transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] What's going on, Internet? The Black Hokage here, aka TBH and Beyoncé. I'd like to welcome you all back to the Gaming Illuminaughty Podcast. We are the Enlightened Gamers, and you're now tuned in to episode 186. If you're watching the video version of the show at youtube.com/giupdates, know this show is available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and all other major podcast platforms. If you're watching on Apple or Spotify, please rate the show five stars. And if you're watching on YouTube, please hit the like button, and then hit the hype button, which appears after you hit the like button. When you hit that hype button, the show will appear on YouTube's new hype charts, which helps bring in new viewers to find the world's best weekly gaming podcast. Also follow the podcast on social media, if that's your thing. We drop daily content on our pages. We're available on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Discord, and Facebook. Our handle on most platforms is at GI Updates, with the exception being Facebook. It would be facebook.com/gipodcast. Links to all our social medias can be in the description box at youtube.com/giupdates. Now, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the other two leaders of the Sausage Party. The first of which recently compared president, compared what president recently did in Bioshock Infinite to the real world, Ethos. Say hello to the people.

Speaker 2:
[01:17] Hey, what up, everybody? Certified banger. That's my most banger tweet I think I've ever done. And I did my Spider-Man tweet. So I hate it had to be about that Cheeto, but it was a good tweet.

Speaker 1:
[01:30] And my second co-host boldly claims Iceman. The album will be either generational or just straight buns in response to a tweet from my evil twin. According to y'all, UTX, JG the Don.

Speaker 3:
[01:44] I stand by that, man. I think y'all are y'all are on some Playboy Cardi GTA six levels now with that damn album. So I just wanted to drop. Yeah, ain't gonna be ain't gonna be no middle ground with that one. It's gonna be either or. So we'll see whenever it finally comes out.

Speaker 1:
[01:59] Yeah, and Watts ain't here if you can't tell already. She in Japan. So I don't know where we're gonna come. We told you last week, she ain't gonna be here for the next two weeks. It's a sausage party. Back to the old lineup. It is what it is. I mean, unless you guys wonder, unless you guys want a fourth co-host, I mean, I can call him in here. We're also joined by the very handsome. He didn't come this time. He doesn't know that one. He only knows the one when it's me and him. Oh, there he goes. All right. All right, man. Without further ado, let's get into the show. So since the last episode, one of the biggest games of the year has dropped. Some people are calling this is Capcom's year, basically the year of Capcom, because they've got this one. They got Monster Hunter Stories. They got Onimusha on the way. What's the other game they dropped? Residue. I'm tired. Yeah, they dropped Resident Evil 9. But this week, we are talking about Pragmata, which is a third person action puzzle shooter. Very interesting concept that I personally have not seen before. I'm not saying it's never been done before, because I'm sure somebody's going to comment. Well, actually, I'm just saying I haven't seen it. Starring a character named Hugh and a clanker named Diana, trying to unravel the mysteries of what's going on in this moon space colony. And in between, you're fighting evil androids and unlocking new abilities, platforming and doing puzzle hacks and stuff like that. I previewed this game like a month ago, and I was pretty excited about it. But I'm more curious to hear what you guys have to say about before I get into it. So give me the good, bad and the ugly Ethos on Pragmata, because fun fact, you're 15 minutes late because you were playing the boss.

Speaker 2:
[03:44] Yeah, I won't spoil which boss I was fighting, but I was pretty far into the game. Yeah, I like this game. We've been kind of talking for a very long time about, I think we were talking last week about why bigger publishers and bigger developers don't make new IPs anymore, like why it's very rare. So I think this was, what was it? This is Capcom's first new IP in a long time. I think it's been more than a decade, right? So it's been a very long time since Capcom's made a new IP that's like AAA. So, yeah, now it's out finally. This game, I think I'd have revealed back in like 2020 or something like that. And we had just been waiting and waiting and waiting. We saw like, all we knew was that there was a child and there was a dude and, you know, it was supposed to be some space dad type of thing. Now we got to play it's now in the wild. I haven't beat it yet. I put about seven hours into it. So I've heard this game is relatively short, which I am a-okay with. I would love games nowadays. I love it if a game is like 20 hours, you know, 20, 30 hours, 30 hours is like really, and really I'll go past that if like, I really, really love the game. Other than that, usually like 30 hours is really where my cutoff is, unless I'm thoroughly like immersed with the game. But this game is pretty cool. It is both familiar and different at the same time. I think I could see how like this game, it makes me feel like an Uchiha. I feel like my eyes are just constantly flickering all over the screen when I'm playing it. It's one of these games where I feel like when I watched gameplay of it and I watch people play it, I feel like I don't understand how this is going to be, like how am I supposed to play this? Like it feels like it's too much stimuli. Then when you actually get a chance to get your hands on and you play it, you realize, oh, wait, actually, after I think of the first hour, it was very easy to adjust to the gameplay style. The best way to describe it is it is a third-person shooter combined with a sort of Tetris snake, old school type of puzzle element. Effectively, you are playing a third-person shooter, but I would call it like a smart man's third-person shooter. It actually requires you to stimulate your stimulus.

Speaker 1:
[06:01] You can't turn your brain off.

Speaker 2:
[06:02] Yeah, you can't turn your brain off with this game. I played a lot of third-person shooters, a lot of them, especially campaign-wise. I feel like you can just turn your brain off and play them. This one, I don't think throughout my entire seven hours of playing it, I could ever turn my brain off playing it. I think I constantly had to be paying attention to what I was doing. If you're not, you can feel overloaded a lot when you play it. I'll also give credit to, I think they did a really good job with the sound in this game because I think the sound is the secret sauce of this game that allows you to be able to distinguish when you're being attacked and when you're paying attention to the puzzle on the right. But I've never felt like whenever I got attacked, I was just like, except for one time, there's an enemy type that you can't see all the time. That one's a little tricky, but I don't think they're impossible to see. But other than that, I think everything's really good. I usually don't like to play shooters on a controller, but I did play this with controller on my PC and it ran really well. Optimization was phenomenal. I've had so far no issues whatsoever with this game's framerate. It's run flawlessly. I was like, we love that. The gameplay's really solid. I think the third-person shooting is pretty much what you expect. There's nothing really game-changing here, but I really think the idea of introducing this puzzle and hacking element is really what allows the game to stand out and feel unique, especially in the Triple-A space. It's interesting. I think this year we've had already, I feel like, with Marathon and also with Pragmata, we've had two shooter games, shooting games of all things, the shooting genres, you don't really hear that from, but actually hearing in a space that they're actually trying some different cool, unique ideas and mixing up the formulas. I think that's...

Speaker 1:
[07:30] Ironically, I don't think ball and gun gamers are going to touch these games either. That's the funny part.

Speaker 2:
[07:35] Yeah, so...

Speaker 1:
[07:35] I don't feel like they're ball and gun adjacent.

Speaker 2:
[07:38] That's the funny part is that I put a tweet out earlier this week and I said, gamers love to talk about how they're sick of sequels and remasters and you guys constantly say you want new games or you want something fresh and new. I was like, I feel like Pragmata is exactly what I feel like the more vocal gamer talks about online, is that they want these more unique or more games where they try something a little bit different. I think Pragmata does enough to make it unique and different enough while still feeling familiar where it's not completely alien to you. The question is going to be, which I'm really going to be looking for, is I want to see the sales numbers. I'm going to be very curious to see, I'm praying that Capcom sells over a million copies with this game. I pray it's not a flop, because unfortunately if it's a flop, it kind of reinforces what we've been saying on the podcast for a very long time. And that's not a good thing. As much like I like, I don't want a game to fail. I hope to God this game succeeds. And I really hope that gamers, for the people I can say, if you want to see the change in the industry, then you should be supporting stuff like this. And I saw some people who are trying to detract and be like, well, gamers shouldn't have to support these type of games. They should only support what are good games. I'm like, but this is a good game. I don't understand this argument I'm talking about. Just because it's unique or it's different in the AAA space doesn't mean I should support it. And I'm just like, so what have we been arguing for the past decade? What has been the whole thing about you guys hating the AAA space? Saying you don't like microtransactions, you don't like live service. Here's a single player by itself campaign, not something full of just slop or open world.

Speaker 1:
[09:13] It's low in price.

Speaker 2:
[09:15] It's low in price, not even $70. And it's brand new IP, the thing that you guys swear to God you care about and you want to see more of. And you guys aren't, and now there's all these, now it's a thousand different excuses. Now it's new excuses. Oh yes, we're gonna be there day one to support this. And this is the thing that, what was it? Sega said, and the same thing, and I'm praying to God Pragmata is not gonna be this case. It's another case study of basically a game getting good review scores, because it's already got like an 86, or 85, 86, so it's already a really good game, and people are not translating into the cells. I don't think that this game, I think this game was marketed pretty well. I don't think the game was not like, no one knew it was coming out. It's been teased and shown multiple years in a row. So Capcom has been marketing it. So creators are talking about the game too. I just really am hoping that this is a positive story. I'm not going to say other game names, but I'm just saying, I'm like, I hope that we get some positive tweets out there and talking about some, this game has sold a million caps. I hope Capcom does announce that soon within the next week and a half. If we don't see that type of tweet, that's a bad sign. And I'll be really disappointed in a lot of you.

Speaker 1:
[10:29] I'm leaning towards, I think it'll hit a million. Just because like, I've been seeing positive tweets in the timeline with the SteamDB shit. They've been posting like, oh, it cracked this player count. It cracked this player and it keeps going up. Last I checked, it was like 70,000 or whatever. So it's close to hitting 100,000 or whatever. So I think though they'll sell a million copies. Now, what would they do after that? I don't know, because yeah, it's a new IP. I feel like everybody that I've seen talking about it, they've been enjoying it, but like, it hasn't really gotten that super mainstream push that like I would like to see for like the new IPs. But that's beside the point. My personal opinion, I'm enjoying it. It's exactly what I thought it was like after the preview. My biggest question coming into this game was the story. I think the person to person interactions between Diana and Hugh or top tier, very ironically human considering she's a fucking clanker. Hey, no, clank up. Clank up.

Speaker 2:
[11:26] ER, they're getting hardy or she's one of the good ones.

Speaker 1:
[11:31] There's some sections in this game where it's absolutely fucking disgusting how cute it is. We're like, like the beginning section, this is like a big one where she was like, Hugh, Diana, Diana, Hugh, like the way they talk to each other, that shit is fucking, I'm like, this is gross, bro. It's probably propaganda.

Speaker 2:
[11:45] I'm convinced it's propaganda. It's childhood propaganda.

Speaker 3:
[11:47] Be nice, be nice to the clankers, all right.

Speaker 2:
[11:49] I was playing this game, I'm like, you are not going to convince me to have a kid. No, no, no.

Speaker 1:
[11:52] I was like, check, does anybody use that?

Speaker 2:
[11:54] I'm like, oh, you're trying to convince me to have a kid. That's what this game is.

Speaker 1:
[11:57] Funny thing is, that's what Watts said, so she ended up being right. It's really more kid propaganda. But yeah, I think the strong point, the plot is just kind of basic so far, but the strong point is the person-to-person interactions as well as their interactions with the environment. The gameplay is really fun to me. It's pretty simple, but because it continues to get more complex with the bigger enemies that you fight with the puzzles on screen, there's not a moment where I don't feel engaged because of it. It's a game that feels like it's easy to pick up but kind of hard to master. I feel like you're unlocking new abilities at a nice pace, so I feel like I'm constantly getting stronger. Yeah, it's super optimized. I haven't had a single goddamn issue which is, I feel like we shouldn't have to cheer that on, but it is great. Haven't had a single issue playing this game. No crashes, no frame drops.

Speaker 2:
[12:50] You played it on Steam Deck, right, Gigi?

Speaker 3:
[12:53] Yes.

Speaker 2:
[12:54] How did it run on that?

Speaker 3:
[12:56] Amazing. I was really going to talk about it during my part. But yeah, I'm getting a steady 40 frames without changing anything. It's been like butter. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[13:05] Yeah. I think the main weak point, it's not even like a super weak point to me. It's more like it's just average. The story is getting from point A to B. I'm curious to see if that will pick up. You're a little bit further along, Ethos. How are you feeling about the overall plot?

Speaker 2:
[13:24] I have to see how it plays out. I think what will elevate the game is obviously going to be like, what's the climax of the story? I think everybody's getting big. I think Last of Us has traumatized a lot of people who were, when you see this type of dichotomy, you just assume someone's going to die. It would be nice. Again, this is speaking, I don't know what's happening. When I'm speaking, it's not spoilers. I'm predicting here. I'm hoping it would be nice if both of them make it off the moon. I'm accepting in my brain that there's a possibility one of them will die or sacrifice themselves for the other one. But the interesting thing is the way they've written it, it's hard to tell who that is. At some point, you'll think, oh, it's Diana. Then another time you'll think, wait, no, maybe it's Hugh. You can't really figure out, oh, maybe they both die or they both stay on the moon. I don't know. That's what I do like, but there's still that surprise element. I will say from a plot standpoint, I think even the first 10 minutes of this game, I was getting crazy Dead Space flashbacks. It was almost a one-to-one of Dead Space's setup. They're on the ship, they're heading towards his base, the base is not communicating with them when they're trying to enter the Ishimura, and then they're walking into the base and they're like, where is everybody? Everything's dark and then everyone starts to die off and disappear in the beginning of the game. I was like, this reminds me a lot of Dead Space, but not Dead Space, it's Dead Space. So I was like, I noticed it, I was like, okay, I see some parallels with Dead Space here. And then you meet Diana, and I agree with you, TBH, I think the character writing is really good in this. There have been multiple times where I've actually smirked, not only is it like a lot of cute moments, where I'm like, oh, okay, that tugs at your heartstrings. But even though she's a robot, but she's very human in the way that she talks and interacts. That's like an actual child that, you know, you've-

Speaker 1:
[15:16] Apparently, it's played by a Black woman I saw on Twitter.

Speaker 2:
[15:19] Who, the child?

Speaker 3:
[15:20] Oh, hold on now, hold on now. Now I gotta look.

Speaker 1:
[15:23] If I can find it, if I can find it. Keep talking, I was thinking if I can find it, I'll bring it up.

Speaker 2:
[15:27] Yeah, that's actually crazy. Oh, you want to tell you who I also discovered, which was crazy? I was thinking of Black women. This was hilarious. I found this on TikTok today. Leon, Leon's partner is a Black woman. Leon Kennedy, the person that voices him. I didn't know.

Speaker 1:
[15:48] I met her. I met her. I met her. I met her at the Resident Evil event. Yeah, she is.

Speaker 2:
[15:52] Yeah, I was like watching a video and I guess he was at some, maybe it was the bath, whatever it is, and he had a Black woman at his side and I was sitting there. And then everybody, the cop was like, hey, Leon, hold on, brother.

Speaker 1:
[16:04] I was right. So what they said on Twitter is right. I found it on the IMDB page. Her name is Grace Safe. She was also in Alan Wake as well as Elden Ring.

Speaker 3:
[16:14] She played Diablo.

Speaker 1:
[16:16] I'm going to assume she's the Black chicken, Alan Wake.

Speaker 2:
[16:19] No, hold on.

Speaker 1:
[16:20] Wait, who is this person? She's Diana in Pragmata. She got some hitters under her bow. Let me look under this.

Speaker 3:
[16:25] Okay, well, she killed it.

Speaker 2:
[16:27] Honestly, yeah, she did a good job. I think also, like I said too, there's a lot of good jokes too. I think there's a lot of really funny interactions. I cracked up a multiple. I was actually cracking up a couple of times. Like when Hugh will say something, I was like, Hugh doesn't like kids initially. That's his whole thing is like, obviously he has some previous, like he's an adopted, he's adopted.

Speaker 1:
[16:49] Humans can get nutrients from talking at the dinner table. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[16:54] Then when he's talking about talking with people and how important, and then when he brings up a soul, like, oh, there's a difference between us. I was like, well, humans have souls. She's like, do I not have a soul? It gave me the mass big joke all over again. I was like, and he's just like, oh, well, you see? Then she's like, well, how can I get one? It was like, he just dug up some of a hole. Then there's things where she's even kind of petty, she'll crack jokes about Hugh when he dies or he does something stupid, and she'll crack a funny little joke about it. Yeah. I think so far, I am invested in the relationship between the two, not necessarily the overall plot of what's going on around them. I got the big idea of just obviously something bad has happened, and the robots have basically gone rogue, and they're killing off all the people on the space station. That's enough to keep me playing the game, because that mystery is what I do. I am curious to find out.

Speaker 1:
[17:47] I don't feel like there's as much mystery. I haven't finished the game, you're a little bit further ahead of me. I do feel like the plot is mostly told through the notes that you find through the world. Yeah, versus the cut scene. So if you haven't played the game, make sure to read the notes, because I don't want to spoil it. But that's why I said, I was like, all right, man, if the plot is going where I think it is, it's pretty predictable. It's a plot that a lot of you, especially if you hate ChatGPT, you'll be able to relate to and enjoy. And I feel like based off of that, and like the gameplay, if the story was fired, it'd probably push it to like a 9, 9.5 for me. But like where it's sitting at right now on Metacritic, like 85, 86, I feel like that's actually a fair score. If the plot was just a little bit stronger, I think it would be high.

Speaker 2:
[18:34] I'd give it an eight. Like right now it's like, it's a solid eight. I think like if they do a little like twist on something, or like if something in the gameplay like, does a 180.

Speaker 1:
[18:43] We'll have to get the update after we finish it.

Speaker 2:
[18:45] Yeah, yeah. Like maybe there's like some crazy boss and I'm like, oh my God, this boss is like, wow, Jesus. Cause like the, I will give some things and I think our criticisms of it. I think that and probably because why it took so long to make. I think maybe they had more ambitious goals of what they wanted the game. Like they were trying to figure out, I think they had an idea, and they had a really good idea with like a child and a dad, or like and a guy. And they wanted to have this like father daughter type of relationship. Basically, like they want to do like a last of us type of thing in space, but they wanted to change the dichotomy a little bit. Where it's like, you know, you know, it's not like Joel's like trying to teach Ellie, instead it's like kind of more like, you know, Diana is really actually helping you and you need Diana. It's kind of like a cool synergy. They both need each other. So one thing I think is that the way that they've done the level design and like how you progress through the levels in the game, I like the shelter idea. I do like this idea of having a hub where you can relax, you can like reload out and then you can go back into the world. And it kind of has this Dark Souls design where you have these hatches and they allow you to like bonfire and then you feel safe. You can go back, you could change your loadout if you know you're going in, or if you died, you get a little bit of Intel, you go back and then you try something a little bit different. I like that. But it seems like the way that they've designed how you play through the levels is it feels very generic. Like it feels, I'm not gonna lie, it reminds me a lot of Resident Evil, which wouldn't shock because it's Capcom. It feels like the same thing, like just like Resident Evil, I need to get to this place. Oh, someone locked this door and I got to get these keys to open the door or I have to hit these switches.

Speaker 1:
[20:15] You gotta run around until I find this deedle in a haystack.

Speaker 2:
[20:17] Yeah, yeah, and it's the exact same formula that Resident Evil has been doing. And I guess it's that sort of thing where it's like, well, Resident Evil has been doing this for nine, you know, nine, 10, 12 titles in a row and it hasn't broken yet. People haven't gotten sick of it. So we'll just kind of adapt that into space. It feels a lot like they're retreading a lot of like Resident Evil's level design and just like how you progress through the game. And I think after, which is funny, I don't know if you got to it, TBH, there's a point in the game where you run into another door that requires you to find like hacking places, nodes that you got to unlock to open the door. And he's like, he actually notes about this. He's like, god damn, we got to figure out who is responsible for all these doors, all these hatches. This is so stupid.

Speaker 1:
[20:56] The fourth wall breaking the fourth wall.

Speaker 2:
[20:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's hoping. Cause the 25th-

Speaker 1:
[21:00] No more doors.

Speaker 2:
[21:01] When the door showed up, I literally had the same thought in my head. And then Hugh verbalized it when I was thinking it. I was like, oh yeah, I 100% agree. I'm like, I'm kind of getting sick of this pattern. So I'm hoping it's not like once I, I'm on the third big boss right now, third, fourth boss. I'm hoping it's not gonna be like every single time I go to a new section of the space station. Oh, gotta go to these different areas, to unlock hack these doors, or then open up the main door to get to the next spot. Like I hope there's like a little bit of mix up. But right now, I think that's my biggest critique is that I think the New York level was really cool. Very unique in design and like how, where you were and how you move about that level. That was cool. But everything I've played since that has kind of been kind of the same-ish. So that's like really my like biggest criticism right now of Pragmata.

Speaker 1:
[21:43] Okay.

Speaker 3:
[21:43] Okay.

Speaker 1:
[21:43] Okay. Jay, how are you feeling about the game?

Speaker 3:
[21:46] Yeah. I don't know a whole lot. I think that again, one of the weakest points, which is, I mean, I feel like it's not really a big deal compared to how long did it take to be the game is the story. But that's only dad on the pod. Definitely the interaction between Diana and Hugh tugged at my heartstrings just seeing their interaction to just stop night. So definitely if you play the game, make sure that you talk to Diana, because their interactions are just like, they're super cute and then you can find various things throughout the environment that gives her that human element. Because again, you tend to forget at times that she is a robot. They've done a very good job at disguising that. She's figuring things out as if she's a regular kid. So I found that was very well done in that aspect. I remember initially when we talked about Pragmata before even the demo came out, I was like, this looks Dead Space-esque. I wasn't a big Dead Space fan, so I wasn't interested in it initially. Of course in the game, I was like, I don't know how this hacking element, this puzzle element is going to work while you're in the middle of shooting. But after playing the demo, I told people I was like, I'm locked in. So I definitely wanted to try this game out. So far, it has been pretty good. I'm glad that it's not a fully open world type of concept. It's semi-linear. So I definitely enjoy the aspect. I definitely enjoyed the hub world like Ethos mentioned, that you can go and recharge. They have though, they're like pit stops, save points throughout each biome that you're in. So they really do function like actual levels as you're progressing through the story. Like, all right, you beat this part, now it's time to go to the next part. Now you can go there and then you start unlocking things at your hub world as you continue and progress throughout the story. So I do like that concept. I feel like those like standard, and it goes back to what Watts was saying, this is like a traditional video game. Like it's not doing too much and it doesn't have to do a lot in order to get you interested in the game. So if you just want a traditional gaming experience that's linear to get you from point A to point B, you know, you progress to the level, you find the things, you go through the waves of enemies at the end, there's a big boss and you defeat that boss and then you're ready to move on, you get more upgrades, then this is your type of game. If you're a parent like me, I think again, this will tuck in your heartstrings, hearing the interaction between Diana and Hugh. So those are some of the things I want to mention. Then as Ethos asked me earlier, this game is super optimized. One of my big things that I was hoping was that it was Steam Deck certified, so I can continue to play it on there. And when I booted up, I was like, I've seen that green check mark. I said, we in there, baby. So I've been playing it. Like I said, I've been getting 40 frames steady. I haven't had any optimization issues on there. Then obviously on the PC, I haven't had any issues either. So if you have a Steam Deck or a ROG or something, you should be good to go. You're gravy there. So again, I fully recommend this game, but I'm just, and again, I'm not gonna knock it because at the end of the day, I think that from a combat and gameplay standpoint, I'm more than satisfied with playing the game. But I think again, the weakest point, if I had to bring up any criticisms would be the story so far, because I think it is a little too safe, I would say. But again, I think that the interaction with Diane and Hugh, as we continue to progress on, that's gonna be the probably the strongest point of the game. But I think just everything else surrounding it, which I tend to lose. And that goes back to TBH's point, you really have to read the lore throughout the game in order for you to get the full context of what happened at the space station. They don't really go far, as far as what I played so far. They don't go super deep into what actually happened on the space station yet. I'm sure they'll get to it eventually, but right now you gotta get those little tidbits to find out what's truly going on. But again, outside of that, it's really gonna be a lot of just interaction between Dianne and Hugh as they continue to progress. I literally got to a part where we're finally, I think, going to see someone else because for the longest, it's just y'all two and then just a bunch of clankers just running around trying to kill you. And then Edith, of course, which is the master AI system that's trying to send every robot after you. So I finally get to a part where I'm like, okay, now we're going to finally see someone else outside of the original crew that landed on the space station, that did all of them more or less, as far as we know, got wiped out. So we'll see, but like I said, I'm not expecting the story to be top-notch. I didn't really have those expectations. I sort of knew that the combat and the gameplay was going to be what would get me through it. But I will say so far, again, not to throw in the shade, but at least there's an actual story that I can follow on like Cribs of the Desert. There's something that I'm into. So I will say that Capcom has done a great job on this, and it didn't go back to Ethos to this point. I do hope that the gamers support this. Like I said, vote with your wallet, vote with what you actually care about. I'm not trying to say that I'm forcing you to go and try out this game. But again, a demo was out, so it doesn't hurt you to at least try that. Again, this game is not $70, it's $59.99 unless you get the deluxe edition. So if you're worried about that, then the game is $10 cheaper. So I would say try out the demo, if you're still on the fence. I actually, Ibizu, I believe, he was watching me play it on Friday, and he was like, all right, he's like, you all convinced me, I'm going to buy it. Sometimes it's as simple as that. Just seeing someone else play and it's like, all right, I see how you're feeling about it, and you convinced me to purchase it. Again, I want more people to try out new things rather than just staying on the old stuff, then constantly complaining about how there are no games out and all these AAA games just have all these microtransactions, blah, blah, blah, talking about the stuff that really doesn't matter. Play the freaking game, support what you want, but also support what you feel like will actually make an impact and change the video game industry if you feel like the video game industry is in a bad state right now. But overall, I recommend Pragmata to anybody, even for me, is not being a dead space type of person not really like into space like that. I am enjoying the game so far and I'm, you know, looking forward to playing through it.

Speaker 1:
[28:18] Skins are fired too. That you want to watch.

Speaker 3:
[28:21] Yeah, yeah, I got the little deluxe, little like Onimusha type of set to start off. And I was like, oh, this looks nice.

Speaker 2:
[28:32] The kitty cat outfit, I've been wearing it. It's kind of funny because it kind of reminds me of Master Chief's outfit, like the visor and stuff. I'm like, this looks a lot like Master Chief. Somebody in the chat, I think, when I was watching Watts, they said this would have been perfect for like a Halo collab. Like they had done like a Halo skin, like because Cortana and him and Diana, it's kind of the same type of relationship, AI and a human being together. So I was like, oh, that would have been, yeah, that would be a cool little thing.

Speaker 1:
[28:58] I don't know if this game will be a game of the year nomination, if it is, because Watts was saying she felt like it was. If it is, and there's like five or six games nominated every year, it would be like the last one nominated. And it's like, I don't think it would win either. Like it would just be like a nomination, like at best. If anything, I do feel like this game is probably going to be like one of those, the people's champs type of games. Like kind of like the year when Liza P came out, it'll be one that like really resonates. Cause like the way people, the memes I'm seeing on Twitter, this game is really resonating with people more than the reviewers. I'm seeing a lot of people editing memes of like, when Diana's dancing, they're putting like music behind it. They should be cracking me up. I think it's going to be like the people's champ type of game, which is cool.

Speaker 3:
[29:42] Speaking of real quick, did y'all see the quote unquote controversy that this game had with one of the things that Capcom announced for Pragmata, if you watch somebody play on Twitch, you'll get a special emote. And it was a Diana crying emote. And people said that this was a meme, which I found out the other day. Cause again, I am not in that community. I have no clue what's going on. But apparently they said it was a Lollicon emote. And it was based off of a meme that really garnered interest on 4chan. And once I heard 4chan, I was like, yeah, I'm checked out. But they were saying that it was some, it was some pedo, some PDF type of stuff going on. They said that it was, they said that Capcom was playing on the Lollicon and apparently Cooney, which was also another thing. They said it was promoting, you know, child PDF. And I was like, bro, like really? I was not expecting that. But I went down to rabbit hole and looked and I was like, why are people upset at this? And then I found out, I was like, man, all right, bro.

Speaker 1:
[30:44] I don't know nothing about it.

Speaker 2:
[30:46] I'm saying, you know, I'm just I'm getting really fucking tired. I really thought this was going to be the first game this year, then a long time where it just comes out and there's no controversy and there's no discourse and there's no people getting mad about the game. And I feel like I can't recall the last time a game's come out and everybody was just chill about it. It's always something. And I'm just getting so tired of this. Like, I'm just getting so tired of this pattern. I didn't even know none of this. So this is the first I've even heard of this. Well, I don't even know.

Speaker 1:
[31:16] I don't know about that emo shit. I would have to look into it. I did see a couple people go viral on Twitter. Like one person tweeted out, if you play Pragmata, then you're a PDF file. But then they got them out of here because they were like, if you see a child and the first thing you think of is like sexual stuff, that makes you a PDF. Yeah, I was like, yeah, I was like, what the fuck are they talking? I don't know, bro. All I can think about is the game.

Speaker 3:
[31:38] That's what they were talking about. That's what they were referring to. Just that emo.

Speaker 2:
[31:42] Weirdos, man.

Speaker 3:
[31:43] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[31:45] Ain't got shit to do with me. Oh, before we move on to the news side of the podcast, let me go ahead and shout out one thing real quick. I know you didn't play it, but I did an impulse buy. I'm going to shout out the game Replaced. I also started playing this. I got like six hours on Pragmata, and then I got like five on Replaced. I was bouncing between these two games. This is the new 2D5 action platformer game. And I'm going to go ahead and say, I would be shocked if this game does not win best art direction of the year when the game awards come around. It takes place in an alternate 1980s universe where AI exists, another AI game. But in this universe, you play a guy who's Neuralink like fucked up and the AI takes over his body. So you're actually playing as a clanker, I guess, a human, a fleshy clanker basically. And you're navigating this post-apocalyptic world that's ran by evil corporations, specifically the Phoenix Corporation. It's it's an action platformer. So you're doing a lot of jumping, shooting and fighting. There is combat to it and there's stealth. The stealth is pretty self-explanatory, hiding behind certain things, making sure you're not getting inside of the light. And then the combat, it kind of plays like Batman Arkham. So if you've ever been interested in how that formula would play, but in a 2D kind of format, this is would be for you. I think it's really fun. It starts off a little slow, but once about an hour in, it gets going. Oh, it gets going. And like the use of like cinematography, the camera angles, like the boss fights, like this is a really creative game. This is what I be talking about when I was like, yo, I don't care that these indie devs want to do these 2D games. Like people be swearing that I'm hating on these indie developers. It's no, I want to see the beauty of indie development is you have the power to do whatever you want. You are not adhered to the goddamn corporation. So like if you are going to take that route of doing things that we've seen in the past before, like just do something new with it. That's all I ask. Another example would be that mouse PI game. I'm not like super gung-ho about it. It's just another boomer shooter. But the art style is something that sticks out to people. Just do something different. I feel like there's too many doom clones and X, Y, Z, but this one right here, if you want an interesting story with fun combat, with some good stealth and art in there, it's only 20 bucks on Steam. It's free on Game Pass. It's called Replace. Add it to your wish list if you don't want to drop the 20 bucks. Because I mean, I'm pretty sure it'll be on the Steam sale for like five, 10 bucks. I don't know if you had to add any interest in that game.

Speaker 2:
[34:24] Yeah, I've been looking forward to it for years when it was first announced. It's been in development for a very long time. Yeah, I'll get around to it when I can. They tried to send me a code and they sent me some Xbox Series S and X. I said, I can't use this.

Speaker 1:
[34:41] They didn't even ask you what version you wanted?

Speaker 2:
[34:43] I just said, you're auto, when they did like pre-approved, like, oh, you've been pre-approved. I'm like, oh, awesome. I wanted to play this. Then it's like Series S and X. I can't do to use this. I was like, I just sold my Series X, so.

Speaker 1:
[34:57] Well, that's my shout out of the week for Replace. Let's move into the news section of the show. The first thing I want to touch on here is, we got a follow-up to a story from last week where Rockstar was hacked, and they were being held for ransom, and the ransom people said, if you don't pay our fee, we're going to start releasing info. In between all of that, Rockstar released a statement to the press confirming that they had been hacked, and they had no plans to negotiate with terrorists. They said they ain't worried about what the fuck they got. They just got some little info, and it turns out that Rockstar was not bluffing. They did get hacked, but it was some little info. Everybody was thinking that these hackers had some Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay, or story beats or something like that. It turns out all they had is some info on the finances going on, some things that we already knew, but it put an actual definitive number behind things, a number that explains why Grand Theft Auto 6 is not here, in my opinion. GTA Online Platform Breakdown. So on the PS5, they make 3.5 million revenue weekly. PS4, almost 2 million weekly. Xbox Series X, 1.1 million weekly. Xbox One, 1 million. And then on the PC, 890K, they make a week with millions playing between all different versions. When you see these numbers for Grand Theft Auto 5 and the weekly amount of money that they're bringing in, which by the way, I put it on the calculator the other day, I think it comes out to like 2, 300 million a year between all the different versions, just from like short card sales. What's that do for you, Jay?

Speaker 3:
[36:35] Damn, I mean, see the numbers is one thing, like we've already known that they've been making beaucoup dollars, but I mean, this totally like just seeing the numbers, just like, bro, it's crazy. They're literally printing money at this point. And I know that this deal is your agenda, TVA's, but Sony niggas, I don't know, man. I don't know what's going on with y'all.

Speaker 1:
[37:00] They don't play games, bro.

Speaker 3:
[37:01] Three million, three million, bro.

Speaker 1:
[37:05] They get offended when you say it, bro.

Speaker 3:
[37:07] Right. I'm like, boy, again, numbers don't lie. Like y'all are showing that y'all are still playing this damn game more than any other, like more than any other platform. That's just silly. I'm actually surprised that Pete, well, actually, no, I'm not because PC has multi people that are on RP now. So I don't think that they're factoring in to again, start cards and just playing like the standard GTA online. So I guess that makes it why they're so low.

Speaker 1:
[37:31] But man, also hack on PC, they ain't paying for it.

Speaker 3:
[37:34] Yeah, that's true. Yeah, they ain't paying for nothing. But man, like Sony just overall is just destroying Xbox. Totally like PS4 is still like this crazy. Three million to one million. Like just seeing how much y'all making, man, it's crazy. Like I just, I have no words, but yeah, y'all are literally playing into like what we've already known, but now there are numbers to constantly confirm and back our suspicion that like Sony people are in conflict with period, but mainly Sony, y'all ain't playing nothing, man. Y'all just playing the same stuff and spending a hilarious amount of money on one video game that's been out for 13 years, but yet y'all are still claiming that y'all want Gta 6 and it's gonna be the most generational game ever. Like, get off of the last one. Maybe this game would have came out sooner if y'all stopped supporting it in the fashion that y'all have been doing it. This is ridiculous.

Speaker 1:
[38:27] Besides, the PlayStation niggas don't play any type of exclusives. They just yap about them. The other agenda I wanted to push, that second number was the most depressing one, the PS4, almost $2 million weekly with almost a million weekly players. You know what that says to me? There's a lack of financial literacy going on here. I don't want to hear nothing about all the economy. Oh, it's hard to find a job. And to be fair, that is true right now because your president, not mine, is fucking things up. But what about the other five years? I should have got a calculator out and divided that. What does that 2 million weekly turn out to with these 900,000 players? Because you guys clearly do have money. You just are addicted to the shark cards, the VC in 2K, because that was the best-selling game on PlayStation last year. Mutt cards, these FIFA cards, y'all are addicted to these microtransactions, and this is why they keep pumping out. You want to know why we got Concord? It's because Sony is hoping they can get the next Gta 5. But that PS4 number, I'm like, you guys are spending way too much money for a group of people who claim they can't afford a PS5. What about you, Ethos? What do you think?

Speaker 2:
[39:39] Yeah, I mean, it's once again, the audio isn't matching the visuals. Gamers say one thing, but the data that we keep seeing year after year and every single time something like this comes out, it always keeps proving. You guys say you don't like microtransactions, but the stats are saying that's a lie. I also found that this also makes a very interesting argument about why Rockstar is not speeding through getting a PC version done. Because apparently the most amount of money they're getting it is from PlayStation. So it makes sense why they prioritize consoles and they're not. Because apparently PC plug gamers don't really spend as much as the console players do when it comes to short cards. So yeah, that's a disturbing trend. So I think that kind of relays into why they delay the PC version is because they're financially not incentivized to. And this also explains why Red Dead Redemption 2 basically got laid out in pasture and killed. Why it got barely any post-launch content at all compared to GTAs, because GTA is just literally just a golden egg. It just keeps giving them free money. And they can literally just throw in whatever, they can literally just dive and take however much time they want with whatever GTA they want. Six, bully, whatever, they don't even need to make a bully. So when you ask them, so why do you make a midnight club? Why do you make a bully too? And it's like, look at the money. Why the hell would I even waste my time with that? When y'all suckers keep buying all these shark cards for the game. I'd rather just do the bare minimum and just get this boatload of profits and we can just take as long as we want with our next GTA title and just do whatever we want at whatever pace because you guys are still supporting it. Usually dev studios and publishers will move to the next game if that previous or current game is just running out of either players or it's running out of revenue, like it's not pulling in enough revenue. Then they'll be like, all right, we got to make something new. But clearly y'all just can't get off of GTA. So yeah, they're going to keep supporting it and probably told, I've seen things of people bringing children into the world since GTA 5 has been out. And now they're pretty much grown up, almost grown up since GTA 5 has been out. We still haven't seen 6. So yeah, I mean, none of this really shocks me. It kind of just reinforces what we've already said is that you say one thing, but the actions of what pretty much the broad gamers fear is, is that they, you say you don't like the way the industry is moving, but you aren't proving it with your wallet. You're instead reinforcing the bad habits of the industry.

Speaker 1:
[42:04] Yeah, I would actually go as far as to say, if I was a GTA fan and I saw those numbers, I'd be a little bit worried about GTA 6 and the quality of it. It can be something as simple as the story, the optimization of the gameplay, because what incentive do they have to innovate or push any type of boundaries when they're raking in that? Because I'm going to go ahead and say, I don't think that money for GTA 5 is going to stop the day GTA 6 comes out. If anything, it might amplify it. It might make some people go back and reminisce like three months later and they're back, my shot cards on both of them. I think to keep them on they toes, y'all should get off that goddamn game. We want GTA 6 to be as good as possible. And I just don't think they have the incentive to do anything. It's just raking in that money. But you know who's not raking in that money? Xbox. I mean, Microsoft is fine, but the Xbox division isn't. One of the things they've been fucking up with is the Game Pass to the point where the new CEO Asha released a memo company wide and it leaked online. One of the employees. And in that memo, they were talking about Xbox Game Pass is too expensive. Specifically in the memo, it said Game Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox. It's clear that the current pass model isn't the final one. She wrote in the memo short term Game Pass has become too expensive for players. So we need a better value equation long term. We will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system, which will take time to test and learn around. And then the very same week, this very same week that this memo came out, analysts in the industry said that Xbox should go the route of adding a lower tier for six dollars on the Game Pass that adds ads. Jay, how are we feeling about this? Too expensive? What's the solution? Do you want to add a tier?

Speaker 3:
[43:48] Um, I mean, I feel like that's like the cop out route. I don't think anyone truly wants to see that. But I think like maybe as an introductory type of system, you could probably get the ads. But this is funny, though, because while I don't think from a business standpoint, have we ever seen any situation like this where like there has been a price hike and then someone would like, hey, let's revert that. I don't think that happened like in business or if it has. I can't recall when that's ever happened. It's not like Disney Plus or Netflix who like, hey, you know what, I think this is too much. Let's go ahead and lower that price for you. They'll figure out a way again, the flexibility, that's a very key word that doing some heavy lifting would potentially be finding a way to put ads in there because there has to be a way for them to keep the system that they have and yet, you know, still raking that revenue. So I don't think we'll ever be seeing a price decrease here unless, you know, for some reason Asha comes through and is like, hey, like I'm delivering on my word. Let's go ahead and decrease this to figure out a better way to make these tiers. And then we also spoke about, again, you know, it may be playing it to the lower tier with the ads, but we're talking about, you know, potentially Call of Duty not being on the game pass anymore. And we also spoke about rumors of, which again may play further into this, restructuring the tiers that they also have. So we'll see, it's a lot of things moving around, a lot of gears that are moving. So we'll see how this works, but I don't think we'll see a price decrease, a price reversion from what they've already done, because I mean, it's business, capitalism, it's greed. So a lot of times when they talk about this, y'all ain't for the people. So it's not like you're going to get more people in here, or I mean, there's a very small possibility, but there were a lot of people that did not like their price increase at all. And a lot of, I'm pretty sure a lot of people canceled their subscription or lowered it. Like I was one who lowered it. I'm like, I don't even want this higher tier anymore. And I was on the PC game pass, which was already cheaper than the Xbox game pass. So I reverted my tier. I went down a level because I'm like, I don't even see the value of this. I'm gonna keep increasing the price and I just don't want to do it anymore. So we'll see what happens with this, but I don't think that Asha will be the savior of the game pass problem here. I think they'll just figure out a way to, again, they're gonna remove probably some games. They're gonna switch some things around and maybe again, add that ad tier. If not, in the lower tier, they're gonna put ads in maybe all the tiers, except for like the top two or something like that in order to still find a way to get that revenue. So we'll see. But I mean, yeah, I mean, the people have already spoken. They didn't like their price. Like, so what are you gonna do about it? Asha, are you gonna be the savior or are you gonna continue to be the villain? Cause people already are on your head since you stepped in day one. So we'll see.

Speaker 1:
[46:55] Yeah, I gotta call Cap on this story. Ever since she came in as CEO, the first thing she did was go on Twitter and try to act like, you know, she's part of the community, super down to earth. And then now we're getting articles about, oh, it just so happens that one of the first, you know, company memos that she wrote, it leaks online and it just so happens to be, we're going to lower the price of the game pass. That sounds great. But in reality, like you said, I've never seen any subscription service where they actually did go back in price. And realistically they can't because, okay, this sounds great on paper, but you know, that doesn't change the fact that you guys spent billions of dollars on Activision and Bethesda. Y'all gotta get your own money back, bro. Because, keep in mind, Xbox is just a division of Microsoft. The heads of Microsoft want their money back. So for me, this feels more like a PR play. Your work memo just happened to leak online. It's trying to get in the good graces of people to get people excited, but will they actually do it? I don't know. Now, this other thing that this dude was talking about, where they could potentially do a lower tier for $6 a month with ads. Man, get that shit the fuck out of here, bro. I'm not trying to be in any world where me, you and Ethos are in a call of duty lobby, and then out of nowhere watch is like, wait, don't boot up the next game. I got to watch 10 minutes of ads. Fuck no. That sounds like a horrible place to be. So absolutely not. I don't know what the solution is, but the beauty of it is that that's the corporation's problem, and that's your job to figure out how to earn my dollar. I cancel my shit. I'm not like Jay. I ain't roll that. We went a full-blown can. I said, I'm going to just buy my games from now on. I'm not dealing with none of this bullshit because they're going to keep playing with these prices. I don't like it until they figure it out. What do you think, Ethos?

Speaker 2:
[48:39] Yeah, I've been excommunicated from the Game Pass Church, so I really can't really say anything. It's been bad. I don't think anything that they currently do is going to make a lot of sense at this point. Everything's been trending worse and worse, and them just adding these new tiers. The whole point, as they said, was that the thing got too complicated. They made it too convoluted, I guess in a last-ditch effort to try to bring everything together to make a solid amount of revenue, and it ended up blowing up in their face. Then for them to just blow up the previous leaders of it, and then now we have Asha now, and this memo reinforces it, is that it explains a lot of the chaos with Microsoft right now, just a lot of the chaos with the game studios, about why we've always felt like, why can't they just go like, why can't they do like a Capcom a year? Why can't they do a year where they're dropping two to three games and they're all really good? They're all 85 plus reviewed, really positive games. It seems like Microsoft just can't do that anymore. It's a weird place to be in right now, and it really just comes down to how much can you just blow up and just try to read you from scratch, especially when you have all this convoluted back in foundational stuff that you guys already built in with Xbox and you're trying to integrate all these other studios that you purchase now into this ecosystem and try to make them use it. It just keeps adding more technical debt. I mean, it doesn't shock me. Microsoft's always been a company that always struggles with technical debt. It's always has been. They went to space, astronauts went to space and they had issues with Outlook. I don't know what else to describe this as except for, yeah, I agree with what you're saying. Like the ad, $6 ad thing or try to do it, like in my head, I'm just like, okay, maybe if something is like five bucks, someone could justify like if it was like five bucks, and the first time that you boot up the game, there's two minutes of ads that you have to watch before you can start playing the game. Maybe that is, I don't know. Maybe that's in a world where that kind of works. If you're talking five bucks a month, like I don't think a lot like that would go back to a time pre-inflation where I feel like most people would be like, yeah, I could suffer through, like Twitch, I could suffer through three minutes of ads if that gives me the full game library again. But I do agree, that will never be the case. So we're talking what would probably happen, which is what you're saying, which is like if they make it where while you're playing the game, there's a period of time where maybe they put you on pause or some way somehow while you're in the middle of a gaming session, ads come up. Yeah, it's gonna be a bad look, but we've already had games already posting ads. 2K is notoriously terrible at this. They've been showing ads for what? How long? A couple of years now?

Speaker 1:
[51:18] It's been like a decade if you want to take a look. Since 2018 when they introduced the neighborhood, the ads would be on the billboards and stuff.

Speaker 2:
[51:25] Yeah. It really comes down to how do you do this? Because even if you go on Xbox's home page, I'm pretty sure there's ads on that. PlayStation, I think, also has ads on its home screen. So it's how nefarious or how front-facing do you force them? Do you force them like Twitch where it's like, you've got to watch this thing to proceed? Or do you put them in a corner somewhere? Like where it's like a little sidebar? I don't know, but I agree with what you're saying. This isn't nothing that we have to worry about because we're consumers.

Speaker 3:
[51:52] We decide to get it.

Speaker 1:
[51:53] Don't ever forget it.

Speaker 2:
[51:54] Yeah. Good luck. Figure that out. But yeah, I think a lot of it is, what it sounds like is like Xbox needs to do a lot of soul searching right now. It seems like there was that talk about, now they're talking about re-nigging on exclusives now. They want to go back to having exclusives now. There's a lot of like, it seems like that, I describe it as, okay, this is a great analogy. I describe it as what happened with Star Wars with the sequel trilogy. A lot of what happened with The Last Jedi and the final movie where it was just like, Last Jedi went to a completely different direction and some people liked it and a lot of people hated it. Then they tried to go back to what it previously was. They basically re-nigged on a lot of the story choices of Last Jedi for the final one, and then Return of the Jedi was, Rise of the Skywalker was ass as a result of this. No one likes Rise of the Skywalker. It was terrible too. So it's like, you kind of can't win either way. And unless you decide on a path forward here and you say, okay, for next gen, we're gonna do it right this time, or we're gonna set off the ground running with exclusives, and Gears isn't gonna be on PlayStation. Yeah, but I think we already had knowledge of, this is my guess, the whole word of Sony pulling back from PC and other stuff, I think this is Microsoft, that's basically telling Microsoft, okay, if they're gonna pull back, then we need to pull back away from giving Sony our games or whatever it is. Or they're not gonna care because we need the money. We're so far in the hole because we bought all these companies. We have to rely on Sony's revenue because they have a big part of the market space.

Speaker 1:
[53:22] I feel like I shouldn't be giving y'all a game because it's not my job. I mean, this is a gaming podcast, we're gonna talk at a little bit of a higher level. I feel like there is a solution going forward for Project Helix, whatever you guys decide to finally call the next Xbox. Here's a solution. I feel like in the last two years, especially in the last six months, we've been talking more about Xbox's business model than their fucking games, okay? Why are we, every episode, we're talking about Game Pass. Oh, maybe they will bring exclusives back, maybe they won't. We be talking about everything but the fucking games. You guys know when you guys fucked up. I'm going to give you an example of how they could have made some money. When Expedition 33 won Game of the Year, which by the way, they just won another award, I think like today.

Speaker 3:
[54:03] At the Bastas, what they won at the Bastas, but was there another one? But the Bastas was the last one.

Speaker 1:
[54:08] But back in December, when they were just sliding on everybody and getting all the goddamn awards, a lot of people said, oh, I never even heard of this game. Nobody played this. Everybody who played Expedition 33 knew it was going to win Game of the Year. But I also don't think the people who said, I've never heard of this game were lying. That was Microsoft's chance to step up and run an ad. Hey, guys, 25% off this month for the Game Pass. Because did you know the Game of the Year is on the Game Pass? The best game of last year was on the Game Pass, and they did nothing with it, bro. It was right there. So I'm like, we need to get back to talking about the game, because you had one right there, but you didn't talk about it at all. So I don't get it. I feel like we're talking more about their business. Just put out bangers, bangers, bangers. They are going to be doing that. We announced a showcase for Gears of War on June 7th, I believe, but we need more than Gears of War.

Speaker 2:
[55:00] Gears ain't going to save it. I don't think Halo can save it.

Speaker 1:
[55:04] We need new ideas.

Speaker 2:
[55:05] Yeah, I don't think Microsoft can save it. Do we rely on Elder Scrolls to save it? No. Call of Duty can't save it. Call of Duty couldn't save them. It's like, nothing can save you. Call of Duty can't get you your revenue. You're cooked.

Speaker 1:
[55:18] I think they need a new Trinity. They need a new Forza, Halo, Gears of War going into the next generation, and it should be exclusive. The old stuff that you gave away to PS5 just to not ruffle feathers, let them keep it. I think that's the solution. Let them keep Halo. Yeah, but the new stuff, it needs to be exclusive to Project Helix. What do you think, Jay, in regards to these rumors?

Speaker 3:
[55:42] Yeah, I mean, we talked about this before, but yeah, I do agree. Like, whatever y'all gave to them, just let them have it, but anything going forward, just go back to it. Like I said, if Sony is pulling back and they don't want to play ball anymore, then you need to do the same. There's no reason why you should continue to give them what will potentially be console sellers when we go forward. But yeah, y'all just need to come up with the games, because like I said, you need to figure out where you want to be, you need to figure out what type of company that you're going to be. I don't necessarily think that the game passing, going all in on the game pass will ultimately get you back to a place of, I don't even want to say dominance, because y'all weren't really dominant, but y'all did have a corner of the market. Y'all had an identity and y'all had certain type of games that people flock to, and y'all were really quintessential with the whole multiplayer aspect with the Xbox Live and the Party Chat system on console, because that just wasn't heard of, it wasn't done back then. Now we have Discord, so you're no longer at the forefront of that type of market. You need to truly figure out where you want to be, but it's going to start and end with the games at the end of the day. Don't worry about anything else. I think trying to figure out the game pass, while it will help, I don't think again that's going to bring you anywhere near where you once were, and especially with your diehard fans. All that they care about is bringing out the games that they care about, and making sure that those are exclusive to their favorite system and their favorite system only. So just show up to games, focus on that, get all your studios together, get all the, especially the ones that you recently acquired. And we talk about the company not truly understanding their market, but you need to get at least the assets that you have, the resources you acquired and get them to make something that people care about. People don't necessarily care about some of the same franchises that got Xbox and Microsoft where they were. So, yeah, I agree they need to come out with some new IPs and make sure that those are at the forefront of the next generation that people will truly care about and resonate with.

Speaker 1:
[58:02] So I think also they could maybe start doing like a weekly or maybe monthly show. They need like a new like Major Nelson that can, they need curated playlists for the Game Pass. I think there's so much content on there. So if somebody doesn't have time to listen to a podcast like this or read your iTunes or your game spots, you need somebody curating. Cause I guarantee you a lot of people listening now did not know that replaced what that I just talked about earlier was on the Game Pass. So if they could do like a monthly video, just talking about why you should play these games on the Game Pass and maybe give like a 10% discount. I feel like they just got to try a little bit harder, put a little bit more effort forth versus just like, at most you'll get is like an article on IGN saying, these are the games coming to Game Pass. Well, what about the people who don't read those platforms? The person who just goes to work and comes home boots up the Xbox, boots up the PlayStation. They need some different type of avenue to get the eyeballs on the games, I think, because let me get back to the conversation of the games. Oh, let me ask y'all this too. Fable, they came out, I think towards the end of last week's podcast, it was like a rumor that came out that said that it might get delayed. Well, that's updated. They went to Twitter and they said, no, we're coming out fall of 2026. It's not 2027, so it's still coming out this year. You don't have to worry about that. Do y'all think Fable should be? Because it's a reboot. Y'all think they should make that an exclusive?

Speaker 2:
[59:22] Yes, 100%.

Speaker 3:
[59:23] Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[59:24] This needs to get locked down. I don't think PlayStation should get this. If you're going to really be serious about reneging on exclusives, that should be the first one that stops. It looks really good. It looks really good.

Speaker 1:
[59:34] People are excited about it too.

Speaker 2:
[59:36] That could be a Game of the Year nomination. If they deliver on what they showed in that preview, that game could easily slot in as a Game of the Year nomination. They might actually have a banger on their hands. The question is, are they ready for that? Do they even expect that this game was going to be as good as it ended up being received when they showed off that recent showcase? Yeah, I think it's probably too late. I feel like if the game is coming out this year, I don't know if they have enough time to re-nig on PlayStation at this point. But if any game would do it, yeah, I'd hope it'd be, I mean, I'd hope, but yeah, it would probably be fabled.

Speaker 1:
[60:14] Okay. What about you, Jay?

Speaker 3:
[60:16] Yeah, absolutely. It needs to remain an exclusive. Don't let Sony or Nintendo get this. Or PC, that matter. Keep it there. I mean, obviously, the ecosystem is there. But I want you to hone in on this is an exclusive, just to make sure that everyone understands. Yeah, and that's cool that at least the fall, I mean, the fall of April team came out and said that it's still coming out in 2026, but that still doesn't, I mean, they can say that it's not delayed, but it could be, they still could work around, again, depending on when Gta 6 finally does come out, if it does come out the same area, they could go up or down, move it up or down. So we'll see, but still coming out in 2026, and they have at least confirmed that, that's good. But yeah, definitely make this an exclusive, bang people over the head with it, and don't give it to anybody else.

Speaker 1:
[61:12] Don't give it to nobody else. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, but PlayStation, there's a rumor floating around. So this first, this rumor came out a couple of weeks ago, saying that Sony Santa Monica is working on a new God of War that will star Faye, which was the wife of Kratos, and it would be a prequel. We now have more rumors involving that game, same game with Faye, but they're saying that it will involve other mythologies, not just the Greek or the Norse mythology, but specifically in this article, it says, according to MP first, the yet to be announced God of War prequel game will feature several different mythologies with suggestions that the Mayans will be featured. However, the publication seems more certain that East Asian mythologies will be making a showing in the game and elements from Chinese and Japanese mythologies will play a part in a new entry in the series. The publication also noted that game development is fickle, meaning take it with a grain of salt. Although all these things might have been on the table, doesn't mean it's all going to make it into the final game. I will go ahead and say, this is cool, but I was hoping we would go to Egypt after the last one, all the hinting, now we're talking about going back and doing a prequel and Faye is cool, but I was looking forward to the whole Egypt thing. Then on the other side too, I'm God award the fuck out as well. Ragnarok didn't really hit for me like that, so even still, I'm not super excited about this. I feel like I would have to see some gameplay. Then what would the story be if they included every mythology? Is there some big ass treaty going on and maybe she breaks the treaty between the gods or something like that? What are we thinking about this, Ethos?

Speaker 2:
[62:54] I don't know. I feel like this is one of those things where it's like, I really don't have even a feeling towards any of these rumors regarding God of War is pretty cool or whatever this is. I feel like it's just one of the things where I have to see it, to see if I even will remotely care about this. I kind of in the same boat. I don't think I'm really like, I wouldn't say I'm tired out of God of War, but I'm not just gung-ho about it. So I'll play it. I've played both of them and I enjoyed them for what they were. But I don't think I'm salivating at the opportunity to play another one. If it comes up, I'm like, cool, I can play this. But I'm not like, I absolutely need to play this. I need them to release this. I think the Fay Angle is interesting. Dilling with his wife before she passed away, there's a lot of lore there with the Giants. There's a lot of really cool stuff that you can do there. There's also Freya is another option. You could also go, I think it would be interesting to explore, because she's already been very involved within the new trilogy, the reboot. So that's another area they could explore. I do think that, and this is not even their fault, it's more like not even China's fault, but it's more like China has been releasing a lot of Eastern mythology type of games. And then Korea has their own as well. So you had stuff like Wu-Chang, and then you had stuff like Black Miff Wu-Kong.

Speaker 1:
[64:08] Big Chicken.

Speaker 2:
[64:09] Yeah. You're seeing from the East, they're producing a lot of these quote unquote God of War likes, I would argue, these action games that have already been coming out, or about to come out. And I feel like they've been filling in that void that God of War has just been MIA from, because obviously their game takes a while to make. So I feel like if you go in and you're just like, oh, we're going to make a prequel and it's going to be like, and Wukong's the character is going to be like, okay, well, I mean, we just played Black Myth Wukong. So I don't know, or, you know, that sort of thing. So I don't know if it's really like the culture aspects where I'm just like, okay, these aren't really like cultures that like, like I'm excited to really play again, because I've played already like four of them already in a row, because Chinese studios are just dropping a bunch of them right now. And, you know, maybe it's just a thing that obviously Santa Monica just didn't predict. Who knows? Or maybe this is just all, you know, BS and it's just smoke screen to cover that like maybe it is going to be Egypt. We already saw Assassin's Creed that like one of the most interesting ones they had was Origins because it was in Egypt. It was very unique and it was probably one of their best Assassin's Creed games that they made for the modern RPG version. So I mean, like, there's a lot of like, interesting stuff. I'm shocked, like I'm really shocked that they haven't even considered even more like African lore like South African or just other aspects of Africa, their types of mythologies as well. Another one that I think is heavily, heavily underutilized is definitely like Southern American lore, definitely Bayou type lore, basically South of Midnight type lore. I think there's a huge window of that mythology that could be used. There's a lot of folklore and lore that's been built through, like just the United States and the different parts of the United States, like that I think could be explored further, that I just don't think have ever been touched by a lot of video games. So, God of War could go to that direction.

Speaker 1:
[65:51] You think a certain audience would be okay with like Kratos coming to America and slaughtering their gods?

Speaker 2:
[65:57] Well, I don't think Kratos needs to be the one to do it. Like someone else, obviously, make a new character or something like that. All I know is that if it is going to be Freya, I'm not looking forward to that discourse because we know what it's going to be. We know a thousand percent what they're going to say. The same thing they say about every single Sony game, about, oh, you're erasing masculinity. There's no males anymore. You replaced all the main characters with women now, blah, blah, blah. I'm already tired just thinking about what I already can imagine this new God of War, if it ends up being a Freya prequel, the reaction that it's going to get, and it's going to be the new targeted thing that people are going to be mad about and causing people to get upset and discourse about. So I'm just not looking forward to any of this. It's just like, I'm just going to play for myself and just see if I like it or not. I do think there's a lot of opportunities of different places where I think Santa Monica can really make some really interesting stuff. But I mean, I've heard a lot of stuff. I've heard rumors that Corey Barlog wanted to make a sci-fi game after he was done with God of War.

Speaker 1:
[66:58] Do that because that's what I was about to say. I was about to say, I'm actually more worried that Sony Santa Monica is becoming the new Naughty Dog, where it's like they're just very complacent.

Speaker 2:
[67:06] They're remaking God of War, right?

Speaker 1:
[67:08] Yeah, they're already announced. They're remaking God of War. There's a rumor there's a new one. Let's not forget, they just put out that God of War 2D game that flopped. Is this the God of War studio? Can we get something? I know you guys are super talented. I know there has to be something else you want to do. I would love for them to do something else. One of my favorite things that Respawn did is out of nowhere, they came at it with fucking CalCestus. There's no way the Titanfall company, you would have told me before that they were going to come out with a Star Wars game. And this shit was fucking amazing. So I have no doubt in my mind that a team like Sony Santa Monica should go make something else that's inspirational. I feel like we just haven't gotten enough time to miss God of War. So then it comes across like you and I are almost like hating on it. It's like, nah, I feel like we need a break from this shit, man.

Speaker 2:
[67:53] Yeah. I mean, it's good. Like Ragnarok was what it was. Like I wasn't like blown away by it. But like a lot of people, like, you know, there's a decent amount of people.

Speaker 1:
[68:00] Puzzle Rock.

Speaker 2:
[68:01] Yeah, there's a decent amount of people that liked the game. You know, like they loved it. It wasn't going to be as good as Elmery. But it was solid enough. Like and I don't know. I just feel like it's weird. I just I am looking forward to seeing what Santa Monica can come up with. I agree with what you're saying. I do think that they can make something really cool. But of course, like, you know, there's just so much weird things right now that are like with games and the IPs and what they're working on. Like I want them to do a new IP. I want them to do like a Pragmata. I want them to make something that's like completely outside the box of what I'd expect. I want to have that moment where I'm watching like the Game Awards or something like that. And it says, man, you know, Santa Monica Studios and it's like, whoa, like this is not God of War. What the hell is this? It's like a completely brand new type of thing. Yeah, like there's a bunch of stuff like, but I just don't know. I just don't care. Like it's weird. And I mean, it's like trying to like hate on it. It's just, I just don't feel anything different. Yeah, just indifferent about it. I just got to speak for myself.

Speaker 3:
[69:06] No. Going to what Ethos said, yeah, I don't want to see again, the discourse of having the woman as a main protagonist and another like any type of game that's like, you know, for the longest it's been male dominated. Oh, just Mass Play Cradle, just loved everybody. It everybody. It all the girls. Like, I don't, I'm not trying to see a world where we have a prequel and it's starting to fade. It's starting to fade and nobody cares about her or do fray. And nobody cares about her even though you've seen her in the, in the remakes or the reboots of, of God of War. But they could take us in a lot of different directions, but also we're meant to want to eat those points. Even though a lot of people in the West may not know about like Chinese mythology or Korean mythology, let them tell those stories. I don't feel like it's Santa Monica's job to tell those stories, but if you, if you could do it in a unique way that will draw people in, cool. But I don't think it will be necessary if this rumor is true. So we'll see. But I don't think that a prequel is something that I was looking forward to with God of War. And like you all said, I do kind of want to see something different from Santa Monica outside of just any new God of War in remaking the previous God of Wars, because you're at this point just a one trick pony. So I do want to see something else other than just another God of War, whether it's directly related to Kratos or if it's a spinoff of the main story, whether you were talking about the original trilogy or the reboot. So yeah, I do want to see some different too.

Speaker 1:
[70:44] Fair enough, fair enough. We'll see how it plays out as the days go on. That rumor wasn't expected. And then also, I don't think this rumor was expected. Let's move over to film a little bit. An animated Bloodbourne movie was announced at CinemaCon this past week where we got a bunch of announcements and it's being produced by Sony Pictures and YouTuber Jack Septiceye. I was really confused by this one. I was like, what does he have to do with anything? But apparently I learned from talking to the chat that he is one of the biggest Bloodbourne fans in the world. And he released a statement reassuring everybody that the film that they are producing will be amazing. I'm going to do everything in my power to make this the best Bloodbourne adaptation possible. Not only is it my favorite game ever made, but I know how truly passionate the fans of these games are. We all play Souls games here. Animated film being produced by a YouTuber, big budget. Ethos, do you think the Bloodbourne fans will be happy with this one?

Speaker 2:
[71:46] No, we want a fucking game. We don't want to play it, not watch it.

Speaker 1:
[71:51] I don't care about this.

Speaker 2:
[71:52] I want to play the game. I mean, if it's dope, it's dope. I'll watch it. If it's dope, if it's good, and I'm like, oh, it's very cool, I'll watch it. Bloodbourne has a really cool world. But like, again, we want the game. We want the game, bro. We don't try to watch a movie, man.

Speaker 1:
[72:12] Yeah, I don't really care about this movie. And I go as far as to say I'm worried for Bloodbourne fans because no shade to Jacksepticeye. But from what I've seen, he's just an Irish PewDiePie. He just screams while he plays random indie games and shit. What the fuck does that have to do with, you know, animating a movie or even producing it? Like those are two different skill sets.

Speaker 2:
[72:35] Markiplier was the same thing, but that movie he did made a bunch of money.

Speaker 1:
[72:42] I watched it, no comment. Yeah, you did go see it, yeah, you did go see it. I watched it, no comment. The fans loved it, 100%. It made a lot of money and it was successful. Was it a good movie?

Speaker 3:
[72:56] I mean, it was a first attempt. It was his first attempt. I'm going to disagree with y'all. Remember, this is one notch on the board. I'm going to disagree with what you said. This goes into what I was talking about last week or earlier this week. I am not upset with any content creator following their passions because this sounds like this is a passion for Jacksepticeye. Like you, I've known about Jacksepticeye for a while, but he's not my cup of tea. I don't watch him and I didn't know that he was one of the biggest Bloodbourne fans out here. So for him to take the helm and be like, hey, I want to make a Bloodbourne movie. I give him all the credit, go for it to do it. But I just hope that he is aware that even though he's one of the biggest fans, people are going to be super duper critical of whatever you come out with. So I hope that in some form or fashion, you have a lifeline to From Software and Miyazaki. Get his blessing because if you don't, whatever you come out with is automatically going to be destined to fail. So I just hope that you have that, at least something that brings him in or brings someone that's adjacent to Miyazaki in so that you can make this one of the greatest things ever. But going back to what Ethos said, people just want to see a damn game. So for you to be announcing this, people are like, what the fuck? This ain't a video game. So what are you doing here? But I do give Jad Sceptickeye credit. You're literally at a point, what else are you going to do here? So if this is one of his passion projects, hey, spend the resources, get the team that you feel is going to make this into one of the biggest bangers ever and make it happen, bro. But just know that you are going to be looked at with a super critical microscope here. So just be prepared for that, you know, if you proceed with this project.

Speaker 1:
[74:44] Yeah, no, I'm not knocking anybody for like following, following their dreams and shit like that. It's more so like, I'm gonna go to this top comment and he says, well, this dude Augusto, he says, I don't trust anyone who thinks Jad Sceptickeye won't do the project justice. I've seen his playthroughs and he's probably, he's absolutely has a love and appreciation for the game. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying he doesn't love or appreciate the game. What I'm saying is there is a difference between being a film director and a YouTuber. And like, I hope people understand that they're like you. That's a big thing to jump like it could. And that's that's I kind of half agree with you, Jay. He's got balls because your credibility is going to take a hit if you fuck this movie up. I'm going to tell you that you're going to piss a lot of people off. But that's all I'm trying to say is like, there is a difference between producing a YouTube video and a feature long length film, especially for something that people adorn. I hope he has a good team around him to help support him with that stuff. I'm not saying he can't do it. I'm hoping.

Speaker 3:
[75:37] Yeah, I think what's going to happen is just like any other person that has money and has influence. He's going to be an executive producer. I don't think he's going to have full producer, right?

Speaker 1:
[75:47] Consultant probably.

Speaker 3:
[75:48] Yeah, he's going to be.

Speaker 1:
[75:49] That's what he's doing.

Speaker 3:
[75:51] Yeah, I mean, I could be wrong. You know, he may take it to a point where he actually wants to produce it. And this is why I say if you're going to go that route, you need to get Miyazaki on board or someone from software because you're going to fuck this up in some form or fashion, especially if like this is like you're official. Like I said, I don't know what else you'd be doing in the background. But this will be like your first like big project that has been announced. So for you to come out and be like, hey, I understand your concerns, but like, I'm not going to mess this up. I'm going to do I'm going to do this justice. Get with the right people, because you never know what Miyazaki is even thinking. Like I said, I don't know if he's spoken to the dude or anybody from From Software. But if we literally have this controversy came out about Sony and making a remake of Bloodbourne or anything or even a Bloodbourne 2, and he's like, hey, I can't do it. But like, this is my baby. This is my passion project. You don't want to piss him off. You know, fuck the fans. You don't want to piss him off. And if you truly care about the art, if you truly care about Miyazaki from Software, then this is a very bold thing to do. So like I said, get his blessing first. If you don't get that, then just forget it. But I think at bare minimum, he's going to be an executive producer and he's just going to provide his consulting and he's going to provide his resources, AKA money, in order to get this done.

Speaker 1:
[76:59] All right, this is what I asked before we move on to the next topic. Jack, at bare minimum, if you see this podcast and you guys get to animating the movie, make sure the final cut of the movie runs at 24 frames per second, just like the game. All right, next topic. Pay hummus to the game. That's what I want to see. I want to see that slow. Jokes aside, well, no, because it's animation. It's probably going to need a higher frame rate. Yeah, that was the same. It was live action. 24 would be fine.

Speaker 2:
[77:26] That just stutters. Just a little bit.

Speaker 3:
[77:27] All right. Shit.

Speaker 1:
[77:31] Other films. We got a new look at the Street Fighter movie Hittin Theaters October 16th, 50 Cent, Andrew Schultz. Street Fighter movie. Anybody? Thoughts?

Speaker 3:
[77:43] Looks hilariously bad, man. But I will say it looks slightly more interesting than that Mortal Kombat 2 trailer. But I'm just like, I'm not excited about any of this. We're seeing more about this movie. I don't want to say that I'm being a hater. Yeah, man, I know it's going to fail. I know my flock type of Tom because he just hates everything Street Fighter. It's crazy. Years later, this man was like, because one game did not put the guy in the base game. He's like a punch street fighter forever. So I know his type of Tom. Like I said, I don't want it to fail. I'm not trying to be a hater about it, but it just looks hilariously bad. I just don't know a world where someone's like, hey, let's just reboot Street Fighter and make it live action. It just has not worked. It didn't work back then, and I don't think it's gonna work now. But we'll see. Y'all ain't even get a think, Chun-Li. Like, what we doing here? Y'all ain't get a think, Kambi. Y'all had those little interactions there. And I'm just like, nah, man, I don't know if this is gonna be video game accurate. I don't know if anybody's gonna truly care. Obviously, we've seen more of the basis of the story here. You got Ken Master just being a freaking crash out, thinking that he's just on top of the world, but now you got Ryu coming and trying to help his friend. And I'm just like, does anybody want to see that? Like you say, in all these cameos, all these other characters in Street Fighter, I see they try to pay homage to the tower with them bison on there. But I'm like, will that nostalgia be enough to make this into a decent movie? I just think people, especially us millennials and going further than that, we've seen this already. We're just like, we're not expecting anything good from this. Like I said, bare minimum is gonna be just an hilariously bad movie. But I don't think anybody, again, is expecting anything good to come from this. Like it's just gonna be one of those movies that just fall by the wayside and it's gonna be put in that same bucket of bad video game adaptions, to movie adaptions.

Speaker 1:
[79:46] I disagree with you. I'm taking all that, another disagreement.

Speaker 3:
[79:49] All right.

Speaker 1:
[79:50] Not necessarily your opinion, but in terms of how the general sentiment of it is, I was actually hawking social media when this trailer dropped, because when I watched it, in my head I was thinking, I was like, am I a hater? Because I was like, this shit asked to me, bruh. And I'm gonna do that in a second. But if you go look on Twitter for the link, for the video that I had posted, the trailer, the overall sentiment was very positive. They were like, oh, this looks amazing.

Speaker 3:
[80:13] Wait a minute, yeah, they like it, huh?

Speaker 1:
[80:15] Yeah, and go watch on YouTube. The comments are very positive. I was like, are we looking at the same thing? A lot of people were saying that they like the fact that the film doesn't take itself too seriously and it's cheesy. And I like a good cheesy movie. It's just like, I was watching the trailer and it's very obvious it's supposed to be cheesy, but it's not the good kind. It's, I didn't smile, I didn't smirk. I was like, this just looks bad to me. And then I think the end for me was when towards the end of the trailer, when Cammie turned around and I was like, bro, where her ass at, bro, like I hate to be that dude, but I was like, come on. I was like, she not caked up. Charlie don't got to be caked up, but she got to have at least the thick legs and shit. I was like, what the fuck is this movie, bro? I was like, I don't know about this stuff. Kim and Ken didn't really look good. I think the one casting that did look good is the dude playing Zangief. He looks really good. 50 looks okay is like Bull Rock, but I think I'm not saying I wouldn't watch it, but I was like, I don't think I would go to movie theaters for this. I'd wait for it to hit streaming services or allegedly online. I like that Avatar movie. What do you think, Ethos, Street Fighter movie?

Speaker 2:
[81:18] There's no Avatar movie. Yeah, I don't really have an opinion, just I saw it, I was like, cool. Then I saw Chumlee's lack of thighs and I said, cool. That was it. I'll probably see it when it's on HBO Max.

Speaker 1:
[81:40] Whenever it's supposed to come to. Well, what about the, what's your take on Metro 2039? The latest entry in the Metro series that was recently announced. Absolute Cinema. Yeah, let me get an actual opinion on this one then. 18 minute Dev Diary dropped a six minute trailer. Mostly CG with a little bit of gameplay towards the end. I thought the Dev Diary was a little bit more interesting, but why do you think it was Cinema, Ethos?

Speaker 2:
[82:06] Because I love the last one. I loved all of them. Honestly, I don't need to watch anything from Metro. I saw the trailer, I saw the cool thing with the chains and stuff, I was like, oh, we go in there. This is a Ukrainian studio. So they're equating, the director, I think, I saw on Twitter, they said that effectively, he said like, this is going to be the darkest Metro we've ever made and it's going to be very like political. And the timing of it with the Ukrainian war, with Russia.

Speaker 1:
[82:42] Oh yeah, they said that in the Dev Diary, they said it, it interrupted, the war interrupted their development.

Speaker 2:
[82:46] Their development, yep. So yeah, I think even in the trailer, like obviously, like there's Nazis, there's always been Nazis in Metro. And for the tourists that don't know shit about Metro, Metro has always been political, even the books that it's inspired off of, is political. As a matter of fact, the character you play as is a Russian Jew. I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 1:
[83:05] Russian Jew, what the hell?

Speaker 2:
[83:07] Yeah, he's a Dyspora Jew that like left and went over to Russia and then is dealing with, you know, all the mess of like the Nazis and stuff like that. So yeah, I mean, I can't stress enough. Metro was good. The last Metro was really good too. Exodus, I think was, yeah, that game was really cool. The Last Light was really cool. Metro 2020, I forgot what the OG one was called, but yeah, that one I really enjoyed. I liked all of them. That's just reminded me, I have to go back to finish Exodus because I don't think I finished it, but I got pretty far into it. But if you like survival games, you like shooting games, like tactical game, but you want it like in a single player setting, like a little survival horror, I think this game's right up your block. It's always had really good writing and the story's really been all really good. And it's always been a graphical like powerhouse on PC.

Speaker 1:
[83:55] Yeah, I was going to say what kind of got me with this one, as you can just tell from the gameplay that they show, this is going to be darker than all the other ones. The lighting and the little bit of gameplay that they showed was immaculate. It looks like they're leaning more towards-

Speaker 2:
[84:07] Very close to the CGI trailer, very close to it.

Speaker 1:
[84:09] It looks like they're leaning more towards like survival horror versus the other ones were kind of action shooters with survival horror elements. This looks like a straight like survival horror type of game. And I'm welcoming it because there's a lot of crazy creatures in the universe and it seems like they're leaning into it. This looks like a game that is like, you better make sure your PC is up to date because it's looking beefy. So and I think the crazy part about this when they announced it, they said it's coming out this year. I was like, what the fuck? I was like, bro, there's too many fucking games. So I definitely want to get on this one.

Speaker 3:
[84:40] What do you think?

Speaker 2:
[84:40] Game of the Year.

Speaker 1:
[84:41] What do you think, Jay?

Speaker 3:
[84:43] I'm not a Metro fan. I remember I tried to play Exodus and it wasn't really for me. But that trailer did kind of hook me. It was like on some control type of vibes almost for me. Seeing the change and just seeing the propaganda, the stuff that was in this, trying to get in his head and stuff. I was like, damn, that trailer kind of sold me on maybe trying this one out and seeing how it is. But yeah, it looks super freaking dark. Those are the type of thing that I kind of like. When it comes to a video game, so it definitely seemed like something that from just a trailer standpoint, and maybe like the plot of it that I may take another look at, and it maybe want to get into it. It looked dope, man. The cinematics were off the chain. Like Ethos said, it was pure cinema there. I like that. Yeah, so I liked it, man. I liked it. So we'll see. We'll see if I end up trying it out.

Speaker 1:
[85:45] Okay. Okay. Okay. This article is pretty interesting. I feel like this one kind of flew under the radar. Polygon reported Disney's steam purged continues with 15 more games pulled that were published by Disney. And the reason that I'm bringing this up is because either the last week or the week before that episode, we covered the rumor that Disney is considering buying out Epic. And I made the argument that that would be terrible. It would make it terrible for Indie developers. They would be trying to rob y'all. They would make it harder to use the engine that means they could just pull whatever game they want off the store if it's not generating whatever revenue that they want. And then this article came out this week saying they pulled 15 games off of steam. Fucking proving my point. I just wanted to bring this back up. This is why we don't want that rumor for Disney to be buying Epic to be true. Does anybody have any take? That's all I wanted to put in there. Warning.

Speaker 2:
[86:39] Yeah, that's a sign. Get ready for another exclusive platform thing on PC. I think Disney, either Disney is what you said, maybe is considering Epic or they're considering launching their own like exclusive Disney launcher platform where, you know, you play all the Disney games on there. Is that that's usually the only sign about why they'd be mass removing them from?

Speaker 1:
[87:00] Ain't nobody downloading that, but soccer moms, if that shit really does come out, Disney adults. Oh yeah, forget about them. Yeah, banging on my existence. Jay, any thoughts?

Speaker 3:
[87:10] You know, I mean, this. Oh, go ahead.

Speaker 2:
[87:12] Never mind.

Speaker 1:
[87:13] Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 2:
[87:15] Oh, no, no, no, we can't talk about it on the podcast.

Speaker 3:
[87:22] Yeah, this is interesting. I mean, the game is obviously a freaking guy in High School Musical 3 on here. Bolt, I mean, Chicken Little, The White Platters again, but maybe the Disney adults and actual children.

Speaker 1:
[87:32] It's not games that matter. But the point is, this is how it starts.

Speaker 3:
[87:35] Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm going to get to. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I see this as a sign. I mean, you doing you doing this. And yeah, I'm seeing a takeover and these games will ultimately live on the Epic Games store. Or if they don't do that, the reason why they're doing it in it goes back into like game preservation, right? Like, I don't think people care about the majority of these games. But still, the principle is there that you can't buy these games anymore on Steam unless you already own them. And this is people's problem with game preservation, because like, why are you taking that from us? Probably with digital versus physical and even still, like a lot of physical games that they weren't super old, you won't get a chance to play them either because if they turn the servers off and it's that type of game, then you won't be able to play that either. So that's what worries me as well. So it's like twofold. It's game preservation. And yeah, this is setting up for Disney getting Epic. And then they're just going to push all the games over there. So it's going to be like you said, TVH, another platform exclusivity type of thing, which I'm not necessarily mad at, but taking your games off, I'm like damn man, like that's a huge red flag for me. So we will see what is happening, but I don't want people to just harp on, you know, the games that they took off. Like I don't give a crap about them. It's more of the principle as to why they're potentially doing this rather than the games themselves.

Speaker 1:
[89:06] And then last but not least, I don't know if there was some of it today, but literally like right before we started recording, two big pieces of Dragon Ball news dropped and anime fans like Moff2Flames are just eating it up. And I literally said it right before we started recording. Anime gamers, y'all might be worse to me than the 2K and the bad. Before I said y'all were cousins, y'all might be worse to me. So Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 was announced as well as Dragon Ball Sparking Zero Super Limit-Breaking Neo, which is a DLC update with a new game mode and a bunch of million different characters. But first of all, let's touch on Xenoverse 3. I think this is the big one that's got people going crazy. Because the one thing I will give the Xenoverse series is they do have original storylines with the time traveling thing in trunks. So I think that's why people are excited in being able to build your own character. But you're giggling. Why are you giggling, Jay, about the Xenoverse?

Speaker 3:
[90:05] Man, y'all are anime, bro. Cooked, bro. I can't believe that band get y'all every single time with this shit. I truly don't understand. I was literally looking at just the Xenoverse 3 announcement. And it was so many people that were just posting stills of Piccolo. They were like, yeah, he's ore farming. People were like, oh, this is peak. People were like, I pray for times like this. Why do y'all keep getting excited about this stuff? Saving the Bees, shout out to Saving the Bees. He already opened this up when we had him on the podcast years ago. He was like, look, Bandai Namco has to keep bringing out games for these IPs. And it doesn't matter how good or bad that they are, if they don't come out with these video games and they're going to lose the IP. So this makes perfect sense as to why you continuously see at this point. I'm going to use the word slop. But you see in Xenoverse 3, you see in Sparking Zero, you see nothing unique. You see one, okay, you got a new character, fine. But I'm like, bro, y'all get in the same fucking game just with a new character. Y'all will think that this shit is hot. Like, I don't understand why y'all can't just demand something new.

Speaker 1:
[91:16] You know they go curting your ass in the comments, right? They're going to be like, it's not the same. At the core, Sparking Zero and Xenoverse 3 are the same game. They're a 3D arena fighter. They're, yes, they're a little intricacies that are different, but at the core, I don't know why that's even a fucking argument. They are the same goddamn game, dude.

Speaker 3:
[91:34] Like I can see one, like I'm, but two, like, why both of these? Like I just, I don't understand the mindset of getting excited for the same game over and over and over. Like we were excited about Tinkai, T-Log, like it just started dragging them all to like, oh, I just really want it. And then when y'all finally get what y'all wanted, then y'all enjoyed it for like a week or so. And then like the super diehard people stayed on it, but ultimately those games fall over on the wayside and nobody played it anymore. Like y'all are legit like the 2K ball and gun niggas. Y'all just play the same shit and y'all don't care what's being served to you. You're just going to continue to buy it and continue to consume it. But I just, I totally understand why like y'all were like extra excited about this. Like this is like the next coming of Jesus here. Like that's the part that really baffles me. I'm not, I'm not saying don't be excited, but it's just the way that y'all were excited over the same stuff and not something new just really blows me.

Speaker 1:
[92:34] I think the sparking zero DLC, I think they said it was going to be like 30 new characters in there, probably 20 of them are Goku. So I really don't care about that. The spark, the Xenoverse 3, I'll give a little bit of a pass because all they did was show a trailer. They didn't really give much detail of what to expect. So I'm going to sleep one eye open on this. Like I said, the one thing it does have going forward is the story mode. If they put a story mode in Xenoverse 3, that's completely original, not some bullshit like the last two were like, oh, there was an alien behind Frieza during the Frieza Saga and it completely, like some just angled version of the old story. If this is an original story with Xenoverse 3, then I'll be interested. But if it's the same shit as the last two where it's like, oh, did you know that there was a Senzu being behind Majin Buu in this scene right here? And it changed the timeline. I was like, I don't care, dude. It'll be a hard pass for me. I'll give an eye will it.

Speaker 3:
[93:27] That was another thing that was like, okay, when Xenoverse first came out, we were on it actually. And they hit us with the what if.

Speaker 1:
[93:33] It was fresh and new back then though.

Speaker 3:
[93:34] Yeah, it was fresh and new. Yeah, they hit us with the what if. But how many times can you do a what if type of situation? Nobody wants to see it anymore. Like, all right, you had one unique spin on the entire timeline of Dragon Ball Z, but you can't hit us with it a million more times and think that it's going to continue to work. It's not.

Speaker 1:
[93:53] What if Goku got diarrhea instead of the heart disease in the Androids saga? Like, how would that change it? Be like, I don't care. Like, what the fuck are we talking about, dude?

Speaker 3:
[94:02] The timeline is the timeline. Like, you're trying to change what's canon now and think that you're gonna get us with the same trick, like multiple times.

Speaker 1:
[94:09] You look thoroughly intrigued by all this ethos. What are your thoughts?

Speaker 2:
[94:14] I don't give a fuck. I don't care. I don't care about either of these games. They can play whatever they want to play. And that's what they always say. Why do you care about what I'm playing? So let them play their slop. They're never going to get in. That's why I say let the piggies eat.

Speaker 1:
[94:31] Squish, squish, squish, squish, squish, squish. All right. The lightning round. Hasbro announced they're coming out with new figurines for Marvel Rivals. We got some pictures of Moon Knight as well as the Punisher, Spider-Man, Lunar Snow, Venom. You guys collect anything that interests you?

Speaker 3:
[94:47] Hey, Ethos liked this stuff, but when you like figurines, I'm going to talk about this. You like the figurines, though?

Speaker 2:
[94:55] I haven't really gotten a figurine in years, though.

Speaker 3:
[94:59] You moved on.

Speaker 2:
[95:00] I went to comic books. That was my new figurine. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[95:03] I had a Sam Wilson one right there. I don't really collect either.

Speaker 2:
[95:06] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[95:07] The Moon Knight one. The Moon Knight one looked fire, though. I ain't going to lie.

Speaker 1:
[95:11] The Punisher one looks nice, too. These do look nice. I ain't going to lie. If you like putting stuff on your desk.

Speaker 2:
[95:16] Have you been collecting the Marvel Rivals comic versions and shit?

Speaker 1:
[95:20] I got the first one, but then after that, I stopped buying them because I didn't think the stories were very good.

Speaker 2:
[95:25] Or just the covers where they're using the Marvel Rivals art version. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[95:29] Then I was also too, like I'm very picky about what I've... I'd be trying to get stuff that I think might be worth money, too. I don't think the book's going to be worth enough.

Speaker 3:
[95:35] That's true. My man, he think about being a capitalist. Absolutely.

Speaker 1:
[95:39] I'm trying to get my kids some fucking Abbey dolls, boy. I'm trying to pass them down.

Speaker 2:
[95:42] It's going to make some generational wealth.

Speaker 1:
[95:44] Absolutely.

Speaker 3:
[95:45] I do want to eventually... Like what you got in your background, I want to do that here, get that back there and then get some bookshelves and get some figurines. Because I got a lot of stuff that's in my closet that we've accumulated over the years that I do want to display. I got a katana, I got a skateboard and some other stuff that I do want to put up there. So this could be potentially something like that. I do have some figurines that I would display, but it's not anything super serious. But some of them do look good though.

Speaker 1:
[96:12] I want one of those light up displays. You can get them off like Tmoo for cheap.

Speaker 3:
[96:15] Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[96:17] And then put figurines in them. But I feel like that's for when you're a homeowner. I can't afford a homeowner.

Speaker 2:
[96:22] That's the thing you can't be about is like, I don't feel like buying a glass. I don't want to buy a glass case and then tear it up, bring it in. And then if I move it, that's a whole monster.

Speaker 1:
[96:34] You got to plan some seeds first.

Speaker 2:
[96:36] Yeah, if I stay at a place a long time, I'm like, okay, now I'll get it.

Speaker 3:
[96:39] Because that's why I didn't. That's why I never went crazy with the previous house. We only lived there for three years. Like this one, I probably because we plan on being here much longer. So like then I'll finally do some stuff. But but yeah, I fear the same thing. I'm like, yeah, I put a whole bunch of stuff on the walls. I ain't going to, you know, do a whole collection. So yeah, that makes sense once you get a house in there. It kind of change. You can really make your space for the long term.

Speaker 1:
[97:01] I need that. I need that rumor. The static movie to be true, though. I got that static. Number one, I need that value to go up my boy. Yeah, we can. Oh, Black Cat and Marvel rivals. Are y'all still playing this game? At a time. The skin's going crazy, ass bouncing, titties everywhere and shit. Like, nah, that's not going to bring y'all back.

Speaker 3:
[97:24] I did watch the trailer, though. She do look crazy. I ain't going to lie, though.

Speaker 2:
[97:28] I heard she's re-busted. She's a good show.

Speaker 3:
[97:30] And she look like she busted.

Speaker 1:
[97:32] Yeah, but when Felicia get that, she damn strong.

Speaker 2:
[97:36] Nose.

Speaker 1:
[97:38] Yeah, well.

Speaker 3:
[97:39] It's a power of the ass, man. She got that power in her breast. She can go invisible. She over here stealing stuff from people. I'm like, yo, what is this kid, bro? This shit look like it's saying.

Speaker 1:
[97:51] Yeah, I'm I know I'm not coming back to this shit. I'm good off of it. I don't want to sweat. Next game I'm sweating. No one is probably invincible. I was enjoying myself on there. Freaking Oh, Absolute Batman is coming to the Lego game. It's coming out. What? And I think May or I think it come out next.

Speaker 3:
[98:09] Yeah, yeah, about this one.

Speaker 1:
[98:11] Yeah, it's just well, it has one to do with capitalism. I'll tell you why I'm excited because first and foremost, I'm pretty sure this is just a skin. So like in the comic books, Absolute Batman does fight different from Batman. He on his chest. It's an axe that he could pull out. I didn't see that in the game play. That would have been cool if it changed the game play up. It just looks like a skin. Yeah. But I'm just excited because this is bringing him into the site, guys, basically, and the more his stock goes up, the more my books go up in value, boy. That's all I care about.

Speaker 3:
[98:43] Yeah, that comes out on the 29th of May, man. Hold on. When the 007 come out, I think it's the same day.

Speaker 2:
[98:48] Same time.

Speaker 3:
[98:50] God damn. That's crazy, man. I'm going to play that too.

Speaker 1:
[98:53] We eating, bro. We eating, bro.

Speaker 2:
[98:55] Y'all heard the new, you've heard the 007, the new Lana Ray was the song.

Speaker 1:
[98:59] Yeah, you put it in the good show.

Speaker 2:
[99:00] That was good. I had a bang when it probably in the soundtrack of the year, maybe somebody said, somebody said they don't that Lana Ray. I don't think Lana Ray knows that she recorded like she knew she was recording for 007, but I think she thought it was a movie, the movie, not a video game because there was a picture that came out recently that of the paparazzi took a picture of her. She's leaving a story. She had a PS5 she bought. So things like they think that, oh, she might have just discovered that her song is going to be in a video game.

Speaker 1:
[99:27] Let me go get a PS5 so I'm ready. Yeah, that's fucking funny.

Speaker 2:
[99:32] It's pretty funny.

Speaker 1:
[99:34] I talked about this earlier, but just quick touch on it again. Gears of War, E-Day Direct will be about 30 minutes long on June 7th. Excited for this one. Any expectations for Gears E-Day?

Speaker 3:
[99:46] After seeing what Cliffy B said about it. I think it gives me hope. Cliffy B said that he is very excited about it. He said it gave him goosebumps looking at the trailer of it and looking at some footage. Cliffy B is giving that stamp because he been, we were making fun of him. We were like, man, y'all remember Radical Heights and Lawbreakers? Remember what he did with that? But going back to his epic day working on Gears, if he says if he's giving it the potential stamp, then that gives me a little bit of hope that once we see that that direct that we're going to see something special.

Speaker 1:
[100:22] So to be fair, we only made fun of him on the Radical Heights thing because he said it was a five month passion project. Like, brother, they don't even that even was a five month.

Speaker 2:
[100:30] I think that was definitely that was five months.

Speaker 1:
[100:33] That was coming in on you. You African Americans didn't play invincible. I would have I should have got Nomad on our tray. Somebody don't play fighting games. You fucking frauds. We got we got a bad way.

Speaker 2:
[100:47] What do you mean? I played this.

Speaker 1:
[100:48] Nobody cares about to scale. It was dead. Oh, fucking they gave it. They gave an update. The developers on the beta. They actually I'm happy to announce that it was actually a beta and they're taking the feedback into consideration. They said they are going to put a cap in that ass when it comes to the rage quitters. A lot of balancing to like the different characters and stuff like that. But I mean, I didn't play the game, so I mean, it's not really much to talk about. But I should look up the past, man.

Speaker 3:
[101:14] I did. I did. That's good, though. I appreciate them for taking the feedback. W, the devs always taking the feedback and making the necessary changes.

Speaker 1:
[101:25] Yes, sir. Battlefield 6 Season 3 trailer dropped. I'm not going to lie. It doesn't look bad. I was kind of there. They said Naval Warfare is coming back. They're adding ranked players. Server browser is a bunch of new maps. It's a six-minute trailer. It actually looked really good. I was like, I said, maybe I might download it and give it another shot. Yeah, that's what I'm worried about.

Speaker 3:
[101:49] Yeah, because you got to be good at it.

Speaker 1:
[101:51] Yeah. I'm going to play this shit off stream first to make sure it works, because I can't do it no more on stream, bro, just bricking my shit, bro. But it looks like they're hitting their stride since Vince passed, and maybe they're finally getting it together, and they might have a comeback season. It just took three seasons to get there, but there's a lot of content.

Speaker 3:
[102:15] I'm excited about the server browser, because that's always been a thing for me. I want to do any of those special server that they had. They said, we ought to go back to Battlefield 3, man. 24-7 Metro. I was kidding. So do something like that. We love that so bad. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[102:31] So get Metro in there.

Speaker 1:
[102:34] And then Battlefield's rival, Call of Duty, its movie, gets a release window for 2028. Well, actually, release date, June 30th, 2028. Will they stick that? I don't know, but the movie is being written and produced by Peter Berg from Friday Night Lights and Deepwater Horizon. Is this doing anything for anybody?

Speaker 2:
[102:51] That's an interesting director pick. It could be not bad.

Speaker 3:
[102:55] Yeah, I just, again, wonder which Call of Duty are they going to do?

Speaker 2:
[103:00] What is the daily propaganda do you think is going to be in it?

Speaker 1:
[103:04] Yeah, that would make me walk out the movie theater.

Speaker 2:
[103:06] I go hold you a lot of it going to be a lot.

Speaker 3:
[103:08] Yeah, I just I just don't know, like because I'm not trying to see anything. I'm not trying to see anything from regional call of duty. I'm not trying to see World War. I don't do any of that. I'm trying to see Cold War Vietnam. I won't see any of that. Maybe Cold War, but even still, this is going to be a huge note for me. So I just I just don't know which call of duty they're going to do. If they're going to keep a video game accurate, or they're going to do a brand new like it's just so many questions that I just need to answer to, which would directly go here.

Speaker 1:
[103:35] I don't want to see saving Ryan part of saving private Ryan part two. We already seen that movie. I don't want to do any of the more recent games. I feel like the only storyline that lends itself potentially to be in a decent film is the it's the numbers Mason shit. What was that Black Ops 1 and 2?

Speaker 3:
[103:52] Yeah, Black Ops 1 and 2.

Speaker 1:
[103:54] They could flesh out that storyline that might there might be something interesting there. But other than that, I don't really know what Call of Duty because I call Duty has never really had a really in depth like storylines. They're just kind of OK outside of the one that I just named. I think that's the one probably the most iconic to most people. It has iconic moments. But are the stories really that good?

Speaker 3:
[104:15] I don't know.

Speaker 2:
[104:16] People like the whole Modern Warfare 2 shooting up the airport.

Speaker 3:
[104:19] I mean, that was not that part, but I like Modern Warfare.

Speaker 1:
[104:22] You know.

Speaker 2:
[104:22] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[104:24] I like the Modern Warfare story.

Speaker 3:
[104:27] I like the Modern Warfare story, so I don't know.

Speaker 1:
[104:29] This section just felt natural to me. Yeah, I bet it did. And then, oh, people was trying to give me the rag on this shit the other day. The chat was like, did you hear? There was an arc raiders dropped almost 80% of its player base. I was like, oh, shit, it did. I didn't even know. And apparently, it's true. It's a hit sub one hundred thousand players. From my understanding, the community has issues with the game because they still haven't done anything with the cheaters. There hasn't been any new content in a while, although there's supposed to be a new map coming in a few weeks. But right now, it's not a good place. All the big streamers kind of quit playing the game. Do we think this game is dead? Ethos?

Speaker 2:
[105:10] I mean, I think maybe it might be a trend towards people not. Caring for extraction shooters right now? It might just be a broader, maybe Marathon was just ahead of the curve of people not being tired of extraction shooters and not being excited about it. Marathon just having a lower account for being a more niche game was a foretelling of that. Then Arc Raiders, which is obviously the bigger, more casual Mickey Mouse Playhouse version, it's naturally starting to fall off too, which coincides with that pattern. I think it would be different if Arc Raiders was still growing, and then Marathon was diving, but to see that Arc Raiders is diving and Marathon. Is the genre as a whole, you think, is just too niche? I don't think it's an individual thing. I think it's just, yeah, what we were saying for the past three weeks makes sense. Marathon is a more niche game, so obviously it wouldn't have as big as the player base, but it has a dedicated player base to it. The more casual version of them is like, they're dealing with a lot of stuff, they're not producing a lot of content. The end game is non-existent. That's kind of why I stopped playing it. There's no good end game at all. There's no reward for all the grinding you're doing. There's only so much of that. There's issues with their free kit system, a lot of their economies kind of messed out of whack right now. They need more content. I think that's the biggest thing. That'll be the biggest test, I think, is that if they produce a new map, is that enough? Outside of like, well, you have a new map, but that's only going to be fun for so long. You're going to just get off if there's no, like, what's the new enticing mechanic or the stickiness that makes me want to get on every day and play it. I don't think Arc Raider has that anymore. It doesn't have it at all. So they need to solve that issue first, I think, before they just drop in a new map that might bring some people back temporarily for like a week or a month, and then they all just leave again. So yeah, I mean, this isn't just me being like excited, being like, oh, you know, everyone should just go over to Marathon because I don't think Arc Raider's players are looking for a Marathon experience. I think that, you know, they want to play more of that, like Arc Raider's style. So, you know, it's really going to come down to if the devs can deliver it, which I think they should be able to. They've been able to produce the finals and keep producing content for a consistent basis. So I think this is just more of the reason probably they're taking longer is because they have to deviate to fix some of the in-game issues. And like there's a lot of other, like we said, cheating and there's a bunch of other issues right now. And then I think the biggest factor is, I think they were thinking of building the game for PVP. And I think the whole, like the people were joking about it, but it seems like it's really serious. Like it seems like a majority of the players want it to be like, kind of what happened with Destiny. Like Destiny was supposed to be this PVP, PVE, 50-50 type of game. But then like you look at the stats and like a majority of the players are only engaging in the PVE aspect of it. And they don't like the smaller portions only doing the PVP. So they might be prioritizing, say, we're going to build out more PVE elements and more bigger robots, which takes a longer time to build than trying to make more PVP type of like maps or experiences. So that might be what's why they're taking longer. Is they're trying to they're going to cater their game towards PVE and just let the PVP kind of die.

Speaker 1:
[108:19] Um, I'm not good. I'm not going to even though I'm like a big fan of this game, I'm not going to rag on and say, oh, I think it's dead. It's over. Let's wait until we see what happens when the new content drops. When the new content drops, I think that'll be the real test, because not only has there been a lack of content, but then I also think that like, you know, these days I don't feel like influencers use their influence for very much. But the one time they did is for Arc Raiders recently. They were definitely on that. And all it takes is for a fucking virtual peanut to get back on the game. And for some reason, a bunch of grown men will start playing again. So we'll see what the peanut does. What do you think, Justin?

Speaker 2:
[108:52] Marathon.

Speaker 3:
[108:56] I got to play it off stream, man.

Speaker 2:
[108:57] I got to play it off stream.

Speaker 1:
[108:58] Bye.

Speaker 3:
[109:00] Yeah, I mean, all the things that you mentioned are pretty much reason as to why this game is dipping in its player base. You need something new, especially in any live service game. We all know that new content is king. But if you couple that with you're having hackers and people getting stream sniped, I mean, it's going to end up not being as fruitful as it once was. Everybody gets their 15 minutes of fame, but you do have a chance to redeem yourself and get their player base back. You're not going to get it fully back to where it once was, but you can make a little bit of a resurgence and have a Renaissance period. If you can deliver on that new content, so like you said, T-Badge, we will see once they end up delivering that new content, what will happen. But I am very curious about that PVP versus PVE thing. I feel like this is one of the most mixed communities when it comes to that, because you do have those people again. A lot of the stuff, especially with all the bigger treatments, have been more of like, oh, I want to do PVP, like I just want to rad, I want to be a griefer and deal with all that stuff. But in the casual, more of the people who aren't up to that level, don't have all the big equipment. They're like, yeah, I want this to be a PVE thing. And I don't like being shot at all the time. So I don't think you're going to be able to win either way with creating either going all in on PVP or going all in on PVE, or really even having that balance. I don't think that there is a way that you can truly balance it. There is a way that both sides will be happy, but it'll be interesting to see if they can pull it off or if they decide to go just fully on the route of PVE and then just have a smaller subsection that just does the PVP aspect. So we'll see. But yeah, you got to come up with that content. That's going to be the first thing on their agenda. So you got to really nail it with that in order to get the people back and want to play it.

Speaker 1:
[110:58] I'm just shocked that Ciggy wasn't the one that updated this one. I learned this from the chat. They actually put me on to this because I don't hock SteamDB numbers. I would have thought Ciggy would have told us in the group chat.

Speaker 3:
[111:09] But I told you, don't feed his agenda, man. He ain't gonna talk about it. He was like, what are you talking about? I don't even like R-Raiders. I was like, oh, still, like all these other games you say you don't like either, but yeah, you be sharing the SteamDB charts. Yeah, exactly. The one target that was supposed to be compared to Marathon, not freaking Crimson Desert, this man was comparing Crimson Desert to Marathon. I'm like, bro, you need to be comparing Tarker Raiders to Marathon because that's literally the same genre, but easier now when we got to corner themselves into that joke full time, he better get on Samson too.

Speaker 1:
[111:44] And then last but not least, a scape from Tarkov creators, they announced a new speaking of extraction shooters might be dead. The scape from Tarkov creators announced a new extraction shooter called fragmentary order. It's a space extraction shooter. That's all I can get from it. Graphically, it looks pretty, but I'm here to let y'all know, I don't care.

Speaker 3:
[112:06] The whole thread was like, oh, so this is Marathon? It's living the whole thing. They like... Oh, shit.

Speaker 1:
[112:15] I would love to see what they... Was there some data or cue, like research and development that like they did, like the industry did where they said, yeah, everybody needs to make an extraction shooter. Because I've always been on the side of like, I'm not sure this... When BR hit, that shit was like crack cocaine when it hit the hood. When this hit, it just, it was... I never really got it, bros. It was like, remember when K2 hit, you know, were smoking out a little bit, and then like a year later, they was all like... This, I don't know, man. I just don't know if extraction shooters are here to stay. Not the new crack.

Speaker 2:
[112:46] I mean, it was just the new hot like FPS thing that they were just betting their wages on. Like, you know, like what you said with BR, they were just like, well, this could be the next new thing that hit the market, the next innovation in the first person shooter multi-layer space, so we better get on it. So, you know, they started doing it. And I think Dell said this, he said, he tweeted one time when she was 100% right. He said, he said, a lot of people don't know this, but right now there's a bunch of studios that are making the exact same game right now, but we won't know until the next couple of years. He says like back in 2022, 2021, and he was basically, he was hinting at, he was basically saying, they're all baking, baking extraction shooters simultaneously. All the studios are coming up with doing the exact same game and they're trying to get them out onto market.

Speaker 1:
[113:27] This is why Pragmata is important. Make what the fuck you want. God damn, bruh.

Speaker 2:
[113:32] Yeah, more replaced.

Speaker 3:
[113:34] What a fucking surprise, right? It's like we're talking about 97% of studios making live service games, and now you're all there trying to hop on the extraction shooter wave and get that going, man. It's just the literary history just keeps repeating itself. But it's like, are you going to be super popular? Because I feel like the extraction shooter, VR was one thing, especially with Fortnite, it made it so accessible for everybody to just hop on to play, especially with it being on every damn platform, just you can think of. Extraction shooter is, you can make it as casual as you want, because remember, we literally just talked about a potential Disney extraction shooter with Mickey and stuff.

Speaker 1:
[114:10] Hannah Montana, the extraction.

Speaker 3:
[114:12] Yeah. We'll see if you can truly make this a casual concept. But right now, the extraction shooter is still a super hardcore market, even with Marathon. You got to really be super honed in on it in order to truly play. And Tarkov is super dark. So all these games, it takes a certain genre, a casual, can't just pick it up and just automatically master it. So it'll be interesting to see once all these extraction shooter come out, what the people care, because again, I'm looking at this thread here and they're like, oh, damn, this is like the fifth extraction shooter out. Like, we don't want this anymore. But again, we keep honing back to it. If you don't want it, then just don't support it. I'm not trying to, again, say that I want every extraction shooter that comes out to die. But it just show just show them that this is not what we want. And, you know, you can truly make a make a difference. But yeah, it's just it's not looking good. Like this this whole they're like, yeah, I don't like this. This announcement, this is a marathon. I don't want another extraction shooter. But then they'll turn around and still be on GTA 5. So I don't even know who like you say that. But like y'all, y'all.

Speaker 1:
[115:21] CJ, OK, we might see. We can do the extraction shooter, bro.

Speaker 2:
[115:25] You know, there is a tweet I saw. I didn't dare retweet it or quote, tweet it because I was like, this is going to get a lot of people angry. But there's some truth to it. I saw this tweet on the timeline that said, you know, unfortunately, he said I'm really said I'm starting to think that a lot of gamers are propping up a lot of mediocre games because of their hatred of the triple A space.

Speaker 1:
[115:47] I retweeted that. Yeah, I agreed with that.

Speaker 2:
[115:49] I'm like, yeah, I'm starting to like, I'm really starting to believe that is that one of those in our group chair. I think I think it's true. I think I think a lot of us like a lot of these like stupid ass culture war and a lot of it's just stupid, just argumentative. Like, you know, tribalism has just caused a lot of people to just, you know, dig their heels in the sand, not play any other play a bunch of different games or play, you know, the games that they apparently don't like. They just want to say that like, oh no, my game is better and I'm willing to fight it. And then I think it's also kind of what you're saying. It's this trend of like, a lot of people were upset about AAA space. I saw this video and I was like, what happened where we went from a decade of, a decade ago where we used to clown people being overexcited for games. Like, oh, and I kind of missed that era now where it's just like, a lot of people were just excited, you know, oh boy, here comes a new trailer. And you know, they're all excited with the reaction and stuff like that. And now we've completely gone to the other end spectrum of just now, like now every reaction is just like, how can I criticize or what?

Speaker 1:
[116:55] I mean, I think it's like the era of like RIP to boy, Etika, like the Joycon boys, when they were like kind of overwrote everything. Yeah. I'd rather, as long as it was, I'd rather deal with that shit.

Speaker 2:
[117:05] I'd rather deal with that. Yeah, I agree. I'd rather take that back now. I've seen the opposite end of it. It's like, I hate it. Like I absolutely hate what like the type of like reaction culture has been now, which is just like, how can we find something to hate on or just specifically like, I'm going to prop up, which we've seen before. We've seen people look propped up games that are just like, I don't know if we should be really throwing over, talking about game of the year, about this type of game, but they're willing to just do it because it fits the agenda that they want it to fit. So they're just willing to just, whatever it takes, I'm willing to sell that.

Speaker 3:
[117:40] So I think my main question is just why though, like why would a regular average gamer be like, yo, I'm upset at the AAA space? Like why?

Speaker 2:
[117:51] To be fair, it's a two-sided street, right? Like they've had disappointing releases, like they've had overhyped games that came out that were supposed to, that promised them the moon and back and it didn't deliver on that. So they kind of feel like they've been betrayed by a company. They don't understand how game development works. So they kind of have an ignorant belief or thing. They take a lot of things personally. Kind of what we also said too is just like, unfortunately this hobby attracts a lot of socially inept men and just people in general who just are locked in doors, who don't lack any sort of social skills or nuance. No child left behind is another aspect. No one can think critically anymore. Everyone's really stupid. So you have a mixture of all these terrible elements and they're all coming together and the growth of, I'd say from the 2010s onward, where now you have this group of people who've been birthed into this era or who've been introduced into gaming into an era where now it's all about like live service. It's all about the recurring Minecraft, GTA and that is their best games of all time. They didn't grow up in an era like where we grew up. I've said it before where it's like when we grew up, we were blessed, I guess, and the idea that we grew up with the Internet. We grew up when the Internet was being formed and then as it grew into what it's become now, we've seen it evolve into these different stages as we grew up as well. I don't think nowadays, like what you say, TVH, kids don't have that. They've been introduced into these algorithms.

Speaker 1:
[119:20] No, I think about it too. I feel like with this generation of games is really weird because I don't know about y'all but I don't remember once as a kid, not even in my teenage years, looking at our earnings report for a game company.

Speaker 2:
[119:32] No.

Speaker 3:
[119:34] I never care, bro.

Speaker 1:
[119:36] To be fair, we only do it here on the podcast because we're trying to have higher level conversations, but it's really weird to go on Twitter and see somebody who doesn't have a YouTube channel, a Twitch channel. It's just somebody on Twitter talking about earnings reports for some random like Andy Studios and I'm like, bro, why don't you just promote a game you like?

Speaker 2:
[119:55] I think really the game, I think that really changed everything.

Speaker 1:
[120:00] This might be a crazy take. I think the game that really fucked everything up was Mass Effect 3. I think that was like the first game that I think broke the zeitgeist, where people were very upset, and it went to that point where people were like, they were trying to figure out who worked on the game. That was the first time I feel like the-

Speaker 2:
[120:17] Yeah, devs were getting threatened.

Speaker 1:
[120:19] It was a threat.

Speaker 2:
[120:20] They forced the ending.

Speaker 1:
[120:21] Then they were talking about, then they were looking at shareholding stuff, then they were talking about-

Speaker 2:
[120:25] The day one DLC that pissed a lot of people off.

Speaker 1:
[120:27] Yeah, the day one DLC that pissed people off, and then a lot of- People were already upset with EA, but that kind of like- I feel like that was when I felt a lot of the anger started to really start to manifest into something really-

Speaker 2:
[120:43] I would say that's Patient Zero. That maybe started it, but I feel like- I don't think it was The Catalyst, but I think it was that. I feel like The Catalyst was anthem.

Speaker 1:
[120:50] I didn't even think it was anthem because I feel like Andromeda got just as bad.

Speaker 2:
[120:55] Which one came first? Was it Andromeda or Anthem? EA sucks. Okay. We go with Andromeda.

Speaker 1:
[121:06] I think even before that, because I'm pretty sure there was stuff. If we're being real here, I think it was Anthem. I'm not Anthem. I think it was Mass Effect 3 and then Destiny. Because I think Destiny was a big betrayal. I remember when it came out and everybody was like-

Speaker 2:
[121:25] To The Taken King, yeah. That was the first game I got a death threat over. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[121:30] When Destiny came out, Destiny was lauded and was marketed to be this, it was supposed to be the next Halo. It was supposed to be-

Speaker 2:
[121:36] I remember you and I were talking about, this looks like Mass Effect. I remember us hyping that shit up.

Speaker 1:
[121:40] It was supposed to be a big, I remember in Bungie and Activision, they were hyping it. I remember the Vid Docs to this day, it was supposed to be this next generation lightning in a bottle. We're making the new Halo and it's an MMORPG or MMO version of Halo. I remember the disappointment. We had a fun time. We had a good laugh about the whole thing. But I remember that was a big moment where a lot of people were just like, they were really pissed off. 2014 was just really bad. Watch Dogs, that's another one. Watch Dogs was a big catalyst too. I think it was just these big high-release games that came out.

Speaker 2:
[122:21] I don't think it's 100 percent games. I also think it correlates with, I stay in that it has more to do with real life and I think people are bringing real life issues into gaming. Because after 2014, 2016, I stand on that. I know Gen Z doesn't want to hear it, but 2016 is one of the worst years to ever exist.

Speaker 1:
[122:37] Yeah, that timeline broke. There was some really big cultural shit that happened in 2016, like really awesome shit. I think that was the catalyst year 2016.

Speaker 2:
[122:45] He came down to Escalator and you all fell for it. That just everything up.

Speaker 1:
[122:50] Yeah, and then that impacted. There's an interesting article, not even an article, but I think there's an interesting post analysis of how the whole culture war in gaming and gamer. Again, I'm not deep into that, but I have read a couple of things and watched a couple of backgrounds about how that entire thing had happened in 2014, 2015. How that can be actually linked to Trump and link to how that power structure actually ended up impacting United States, which is crazy to think about how video games could do that. But I mean Epstein.

Speaker 2:
[123:25] I was going to say, wasn't that in the Epstein files?

Speaker 1:
[123:28] I mean, yeah, Epstein was involved in the gaming industry. So like in the culture war, again, and setting up some of these like political movements and takes. So like it doesn't shock. It's like you wouldn't believe it. But then when you read the Epstein files, holy fuck, it's not a conspiracy. It's actually like, it's an actual truth now. You're a victim. Yeah, you've been manipulated like the whole time. So again, I don't know. I don't know what we got off to about this being a tangent, but.

Speaker 2:
[123:55] Just life being depressing, you know.

Speaker 1:
[123:57] Yeah, the world sucks. The world sucks right now.

Speaker 3:
[124:01] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[124:02] That's all I got on my show notes. Do you guys want to add anything else before we wrap up?

Speaker 1:
[124:07] I have my SP, my Gameboy Advanced SP that I found. I went to GameStop. They had these retro charging cables. I found one. They had one for the Gameboy Advanced SP. I plugged it in today and it actually charged. My Pokemon just actually loaded up and it was my brother's. I saw that he was playing it and it was like second gym in. So that was really cool. No.

Speaker 2:
[124:27] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[124:28] It's kind of nostalgic though, like turning on. Also, I didn't realize now that I'm an adult, but looking at it as a kid, how pushed in the screen is, because there's a layer that has the backlight for it. I never realized that until looking at it as an adult. I'm like, wow.

Speaker 2:
[124:42] It's because your eyes are old now, so you notice everything.

Speaker 1:
[124:44] I didn't realize how small it was. I used to think as a kid, it was so big. Now I'm looking at it like, well, you are bigger though.

Speaker 2:
[124:50] So yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 1:
[124:51] It's wild. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[124:53] Freaking. Before we wrap it up, one thing I wanted to say too, I'm disappointed to hear. I just read a report that the AYN Thor, I'm pretty sure we talked about that on- Yeah, I was doing it. Well, no, they reduced the power of it because of the RAM shortage. They made an announcement on their Discord that they're cutting back on the RAM, so it's not going to be as powerful. I'm like, oh, there's no point. I kind of want it.

Speaker 1:
[125:13] I want one too.

Speaker 2:
[125:14] The price point is going to be the same, though, but they're reducing the amount of RAM that's in it. And I was like, ah, man, that's like the ultimate. I've been looking at videos of Shout out to Mighty Keith. He's been posting on Twitter. I'm getting kind of jealous. I was like, I kind of want one, man.

Speaker 1:
[125:25] Yeah, the 3DS, you know, switch type of thing. Yeah. I think about the Steam Deck. I like the Steam Deck for my Switch stuff, but like the the three, like I want to play some 3DS stuff, two screen stuff, and it's it's not.

Speaker 2:
[125:37] Nice little travel device or something. But that's all. Um, so just be aware of that.

Speaker 1:
[125:43] Um, go ahead of that, because I my chat told me about this. I don't know if I brought this up in the podcast. I think they said the Switch is going up in price to write like in June or something like that. Right.

Speaker 2:
[125:53] I've seen that. I heard I could have swore they said that the 10 may be dumb to do that because the sales are down like 30 percent.

Speaker 1:
[125:59] Yeah. But they were announcing when the whole thing was going on, that they were going to increase the price or maybe they went back on it. Uh, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[126:07] Uh, Google in it.

Speaker 1:
[126:13] Uh, Nintendo was adding the digital version to switch would be priced at where is it?

Speaker 2:
[126:22] Video Game Chronicle says the switch to price is going up. Eventually, it's inevitable. Nintendo sales lead says also Nintendo did say it. Yeah, there's no there's no there's no definitive date, but it is coming.

Speaker 1:
[126:33] Starting May 2026, they said the switch to pricing is going to change the price of physical games. But we know that probably that means the switch. So I was just saying this to say of all, if you're like me, which I was going to say, if you have an original switch like I do, obviously the switch to is just going to be an upgrade for you. But GameStop, and you have like a Series X, like I have a Series X that I haven't turned on for a while. If you turn in that, those, you can get about 380 for an Xbox Series X, and you can get about 180, like about 100 something for the switch. Do it now. If you're not playing it, if you have like old consoles that you're not playing anymore, you don't plan on retroing them, sell them now before the price hike go up, and then get what you want, like get a Switch 2 now, or get whatever platform you want to get your hands on now. Like make the, I hate to say the GameStop, but make the trade in now, because I went to even some Retro Mom and Pop places, I called them up and none of them had as good as a trade in price that GameStop has right now for like those consoles. So do it now while you still have a window.

Speaker 3:
[127:36] This man got some GameStop propaganda going on, man. I hate it, I hate it.

Speaker 1:
[127:40] I'm dead ass. I was literally on Twitch and I was like, I was live streaming it and I was calling them live. So people were listening to me talk to them. I went to, for people in Michigan, people in my chat who are also Michigan, I was asking them, I was like, what are some retro places that you guys know that sell consoles that I could reach that's not GameStop? People gave me like four, I called four of them and none of them had anything close to what GameStop was offering, which is a little disappointing. Half of them didn't even have Switch 2s.

Speaker 2:
[128:10] I'm keeping my Switch, bro. I'm trying to run it up. I'm keeping all my old consoles.

Speaker 3:
[128:13] I have- Switch 2s will be a shit, bro.

Speaker 2:
[128:17] We'll see in 10 years. We'll see.

Speaker 3:
[128:19] I have another Switch that's just fresh out the box. I end up getting it for free and I might just end up giving that to them.

Speaker 2:
[128:26] I was going to say, get that to the kids.

Speaker 1:
[128:28] Yeah, give it to the kids or I would say sell it and get a Switch.

Speaker 3:
[128:30] I have one already, so they have and then I'm playing them. Like I said, if I'm going to get a Switch 2, then I might want to just give them that one, and keep obviously the Switch I already have set up.

Speaker 1:
[128:40] Yeah, because like you said, right now, there's a bunch of stocks, so GameStop might be doing some trade-in promo for your stuff.

Speaker 2:
[128:47] I got one more story for you all. I'm just scrolling the timeline. This one popped up. YouTube is shutting down the clips feature and replacing it with share at the timestamp, which is a shame because all they had to do to fix the clips feature on YouTube is make it to where you could download clips. That was the only thing I didn't like about YouTube. You could clip stuff, but then you could only share the link. They should have made it like Twitch where you could download clips, but they're getting rid of it and now it's only share at the timestamp. So it's just the same thing. They're just getting rid of the name basically. That fucking sucks. I thought y'all supposed to be trying to lean more into this live stream and shit. I'm trying to get the YouTube stream going. Come on. But yeah, that's all I got for y'all. All right, Jay, you got the floor. What's your closing statement for episode 186 of the GI podcast?

Speaker 3:
[129:32] Yes, yes, yes. So you, MsWatts, she's going to be out for another week. So you're going to get another dual cast at least. I hope she's having fun. I saw she went to a concert. She saw Japan. She saw, so to say, a little- So Creepy Nuts? The skyline. Yeah, Creepy Nuts. She saw my group. I know it's still the funniest thing. I've never heard it is bad. So it's not like she's having the time though. So shout out to our sister, the fourth member here. One thing I want to note, we talked about it last week with a conversation when we were speaking about the video game industry and the death of it and how California is apparently the root of all evil when it comes to video game industry. Another tweet went out that was once again, talking about the stats of where the most layoffs have come from. And again, in that same thread was multiple people being racist. And again, talking about the woke and DI and how it all comes from California. I don't know what y'all agenda is against California, but y'all really need to chill, man. Like just use critical thinking here. If California is one of the mechs of the video game industry and it has a majority of video game studios, then naturally the majority of layoffs are gonna come from California. And that does not say that, Oh, the US is the only region that had layoffs or suffered anything. We really just talked about last week how Kazan and Wu Chang just disbanded their entire team. Now, whether they still have a job is a different story. Cause they said that, yeah, they moved on to other projects, but that does not exempt South Korea. That is not exempt China. That is not exempt Japan. I really need for y'all to really do your research and not just saying, Oh, California bad. Like this narrative, I don't know why it's gaining steam, but it's very, very annoying and we need to chill out on that.

Speaker 2:
[131:12] I'd go as far as to say it's anti-American. If you are American and you're listening, like why do you want one of the states in the union to fail? Because fun fact, for those of you unaware, California has the fourth largest GDP in the world. Not in the United States, the fourth largest GDP in the world. It has more money in the state of California than most countries in the world. If the state of California collapses tomorrow, hate to break it to you, but a lot of you PS4 ninjas will not be getting your food stamps. Go ahead, Ethos. Real shit, I don't understand it.

Speaker 1:
[131:43] Anywho, on a lighter note, I got my tickets pre-order for the Michael movie. I'm very excited to see it.

Speaker 2:
[131:51] Well, what's that?

Speaker 3:
[131:52] The Michael Jackson.

Speaker 2:
[131:53] I'm tired.

Speaker 1:
[131:54] Yeah. I'm really excited. Look at that. Yeah, I feel like that's the movie. Yeah, I think.

Speaker 2:
[131:58] Oh shit, I didn't even know.

Speaker 1:
[132:00] I feel like that's the movie. Just a recommendation, guys, to go see in the theater with a bunch of people. I feel like that's gonna be one of those good movies you wanna be with around people.

Speaker 2:
[132:08] Everybody's gonna be dancing and shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[132:10] I think it's gonna be a fun movie.

Speaker 3:
[132:11] Yeah, I got early screening for it, but we probably can't get a babysitter, so we'll probably wait. But yeah, my wife says she wants to see the movie in theater, so we'll see it.

Speaker 1:
[132:22] It looks great.

Speaker 2:
[132:22] Two hours and 30 minutes, it says online, woohoo!

Speaker 1:
[132:25] And everything like that.

Speaker 2:
[132:26] I'm glad you said that. I didn't know it came out this week.

Speaker 1:
[132:28] Yeah, so if you get some tickets, you get some IMAX tickets or something like that, because I feel like that's gonna be a really fun, like, you know, social movie to see with other people, where you're not gonna be mad if people are singing in the theater or something like that, so.

Speaker 2:
[132:38] Yeah, we are, we are. And then my closing statement for tonight. The Philadelphia set, the players are going on in the NBA, and despite what somebody says in the group chat, no mad, I am not a highlight watcher. Seventy sixers and the Celtics are playing in the first round. And funny enough, the Sixers begged for the Celtics in the first round. And tonight they got bent over. So I think they lost about like 30 points. So make sure if you made it to this part of the podcast, make sure to leave in the comment section. Philly, Philly, bent over by the Celtics.

Speaker 1:
[133:16] Fucking lose, bro. I swear to God, if they lose the series.

Speaker 2:
[133:19] 123 to 91, put in the comment section, Philly bent over by the Celtics. Make sure to put that in there. Other than that, I appreciate everybody who came through to the podcast. If you knew, hit the follow button, turn on notifications so you'll know the next time we drop a pod. Hit the like button, hit the hype button, hit the hype button, hit the hype button, rate the show five stars, and we'll see you on the next episode of the Gaming Illuminaughty podcast. Sausage Fest edition. Peace.