transcript
Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
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Speaker 4:
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Speaker 5:
[00:23] Bad advice?
Speaker 6:
[00:24] You talking to me?
Speaker 1:
[00:25] Kayak. Got that right.
Speaker 6:
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Speaker 5:
[01:00] You can't reason with the sun. Trust us. We've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's OmniShade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin. The sun is relentless, but so is our gear. Level up your summer at columbia.com to spend more time outside and less time slathering on aloe lotion. You're welcome. Columbia, engineered for whatever.
Speaker 4:
[01:29] I won prescription pair and get 20% off any additional prescription pairs at warbyparker.com/kind of funny. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com/kind of funny today in the nerdy day.
Speaker 1:
[01:45] See, I was already going to say there was an energy. I was already giggling because have you ever noticed that Tim's sweater in the ad looks like the pattern on Dana Barrett's what you watch Ghostbusters when you watch Ghostbusters next time. Look at Dana Barrett's cabinetware around her refrigerator. It has the same pattern on it. Today in the nerdy news, you need to know about a former obsidian dev says Bethesda simply can't make a Fallout New Vegas remaster. Also Roger thought all my cold open lines were too long. Miyamoto, I can't believe people are so mean to his Mario movie. And Asha Sharma says something's happening with Xbox and Discord, but don't you worry about it. We'll evolve this in more because this is Kinda Funny Games Daily. What's up, everybody? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games Daily for Wednesday, April 22nd. I am one of your hosts in 2026, Greg Miller alongside the Tastemaker, Roger Piccone.
Speaker 3:
[02:47] Both of you to think that I will, I'll be watching Ghostbusters again.
Speaker 1:
[02:52] No, you won't. But I just wanted to call it out that every time I see that sweat, that shirt, he's in the first ad in the white, with a white T or sweatery T. It's really my shirt. But it's got this zigzaggy pattern on it.
Speaker 3:
[03:03] Is Dana the main character in this movie?
Speaker 1:
[03:05] It's Gordon Weaver. When Bankman goes to her thing and he opens up the fridge.
Speaker 3:
[03:09] You were saying your character's name. Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 1:
[03:11] I just want to help you out.
Speaker 3:
[03:12] Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:
[03:14] There is a line, tell me if this is the same with your friends and family. Sure. That there's a line in the sand where when you're talking to a certain person, you either got to say the character name or you got to say the actor name. I got to be lost either way.
Speaker 3:
[03:25] I only say actor's names. When I talk about characters in movies, I will never, like I'm such a bad with that when I like watch a movie, I walk out, I'm like, Oh, it's Ryan Gosling. He was in space. He was doing his thing.
Speaker 1:
[03:35] Sure.
Speaker 3:
[03:35] I will never remember any of the characters names.
Speaker 1:
[03:38] Yeah. Jen is obviously was not raised on it. Yeah. If you can see in the background, you see it real good. The Barrett great poll here. I always think of it's him and Peter or her and Peter Venkman at the fridge when they're flanked. That's a closer upshot. But this is great. This is just great. Fucking a great fucking poll. Great job. So what are you saying? You can see the cabinets in the background. The white lines, that pattern looks like Tim's shirt in the ad. Run the cold run. Hit the button again. Hit the button again. This isn't gonna be cut out because this is content.
Speaker 4:
[04:08] Is that possible?
Speaker 2:
[04:10] I don't think so. I'll bring it up from a different angle.
Speaker 1:
[04:13] I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Anyways, Jen, of course not.
Speaker 3:
[04:16] Just a diagonal stripe. That's your...
Speaker 1:
[04:19] You'll see it. You'll see it.
Speaker 2:
[04:21] Diagonal stripe on white.
Speaker 1:
[04:22] It's textured on white. You'll see it. I'll accept your apology if you want to start rewriting it.
Speaker 3:
[04:27] Mental illness.
Speaker 1:
[04:27] See?
Speaker 3:
[04:28] Okay, okay. You see it. You see it. Don't act like you don't see it.
Speaker 1:
[04:32] You see it.
Speaker 3:
[04:33] It is mental illness still. Something is going on right there. That's not a healthy brain, everybody.
Speaker 1:
[04:39] Well, I think we all knew that a long time ago about Greg Miller. Anyways, no, Jen is, you know, being raised in the French Canadian. Didn't see any American movie she saw dubbed or whatever. So she knows no actors. So anytime I'm like, I'm like, oh, it's that person. I'm Irish and she's like, I have no idea who that is. I gotta be the IMDb on like, what about this? And I'm trying to find something she might have a touchstone to my favorites. When she's like, I'm like, oh, second, who's that? Is I worth it? Like, I can't even, I got seven degrees. I wouldn't even get you anywhere. You need to be for me.
Speaker 3:
[05:07] Lance born in America, raised in America, American culture all around her. But she was so deep when her in her formative years into Korean media. So like she didn't know who Brad Pitt was. She didn't know who George Clooney was until we started dating. So like I showed her Ocean's 11 and she was like, I don't know these people.
Speaker 1:
[05:24] Yeah, literally.
Speaker 3:
[05:25] I don't know these people. So that's start with Ocean's 11 and then we branch out and everything goes back to Ocean's 11. So it's really like, yeah, that Don Cheadle, Ocean's 11.
Speaker 1:
[05:32] Of course.
Speaker 3:
[05:33] Iron Man as well, Iron Man 2. Yeah, Iron Man 2. Greg, I'm excited for this week. I know we do the buzz. I know we do it. But Friday, I've been working on the Nick versus the chat stream event stream that we're doing Pokemon chat. Get excited because you guys are going to be able to. I did a little test actually earlier this week. Some of y'all were able to see it. You guys are actually going to be able to play Pokemon Fire Red and go up against Nick while he's playing Pokemon Fire.
Speaker 1:
[06:01] Beat it first.
Speaker 3:
[06:01] Who will beat it first?
Speaker 1:
[06:02] This isn't a Nuzlocke.
Speaker 3:
[06:04] This is just going and it's going to be exciting to see if the chats got the stuff to actually come together and like figure out who's going to be the leader. Are you guys going to actually be able to get out of the house, pick a Pokemon, name a Pokemon? I don't know. Can Nick even do any of these things? I don't know.
Speaker 1:
[06:18] That's a better. That's a better question.
Speaker 3:
[06:20] You guys know ground types. What's a ground type? And it's also randomized on both games. You guys know a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:
[06:24] I'm excited to see that. I know it will be interesting if the chat gets behind somebody because they were real bad in the cess.
Speaker 3:
[06:30] They didn't know what they're doing. Let's see. We got a lap, Nick. Nah.
Speaker 1:
[06:35] Everybody welcome to Kinda Funny Games Daily, where we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about. Sometimes we're being goons because we're having too much fun out there.
Speaker 3:
[06:41] Hold my hand.
Speaker 1:
[06:43] Put them in there. Get in there. There it is. That's what I like. It's me and Roger. We have a great show. Hope you enjoy that. Of course, be live. Be part of it. Fuck. I don't know what I'm saying anymore. I'm drunk today. I have a contact high for Monday's stream. youtube.com/kindafunnygames to super chat while we're live to be part of the show. Show just like sky says in sky did and says, Greg, how many times have you watched Ghostbusters? Enumerable. Who knows? You know, I mean, that was on repeat as a kid.
Speaker 3:
[07:09] Yeah. Let alone as an adult over under 2000, a thousand.
Speaker 1:
[07:14] I mean, I would say over, but I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, you know, especially when you're it's so easy now. Like, you know, Ben has been obsessed in quotes with movies stuff, but I mean, that really is like, yeah, I want to watch K-pop again. And it's like, he's not doing what we did where it's like, cool. We bought this fucking videotape. We rented this videotape and only have it for a weekend. You're watching your watch stop or we taped it off. HBO or fucking it's got the ads in it from you're watching that thing nonstop rather than whatever horrible news on PBS. We don't want to. Of course, we couldn't do this without our Patreon producers over on patreon.com/kindafunny. So thank you, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney. Fallout New Vegas Remastered cannot happen, according to a former dev. This is Chris Scullion over at VGC. Bethesda may not be able to remaster Fallout New Vegas because it lacks the quote unquote engineering know-how to do it without the source code, according to a former lead on the game. Chris Avalone, who, and I'm saying that right, right? I know Chris's name I've heard a million times, but I've never interacted with him. But I'm pretty, chat, keep me honest. Chris Avalone, who co-founded New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment and serves as chief creative, served as the chief creative officer during its development told YouTube channel TK's Mantis that he didn't think it would be possible for Bethesda to remaster the game from scratch. These chats got it. Chats got it. Chats got it. Nobody's saying I'm wrong. I think you're right. Says Christopher. Thank you. Quote, just really simply, I don't think Bethesda has the engineering know how to make a remaster of New Vegas at all. Avalon said that he hadn't played last year's remaster of the Elder Scrolls for Oblivion, but said he had heard that quote, people enjoyed some of the visuals, but overall seem the reception was kind of negative. End quote. Chris, absolutely untrue. I don't know where you're getting your news. This is starting to sound like you just have a personal bias against Bethesda, but we'll let you keep going. Oblivion Remastered was co-developed by Bethesda and Virtuous and used the Gamebryo engine from the original game as its core while using Unreal Engine 5 to enhance the visuals. TK Mantis suggested that it's currently rumored a Fallout 3 remaster would potentially use the same method and that people want the same thing to be done for Fallout New Vegas. Now here's where we get into it. Well, Avalon responded, I mean, just pragmatically, it would make more sense to try out that process with Fallout 3 before going to New Vegas, just to see what all the problems and issues are as a result. TK Mantis then asks, and you think other than that, fundamentally it would be impossibly an impossibility for them. Chris comes back. Yeah. For one reason, yeah, yeah. For one reason, Avalon responded, claiming that obsidian studio head, Fergus Urquad chose not to give Bethesda the original game source code after development had ended. This is where we go from. He's just taking shots of Bethesda to you. See how much obsidian used to hate Bethesda.
Speaker 3:
[10:38] You're not taking this quote.
Speaker 1:
[10:39] The very last milestone for New Vegas was quote, please deliver all the source code and the ability to make the build and we'll pay you like $10,000 for that milestone and quote inside of the code. Chris goes on. Now what that milestone really meant was if all those assets are given to Bethesda, that means they can recreate the game anytime. So for reasons unknown to me, but I have my suspicions. Fergus decided not to cash out that milestone and did not deliver it.
Speaker 3:
[11:05] $10,000 is pretty low for what they're asking for.
Speaker 1:
[11:07] So I mean, 2008, 2009 money, you know what I mean? He added quote, it's not a strange decision if you feel dot dash dash, which would not be out of the realm of possibility that he felt that New Vegas, the New Vegas experience cheated him out of X amount of money, in which case cutting off the revenue stream from that product for a time would be a possibility. I could certainly see that. And I'm not saying that's the case. End quote. Then we go back to TK Mantis. So Bethesda doesn't have the source code for New Vegas. Back to Chris. They may have aspects of the code, but everyone that I talked to after a period of time, said they had no idea how to reassemble it, he replied. Before its release, the remaster of Oblivion was originally accidentally revealed in court documents which also made reference to a Fallout 3 remaster. Since then, speculation that a Fallout 3 remaster is in the works has continued, but no official announcement has been made. We have even more from this interview coming up, but it's jumping into a different thing of what they would have wanted to do with the sequel for a Fallout new Mac. But like, like I again, we were talking about this the other day when we were talking about MindsEye and how they were going to take their personal problems into DLC to reveal the information. We have more about coming up, believe it or not. We don't get enough just mudslinging developers pissed off at each other being dirty. We'll give you money for the source code. Go fuck yourself, Todd Howard. I'm never giving you this.
Speaker 3:
[12:34] We are working within your entire universe, but you know, fuck you.
Speaker 1:
[12:38] We did this and we hate you for it. We fucking we made a better fallout than you ever will. And you'll never see how we did it. you, goodbye. But that's just like, what are you doing? You must go.
Speaker 3:
[12:48] But I do like the idea that he that like, he's like, oh, like they probably don't have it. I feel like they have to have it now at this point, right? It's all under the same umbrella.
Speaker 1:
[12:57] They have to, I mean, you get into an interesting thing there, especially for what we're talking about in Berk or even Raj. Can you give me a check? I forget what I remember. Steimer reviewing New Vegas. But what year was that at IG? And that'd be 2010, 2011. When was New Vegas?
Speaker 2:
[13:11] I want to say 2010. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[13:12] Yeah. So yes, no. We do know many stories of game source code. Oh, yeah. So it's like, yeah, theoretically, if they backed everything up and kept everything going, yeah, Xbox owns it and it'd be easy enough to turn it over. But now we're just going off of Chris's interpretation of the situation. But when you're dealing with people who are this petty, I wouldn't be surprised. They wouldn't fart while I'm like, I'm also taking that.
Speaker 3:
[13:39] Just a hard drive.
Speaker 1:
[13:40] I mean, who has anything? I'll be dead in the ground before Todd Howard gets that.
Speaker 3:
[13:44] You guys could be a lot more than 10K for that.
Speaker 1:
[13:46] Exactly. You better fucking come pay right now or whatever.
Speaker 3:
[13:49] Yeah, when I first saw this headline, before I'd had any of the context, it did feel like-
Speaker 1:
[13:52] The first quote just is like, no, Bethesda sucks at making games. They could never do it.
Speaker 3:
[13:55] But it also felt like when my mom was like, oh no, GameStop doesn't have Prince of Persia, the two thrones. They ran out of it for Christmas. And then just like go to Christmas, of course. But yeah, I don't think it has any information.
Speaker 1:
[14:07] It is that thing too, where I forget when Chris left Obsidian Chat. Keep me honest on that one too, if you want to. So it's like how much has changed over what is on backup files, this, that and the other. You know what I mean? If I left tomorrow and somebody's like, does Kinda Funny have the original run of a conversation with Colin? Like, I don't think so.
Speaker 3:
[14:23] Maybe.
Speaker 1:
[14:24] Tim backs everything up. So maybe.
Speaker 3:
[14:26] Some hard driving Tim's house. I do think he brings up a good point of like, we've had this debate for forever of like, are they going to do a Fallout 3 and New Vegas? Did you do at the same time? Did you do it separately with the show? Now being in New Vegas now, like, what do you do there? I think it does bring up a good point of like, yeah, I think that they would just bring, just do Fallout 3 first, and then just wait on figuring out Fallout New Vegas. Cause that does seem like more of the question mark there instead of a, hey, like it seems like, but that's the prime has like, you know, they have oblivion, they had the source code for that one. They probably have the source code for Fallout 3. If this is a question mark, then probably wait on New Vegas. Then does that kind of, do you think that?
Speaker 1:
[15:04] I think Fallout 3 is where you start for sure.
Speaker 3:
[15:05] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[15:06] And so I think that, and I think that would make the most sense, especially at like, now you get into that usual actual song and dance of what it means to be Bethesda right now in under Xbox. And how much leeway do you actually have? What do you want to do? How much, what were the promises maybe Phil made versus what Asha and now Microsoft in general wants from you? I feel like if I'm Bethesda and we found success, which they did with this oblivion remastered, yeah, we're gonna do Fallout 3. We're gonna remake that. And the hope would be, I would imagine that that remaster gets you close enough slash satiates an audience enough that you can then get to Fallout 5. And I think Bethesda for, you know, every time I've ever talked to Todd on camera and I don't talk to him off camera about this, but on camera about New Vegas and Sydney, I made a joke in the first ever games, the first ever Daily Games cast when I was interviewing him about like, how much you guys hate obsidian? It's like, we don't, what are you talking about? And so it's like, obviously, 16 years have gone by since that game. A lot has changed. A lot of parent companies have changed yet.
Speaker 3:
[16:08] Yet.
Speaker 1:
[16:08] Yet. I still think though that it is we're Bethesda. These are the games we make and we want to be going forward with it this way.
Speaker 3:
[16:15] Sure.
Speaker 1:
[16:15] I think if you were going to get a Fallout New Vegas remaster, it would be Xbox being like, that is over. We are doing it here as a Fallout New Vegas remastered. And yes, the promise of a Fallout New Vegas 2, the promise of Fallout Chicago from this developer. Like it would be like, we are going to exploit the IP of Fallout. You know what I mean? We're going to give you audience what you actually want, which is a lot of Fallout games. At a better, a way better clip than what you've been getting them. And there's that push and pull now of like Bethesda, who is this really tight-knit group that makes these kind of games and wants to be left alone with them versus what the financial repercussions of being owned by Xbox are.
Speaker 3:
[16:52] Yeah. And then so you think that if we get, I think it's a slam dunk, we get a Fallout 3 remaster. The way they did it, like Oblivion.
Speaker 1:
[17:00] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[17:01] Now, if this is true and we don't have the source code and it seems like it is going to have to be like Final Fantasy Tactics, right? Where they lost all the source code and they had to kind of build that up from scratch. It was a story when that game was coming out. Do you think that they still do Fallout Vegas remake, essentially, at that point? Because they would have to do a lot more work to get that game off the ground.
Speaker 1:
[17:20] I don't. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3:
[17:21] Did you leave that in the past?
Speaker 1:
[17:23] You know, honestly, like we're talking. I love this discussion. Yeah, because you're talking so much of like, what would we do? What would they do? What would Xbox do? Like all these different things. I think your best bet would be if the source code is actually lost. If this doesn't exist, you can't just remake it, right? I think the move on what Bethesda would want to do, and this is without Microsoft intervening, right? And who knows if they would want to? You remaster Fallout 3, you get that big jump. Yay, hooray, ba-ba. Then you do a Fallout, New Vegas, Vegas expansion for 76. Oh, go to 76.
Speaker 3:
[17:58] You haven't done that yet?
Speaker 1:
[17:59] Yeah, no, no, you were still off in Appalachia and Ohio and all over there.
Speaker 3:
[18:02] Wow, okay.
Speaker 1:
[18:03] We had the ghoul come over there, but I think that would be the way to play with this, of like, cool, we can't do that. We don't want to do that, but we want to get you into that area, and we are going over there and making this thing. And I would be very clear about the messaging of it, of like, you could start from this point, you can just walk out over there and be there, and it will be this, that, and the other. And I know this is not what the majority of people would want. There it is, Spartan. No one wants to play Fallout 76. Meanwhile, Mr. Hot, we all want more 76 content. Like, I understand that, you understand that, if Xbox, if Asha is going to leave Bethesda alone and let them do what they want to do, Fallout 76 is going to need to scratch the Fallout itch for so many people. And I am with you of like, 76 does not hit for me the same way a Bethesda RPG single player does. But I do think there'd be a very interesting way to be like, cool, you guys need to make a 76 successor inside this game. And that's how I would market it. I'm like, hey, everybody, it is coming. All the things you know about Fallout 76 are still there and you can go off in Appalachia and have your adventure. But this one is a standalone. You can jump in. It is designed for the single player story fan. I maybe even say you can't team up with people until end game. If you want, you know what I mean? Like maybe that's how you get in there and really try to again. I don't want this. I would much rather them say and I'm not trying to kill 76. I've enjoyed my time with 76. It's just a different experience. I would much I am personally at a point where I what I would want from this Asha regime. Is it ripping the controls away from Todd and Bethesda? But saying you guys get all the numbered ones and we're going to go do smaller experiences with these other studios. So you do get Fallout Chicago. What we're about to talk about Fallout New Orleans. This that the other that are like here are spinoffs that are going to be 20 hour main campaigns and 60 hour RPG experience.
Speaker 3:
[20:02] How do you executive producer on these things? Right. But you're not the main guy.
Speaker 1:
[20:05] I would do the same thing too. I know. And I again, this is a conversation, by the way, Fergus still had obsidian. So if it is, if the source code is in his attic, they're coming for it. This would be the thing of going to obsidian to be like, you know, you're gonna call Outer Worlds 2 kicked fucking ass and nobody played it and that fucking sucks. So what we're going to do is you're gonna do Fallout New Vegas 2, whatever you want to call it, whatever we're gonna give you. You're gonna make another Fallout and that is going to take what we're always talking about. Or I talk about a lot of a very talented studio that knows how to do something incredibly well and team it with an IP that will sell fucking gangbusters.
Speaker 3:
[20:42] Or I mean, maybe this is beneath obsidian a little bit, but it could gear them back up to get back into that Fallout universe is, hey, you lost the source code. Well, now you got to remake the game. Now we got to do the God of War Santa Monica over here. You're the remake team. And then now you're going to go over here and then make fallout.
Speaker 1:
[20:59] It's just a thing where it's like if you're going to remake it. Yeah, I think you got to go make a new one because I just I feel like this is slippery.
Speaker 3:
[21:06] Slippery slope is like what I'm saying is like if you do three, you got to do New Vegas. And I know they they know that as well is like, I don't think you can just do three people love New Vegas and I think there's like a huge amount of people that like that is their fallout.
Speaker 1:
[21:19] I'm happy to be in the boardroom with you Asha. All right. Okay, here's what we do. I got bad news. We've lost the source code for Fallout New Vegas. Mr. Hawks loves 76. Okay, that's going to keep going. The 76 team is going to keep fishing and doing their great stuff. Here's what we're doing. We're working. We're remastering Fallout 3. Okay, all three, all the DLC. And we're going to do inside of Fallout 3, a New Vegas expansion. We will go to New Vegas. It will be a DLC. So a smaller story, but it will serve the purpose of letting you go there. We get everybody to buy the new Fallout 3 replay, fall in love with it and take their character back over there and do whatever and have a new adventure.
Speaker 3:
[22:04] That's better than my thought, which would be to do like the messy Master Chief Collection vibe where you have a remake in there. You have a few remakes in there and then you have New Vegas, which like it's re up rezzed, but it's not the version that you want. Yeah, I don't know. I think all leads to all roads leads to even if this is lost, I think they're going to have to remake this. I think we're going to have to see it, especially if they do three, you're just, you're going to have to do it. It's a matter of time. It's a four year, five year, six year situation. You're going to get Fallout New Vegas remake. And then eventually you will get Fallout spin-offs hopefully. Fingers crossed.
Speaker 1:
[22:38] Ben's going to be working it Kinda Funny.
Speaker 3:
[22:40] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:
[22:41] Fall at five in these remakes.
Speaker 3:
[22:42] 100%.
Speaker 1:
[22:43] That's crazy. I hate that. Love it, but hate it. Take your time, make it happen. One of the reasons people like Bethesda games is that their thumbprint is on, like we're talking about.
Speaker 3:
[22:51] But I also, we say all this, I understand. I don't believe this fully. I just don't, they have to have the source code somewhere. There has to be some way for them to make it.
Speaker 1:
[23:01] James in the chat goes, Chris Avalon's been on a screw Bethesda binge lately. David Flores, Super Chazz, Chris Avalon once begged Elon Musk to buy Fallout IP from Bethesda. That's all you know about this dude. It's like he's got an ax to grind. I've heard his name before, not in positive context. Yeah. So is it really lost? Is that just him just saying? Yeah. I don't even mean like he's lying. Is that just something you heard at one point or thought that was there when you were there?
Speaker 3:
[23:29] Then actually someone backed it up and it's there in this fall team.
Speaker 1:
[23:31] Who knows where we're actually at with it? However, we do know something else from this interview. I will move on to from the same YouTube, but I'm now reading from Louis White at FRVR. Chris explains that some of these ideas could have been expanded on in a sequel, which Obsidian thought it was going to get to do after the release of Fallout New Vegas. Although it likely wouldn't have taken players back to the Mojave. Avalon says, quote, We still thought we'd be able to do New Vegas 2 or whatever the title would be. That was not meant to be. The senior designer explains that Obsidian were specifically told not to use San Francisco as a setting for any of the potential Fallout games, which led others in the studio to dream up future games set in New Orleans, a new game set in New Orleans, Louisiana. Well, one of the designers, producers on one of our other projects, suggested New Orleans as a location, and I was pretty stoked on that, he said. Avalon explains that there's an old comic franchise called Grendel, which I remember everybody because I'm old, which was a major inspiration during the research period of Fallout New Vegas. Quote, Grendel's stories are very post-apocalyptic, he said. And there was this one that was written in New Orleans. It was called Like Four Devils, One Hell, and it's a fantastic story. But as soon as I read it, which was while I was doing Fallout research, ironically enough, I'm like, man, this makes me want to do a Fallout New Orleans so bad. The veteran Fallout developer explains that, quote, the vibes were so cool, the flavor was cool, and it's still Fallout, adding that there's a lot of potential there. Unfortunately, with mainline Fallout games now coming every once in a blue moon with no sign of Fallout 5 anytime soon, we may never get to experience that region in a proper Fallout game. Avalon explains that as he understands it, which is a grain of salt, obviously. Bethesda's close collaboration with Amazon for the canonical Fallout TV show is designed to lay, quote, all the groundwork for whatever, I guess, Fallout 5 is going to be, end quote. The TV series has already made some major pushes on the series' narrative, including the destruction of Shady Sands, the decimation of the Mojave, and the return of the ever-present Enclave, as well as the apparent destabilization of the iconic Brotherhood of Steel across the United States. Just a nice little, again, a game that never came to be whatever, but I'm, as somebody who wants more Fallout games, I really would love for them to explore and get different places. Just on the Fallout subreddit the other day, somebody put up their version. They're like, here's what I would do for the Fallout map in Chicago, and that was really cool to see as a Chicago guy. In the same way, as somebody who spent, you know, worked a summer in DC, it was cool when Fallout 3 dropped, and I was like, oh man, here's German town, that's where I lived for, you know, in this fucking woman's house.
Speaker 3:
[25:58] Interesting that San Francisco was off the table for them.
Speaker 1:
[26:00] Yeah, I wonder what that meant. Yeah, but I imagine, you know, with as much as already on this coast and what they're all doing out here.
Speaker 3:
[26:05] Oh yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, that would be sick. That would be dope.
Speaker 1:
[26:08] Of course it would be.
Speaker 3:
[26:09] That would be dope.
Speaker 1:
[26:10] You could go to your house.
Speaker 3:
[26:11] Oh? Yeah. Really?
Speaker 1:
[26:12] Yeah, Leanne's would be there.
Speaker 3:
[26:13] Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:
[26:15] Let's move on to more industry drama. Story number two, the MindsEye staff is suing the developer. This is Tom Phillips at IGN. MindsEye staff members are suing developer Bill the Rocket Boy after company bosses reportedly admitted installing secret surveillance software onto employee devices. Jesus. Back in February, gamesindustry.com has reported that Bill the Rocket Boy, Barb for short, employees discovered the addition of TerraMind, employee monitoring software on their computers after their machines began running slower than usual. That's why my computers were I was going to say I was going to interject here just so you guys know ours is a different territory. What we installed is different. It was super terrible to help you guys get gifts into slack faster in a subsequent company meeting co CEO Mark Gerhardt reportedly acknowledged that the software had been installed and blamed quote the 1%. That is the problem. Another reference to his repeated unproven claims that a handful of staff members were working with in to sabotage the company with TerraMind software that is not with the TerraMind software has now with this is what it says with the TerraMind software has now been removed while concerns there it is. Thank you remain over what the sensitive data may be may have captured and whether data protection laws were followed. TerraMind describes itself as quote the number one rated employee monitoring software that helps companies track work time, enhance team productivity and secure sensitive data while respecting privacy for both in office and remote workers and quote a quietly take screenshots and irrefutable screen recordings while logged while logging web and app activity including employee keystrokes in order to recognize top performers as well as implement targeted coaching for those seen as lagging behind today the IWGB Game Workers Union has announced legal action and alleged that Barb's use of TerraMine violated data protection laws and staff's quote-unquote basic dignity by exceeding the legitimate remit of worker or monitoring workers productivity or safeguarding the company's security by recording individuals in their homes without their consent. Builder Rocket Boys' toxic culture of secrecy and micromanaging is one of the worst I've seen in a 20-year career in the gaming industry, said MindsEye lead cinematic animator Chris Wilson in a statement. While they have conceded to our headline demand of removing TerraMine from our devices, many questions still remain about their actions. It can only be assumed this software was added as part of their effort to micromanage us, a product of their mistrust of their employees. It created an atmosphere of unease, something that doesn't lead to great video game production. The action is separate to another legal bid by IWGB, which alleges that Barb mishandled its mass layoffs last summer, that saw the departure of 300 staff following MindsEye's disappointing release. The IWGB alleges that this process included unlawful blacklisting, detriment, and failure to engage in collective consultations, and could cost the studio millions.
Speaker 3:
[29:26] I hit 300 employees?
Speaker 1:
[29:30] What the fuck in 1%?
Speaker 3:
[29:31] That, yeah, the amount of money that they're paying to this spy company is probably-
Speaker 1:
[29:37] A little too much. You don't know what I mean? Yeah, a little too much.
Speaker 3:
[29:39] $25 a month per employee, that's a lot of money right there.
Speaker 1:
[29:42] I mean, again though, we gotta protect the secrets. That's why we're installing TerraMind.
Speaker 3:
[29:46] It's the 1%. One person in this office is leaking everything.
Speaker 1:
[29:50] For our TerraMind, it's just a live feed of all your computers going to Kevin's desk. Kevin's watching all this free while he plays CruiserZDESERT.
Speaker 3:
[29:59] On his PlayStation TV monitor.
Speaker 1:
[30:02] Remember, of course, that this is the same company. Rebecca Valentine, formerly of IGN on IGN, March 31, 2026. New MindsEye mission will reveal evidence the game was sabotaged, claims the CEO. The same one they're suing. I can't fucking wait. We just don't get this. We say all the time, PlayStation doesn't talk anymore. Everybody's too corporate. This is the kind of shit that reminds you human beings are making your games and other human beings are making their lives miserable.
Speaker 3:
[30:32] Just insane. I love it.
Speaker 1:
[30:33] Fucking awesome.
Speaker 3:
[30:34] What was it? Me and Blessing were on a KFGT. We're talking about another company. I think it was another company where like the CEO was talking about the haters trying to ruin it and he kept on saying the word haters. And I just I love that energy. I don't love this energy. This is awful to the employees. This sucks.
Speaker 1:
[30:46] Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:
[30:46] I'm glad that they're suing them. But just the unhinged energy that is happening. And I will say we gotta figure out a way to play this DLC. We gotta see what I know.
Speaker 1:
[30:54] That's my main thing.
Speaker 3:
[30:55] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[30:55] We got everybody who's in the lawsuit.
Speaker 3:
[30:57] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[30:58] Everybody who's just finished this DLC. Because I gotta know.
Speaker 3:
[31:01] We gotta see.
Speaker 1:
[31:02] I gotta see what Mark's like. I've got them dead to rights. I'm wearing all of our laundry in a video game. In the video games meta narrative. I gotta see this shit. I gotta play MindsEye.
Speaker 3:
[31:14] The haters, bro.
Speaker 1:
[31:15] The haters.
Speaker 3:
[31:15] They're gonna get them. They're gonna figure out the 1%.
Speaker 1:
[31:19] There's 1% of Kinda Funny that's driving me up the wall. Take your guess. It's Tim. It's Tim. His Ghostbuster shirt. He doesn't even know. He looks like a cabinet. Everybody, we couldn't have this much fun each and every day live on YouTube and Twitch and podcast services around the globe. Without your support, pick up a Kinda Funny membership on patreon.com/kindafunnyyoutube.com/kindafunny Games, Apple or Spotify. Of course, you get all of our shows ad free. That's more than 80 a month. You'd get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller, in a 15 to 20 minute podcast series called Greg Wake. You get good karma for supporting an 11 person, 11 year old small business. But right now, you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 4:
[32:00] This episode is brought to you by Warby Parker. Buying eyeglasses was always a whole to do before Warby Parker came to our store, and it's been a while since we've had glasses so many of our lives. Greg, Gia, Joey, me, all of us, hated how buying glasses always felt so complicated and overpriced. And often the styles were just super outdated. But Warby Parker total game changer. Nothing comes close on quality, price, selection and customer service. You can literally try on glasses from your phone before you buy it with their virtual try on. Greg says it's wild how well it actually works. And a super cool thing is Warby Parker is covered by major eye insurance plans. That's how Gia got hers. They make it incredibly easy to use. You just enter your information to see if you are eligible for benefits on frames, contacts or eye exams. And if you are, they automatically apply them for you. Right now, buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional prescription pairs at warbyparker.com/kindafunny. That's 20% off additional prescription pairs when you go to warbyparker.com/kindafunny.
Speaker 1:
[33:10] That's the Ghostbusters shirt. Now, 7th of Chats says, looks like a cabinet is quite the insult. No, no, I assure you, this is a compliment. All right. I love that shirt.
Speaker 3:
[33:19] He loves that.
Speaker 1:
[33:20] It's soft and it looks like the fucking cabin out of Ghostbusters.
Speaker 3:
[33:23] Hey, come on.
Speaker 1:
[33:24] He wasn't already wearing it. That's a sale. You know what I mean? I'm about it, but I can't do that. I can't. We match too much already. He stole my style. Did he?
Speaker 3:
[33:33] The blue shirt?
Speaker 1:
[33:38] Number three, number three. Miyamoto says he wants Peaches origin story in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie to remain canon in future games. This is Chris Scullion again, a VGC. And of course, spoilers for Super Mario Galaxy coming up. Shigeru Miyamoto says Peaches newly revealed backstory in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie may contain, may remain canon in future games. As reported by Nintendo Dream Web, Miyamoto conducted a group interview with Japanese media to mark the Japanese release of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie this Friday, April 24th. One of the reporters asked Miyamoto what would happen to Peaches surprise backstory which is revealed in the film, most notably that she and Rosalina are sisters who were separated as children, and whether this was now the official canon. Miyamoto replied that Nintendo has avoided going into characters' backstories too much in the past because it can limit what they can do with those characters going forward. But now that their past have been explored more in the movies, the plan is to try to establish this as the official lore in upcoming games. Because we don't always know what kind of game we'll make next, having too many character backstories can end up restricting us, Miyamoto explained via a machine translation. I'm fine with being bound by gameplay, but I didn't want to be constrained by a story we created. This is the reason why we had avoided making movies for so many years. Until we made this film, then we hadn't decided on Peach's origins. But now that we've made this movie, it's become fun to expand on the character in various ways. Therefore, I'd like to adhere to the backstory established in the movie as much as possible in future games. Let me tell you, as a father, everything he just said paints me into such fucking corners. Really? Dad? Who were Yoshi's parents? I'm like, I don't fucking know, Ben.
Speaker 5:
[35:22] He's an eggy hatch.
Speaker 1:
[35:23] I don't know where he came from. They don't tell me anything, Ben.
Speaker 3:
[35:25] Well, now he goes, Oh, now Illumination will tell you. Don't worry.
Speaker 1:
[35:28] I know. Yeah, the minions are going to be.
Speaker 3:
[35:29] They're going to figure it out. Yeah, Illumination, the monsters. I this is an interesting situation, right? Because I think when Illumination and Nintendo first came together and they're making this movie, I think we all had hopes that Nintendo would influence Illumination into making like better movies. And now it's the point where like Illumination has so much sway and like power where they are like now influencing Nintendo. I'm not saying it's like bad or anything. I'm not saying like, you know, the next Mario game is gonna be shit because of it.
Speaker 1:
[35:57] No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:
[35:58] I'm also not saying that I didn't like the Mario Galaxy movie. That was good for you. You want to say it was a fine. It was a fine like YouTube like short film. It felt like like, oh, it's just like a bunch of stuff happening. Because I like the video game. So I like this now. This is cool. But I don't think anybody was ever whatever we talked about before. What I'm saying is like, I do think it's interesting now of like how much influence we're going to get from these Illumination movies going into the games of like, hey, now is Star Fox going to, of course, we have that rumor of the Star Fox game, right? Was that actually influenced by Illumination coming to the table and be like, hey, we want to do a Star Fox thing. And then Nintendo will be like, fuck, we should probably kind of follow up with what Illumination is doing here because it's going to make a billion dollars. Right. That's such an interesting dynamic between the two.
Speaker 1:
[36:41] I don't worry about Illumination's actions hurting the games.
Speaker 3:
[36:46] Sure.
Speaker 1:
[36:47] I love the idea that they were like, this is our chance to get Nintendo. Let's start. Fox is going to be in this movie. He's going to be dope as fuck. Let's get a game together to get out there so that as we left that theater and I was like, Ben, what was your favorite part? And he was like, Star Fox. It's like, yeah, okay, let's go get that and chase that. And I'm not even hopeful. I'm 1000% expecting that game to be better than this movie. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 3:
[37:09] Yeah, no, it makes sense to me. I just I didn't expect this is what I'm saying. Like I just I just didn't expect Illumination to be able to have such a sway within Miyamoto and Nintendo that would actually because I think of Nintendo is like we're Nintendo. You know what I mean? Like we will find you can do what the fuck you want with these characters. But like we're not never going to change the backstory of Peach.
Speaker 1:
[37:32] Well, I mean, Miyamoto was so involved. I'm sure this is just a conversation with him and the director whose name I forget. Right. Where it's just them. We got it. Let's have some kind of we got to do something here. Right. Like we got to explain this movie got no other. They're like, listen, we're not connecting anything else in this fucking film. We might as well. Right. We got to give them a reason that they're doing these things. We got to figure this out. Right.
Speaker 2:
[37:53] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[37:53] I mean, it was like, yeah, I guess. Yeah. You see his mind's eye shit. Like, oh, my God.
Speaker 2:
[37:59] The one percent.
Speaker 1:
[38:00] Why we don't fight. This story reminded me of an Instagram comic that I had seen that I sent to Tim Gettys. Can we show it to everybody? Is that possible? So it's, it's Peach and Rosalina next to each other. Right? Click the next button. Reasonably just saying, Hey, it's okay. We didn't know.
Speaker 3:
[38:17] Yeah. Click the next one.
Speaker 1:
[38:21] You'll get that one. You'll get that one later when you grow up. Don't worry about it. Speaking of Miyamoto though, Kataka, who's Kenneth Shepard has this in an interview, in an interview with Famitsu translated by VGC. Miyamoto was asked about his feelings on the Galaxy movies reviews, especially overseas, where the film currently holds a 43% approval rating on review aggregate site Rotten Toe Make Toes, based on 206 reviews, which is significantly lower than the first film's already not great 59% rating. He told the outlet that he was actually surprised by the harsh reception, as he expected the Galaxy reviews to be better than those for the first film, saying he understood some of the criticism directed at the original. At the time, he even said that negative reviews helped create buzz that pushed the film over $1 billion at the box office. Quote, It's true. The situation is indeed very similar, he said. Actually, regarding the previous film, I felt the critics' opinions did hold some validity. However, I thought things would be different this time around, only to find that the criticism is even harsher than it was before. It is really quite baffling. Here we are, having crossed over from a different field, working hard with the specific aim of helping to revitalize the film industry, yet the very people who ought to be championing that cause seem to be the ones taking a passive stance, end quote. The news is too good today. You know what I mean? It's not just closures. It's a lot of people just fucking swinging, just swinging on each other.
Speaker 3:
[39:55] Yeah, that's incredible that Miyamoto is like, hey, no, we're fixing the, I'm fixing the video game.
Speaker 1:
[39:59] Why are you mad at me? I'm saving cinema. I mean, it's put a fucking story in Miyamoto.
Speaker 3:
[40:05] It's funny because I totally see where Miyamoto is coming from in terms of like, if you're the guy that made Mario, like this is such a love letter to Mario, like this is such a fun time for people that love Mario. But the issue is the critics are not necessarily that, right? So many, like if you were probably to do the breakdown, I'm sure most of them have a passive knowledge of Mario, but they're not us. They're not gamers that are actually playing them all. They know all the references. So they're looking at it as a kids movie, an actual animated movie, and it just doesn't stand on its own. And I think that he's very much like in the Mario mode and he's in that zone, so he doesn't really see it that way, which I get. I understand. That's just how it's going to be.
Speaker 1:
[40:42] Well, speaking of the Mario zone, number four on the Rope Report, we have Yoshi and the Mysterious Book Preview Roundup for you. Of course, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is coming out May 21st of the Nintendo Switch to Nintendo Switch and Switch to Google. For me, digital is going to be $60. Retail is going to be $70. If you want that physical edition, we start with IGN's Leanne Butkovic. Let's get this out of the way. If it if if it wasn't already painfully obvious from the trailer thus far, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is not the next ultra ambitious first party Nintendo game meant to capture any and all demographics from grade schoolers to grandmas in the way. Would you find out for me? Oh, tip, switch it in the way. Say Donkey Kong Bonanza is it is the most E rated of Nintendo's most recent slate of E rated games. Putting it charitably, it is a game for families with young kids. But who says the littlest gamers among us don't deserve something cute and low stakes to have fun with a fun time with. She goes on and then I like this finish one. Overall, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is quite adorable. The scratchy fantasy book illustrations are very charming. All the little guys are super cute and I'm a fan of the choice to keep Yoshi half pixelated in an homage to all the Yoshi games that came before this one. The whole thing might not be truly e for everyone if you were hoping for, say, a successor to Yoshi's Island for Switch 2, but Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a gentle platformer that seems almost certain to provide an easy on-ramp to Nintendo's ecosystem for the next generation of Yoshi fans. Steve Watts at GameSpot wrote, It remains to be seen how Yoshi and the Mysterious Book sustains its entire length. I only played two chapters, and at times it seemed more like a toy to tinker with than a traditional platforming game. But there's something novel at the heart of this reconceptualized idea of a platformer, eschewing combat in favor of play and discovery. It's not something I'd want to see applied across the board, but on a continuum of Yoshi games becoming more inviting for younger players, it fits like a glove. And then finally, VGC's Andy Robinson wrote, From the short segment I played, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book was a pleasant surprise. Its set up feels unique among Nintendo's other 2D platformers, and it delivers on the early promise of systemic gameplay. It could turn out to be a real gem in the Nintendo Switch 2's 2026 lineup.
Speaker 3:
[43:03] I like looking at it. I like looking at it.
Speaker 1:
[43:06] It reminds me of Yoshi's Woolly World and the Curry Epic Yard. Where I was like, oh, these are cute. And then I played a couple levels and I was like, cool, I'm gone, but I'm glad this exists. Yeah, obviously I'm in a far different place now. Yeah, Ben loves Yoshi. Ben loves the Switch. Ben loves playing games. He also loves Mario Wonder, so he doesn't need a dumbed down platformer. But if this is just an approachable platformer, he's going to have a great time. Like I said, he loves the Yoshi.
Speaker 3:
[43:30] He loves the Yoshi. He calls him the Yoshi. Well, yeah, that's sick.
Speaker 1:
[43:34] I mean, he mainly calls me Yoshi, but I'll say the Yoshi. The Yoshi?
Speaker 3:
[43:36] That's pretty dope, actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's cool. I'm happy that this game seems like it's, you know, it's going to scratch that itch for people that are looking for it. But yeah, I just like looking at it. I want someone to play in front of me. Can I come over? Sure.
Speaker 1:
[43:49] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Why don't we just bring Ben here? He can play for you.
Speaker 3:
[43:51] Oh, that'd be great.
Speaker 1:
[43:51] Yeah, you can do it. You can come do the game's cast place.
Speaker 3:
[43:53] Oh, that's awesome. We totally do that. Just you and me right now. Just ask him questions. What do you think?
Speaker 1:
[43:59] Well, you came up yesterday. Oh, maybe it was when I think I talked about this, where we explained marijuana to him. And I think it was Uncle Roger got high. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[44:08] Now he knows I'm a sinner.
Speaker 1:
[44:09] I thought he definitely knows. Oh, no. Let's jump completely. We go from a kids game preview that's out there. Go read it on your favorite side of choice or watching YouTube videos that are out there. We go from that. We jump to a review for a game for adults. You know, a game is highfalutin when I'm reading the reviews and I'm like, I don't even know the words or references you guys are making. Titanium Court Review Roundup is out right now. When I checked it, there's still nothing on Metacritic. Is that still the case?
Speaker 3:
[44:35] I checked this morning. I couldn't find anything.
Speaker 1:
[44:37] Okay, well, I checked that this morning when I woke up. Giovanni over at Polygon writes, Bear with me, trying to explain Titanium Court feels a bit like teaching advanced French to a class of third grade massholes. The unclassifiable Indy and the winner of the Seamus McNally Grand Prize at this year's Independent Game Festival is so gleefully wrapped up in criss-crossing systems that you'll need to become fluent in its own language to fully get a handle on it. That's not an on-board failure, it's the whole point of developer AP. Thompson's absurdist delight. Meanwhile, Zach Kotzer over at Kotaku writes, What isn't a mystery is how Titanium Court won the latest IGF Awards. Some will call the traffic jam of all these dynamic variables a rogue light, but I like to think it sees the hidden richness hiding behind the chaotic shifting pieces of a match 3, a box of candy, whose surprises can be complex, riddling and dangerous. Codes came into this one unsolicited, where they sent in, Hey, Titanium Court's coming out. We have all these different codes. We have all these codes for you. I think it would hit the palate for some of the Kinda Funny folks. I put it into Slack and I said, I think this is going to be some people's jams. I had an idea whose person jam it would be, and it is. Ladies, gentlemen, and bees, welcome to the microphone, the man who's beaten Titanium Court. The boss baby, CEO Jr. Barrett Courtney. Hello. Hello, Barrett. How are you?
Speaker 2:
[45:59] I'm doing well, Greggy.
Speaker 1:
[46:00] You're doing a great job running the show.
Speaker 2:
[46:01] Oh, thank you. Thank you. I try every day to make it be a show.
Speaker 1:
[46:06] You succeeded today. Thank you, Barrett. Talk to me. I came in with the praise, not necessarily the lead. What is Titanium Court to you?
Speaker 2:
[46:18] Titanium Court on the surface level is a goofy comedy game that mixes Match 3 mechanics with a tower defense strategy game. Where you see on the board here, you have things like trees and wheat and water and all this stuff, and you're doing Match 3 gameplay to collect those as resources that you then put into sending people out of your little castle to either defend your castle, attack other enemy castles, and then to even gather up more resources. And you're probably thinking, all right, well, that seems fine, well and good, seems solid as a premise, whatever. I think the special sauce of Titanium Core is in its world, its writing, and how it uses these mechanics to uphold kind of what it's going for as kind of like a commentary on our relationship with video games. What we're able to, like, the lengths we're willing to go to stay attached to a video game. That's all written in like very silly, absurd levity that reminds me a lot of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, like the book series by Douglas Adams. Another one that I think The Verge brought up as well that I thought of was The Phantom Tollbooth. And then like also just like musically and just the weird little observations that the writing will go through of constantly being absurd and goofy with then the punchline kind of pointing out the silly mundane things about our lives. Whether it's like treating like free market as like a religion or actually thinking about the more deeper implications of like traffic signs and all this stuff that I think is like really charming and funny. That reminds me as well as Chris Plant also shouted this out of, they might be giants as well. So if you're into any of like the writing kind of tastes of those, I think you'd get a lot out of this. I think it's a special piece of art and I'm saying this as someone who questioned the most whether I wanted to continue my line of work when I was assigned to play Candy Crush at IGN for a month and like fucking hate match three. But I think everything that it does like as a game with its systems is like really satisfying really fun and really charming the entire time. It took me about like a little over 15 hours. I want to say to the best way to say this is like walk away from it.
Speaker 1:
[49:08] Okay. It's one of those games that just goes on and on.
Speaker 2:
[49:11] It can like if you choose to. But like I eventually chose looks like, okay, like I've seen credits. Right.
Speaker 1:
[49:17] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[49:18] And like it does a lot to kind of, you know, push against that and all this stuff that I think is really fun and charming. I think it's it's a really funny game that I actually chuckled at a lot more so than Mouse PI. What's up, Greggy?
Speaker 1:
[49:35] I have a question. You know, I like comedy in my games. I adore match three. I don't like tower defense. That's the turn off for me. Is the tower defense so intense that I would not? I would.
Speaker 2:
[49:46] It's pretty casual. And I think it's also a little bit rogue like E as well. Or you're kind of like doing runs to, you know, you have like you'll see kind of like this board. It's like, all right, I have like eight kind of battles ahead of me that will all end in like a boss fight, whether it's like a dragon or a trio of goat brothers who are all going to like, you either need to pay their toll to get past their little toll booth or they're all going to attack you type of thing, right? And I think the tower defense stuff is like really like simple to understand. And is actually like a really satisfying, like kind of like, it has like a satisfying pace of like not being too overwhelming. I'm not a tower defense type of guy. I'm not like a strategy type of guy. But I lost my, I lost hours and hours for several nights to this game just because of, again, like how addicting and charming it was. And again, I think just what it does to like sucker you in with those mechanics that do feel addicting that constantly have like want you to come back and then using that to then kind of fight against you to be like, hey, what are you still doing here though? I think it's really cool and funny. And there's just like a lot of characters that I find really fascinating. And it's one that made me feel like empty parentheses positive when I left it. I think it's just like a very thoughtful piece about video games in general.
Speaker 1:
[51:23] You said 15 hours?
Speaker 2:
[51:25] Roughly, yeah. And I think I might have been able to finish it a little bit before then as well. But there are some choices that I made that had me keep going. Like there's a, quote unquote, a final boss that I decided to keep playing even after doing that final boss. And that decision in and of itself made me feel really guilty about how the game ended for me. Yeah. I think in terms of writing just what this game does is really, really special. So I would say give it a shot, especially as someone who does not really gravitate at all towards a match three or a strategy type of game. I am really infatuated with this game. And it's my favorite game I've played so far this year.
Speaker 1:
[52:09] I was going to say now, Barrett, on that patented Kinda Funny Review scale, what would you give it?
Speaker 2:
[52:17] I'd give it a solid nine. I think this is amazing. Yeah, I think it's an amazing title. I'm really excited to see this played by so many others and see like other people's takeaways of like what this is and what it means as a piece of art. Like, you know, so many reviews that have come out this morning, kind of struggling to like fully like try to tell people like, this is what I took away from it. But yeah, it's one that I was like sad to walk away from. But with how many games there are right now is like, okay, I just need to finish this.
Speaker 1:
[52:52] This place, there's other stuff to get to. Yeah, fantastic. Thank you so much for your work, Barrett.
Speaker 2:
[52:57] Thank you.
Speaker 1:
[52:57] Enjoy running the show from here on out.
Speaker 2:
[52:59] I'll try.
Speaker 1:
[53:00] Thank you. You gonna play?
Speaker 3:
[53:02] Yeah, I'm gonna try this.
Speaker 1:
[53:03] Yeah, I want to try it.
Speaker 3:
[53:04] Yeah. I mean, you and I are match three guys. And then I'm also a tower defense guy.
Speaker 1:
[53:08] I'm like, are you really?
Speaker 3:
[53:09] Yeah. I like casual ones. I like balloons tower defense.
Speaker 1:
[53:12] See, I think like PixelJunk Monsters, like that, like, and that's, I know you were fucking three years old.
Speaker 3:
[53:17] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[53:17] But it's like that, that I liked, but it's I don't, I'm not drawn to it usually.
Speaker 3:
[53:21] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[53:21] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[53:22] Play balloons, tower defense.
Speaker 1:
[53:23] Is that what is that? What is that?
Speaker 3:
[53:24] It's it's monkeys that are the bunch of balloons. You have to pop the balloons. What?
Speaker 1:
[53:30] They just don't do it for me. People get so up.
Speaker 3:
[53:32] You don't got to do it. They're just, I'm not into it because of the monkey. OK, well, that's fucking crazy. That's nuts, guys. The PlayStation guy over here, he doesn't like apes.
Speaker 1:
[53:41] I'd explain apescape to Ben when he's playing Astrobot.
Speaker 3:
[53:43] You know, it's like a better. Yeah, it's really good. A better better. What video game?
Speaker 1:
[53:48] That's your body better than Astrobot. You're gonna say that about Kinda Funny's number one video game of all time. The game that defines us.
Speaker 3:
[53:55] Listen to that apescape theme song and all the music. It's incredible drum and bass. Come on, guys.
Speaker 1:
[54:00] Look, you know, whatever we evolved from them. That was enough.
Speaker 3:
[54:04] Keep them in the past.
Speaker 1:
[54:05] You know what I mean? When I see him at the zoo, I'm always like fucking monkey. Just don't eat them. Just don't eat them. Why are we keeping them around?
Speaker 3:
[54:18] That's OK. Well, that you're talking about something different.
Speaker 1:
[54:22] All these conversations about we're running out of resources. Why am I letting these monkeys be on my trees? Come on now. How much methane are they putting out? Why is it always my fault that I did something wrong? Why can't I just drive my car and be happy?
Speaker 3:
[54:35] Exactly.
Speaker 1:
[54:36] Monkey in the San Francisco Zoo ain't doing shit.
Speaker 3:
[54:38] We should blame the monkeys because we evolved past them, right? So they technically also made the cars. So exactly.
Speaker 1:
[54:43] They're culpable. Their paws are clean in this whole situation. Number six on the Roper Report, Vampire Survivors developers working on over 15 projects, including IP collaborations. We go to Andy Robinson at VGC. I stress projects. This was getting shared all over the place today, both on VGC, gamesindustry.biz, PUNKle. Of course, developers, vampire survivors, went on to Twitter, Blue Sky, Blue Sky. It was like, it's 15 projects, not because originally it was being reported as games. This includes vampire survivors, DLC, free updates, our published games, et cetera. But still very good news and a lot of stuff happening over here. So let's keep going. I love the little cry emojis as they try to get, they try to get back in the fucking bottle as every flips out. But vampire survivors, developer Panko says it's working on over 15 projects and opening new studios following the big success of the rogue like shoot them up since its release in 2022. Vampire survivors has surpassed 27 million players. According to Panko, it also won best game of the 2023 BAFTA game awards this week. The UK based studio released a deck builder, spin-off vampire crawlers. But according to the chief strategy officer, Matteo Sappio, there's a lot more going on behind the scenes. Speaking to the game business, Sappio and Panko was, I'm sorry, Sappio said Panko was reinvesting in vampire survivor success into three types of games. Spin-offs like crawlers, original IP games, and new survivors games based on known IP like Warhammer 40k. To help achieve this, it's expanding with studios in Japan and Italy, which Panko says will help it collaborate with local companies. However, the company has paused its publishing business, which last year put out third-party games like Kill the Brick Man and Berserk or Die. The CSO said that by opening smaller studios, Panko hopes to maintain its indie spirit and be able to take more risks than it would otherwise. Quote, our idea is to have little teams of people, five, 10, 15, working on different projects. The structure will be we will have a designer, a bunch of producers and this little team that's agile and flexible. That is how we think we will be able to maintain this spirit because what is the indie spirit? It is mainly freedom and taking risks with ideas. We don't want to be AAA or AA. We're efficient with costs. We don't take useless risks. We invest in people. So with 15 projects, one can fail, one can go good, and you balance that.
Speaker 3:
[57:13] That's how you do it. I'm so nervous at reading all that until the last paragraph. I'm like, yes, that's how you do this. This is a dream.
Speaker 1:
[57:20] Exactly. I mean, how many times? First off, I mean, full disclosure, of course, we love vampire survivors here. I haven't started crawlers yet. Mike was new to do a stream yesterday, but it ran long. Pongal, I would say friends of the show, especially Geo. If you remember when our game awards sponsor a couple of years fell through Pongal, we put out a call and Pongal stepped up in for no reason rather than wanting to help out sponsor our game awards coverage. So I look at them and say, wow, you're good people. I read this and go, wow, you're good people. We talk all the time about people coming in with unrealist expectations, taking it the wrong direction. You make a bunch of money. You don't reinvest. You don't do stuff. You see this. You see inner sloth with outer sloth. You see people are like, hey man, we hit. And now we're going to go make more and help more people make stuff. And more importantly, five, 10, 15 people. That's it. Let's go make small games. Let's get stuff out. Let's have a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:
[58:12] Yep. Let's get unique. Let's get weird with it.
Speaker 1:
[58:13] Exactly. Love seeing that. I'm excited to see what else they got their sleeves. You know, when they did that survivors crossover with Warhammer announced it or whatever. That would be the first Warhammer game I play where I love vampire survivors so much. I'm totally down to jump into a new universe and go back.
Speaker 3:
[58:26] That's awesome.
Speaker 1:
[58:27] I love you. Oh, thanks.
Speaker 3:
[58:28] No problem.
Speaker 1:
[58:29] Of course, Roger, you and me falling out of love and fighting and breaking up would be huge news. I don't say if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I need to know about. Where would I go?
Speaker 3:
[58:38] You would go to our last story, the We News Channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.
Speaker 1:
[58:47] Number seven, the We News. As I teased at the front, Asha Sharma says something is happening with Xbox and Discord. Over on Twitter, she posted, For years, Xbox and Discord have worked together to make it easier for players to connect, chat, and play across devices. We're teaming up again as we continue to make Game Pass more flexible for our players. Some of you might start to see some code in the wild, and we will share more details with you all soon.
Speaker 3:
[59:13] Interesting. I think until just now, maybe Xbox Game Pass is part of Discord Nitro a little bit. You get maybe like the base level thing.
Speaker 1:
[59:24] We had a long conversation yesterday, me, Mike, and of course, Xanth about Game Pass, breaking down the price. Thank you so much. I thought so too. You bring down the price here, but then going forward, are we alacrarding? Are we having different options to add into it? How do you take relationships like a Discord relationship and make that beneficial to a subscriber already?
Speaker 3:
[59:42] Instead of bringing it into Xbox Game Pass, I think it would be smarter to have Xbox Game Pass part of it.
Speaker 1:
[59:46] Start making those kind of things. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, I joke around because it's such a out of the blue tweet, but it's also nice to see it the other way around rather than tomorrow. There's this logo all of a sudden for Game Pass or Discord or vice versa on this. What does that mean? There's no official word. Yada, yada, yada. Obviously, we all know humans have to make this stuff, so things are happening out there, so nice to see that. Your next We News is A&R Atelier. Today announced Echo the Dolphin Complete, a comprehensive new package that takes players on a journey through time and through the history of one of gaming's most iconic franchises. In Echo the Dolphin Complete, Echo swims through time itself. From the 8-bit Master System era to the 16-bit Genesis slash Mega Drive generation and into a brand new contemporary game built for the modern era. This is the complete definitive Echo the Dolphin experience created by the people who made the originals, a remaster done as it should be. This is all their official PR release.
Speaker 3:
[60:48] The brand new remastered games?
Speaker 1:
[60:51] You get the Master System, you get the Genesis and a brand new version. Okay. A brand new Echo game.
Speaker 3:
[60:56] Gotcha. Not a remaster.
Speaker 1:
[60:58] Yeah, no. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[60:58] No images, nothing.
Speaker 1:
[60:59] No.
Speaker 3:
[61:00] We're just, we're saying it.
Speaker 1:
[61:01] Just saying it.
Speaker 3:
[61:02] We're just shooting our shot.
Speaker 1:
[61:02] We're putting that information out there.
Speaker 3:
[61:03] That's exciting.
Speaker 1:
[61:04] Just wanted you to know the dolphin lives.
Speaker 3:
[61:05] Leanne's a pop for this.
Speaker 1:
[61:06] I'm sure she did. I'm sure she did. Remedy has released Control on iPhone and iPad and Mac with Touch Controls, Rework Graphic Systems, our gameplay systems, and Ray Tracing. But if you're looking to get out there and try one of the best games, get out there and do it before Control Resonant hits this year. Detopia is gonna launch on July 14th. Matt Piscitella came through with Cercana's top 20 best-selling premium games from last month. Of course, that's March if you didn't know. Number one was MLB, the show 26. That was new. Number two was Resident Evil Requiem, down one from one in February. Number three was WWE 2K26. That was new. Number four was Marathon. That was new. Number five was Bocopia. That was new. Number six was Call of Duty Black Ops 7. Number seven was Monster Hunter Stories 3, Twisted Reflection. That was new. Then it was NBA 2K26, Minecraft, EA Sports, FC 26, Grand Theft Auto 5 at 11, Battlefield 6 at 12, 13 Red Dead Redemption 2, 14 Ghost of Yote, and at 15 Crimson Desert. Entering the charts to get out there.
Speaker 3:
[62:09] All the way at 15.
Speaker 2:
[62:10] No, digital sales not included.
Speaker 3:
[62:12] Yeah, okay, that makes sense. People aren't doing that.
Speaker 1:
[62:15] People are all about the good stuff out there.
Speaker 3:
[62:16] I'm always just mind-blown Black Ops 7. It's a Call of Duty no matter what. Even if it's a bad year, it doesn't matter. I was in the top 10.
Speaker 1:
[62:22] People love it.
Speaker 3:
[62:23] People love it.
Speaker 1:
[62:25] Also, Mario Kart World went up to 19 from 75.
Speaker 2:
[62:30] Galaxy movie.
Speaker 1:
[62:31] There you go. And that was it for your Wee News. Everybody, we jump into the Super Chats before we move on to the games cast to talk about The Expanse, which I'm excited. Oh, Eric says just traded my PS5 in a game spot for 420 after getting the pro before the hike. Today's the last day to cash for credit value promo. Because they run in that stoners promo. But you stoners wanted to break your dare pledge like you did. I did. I bet knows J six says, will the judge ruling over minds I have to play the DLC in court? I hope so. I mean, we hope you hope that if you live, let's play the fucking DLC in this court case, or they can play a recorded one from Kinda Funny Games. I'll let you know judicial system. You have my permission.
Speaker 3:
[63:19] We are letting or giving it to you. Michael testify.
Speaker 1:
[63:25] Jeff Ball Jr. says, Greg, where did you get your glasses? These are Ray man's. I can't remember. No, these are Costco. They're from Costco. Aaron Made You Laugh says what?
Speaker 3:
[63:36] I was gonna say minor from sponsor of today episode.
Speaker 1:
[63:39] Warby Parker.
Speaker 3:
[63:39] Warby Parker.
Speaker 1:
[63:40] Yeah, I have submitted through the, I've used Warby Parker. Well, now it sounds like I'm shilling for this. I like Warby Parker a lot. I do have a pair coming from Warby Parker. I'll be quiet. Jeff Ball. Oh, that one. Aaron made you laugh. Can you please ask Nick if he's still interested in coming to San Diego and getting roasted by me. Check your email, then your calendar and let me know. Aaron, if Nick hasn't responded, you gotta read the tea leaves on that one. You know what I mean? You gotta read the tea leaves on that, because I'll tell you right now, Nick is not that busy. Nick is not that busy right now. DJ Kento says, Greg, have you seen the Skate Mod Controller uses your phone's gyro and screen to control skating games like a tech deck as a controller? I have not seen that, but I don't want to do that. So thank you. I like playing skate. I will not be touched. That sounds like a lot of things for me to jump into. I don't know what I'm going to jump into, you know what I mean? And that's it. Let's see if we got anything wrong over on YourWrong. Never, never, never. There's only one here. OK. OK. MrHawks says, during the first story about the potential New Vegas remaster, Greg referred to the YouTube channel as TK's Mantis and TK Mantis. The channel is pronounced TKS Mantis, as confirmed by him when he guessed it on Story Motors' break down of Fallout Season 2, Episode 1, The Innovator. Shocking that someone with a bad YouTube name would go on a podcast with a bad name. You know what I mean? Story Motors. Oh, so like a car motor? No, like Story Mode with an R. Oh, but has anyone in the history of the entire fucking planet ever said motor? Like I'm a motor? And then Mr. Hawks goes no and opens his fifth fucking beer on the podcast. You ever hear this guy do an interview?
Speaker 3:
[65:30] No, he's drinking beer.
Speaker 1:
[65:31] I'm so impressed.
Speaker 3:
[65:32] That's dope.
Speaker 1:
[65:33] Actually, Mr. Hawks having a great time recording his podcast. Everyone go listen to Story Motors. I do love listening in. As you can tell, I am a fan. I've been there and that's it for another episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily. But of course our day is far from over everybody. You get to see me and I forget who. Talk about the expanse, Osiris Reborn. We've played the beta. I want to say it's me, Mike.
Speaker 3:
[65:59] And Andy?
Speaker 1:
[65:59] Andy? Is Bless part of it? I forget if Bless is in it.
Speaker 3:
[66:01] Well, you'll see everybody.
Speaker 1:
[66:02] We'll find out. It's going to be a surprise for me too. Of course after that, it will be a stream. There's always something fun going on here, Kinda Funny. So why not subscribe? youtube.com/kindafunnygames, twitch.tv/kindafunnygames, podcast services around the globe no matter where you get the show. Thank you. Consider picking up, of course, a Kinda Funny membership. patreon.com/kindafunny, youtube.com/kindafunnygames, Apple, Spotify. You can toss us a few bucks, get everything we do ad free, show your support. Of course, get a daily dose of me, Greg Miller, and get good karma for your support of an 11 person, 11 year old small business. For now, Games Daily is over. Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.