Game Scoop! 849: Look How They Massacred My Girl

21:34Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. All right. That's where I am with my second playthrough of Resident Evil Requiem. And Mark, you started playing Slay the Spire 2. I talked about, I gushed about how much I like it last week. How are you finding him? Yeah. So who's the one with the orbs? Is that the evoker? I don't really know their names, but I know the one you mean. I think it's him. Man, he is so much fun. I'm really, really enjoying the game. yeah i i it was like 30 minutes before bed and i'm like i didn't know what to do and i was like you know what let me just finally get the slay aspire game a try and uh just like nick i i you know they make you start as what's his name the ironclad or whatever and instantly i was like oh yep this is great this is super good and every time you do a run you unlock a new character um for the most part uh there's five characters how far you got yep and uh they all play pretty different like the cards you get are you know the the cards you could end up getting served are mostly the same but they all have like different uh like perks and stuff like that well the cards the cards are are like you'll get your strikes and you'll get your blocks and stuff like that but then the cards are tailored towards that character's yeah moveset right so it's like the ironclad he's like he's like a warrior right he did nothing special about him except for that he gets healed after every battle he's the only character that that happens for but then it's like you'll go to um like this guy he's being carried on with the region so like that sword yeah the region so that sword is something that you're constantly powering up and then can use against enemies um the evoker has these orbs that go off every time you finish a turn and you can do all these different crazy things with the orbs and make it where you're never even attacking because the orbs just do all the work for you it's really really fun uh and then there's like a lady with like two daggers um that's more about poisoning enemies um the poison builds right yeah right now like before yesterday i was just in the phase of like learning the characters seeing which one i like playing as whatever now i'm in the phase of actually trying to make builds like actually recognizing okay the game is pushing because you know you start with just a very basic deck uh and then it's like okay the game is actually pushing for me to you know do this like just like a rug like right and so then it's like you start building cards towards that thing um and man yeah i'm having a lot of fun i installed it on my legion go s it is perfect for that and i just sit on the couch and i just play so slay the spire are you writing the guy are you writing a freelancer named Lynette who has played a thousand hours of the first game.

24:20She's just kind of solo doing the guide for the second game. She has already played like 50 plus hours of this one. I'm super tempted. It's great. Did you play the original? I played the first one. Yeah, I liked it. My son's completely... He's got over 100 hours already too, I'm sure. It's just this other brand new game called Pokemon Gale of Darkness came out. Yeah, yeah. Tough to find time when these brand new GameCube games come out. You're like Nintendo Switch Online's number one customer. Honestly, I think there are games on there that only I have played. Maybe. Yeah. They're like one person.

25:00This game's also super early access, so it's fine to wait. Like, there's still a ton of content there. Yeah, there's a ton of content now. But you'll unlock... Yeah, you'll unlock these... They're called epochs, where it's like... It's basically a milestone. And most of them are drawn... Like, I would say... 70 of them the art is just ms paint because they're just all placeholders right now so you're gonna unlock them but like yeah very much still an active development and also i i don't know how to unlock the last character so maybe he's not in the game yet evoker was the last character i've unlocked i think that's all there is for right now that's five characters there's a slot for another one so no that slot is to pick one at random oh interesting got it okay character i didn't know that sam damon is on the guide now yeah he noticed this one thing get him on the guide and uh but yeah i love it it's very very fun uh give it a shot if you are if you are a fan of the first one or like card building pro likes it's very cool i'm not saying sam would like this one but you did like you did it up liking blotro and there's so many similarities just being a deck building roguelike where you know you're constantly adding cards to your deck but you need to build it so you only have like you have access to your best cards you want to flush out your less powerful cards as you go along and you know how in blacho before you play a blind you can choose to skip it and for like a reward yeah right but then you're missing the rewards you would get at the end of the blind it's the exact same thing here as you're planning your route up the spire you can go to an event room where which is in a battle you might get something good there but then you don't get the rewards it would get from the battle so it's all like that.

26:39You could choose to not fight regular enemies and go after a boss enemy. It may mess you up, but you'll get better rewards. It's just so cool, man, because it's like, so you can't really see it on the screen because our portraits are covering the bottom left layer, but when you're in the battle, you'll see on the bottom right, see right there, that little book that says a one, that's your discard pile. And so you only have like, I don't know, like 15 cards at the start. And so you're just constantly cycling through the deck and those cards will um those cards can dictate what gets put in one deck but eventually it's like you want a lot of like a really good card right because once you go through all those cards which is usually two or three turns those all get put back into your draw pile and so it's all about maximizing the chance of getting cards that play to your build yeah uh and it just gets really really addicting yeah but once you get once your If debt gets to about 20 cards, you want to start getting rid of your starting cards.

27:39Anyway, I don't know why we're giving live game help right now. It's very good. Oh, and Mark. Yeah, that's all the art right there. I think the visuals are just massively improved over the first game. You're giving live game help because three out of four people on the show today are from game help. Yeah, this is the game help cast. That's true.

27:57Mark Medina:Well, I would say probably three out of the four people listening probably are playing this game because there's 600 ,000 people playing it on Steam. Yeah. It's up to 600K now? Wow. Insane. Or I was I think that's where about where David, you know what? I barely figured out last night and maybe this was the first game, but I just completely forgot Joe. But can you pause the video right now? Okay. I didn't know this, but you see the symbols over the snake, the little sword and the, the, you know, that says eight. And then the five times two, I did not know that that means that that's what they're going to do next.

28:30What? I'm an idiot. That's the whole thing. I would sit here. How would you play the game without knowing that? I would like put all, I'd be like, oh man, I'm low on health. And so I'd like spend a bunch of cards defending myself to raise my armor. And then it's like, ah, they just did a lower strength move. I didn't know. And then I was like, wait, hold on. Thank goodness. Is that what they're going to do next? And then you mouse over them and it's like, this character's intending to hit you with a attack twice. That's how you know how much you need to block. And I was like, what? I don't know, Mike.

29:02Thank goodness Linette is working on it. this i don't yeah so then it becomes a math game then yeah thank god Lynette's on this because man i would be like guys the things it doesn't tell you so then it becomes all about math i'm like okay i'm gonna take this hit but like can i minimize it can i kill him before he does this so then like do nope and you like all of a sudden you got the notebook out and you're like all right Yes, welcome to 2019's Slay the Spire. Hilarious. Okay. Well, what a video game.

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31:46Your beer, fit for all times. Tell us about another game that you're an expert in, Mark. Crimson Desert. Oh, boy. Crimson Desert. Dammit, I didn't know that. The sword caused damage. Dude, dude, so you can walk in the game. I didn't know that. They don't tell you. But how do you run? Like Red Dead style, baby. You got to tap a button. You got to tap a button. Yeah, so Crimson Desert is a video game that I like quite a bit. Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. I think it's very addicting. I think it's very fun. I like it. um the story is I'm not even gonna say the story's bad the story is nothing there is no story in this game okay there are things in this game that just they never get explained it doesn't matter spoiler for the first five seconds of the game your character dies and he just comes back to life okay it is never it doesn't matter who cares your goal in this game is to get the gray mains into a camp with you right like that's like your main goal cliff is he's basically a witcher who will just do anything for free with anything you need he will just do it he is more than happy to take on any menial tasks that you give him um which is like very mmo like right like he's just what do you need me to do and what will you give me for doing it i have no qualms about anything you ask of me uh that said the combat is very fun i think it's very fun i think exploring the world is super fun there is something around every corner you cannot walk more than cd project red has a 45 second rule where you have to find something interesting in your game every 45 seconds this game is like the 10 second rule there is something to do around every corner which is great but uh it makes it where you never progress um i think the powers are very zelda like uh tears of the kingdom specifically you get moves ripped directly from that game which is uh the ultra hand and stuff like that and they control almost identically the like they do in tears of the kingdom where you can use the d-pad to kind of like move the object around and push and pull stuff like that i love those kind of puzzles they're not as clearly they don't really explain how to do them like like things aren't as easy to figure out as like tears of the kingdom mostly because of just how the world is it's you know ultra realistic so things are just like you're like whatever i don't know i i really like the game i think it's super fun and but but what i'll say is if you play the game and you don't like it that's completely valid and i get it and i agree with every point you'll make about why you don't like it um like what would you what would you say is it some some people are hoping it's something like dragon's dogma is there anything like that

34:40uh no kind of maybe not really no because a lot of the a lot of i'm gonna go with no a lot of the stuff you fight you're just so so what this game does is when you get into a fight like he's in right there. What the game will do very, very early is it will just throw waves and waves of enemies at you. It is not uncommon for you to be fighting 20 to 30 people at once. That is just how the game works because the combat's very easy. Something else to note about the game in general is Cliff does not control how you think he can do this. He looks like an Assassin's Creed character. He's not. He moves much more closer to an Arthur Morgan.

35:22he's very heavy he uh you have to like tap x to run uh he he has a weightiness to him that is uh that is that it's not how it appears on screen seems appropriate given that he's heavily armored yeah yeah exactly um and so yeah you're not just like sprinting around and doing stuff because you'll like run out of stamina super quick um you you are very heavy character The combat's also a little strange. Takes a little bit of getting used to. You have a light attack and a heavy attack. You're not mashing those buttons. You're just holding them. So if you hold R1, those are the combos you're seeing.

36:02This person is likely just pushing one button. So is that the MMO roots? I mean, when I first saw it, I put it high up on my wish list because the trailers and what I saw at Gamescom looked like a combo between Witcher 3 and maybe Breath of the Wild. There's a lot of high-flying traversal stuff. but the game is much closer to an MMO in single player, right? It's super, like, you could tell this started as an MMO. Yeah, yeah. From the creators of Black Desert Online. You could tell that this began, and then they were like, meh, because you'll unlock a second character very, like, very early, like, chapter three.

36:40Her name's Damien, and she's... I'm sorry, Damien Hatfield.

36:45Mark Medina:It's Damien. Damien Hatfield. um and she's useless like she's cool to play as but she's cool to play as but like she does not talk most of the main missions you cannot do with her they say these are cliffs missions she's useless why is she even in the game i don't know maybe i'll find out later but when you get her there's no point to play as her and in my opinion that's like mmo holdover of like different classes because she plays a little differently. Or like they looked at Assassin's Creed shadows and they're like, they tried to go into like one of the dungeons and got the message that, you know, now we can't play here or something.

37:27And they're like, we got to do that too. So is it accurate to say the moment to moment combat is Dynasty Warriors and the boss fights are Elden Ring?

37:38Kind of. That wasn't a joke. That's what it looks like to me. No, no, no. Yeah, kind of. I wouldn't say Dynasty Warriors in the sense of like, Dynasty Warriors, you know, you're swinging and you're hitting five, six enemies at once. That's not really how this plays. When you are engaging with an enemy, you're typically engaging with that one enemy. So if you're holding R1 and you're doing your light attacks, you are hyper-focused on one enemy and you're going towards him. Now, if somebody runs up behind you and starts to swing their sword at you and you push L1, which is the block slash parry, your character, almost like Assassin's Creed or Batman Arkham-like, will turn and parry their attack.

38:16And now you're engaging with them. So almost more closer to an Arkham, but not quite like that.

38:24Mark Medina:But boss fights are quite different. The bosses are like Elden Ring in the sense of they have patterns and stuff like that. The bosses are not fun in this game. Look at the Talos fight. They're not cool to play. This is Dragon's Dogma. Now, so here's another thing I'm going to pivot to really quick. Stuff like this, this is not one of those games that gets fun after 10 hours, 20 hours, 30 hours. There's videos going around on Twitter of Cliff doing these insane things, insane moves. You are not seeing any of that until you are 80 or 90 hours in. None of that is unlocked early. Mitchell, one of my coworkers, has played the game 75 hours, and he has not seen a single magic spell in this game.

39:10Yeah. He says the game still mostly plays as it did when he first started. And our reviewer, Travis, has 110 hours plus now, 110 hours when he wrote this sort of review in progress. And he says, I don't think I can issue my final review because there's too much I haven't experienced that I want to get more clarity on. I want to see what the end game is like. I mean, his point was that the boss battles are just not that fun. Like, they feel out of sync and out of balance with the combat. Because this looks cool to me, I gotta say. This does look cool. I don't know when this happens, but this does look pretty cool.

39:52No, they just, like, it's just, you know, it's Dark Souls without any of that kind of, like, Dark Soul-y polish, right? Like you're just kind of like mashing the dodge button and trying to like see if you can kind of read the tells of what they're doing. They've also nerfed a lot of the bosses. So it's tough from a standpoint of like how much we've played. This game is still very much an active development as well. They are changing things constantly. When we were playing the game, when we were first handed the game, key items took inventory space. space you had 20 spaces of inventory there's no storage in this game and they went back and right before launch made it where key items no longer take inventory space and they added 30 more slots of inventory this they are very much I think this game is good now I think it's going to be pretty good in a month and I think in a year it'll probably be great so they're going to know man's sky it do you think I think that they are still very much in active development with this game i think it's enough for them to sell it i think they're going to keep changing things because they have made four i'm not talking about day one patch i'm talking about there have been four major updates since we got code two weeks ago oh wow um that have drastically changed things

41:11Mark Medina:about the game made it easier and and there's a lot of conspiracy theorizing that you know people that don't like this game are people that are bad at it and that's just it's just it's irrelevant It's like they're playing a different game than you will ever play. And this is not the first time this has happened. This also happened with Elden Ring. Mitchell played a much more difficult version of Elden Ring to write a strategy guide for. We all did. Than anybody here will ever see. They nerfed Radon. But you're saying journalist mode is the hard mode? It's generally hard mode. Yes. And then another thing that you should be wary about.

41:44Now that we have beta tested the game, the normal people can play it.

41:47Mark Medina:Yeah. Another thing you should be wary about is that, you know, we said, hey, we can't fully score this game. We're 120 hours in. There's clearly so much more to see. Plenty of people just slapped a score in this game without saying anything like that. And there's no way that they'd be. We know what the limitations on those people were. And it just seems, you know, like extremely unlikely that people would have got, you know, past the points that a lot of the people we were playing with got to. So it's kind of weird right now. To be honest, it's not even theorizing. A lot of them say in their reviews that they haven't been.

42:20Yeah. Yeah.

42:20Mark Medina:Or that. Yeah. So that's unfortunate. I there's a funny anecdote. So we had a so we make these, you know, big interactive maps for games. And one way that you can make a big map is you can make the game easier by turning on cheats and then run around the map. So we had a coworker doing that. And again, not for review or anything critical or anything like that. They're like doing a job, which involves, you know, running around in a game. And that editor got much further than most people probably on Earth have gotten and would have to fight these late game bosses with cheats on and with infinite health.

43:03Mark Medina:And they would take 40 minutes. yeah he would just he would just prop up his controller hold it against the r1 button and he would just walk away because your character engages and so as you slash they'll kind of move forward and that's that's all it took so he was cheating he had cheats on yeah but that's just showing you and you can't do much like it's a it's a it's just showing there's probably some some major balancing issues with the game right now because once people get to that they will probably bounce off of that it's not like silksong we're like well clearly somebody handcrafted this to like make this perfect boss fight that you're going to want to try a million times it's more like can you make enough hamburgers to grind out this boss that has no obvious like you know cool strategy or anything you just you just have to outlast it like that that that ain't that ain't great news and our reviewer will will definitely be reporting more on that yeah a big narrative right now this you know i'm not very much into discourse for social media when it comes to stuff like this because people will the game releases and at the time of this recording it releases in two minutes they will figure it out for themselves but what i will say is there's a lot of like oh journalists scored it low because they didn't you know the game doesn't hold your hand it's not about that it's not about holding we gave elden ring a 10.

44:20that game does not hold your hand at all it's It's not about a game holding your hand. It's about a game breaking its own rules constantly. And that happens. You have a Zelda-like glider. It works almost identical to the glider in this game where you kind of turn into a crow. It's a very short glide that you run out of stamina very quickly on. In Chapter 4, you fight a boss. There's no tooltips or anything. The boss is flying around. Game does not tell you that suddenly your glide is a fly. You push it and all of a sudden you can fly. the game doesn't tell you that so it's not about like oh it doesn't hold your hand it's about it literally breaks its own rules and then just doesn't tell you and then you're like what am i supposed to be doing here and then you're like oh what the heck like it's very very very strange um you know i i don't think it's going to be for everybody but if you like open world games where you can just run around and do a million different things i think you're going to love this game and And luckily, that is what I like doing.

45:19I love the look and I love the creatures. I mean, that's what attracts me to it. And I can handle a little bit of jank. Like, honestly, if you go back to the earlier Witcher games, they didn't feel great. Even Witcher 3's combat doesn't feel amazing. But that game sold me because of the world, the immersion, the monsters, and the side stories. Every side quest is like a freaking chapter from a book. And it's self-enclosed in many ways. That's what sold that game to me. I'm not going to get that here. But the combat is much better in a game like, you know, freaking Tears of the Kingdom or something.

45:49So if it's more about immersion in world, I'll probably have a good time with this.

45:55Mark Medina:I'm worried about, like, I want the immersions in world, but I am worried about getting gated every once in a while by, like, something that has nothing to do with what I've been doing. Like, I've not been working on beefing up my character for a boss fight. i've been working down another path but it sounds like you're still gated by those boss bites oh my phone just lit up crimson desert ready to play sorry boys goodbye uh uh yeah that that does happen this is this it's weird it's also another weird thing that a pearl abyss has said this is not an rpg what this is the most rpg game i've ever played they're trying to distance themselves from it being a MMORPG.

46:37Yeah, this is an RPG. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stop listening to what PR people tell you. I actually have an issue. I have an issue with that, right? Like we run the iGen games database and we assign genres to games and we often make changes over what people list on Steam. On Steam, sometimes people will genre spam their games so that they show up for many, many searches, right? And like famously, Nintendo, when it had no role-playing games on the N64, kept calling Ocarina of Time an RPG, at least in the West. That's an action adventure. There's one RPG in the Zelda franchise early on that was Zelda 2.

47:14So it's like, yeah, sometimes it doesn't, it's not the developer who speaks the truth and some people say like, they would know. It's like, no, they don't. No. Like you don't level up, okay? Like there's no like, oh, my cliff is level 14. That's not how it works. Your gear, your weapons, they all have numbers. they all have upgrading you know you upgrade your sword it did 14 damage now it does 16 damage that's an rpg when you do level up you basically just get what's called an abyss core and that you those are your skill points putting things and skills to raise your stamina now my stamina it was 180 now it's 220 that's an rpg yes cliff himself is not level 20 level 30 like an assassin's but everything else is rpg like it it's an rpg games i don't know why they games are so mixed up all the like nowadays it's like there are games with rpg elements and like you just gotta uh you just gotta make this is an open world rpg action rpg in every sense of well it's half fishing though right so it's half of the fish with a with a dash of fishing in this footage there this you know the battle is having happening over this puddle the reflection is is amazing in puzzle in the puzzle dude so graphically all right one of the prettiest games you'll ever play holy smokes this game is gorgeous so i'm playing an incredibly well optimized screw unreal engine 5 stop making your game in unreal engine 5.

48:40this game is not unreal engine 5. oh i say it every episode this game on my 5070 ti no dlss none of that i'm getting native 65 frames 4k everything set to cinematic with full ray tracing everything it's gorgeous it runs so well and looks so good the reflections are incredible the foliage is insane all of those trees can be cut down cool it's nuts how much like it can be interacted with you could cut down that tree pick it up use your ultra hand to throw you can do whatever you want it's nuts we were unable to play this game

49:22Mark Medina:on console, by the way, so I'm really interested in seeing how that turned out. I have not heard negative stuff about it. I think somebody got it exclusively for PS5 Pro and tested it, and that's the only indication I have that it even exists for those consoles. See, that stuff makes me nervous. Whatever. Yeah. Well, this game is optimized for the new PSSR 2 if you're playing on PS5 Pro. It should, and Digital Foundry did do their full breakdown for this running on PS5 Pro and they said it runs great. Sure, there's going to be frame dips, but that's console. I may have to play it. It looks really incredible on PCL.

50:02It's really fun. I'd love to know other people's opinions of it. I want to know people's opinions on it that aren't working on it for game help because for game help, this game has been miserable. So I'd love to know what people that are just playing the game for fun think because I think it's really fun. Spoilers, I haven't really been playing it for game help.

50:29All right, let's check in with the listeners. Hey, howdy listeners. Listeners, remember you can always reach us at the email address gamescoop at IGN.com just like Ro in Ottawa, Canada did. Ro says, I just started playing Mio, Memories in Orbit, on Game Pass. It is a beautiful game with awesome music, traversal and platforming and combat. Anyone played Mio? No. Great boss fights. I would call it Silksong Light. Over the years, Metroidvania and roguelikes have become my favorite genres. Wondering what each one of you would pick as your favorite modern Metroidvania, say, 2010 and beyond. We're doing this with Mark.

51:03Oof. You know I'm on the show, right? No, I would say for me, it's Metroid Dread. Mark chooses Silksong. Metroid Dread? For me, it's Metroid Dread. I mean, I think that's a cop. I really like Prince of Persia, too. I thought that was fantastic. Yep, Prince of Persia's mine. Easily. Easily.

51:18Mark Medina:No contest. What about the Dung Beetle one? Well, how modern are we going? That's like 10 years ago. You said 2010? This is Roe, which is asking, yeah, 2010 and beyond. And after that. What was the name of the pinball Metroidvania? Yoku's Island Express. Yoku's Island Express. Yeah, yeah. See, I like that game a lot, but it wasn't, like, I ran into areas where it wasn't fun. Like, I got a little frustrated in that one. And it wasn't because of, like, Dread that I got frustrated with some of the difficulty of the bosses. but this one, I just sort of got lost sometimes a little bit in that world, so I didn't think it was that.

51:52Like, it could have gotten a little bit more tweakage, but, you know, like, if you happen to be into Metroid...

51:57Mark Medina:I like it better than other games and not as much as other games. I like it better than Axiom Verge. Yeah, I did too. If you happen to be into pinball and Metroidvanias, I don't know anybody like that. It would probably be your game over here. It's, besides the pinball stuff, it's really cute and charming. The way that they integrate the pinball stuff into it is really funny, and the Dung Beetle's funny. He's a mailman, right? He has to deliver mail? No, it's a good game. I like that one. I would say the Ori games, they're pretty. They have really good music. Sam, did you pick yours? I just looked at a list.

52:28I just looked at a list of the top 25 Metroidvanias and I have not played any of those games. What? They also had Shantae on there, which is weird because Shantae is not a Metroidvania. No, some of them are. Shantae is. Really? Well, they had Half-Genie Hero and I don't think Half-Genie Hero is a Metroidvania. I'm sure that one is. I think they're all Metroidvanias actually.

52:47Mark Medina:Yeah. I love those games. It's great. Shantae is really good. Yeah. Yeah. No, I famously do not really play Metroidvanias. What are we missing? What's in IGN's top five? Well, it wasn't from IGN. That's from another website. That doesn't even exist. I didn't know there were other websites. I'd shout out Bloodstained. Yeah. I never beat Bloodstained. You reviewed it, right? Yeah, Bloodstained was great. It was really fun. I gave an 8 out of 10. The new Castlevania might be the best Metroidvania. Yeah, the one that's... Hopefully that's out this year. But speaking of that one... Okay, hold on. Sorry, can I answer Sam's question really quick?

53:27So we did have a best Metroidvanias list. So number one... Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight. Number two, Will of the Wisps. Number three, Silksong. Number four, Animal Well. Number five, Guacamelee 2. I actually really like Guacamelee. I really liked Animal Well. I thought it was really cool. Keep going. What's 6, 7, 8, and then? You didn't play any of these, Mark? Mark, you seriously didn't play New York. I've not played any of those. I'm too old. Wait a second. You're looking at me, and you're saying you're too old. He's the youngest one here, but he's too old for Metroidvanias. Too old. For Metroidvanias.

54:02All right, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. SteamWorld Dig 2. Oh, I love that one. Prince of Persia, Lost Crown. Axiom Verge. Cave Story. number 11 we're including i'm not a cave story guy but out of those i think we picked out the

54:18Mark Medina:right ones some of those i wouldn't i wouldn't recommend at this point even axiom verge 2 i think was better than axiom verge i think that's on a popular opinion but i still wouldn't recommend it there's a lot of these games go way too metroid by the books and if you do that it's a little obvious and i don't think it works as well bloodstain is awesome and the nes version of bloodstained is really really fun too that's not a metric steamroll dig too though yeah that's probably my favorite just traditional metroidvania game yeah of this time period i forgot i forgot about that one that that's definitely in my my top digging mechanic it's like well what it's what mr driller but fun for more than two minutes and it's a crazy evolution the first game had randomized environments the second one is a true metroidvania with like handcrafted levels so it's it's so good wonderful and then they make all these other steamroll games let's maybe bring the focus back the last one's fun but let's how about steamroll dig 3 how about that yeah they're doing it the other one I would throw on there if the panel will allow it would be dead cells which is not a traditional metroidvania but yeah that's interesting I do love dead cells I mean I love yeah too rogue to be castle I mean it's procedurally generated but you do find there are items you find that will unlock areas in future runs through so i don't know yeah good mix up well then i'm going to put mini sheet adventures in there because it is i know supposed to be a zelda like but but you know as in terms of a 2d game that you find new areas and have to go back to other areas to open them up it is structured the same as met you know metroid and zelda were the same type of game but they were one was sideways and one was top down that was the distinction at the time so where where where we go from there is a a little bit messed up because we started we just decided that castlevania matters more uh minishute is on switch now yep you can play there yeah i played it i played on steam deck it's i mean it's linked to the past with a little twin b ship basically oh i love twin b okay what's that called here stinger right stinger yeah wow

56:40This is Parker from Seattle. I am currently watching an old GameScoo episode on YouTube, which I know the panel has agreed is a crazy thing to do. Justin told me that's not allowed. Just Justin. Not correct. It was Justin. Justin. I think he's been corrected. There is nothing strange about watching old GameScoo episodes. On episode 410 from October 21st, 2016, Damon, Jared, Sam, and Justin were reacting to the announcement trailer for the original Nintendo Switch and making some predictions for Nintendo's next console. At the five and a half minute mark, Sam said the following. You know what's really exciting?

57:17I should have had a clip. You know what's really exciting about it is that you could potentially couch it in some sort of cardboard-like thing and play Virtual Boy games on it, thus kind of predicting. So that was what Sam said.

57:28Mark Medina:I'm in a big lawsuit about this right now and I want my money. Predicting both Labo and the newly released Virtual Boy accessory. Pretty insane prediction to stumble upon from almost 10 years ago. That's amazing. But to be fair, I think when Sam said it, he said there's no way in hell. I don't think anybody would have predicted Nintendo would acknowledge the existence of Virtual Boy, let alone make a$100 accessory to play it. I think we can all accept that Sam talks enough that a broken clock is right. That's right. That's what happened to him. Miyamoto watches Scoop. That's what I'm taking from this.

58:06Mark Medina:I have a better rate than the broken clock. And please, once again, somebody tell my wife that many years ago I said something and it was totally right and came true.

58:18Have you been enjoying your new virtual book accessory, playing it every night? it's one of those things where like i really like it but i just can't play it for a long time because it's like it's so uncomfortable you guys are both such marks i have to like nail it to the wall so that i can stand upright or something like that was the problem the virtual boy shouldn't they should have been a wall accessory that you stand and you lean into just put it in the corner

58:44Mark Medina:at toys r us they made kiosks that you would walk up and kind of like kind of nestle into like that It should have been a virtual wall. A virtual wall. Not a boy for the tabletop. You're just describing a TV. The thing about this thing is the games are actually better than you think they would have been. There's still Nintendo games, you know? Yeah, and like Wario especially, that's a really good game. Yeah, they're releasing some of the cool other ones too. Mario Clash is coming. That's a cool Mario Brothers game. It's good stuff. But yeah, but I take this everywhere I go and we have play dates in Dolores Park here in the mission.

59:24Mark Medina:Everybody comes over and says, I got next game for Teller O 'Boxer. It's a cultural moment. Like it takes the eyeballs and it's actually 3D when you play it? Is it 3D? Why do we invite Mark on this? I'm just asking. I've not played it. I'm not playing it. It's a virtual boy. I just, I didn't know if it was like actual, like if they actually. Shut up, Bear. What do you mean? The whole gimmick was 3D. I'm playing the role of the audience. No, the audience is more informed. The audience has played a Metroidvania, Mark. Mark, I guarantee you everyone in the audience who has played Slay the Spy knew what those numbers were above the enemies.

1:00:07Mark, tell us more about the Godfather 2. Tell us more about the Godfather 2. I'm starting to learn I might not be a gamer. Paradise is really good. Paradise season two.

1:00:17Mark Medina:Just to get Mark out of the – I felt from under the bus. Going back to what the reader was saying – and by the way, people are posting videos of us a long time ago, and that's really funny. But there's a – at the time in the office, before Oculus, or kind of like right around that time, they would issue cell phone cardboard boxes that you could wear in your face, right? And that's exactly where I got that idea from, is that we had one of those floating around. And what it does is it bisects the phone. Your eye sees the different screen. And that's exactly how the Virtual Boy accomplishes 3D in this format.

1:00:57Mark Medina:The new Virtual Boy. It's just bisecting it. The old one did it through a mirror that flicks back and forth 120 times a second and bounces a single dot of light on it. It's just absolutely awesome. It is the most technologically advanced way to give you a headache. It is really impressive technology. Yep.

1:01:31Okay, Mark, I heard you mention Paradise Season 2, so we can do extracurricular activities. I was just trying to get out of that. Paradise Season 2 is so good. I have not started yet. Sam, did you start yet? No spoilers.

1:01:42Mark Medina:Now, hold on, Mark. Is Paradise Season 2 a TV show? No. Technically, it's streaming on Hulu. Does that make it a TV show? I don't know. The only good TV news out there is that Tokyo Diner, after a hiatus of almost a decade, is returning with new episodes. Thank you very much. The best TV show. Netflix produced a season. It was Japanese TV before. Nobody who listens to this show has ever heard of it. And it's fantastic. What about the wine one? The what? The wine one. You like that wine show? Drops of God. The manga adaptation. It's very good. It's got a second season on Apple TV. You guys are not going to like it because it's for cultured people.

1:02:26Wow.

1:02:27Mark Medina:Is that a fermentation joke? It's good. That one, it's in French, English, and Japanese. So good luck. Okay, Mark, I set you up. You didn't say anything about Paradise Season 2. Paradise Season 2, possibly better than Season 1. What? I think it is insanely good. It is so good. I can't believe it. But it doesn't have the gimmick reveal. Okay. Don't say anything. but it still follows the format of every episode is like 60 flashback so it still does that every episode all right yeah it's still it still does that every episode so except for the first episode the first episode is like introducing a character so it's just oh no that one's still flashbacky too um but yeah there's there's there's that and then from then on then the rest of the show like when you watch the first episode you won't see a recap of the first season don't be alarmed That's because the first episode has nothing to do with anything that happened in season one.

1:03:22Mark Medina:That's very lost, right? Yeah, it's very... I get to watch an episode about this character in the past. Think of it as episode three from Last of Us season one, where they had that, like... I don't know which one that is. I know, it's the Nick Offerman kind of spin-off. That is basically this. It has a lot to do with the world, but it does not address anything that's actually happened in Paradise. Then in Episode 2, then it's like, okay, here's a recap of Episode 1. Also, that guy that they just showed, his name is Link, and he is named after the video game character. Excellent. Well, that's the second big reference in Paradise to Nintendo.

1:04:07Mark Medina:Yeah, yeah. They're not done. I'm not going to spoil anything, but they are not done with the Nintendo references. It's the crux of the final events of that season all are about a video game system. Yeah, about the Wii. And they aren't. Should have let me have the Wii. Mark, how far were you through the second season when you realized that twist for the first season? Like, wait, they're in a bunker? Hold on. Okay, I will say, I got halfway through Night of the Seven Kingdom, and I was like, wait, is Aga Targaryen? I was like, duh. let's do it let's do let's get a third big spoiler in here just to make sure mark's week goes great what do you got i'm also watching the pit and the pit is fantastic okay the pit i is good but i can't watch it there there's nothing to spoil about the pit it's very good and it's just isn't there a video game thing in that you got no do you guys watching steve carell the rooster yeah it's so good i've heard good things but no it's pretty good i've heard it's great it's only two episodes in i've watched them both twice because i made other people watch it and so then i had to see go i think it's a great it was a great rewatch already yeah but yeah it's the it's the it's the really the production and crew behind ted lasso plus steve carell and and absolutely and then a little bit of an hbo uh gloss gloss over it right uh amazing cast the cast is so funny they're so great his daughter's great in it and um and yeah it's just it has jamie tart oh cool dude dude Jamie tart oh yeah there is there he is oh there he is yeah there he is and he plays yeah he's great um yeah i i can't wait for you all to watch it we'll talk about next week yeah all right i'll watch this tonight yeah and then sam you also saw uh project hail mary oh i'm so jealous is it out now it's one of my favorite action movies ever did you see an early screening right yeah yeah yeah it's out it's out for everybody listening though they can go see it right now because it's out uh when this episode comes out oh it's dude it's so i love the book actually pear mentioned because like i was a little burnt on um uh the author's second novel which i believe was called artemis artemis yeah i liked the martian and then and so and then perry's like actually the third book is really good like like the week it came out i think you told me about it read it couldn't put it down loved it and i thought this would be the worst thing ever to adapt to a movie and it's so good i thought they would screw up find the right people and they need to find the right cg and they needed to do it all right they cast rocky great and they cast uh grace great they're just amazing oh yeah i know i i thought they would screw this up just with with the cg stuff what this movie is is is it's a you know a big series of things that i I don't want to give away because the plot is great, but it's a space movie about humanity going to the stars for the first time.

1:07:10Mark Medina:And a bunch of like scary, great, thrilling action things happen. And there's also just like very unexpected twists. And then throughout the whole thing is this emphasis on like humanity can solve problems like Star Trek has, which like feels especially, I think, hopeful and unusual for this time that we're in right now. But then also things go really wrong with those plans. And it's fantastic. It's like Armageddon if Armageddon wasn't dumb. Yeah. Is it the same author as The Martian? Yes. Yeah. Andy Weir. Yeah, Andy Weir and The Martian and Artemis, which is the second one he did. Yeah, we've got on our YouTube channel, we have an interview with him.

1:07:53He used to work for Blizzard. I did not know that. I think he got fired from Blizzard, actually. Really? And then pursued his writing career. Yeah, he just knows technology really well. and is really tuned in with pop culture and video games, but not in a Ready Player One, I got to mention everything kind of way. Yeah, yeah.

1:08:10Mark Medina:Well, he did come from a background of being the Ready Player One of science though, right? Well, you know, this plant is mainly made out of carbon, so I need to make a high nitrogen soil. So I'm going to make that. Like that was like the whole like conceit of that. And there's a little bit of that, a lot of that in this book, very moderated for the movie in in great kind of kind of, you know, scenes with the character thinking and stuff, but doesn't explain it, you know, and then you see the results and so smart. So the other thing this movie does is that they did a bunch with practical sets in this movie and like the anti grab and stuff is like really amazing.

1:08:46And Ryan Gosling, by the way, unbelievably funny.

1:08:50Mark Medina:He's just funny and he's good at delivering lines and every joke falls. So it's like one of those Indiana Jones type action movies where your central lead is so charismatic that everybody's smiling the whole time until it's scary for a little bit and then smiling again. It's like a Disneyland ride. But what I was going to say real quick is that this game, this game, this movie has a bunch of space scenes in it where they do the full silence. So the theater was dead silence. Oh, I love that. Oh, that's excellent. Some of the most absolutely tense, messed up things that could possibly happen while a person that has no idea how to navigate a spaceship, especially do a spacewalk, is doing.

1:09:33Mark Medina:And everybody was just holding their breath and just watching. And it was a theater experience. That's great. Weir keeps remaking this old story called Robinson Crusoe on Mars, basically, where it's like, you need... The lone guy needs to figure out how to solve all these big problems. And then he's got this sort of like James Bond level threat above it too in this movie. Yeah, like in the book at least. I've got tickets for IMAX for this weekend. Oh, cool. And so this has another like set of flashbacks in it. And I'm just going to say that. Didn't say my next thing, which is that it also has a lot of like really interesting like buddy comedy stuff in it and like things that you would not expect.

1:10:17Mark Medina:By the way, it has a great character from The Bear that shows up, which is truly interesting. Oh, cool. But yeah, it's really, really, really good. An actor, I mean. Cool. I'll see that for sure. Yeah. All right. Can't wait for you all to see it.

1:10:36All right. That brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Corey L. From Herndon, Virginia, who says, Hi, Damon. GameScoop is my favorite podcast. And I've been slowly working my way through all the episodes in chronological order over the last couple of years. and now I'm only about one year behind. Every GameScoop episode is evergreen. That's what it is. Nobody does this for any other podcast. That's all I'm going to say. One of the reasons I love the show is that you and I have a lot in common. We both have young gamer children running around. My oldest daughter is about to turn six.

1:11:06Our taste in games almost always lines up and most importantly, we're both big horror film fans. I'd like to make a guess. The game is R-Type 3. That last one is why...

1:11:16Mark Medina:I got one, Abadox. Abadox. Well, I was surprised to hear in an episode from last year that you've never seen any of the Saw films. What? Imagine my shock. I'm writing to ask if that is still true to this day, and if so, how do we go about fixing it? Well, I'm no mind reader. I feel fairly confident that you'd love the series. It certainly has its highs and lows, but the first several films are fantastic, and the original is damn near a masterpiece. I suspect those that haven't seen it imagined something comparable to Terrifier, but I think it's much more like its contemporaries Hostel and Wolf Creek because it does not skimp on the suspense, dread, or atmosphere in the way art's outings do.

1:11:49Anyway, please give an update on GameScoop if and when you check the series out, assuming you haven't already in an episode I haven't gotten to yet. Thank you and pass my gratitude to the rest of the Omega Cops for all the years of entertainment. Wait, so he's not even listening to contemporary episodes, but he's still right in. He's bored with what we have to say now. And he's going to hear my answer in a year or so. What a great email. I've never seen any of the soft films. Very similar to the hostile. I don't want to make the listeners sad, but I just don't like them. I would say the first three are worth it.

1:12:21Don't go anymore after that. Yeah, I get what people like about them. They're really suspenseful, but they're at a level that I'm like, eh, tap out. But I like Terrifier, so I might be done with it. But it's more about Saw is more about the mystery of it all. It's like figuring out who did what and getting hit at the end with this like, what? It's got a little torture porn angle to it. Yeah, it's like hostile in that sense, but hostile is just torture porn, where Saw is like there's actually, but after three, then it just goes off the rails. You should watch one.

1:12:54Mark Medina:Let us know what you think. I will. What's grosser, the pit or Saw? Saw. Really? Because the pit's pretty gross. Dude, there's a part where Chester Bennington is glued to a car seat, and he has to reach for something, It like rips his back off. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I will. I'll just start with the first one. I'll just start with the first one. Yeah. Okay. Just watch the first one. Gary Yoles. Corey L. Also included his game for 20 questions. So with that, let the questioning begin. You might be able to use that not what you've just learned from him to help. I remember being in it. Like when you're a kid, you get it.

1:13:34Mark Medina:I grew up in Arizona. You get in a car and you sit. Oh, yeah. The hot car seat. and that's where you get the idea for that movie because you're like, yeah, it's that. I hope this is not the Verity option of 20 questions. That was tough. I feel really dumb for not ending up there yet. Let me start off with this question. If I took this game to a GameStop or any game where I can trade in games and get money, would anybody get excited over this one? um i would okay no but i'm like am i would it would i get some cash cash for it or i don't know the actual value oh okay okay okay fair if you want i can look it up and then you can sneakily figured out that there's a boxed copy of this game so it's not all digital okay well uh is this is this pre-2010 yes all right a lot of years in there should we ask if you can make rpgs in it because if we had done that last week the one question we forgot to ask do you play as a humanoid character yes okay did we get that wait wait do we have an era at all we don't before 2010 uh before 2010 pre-2010 era yeah yeah yeah uh is it but is it from last century yes oh okay so oh wow so uh Nintendo PlayStation Super Nintendo backwards.

1:15:03Saturn. Not Manhunt. Not Manhunt. Oh, I see. You were thinking of the Saw stuff. Okay. This is like you. Yeah. I feel like we've had like Splatterhouse and stuff like that. Right. Have you guys guessed that? Is this a spooky game? Not a spooky game. That's five. Oh, okay. All right.

1:15:23Mark Medina:But. Yeah. Did this game come out in the era of the ESRB rating? no okay so before was this originally an arcade game yes did it originally controlled by a joystick in the arcade yes

1:15:44but I mean my mind was going to like any of the sort of Friday 13th inspired horror stuff but like if he's saying like not a spooky game spooky means like not horror at all it's not just No ghosts. Like, is Casper a spooky game? This is not a question. Is Casper a spooky game?

1:16:03Mark Medina:Is this from before 1983 the video game crash? No. What's the mansion game? Maniac Mansion? Is that an arcade game? No, that's a point and click adventure. Was this developed in Japan? No, and that is 10. Okay, arcade game and it was not before 1980 what? it's between 1983 and the ESRB ratings which is 1994 83 and 90 too old for Metroidvania is too young for this game so there's not a lot of companies that made arcade games in America so it's NES to early Super NES age Genesis, Master System Game Boy but also arcade all those are Japanese um did this have an nes version yes there you go okay is it that scary game on the magnavox odyssey really narrow it down yeah and it's not chiller because that used a light gun it's also spooky yeah well with that technically i guess we technically haven't you know asked that we asked if it was like scary no spooky oh we did ask if are you kidding literally the guy said he wants something spooky.

1:17:23Yeah, yeah. But yeah, that could be anything. It could be Castlevania, but it's not. Castlevania is spooky. It is spooky.

1:17:35Mark Medina:Exidy? It would not be. Was this developed by Atari? No. And it's not Japanese, you said? Not Japanese. Who makes arcade games that be midway during that age? Williams. Was this a Midway game? No. God damn it. Whoa. Atari, Midway, Valley, Williams. That's Midway. But he wouldn't, I don't think he would count that. He wouldn't know. He's a smart boy. Maybe it's Sinistar. What about American Sammy? Sinistar is very spooky. American Sammy. Yeah, that's true. No, that's true. And also didn't come out to the NES. I'm thinking like, you know. Ghostbusters? Yeah, it could be based on a license. That's spooky.

1:18:27Mark Medina:Why are you picking spooky stuff? Because it is spooky. It is not spooky. No, it's not spooky. It's not spooky. We're returning to this question a third time. Mark, not spooky. I keep getting lost. Mark, I want you to take out a pen and write not. Not spooky. What do the numbers mean? Yeah, what the numbers mean?

1:18:49My brain is melted, bro. This has been a week. It's all good. Should we narrow it down to genre maybe? Spooky. Yeah. Right? I mean, like NES is either, I mean, most of it is shooting or platformer.

1:19:08Mark Medina:Licenses, I think, would be likely, but that would be like LJN or something. I don't know. LJN. To get ported, though, and be an American company is very, very unusual. very unusual I'm just not familiar with what would have been in arcades around that time the 80s? Williams I mean we're at the tail end of what about Dragon Slayer? Dragon Slayer very different game from the arcade to NES that is not spooky except for the skeleton it had a lair when you died you became a skeleton. It does have spooky parts. Yeah.

1:19:57Mark Medina:Gauntlet. That's Atari though. Everything I keep thinking of, I keep going through all the games in my head and everything is either Atari or it's Midway at least. How many questions do we have left? Did this game have two player? Yes. Gauntlet could be Gauntlet. Was it co-op? Yes, that's 15. Contra. So that's a Konami game. So I think there's like, not Sunsoft. This could be later. No, I know. So I'm trying to think of like the companies that would make this stuff like gun. The light gun games? Capcom crap. No, it's not light gun. It could be like a licensed game, like an alien or Terminator or Revolution X or something like that.

1:20:49Oh, you mean all those commandos? Those are actual gun games. The sit-down ones?

1:20:57Mark Medina:Yeah, I'm just trying to think what would have gotten a poor Punisher or something. Something that would have been an NES game. But most of them are from Japan that I can think of as well. Yeah, a lot of them are. Is this a licensed game? No. All right, well, that settles that. And you play as a humanoid character. Two-player co-op. Two-player co-op. and yeah i mean can't be like the berserker we don't even know if it's violent battle toads you might just be pushing who made battle toads rare trade west well trade west but yeah yeah rare yeah that's right that's a battle toads ever in the or double uh not uh or double dragon yeah but that's that was japanese that's japanese but but battle toads is not that's a good one a brawler when you pause the game does it go

1:21:46was that a real question i don't know i think i want you to open up every round of 20 questions with that question hey you always start the uh show with a song how many questions you're welcome buddy we have like six left or something right six questions three questions and a guess Oh, sorry. Should we ask if it's a Rare game? Huh?

1:22:08Mark Medina:Should we just ask if it's a Rare game? Well, the arcade version. Oh, this is the NES. We're guessing the NES version? I mean, there are arcade versions of Battletoads. Is this a Rare game? Meaning, was it made by Rare? Yeah. Yes. One version was. That is Battletoads then, no? It is Battletoads. Oop-choo. right? Because you play as a humanoid character. Oh, that's right. You don't play as a toad named Pimple, Zit, and Warp. Well, he's humanoid, no? Yeah. They became humans. They walk up right. I think that qualifies as humanoid. So, if it's not Battletoads, rare? For the NES? They made 60 games.

1:23:01Mark Medina:Jetman. They made all sorts of... What else? And this would have been a port that they... Killer Instinct is not that old, right? That's 90s. But it could be that because we stretched... No, I mean, we know it's an NES game, but it could be a game that had a pretty bad NES port. Yeah. Just totally. I'm not that familiar with NES era stuff. And I know rare after that. You could ask if it came out in Super Nintendo also. How many games it did? But that's not going to help us. We're narrowing it down with Rare. So one of the versions was made by Rare. Should we ask if it's a Battletoads game in the series?

1:23:41No?

1:23:44Mark Medina:I feel like the humanoid question eliminated that. Eliminates Battletoads. To me, that's what that did. When I ask humanoid, like, isn't E.T. a humanoid? Do you have feet and hands and a head? E.T.'s got, like, he's got a little belly. He's got a little petty, petty feet. A little belly. That's right. He's got a long neck, but he's a humanoid. I'm calling you G-Rule. Like Jabba is not humanoid. He's slug type. Well, but in the new movie, we got Jeremy Allen White punching people. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I think only Sam knows the NES era really well from us. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you want to think, if you think it's a Battletoads game.

1:24:25To me, it sounds like, but like, i can't think of anything where rare made one version other than battle yeah they did for like

1:24:32Mark Medina:digger t rock and like what the hell is that all this that's made up sam it's just stuff that they did they got they got they might have even made like the port to pc or something wait did they make um oh god games or something there's oh there's a there's a remember it's killing me Have we mentioned this game series in any way yet? No. Oh, it's not Bellatose. Oh, no. It's not Bellatose. That brings you to one question and one guess. Oh, no. We're doomed. What do you think? Yes. I hate causing dead air here while thinking, but there was... I recently looked at a Rare game where they made an adaptation.

1:25:19Pirate something. One of the versions, and I think it was LJN. I would think that that Rare handled version of this would be news to everyone. I don't think that's the Rare part. I was working on obscure games database stuff.

1:25:36Mark Medina:I think just a co-op game coming to the NES from Arcade is the crucial thing here. It's just hard for me to come up with a game that's not made by the companies we've mentioned already. I think it's some kind of Rambo thing or something like that. Yeah. James giving a lot of eye. We are. We are on such a losing streak. And I don't know, man. Co-op. I mean, usually in co-op games, you're running around shooting with your buddy, right? Yeah. Did they make Rambo? Like a commando? That's licensed. So there's a bunch of these. What's Ikari Warriors? There's Commando. There's um gun knack i don't know what they're all called gun smoke whatever all this crap it's probably a car warrior lock it in i don't know who made akari warriors let's pack it up rare made one of them i don't know uh is this a game where you're running around shooting stuff oh yeah and that might be a car brings us to the last question which has to be a car yeah i think it's Is it Akari Warriors?

1:26:48That was developed in Japan. No, not Akari Warriors. This is the 1988 Arrest-Em-Up NARC. Oh, NARC. Oh, God. His gun's not even in his hand. You gotta show the arcade version. This is the NES version, which was handled by Rare. Oh, yeah, yeah.

1:27:07Mark Medina:I thought we eliminated NARC because we asked if it was Midway. It's not Midway, it's Williams. Oh, you are Sly Fox. I'm not Sly, it's Williams. I would have got this instantly yeah I convinced myself it was at that midway oh it looks so good oh it looks so much better wait hold on what was that animation of him getting in the corner it's literally in midway arcade classics this is the same photo digitization tech that would end up in Mortal Kombat like this me 10 year old me walking by this in the arcade this blew my heck in mind yeah heck yeah and the fact that he just melts into the tree not the best gameplay footage look how fun this is to constantly drive into the dumpsters you shoot enemies with the rocket launchers and their body parts just fly all over the screen this was crack for me this looks like the i5 so I think it's pretty accurate for those not familiar with the arcade days but Williams it was Bally Williams before that became Williams became Midway, became Atari games.

1:28:16So that is the same development house out of, what are they, Milpitas?

1:28:20Mark Medina:Are those protesters? Yes, Milpitas got them. This is, I do not remember this level. Well, Atari is in Milpitas. Midway is in Chicago. Yeah, that's right. It was in Chicago first. Anyway, look at that. This came to the NES by way of Acclaim, and they were apparently very worried about this hyper-violent game coming to NES. I've got the instruction manual here. So the first page says, Dear Gamers, we at Acclaim are pleased to present NARC, the first video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System with a strong anti-drug message. NARC takes gamers through the supreme, larger-than-life war on drugs with exciting, colorful characters such as Max Force, who wages justice against a number of sordid enemies.

1:29:04And although the fast-paced action in NARC is sometimes extreme, it conveys what may often be the harsh realities of the drug environment. Yes, it's a documentary. Nevertheless, it is a fictitious representation of how the battle against drugs may be won. Yes, a killing machine walking around with two machine guns and a rocket launcher, mowing down every drug dealer they see on site is one way the war on drugs might end. That's right. It is actually closer to reality now. Minus the clown, minus the clown.

1:29:33Mark Medina:He's just an ice agent. The enemies are throwing needles at you. Yeah, they throw needles at people. That's what they do in real life, too. They're trying to turn you into zombies. I like how our narc just picks up all the money, too. It says all nude. This is just in an arcade game. Any kid can walk by. All nude. Look at Video Void. This is where these sorts congregate, though, Damon. That's because it's a documentary. Yeah, the clowns. Oh, yeah, you can burn the bodies. They burn away. Hole in one? Put that lady down. This game is great. Oh, there's so many. Is this a kinky pinky? Maybe. designed by Eugene Jarvis designer of Defender and Robotron and all sorts of llama related software.

1:30:15Mark Medina:Watch out for those street walkers anyway Narc, nicely attempt thank you for the suggestion we're on like a four week losing streak we should have had this one can we do like Mario 64 next week? Corey L from Herndon, Virginia I feel like this was still a Verde option this is not Verde This is mild. No, we learned that Verde means it's not a game. Sam will appreciate that you don't kill the dogs. No, you just shoot them small. You return them to their puppy form. You give them a new lease on life. They're all drugged up, and then you shoot the drugs right out of them. It's a vision of what could happen if you shoot up a dog.

1:30:58Yeah, okay. Hey, listen, it's time for a brand new month of gaming. Jump into the Humble March Choice Bundle and score an amazing lineup of titles. Right now you can grab Tempest Rising, Chance of Sanar, Sworn, Etrian Odyssey 3 HD, Bread and Fred, Zero Hour, Small Land, Survive the Wild, and Hard West 2. This all supports the Malala Fund, an organization working for a world where every girl can learn and lead by breaking down the barriers that hold back the more than 130 million girls out of school today. Head to HumbleBundle.com through April 7th to start playing now. And that is all the scoops that we have for you this week.

1:31:30Thank you, Pear. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Thank you to Jobert working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon, this is IGN GameScoop, and we're out.

1:31:47Attention, knock one.

1:31:49Mark Medina:Oh no, the knife, man. Five, one, one, in progress. Let's go.

1:32:02Shoot! You're busted.

1:32:08You're your busted. Oh, boy.

1:32:13Mark Medina:B-b-b-b-b-b-breed.

1:32:19You're your busted.

1:32:24You're your busted. Oh, no, the knife, man. Oh, no, no, no, no, the knife, man. in the uh comments section of game scoop we've been hyping joebert up quite a bit so yeah i'd love to do a ign live joebert reveal oh yeah oh it'd be really fun

1:32:54oh yeah i was thinking maybe he's using ai filters on his face it was out of focus last

1:32:59Mark Medina:tweester. It's just DLSS5. Let me add some eyeshadow. Sam all of a sudden just has Fabio hair.

1:33:09So Sam, our thumbnail is going to be Sloppy Grace with the headline Look how they massacred my girl.

1:33:17Mark Medina:It should be look how they mascarid my girl. That's good. Oh my god, that's so good. Oh shit! This is why you crowdsource. Crowd source. This is why you crowd source. Fuck, that's good. I don't think people actually get that, but it's funny. Oh, they would. Maybe a step too far. Did you hear the title of Next Gen Console Watch I came up with this week? No. I remember. It's DLSS 5. Are faces fixed or fucked? Yeah, I did see that. Sam, your talents are wasted on game help, man. Someone on YouTube said he thinks... Well, I insert myself. someone on youtube thinks he genuinely thinks sam is one of the funniest people on the internet i think sam's pretty funny too that someone said that more people would take my legit opinions as jokes then i would get away with a lot my favorite is like how mad people get when they're like did you see the game the troll born comes out huh i just i forget what it was there was like a 60 comment thread on the game scoop facebook group that was like sam thinks this different thing about this thing this week and everybody's like please stop posting this

1:34:26Mark Medina:I can't remember what we talked about last week yet but we didn't seem that controversial at the time probably Donkey Kong 8 again oh I said I liked Pocopia a lot but I thought Slay the Spire was fun oh you god no no no I said I thought it first of all I said I'm never going to play this game and it looks boring I didn't say anything about the quality of the game or about it being boring I just said I'm not playing it I have since sunk about 10 hours and to slay the Spire, and it has taken over my life. All right, I'm adding it to the run of show. But I played Bellatra. It's so fucking good. So there's that.

1:35:01You played what?

1:35:02Mark Medina:I played Bellatra. Finally? First time? Yeah, it was great. Yeah, it was awesome. Fantastic. It was in November. Oh, I see. Okay, well, that's hardly news. It was big news at the time. I was late on Bellatra and then completely loved it. I was like, should have listened. It's so good. Yeah. But would Bellatra fans like Slay the Spire 2? I'm a Bellatra fan and I love Slay the Spire 2. I like the first one. Bellatra is better. Bellatra is probably better, but not by myself. Now he's speaking without playing the game. I believe the game that I played is better than the game I have not played. I've seen that take a lot from Crimson Desert fans.

1:35:47Yes. Oh my god. Who still haven't played the game. someone was like this game's clearly a nine i'm like it's out played it it's out in 40 minutes 40 minutes what a weird time to release of a game what a terrible night it's a little bit weird it's

1:36:01Mark Medina:like kind of i think it's a way game yeah it's a worldwide launch i think based on korea time mark the second biggest mistake in his entire life mentioning that he thinks that metroidvanias are not for him in a really weird way he said he's too old the first biggest mistake he made in his entire life is being on this show today to say what he really thinks about crimson desert saying final fantasies are not sequels got me in some pretty hot water as well oh god i just say bullshit man sequentially numbered and have nothing to do with each other yeah they are not sequels seven is not a sequel to six that doesn't make sense justin davis wait what series he's saying final fantasy final fantasy but then people swoop in with 10-2 and that sid's in every game.

1:36:44There's a couple of sequels. That's a sequel. Okay. I'm with Medina on this one. It's a rare moment. 13-2 and Lightning Returns are sequels, but 11 is not a sequel to 10. You're right. 12 is not a sequel to 11.

1:36:57Mark Medina:The first Final Fantasy ever is a sequel because clearly there's supposed to be a game called Fantasy out there. Oh, God. This is a layoff. Okay. Swish! Damon, you gotta start the show. This is the show! Until Joe starts the show or I'm gonna leave. I know it happens. What happens is that Jobert waits and waits for us to get all the jokes out of our system. Just so Damon can edit this into the end of the episode. I know. I see. I see. I see what's happening here. Jobert is just sitting back there. We just have to stop being hilarious. Watching his flug tag.