Game Scoop! 857: Horizon Permitted East

30:00Justin Davis:We're going to talk about that in just a minute, Sam. The answer is make good games. Over the past fiscal year for Capcom, 84 % of its games sold were what they call catalog games, meaning not released that year, older games. Okay. So only about 15 % of Capcom sales are games released that year. And of all the sales, 93 % of its sales are digital. Wow. Wow. 93%. That's a lot. Yep. and listen to this only 10 of its sales come from japan yeah wow yeah that doesn't make any sense to me what about monster hunter yeah what about manhunt yeah well but see that was that when that when that was at its peak in japan it was when it was a portable game yeah only 10 i mean you know i guess so here's the thing it's like i don't know what percentage of like the global gaming audience is japan anymore but probably more than 10 which means that probably Capcom games like over index elsewhere in the world.

30:59Like they're more popular in the United States or Europe than they are in Japan, which kind of surprised me. I guess Resident Evil, you know, obviously those games were and are very big in Japan. But like, you know, they are they are kind of like, you know, American. Yeah, it's American centric. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's worrying. What if Japan just got more into dating and sports and doesn't play video games anymore? Oh, no. Are we? Oh, no. went to college and everything changed yeah they've grown out of it they're for kids at some point they realize they have to take their life seriously yeah they play one Dragon Quest game every year and that's it they've gotten too old for Metroid games maybe I've gotten there

31:45Justin Davis:the best selling game over there past this year was Resident Evil Requiem 7 million copies then some updates on older games the Resident Evil 2 remake is at 18 million units sold what 18 million for the red re2 is that gonna beat gta but this is the comparison between resident evil street fighter street fighter 6 is at 6.7 million it's like that's nothing to sneeze at for a game today's but it's nowhere near where resident evil's numbers are i think street fighter is so much less accessible you know like it's it is Street Fighter, but we all played Street Fighter 2. And I think half of us played Street Fighter 3, dropped half the audience and then half the audience and half the audience since then.

32:27I just don't think it's like that. What a comeback for Resident Evil. Resident Evil 5 and 6, especially 6, it's pretty bad. And then it's like, man, they pulled it back right from the brink. I wonder if there's ever been a franchise. Well, never mind. I immediately thought of 2. Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat also came like that and that probably got even worse before getting good and then Zelda was never bad but like Zelda also has had this sort of U-shaped like Skyward Sword is at the low point and then Breath of the Wild is like a high point yeah that's true you're gonna get in so much trouble I'm not in trouble at all

33:11please don't write that I was in trouble

33:12Justin Davis:they confirmed Onimusha is coming this year If they had announced that before, I'd miss that. So that's good. Could we possibly get three great Capcom games in one year? Unbelievable. And then they updated cumulative series unit sales. So the Resident Evil series cumulatively has sold 201 million copies. Wow. Monster Hunter has done 127 million. Then Street Fighter has done 59 million. And then Mega Man has done 44 million. It's Capcom's fourth best-selling series. and they don't even make megaman games yeah there is a new one on the way think how many megaman games sold for like you know flip phone back when remember when they somehow got megaman 2 on on nokia flip phones yeah well it's the new one on the way uh it's what is it dual something dual syndrome i forget yeah they now said the game awards oh oh right right right right right yeah they're finally gonna tie the story together with uh pragmata and and weirdly it's on an it's on the ds nintendo ds which is an odd choice but yeah surprisingly know what they're doing uh the devil may cry series is at 38 million dead rising 19 million ace attorney 14 million tied with dragon's dogma at 14 marvel versus capcom 13 million onimusha 9.1 million and okami 4.8 million so that's like over okami the we port and what okami 2 was on ds yeah uh no there was a spinoff called okami den okami den is that what it was okay yeah and then it got ported to like everything after that there is an okami on the horizon yeah but now seeing that it's like it's capcom's like we're selling series i don't know well they got to get up to those megaman numbers dmc was another one where three and four are not very highly regarded and then five came out and was like incredible and then there's the dmc devil make cry and then there's then there's dmc five they must have just had a meeting where they were like everybody stop well they had a Make a good game.

35:12Make good games. And they were like, oh, good game. Got it. You crazy son of a bitch. And they're like, that'll never work.

35:21Justin Davis:I feel like, did I review the last thing? 11? It would have been 11. Did it have a rewind button? I think it did. I think I liked that a lot. No, the Legacy Collection had a rewind button. Did it? Yeah. Linux game's really fun. I know. It's such a great way to go through old school games. And if they want to limit it for a new game, then you can always make it like some kind of meter. You can only use a few times. Like that stuff's great. That's what Prince of Persia, the sands of time. Sam, you reviewed, you reviewed Mega Man 11 and he gave it a 7.5. Okay. Was that the last one? The last decimal days.

35:54Main one.

35:54Justin Davis:Yeah. 20, 2018. Was it when we only had decimals for 0.5? I think so. Oh, maybe. Yeah. What do we call that? The 20 point scale? Yep. Yep. Yep. Capcom also shared how it's using AI in game development. And one thing it's working on is using generative AI to make interactive manuals. And I thought about this. I don't think I have a problem with that. I think that's okay. Like, you know, I don't want generative AI in my games. I don't want to listen to AI music. um i i'm cool with ai saving you know freeing up humans giving them more time to be creative but i don't know just a manual that's in the game you go in the pause menu i don't think i have a problem with ai making that you know i don't think i quite understand i don't know i don't know that i understand i need to i need to i need to know more i don't want it drawing megaman with how many fingers does he have yeah yeah i don't want it making art for the manual but if it's just Then again, Nintendo Power, one of the best creators of GameHelp of all time, they weren't really good with fingers as we saw last week.

37:04Justin Davis:Well, yeah. Okay. All right. All right. Now, did you see somebody like commented that they're like, no, the CMT Turtles always had three fingers. Like, yeah, that was the joke. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't see someone comment. That's good. Actually. They'll probably have to use AI. It's impossible for humans to come up with any more robot masters in Mega Man. So they just have to be AI generated. They've done them all. You know, since like the 80s, they've always had submissions for that in Japan, basically. And they're doing, they did that for this new one too. Yeah, I remember that on the show last year, whenever that was.

37:44Oh yeah, if you try to come up with which ones were submitted by little kids, you're always wrong. Like, no, like somebody, Yonifune himself came up with Snake Man. spaghetti man

37:56Justin Davis:uh have you tried this new mode in requiem sam leon must die forever no i haven't done either i i don't understand what it is it's some kind of roguelike yeah it's a roguelike mode but it's like the replacement for mercenaries but it's a different thing you just you just go through it get better weapons stuff like that but it's pve yeah yeah you basically just like go through settings like rooms for the most part they they released it with like a map i'm worried that my chops as Leon have just faded after playing the exact number of games that lets you, you know, where that fades. Six or seven since then, yeah.

38:32But yeah, I don't know. They can't do wrong as far as I'm concerned. Leon is so fun to just beat up zombies with. Yeah. This looks great.

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41:35Justin Davis:Capcom has enjoyed 13 consecutive years of profit growth by releasing a lot of single-player horror games. And now we have a Dead Space producer who worked on the first three games saying, now, AEA will never make a Dead Space 4. The numbers just aren't there. Nope, it's impossible. It's impossible. His quote, he was on some podcast, Chuck Beaver is his name. He says, any of the Resident Evils are selling around 7 million. That's a pretty good number. That's what they sell at launch. and then over there he sold catalog copies for years and years and years, up to 18 million. He says, you know, companies now are looking for the next Fortnite.

42:09Justin Davis:They need something that is a perennial moneymaker, something like a single-player package game with no live service offering. That's just a dinosaur fossil of a business model. That's crazy. That's why we got Anthem 10 years ago, right? Is this just like a Western video game producer just openly demonstrating how they just don't get it? Biggest game this year is Crimson Desert and Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata. Like, it's... Right now, it's Subnautica. Like, it's so silly. I mean, it is budgeting and tooling and engine. Like, Capcom is definitely... I mean, we were kind of goofing about it earlier, but it's actually true that they have figured some stuff out about, like, you know, Pragmata uses the Resident Evil engine, and like you know they're making these games quickly and you know i don't know i don't know how many people they have working on them but based off the pace that they're churning them out like in a cost effective like you know seven million copies sold is like enough for them to be like okay like we'll just keep doing this forever i mean presumably that's what happened with dead space one two and three right yeah like and a wee game and you know there's i thought the remake was was really good i didn't know that it didn't i think that was them testing the waters and it probably didn't sell as much as they thought it would.

43:24I couldn't find

43:26Justin Davis:any example of EA ever sharing any sales numbers for the Dead Space remake. Also, it's the Reach for the Moon engine. What, the Dead Space remake? That's what they call it? No, no, no. The RE engine. It's the Reach for the Moon engine. Is that a real thing? What are you saying? Is that a joke? I don't know what's going on. Most people think it's called the Resident Evil engine. It's not. It's the Reach for the Moon engine. That's why the logo is a hand reaching for a moon. I'm still not 100 % sure if this is a bit. This is a real thing. It's a real thing. Okay, I've just never heard that before.

44:01That's really interesting. I knew it didn't stand for Resident Evil,

44:04Justin Davis:but Reach for the Moon also doesn't make sense. Whatever. So EA is working on big single-player games. They're working on a Mass Effect, right? Presumably. And is the Star Wars game? Is that EA? They're working on a Star Wars game. Not for the game. Yeah. Not Fate of the Old Republic. Well, that's not. The next Jedi game would be EA. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I was talking about the Casey Hudson one. I didn't know that that wasn't EA. They're not publishing the, I mean, Total Vaporware, Knights of the Old Republic. No. Remake, right? No. That game doesn't exist anyways. Right. I don't know why EA and Bioware wouldn't, be involved in publishing that since well they were they were making it all it was aspire and then it was saber and then who knows if anyone's working on it today so i mean maybe lucas because lucas games exist now right maybe they're publishing like i thought again like i don't think that game even if it wasn't vaporware those which my point is there's a very clear example of someone making these single-player games and they're also very clear examples of people of publishers chasing these white whale uh money printing fortnight like games like think about concord and then sony just had to admit that it's lost just hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars betting on bungie like yeah but i think i think both can be true right like a single player game selling you know four million or five or seven million copies like might not be enough for ea but it is enough for capcom based off how they're you know how long it's taking them and how much money it's taking them to make these games yeah i mean everybody wishes they were our creators right now.

45:43Like it, that went really well, but it's like, it seems like more of a gamble than relying on your tried and true franchise. It's exactly like Resident Evil that, that sells like crazy. You are chasing, you know, these big live service games that make billions of dollars. It's a, it's a slot machine pull and the pull costs you$100 million to make the game. And then maybe like, is it worth it? Like spend 100 million and you have a whatever percent chance that like, you're going to make something that makes you know 50 billion dollars over the next you know 10 years or like you know maybe it won't be that like so it's hard to know or or you can make a single player game and like break even plus another whatever percent so it's like it's tough video games are a tough business to be in like you do see the clamor for single player adventure games and why that's and the reasoning behind it from like every type of gamer like it's kind of crazy and so like that's why i i think the the assassin's creed black flag announcement like that went so well for ubisoft like they haven't had a win in a while but like boy people are hyped for that game it's true the live service pullback is super real um or you know look like live service games are more popular than ever but like we've talked about it on the show before they take so long to make that like the market can have moved under your feet of like you're working on one thing and then whoop now extraction shooters are all anybody cares about so it's like this balance between you need to have something that's really triple a and premium feeling but you have to move fast enough to like get it out and not be off trend before people have kind of moved on is um is chat it's a challenging space to be i mean i kind of feel like that happened with marathon right like marathon is is the gameplay loop is is pretty similar to uh to arc writers like as far as like the kits go the free kits and the mission structure and stuff like that but it came out after arc raiders so people jumped in and went well this is just like i put all of my time is already spent in arc raiders why would i then reinvest in this i'm just gonna go back i think that's you touched on something else important which is everyone wants a piece of this live service pie but the pie isn't infinitely big and people are already playing you know it's like if you're playing fortnite or arc raiders or whatever like you're trying to peel people away you know dota whatever it is right like you're you're you're trying to peel them off of you know where they're already established it's like getting someone to switch from android to ios or vice versa at a certain level like the game becomes your platform and and it's tough like that can be a really really tough thing to do yeah i i actually see a lot of that with the uh project helix and ps6 it's like what can xbox do i i just see the discussions on social media and it's like what can xbox do to get people to switch to helix and i'm like i don't know if that's like a world we really live in anymore where like the two new consoles come out and somebody goes which which one is just better for me they just kind of stick with what they do right like i own 800 playstation games i really don't know what the helix could do for for it to be like that's now my main platform like my trophies and everything is all playstation so uh it's a toughie and it's the same with like games as well uh you know me and my group we were big on overwatch and then we switched to rivals and we've been playing rivals since release we play every week several times a week and you know overwatch is doing a lot of cool stuff they released a bunch of heroes and i was like should we like and and you know check it out and my entire group was like no like i i'm here right like i've already spent all this time learning these characters buying scans not going back to just a different hero shooter again.

49:25Like we're here, we're staying. Let me make one more, uh, uh, plea for more dead space. Uh, you have this really cool thing with horror games where you can release them in September and then they're your spooky season bump. And that's not happening a lot recently. A lot of times we get our horror games and other seasons, especially Resident Evil, because I think they get delayed out of that season. But boys, is it a boon when you're like you're that halloween game that everybody wants to play i think it's really cool and dead space just has that extra thing going for it also if you want to expand your horizons like chronos the new dawn is very close to kind of how dead space is pragmata is actually it is yeah i guess not really kind of no it is it really it's like i think it's a you know the combat's a lot more fun right and it's a lot less gross but that's because the the there it's not bio horror it's like bot horror but the bot horror is pretty cool sometimes we made a baby bot what does he do it must be you know it's using big building blocks to build stuff

50:32Justin Davis:okay moving on uh we talked a little bit about mixtape last week sam was telling us about it i played a little bit of it so i have some sense of what it is but justin you finished it right yeah finished it um loved it i didn't 10 out of 10 love it like my personal score would probably be like close to an eight. I think it's a great game. Um, you know, I thought that Cardi, you reviewed it from us as argument for why he thought it was a 10 and he felt really emotionally affected by it was, you know, well argued. Like I can understand how someone would love it that much. Um, I think, I mean, Damon, I'm curious to get your thoughts.

51:03Cause the, the, the nostalgia in this game is like a laser beam directly into my brain. Like there's elements, like there's so much stuff in that game that i'm like i lived that that was my life um you know the whole game's building up to there's gonna be a small spoiler for people that haven't played it it's on game pass it's like three hours long please play it like but the game's building up to this big party and then the party happens that's like the climactic event in the game and it's like that that part of the game is so well done like the conversations you overhear and the little vignettes and moments that you see just the camcorder effect alone there is incredible.

51:40It's incredible. And so, and, and the reason the game isn't maybe a 10 out of 10 for me is because then, because then you're exposed as kind of like, like people didn't talk like that. Right. So it's got to pick a lane. It's either trying to be like super, super true to life, or it's trying to be like a video game version of a John Hughes movie. And it's kind of like trying to do both of like a lot of characters kind of monologuing and talking at each other and talking in quips and like not really using like 90s language which again that would be fine except the other half of the time it's trying to be like you know incredibly kind of like slice of life true to the real lived experience and so that that jarred me a little bit but overall i mean you know and obviously like what can like any game that has like you know joy division and portis head on the soundtrack it's like we're just really really spoiled for like how uh just the vibes are absolutely unmatched in it um so overall yeah i mean i loved it i i don't it's not on my game of the year short list but i'm like really really glad that i played it um and you know and and

52:46Justin Davis:yeah it was great that little that kissing uh little they're not games they're just little mini things to play around with but it's it's gross yeah it's like it's like ryan and stimpy right yeah it is like that yeah gross that moment damon i'm curious to get your thoughts do you think the main character, I find her unlikable and that kind of bothers me. Like she, well, the other characters are a lot more likable. Yeah. Right. By comparison, the main character you play as is a little bit of a know-it-all. And then even, you know, one of the big conflicts of the game with her and her friends is that they were all going to go on this road trip and and she kind of breaks up the road trip.

53:21Like she messed up their friend plan and like they don't end up going on this road trip because she's going to go do something else. and like there's no he's really mean to that other girl too and and that and that and the road trip thing though is like it's never resolved like it's never like i don't know that part just

53:36Justin Davis:really kind of i just don't like her yeah no i get that i also think a teenager like being obsessed with becoming a music supervisor and knowing even knowing who uh an established music supervisor is would be unusual today much less in the 90s yeah that that occurred there's this is very you know it's an amalgam of like it's sometimes 90s and sometimes 80s which i think is kind of interesting too um i mean overall it's like look if you're listening to this show and you're between the ages of like you know uh 40 and 50 it's like you're probably gonna have a good time with this video game it's like it's almost impossible not to um i loved it i thought it was great i thought it was really polished like it's just like when i'm reviewing and looking at these i'm like wow i I can't believe like you'll be focusing on something in the game.

54:25But when I look at it from a side, I'm like, wow, they really drew these 3D environments that you run sideways through for a really long time in it, you know, and stuff like that. It's cool. There's an element, like I already said, sometimes it's like so realistic, but it's like, you know, when people are like, you see these social media posts of like, this is what the eighties was like and it's all neon and it's all that pattern of like on the styrofoam cup with like the, the teal colors. It's like, no, that's not what the eighties like. were like the 80s were like brown and it was like brown carpet and brown walls and like wood paneling and that's what the actual 80s were like and so so it is with mixtape in my opinion a little bit it's sort of like an idealized or sometimes kind of like a fake version of nostalgia but then other times it is incredibly true to life and so it swings back and forth between the two yeah i like what i've experienced so far i wouldn't i don't know if it's a game it's

55:19Justin Davis:something that you interact with but yeah maybe maybe there's more gamified moments later on is this still in your queue to play more of or are you just done with it i mean it's so short i feel like i should finish it because i do like it i like it and it's i recommend finishing it yeah i think it's sort of and it does end strong i think that in like the very very ending beats are like one of my party alone is like worth getting to just because it'll take you back to going to a really awkward high school party but this is done better than like a i think a like you know freaks and geeks did it and freaks and geeks did it the best i've ever seen yeah and i'm not going to talk about the end except to say that i do think i do think it ends really strong so you know ends on a high note um you know obviously the soundtrack's incredible okay that's a mixtape that brings us to extracurricular activities justin i've been a little i've been a little annoyed with you oh where have you been you yeah you've been absent and i have been i have had nobody to talk to about dungeon crawler carl oh yeah they're so good i'm so happy yeah reading it i'm doing the audiobook which a lot of people seem to think that's kind of the way to do it because the guy i've had his name i forget the guy's name he's so good the guy that reads the book uh i have it right here on my phone he starts in book one he's very patrick warburton esque and then he kind of then he kind of like modulates like it becomes kind of more of his own yeah character so the books the books are written by uh matt what dinaman matt dinaman and then the uh jet hayes does the book and he does unique voices for everyone it's so good and then he even his female characters are so well i think at first people like were sure it was he like had someone else doing the voices for him though he does all the voices it's great really yeah and i didn't realize i keep hearing about like how popular it's gotten i gyn has written articles about how it's grown in popularity, but no one else I know has read them or anything.

57:15Justin Davis:You're the only person, Justin. So I've been waiting for you to come back. They're great. I'll pick up your first book. Book two. I mean, the audiobooks, they're like 15 hours each. So like I have an hour commute. I have an hour commute each way. So now I'm sure this is a cliche. I've gotten into this audiobook and now I'm looking forward to my commutes, but it's still a trip. Yeah. I have a signed, I don't think I have it in arm's reach, but I have book one and it's signed by the author. and it's one of my more prized prized possessions from recent years i have not seen this imagery this like manga style uh looks uh it's not how i envision the the story looking like in my head i mean they're doing yeah i was gonna say they're doing like official webtoons as there was a comic book on free comic book day um you know collectible cards there's all these all these like uh franchise extensions coming out now yeah i mean they're great i would say i would say it gets better as it goes except for book three like and everyone and even the authors are like maybe maybe missed the mark a little bit on that one but in general like it starts strong and then just builds and improves which is uncommon yeah um you know you're already experiencing this a little bit damon but there's more kind of like so if you don't know the premise it's like you know this guy basically gets sucked into a video game but everything's real like if you die in the game you die in real life um but as the franchise goes on and i won't spoil anything but you learn more and more and more about what's happening outside of the game and the stakes of like you know you get to kind of peak in the beginning the drama is all about like he's in this dungeon and he's fighting goblins and like how is he going to survive and how is he going to get out of this but like it does build and the world building is so good and so satisfying and so strong um and And you're just, I mean, I know you're kind of starting to get into that a little bit now, Damon, but like you end up like around halfway through the series, it shifts like why you're into it and why you're reading about it.

59:10And then it's like, oh, man, now I want to know all about these organizations behind the scenes. And, you know, yeah, it's great.

59:17Justin Davis:Yeah. I mean, you learn a lot of the stuff in the very early pages of the first book, but I don't know if they'd be considered spoilers. You know, I'm just saying you learn a lot about what's happening very early on. but all the people know is that this is like a guy's in a video dungeon crawling video game but there's like a lot more to it than that i mean it's called so it's called rpg lit right yeah lit rpg lit rpg okay and there are other other series in this sort of like genre yeah there's a million of them okay um and they're all they're all uh they all usually have pretty good audiobooks and they're also they're almost all on kindle unlimited so if you have a kindle unlimited subscription you can usually read them for free so the the moment to moment action sam and mark it's like you're playing a role-playing video game like in in the dungeon carl has hit points and he gains experience from killing monsters and he gets loot and he has an inventory it's like and then the book literally spends hours going through his stats talking about him leveling up him deciding what race and class to pick but it's not boring it's not boring achievements are a big deal yeah it's crazy that's but it is not boring and so it is like it's not one of those things of like read three books and it gets good like i think book one i think it's good immediately but like the level on which i enjoy it kind of deepens in book one it's very pulpy and just like a page turner and it's funny and silly but then like the characters end up being much more well-rounded and like these kind of matt deniman is incredible at like there's joke characters that like you end up kind of like deeply caring for three books later they end up like really kind of fleshed out as as as um you know and have good arcs so it's great i don't have enough uh i don't have enough good things to say about it i'm loving it i did uh yeah i'm doing the audiobooks uh matt and uh or mark and sam you might have seen that carl is in his boxers and he's barefoot yeah yeah he gets because of where he is when he gets sucked into the dungeon he's barefoot in the dungeon and so that leads him to just sort of like lean into being like a brawler class like that's kind of like his fighting style that he gets into and actually if he ever were to find boots and put them on he they would be like a detriment to him because he's strongest when he's fighting with his bare hands and feet he's got buffs when he's barefoot because the ai that runs that runs the game is a foot fetish and so it's encouraging him to like not ever is that real yes yep oh wow yep yep okay and so they've announced the tv series i think for peacock yeah seth mcfarland's production company and i think uh matt diniman likes going with him because they've got experience doing ted and having a cgi character oh but i don't know this is like a huge sprawling saga everything would be a cgi shot his he's carl's best friend and partner in the dungeon is a cat that can talk so it's like everything it would be really really expensive to do it justice i don't know we also i mean i know you're only in book two but each floor of the dungeon is a different theme and so it's almost like a completely like just thinking about the logistics of making a television show it's like now you're in a fantasy land now you're in you know a completely different setting like completely completely different um you know so you're in a jungle in one of them and it's definitely not an animated series i think I think the intent is to do it live action.

1:02:44Yeah.

1:02:45Justin Davis:Animated would probably be the way to go. Anyway, it comes with my highest recommendation. If you like listening to this show, I think you'd probably like Dungeon Crawler Carl. Speaking of crawlers, just a few weeks ago, we were talking about vampire crawlers. Yes. It kind of came and went. I was really hot on it at first, but I think it kind of fizzled out a lot faster than other roguelites, like your block drills. or play the Spire. I think it's too easy. I agree. I loved it. I loved every minute I played it, but I got to the point where I was like, this doesn't really feel like a challenge anymore.

1:03:22And I got to the point where I could start looking up builds and stuff, and I was like, nah, I think I'm done. Yeah, I think, I mean, and I also think it's okay. I mean, you know, I played it, I played it and I beat it. And then it was like, I think it's okay for games to just kind of end. Like we're all used, we're conditioned to like, Slay the Spire or Bellatro or Monster Train of like now there's 10 prestige levels to go through and do this and do that. Like Vampire Crawlers is, you know, what does it cost? $10 and there's 20 or 25 hours of gameplay and like so I don't necessarily see it as a criticism of like you know, you play it and beat it and move on but just people have been conditioned to expect something different from like card game dungeon crawling games.

1:04:04Justin Davis:But Vampire Survivors is like that. You can play that forever, right? So maybe that's why I was expecting a little bit. It's the next game from Vampire Survivors. It's not a grind forever game. I took it as like the Vampire Survivors people were like, hey, we want to make a card game. Like all these card games are coming out. And so like let's put something together. And I think they did something really unique and it's cool. But I think Survivors is still kind of like their main thing. Yeah. And it feels like a spinoff. You need cool spinoffs I think we need more of. Like I just think that's a really healthy thing to do.

1:04:37yeah i agree and it's also i don't i don't know i maybe i shouldn't even bring it up because we're recording a podcast but like i think it was code i think a different company made the game i don't think it's i don't think it's punkle i don't think it's the vampire survivors debz i think like they partnered with like i don't know which came first someone was making a card game and then they made it vampire survivors themed or what the order was but there's there's definitely another kind of creative group involved in this project too but i don't i don't have those details

1:05:04Justin Davis:Sam did you notice they have the little gnomes from Golden Axe in there I saw that yeah you're so mean to those gnomes in that game how else are you going to get your potions Sam they took them from you and then this really quick speaking of crawling I just noticed this today a new game coming to console and PC soon it's called Pin Crawl and at a glance it looks pretty good I don't know if Joba can bring this up but at a glance this is cool pixel art dungeon crawling pinball roguelike game I do a pin crawl in my neighborhood because a bunch of my, San Francisco, because everybody's close to each other, but a bunch of my neighbors have really great pinball machines and so we'll do a crawl with beers through people's garage gates.

1:05:44We call it pin crawl. Fun. I should have trademarked it.

1:05:47Justin Davis:Well, maybe developer, developer so romantic owes you some royalties. This is pin crawl. See, at a glance, this looks good. Gets good, high detail pixel art. Hell yeah. That is cool. We'll see. It says it's coming soon on its Steam page.

1:06:05Justin Davis:and uh sam you watched punisher one last kill i watched punisher one last kill yeah i liked it i liked it yeah that was a is it gonna be removed from disney plus because it's so violent i mean it's crazy chances are so i on one hand i liked it unbelievable i liked it and i if you like the punisher or if you like brutal action like the raid or john wick you'll like this too but also it's like i i just can't i'd love to know the thinking behind the scenes why they wanted to go this way, especially since the next time we see him is going to be in a PG-13 Spider-Man movie. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

1:06:38We talked about this in another meeting, well, in a meeting, and I had this, like, you know, I remember The Punisher being the big kid's comic for Marvel, and, like, it was a little bit different, and it was, like, when The Punisher would appear in the Spider-Man universe, he was kind of, like, a rogue threat like never like an ally. It wasn't like the Daredevil's an Avenger now. Like that's that never happens with our sorry. Punisher is an Avenger now. It never happens with it. So it's like, you know, that's probably changed because that was 30 years ago. But like, I do like that about this is that it feels like late eighties Punisher height of popularity Punisher where it's like about killing drug lords, you know, and Spider-Man's like, oh, there's a lizard man loose in the city you know it's just different and like and this this gets at that and boy yeah it's trying to do the john wick thing like to a to a kind of a parodic it's like you know like very thoughtful

1:07:36Justin Davis:gun work and enclosed tight spaces that sort of thing it starts with a an unfortunate uh casualty there um there's yeah it's just all that and then it really ends really quickly it's like whoa that that was it. Well, the whole thing is 45 minutes long. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really like, it's, it's, it sets it up too much to be effective this way. But like, if it was just him fighting out of a building, it would be like that dread movie, like that type of thing. Yeah. Yeah. But it's not, it's not just that there's a lot of like psychological John Barenthal, like staring at his stealth in a mirror scenes, which I don't think are very good, but the action is what it is.

1:08:14That shot right there.

1:08:15Justin Davis:That's a bad shot. They're going to, they're going to, they're going to have to fix that one at some point. Yeah. Very strange. Do you have to watch Daredevil? I recommend not. No. Okay. I haven't watched the – He just shows up in his emo for a couple minutes in a Daredevil episode. He's like, I'm not doing anything anymore. That's Judith Light from Who's the Boss. I thought it was so crazy. She's like the bad guy in this. It's crazy. But he is in that weird episode of The Bear from last week. I was just going to say that John Barenthal is such a good actor, and then they drop the surprise bear episode on us.

1:08:51He's having a, he's having a, did you watch that? Uh, yes. Yeah, dude. Incredible. I don't even want to. For some reason, his characters are converging. Yeah. Yeah. Cause he's so mean in that episode of the bear. Like it's, the ending is unbelievable. It's hard to watch. This is a little bit hard.

1:09:06Justin Davis:You're talking about the, like the, the surprise episode. Yeah. Okay. So I wait, if I'm not caught up on the bear, can I still watch it? Oh, it's kind of standalone, but you should just be caught up on the bear. Cause that shows incredible. Yeah. I never watched the most recent season of the bear. It's just, yeah, it's just, it's a, it takes place in the past. And he's like going on a, on a fun boys trip. That doesn't end up being very fun. But, um, the, uh, every John Barenthal bear thing is in the past. Well, yeah, that's true. But yeah, it's this, this has like a ton of just brutal like gun violence headshots.

1:09:39And there's like a, like a, like a sexual assault scene. There's like all kinds of like crazy stuff. it's like very un marvel and dipping into that like kind of like super violent you know movie stuff that that you know this pot this podcast always recommends to people so that's what it is it's just jarring yeah to be just be loading up the disney channel and like do you want to watch lilo and stitch or this yeah it's fun i think it's i think it was kind of a passion project

1:10:09Justin Davis:of john bernthal's he he co-wrote it he got his buddy to direct it he got his buddy to shoot it They filled it in like one city block over probably two weeks. I get the impression that like, you know, Disney was just like, okay, dude, go nuts. Like we're going to give you this tiny budget. If you want to go do this, we're not going to say no. Yeah. Yeah. I may be hallucinating it, but I actually do think that that's like the official like I'll come back to Marvel if I get to do like the actual Punisher thing. Maybe. And then I'll be your cartoon character. i think and i'm caught up at all all the marvel tv series including all the like the reason they did have to do this is that he was just sulking and brooding in this universe that's all he did and so like they had to make him the punisher again so they did have to set this up otherwise they would have to do that in a spider-man movie which would be insane yeah i mean you know they'd cut away from tom holland like smiling and swinging around and be like and then he's like staring in a mirror and punching it it's like come on like you can't do that in spider-man the whole point this you know i i don't think this is the spoiler the whole thing is he's he's choosing to move on put that my trauma in the past i'm gonna be the punisher i'm gonna take my anger out on the bad guys it's like going forward out of this he can actually just be the punisher and maybe not deal with so much psychological trauma he's almost like the juggernaut in that sense here you know when juggernaut shows up in marvel you're like well all that that character is going to do is run through walls you know like all the punishers gonna do is murder people and all the superheroes are like we don't murder people like that that's the interesting thing the simple interesting thing about punishers so they set that up all right mark you said you have a show and tell oh yeah yeah i do so uh i you know i love new tech i love new hardware you know official hardware and so uh i i happen to be sitting at my desk when one of my uh co-workers was like the steam controller pre-orders just went live and I was like okay I'll go ahead and try to get in there and it was the whole like kind of a nightmare scenario where I'm just clicking continue over and over and over and I got through and I was like expecting it to be cancelled and three days later here she is she showed up.

1:12:16Can we hear the easter egg? I tried I think it's because my computer's not on so it needs to I think it needs to be connected to Steam Big Picture mode for it to actually do it but I provided the footage for our social video yeah if you drop it it does a wilhelm scream which is fascinating figuring there's there's no speakers on it at all so it's it's doing the wilhelm scream just from the you know vibrations and and wait wait wait clarify it's not like playing a recording of

1:12:44Justin Davis:the famous wilhelm scream it just does something that sounds like not yeah so if you if you drop the controller sorry justin if you're not caught up at all no i knew i knew that but i didn't realize i just assumed it was playing an audio clip no no no there's no speakers in this on this thing at all it's it's using the vibration and haptics and stuff like that to more or less emulate the sound that's insane really cool yeah and it sounds just like it it does sound like a speaker which is cool uh but might be using a speaker to do the rumble basically because what are speakers they're just vibrating films right uh my my other reservation for it was that i thought it looked huge and it's actually not.

1:13:27So here's an Xbox controller. Yeah, I was wondering about that. They are pretty kind of you know, compares. My criticisms with it, I'll get the bat out of the way first is the face buttons are exactly like the Steam Deck. They are very very small and I have very big hands. So I don't love how small the face buttons are. They feel great, but I think that they're a little small. Also the sticks are a little too high for me in my opinion um and so unless you disable these guys which are the touchpads it's very very often that you'll be playing something like forza and you'll accidentally hit it and the camera will just go flying like crazy because it's it's simulating a mouse movement i think there's a way to disable them in the game but i i think i just kind of got used to making sure i don't you know kind of slip other than that i think it's i think it's really a great controller.

1:14:21You can probably get a screwdriver under there and just pry those off. I would never do that. The sticks are the stick drift proof new tech that they came out with where it's essentially magnets and so there's no sort of springs or anything that can make it work and have stick drift. And the best part about it for me is that it is a wireless PC controller that works 100 % of the time. so what I mean by that is this is the normal this is the Xbox Elite Core which is what I normally use for PC gaming and then it has that like Microsoft dongle that you can sync it with but like it disconnects all the time so I just end up using this wired right and I think that's how most people play their PC games where this comes with this little puck thingy and what this does is it charges the controller for one just with a magnet and it's really cool if this is sitting on the table you could just slide the controller and it'll pop up and spring up into it um and then this is also the wireless receiver so this needs to be plugged into the computer via via the usbc uh but then it could just sit there and uh i've yet to have any sort of latency i've tested it using doom the dark age is playing at you know 200 fps and it feels great i played all of my forts a time i'd say the last half of my fourths of time was was with this and it's never disconnected once and it's great um as far as the like pc functionality you know it's it's it the whole dream is supposed to be like making your pc more console like and i would not say it does that even in the slightest right like you still have to type in the pin when you when you you know when you turn your pc on it this can't turn your pc on wirelessly and then my pc is set up to automatically open in a steam big picture mode but if you don't have it like that you double press the steam button and steam big picture mode opens up there is ways to use like this is a mouse on your desktop and do all these like this is alt tab and blah blah i don't know just no i don't i don't it doesn't work that great in my opinion i i still think that the the ultimate pc setup is still going to be having to have one of these by your side there there are times where the game opens up in a weird window or whatever and you're like sitting there with your steam controller and you're like all tab on my keyboard so this does not so this does not make your uh pc a console that's apparently just impossible to do but i would say my my official recommendation is if you have an xbox controller and you are totally fine with that and you don't really mind wired, probably don't spend your$100 on this.

1:17:14It's probably not worth it. And you'll probably find it less comfortable than an Xbox controller. But if you're looking for a really good wireless solution and you need a PC controller, then it might be worth it. That's it. That's my show and tell. Cool. I like it.

1:17:30Justin Davis:They should probably announce the price and open pre-orders for the Steam Machine. Yeah, that'd be great. Probably about time for that.

1:17:47Justin Davis:That brings us to Video Game 20 Questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Brenton S. who says I'm 41 and writing in from it's either Paducah, Kentucky or Paducah, Kentucky. Kentucky. Don't know which one. And as a long-time listener, I wanted to send in a game I think really deserves a turn on Video Game 20 Questions. And with that, let the questioning begin. That's a hint. It's funny because I'm 41 and I'm recording GameScoop right now. Coincidence? I think no. I'm just asking questions. I'm just asking questions. That's actually the theme of Video Game 20 questions. Is this a console exclusive?

1:18:28Yes. I'm just going for it. Is this game turn-based?

1:18:33Justin Davis:No. Oh. That wasn't a hint. Is it a Nintendo exclusive? Yes. Well, then it ain't turn-based. Nope. Is it exclusive to a Nintendo console that used cartridges? Yes. Ooh. Is it from a portable system? No. That's five. So, let's see. NES, Super Nintendo, 64. N64. And then Switch. And Switch. Is it exclusive to a console that had 63 or fewer bits? No. Wow. Wait, hold on. That means it could be Nintendo 64. Yeah. Oh, no. That's why I asked it that. It has to be Nintendo 64, right? No, could be Switch. I don't know how many bits the Switch has. No, no, no, because we established it wasn't a portable.

1:19:29Yeah. Okay, okay. I'm just going to presume I'm going to continue assuming it's a Nintendo 64 game, and I will apologize for phrasing my question that way. I think it's Quest 64. I think they're lying about the term based. Was this game developed or published by Nintendo? Yes. Cool. Does this game have a sequel coming out on Switch that's been announced? No. I think it's Mario Kart 64, which somehow I don't think we've ever had it. Is the characters in this game on the Smash roster? Yes. I think it's Star Fox because it doesn't have a sequel. It's a remake. Yeah. Could be Star Fox 64. So yes, in the Smash roster.

1:20:11Yep. It doesn't eliminate much, actually. Has this game been remade or is it getting a remake?

1:20:19Justin Davis:Not Star Fox. Yeah. Yes. Yes. That's 10. Ocarina of Time. Yeah. Mario 64. Majora. Majora. What? yeah for 3d oh yeah yeah they did that yeah okay set in the uh zelda universe no same question mario yes oh mario 64 no we have a i don't know if mario kart was mario 60 was mario kart remade not that i know of oh that's right i also just hate the idea that we're calling mario 64ds a remake i can't i can't why i just can't we had this discussion last week oh why was it on the show does mark sometimes i feel it's a terrible game and hold on mark hold on i'm asking a question for video game 20 questions got it okay do i get angry about this game when it's brought up no sorry do i get do i get angry about the remake when it comes up Yes.

1:21:24The remake. Super Mario 64.

1:21:27Justin Davis:Super Mario 64. Cut there. 14 questions. I was surprised this has never been picked. That's a surprise. I probably just always thought it would be too easy. It's pretty easy. What a great game. This game changed my life. This game is the reason I am a video game journalist today. Kids these days will never know games look like Super Mario world. That's what video games were. It's unbelievable how different this was when you saw Toys R Us. There was a before and after you first saw Mario 64. I still maintain that this is the best platformer ever made. I don't think any other game has nailed the things that Mario can do as far as movement and tech, but I am biased.

1:22:18I've played this game over 2 ,000 hours.

1:22:20Justin Davis:so well it's just i do like my they made mario's movement nintendo made the first 3d platformer and they got so much right the first time like pretty much everything except that camera although i didn't mind it at the time but i find it really difficult today camera's perfect yeah don't change it somebody had a good suggestion though damon they said that if if they were to do a remake of mario 64 because because one has never been made uh that that they should do a you know a classic camera slash Odyssey style. I could be okay with that. So you're going to have to do the credits without me and the victory app without me because I got to go.

1:22:58Justin Davis:Bye. Thank you so much. We're going to wrap it up there. That's all our scoops for today. That is all the scoops. I just want to remind everyone to join the new IGN Discord. There's a whole GameScoop room in there and you can chat with us. We'll be doing regular office hours and any fun stuff in there. So I'll put the link to the new IGN Discord in the description here. Hope to see you in there. And yeah, that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. So thank you, The Ghost of Sam. Thank you, Justin. Good to have you back. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Joe. We're working behind the scenes to make this episode possible.

1:23:30Justin Davis:My name is Damon. This is IGN Game Scoop. And we're out.

1:23:41Justin Davis:1995 1995 1995, changed the station. Now I can drive, now I can drive. My girl is waiting for me at home. She's moving with me, yeah, she's moving with me. She hates it when I leave her alone. I'm all she can see, I'm all she can see. Dad turned 40 that year. We got him CDs, we got him CDs His reaction was pretty severe The smithereens, the smithereens And now we're playing games in the dark How many can we get, how many can we get Not everybody has that spark No one was upset, no one was upset We drove Colorado To get me to my show It was at that girl's house The one I told you about She thought we were on a date But that was a mistake Everyone sat on the stairs all of our friends were there

1:25:15um i've been playing a game on steam i didn't get a chance to shout it out but it's called scritchy scratchy and it's about scratching off scratch tickets oh it's i mean is it no it's barely a video it's like an incremental game where eventually you get a tool that lets you like auto scratch the tickets and then you kind of like funny eventually you're making a bunch of money and buying tickets yeah i never realized that there's like youtube channels dedicated to people just buying scratchers and and scratching them and like whether they win or not it's entertaining to watch and i was like dude that's like an infinite money glitch right if you're getting the views right you're being paid to to hopefully win a million dollars one day so this is the game i don't condone gambling this is the whole game what do you but you can see he's got the auto the thing down in the corner is like automatically scratching his ticket for him and then you get upgrades to do it faster you get a bigger coin that's a very satisfying moment

1:26:13Justin Davis:yeah i was playing something called slots and done slots and daggers which is just yeah yeah like uh that's a road yeah it's okay it's i don't think it has much staying power but it's kind of I was kind of the same. I was like, oh, this might be the next what's the inscription? And I was like, it's kind of got that kind of creepier vibe. What was the PS1? What was the creepier slot machine game? I mean, I played a lot of it. I'm blanking on the name now. The one that's got PS1 pixels and you're trapped in a dungeon and you're doing slot machine stuff. Not sure. You know what I'm talking about.

1:26:50I'm not sure. Is it on PS1 or PS1 graphics? No, no, no. PS1 graphics. It's on Steam. um you would definitely know oh anyway it's gone i can't think of it the other one i was doing was gombonanza gambonanza anyway it's blotter it's blotter

1:27:08Justin Davis:but chess that one seems better that one might have more staying power that one just came out like a couple days ago right i think it's fairly new yeah i'm clover pit that's the one i was thinking of clover pit yes that's right yeah yeah i never played it i don't know i did play over pit yeah it's a pretty good game it's great this seems slots and daggers that i didn't play much yeah but yeah clover pit school gem bonanza seems better than slots and daggers but slots and daggers is a better title so what are you gonna do all right thanks everyone are we are we good yep we're good see ya okay all right bye