Game Scoop! 821: Are Video Games Still Recession Proof?

22:20Remember, like a development team of 20 people made a game that became a huge hit. And so then they were all driving Porsches and Dodge Vipers and Ferraris afterwards. Now it's like it's a job, right? There are thousands of people sometimes working on a game. And I think the wealth is distributed more and probably the publishers pocket more, right? Right, right. I think about Final Fantasy all the time. ps1 had three final fantasies and now it's like you get one final fantasy per generation yeah uh but that's because they want every final fantasy to look like final fantasy 16 and it's like it's so much budget and so if it doesn't sell but then it's like they could lower the budget but then we're gonna get things like octopath traveler and people aren't gonna get them because they think well it's got here it's got to be the best graphics ever it's it's a rock in a hard place, I think, for a lot of these series.

23:14Mark Medina:That was a rough example because we got two giant Final Fantasies that year. Which one? Seven. Rebirth. 16? 16. They were like two months apart. But I completely agree with you. But 16 famously didn't sell as well as they wanted it to. Yeah. To add on to your good point, I think that we're really lucky to have triple B's and indie games right now that kick butt. And we have these like incredible great games that are not exploiting people with you know add-ons and loot boxes and purchases but they're also just like really like inexpensive games sometimes made by one person and i think that's like really really impressive yeah i i mean like i don't i don't mean this as a negative but i'm like i'm happy to see you know companies like thq nordic reborn from the ashes of THQ.

24:04Yeah, me too. And some of these, because, yeah, they made a lot of, as you said, Triple B games and some games that were okay, but they also occasionally had like a Battle Tanks or like a WW, you know, like a Nitro or something like that that we really, really loved. So it's good to have them back. Sean Layden continues, the cost of construction is just way too high. If you're going to spend over 200 million to build a game, your margins are super tight unless you can expect to sell 25 million units, unless you're Rockstar you should not expect to sell 25 million units and yeah for comparison Monster Hunter World is Capcom's best selling game of all time all time it's sold almost 22 million units in 7 years like that's like Capcom has never sold a game sold 25 million copies of a game yeah it's pretty nuts can we take a short break to switch the battery on this yep on this device they die all the time

25:02Is GameScoop the show where everything always goes wrong? Yes. Yes? Yep. I can see it in your faces sometimes by the time you record like nine days. We're all just regular to like, yeah. Okay, one more quote I want to share here before we move on. Of course, you know, the cost of game keeps going up, but the number of console game players does not go up over the past few decades. So Sean Layton says, what they do instead, they say, what if we maintain the price and then we nickel and dime you with DLC? Oh my god!

25:34Mark Medina:What kind of battery is over? What's going on? You gotta hold the little thumb thing and see if it fills up. Dude, speaking of a recession, IGN, we're running low on battery. We need those ones. Where do you find these? Remember when we used to be able to hold the ends of them and see the chart of how much battery was left? I bet you gave me my old ones back. it's farting I'm going to quit but I would like to donate my entire salary to the battery department because I think we need it I'll step on this grenade for us

26:18okay okay one more quote I wanted to share

26:24what's a quote baby what's a quote huh cost of making games keeps going up but the amount of people that could possibly buy your console game does not go up so Sean Layden says the cost of construction is just way too high wait did I already do that one? No I already read that one this one is, okay they said okay what if we maintain the price of games and then we nickel and dime you with the DLC, microtransactions battle pass, season pass, whatever you want to call it and try to make up the excess there and I just thought it's a former executive using the term nickel and dime you, just being so honest there which I appreciate.

26:56And the special editions right and like yeah i mean that boondoggle is going away a little bit because you know people are buying digital more and more and the digital special editions rarely have anything like really i mean i'm so excited to get a soundtrack that i can also get through my subscription later um

27:12Mark Medina:on doesn't it make you nostalgic for the era of adding a bad multiplayer modes you didn't return your game to gamestop and that was how you increased we're nostalgic for everything we used to complain about i'm nostalgic for annualized franchises when we would get an assassin's cream game every year i miss that totally totally i don't know how good we had it i know well hopefully we don't have to find out if video games are still recession proof will that be nice we'll see moving on okay sam there's new um atari 50 news i missed this finally i know there's a new is it roadrunner are they bringing roadrunner new pack a new pack is coming out later this year it's the namco legendary pack it features namco not atari okay three Pac-Man games 2600 5200 and the Atari 8-bit and this is the first time all terrible no the Atari 8-bit's not bad take that back I think it's terrible these are the first time this is the first time any of these games have ever been re-released outside the original consoles and of course sorry I'm getting ahead of myself if anyone doesn't remember Atari 50 is a wonderful collection of old Atari games and it's done by Digital Eclipse who's just the best in the industry at collecting old games and then contextualizing them and providing them alongside these playable documentaries and interactive museum.

28:30I gave it a 10 out of 10. It's an awesome package. I love it too, yeah. So now they're adding these new games and they're adding more documentaries and interviews and all this stuff too. Awesome. Those three Pac-Man games, interactive timeline, exploring the history of Namco titles on Atari, featuring video interviews with developers, archival materials and documents, blah, blah, blah. The US arcade versions of Dig Dug and Xevious, which were developed by Namco but then distributed by Atari in the US. And then the home console versions of Galaga, Xevious, Galaxian, and Dig Dug. Yep. Cool. That'll be good.

28:59And actually, the home console version of Dig Dug, the Atari 8-bit, which is, again, it's not the original Atari VCS versions of everything really sucked. But that version was actually really good. I had it on my Atari computer, which used cartridges that could also go in the 50 to 100. Dig Dug was that. There was like my dad had never played video games in his life. that was the game that he played and he had a sauna in our house and he'd go into the sauna he'd come out in this big white bathrobe walk into my room turn on the computer and then play Dig Dug and he would literally always say and he would dig down and run into the first enemy and be dead then he'd turn it off and go back into the sauna that is my family history with video games thank you very much

29:47Mark Medina:I played this version a very similar version of Dig Dug That was the Commodore 64 version. And it was really well done. Dig Dug ported a lot better than some of these games. There was never a good home Donkey Kong, but Dig Dug was pretty good. Well, the NES one is good. Again, the... No, it doesn't because it doesn't ask how high you can get, and then it doesn't play the levels in the right order. How high can you try and get is missing, but no, the 8-bit one has all the levels, sir. Two reasons why you're wrong, Sam. First of all, it has the lullaby that you hear now in Donkey Kong Bonanza. Yeah, that's in the two-for-one game.

30:25That's only in the NES game. The two-pack. Okay. That's what that's called. No, I had it just by itself. Anyway, there's a level skip. In the very first level of Donkey Kong in the NES, Mario runs to the right. That first ladder, you can crawl down and come up the top of the screen. You can? I didn't know that. So that's a little pro tip for you there. Welcome to today's edition of old people remember playing games with their parents. That's GameScoop. That's right. That's what this whole show is. Visiting a retirement home. This Pac-Man 2600 version is notoriously terrible, so hopefully we get a good interview.

31:00All the ports of that. Who's the developer on that one? The thing is that you don't need to care.

31:04Mark Medina:Well, it was... Is it Gary Kitchen? Is that him? I don't remember who it was. Yeah. But anyway, it's nice because you get all the... You don't get this for the games. You get it for all the stories and stuff about them. And it's so good. It's awesome. I look forward to it.

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35:20Rules and restrictions may apply. okay while we're playing sam i was surprised a little bit to hear uh you were playing mafia the old country i've never played a game i've never played a mafia game either do you recommend

35:34Mark Medina:this one i've played them i do i so um i uh okay so this i i've never played it but i want to play because it's set in sicily and it's like moderately open world it's a more open world than i thought it was actually um but it looked really pretty and it looked like you know kind of interesting and just like a kind of a weirdo, like, you know, I don't know, a mafia game set in Sicily in 1900 is like really, that just appealed to me. It just seemed like a cool period game. Like, how did this get made type stuff, you know? And it's so good. It's like the Sicily that you play in is unbelievably detailed.

36:11Mark Medina:It is so pretty. And like, this is coming off of Indiana Jones's like incredible Egypt level, right? And then Assassin's Creed, Shadows, incredible Japanese levels, especially the forests and mountains and like looking up the vistas. Like this game like is as good looking as those games. Like it is, they put so much into like, you walk around this, you know, like the villa that you're in and like the garden has like unique, like plants everywhere. And the bricks are like, well, it's like unbelievable. And then you look into the distance and it's like, you know, The vog of the volcano rolling down to the hills and the days changing night cycles.

36:50Mark Medina:It's unbelievable. And so that's all there. And then just the general game, a lot of it's racing, shooting people and horses. It's kind of like Red Dead style missions. Did you just say that while I said that? Yeah, but linear, right?

37:05Mark Medina:Well, I thought it was a lot more linear than it was. It is like a little Sicily map and you can go around it and do stuff. I mean, there's things to do. explore mode, right? Yeah, it's just not as much to do in a red. I mean, to people who haven't played it, it's more like Uncharted, right? Where you are generally following a story, but then he has these sort of zones that you can explore. But it is, as far as I can tell, it is just one zone. It's like the island of Sicily. So it does, and that's all like, it's all like no invisible walls going around. Like, I was just in this area, which is a Roman ruin, which is awesome, and you have to like horse ride over there, but you do that on like paths.

37:44Mark Medina:Yeah, Jesus. And then it's just like, you know, it has good characters and whatever. The stuff that you're following is interesting enough to keep going. But really, it's just the environment and being in Italy. It's just beautiful and fun and it's just great. I love everything about it. This is the type of game where I'm like, how are we affording this? I'm worried. I know. Look, I'm actually looking forward to playing this. I'm in between TVs right now. I just moved into a new house. The TV I want is not yet available to buy. Huge TV. Any moment now. Yeah, the LG M5s are coming out. It's this really cool TV set.

38:24So I'm waiting for that. But anyway, so I'm holding off on buying and playing some of the pretty games. And this one is on my list. But if you like the same, I mean, I thought Definitive Edition was really, really good.

38:35Mark Medina:But I got to say, I just love Italy. And I love the setting of this. and I love ruins. And, you know, one of the first things you do in this game is you, like, go to, like, a horse race that, like, the local village is happening in the castle town and you, like, race all through it. It's amazing. Like, it's just really cool, like, a sense of place. And the whole game is setting that up. And this game, which I wanted to ask you about, Pear, like, the main gameplay in it is stealth, right? Because you're, like, sneaking around places. But when you're not racing or, like, shooting people and, like, some kind of shootout, you're mainly sneaking around.

39:08Mark Medina:Is that what you do in the other games? Yeah, yeah, it's similar. I mean, there are definitely more shootouts than stealth. I hear this one leans more heavily into stealth, but it's that mixture that it has, like, you know, it has a sequence where you're racing a car, you're driving a car, something like that. But it's fairly, you know, it's fairly linear, except for the third Mafia. So I was inspired then, after Definitive Edition, to play the re-release of Mafia 2, which did not get a full redo, right? It's just upscaled, looks nicer. and that's a great game to play through that started 3 and fell off hard because 3 is actually an open world game and the mission design is very repetitive and like you kind of there's actually there's a mod on PC that takes out the bloat and makes it a good game I've not tried that but I've heard many people talk about that because it's just kind of that formula got away from them and I was really really happy to hear that this one is a return to the original game setup so it's really cool yeah what a delight i also played mina the hollower no there's a demo for that out right so is it as great as it looks yeah it is absolutely as great as it looks that game is gonna roll it's really it's a lot harder than i expected um it has a lot more like hollowing mechanics which is like basically a really fast dash underground and so you have to kind of work that in it's like a top-down zelda like layout but i chose the whip for my weapon i think mark you played and chose the sword and the weapon you played yeah yeah you get to choose a weapon at the beginning which i i didn't know was in the game which is super cool yeah me neither and so like the vibes are like totally a hybrid of castlevania and and zelda but the gameplay is a lot more like a modern souls like like you need to get to the next save point if you if you die you have to retrieve all your stuff um the bosses are pretty hard you got to learn their patterns like it takes a lot from modern Souls-likes, and then it looks like what it looks like, which is basically a Game Boy Color game.

41:10Link's Awakening, yeah. Awesome.

41:12Mark Medina:It's awesome. And it's hard. It's hard as hell. Definitely going to play. It looks great. Do you know about the Halloween Sophie's Choice we have this year? Because both this and Terminator 2D come out on Halloween. Yeah. I'm all over that. I heard you guys talk about that on a previous episode. Hopefully it'll be good. So, Perry, you're playing switch 2 i'm playing switch 2 i finished donkey kong uh bonanza but do you want to briefly weigh in on that we've talked about it we've talked about it with no do you want to stop on that mind with no don't hater uh samuel claiborne on the show here i don't hate donkey kong no it wasn't good as odyssey is it as good as odyssey no it isn't what what's what's funny is i i listen i listen to the rant i'm like oh man sam uh it was really funny and like i could tell like damon was always like, was not engaging with Sam because Damon really liked it.

42:04It was great. A very funny episode. And listeners, don't get -

42:07Mark Medina:I think it's great. It's a really great game. I'm really happy for everybody. Don't get mad when Sam hates on a game. It's all part of the entertainment. I love it. So there are actually a couple of points I agreed with Sam on, which is the sort of, like it's a really pretty game, but then you spend a lot of time digging and you get the ugliest view of every level where they didn't apply some effect to blur out the distance or has some sort of like depth blurring. It's just all walls fall away and you see this empty box with like a thing floating in the distance. And it reminds me of games like - It's kind of a good sheet though.

42:39Yeah, it is. But they know, it's not like you're pulling one over on the developers. They deliberately did it like that. They're not hiding elements away when you do that. But it reminds me of games like Batman Arkham Asylum where it's gorgeous and then you just use detective vision like 90 % of the time. Oh yeah, that's right. And the game is in black and white and you're losing all that gorgeous, like, you know, Tim Burton-esque color scheme and all of that. And like, although he's kind of black and white too. Anyway, so I agree with you on those things. I think also the art style, like the color choices are very Splatoon in some levels.

43:13And like, to me, the worlds did not distinguish themselves until you get to like the beach and the outside. And then it really comes alive. And I will also say that the gameplay comes more alive. And then it just, there's so many collectibles which is very on brand for Donkey Kong. And it is a celebration of rare Donkey Kong, I feel. And so I never felt this sort of sense where I'm like, I see something, I'm like, I want to go there. I'm like, just eating bananas the whole time. I'm constantly picking up things and I'm just like getting to the next thing. But then it culminates in this, no spoilers, awesome run in the end game, some really clever puzzles with light and dark and all that.

43:52And I started to like it more and more and more. And I went from like a seven to an eight. then I did the final boss and I'm like it went to a nine and now when I go back in that's when I'm finding the puzzle gameplay that reminds me of Mario where you have a challenge level with three bananas I'm like I have no freaking clue where the second banana is right and that's when you realize the sort of genius and you realize the sort of tears of the kingdom breath of the wild set up that you can beat levels in different ways it isn't as balanced as those games so it isn't as balance is Zelda and Mario like you can I mean you become an ostrich and beat any sort of challenge in a lot of ways right and like I feel like maybe that game needed just a little bit more time to refine that the camera system and the sort of the digging viewpoint like the visuals but I love that this game exists it's like a Wario game where you just beat the crap out of the world and like I was just that comparison the Wario comparison yeah and it's like you don't die that often in the beginning it's just more about just having fun and like the game feel is exactly right when you punch something and sometimes you punch snow and it goes poof it just feels so good or like crystal shattering windows that you destroy it never gets old to me so I love it it's very different from the Donkey Kong Country games that I also really really like it is much much better than Donkey Kong 64 all those people who remember that game being a good game you just forgot or they're just kids no and it's like now everybody's gonna be mad again um no i think well you did say all the

45:26Mark Medina:points that i said but then you said something nice about donkey kong country so you might get away with it the the honestly i mean the last two donkey kong country games are fantastic they're under underrated gems you should play more yeah i just get sick of them but i know you played the crap out of them recently so good the soundtracks in those games which by the way the soundtrack isn't that great oh i love the soundtrack in bonanza actually it's so like it's so not there and like anytime it gives you a classic melody when you like go into sleep i'm like oh yeah and then it's like not in any of the levels by the way they recorded so many little dialogue things for when you rest amazing yeah yeah yeah i'm in the post game now kojima-esque maybe they yeah maybe kojima-esque maybe i've heard them all now because i don't think pauline has been saying anything recently but anyway no there are lots of there's nothing left to say they're There's just lots of dialogue options where you feel special for having discovered them, right?

46:19Like where you, she'll comment on something because you're actually like breaking it. She comments on the crystal smashing. Yeah, that's right. No, it's a really lovely game. And like just a few games dazzle you with the feel. And this feels, I can't really think of many games that feel like this, you know? And just the mechanics of getting the bananas like never gets old. Yeah.

46:43Mark Medina:well it's nice to have another contrarian that doesn't like any video games I knew you guys were heading for trouble when Sam went like hmm I came out of a week of like two weeks of gushing about Death Stranding on every show I thought people would get sick of that no it just went straight into Sam doesn't like any games don't listen to him like what were the past two weeks about? I need the comments to know that you guys we were having our pre episode Slack discussion, you guys brought up DK, and I was like, I cannot talk about this game anymore. As an industry, we need to move on. It's fine, but did Mark, you stopped playing it.

47:24Mark Medina:I just asked you one question, right? You're not going to play it anymore? I don't know. Okay, I'm going to try to finish it. Do you like Rare? Do you like the old Rare games like N64 era? Like Banjo-Kazooie, yeah. I loved Banjo-Kazooie. By the way, replay banjo kazooie it's and and 2e actually i like 2e better now than i liked it back when i hell yeah rules it's so good it actually runs much nicer on switch when you play it um those games make you bars that run so nice those games are amazing and they have like mission-based puzzles that are really meaningful and like i'm missing those but this game is such a love letter to rare i mean like you got you just finish it mark it's you let you're speed running you can finish it against it 20 minutes i it for people who have watched the past few episodes like i was i was stuck on death stranding for a long time that that got done and then yeah i don't know i i there's other stuff to play right there's just other things and so i don't dislike it i just i got to the freezer layer i i'm considering just starting over because like you had mentioned uh like the levels seem kind of samey yeah and so like i can't really even tell you the difference between like the canyon layer and whatever the first one is.

48:34And so I kind of, because I kept just moving on, like the moment the game let me, and I kind of want to just start over and just be like, I'll move on when I'm ready. That's okay. So the differentiation is that different mechanics in the different worlds and they're pretty notable. And again, like I maybe watch the NVC spoiler cast. I'm sure the team went into some of that, but like there's just some later worlds that feel like they're ripped out of Banjo-Kazooie. Not deliberately. It's not a reference to those games, but there's a park level that really reminded me of the BK games. And Mark, I wouldn't have brought up Donkey Kong if Pear weren't on this week.

49:12Yeah, I'm so sorry. I dragged him back in. I'm just speaking for the audience. But I get why you're not playing it, Mark, because there's so many other new games coming out right now. So that's why you're playing... Cyberpunk 2077, a great game. A fantastic game. I yeah so they unlock they unlock the frame rate on PS5 and I was like you know what I wonder if this game feels better and it feels amazing okay so I started a whole new character and I did not do the Phantom Liberty time jump either I Jackie just died spoilers for a five-year-old game uh and I I am having a blast I am liking it quite a bit do not play it for the Platinum Trophy I'm currently playing for the Platinum Trophy.

49:56We'll see if I get it. The other issue you guys were talking about, OLEDs, I just got my first OLED TV, so it's kind of making me want to go back and play these games that look really, really good. I got the LG B4. It was$1 ,000. Nice. It's a pretty TV. I like it quite a bit. That always reminds me of going over to a friend's house

50:18Mark Medina:to play Super Mario Brothers on their giant TV. as a kid, and then after five minutes, it's like a new game. Well, it's the same game. Over the years, I've replayed games because now I had a 16x9 TV, and this game had a 16x9 480p setting or new surround sound setup, and so you've got to replay games for that. Yeah, it's always fun. I'm liking it quite a bit, but for current games, I've recently learned that I'm the worst Battlefield 6 player ever invented. I was born to die in that game. That is my purpose in life. I am quite terrible to the point where I don't really like it, but I'm going to play again tonight because I have to figure out why everybody else loves this game.

51:03And so I'm going to give it more of a go. Hey, Sam. I suck. Mark's not working on the game guide, is he? No.

51:10Mark Medina:Oh, God. I would never. Nobody wants my tips. We got some Battlefield experts doing a really good job. Thank you. Someone who knows what they're doing. Yes. And then speaking of demos with the mean of the hollower, I played the Hell is Us demo because I'm really excited for that game. And the demo just came out a couple of days ago. And it is quite fun. It is very there's no map markers. There's no it's kind of like Stalker where you have to, like, talk to them. And the beginnings are a little rudimentary. They'll be like, you have to go north. Follow the wind chimes. And so you're like, OK, this isn't that bad.

51:48or the guy will be like, hey, my camp's over here. But we marked the trees. So far, not too difficult. But then it sends you into this crypt where there's all these puzzles to solve. And again, they haven't been too difficult yet. But the gameplay, I like solving somewhat easy puzzles. So I've had fun with it. And then it's also like an action game where you have a drone. And so I think the combat is really, really fun. Yeah, I don't know where people are getting that comparison. But sure. this is what people are calling the death stranding like after playing the demo i was like i don't get it it's not a strand like though it's not part of the strand like genre the giant no no it's not a kojima like um but i i liked it quite a bit if if uh if you try the demo let's see see if you like

52:34Mark Medina:it but it comes out in a few weeks and it's the following the wind chimes kind of stresses me out what were you able to do that could you did you have to listen for them yeah you do listen for If there's no detective vision? No detective vision. Not in this one. Yeah, you got to just go on. That reminds me of the worst mission in Indiana Jones where three monkeys stole Nazi stuff, and you have to find the Nazi stuff the monkeys stole, but you have to look at tracks in the mud, and I'm like, what the fuck is a monkey track? I wish you made that up because it's too good to be true, but it is a real mission.

53:07And then you look at the ground,

53:09Mark Medina:and there's just boot tracks everywhere. I'm like, well, are the monkeys wearing boots? I also hate the mission with a kid who looks like Justin Davis, that you have to help in every level. So then the monkeys do have an awesome monkey fort that you find. But I even backtracked, and I was like, there's no monkey tracks leading here. I just had to find it. But it was a badass monkey fort. But the fort is filled with Nazi paraphernalia? Yeah, they stole all the Nazi stuff for their fort. Oh, interesting. It's the most important plot point in the game. I can't wait for the DLC. Sorry to spoil that for everybody.

53:42Mark Medina:yeah well it's all monkeys and nazis i don't even want to play this game now

53:54okay i wanted to cover off on what we're watching with extracurricular activities we're running short on time though so i don't know is there something you got to get off your

54:01Mark Medina:chest sam or a pair no should we uh okay uh aliens pretty good wednesday is pretty good Alien Earth is pretty good so far I've only watched two episodes I've only watched one Oh, I didn't like the Predator movie I'm sorry Killers? I've been seeing its praises I liked it Sam is being weird No, I'm not I just thought it was a little bit simplistic and it has that problem where it's just like the Predators lose to everybody all the time predators are the biggest wusses in the universe like they constantly they bring people home with them and they still get rolled over sam they're gonna try they'll eventually go to earth before they're humans and they're finally like yay we did it they killed a t-rex well they have a good record against bears oh maybe yeah they did they did kill a good record a little bit no i don't i thought that i thought that there was some ingenuity behind the the um world war ii pilot one that one was cool but i didn't think they handled the the samurai and and the about especially the the viking one it's good action it's really good action it was gold good gore it was good gore yeah yeah but i just thought it was corny and then and then the the the predator is losing i did like how they introduced like a mortal combat selection screen of predators it's like this one who has like a mouth breather and this one has like a harpoon yeah there's the tank predator yeah yeah That's great.

55:31I'm watching Twisted Metal Season 2. That's my contribution. This is one of the best movies I've seen. Mark, this is a movie. It's something that you can't play. Wait, this is what movies love? Mark, it was made with Unreal Engine 5. Oh, I hate Unreal Engine 5. Don't get started on Unreal Engine 5. They introduced fake animation chop, though. Which, you know, I'm not the biggest fan of the choppiness.

55:56Mark Medina:but it's like I've been on planes like maybe 20 times oh god good like noir spiderman and yeah it's like 20 20 frames per second or something whatever they're going here yeah I've been on like 20 flights recently and so I watched the mission impossible movie series and the last three movies are pretty good I mean yeah yeah they're very good I've only seen fallout and I thought fallout was good it was all is good but the two-parter is kind of awesome it's about like this like AI and the submarine I haven't seen the last one either that and then the last one has like a big plane action scene which is like totally unhinged yeah classic stuff it's great I love those I thought they were good I mean yeah yeah that series is known expensive for going on much longer and being much better than it has any right to be anymore but yeah they're all just really fun action movies totally and I need to watch probably three and four now because I've ever seen this i'll check this out and fall it's the one with who's who plays the witcher what's his name yeah cavill fall it's the one with cavill right yeah i think the witcher i was confused for a second okay wait i don't i just watched fall i don't think it which one which one has cavill it then it's got it's got henry yeah that's him i just think he's great and he's a great he's a great when he reloads his arm yeah when he reloads his arm it's great it's great i love the scene in the tunnels where it's just so much it was kind of one of my first exposures to Mission Impossible.

57:18And it's like, we double-crossed you. And they're like, okay. Well, actually, we double-crossed you. And then they leave and they're like, actually, we knew you double-crossed us. So we double... And I was like, oh, this is Mission Impossible. That is Mission... Yes, that is Mission Impossible. They know every angle.

57:35Mark Medina:Every time. Mask off. This is such a good fight scene. I love this. I love this. That's right. Yeah, he is good in this. You know, this movie is really fun. It is. I like this one a lot. I love it. Yep. Okay, I could watch this. Take it down, Jobert. Take it away. I'm going to be too distracted now. Look, we've all been there. You've got the angle, but you still lose the trade. In competitive gaming, milliseconds aren't just a stat. They're the difference between a trophy and a GG next. That's why Logitech G just changed the game with the new Pro X2 Super Strike. This features revolutionary hits technology, a haptic inductive trigger system.

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1:01:29Okay, that brings us to video game 20 questions. And our suggestion this week comes from Michael in Germany. Oh, okay. Yeah, hello. Okay. Michael will be in your neighborhood next week. Next week. So with that, and with a live participant here in the studio with me, let the questioning begin. You guys are the experts, so Sam, I'm going to look towards you. But whenever I'm on, Damon picks something really obscure, like Axel-Lay or some weird schmuck. A German guy picked something obscure this time. Oh, it's a German guy. Paradroid. Is it Paradroid? Just kidding.

1:02:00Mark Medina:We did it. Is it asterisks? so did you win last week Mark? no yeah I think so I don't remember what the game was though I think we won no no we didn't it was the racing game and we got it wrong and then a bunch of comments were like guys he said it wasn't a conventional racing game and then all you guys did wow that's a tough one he's like all you guys did was just keep naming conventional racing games I'm like we didn't know it Midway Revival We tried our best, guys. I love the game and shame when that comes in at the end. You guys don't know what it's like. When we start off with sort of country of origin, because now hearing a German, maybe can we start with saying, was this game made in Europe?

1:02:47No. Oh, man. Come on.

1:02:52Mark Medina:Did this come out for a console originally? Yes. Okay. Is this made by a Japanese developer? No. American game? It's Skyrim. Well, depends on the age, right? Skyrim came out for PC originally. It's true. Did you want to ask? Did this come out before the year 2000? No. Okay. A more modern game then. But I wouldn't, let's not get... 25 years. Let's not get stuck in the American game thing because there have been some big hits from Korea and China in recent times too. Let's be careful. That Punch-Out was made in Canada, I remember that. Canada is America. We're good. I said North America. Was this published by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo?

1:03:43No.

1:03:44Mark Medina:That's five. We are burning. Let's see. Figure out a pair of hat in this game. Does this game involve hand-to-hand combat? It has that. Yeah, okay. It's Metal Gear. And probably has some swords. It's the hand-to-hand combat. Probably has some swords in it then. Yeah. Little chops. Because he didn't say if it's hand-to-hand combat, then it's all like, you know, a final fight. You can pick up pipes and stuff. Sorry, this was after 2000? Yep. Yep. Which is when the best final fights came out. Was this made by, like, is this an indie game? No. Oh. How many questions do we have? Best seven questions.

1:04:29Can I blow one on have we mentioned this game, this episode so far? Oh, that's a cheat. Do you remember? It's too early for that. It's too early. That's weird. Do you want to ask that now? Yeah, I want to ask that question. No, you've not mentioned it. We have not mentioned it. Okay. Because I was thinking Black Myth, Wukong, and, you know. Not Banjo-Tooie, huh? Oh, yeah. No, that's. Not Banjo-Tooie.

1:04:49Mark Medina:Was this game published by, let me think of three. Activision, EA, or Ubisoft? No.

1:04:59Damn. So it has hand-to-hand combat. Not an indie game, though. Not an indie game, so it's a bigger one, but it's not from the big three. Came after 2000. Originally released on a console. And is not... I'm confused by the console question because, like, we didn't disclude PC, did we?

1:05:20Mark Medina:Not a word. And I think that...

1:05:26I think

1:05:29Mark Medina:we were all thinking it we were all thinking it I think that I think what we established is that it didn't come out like as a mobile game or a PC game or an arcade game guys we need to wrap this up I need to get back to my battlefield tips okay the internet needs me well sorry and they need my tips you said Ubisoft EA and Activision is what you asked what were the three that you asked i mean ubisoft activision ea we ruled out most of the prolific so there's just like konami sega capcom not made it's just interesting but but it could still be published by japanese developers it would be so weird so it must be like published by you know i mean there's a trillion other like bethesda bethesda yeah but like it sounds like there's some beating up in that game.

1:06:21It's an action game where you can hit things with or maybe it's an RPG where you can hit things with your fists. Maybe it's a fighting game. And you know Poland is in Europe, right? Okay, just checking. Okay, good, good. So it's not from over there.

1:06:44Does the game is the main gameplay loop Does it involve beating things up and sword play? How can I answer this? Yes or no? I mean, I guess no. No, okay, it's not. It's not just exclusively hand-to-hand. It's not a hack and slash brawler type. It is not. Got it.

1:07:03Mark Medina:Is the main gameplay of this game multiplayer? No. Oh, okay. We should hone in on, like... Are there boss fights in this game? No. No. Let's say no, nothing like you would. Yeah, that's helpful. This could still be a game like Starfield. You know, like you can punch stuff. Isn't the boss fights in that game like flying through that orb over and over again? Yeah. I think that's a very nice interpretation of boss fight. Thanks for reminding me. Yes. I had just forgotten about that. Can we ask if it's... Should we hone in on that RPG genre question? Or what do you guys think? I feel like we need to hone in on generation as well.

1:07:55Because we still have 25 years to get through. Honing in on generation would be beneficial. But we don't have that many questions, yeah. So I would say, did this game come out during the PS4, Xbox One? I'm going to help you. You guys should try to determine what generation this was, and then you should try to determine whether or not it's a big franchise or if it's a one-off. These are things that would be helpful to you. Yeah, I agree. Okay, so did it come out during the previous generation? PS4, Xbox One? No. Not originally. Oh, okay. So, probably the generation before, so PS3, 360. Is this series still continuing today?

1:08:43No. Well, that was the, is it a franchise or a standalone?

1:08:47Mark Medina:Well, the difference between a GameCube and PS2 era game and an Xbox 360 era game is pretty enormous. Yeah. Yeah, there's still two generations to come through there.

1:09:07Mark Medina:Was this game playable on a Nintendo system? This game is playable on a Nintendo system. That's 15. This is a re-release then. We are so screwed. It's like one of those games that we didn't think would get re-released, like KO the Kangaroo or something like that. You know?

1:09:31It could be that. It could be a game like KO the Kangaroo. Remember, they recently brought back all of these sort of... Bubsy? Yeah. Sorry, I shouldn't... Yeah, I mean, it could be Kodor, an old Bioware game. That's older, though, isn't it?

1:09:53Mark Medina:You're really leaning in RPG. You can ask about RPGs if you want. Is it an RPG? It's not an RPG. God, Sam, look what you made me do. Now Pear looks silly. Yeah, I thought for sure. Three questions and a guess is where we're at. Oh, gosh. Okay, so I think we should have asked the franchise question just to help us. Yeah, there's no sequels, right? No, it's just not a series that's still continuing. Oh, that's what he asked? You said that? I asked, is the series still going? So like Kodor would be an example. Like it had two of them. Well, we'll see if that continues. What's the answer to the Kodor one?

1:10:41Yeah, exactly. The answer is no. Same with Prince of Persia. But there's one in production right now. There's absolutely not one in production. Same with Splinter Cell. We'll see, right? Six years ago. maybe maybe it's perfect dark

1:10:59it could be perfect dark it got re-released recently last gen you mentioned that already this episode I mentioned it yeah we did mention it this episode that's good Damon's not getting red ears right now so he knows what we mentioned

1:11:14Mark Medina:the tell

1:11:20I'm still thinking at some stupid mascot game.

1:11:23Mark Medina:Okay, do you play as a human? Yes. It's not a mascot game. Mario's a mascot. Oh, I see. Is Mario a human? Whenever Nintendo gets asked that, they're like, Mario's a cartoon. I thought he was until Odyssey came out and it had humans, and he looks nothing like them. Yeah, but he had nipples in that game. Yeah, well, lots of things have nipples that aren't human. Sorry, what era did we think the original came out? Yeah, we don't know. So it's either going to be PS2 GameCube or PS3 Xbox One. There's some late 64, 32-bit games too, like Think Your Shadow Man's and Turok's and all of that stuff too that got re-releases recently in remakes.

1:12:17but then he wouldn't be able to answer whether those series continue or not.

1:12:22Mark Medina:Yeah, we're boned. Yes. I can see on Sam's face that he has given up. We just don't have any information about the game. I'm not asking a question, but Damon, are we like even on any sort of right track? Well, how can we be? We know nothing about the game. Every answer has been no. But that's information. That does tell you. Kind of. That's true. Yeah, you need some guesses to narrow it down. We're getting a hint. One hint is that you have not mentioned this game's country of origin. We said, okay. So it's not from America. See? Yeah. But we also mentioned Korea and China, and he says no. No, he didn't say no for Korea.

1:13:05Did you say no for Korea? I'm saying you have not mentioned. The country, but we said Europe.

1:13:11Mark Medina:We said Canada and Poland. Are you cheating right now? That's not a country. Huh? we said europe but so we implicitly didn't mention poland no i didn't mention poland uh is it so it's the cd project maybe it's a german game it might be witcher too no that's not europe we mentioned poland it's not europe okay you said that that's right uh which means that they're not i feel like they're not many other countries now no they're nobody is making is this all a trick because it's actually a united states developed game? Did we exclude that? No. Remember KO the Kangaroo from Australia? No, but did we exclude the United States?

1:13:51No. We didn't, but now I'm confused. He said we didn't mention that country. And he says we have not mentioned the country.

1:13:59Mark Medina:Yeah, so it could just be a regular ass United States game. But we've mentioned the United States. I don't remember mentioning it. We didn't ask it. Okay, two questions and a guess. If a game came from Australia or like South America, how would we even... Well, ask, is this game from Australia? Yes. One question to guess. What's the most famous game from Australia? What is the most famous game? Let me think. There's HSV Adventure Racing. There is KO the Kangaroo. The most famous game from Australia. Battalion Wars is from down there, right? Isn't Battalion Wars Australian? None of these are famous.

1:14:41There's Wonky the Koala. There's Yooka-Laylee is from the UK. None of these are real. None of these are real games. Isn't there like a... You're saying animals. Well, no, there's L.A. Noire. I would say L.A. Noire is the most famous Australian game. That's an Australian game?

1:15:03Mark Medina:Why was that made in Australia? Because it was Rockstar. Australia? I forget what the name was. Well, that sounds right, because that checks all the boxes. La Noire, as we also know it is. Should we ask that one? Well, hold on. We have one more question. Oh, we do? Yeah, we do. We have one question, I guess. Oh, we have one question. We should ask if it's like an open world driving game. Okay, or just a Rockstar game. Go for it. Ask it. All right. Do you drive in an open world in this game? Yep. It's not KO the Kangaroo. It's not Battalion Wars. And there's no swords. There's no swords in LA Noire.

1:15:47Mark Medina:It's either the Kangaroo game or LA Noire. When I said just ask the question, I meant ask if it's a goddamn rock star game. You're right. Do you look people in the eye and see if they're twitching? We don't have any more questions. We have to guess it. Damon, is it LA Noire? It is LA Noire. I got it. I saved the day. Let me be honest. I saved the day. Okay. I don't remember getting any hints. Damon was the 21st question. I'm pretty sure we got there on our own. That's how history works. There was a rock star in Australia? Team Bondi. Team Bondi. Team Bondi. Developed this game. That's right. What's that?

1:16:28This is the only game they made. It was shut down shortly after release because there was controversy about the developer not being run well. Yeah. But I think that there were other issues. They can't make games about America in America? I really like this game. It was sort of like... This is why there's tariffs on everything. It was very stiff.

1:16:45Mark Medina:This is why you're a contrarian that hates games, Pear. No, a lot of people like this game, man. See, Damon's with me. I mean, based on animation at the time, it was amazing. I mean, it had, like, basically you had to... Sam, you never played this? No, I love this game. I wrote the guide for it. I think there should be sequels. I think it's awesome. Yeah, good. Yeah, the interrogation was really cool. Like, looking at the character and trying to figure out if they lie, and it was not like super video gamey obvious either. I only know my way around Los Angeles from this game. And it had the dude from Mad Men in it, right?

1:17:19Like one of the actors? Well, he was the main guy. He had several actors from Mad Men in it. Yeah, that guy.

1:17:23Mark Medina:He was a bit role in Mad Men. Yes. Yeah. He had the lead in this. Yeah. Yeah. You almost got us there, German friends. So were there swords? No swords in this. No. No swords. You can get into fist fights. You can get into fist fights. Even when you catch the Black Dahlia killer, he doesn't have a sword? No, I don't think so. I want another game like this. I know. It's a very cool game. The open world was weak, though. It wasn't really an open world. This is more like Mafia, where you're driving around to get somewhere. I think it's pretty accurate. Our producer, Joe, said he was recently playing this, and he found his apartment today in the game.

1:18:00It's a really cool recreation of L.A. of the time. Nicely job. L.A. Noire, thank you for the suggestion Michael in Germany viewers and listeners if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions email them to me at the email address gamescoop at igin.com and that's all the scoops that we have for you this week let me share some important information with Scoop Nation now is your chance to play like a legend with the WB Play the Legends bundle live now through August 20th on Humble Bundle pick up Gotham Knights Back 4 Blood Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Edition the Batman Arkham games and Shadow of Mordor I know Sam's a big fan of many of these games whether you're reliving fan favorites or discovering them for the first time you'll also be supporting the Raiden Science Foundation in their fight against rare childhood diseases uh thank you Paris for joining me thank you for having me thank you to both Sam and Mark thank you to Jobert working behind the scenes to make this episode possible uh Pear and I will be in during next week I don't I don't know if we're gonna be able to squeeze any game scoop or not we'll see yeah up in the air we'll see what we can do because Justin's gonna be there too but I think the shooting sales will just line that lines up so like The only time we can do it is after people are gone.

1:19:07Anyway, we'll see what we can do. If we can't do it, then we'll just see you in two weeks. Everybody play some fun games, and we'll reconvene then. I'm actually playing something right now that I like a lot that I wanted to talk about today, but then I realized it's under embargo. And then I know some other people are also playing some other stuff that's under embargo. It's Death Stranding 3. It's Death Stranding 3. He's already. Already. So please be excited. It's pretty good. For the next episode, be it next week or the week after. My name is Damon. This is IGN Game Scoop. And we're out. You're busted.

1:19:41You're busted.

1:19:45Mark Medina:You're busted.

1:19:52You're busted. This episode of Game Soup was produced by myself, Damon Hatfield, and Jobert Adienza. Technical direction is handled by Jobert Adienza. Technical production is by Mariah Franzen and Amir Akib. Audio engineering is by Amir Aqib And post-production editing is by Yours truly, Damon Hatfield Graphic design is by Nicole Kaganpin GameScoop is an IGN production And part of the Geek Media Network

1:20:23After the comments on your Donkey Kong rant I'm only It wasn't even a rant I just said the game's fine It's not as good as Mario Odyssey I was just a beacon of positivity from now on. I saw some of the Facebook group comments were hilarious. I'm like, why does it bother them? Oh, dude, I would not even dare to wait. I like the Facebook group. Facebook group is great. I do YouTube comments.

1:20:49Mark Medina:When that happens, people say, like, really, really, they're, like, really upset, right? They're like, I'm a big fan of Sam. I can't listen anymore. I just can't believe. Yeah, I can't listen anymore. and then it's like a bunch of people like are you okay man? I won't be back next to you. They're all very nice to each other. I won't be back next to you.