion of the game. Okay, but it is one of the games where I need to give it, I'd say, 20 to 30 hours before I even talk about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so you mentioned last episode you were gonna play it, so that's why I was waiting.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna play it with no time constraints, like it might be 17 years from now. Um fans are waiting.
SPEAKER_02So I've been playing Hades 2. Oh, I thought you were done with that. Me too.
SPEAKER_00All right, good.
SPEAKER_02And then um you inspired me because of the let's play video? Yes, and I will admit I took some of your little hints or you know, like you were you played a different style, so I was like, I'm gonna approach Matt with like Matt's style. Okay. So like I took Selena, her uh the moon.
SPEAKER_01Oh, the moon root, yeah. I always did the moon root.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you were always hardcore about the moon. So I was like, I'm gonna really go for the like the moon build, we'll say. And I actually had a lot of success with that. Okay. So you helped me. Cool, cool.
SPEAKER_01So everybody always picked the third phase? Yes, yes, that's huge. And then you taught me the weapon that like thirsty just uh it's not that that you don't at the end of the game, you don't need the extra uh item bonus, but it makes it forces you to pick a weapon you wouldn't normally. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I did a little bit of you, and then I I crushed that game. Like I really played it. Well, I also turned off a lot of the night. What are those things where it makes it extra difficult?
SPEAKER_01That's the other thing. So I stopped turning I turned those off too, because I'm like, I'm beating my head against the wall. Yeah, that's what happened to me.
SPEAKER_02That's why I quit. Yes, I I was like, oh, I'm done. Yeah, but then I realized like I they're optional.
SPEAKER_01They're optional. You get more uh you end up getting uh upgrades to upgrade your weapon, but if you're not using the weapon, yeah, it was it was in the end.
SPEAKER_02I was like, I just want to beat the game. Yes, there you go. So I truly beat the game. You did? Yes, did you? No, no, I haven't yet. Uh kind of haven't played it. Spoilers alert, I just thought you'd like this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I've I kind of finally quit the game because I was like, one thing I have a problem with was the RNG. Is that what they call it? Where like the rate of getting certain people, like I couldn't always get the same people uh complete that bonds.
SPEAKER_01RNG RNG is a random number generator. Is that what that means? Yes, it means, but it's basically it basically describes the randomness, anything that has a randomness, yeah. It's very random. Yeah, think about die roll. It's a die roll, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02So uh like certain characters I could not complete the bonding. Yes. And I got frustrated with it, and so I said, I'm done. Oh. But I completed a lot of relationships.
SPEAKER_01Do you know they there's there was an update just recently and they they kind of fixed that? Oh, really? Yeah, that was one of the things they did. Yeah. Well, that's good to know. Because it just came out on like PS5 and and other consoles. Uh um, or maybe that was the only one that wasn't on it. Anyway, so yeah, that was on the update. But yeah, you're right. I know that was it was frustrating, like, oh, you gotta play 10 times stuff.
SPEAKER_02Like Selena was one of them, and I finally got to the point where I could progress, but then I messed it up and I forgot to give her a gift, and then I was like kind of frustrated with myself. Oh, yeah, and then I was like, I don't want to redo a run just to talk to Selena again. But anyway, I think it's Serene. Is this Serene? Oh, am I pronouncing it wrong?
SPEAKER_01Uh you know what? We don't know, and that's okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But anyway, she's the moon goddess. She's the moon.
SPEAKER_01She is the moon, I think, more than yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh, but spoilers, I don't want to ruin this for everybody, but Matt, for you too, a little bit. But I ended up hooking up with Eris. Oh, yeah, I did that way ages ago, man. You hooked up with her? Fuck yeah. Oh, okay. That was pretty sweet. Yeah, man. And then Nemesis, you can hook up with.
SPEAKER_01I figured, I figured Nemesis, but she seems a little harder to get. Yeah, yeah. I was shocked. Yeah. Eris was the yeah, very first thing of romance. All my things went right to Eris, man. Really? Hell yeah. She's like kind of slightly gothy, bitchy, short-haired girl.
SPEAKER_02I was going. Oh man! Well, I was going to uh uh Odysseus, because Odysseus is my buddy. Yeah, he's can you romance him? No, I didn't think, yeah. Um, but his his, you know, like you have to eventually get to that point, like yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well they don't have a story arc if you had romance or friendship, you have to get to see that. And his is like the last of the last.
SPEAKER_02So you have to do a lot, and that's where I I eventually said I finally got to his last point. I finally got to the whatever they call it, the bonding forge or whatever. And I and then I was like, I'm done with all these relationship.
SPEAKER_01Well, there's more now, added Will.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, I figured I didn't finish them all. I just he was the last one. I didn't even get um Heracles. That was another one that's kind of like based on how when you run into him. Oh, okay. And apparently that's pretty tough. I got close. I I most of them are one away from completing it, but I just I was done. Yeah, you gotta not not. But I I finally finished it. And it was based on your videos. I I went back. I'm glad. I'm glad.
SPEAKER_01And so I recommend Mass Videos. Did you like my editing where I did the uh after I beat um our girl um The Siren? Okay. Remember, I I uh Oh, you mentioned me. Yeah, I mentioned you, and then after I beat her, I did like a little video editing thing where I did the bass dance of the bass dance. Yes, yeah. I loved it. And I I clipped in because that song is so good. It was good. Yeah, I clipped, so I clipped back in that song. I was proud of that editing. That was a very good editing. Yeah, thank you. Good job. I appreciate that. But yeah, I'm glad you went back to it. I I definitely I definitely will.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I got to the end and good yeah. And uh it's worth it. It's fine. I'll do it. Good game. I will do it. So that was one the biggest game I finished on my list.
SPEAKER_01So I got uh I got I actually have another one. Again, this is a game I played um technically a while ago. Right. Um just haven't talked about on this podcast. Keep meaning to, but this is a good time too, because I haven't gothing else when I was playing. So the game is called Ready or Not. Never heard of it. Yes, me either, at the time. So just on that alone, what kind of game do you think that might be? Ready or not? Well, it sounds like sleep. No, not sleep, tag a tag or some sort of tag, yeah. Yeah, I think that's everyone's opinion on it. Nope, it is a highly realistic SWAT simulator. Holy cow. Um, as I learned, it is actually it's kind of the spiritual successor to a 2005 game, SWAT 4, which is available only on PC, which is apparently highly beloved and still played to this day. Knew nothing about it. Um this was this was a frizzy game. This was one that yes, he you know he loved he loves the multiplayer games that I've never heard of. Like I played Predator Badlands, not Predator Badlands, uh a recent predator game with him. That was a fantastic movie. Um, we should talk about that, but no, not right now. This is an entire place, Andy. Okay. Um, but it I played through the tutorial. I fucking hated it. But it's because one, I think the tutorial is very glitchy, and two, you're playing with AI companions in this game, you can't. It reminded me a little bit of siphon filter, where there was a thing where you have to break through the door, and I had to hold like seven buttons simultaneously. You know, you yeah, you remember that. I'm like, no, no, no. But when you play with actual people, this is released on 2021. I can't believe it's that old on PS5, Xbox, XNS, and Windows. I've been playing it on uh Epic, and that's a whole thing. Trying to get it on, yeah, because you have to have an Epic account to be able to play it online and then do multi-platform, like he's on PS5. Anyways, but we got it to play. Um it ended up being pretty fucking awesome. It's it's very realistic, like you get shot once or twice, you're dead. But it is a lot, it's a SWAT SWAT simulator, like you're you're sent into either a hostage situation or like the criminals who just robbed a bank and killed everyone, you go in and subdue them. But it's very focused on not just killing. You you can fail a situation the situation if you just kill everybody. Um so you gotta go in, check the doors, check your corners, you know, go in and like with a lot of flashbangs. There's been there was so many times where I'm like, it looks clear, and I kind of slack off, and Scott, Pen Scott, is like subdue. Yeah, I told you found it. I told you found it. Yeah. Um, and he's like subduing, like zip tying him, and I'm like, Yeah, he's fine, and I'm not quite paying attention. And his buddy comes in and kills us both. You know, he was waiting for us to be distracted. It's a lot of that. There's one point we always talk about where like we thought we were guy, we thought we were cool, and like a bad guy, like was in an air vent, like on the floor, and he's like crawling out wearing a ghillie suit and just kept shooting us, right? Um, so it's kind of like like a hyper-realistic. Like, I felt like oh, this is what it's kind of like because you don't want to shoot people, you absolutely get deduced points for killing civilians, but civilians act like normal civilians would, like some of them were scared to death, so they just run at you, uh, you know, screaming and like, oh, it's a bad guy. No, so you gotta like hold off on the trigger, like you have to not shoot, is kind of the point. I I and oddly really enjoyed it. You have very realistic guns. Like, I'm not a gun guy, but that whole crew is, and like I guess they're all very realistically like um simulated, like the recoil and the type of gun and whatnot. And it also reminds me of Siphon Phil. That was kind of the siphon filters, very like that. So I'm like, it is a fun game, but you have to play it with friends. Um, and you sometimes need a full squad. There was a part where it was um very difficult. It was just me and him playing, and like we couldn't cover all the angles. We don't get sniped by a dude on a fire escape. Right. So, like, you have to play it with four people. It's so it's neat. Uh, ready or not, not a game of thought I would like, but uh play it with some friends, and uh you might enjoy it.
Boss Battle: Video Game Vehicles
SPEAKER_01Okay. Welcome to the boss battle. I should say welcome to the almost gamers used car, sorry, used vehicle, emporium. Oh, yeah, we're in the uh emporium. So this boss battle was uh kind of unique. We're gonna talk about video game vehicles. Yeah. Now, okay, my stipulation that I threw out to you was it has to be vehicles in a non-driving game. Basically, I didn't want it to be your favorite car in Grand Theft Auto or in like actually, no, that'd be fine because it's not really just a driving game. I meant more like uh F Zero or Mario Kart. That feels better. Okay. Uh, but I don't worry, so don't even worry about if it was a GTA, because I I ended up picking one that was Yeah. So it's it's no it wasn't GTA, but it was very much I wanted to be where your main character or your main purpose was to be in a vehicle. Got it. Even though I picked one that was. Um, so so think airships, think cars, or yeah, you know, in uh in like borderlands or something like that. That was kind of the idea. Okay, got it. But the the the the twist on it I wanted to be is we're going to present to each other as if we were trying to sell the other person that vehicle. Gotcha. So, you know, amp up the good qualities, kind of downplay the bad qualities, just get us to buy, buy, buy. Um, ideally, I would like to play this episode in front of a live studio audience and have them bid on the cars and see who makes the most money. Gotcha. Kind of a la jackbox uh one of their uh, you know, their uh lives. But today we're just gonna focus on the sales pitch. Okay. Alright. So, who wants to go first? Yeah, I think of me. I think of me. It's your game. Okay, here we go, folks.
SPEAKER_00I'm interested. Andrew, today I would love to get you behind it.
SPEAKER_01The not steering wheel so much as uh we'll say rudder wheel of the Final Fantasy VII High Wind. So, not only is this an airship, this is the airship developed by the Shinra Electric Power Company. Ignore how evil they are, but they know how to build shit. Let me tell you. And this can get you around anywhere on the planet, except for some reason, those places that for some reason only Chocobos can go to. We're not gonna talk about that. You can go anywhere on that planet once this vehicle is in your hands. Not only that, it is piloted by the captain, none other than Sid Highwind. Yes, the master of the Lance himself will fly you around the world as long as the world's still alive, unless Shinra destroys it by sucking all the makeup and drain out of it. But other than that, you are free to roam, fly, and land almost anywhere. Gotcha. So can I get you the keys or not? Not me. We don't have to answer. You don't have to answer. Okay, no. Again, this is this is for the lives through the audience. Maybe maybe later. Alright.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that was my that was my first sales pitch. So, Matt. All right, let's get into. We're talking about a party wagon. Party wagon. Okay. You gonna like pizza? Oh, I love pizza. Everybody loves pizza. Do you like turtles that like pizza? Oh my god, you know I do. Especially when they were color-coordinated. Absolutely. Everybody likes a color-coordinated turtle. So here's what we're talking about. We're talking about a van. A van? Not a van down by the river. A van that is up from the river, right? Maybe down by the sewer. Yeah, near a sewer. Okay.
SPEAKER_01It's got missiles. If you need missiles, that's right. For some reason, missiles. Missiles? Maybe six of them?
SPEAKER_02Six of them? Doesn't matter. You got all the missiles you need. Alright. So what are you thinking? I don't know. Are you in for some missile launching party? Pizza party, man? Pizza?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I think I am. Alright. Andrew. Yes. Have you ever lived somewhere, say, in a large community slash small city, and thought, wouldn't it be cool if when I want to go somewhere else to another large city slash small community, all I had to do was drive the entire city there. Okay, yeah. Well, you were in luck. Okay. Uh sticking with the Final Fantasy theme, this is Final Fantasy and the Bow Lam Garden. Okay. It's a slitty, it's a city slash hovercraft.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01And if you've ever wanted all the convenience of driving a large city and none of the convenience of anything fast or maneuverable or has any sort of range, you're in luck. Because I've been looking for you. That's right. If you've ever, you know, just thought, yeah, I don't want to actually get on a vehicle. I just want to move where I'm at to somewhere else. Awesome. Yes. I mean, there might be some caveats, like, you know, typically you just in a video game walk up to a button, hit an X to get into it. But no, lucky you. You have to enter the said city, walk down the street, hit enter, walk into the building, go up three flights of stairs, take an elevator up into the control room, talk to Nida, and then on the bridge, she can say, Cool, now you can control the city. Wow. Well, that's obviously after going through a large side quest, but we're not gonna get into that. But now you can very slowly, after literally two in-game minutes, go somewhere else. Slowly. There it is. So I've been looking for that. Should I oh oh wait, I haven't the best part is you can do all this by controlling everybody's everywhere, no offer debate, favorite Final Fantasy protagonist squall. So that was uh Balam Garden from Final Fantasy VIII.
SPEAKER_02Uh all right, we'll go to our spaceship line. Okay over here. Do you ever want to try to clean space? Literally. Uh no, I I maybe. I don't know. I'm so excited by the possibility. You can get a spaceship that looks exactly exactly like a vacuum.
SPEAKER_01Um I okay. You could suck space. I'm I'm into sucking. I have no idea. I'm I'm space quest. Space quest, obviously. Yes. Are you a space quest fan? I I I'm not.
SPEAKER_00What? I you know I'm not.
SPEAKER_01I've watched I've heard you talk about it. You're I know you're a space banner.
SPEAKER_02What's not George? Roger. Roger. Roger Wilcom. Wilco. Okay. I know it's one of the spaceships was uh shaped. Yeah, in space quest 5, he got his first spaceship.
SPEAKER_01So, Andrew. Yes. Have you ever speaking of space? Oh you know, space can be dangerous. It is very dangerous. You land on unknown planets. I love that. And sometimes there might be some uh aliens. Um sorry. Do you shoot them? Sorry, there might be some aggressive enemy combatants that maybe are uh unfriendly to you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And you need to need to take care of. Right. Okay. Boy, do I have the vehicle for you? Okay. It is the Mako from Mass Effect. I knew you were gonna pick this one. Yes. Everybody's fantastically favorite um vehicle. Yes. Uh, do you want control and speed? No, that's not from you, but it has six wheels. That's really cool. Really, really cool. Um, I mean, it just looks cool. Paint job, fantastic. Chance to just kind of flip over and act weirdly. Yeah, yeah, well, pretty good. But hey, hey, hey, hey, it has a cannon on it, like a tank that can absolutely kill anything in front of you unless it is slightly below you. That's true. Because it only goes up and side to side. Um, and you know, there might be the chance where you're like kind of on a hill facing up, and then you're totally fucked. But when can that happen? Never. Only when you're ever going uphill on an alien planet which has craters all the fucking time, but don't worry about that. Um, but again, have I told you that it has six wheels? Oh, sounds like a lovely I mean, but it's it's it's better than being in the uh elevator loading scene. That's that's that's also a plus. Oh god damn.
SPEAKER_02Alright. Well, you sold me. Alright. Do you ever want to go back in time? I mean, yes. Do you ever want to go in the future a little bit? No, not really. Fuck the future, right? I see future handy.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if I trust what's going on there.
SPEAKER_02We can go back and forth. But you can't lose with the old epoch.
unknownEpoch?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, epoch. Time travel. Crown of the trigger. Oh, oh, yeah. I picture it now. Okay. Once you got the wings, you can go where the fuck you want. Yeah, it became a timeship slash airship. Oh my!
SPEAKER_01There you go, Matt. That's it. That's all that's all we needed. It sells itself.
SPEAKER_02Except we need to got some hot babes. Where do they sit? It's Friday, right? Friday. No, nobody knows that.
SPEAKER_01Wow, a good reference. Um, so but yeah, I mean, other than the fact that you could catastrophically end the entire world. Yeah. Go ahead, man. Okay, so this is my uh I'm gonna be my little bit of uh a flubber one. But flubber.
SPEAKER_02Did you say flubber?
SPEAKER_01We're gonna talk about Andrew. One word for you. Okay. Triangles. I love a good triangle. Yes. How about a bunch of triangles loosely formed in the shape of an ultimate space fighting plane? I am talking about the R-wing from the original Star Fox. Oh, you got me there. Oh, really? I never played Star Fox. Oh, oh, well, anyway. Sorry. So let me sell you on it, anyways. Please. First of all, low polygon means easy to clean. If it ain't shiny, you can make it shine very easily. Um, bonus is consistent chatter from frogs slash rabbits constantly rallying into your ear, telling you, oh, you need to do this, you need to kill this, you need to fix that. Which is just amazing. That's what you want when you're trying to fly a very complex, uh, um, highly sophisticated uh spacecraft. Also, it shoots laser beams very slowly. They're also triangles, and you can kind of you know watch them slowly move from your craft. But hey, maneuverability, um, you know, uh, and that's that that's about it. You you can go into space. I tell you, we can go into space. Yes, and and you can also um um hit left uh bumper, I believe, to uh do a barrel roll, but you're probably still gonna hit that building. But um it looks cool for the time. There you go. Rwing.
SPEAKER_02Sell me something better, Mr. Anderton. Okay, here's what I'm gonna I'm gonna offer you. We're getting out of the spaceship realm.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we got a lot of spaceship.
SPEAKER_02Here's what we're gonna say. Did you ever want to make the army mad at you?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, I guess, sure.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Everybody wanted to piss off the police, the army. The best way. Uh maybe get a five-star rating. Get a five-star rating. The best way you can do that is get this vehicle, which is known as the rhino. Oh, the rhythm. The rhino. Absolutely the best way to piss off everybody, including the police, the army, and whoever else you want to piss off.
SPEAKER_01What do you think? Are you in? I'm in. So that specifically, which which uh GTA is that from? Three. Three. GTA three, the rhino for sale right now. If you are wanting it.
SPEAKER_02If you want, if you want to cause destruction, you come here. Alright. I uh I only got one more. Alright, go for it, man.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So Halo is a big known game for its vehicles. Really? Everybody loves the warthog or puma. It's a puma, if you know what I'm talking about. Shout out to RVB. Anyways, uh, fuck the warthog. I am talking about the covenant ship, the one, the only, the banshee. Okay. It's sleek, it's purple, and it can motherfucking fly. That's right. All you guys are down there. It's a first person shooter. Officer, you're supposed to shoot with guns and shit. Nope. I'm flying over you and shooting down you. Peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, pew.
SPEAKER_00And I'm crushing shit. I'm crushing it. You are crushing it.
SPEAKER_01Not only that, but you can cheat, I mean, smartly fly it into spaces you're not supposed to. Oh. And just crush entire sections of the game in your little flying vehicle. Right. And just pew, pew, pew this shit out of motherfuckers. Gotcha. But the best part is when you get into it, it's not like a motorcycle or typical flying spaceship. No, you mount it like you're fucking it. I'm talking front face first, prone position, dick down, or you know, vag in, if you want. And that that's how you control it. I mean, you might control it with one of those. I'd probably have to. And this is alien technology. Don't disrespect their. Ways that is how it is. So I'm just saying best vehicle ever. Um, they're on sale now for three for $14.95.
SPEAKER_02All right, top that my last one. Alright. Because this I had a couple more, but this is it. Because this segment is gone too long. Did you ever read a book? Did you ever read a book? Yes, I've been known to have done. Good job, everybody. But did you ever read a book that sent you to another world? No, I think I know where this is going. I'm very excited. So I have a book that will send you to another world.
SPEAKER_01This is a nice take on the vehicles. I'm enjoying this. Alright.
SPEAKER_02So, did you ever want to go to a random ass place that doesn't make sense and there's a lot of goddamn puzzles?
SPEAKER_03Why?
SPEAKER_02Because I got a book. Okay. And it's just for you. Is it a linking book? Yeah. So my book is awfully expensive, but it will send you to wherever you want immediately. Immediately. But I can get back, right? You could.
SPEAKER_01If you solve all the very simple, non-obtuse puzzles, right? Yeah. Very easy. Alright. Now, what if, I don't know, I had children and they stole and hid some of these books. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Now they're getting complicated.
SPEAKER_01That wouldn't be a problem, though, right? Okay. Alright, alright. It's very safe. That's right, very safe. Can always get back. Yes. No problems. No issues. The observatory is very cool. It's simple. Easy to solve. Now, what if I have trouble counting?
SPEAKER_02Well. That's where you you go to uh, you know, you go to um IGN. Well, I think maybe game fax would be more appropriate.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're going back there. What if the format is off, then you can't, you know, the old ASCII code is gonna be. We've lost a lot of audience here, and you know what? I don't care. It's fine. So buy a book.
SPEAKER_02Buy a book.
SPEAKER_01Be smart. Be smart. And uh yeah, I don't know. That's that's that's all there is, too. That's a book is a vehicle. It is a vehicle, very mystifying. There you go, man. Good job. Have five. I think that is a great end to this boss battle.
Matthew's Equipment Emporium
SPEAKER_00I want to thank you for coming into my embodiment again. I love it.
SPEAKER_01So today, we're gonna talk about something that's that sometimes we do, something that's kind of gaming adjacent, but it's something that every gamer has definitely come across all the time. Yes. And that is USB. Nice. Or Universal Serial Bus. I never knew that. Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm gonna part a lot of knowledge on you.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Uh USBs are basically a plug that we all know of. Plug it in, plug it in. I like it. If you don't know that reference, uh look it up. Uh, Justin, if you're listening, I know you probably are. Ask your mother. She definitely knows.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_01All right. So USB was implemented by the USB IF or Implementers Forum. They're basically the governing body in charge of the USB in 1996. And this replaced uh for uh Andrew and maybe some of our elder people listening. Remember, there used to be like a whole host of computer peripheral plugs. There's a big ass parallel part, yeah. Parallel port, which is the db25 that Pro Audio still uses today. Remember?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01They used to be the printers used to use those.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, there was the serial port, which was just a kind of smaller version of that. Um, there was a game port, which I kind of remember having some controllers back in the day that used that. I think I remember playing Virtual Fighter like two on a PC with a controller that used that, and it just didn't work. And then there was the PS2, not PlayStation. This stood for the IBM Personal System 2, which came out in 1987. Anyways, remember the mice used to have their own little plug? Do you remember that? It used to be like circular plug-in. Anyways, the whole point is like all the computer peripherals used to have a bunch, like everyone had their own little plug, and it was just like a big mess. Yeah. So these guys come and said, like, hey, we're come out with a universal um plug that everybody uses, but you have to pay a licensing fee to use it, which is always kind of the start of kind of some of qualms and problems. Remember, MP3 was always like that. Technically, people don't know MP3 is you have to pay to use like MP3. That's a whole thing. Uh, but that also then created a governing body and the standards, so everyone had to follow these standards and practices, right? And you know, to release a product, you have to pay a licensing fee, but then it made it all standardized.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01At least for a little while. Um shit got ugly recent years, but okay. So here's the thing that always confuses some people and even me. USB plugs are all about or say the USB standard of you. The USB standard is all about three-ish things. Okay, it's the physical plug itself and the cable, the speed at which it transmits data or data, whatever you want to do, and power. Power is the most confusing. We'll only touch on it a little bit. All the other ones, I'm I'm trying, I'm gonna try not to get too technical here, but you kind of have to. So if this is gonna be a tech, this is all about tech, y'all folks. So if you're right into that, skip this whole segment. But I'm gonna get into the weeds, I'm gonna try not too much, but you kind of have to, because this is one of those things where I I'm I'm a tech nerd, man.
SPEAKER_02You are a tech nerd.
SPEAKER_01And even today, this is what prompted it. Today I'm like, because I had that that uh hard drive and that um that SD card reader, it's actually CF Express reader, and I'm like, oh but I I don't know a USB 3.2 versus USB 4, like what's the difference? And I went down a fucking rabbit hole, and I realized he went down that hole for you. I I that that rabbit hole, oh, I'm still in it. Um, parts of me are still in it. I won't tell you what parts, but they're still there. Anyways, so one neat thing to know is a USB is for all its faults and problems, yeah, universal, obviously, and backward compatible. Gotcha. Meaning you can plug in a USB um the fastest USB device, USB 4, and plug in your USB one port, it will still work. It just will function on the lowest link in the chain, meaning USB 1.
SPEAKER_02Gotcha.
SPEAKER_01So you don't necessarily have to worry about any of this, but if you are concerned with speed, this is where shit gets weird. So, and uh that will uh put all these little pictures. I mean, another one with a lot of pictures. So, US. So now we're talking about the physical, the physical forms of the plot.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Type A is kind of what we think about. That's the kind of rectangular one that you always plug in upside down, have to turn it around and try to find the other way. Oh wait, no, that was wrong. I used to push hard enough on the first way. Yeah, it's your typical type A. That's uh fucking worse. Type B is the more square one. If you remember to those, a lot of MIDI controllers to this day still use type B.
SPEAKER_02Type B.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and both A and B, I didn't know what this is about B, come in standard, mini, and micro. Okay. Now, laws have gone away, but do you remember to the whole mini and micro kind of USB? Oh, absolutely. Like, and they weren't like the micro wasn't much smaller than the mini, yeah, but it was confusing because the mini, especially, like it was hard to decide which way was up, which way was down, and it was like a pain in the ass. Oh, yeah. But none of this had to do with the speed or anything, it was just literally the physical component of the whole thing. Yeah. Um but I mean, it's just that's just kind of the way it was. Uh and then now we're talking about the for the physical thing, there's a type C. Right. Which is A, good because up and down don't matter anymore. But technically, a type C is not exclusive to USB. It other formats use it, which causes some confusion, also by me. So, and I'm sure many, many, many other people. So I will get into that in just a minute. So, we're talking about the physicality USB for the most part, A, B, or C. Got it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, got it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, all right, cool. Now let's talk about the speed, which is you know, kind of not necessarily very important, but whatever. All right, USB 1, which we already talked about, was introduced in 1996, and its speed was a whopping 1.5 and later increased to 12 megabits per second. And hold on, I just really need to back up a bit because this has always confused me, I'm sure millions of other people. You will see megabits and gigabits and megabytes and gigabytes speed all the time. Yeah, so remember a bit, sorry, a byte is eight bits. So a megabit is always gonna be kind of lower than a megabyte per second. And and and companies do this on purpose. When you're talking, when you're paying your Comcast bill, they wanted it to seem faster. So they talk in gigabits per second. But we don't no one thinks in gigabits, we think in gigabytes. So divide by eight to get the true speed, but all these speeds are gonna be in gigabits per second. It's insane. Again, none of this is cool. So in 2002, they introduced USB 2.0, okay, which was a whopping 480 megabits per second, which by the way, if if we had to do with that right now, you would probably kill yourself trying to transfer some things. Yeah. Um so in 2013, which is no, sorry, 2008, 2008, they introduced USB 3.0, which was a huge leap, granted, to five gigabits per second. So that was like, you know, major, major. Then in 2013, they came out with uh USB 3.1, which was 10 gigabits per second. Oh but around that time they were already developing USB 3.2, which was gonna be 20 gigabits per second. So, as I already said, there was this standardizing um conglomerate called the USB IF, was like, wait a minute, we're changing too fast now. This is getting too confusing. We need to update our standards, right? Which is cool because the whole, you know, everybody's using USB now. Like by this point, everyone's using it. So we're like, okay, let's sit down and make up some things. So you have these bunch of engineers are gonna meet and decide the new naming system, which is great because they're very good at deciding standards and deciding how things should be. Right. The problem is it's a group of engineers. So pretty much, I'm thinking the meeting went like this. So they were like, okay, so it's all, you know what? Let's call it all USB 3.2. All right, yeah, cool. But USB 3.2 Gen 1 will be our older stuff, you know, the 5 gigabit. We'll call the newer stuff the 10 gigabit 3.2 gen 2.
unknownGotcha.
SPEAKER_01And this new one we're about to come out with, um, since it uses basically, it has two things, it it has two connectors in one compact unit. So we'll obviously call that uh 20-bit connector a uh 3.2 gen 2 times 2.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because that makes you know make total sense. It's it's very clear, yeah, not confusing whatsoever. And not it's very, very concise and short, it's not a long thing that you know, because there's nothing better than typing into Google 3.2 times 2. Uh, you know, it obviously doesn't try to you know map out that no, it's great, it's fantastic. Oh, oh, oh, and that one's only gonna be on a C connector. Uh so you know, don't worry about that. So, very obviously the manufacturers had some problems and they had some notes. So the USB IF was like, all right, we're gonna say that's kind of confusing. So don't use those numbers, even though we came up with them, they've been touting them for years. And this, by the way, I'm kind of I'm kind of shortening timelines and oversimplifying things over the courses of many, many years. They're like, use this, use the super speed setting, you know, and call you know the 3.2 gen 1 super speed 10, the other one super speed 20, you know, so it's very obvious. And and the manufacturers like super speed, that sounds awesome, yeah. Yeah, well, great, we're gonna use that. And and the uh you know, the USB IF was like, well, we'll put the number by it, and they're like, but we really like the name super speed, like, well, well, well, that's okay, and like, but you have to put the number by it, and they're like, Do we have to? And they're like, not legally, you can do whatever you want. So they're like, cool, we'll do just super speed. So they'll put the SS, a really nice symbol, but not the number, and you don't know if it's 5, 10, or 20. Because yeah, it so, and then you know, I was like, Well, wait, wait, there's those colors, remember? Yeah, like the the white and the blue was USP 3, but remember, USB 3 has three different speeds, and then there's a red, and then I was like, you know what? Black looks cool, let's put black on all of them. Okay, and yeah, that's kind of where we're at right now. That like there is no way to tell the speed of your port, even if you go into device manager, which I was told to do, it still uses the old naming convention, which technically you're allowed to do. 3.1 is the same as 3.2 gen 1.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Because that's again not confusing whatsoever. Um, so yeah, it's um it's a mess. Basically, the only way to tell the speed of your USB port is to look up your manufacturer webpage and see what you have. Um guess what? It gets worse.
SPEAKER_03Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01There's still oh there's still there's there's there's yeah, there's even worse. So there's Apple. Which always Apple Apple confuses thing. Apple introduced their remember way back in the well, not way back in the way back in the day, Apple had those like big plugs.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Then they came out with those like more smaller, flatter plugs, which were called lightning. Yeah, yeah. And then they introduced Thunderbolt, which used the lightning, whatever. They were their own thing for a while. But then in 2015, they came out with Thunderbolt 3. Awesome, really fast, really great. It was basically the equivalent of better than any of the USB standards, gotcha. But it used a USB C connector, but it wasn't USB-C.
SPEAKER_02God damn.
SPEAKER_01Yes, so that's kind of where the confusion was. Um, and that is what's confused me for a while, but technically any Thunderbolt 3 can take a USB. So here's the thing. All right, here's the thing. All right, so say you have on your PC a Thunderbolt 3 input, but your device is USB 3.2 Gen 2X2, the fastest USB at that time, it will work, so it's always down compatible. So gotcha. So any Thunderbolt 3 or higher is compatible with the highest USB. I didn't know that. That's kind of where we're at because a lot of laptops have a Thunderbolt 3-ish connector, but you can use whatever. You don't have to worry about speed, you're good, you're good, good.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01So the other thing I wanted to talk about was the power. Remember, I said there was three things there was physical speed and power. And this is what always confused me because different USBs, regardless of what number they are, can transmit different amounts of power. And that is, I'm not even gonna go into that. What I wanted to go by is there are two symbols, again, sometimes used a lot of times not fucking labeled, because why would you label a port? Who the fuck cares? Sometimes it'll be a little lightning bolt, sometimes it'll be a lightning bolt with an arrow pointing down.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01The lightning bolt with the arrow pointing down means thunderbolt. Okay. The lightning bolt without an arrow basically means standby always-on power delivery or PD. Let me explain what that is, is even if your laptop is off, it'll charge whatever the fuck it's plugged into. So your laptop's off, it'll charge your phone, it'll charge your MetaQuest.
SPEAKER_02MetaQuest.
SPEAKER_01So it's basically an always-on power thing. Right. Except sometimes it doesn't mean that. Sometimes it also means that you can charge or sorry, power and charge your laptop through it. So that's very newer laptops where you can actually charge through a USB-C cord and not have to use a uh ACDC adapter. So again, the numbers symbols don't mean shit. But again, if it's that lightning with the down arrow, right? That's a whole other thing. So I hope that obviously cleared up um all the USB numbers because it definitely cleared an update. But if you want to make things worth, um, those were all the old standards. Um there was uh in 2020, okay, actually quite a while ago, Thunderbolt 4 came out, which was the same speed as Thunderbolt 3, but had more shit, if you will, attached to it. But don't worry. Uh Thunderbolt 5 came out actually just two years ago, and that who the fuck knows? Oh, and USB 4. Which somehow I didn't mean Mr. Tech didn't even know came out. That came out motherfucking in 2022, four years ago. An entirely new oh, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry, just make things fun. It's USB for no space. Because that's why they decided, you know, it's USB for one word. Because that's the problem with our standards was not the crazy ass numbers after it, it was the space. So they got rid of that space.
SPEAKER_02Good.
SPEAKER_01And I'm not even getting into that because yeah, it's so dude. It's fucking insane. Like, I don't understand like how these people sat down and thought, this is this a normal consumer will be understandable. Again, you don't have to, you just plug it in. But if you're like me, I'm like buying a card reader, I'm buying a hard drive, trying to get like the best of you know, gaming speeds. You do. And you know, most people have to buy an external uh disk drive, right? Because you know, the PlayStation 5 can only hold like three games naturally. So you you want your best speed, but unfortunately, you have to just go fuck yourself, is kind of what I'm getting at.
SPEAKER_00You gotta fuck yourself.
SPEAKER_01That was that was crazy, and I hope I maybe explain something to someone. If not, well then uh welcome to the awful world. Standards. Now it's time for the news.
News
SPEAKER_01Uh newsy time Anchorman and Manderton. Alright, we're gonna go right to What have you got? What's going on?
SPEAKER_02Alright, so Replaced has been the game I've been talking of for probably a long time for you. Replaced. Yeah, it's on Day Pass. Yeah, yeah, I kind of remember that. Yeah. I think it's great for you. It's not so here's the thing with replaced. It's Cy Cyberpunk.
SPEAKER_01I'm looking. Yeah, I uh I you you told me about it. I remember writing it down, but I already forgot about it. Okay. But it looks yeah, it looks pretty cool. Two and a half. Retrographics. Yeah. Retro-ish. Yeah. I feel like it's uh you know, I like these games that you know keep the the retrographics but have the more advanced lighting. Yeah, that's the whole point.
SPEAKER_02But they they want more lighting and atmosphere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I might have to have so much time. So much time.
SPEAKER_02Uh you gotta play some games. Yeah, I mean, you're right. Almost gamer.
SPEAKER_01I got at least almost game. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02Anything you got?
SPEAKER_01New game? Yeah, kind of. So there's been a lot of buzz about the next generation. Uh I talked a couple emporiums ago about uh generations, but the next generation of consoles is probably gonna be a thousand dollars minimum. Well if you own a PC, right? I know that's kind of my thought. Like now, at this point, we're at that point, right? Yeah, like it's just my but I think that Sony's seeing that, and you talked about this last podcast where they're rolling back their open exclusive. Remember, they were yeah, yeah, so now they're now Horizon Zero Dawn, or sort of the horizon series isn't gonna be on anything other than PlayStation. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that's the only way they're gonna survive. I'm not gonna keep up with PlayStation unless I have to at this point. Right. Like, I just yeah, I mean you were both saying, like, we when's the last time you turned on your PlayStation? It's been f forevs.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But, you know, I I think I bought the PS5 specifically, or PS4, oh my god, there's so channel to play transistor. Yeah, you did. You know, um that would have been PS4, yeah. If they're gonna get rid of that, then I won't buy a PlayStation. But it's uh it's a tough balance, man. I don't know, but I just but I understand, and we all hardware right now is it's a problem. Yeah, they're um between tariffs and AI farms. Like it's it's it's a problem. It's something needs to break, something needs to happen. But I understand, like PlayStation, they the Sony can't sell at a huge, huge loss. I'm sure a thousand dollars is still a loss for a console. Um, but again, I'm not gonna pay a thousand for a console. Uh especially now, especially now that I'm playing, you know, g Force now, like I'm just streaming. I don't even need it because I don't need great hardware. I just you know it the the the the price point per month paying for gForce now is never going to be more expensive than buying a new gaming laptop. It's it's it's I don't know. Something has something is give, change something. You can't, you know, we we can't be spending $900 on a graphics card either. You know, it's it's I don't know. It's interesting. It's interesting, but uh we will we'll see. We don't know the future. We might come quantum.
SPEAKER_02I know the future.
SPEAKER_01Quantum I'm from the future. Yeah, that's that's true. Backward had Andy knows exactly what's gonna happen, you know, and and quantum computing might be, you know, bam here, and and um or there might be some sort of you know, it'll call back the earlier episode maybe some sort of veiny dick kind of computing um that will just like completely change the landscape that we can't even imagine how fast.
SPEAKER_03It's a vein dick.
SPEAKER_02Holy fuck, we're losing our minds. So uh uh follow that, Andrew. Follow that. Is there any is there any hope? This podcast. Okay. Thanks, Matt, for the you're welcome. Here, take a look.
SPEAKER_01Don't worry, I'm gonna bring it way down next time. Yeah, throw it back at me. It's gonna go.
SPEAKER_02So here's a big rumor.
SPEAKER_01This is a rumor. Remember news. Oh, is this is this like uh uh Jake Baldino always is like, take it with a grain of salt. Which I never understood that. Um what's that mean?
SPEAKER_02You never heard that? Well, the saying. Yeah, yeah. But what does that mean? Where does it come from? What does it mean?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's basically like, yeah, it's like it's just a rumor, don't really believe it, but I don't, yeah, I understand what what the the story behind it.
SPEAKER_02No, me either.
SPEAKER_01Um, we will look it up and then not tell you.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So don't come here. Yep. All right. Uh so the big rumor is and I don't know. This is as we're saying this, it could be explained. So I don't don't hold us to this. But apparently, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, the makers, are going working on the new Lord of the Rings game.
unknownReally?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I don't know what I don't know. So they're working on an open world Lord of the Rings.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. Well, that's the rumor. And that's why it's a rumor.
SPEAKER_01So I don't my and I might be wrong. Yeah, we're gonna tell you the early song. That was one of the IPs bought out by Embracer Group, that whole debacle. Um I remember you talking about it. Yeah, Embracer Group bought out like everything. Um and then canceled it all. Um like uh time splitters. That was right, right, right. Yeah, yeah. So I'm pretty sure that that that's so I don't and that was one of the big ones where they were like, oh, well, well, we have all these really shitty IPs, but we have Lord of the Rings. So I'm not You're not hopeful. I'm not hopeful. I mean, if they're doing it, that's good, but the whole embracer deal just seems very shady and like here's one for you, Matt.
SPEAKER_02Oh well, I was just uh looking, and normally I'm looking at game for Informer and GameSpot, and New York Times reported on uh a video game, so I was like, oh New York Times, I'll feel smart. I actually read other things besides game, and it's behind a paywall, so I can't really read it anymore.
SPEAKER_01I think New York Times did that, or maybe they do that. Oh, yeah, they do this.
SPEAKER_02I know, yeah. And now I can't even read most of the article, but elderly people they're using VR for social reasons. Oh, oh. And I yeah, so they're using VR to help old people feel social.
SPEAKER_01That that's gonna be like kind of our boon, like you know, when we're old and decrepit and like not able to do much. We I think I feel like we can game. Yeah, I think it's an advantage. I mean, I think it is a joking aside, I think it's a huge advantage. Yeah, you know, because if because your mind might be vibrant, but your body isn't. Yeah, so if you can do visit worlds and VR, this is kind of like uh Black Mirror shit, like you know, but yes, it's it's it's great. I mean keep keep keep your mind active even if your body can't. So yeah, I'm I'm all for that. I'm all for that.
SPEAKER_02There you go, man.
SPEAKER_01All right. I'm gonna I'm gonna bring into sad news. Sad? So last episode um I talked about the video game historian um in that YouTube channel because we were talking about kind of the whole history of um just video game history, obviously, in general. And he he does some really great in the last video. I linked his page in there. And I think I had mentioned the fact that he was like semi-retired. Um, well, like right after we did that, he announced on YouTube that he is fully retired and giving up the YouTube channel. It's still gonna be there. He still watches old videos, but he isn't gonna watch, he's not gonna make any new ones. And it's very interesting because he said he was in the middle, because he was like, I'll just make a video every once in a while when I feel like it. And he was in the middle of making a video, and he said his just his heart wasn't in it, he just wasn't in it anymore. And we just talked about like me and recording studio and being, you know, and mixing and all that. I'm like, and I'm just not into it anymore. And if it's if it's something that's more of a passion project, like if you're not into it, you know, why do it? Why do it? So, Norm, um loved your videos, man, and I completely understand that you know I'm grateful for all that you've done. Um, it's fantastic. But um, to make this even sadder, but I'm gonna do it. I wasn't gonna, I was not gonna do this, but in his like goodbye video, he talked about um meeting friends and saying goodbye to others. Yeah. And there was a shot real quick of Billy from Game Chasers, who I used to talk to way back. So one of my very first channels I've ever really watched watched on YouTube was Norm um for the uh uh video game historian, and that led me to Game Chasers. There was the guys that used to go to like flea markets and find old Nintendo cartridges and try to collect all the rare, and they're very interesting, very fun. I haven't followed them in the past in a while, but um Billy apparently last late last year um died, passed away from a brain tumor very, very suddenly. Again, and I don't bring the channel down, but he they were one of my very YouTube influencers, like you know, us being a Vader Game Podcast, they very much so were like they're a big influence on me, I feel. So I just want to kind of shout out to him and his family, you know, best of luck, and uh I'm so sorry. Um just you know, thank you for your all you've done. And uh uh just yeah, it just you know love what you do and uh appreciate what you do. There you go. Alright, Andrew, let's get some uh video game news that doesn't hopefully involve death.
SPEAKER_02Alright, here's a non-death video game news. Matt, are you a fan of Cyberpunk? 277.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02Big game. Uh 76, not so much. 77? Yeah. Yeah, that was a good year. So there's a mod. You like mods? Um, you know what, dude? I might have an entire video on modding Fallout. So uh there's a new mod. It's not new probably anymore, but it turns Cyberpunk 277 to a VA chess. Like it's uh Oh, yeah, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. Matt maybe can I don't know on the YouTube for the people who watch on YouTube, but that sounds a good challenge. Make it uh lose lose track of it. There you go. Like you can see, it's like old school VHS.
SPEAKER_01I meant turn our screen into a VHS record.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that'd be cool. Yes, but yeah, somebody turned the whole game into a VHS screen. That's cool.
SPEAKER_01Was that a four by three or four-thirds uh ratio there? Yeah. Oh inside joke for the Lumix crowd.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh here we go, Matt. Hit me. What else can I report to you? You report to me, sir. Yeah. I do not report to you. I'm gonna read this headline, Matt. You figure it out. Ready? Capcom apologizes for Street Fighter 6, Alex, and Patricia incest controversy. Figure that out. She was not. Alright, done. Alright, yeah. Matt says he's moving on. Moving on. Incest in the Street Fighter.
SPEAKER_01They apologize, but I guess we're good.
SPEAKER_02Yep, move on. Matt doesn't care and he's moving on. Okay, so here's another headline. Ready? I'm reading the headline. Figure it out. Headlines. Figure it out. Headlines. Uncharted 5. Fans believe cryptic naughty dog devost is teasing the game.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think those are gonna go back to it's gonna have to be reboot. Obviously, they can't continue with Drake. It's more like gonna be with his daughter. That's what I think. Which would be cool. Is it an incest?
SPEAKER_00No! God damn it! Moving on!
SPEAKER_02Alright, so Mass Effect Prime Video Series. Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_01I don't what are you thinking about? We've talked about this before. Um I I think if it could be great if they don't. I don't want them to do the Shepherd story. There's so many stories that we could hold. I want it to just be fun and great.
SPEAKER_02Well, it sounds like it sounds like you're on the topic. Oh, yeah, yeah? Because they the TV boss reportedly requested rewrites rewrites to make it more appealing to non-gamers. I don't know about that. Well, maybe. So that's big news. What do you think?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. We'll see.
SPEAKER_02Wait and see. Wait and see. Okay. Wait and see. Wait and see. Uh here's another headline for you, Matt. Next God of War features multiple mythologies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I saw the headline, but that's all it was. I don't know. Um anything? Anything to add? I think I think. You know, everyone's all everyone's all about trilogies. Yeah. Because I assumed the next God of War was gonna finish up the uh the Norse myth with him. But I I do kind of see him changing it up with his next one, um, doing something different.
SPEAKER_02Gotcha.
SPEAKER_01And and maybe bringing back in the Greek or going into um kind of more Egyptian. Or I don't know.
SPEAKER_02We'll just have to wait and see. Here's some news for you, man. This is a talking point. I'm interested in your theories. Alright, balls. Balls is good. So, former Nintendo veteran, I'm reading the headline. Former Nintendo veteran says Link finally speaking in the Legend of Zelda movie risks ruining the series magic. What do you think? This is a talking point. Do you think it's ruining it if he talks? Because Nintendo's never hired a voice actor here other than I can actually see that.
SPEAKER_01I also don't care because I don't like plays all games anymore. Um yeah. Does it ruin the mystique? I think it does. I think it it might. So I um back in the day, back in high school, you know, I was big into like theater and musicals and whatnot. And one of the big things our um theater director, band director, um Mr.
SPEAKER_02Lutz, he's yeah, he was awesome.
SPEAKER_01But he always one of his biggest things was when we were putting on a performance, do not if you're in costume, come out of the audience or come out beforehand. Don't let the see the audience, you in costume, outside of the stage. I gotcha. Because it ruins the illusion. Right. And it not just because but I agreed with that, and I totally feel that. That's why I won't watch a lot of behind the scenes shit. You know, like movies and stuff. Nice. Because I I I don't want to be taken out of that mythology, I don't want to be taken out of that illusion. I don't want to see, you know, Aragon, you know, drinking a uh a coffee, you know, and wearing half his armor and like shorts. Right. You know what I mean? That's why it it's weird, maybe it's just me, but I don't want to I want to keep that illusion. I want to keep that mythos. I don't want to be brought out of that.
SPEAKER_03Gotcha.
SPEAKER_01So that's a roundabout way and saying, like, yeah, I I I totally get that. Like, once you give Link a voice in a story that's that does, that completely changes it. But how do you do a movie without that? You don't or can you? Because it is that is it the easy way out is by giving him a voice. Is there a way to do it without that? Well, they're gonna probably give it to Chris Pratt.
SPEAKER_02We're good.
SPEAKER_01So I guess what I'm saying is like maybe should they just not have done it? Maybe, yeah. Maybe they should just not have done it. That's interesting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You answered that. Very you really took it seriously. It's disturbing, but I love it. Hey, I like my You love your video games. My uh theater. Okay. And uh last one for Matt is I guess there's a new Xbox controller with anti-stick drift.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so in other words, they're selling now a controller that's good and doesn't break. Yeah. That that's good good for them.
SPEAKER_02Well, I don't know if it's sanctions. Oh.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if it's an actual Xbox, uh, I think it was the it was the uh it was the Nintendo one that had the most notorious for drift. Really? I think so, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think well, yeah, it's called Game Sur Tarantula series. Oh, yeah, it doesn't seem official. I don't think it's um Xbox makes it. I just think it's an Xbox controller. So if you want to get non-drifting.
SPEAKER_01Have you ever had a problem with an Xbox controller?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. Oh yeah? Oh yeah, you did. That's right. Yeah. I hate the drift. But I like the Tokyo Drift.
SPEAKER_01Nice.
unknownNice.
SPEAKER_00All right.
SPEAKER_01Uh anyway. Doesn't matter. Moving the phone.
Future Quests
SPEAKER_00Future quests. Future quests and drew that. Secret items.
SPEAKER_01For other podcast episodes. Yeah. And so I have brought one which I'm considering to be a future quest of ours.
SPEAKER_03Alright.
SPEAKER_01So I was a GameStop. Yeah, it's a newly employed human. You know, I was thinking something for the background, and I'm like, oh, I saw this. And I'm like, it's not just for the background. This is exciting. It's for a future quest.
SPEAKER_02What?
SPEAKER_01Gwent!
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_01The official like card game.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01Now remember, we've we we we've played Gwent because with special editions of the DLC, you got some cards. Let's be honest, it was hodgepodge at best. It wasn't because they never they never knew how Gwent was gonna blow up. So we tried playing and we kind of had to make our own room. Yeah, we made our own roll and shit because it just wasn't complete. Well, here it is, man. I didn't even know this existed. This is like the full Gwent. It has a crazy ass uh board that has like 400 cards and uh different game modes. I don't remember how to play Gwent. It's actually been so far.
SPEAKER_02So like I think this is gonna be one of our videos.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think I think we're gonna have to uh unbox and play Gwent. Everybody? Huh? What do you think? I mean, Gwent, I mean Gwent always would be awesome. Now that we have like the full actual Yeah, let's do it. So there we go. Everybody, here we go. Oh, let's uh hold on, we'll bring it in.
SPEAKER_02We'll unbox it.
SPEAKER_01Bring it in for the video.
SPEAKER_02And we'll play a couple rounds if it gwents.
SPEAKER_01It was always a great game. We always, I mean, that was a thing. Everyone said, like, it should be a real game. And well, it was a digital game for a while. Um, but apparently at some point it became a physical game. We just uh didn't know about it.
SPEAKER_02And uh it looks cool. I love it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh yeah, uh, and I bought it at a GameStop, so that was neat. Games. Yeah, they didn't yeah, they have yeah, it was a GameStop. It's nice to see that they're still in business. Um, I mean, yeah, what can I say? So there we go. Alright, Andrew. That's our next one. Alright, what other uh are we done with with with future quests? I mean, do you have future quests I mean I'm assuming you would have a few anything? No, that was it. You don't have a you don't think you're you're not gonna play anything. Yeah, probably not.
SPEAKER_02I barely play games now. Um, I I have nothing.
SPEAKER_01Alright, I got well, I got alright. Well, yeah, you you rolled the news, so I'm gonna do this. Um, this is kind of in the news, but again, future quest. Metro 2039.
SPEAKER_02Yes, it was a big reveal.
SPEAKER_01It was a big reveal. Um, but it was mostly cinematic trailer, but it was some gameplay at the end.
SPEAKER_02Um but you gotta play Grimson Desert.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, I do. This game isn't it, it's coming like winter. Oh. So again, future quests. Uh okay. Um so the gameplay looks really good. So I forgot how like Metro games were always cutting edge. The last one, Metro Exodus, was kind of like the exposition, they were like the poster child of a lot of NVIDIA new graphics, new leaps. So I think they're doing it again. And that I remember those, so at Metro Exodus, I just got this laptop laptop before. Anyways, I I wasn't strong enough. My laptop wasn't strong enough to really take full um appreciation of all the the features. Yeah. Well, now with G Force. Now obviously I'm hoping I hope it's gonna be a uh poster child for that and have like all the the new the new tech. So I'm I'm excited for that. Um have you played the Metro games? I can't remember if you were playing. Well, I bought one of them and I didn't really play it. Alright. The the um I really enjoyed the first one, the second one had its issues. But Metro Exodus was the third one, it was very, very different. But I remember like one of the things that I loved about the first game, but it was also very frustrating about the first game. Um I haven't talked about this on this podcast. No, that's neat. So I want to go back sometimes, maybe do some retro retro reviews. Yeah, I would love it. But I loved that the animal was also the the money, the currency. Oh yeah. So like you had your sh your normal, kind of crappy bullets, right? But you had really good bullets, which were also your currency. So you had to make the uh decision do I want to shoot it and kill people better, or do I want to save it and buy other things with it? Gotcha. And it was that that was very, very neat. Um I don't very curious. This game seems to be um maybe very different, so we'll just we'll just have to see. So this game is also based on books. I don't know if you knew that. Um very kind of not prominently, but I know we we we we've talked about this before the podcast that um the author of the Metro series gave a lot of shade to the author of the Witcher series. Really? Well, remember when Andrew Sobkowski from the Witcher books uh said, you know, he's made amends, but remember early on he wasn't very favorable to CD Project Red because they if for those of you don't know, he was given a choice flat out payment or no money up front and a percentage, right? And he picked flat out payment because he had no hope that game series would do any good, and it fucked him in the end because he got to wait so much more money, right? But he he was very vocally bitching about it. And the author of Metro said, Hey, I was in the same deal, but my book sales went out the roof, and none of that would have happened if he would have played these games, right? And Andred Sapkowski didn't understand that, but I never would have bought the books. Would you ever bought the books had you played the game? I mean, and I remember, like before Witcher 3 came out, the publisher was like, We're not even gonna translate the last two books of the series. It's just not even worth it. And then Witcher 3 came out, and they're like, Bam, bam, bam, really quickly they came out with it. So it was like, I don't know. I I get his side of the argument, but like yeah, millions upon millions of people would never even give him that game of thought, if not for that. So yeah, okay, same with the Metro. I don't know. That was maybe a little too much bitching, but um, it's okay, man.
SPEAKER_02You're a little bitch. It's not that bad.
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, I mean, exposure is great if anyone wants to um adapt our podcast into a video game.
SPEAKER_02Um we could be a video game. Sure.
SPEAKER_01Um I don't know quite what it would be. It's probably yeah, all right. It's it's our say our podcast was a video game. What would it be? Um I don't know, man. I'm thinking Okay, you got some ideas. Okay, okay, I got this. Okay. Do you remember Mr. Mosquito? No, but it sounds good. Very similar to that. We you would just fly around the room and try to suck the blood out of family members. Yes. Um, no, no, no, no. Okay, what was what was that game? Mr. Mosquito. Oh my god. What was that? That very, very Japanese game. You started off, you were like the yoga studio, and then uh Crisis and fit if in if in a crisis or infinite crisis. Yes, it would be that, but harder and even more incomprehensible. Ah, we get it. We would win it. I think you're not allowed to use a controller. There it is. Yeah, there it is. That's the secret. Just one half of a controller. You have to literally break your controller in half. The other half is a bottle of gin. Bam, there it is. Okay. This was an uh interesting video. Hope everybody liked the new locale. Yeah, this is it. Uh, new camera, hope you like that. Um yeah. I'm Maddie Flames. Andrew Wildes. Never drink water. Fish fuck in it.