Game Scoop! 867: What 6 Hours of GTA 6 Really Buys Netflix

23:30However, imagine my surprise when on my catch up binge, I hear Nick joke on episode 842 during some 20 questions struggle, he said, there'll be some sicko out there playing all the old football manager games. Hell yeah. Not just playing Nick, but recording and publishing three episodes a week whilst doing so. And not just the old football manager games, but a whole host of other football and soccer management titles and arcade footy nonsense from 1992 onwards anyway thanks for the unintentional shout out

23:59Sam Claiborn:all right whoa are you transplanting all of your like your franchises from game to game like i think they actually have some sort of backwards compatibility in some of the more modern ones but whoa i wish good for you i'm glad you found your niche he didn't provide us his the name of his youtube channel or anything but i'd be happy to uh promote that but yeah he's playing through all the football manager games and uh doing videos about them on his youtube channel and some arcade footy which i believe means like uh just i don't even know what that means i guess i guess uh megaman soccer megaman soccer but not an arcade game but yeah i wish

24:39okay sam i know you've been away in kansas this week are you still playing halo yeah i mean i really can't put it down i'm loving it and i can't remember how much i've talked about it on here but that's it though so i won't go back into it but i hope people got the chance to play it and like it i know our staff is divided on it because all week i've been hearing from people like it just doesn't look like halo and it's just not my thing i'm just gonna just get out of the purple ship what's better after that that's my big new advice okay yeah and nick you're playing splatoon raiders

25:11Sam Claiborn:yeah i'm in the i'm grinding the end game and splatoon raiders once you roll credits you unlock an extra thing at the end of the game that logan tells me is the true ending of the game but achieving that true ending seems pretty brutal for an end like very un-nintendo like in terms of how difficult it is in the end game state of a splatoon raider it is sometimes you can't even see your character on screen there's so much stuff happening it's it's pretty bonkers you you like this game i i love it i did not expect to like it and like all comic-con week logan's like dude just just buy it you're gonna have a good time it's like all right all right and then in the span of two days i rolled credits on it and uh yeah now i'm just kind of in the state where i'm grinding gear and i very rarely do stuff like that in games unless it truly grabs me and it's just it it's a perfect like bite-sized game you know if you want if you only got 10 minutes you can knock out like four missions in the span of 10 minutes and it's very satisfying failure feels fine because it's like two minute long missions and so you never feel like you lose all that much whenever you fail and there's just always something happening uh and one of the i one of the things that really surprised me about this game is you know there's three different play styles that splatoon raiders introduced there's a power tank a speed tank and a gadget tank and it's all different types of gadgets and different play styles essentially and usually i kind of gravitate towards power but just for the sake of leveling i tried the other ones and they're all fun and they're all viable and speed tank is actually the best because you get to move very fast but uh yeah just a rare game where i i just think every aspect of it is so strong and uh yeah it takes the best part of splatoon 3 which is the salmon run and condense it into a single player experience we gave it a nine it's pretty high score yeah yeah i i agree with that nine you know we occasionally play Who Am I on the show?

27:05Usually at our live events. And my kids like to play Who Am I too. And I was playing it with Kingo last night and Kingo had picked for me. There's a character in Splatoon Raiders called Shiver, correct? Yeah, yes, you pick Shiver for me. I didn't get it. Not super familiar with the characters. And is it a big salmon? I don't know what is there a person or a see what is it?

27:27Sam Claiborn:Yeah, Shiver is one of the mascots. And yeah, while you're you can actually build out like a home base and one of the unlocks that you can pay to upgrade is an arcade cabinet. What? And there's like six different retro style games that you can play in. There's actually a cosmetic that's locked behind getting an A rank in all of the games. Oh my god, I need to get this now. Nintendo designed new arcade games? Yeah, they're pretty neat. They're very clever. Wow. Wow. Sam, three of them are just variations of radar scopes. Speaking of being a game to unlock more game, I finished finished Disgaea five after 60 hours.

28:06Oh, wow. You really got to last 60 hours into this guy five. I finished the story, which means I've finished about 5 % of the game. So much to do in the post game. Here's here's the thing about the Disgaea series. There's you know, five is one of my favorite games of all time. I think it's I think it's the best Disgaea game. They've made two since then. Did you know this? they made Disagaea 6 and 7. Which I ignored completely because for some reason 1 through 5 they use sprites. 2D sprites for the characters and then in 6 and 7 they switched to 3D models on the battlefield. And it lacks all the charm of the 2D sprites.

28:43Did your boycott work? Are they going back to sprites? I have not heard that they're going back to sprites. No. But I enjoyed 5 so much and I wanted more even though there is all this post game stuff. I wanted more of just the main sort of like story grind. And I'd heard I'd actually heard good things about seven that fans actually like seven. So I gave it a shot. And I'm enjoying it. I'm actually like, okay, like,

29:07Sam Claiborn:is that gonna be your gamescom game? You're playing game? It might be like, yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm starting it now. So it's probably gonna be my gamescom game. It's true that I would if if I were given the choice, I'd rather have 2d sprites, but they still use the same great to the art in like your character portraits during uh conversations and menus and all that stuff so you still get to see that they still do all these crazy over-the-top special moves it's just with 3d you know polygonal models now right but it's the setting is like ancient feudal japan which i like and the music's great and still has you know cute characters and and funny dialogue and all that so i've i've resigned myself to accepting the 3d models and just i get to play a new a disgaea game that's new to me.

29:53Who owns these now? Is it Stega or Atlas? Well, it's Nipponichi is like the developer and I think they're the publisher too.

29:59Sam Claiborn:Wow. Okay. I think NIS, right? Is that what Nipponichi stands for? Okay. Nipponichi Software America publishes them. So nothing on the horizon in the Disgaea series. This is the latest. Well, they just put out a new game called Disgaea Mayhem, which is a Dynasty Warriors like, but it's all, I hear it's just fine. Whatever. not a turn-based strategy game you know i've only ever played the original disgaea and because i do love tactical strategy games like this like tactics rpgs like final fantasy tactics and i really liked it but then when i discovered that you can go into your items and those are their own dungeons i was like i think this is too much for me like is it do i do i need to do that in order to get far in the game or can i just experience the story and i'm good to go because but I want to give this another shot.

30:48Well, you're going to, you're just playing through it. If you were just playing through the story missions, you're going to hit brick walls where it's just going to be really tough.

30:56Sam Claiborn:But if you gotcha, that's, that's fine. But like finding the side stuff that I, but I don't need to go into my basic sword at the beginning of the game and descend down to level 100, right? Okay, cool. You can replay any previous story mission. You could grind that way if you want. Do you recommend the first Disguide? Which one should I start with? If I, if you had to choose one. I think five is the best one. plus all of the previous playable characters are all in there as just free DLC and Disgaea 5 complete. I would just go with that. Gotcha. The 3D cell shading looked pretty good when we were just looking at it there.

31:29It doesn't look like a style. It's just not the same as the 2D. Sure. I'll be the first to understand that complaint.

31:37Sam Claiborn:I ran into that situation with Tactics Ogre Reborn. I think that is a better version of the game just in terms of quality of life improvements. But man, I really miss like if you compare like the character portraits with the original like super Famicom ones It just is like man these these had style back in the day like they look so good You know we got away from Final Fantasy or sorry to Final Fantasy Castlevania being sprite based and We've come so far around to the other side that I barely even expect it to look that way anymore Even though there are games that are Final Fantasy sorry Castlevania likes that are still pixelated but the new Castlevania we're just ignoring it now I mean I don't know it used to be a big downside that it looks cool the new Castlevania is made by people who made a pixel on Castlevania game it drives me crazy that's what is that in September or October New Castlevania I want to say October 15th die monster what is a man.

32:38A miserable little pile of secrets. But enough talk. How about you? When we were kids, summer meant freedom. No homework, no teachers, no school. And as adults, summer still means freedom thanks to Mint Mobile's summer sale. Right now, all of Mint's plans are$15 per month, even unlimited. So free yourself from big wireless and their gimmicks and gotchas and switch to Mint for high-speed data and coverage on the T-Mobile 5G network. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right with premium wireless for 15 bucks a month. All plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network.

33:15You can even bring your current phone and your number. Choose from three, six, or 12-month plans and say goodbye to a monthly bill. Ditched overpriced wireless with Mint Mobile. It's so easy. To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com slash gamescoop. That's mintmobile.com slash gamescoop. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com slash gamescoop. That's it. There's no catch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12 months. Plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only.

33:48Greater than 50 gigs may slow when network is busy. Includes up to 20 gigs hotspot. Capable device required. Availability, speed, and coverage varies. CementMobile.com. When I'm traveling, I find that learning a few real phrases in the local language really changes the experience in a good way. If you're traveling this summer, here's a real travel hack. Don't wait until you land to start learning the language. Instead, try Babbel. Even just 10 minutes a day with Babbel can help you start having real conversations in as little as three weeks. It helps you learn phrases you'd use ordering dinner, asking for directions, or talking with locals.

34:20Lessons are quick, practical, and built by more than 200 language experts. They have interactive dialogue and even podcasts. It's all designed to get you speaking quickly and confidently. Babbel fits into your schedule, a coffee break, a commute, or a few minutes before bed. Babbel's award-winning app has sold over 25 million subscriptions and is backed by a 14-day money-back guarantee. If you've got summer travel coming up, now's the time to start so you can actually use what you learn on the trip. Right now, Babbel is offering listeners up to 60 % off. Go to babbel.com slash gamescoop. That's babbel, B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash gamescoop for up to 60 % off.

34:57Rules and restrictions may apply. Okay. Extracurricular activities. We all saw Spider-Man, correct? Loved it. Yes. We all liked it. Yeah. Yeah. I liked it quite a bit. I liked it so much. Corrado on our video team just told me it's his favorite superhero movie of all time. It's his favorite overall MCU movie. I think I'm not going to go that far. Although if I had a hard think about it, I don't know what I would pick. I used to like the Winter Soldier. Is that still my favorite? That's the problem, right? Yeah. I don't know if they're good anymore. So just the thing that really grabbed me about this was what I was kind of expecting it to going in.

35:34And that's that it felt more like my era of comic books than anything. Because it had characters from all over Marvel finally showing up for very little reason other than they're in New York City. And just, you know, Spider-Man is just around them and interacting with them. And the one that is on a spoiler is, you know, Punisher, just driving around doing Punisher stuff. It's really funny. Like, it's just like, that's what Spider-Man felt like back then. And they're not good matches for each other's styles. Right. And when they're in the same comic together, it's just funny. And that's how it worked in this movie.

36:07Oh, great. Yeah, this is this isn't a criticism. You know, when I saw that from the trailer when Punisher was in it, I was like, it's weird to have Punisher in a PG-13 movie, especially coming after after. What was this short one last one last kill? Yeah, that's like so crazy violent. I feel like Spider-Man would have a problem with how Punisher handles.

36:27Sam Claiborn:Totally, but that's how it works in the comics. Punisher kills a bunch of drug dealers, and then him and Spider-Man have a little caper about stopping Obgoblin. It's crazy. Here, he's played for comic relief, but it also works. It totally works. I don't know how they go back to the hardcore Punisher style after this. yeah i don't see bernthal holland and zendaya are having just a wild summer in terms of just like dude their bank the that bank they're making has got to be nuts you imagine it's still not over for zendaya and i guess the uh um verdict's out on whether or not spider-man might show up in doomsday i didn't say because i had to pee so bad at the 45 minute mark that as soon as the credits hit I booked it out of the theater because I know that there's a post credits thing that is show you know okay Spider-Man will return in Doomsday no I didn't say that but let's talk about the postcard thing let's let's get into some spoilers I think everyone has probably already seen this because this is the like the biggest box office of all time yeah probably people don't like apparently us bringing up the numbers but it's true statistically you might have seen this movie by now yeah so the post that's actually me I've seen the movie 900 million times we'll spend about five minutes talking about the spoilers yeah okay so nick you know how ned has like a spider-man tracker app right but yeah yeah they showed just the app and they're like locating him and then they show that oh spider-man's out in space yeah he's not on earth i i looked up the scene afterwards i was like okay what did i miss but spider-man's been in space before because he fought danos on a planet somewhere yeah he's been in space before so that's all happened but in the comics when he's out in space that's when encounters the symbiote that's why it's confused wait i don't think you can show this

38:19Sam Claiborn:oh that was a great moment a real scoop i love it um i love i love the tenacity joe it's great we love the speed of the b-roll yeah but no but i think you bring up an interesting point which is like is this hinting at doomsday is this hinting at you know what is it called secret war where secret wars secret wars and then or is it just hinting at spider-man fighting a symbiote in space like it could be all of those things you know but it's probably just that he's like he's like thor had to pick him up on the way to fight doomsday dr doom someone can correct me i think in the actual Secret Wars comic he was in space and that's when he encountered the symbiote.

39:05That's right. He's fighting another planet. Not Doomsday but Secret Wars next year. Bring the symbiote back to Earth and then finally they can get Venom in a Spider-Man movie. Yeah.

39:16Sam Claiborn:That's going to be the movie that makes a billion dollars for Marvel. Like one opening weekend. If they get MCU Spidey with Venom in one movie it's like alright that's going to make a trillion dollars. If they get that movie They get the dance scene right, right? They have to get that dance scene right. Yeah, they had to do the dance scene. Which is crazy, because in Hollywood, aren't all things possible through money? How have they not gotten Venom and Spider-Man together since Spider-Man 3? It's so crazy. I know, it's funny. Marvel and Sony have to do that Ryu and Captain America handshake from Marvel vs.

39:57Sam Claiborn:Capcom splash screen. like they say what if we set aside our differences to make one trillion dollars yeah all right just this once we really want madam web that's what we have before venom let's take us let's take a breather with madam web um i uh so then the other spoilery thing that was worth bringing up is that even though there was an x-men crossover i don't think it paid off in any way that's going to help with x-men or doomsday for now because it just seemed confusing like it i kept on expecting i I mean, it just they just basically had like a Mad Lib psychic character. You didn't need to.

40:33Like you didn't need it didn't need to be Jean Grey. Jean Grey, as far as I know, she's not famous for having a sister that she had to save from the Spider-Man cops. Like none of that really checked out for me. But it would have been cool if like at the end it was like, you know, all of a sudden Professor X is realizing there's like two only two mutants on Earth and she's one of them. like something like that would have been a really cool tease of the X-Men universe, right? Yeah. I also think, I think they flat out said before it was released that Sadie Sink is not Jean Grey. Yeah, I love that shit.

41:05They just lied. Yeah. Like, and I get it. Like, you want to like hold things back, but tiptoe around it. Don't just lie. Yeah. I mean, maybe they're out. Who's Jean Grey? Jean Grey is actually, what is her name? Fumke Janssen or something like that? Yeah. That's actually Jean Grey. Yeah, yeah. 313 or whatever it's going to be. It's interesting that going into this movie, I thought, well, obviously MJ and Ned are going to remember Peter Parker. But that's not really how it plays out. MJ doesn't. Ned does through a handshake, which I think is a little too easy. Yeah, it's very sweet. It is sweet.

41:46I also like Tom Holland's four years of just being Spider-Man as a really good plot device to get him exhausted but also the city's cleaned up like that's really cool as a premise and then i really and then obviously that's the video game i want to play right and then i i meant like hulk was a little bit strange in this movie too by the way but um again i like how they're all in it though i think it's kind of a sad update for bruce banner yeah yeah not so like he was smart hulk and then he's been he's got his inhibitor and he's like uh he's a professor and he's working hard but now nope he's just he goes rage rages out as hulk again and he's all like sad and worried that He hurt everyone and then that's it.

42:23He doesn't get any sort of like happy wrap up. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. He when they're dragging him away, he's like, what did I hurt you, buddy? Yeah. I mean, it's kind of looking like Grandpa Ruffalo. So how many times more times is he going to play the Hulk? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.

42:40Sam Claiborn:Didn't he have a son or something like that? And yes, there was a backyard barbecue scene with him and the kid at the end of maybe she Hulk series. Gotcha. Are we brushing that aside? What's actually canon now in MCU? I'm so kind of removed from it. I'll watch the latest Marvel nowadays, but they've got to be nuts. And then now that we're moving away from the spoilers, I did think that it was cool that Tom Holland looks like his age. He looks like he kind of aged with Spider-Man the right way. And he looks young, but he looks like he's interacting with kids who just graduated college. I love all that.

43:17Like it's, it's like, it's like the best part of the, you know, shows, uh, movies like Harry Potter, when they just grow up, you know, and like they grow up the same age as they're the people are. I just think that's cool. They did that well. Sometimes it's done very terribly and it was done well here. I thought as soon as they introduced Jean Grey, then I thought for sure she would make MJ and Ned remember. Yes. No, they don't do that either. And where is, so what, what's the end state for Jean Grey? I guess she's just in a park. He's on a bus heading upstate, probably maybe towards some mansion.

43:51But that's the thing. Like if there was any if there was any implication that X-Men were involved in this universe, it would have to be that they're being injected from another universe. Right. Because that's what they've been showing. It's like Beast is like on a satellite at the end of the Marvels. And like, you know, the Doomsday trailers are showing all this stuff. I don't know. It's just it's confusing to me.

44:12Sam Claiborn:I mean, they had a very strange. quick aside in regards to gene's power if you can't if you want more of gene's power and how she kind of like teleports from person to person really weird aside uh my boss here at igan his name's gabe he goes you gotta watch this denzel 90s flick called fallen it's about a new york detective who's chasing a serial killer and the serial killer is revealed to be a demon that hops from body to body based on touch and it is literally the same exact thing i was like oh my gosh whoever the screenwriter must have just watched fallen because this is a one-to-one of how this power works it's kind of neat so if you're looking for more of that kind of thing and it's a pretty solid like seven ripoff uh what we're checking out on netflix that's great that's a really good shout too there's some really i mean since in the middle of a spider-man movie you get a little bit numb but there's some really good shots like that like the whole there's a top-down neighborhood full of people where that hopping was happening you can see and everybody's choreographed acting it.

45:12And then in the end credit scroll, they show the people as a big block of names that were jumped in. I think they call them the inhabited. Yeah. And it's dozens of people, maybe a hundred people. Which I'm assuming they're like dancers. Yeah, exactly. And I think that you could probably rewind and pause and see a lot more happening in this movie because when you see that inhabited reel, it's like, whoa, that's more than I feel like I saw. Yeah. I mean, think of the choreography of like, how would the next person know to be inhabiting, how they figured that out. I want to watch some behind the scenes stuff on that.

45:47Definitely smart stuff. Like these are some smart filmmakers and the whole movie just felt stupid and clever and the right poles, you know. His final fight with the hand is great. That's a great fight scene. Yeah. And then just seeing like the Punisher go against the Hulk was so awesome. Yeah. It's like one of those things, I just can't believe we're seeing this in a big movie, The Punisher against the Hulk. It's awesome. All right, that's Spider-Man. Brand new day. We like that a lot. I also saw Minions and Monsters. It was fine. What is that? It's the new Minions movie. Oh, Minions. Which I had never seen any other Minions movie.

46:25I think like most people, I find them pretty obnoxious. But I had heard that this one is actually good, and it has monsters in it, and I like monsters and kaiju, so I went to see it, but it was just fine. Okay.

46:37Sam Claiborn:it was just did you watch it solo or with your kids now you got to explain your kids what cthulhu is like what is cthulhu dad and how was it's a little bit of a misnomer it's called minions and monsters but really you know the minions are they're they're wandering the earth looking for a um evil master because you know the sam the minions come from the despicable me movies right there's a there's the scientist they help out right yeah who is Steve Carell. Okay. Gru. But in this one, this is before that, they're wandering the lands looking for a new master and they end up in Hollywood in the 1920s, I think.

47:14And then they just get sucked into the movie industry and they just make movies. And then one of them has a passion to make his own movie and he wants to make a monster movie. And it's like halfway through, they introduce monsters. Okay. A little bit of a misdemeanor. It looks like a little bit of an honesty. So it's a love letter to cinema. I mean, kind of. I mean, there's some good movie gags in there as well. This is a direct odd to see parody right here um the uh ouch that looks really painful um i watched 15 minutes of three different movies on a plane and that's because southwest needs to sort out their shit they don't have screens on their planes you're supposed to use your phone i'm fine with that for like united when that happens but southwest just doesn't have the internet infrastructure to do this so i watched some of masters of the universe okay it's pretty good pretty good i want to watch more of it i Two and a half stars out of five, according to Nick Lamont.

48:04Yeah, yeah. I'll finish that up, though. And then, did you review it, Nick? No, no, no. I just have it on my letterbox.

48:13Sam Claiborn:Yeah, okay. I'm pretty diligent about my letterbox reviews. And I watched a little bit of Mild Ass, which was a pretty funny start to it. Mild Ass? Yeah, that's like a body swap movie. It's like a woman meets her older, but it's an Aubrey Plaza vehicle, where it's like she kind of like time leaps, but it's like drug related where she talks to her young self. It's funny. It's funny. One more time. It's called mild ass. Yeah. That's what it's called. I think the pause that you're adding between mild and ass is really adding a lot more. M-I-L-D. Oh, mild. No, my. Oh, mild ass. My space, old space, ass.

48:53This is a great conversation. Yeah. and then I watched all of Pretty Woman which I've never seen before which my wife apparently knew every single line of and it was great. Wow that's interesting. Pretty Woman holds up today for someone who's never seen it before. I thought it was pretty funny. Yeah He's just like Richard Gere Oh man talk about a person who kind of disappeared right after the universal rumors that were completely funny and funny. He was in Chicago in 2004 maybe yeah yeah Julia Roberts that was a long time ago that was just last year Resident Evil 4 is coming out next year House of the Dragon finale is on Sunday I liked the last episode so spoilers for the last episode of House of the Dragon wait wait Nick have you seen it yeah I have I assume Sam has seen it yeah I'm loving this show I love Zombie Sunfire coming back and Aegon just crazily shouting as this zombie sunfire burns the army.

50:01That was great. That was great. Yeah. So was that dragon just sleeping it off? I think so. Okay. That's fine. Yeah, just regenerating, but not half of its face. Yeah, half of its face. Everything's magic. I like that. Are you guys watching the new season of Sugar? No, is it? I mean, should we? It's killing. Okay. Yeah. like it's absolutely fantastic i saw like it had like i was like i don't know if this will make sense for me to watch because it had a big twist right now yeah that was already but no they work in the twist into a new noir season in a really cool way and i was like well the reason i started watching is because it had like this incredible meta scores around like everybody's like loving it okay and so um it's just it's just mid-season right now so it's like people haven't done their their recap reviews but it is so good and colin farrell is so good it's it's just been a killer season so okay i will watch that i have i'm on there i will start sugar i'm on oh so you haven't seen season one nick okay oh my god yeah you yeah it's very good you will you will like it a scoop gem i'm on record record saying colin farrell might be our best actor working today yeah that's what that's what uh my wife was saying too just like so impressive all the time This is the same person as in Penguin?

51:14Yes. Yeah.

51:18And we're not going to dwell on this too much, but I'm on book five of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Nice. I'm like pages away from the end of the first book, and I'm confused because I'm like, there's no way any of this is getting wrapped up. Yeah. You just have to go right into book two. Yeah, just go into book two. I do appreciate now, I'm on level six, which this isn't a spoiler. They talk about this a lot. Level six is the hunting grounds. that's where it's going people other like tourists are in the dungeon now that are hunting the crawlers but I appreciate that it's like level 3 where it's not a complicated level it's just kind of a it's a jungle like level where book 3 is this really complicated train system book 4 is this a bubble wrap world where every bubble is it's own like 4 quadrant area it's really complicated now we're just back to just a regular jungle with some towns so I appreciate that Well, maybe I'll get to play the pin this weekend because they might have it at California Extreme.

52:17We also have an email from Greg in London who says, long time listener, first time writing, huge fan of the pod. You guys do a great job saying that you have ruined my life recently. After hearing a reference a few episodes back to Dungeon Crawler Carl, I thought I'd give it a listen and add the audiobook series to my listening long list. I have now listened to over 100 hours of the series just in July. I'm about to start book seven. It has become totally all consuming. this is both a strong recommendation and a strong warning to everyone out there in scoop nation i love that it is that good well thanks for propagating that name i think damon you were the person that brought that up i mean i know justin was into it too justin mentioned it a year or two ago and then i just got into it earlier this year i mean i got all my friends that know anything about games reading it and now there's kind of an impromptu book club happening around me in my life which is always a it's like it's just like the odyssey or spider-man it's like pop culture is like so unified right now it's kind of weird i also just love the story you know it's the author just he self-published it during the pandemic and then it yes slowly built and took off just like i love the story of the director of obsession first feature film made for less than a million dollars i love that stuff and i can confirm it's just like every airport i've been to and i've been to a lot recently it's just right there in the airport bookstore it's like good good good for the author like that's that's a lot of money another email from ryan from the toronto area It says, like Damon and many others recently, I've jumped into Dungeon Crawler Carl.

53:41In the last episode, I was shocked to hear Damon was already on book four. Here I am, I'm still on book one. Again, I'm on book five now. We have a toddler and I get a bit of gaming in each night for an hour or two once the baby's down. I try to read a couple chapters in bed each night, but find I end up doing less or none at all because I'm tired. So my question for Damon and the group is, how do you guys balance gaming and reading? What's a typical day or week look like for those two hobbies amongst all your other responsibilities? As much as I want to read, I find I still prioritize gaming.

54:09So I'm curious if you all have the same internal battles I do. Well, Ryan, I'm listening to the audio book. So it's a little bit different, but I have a long commute. I have an hour long commute each way to the IGN office. So I'm listening for two hours a day, 10 hours a week in my car. Exercise time is really good for listening to. I listen to podcasts and books then, but I can't fall asleep unless I'm reading. So like I usually it helps me to read something boring, unfortunately. But that's just like part of my routine. So video games before bed, like absolutely wake me up. Like, so I just can't, I used to be able to just play games until 3am and pass out, but I have to go to bed because I have to wake up early.

54:45And so I have a routine. And so I go through books that way. And then if I'm really into a book, unfortunately it just makes me stay up late. That does happen.

54:56Sam Claiborn:I typically read in bed. I try to do no screen time before bed as much as possible and try to get away from using my phone before I fall asleep. So I just use a like Kindle basically and just kind of lay in bed and read a chapter and then that's I try to limit myself to one chapter that way. It's like a nice clean stop point But yeah, I used to have to commute way further So I'd do more audiobooks back in the day, but now it's a little bit harder for me And then a vacation I love having a book exactly like dungeon color carl because yeah I do like like when you're jet lagged especially like it's really helpful to read instead of doing anything else So you can try to get back on your schedule without a bunch of light in your eyes and stuff.

55:35So that's been nice. And then reading on the beach or like I just spent the past week visiting my family and there's a nice porch, you know, in the countryside with a beautiful view. And just reading on that is much better than being on my phone or listening to music or anything. It's just it's a very unplugged state to be in. My wife is a voracious reader. She's always reading. She blazes through books and she looks down on me for listening to an audio book. Yeah. I totally get that it's not the same thing. I don't think that I'm reading a book by listening to an audio book. However, like I've said before, I think Dungeon Crawler Carl is a special case scenario.

56:10The narrator, Jeff Hayes, is incredible. It's its own experience listening to those books. Well, you know that the Hatfields have been our book encouragers because Kim influenced what my wife is reading right now, which is the series. What's the series called? I don't know. It's a fantasy series that's definitely going to be turned into an HBO series. That's all I hear about. Yeah. Because that came directly from y 'all. Then there was this thing where she was like, well, I don't know whether to go. She's listening to the audio book of a current one and reading a prequel. That's what's happening right now.

56:49I hear a lot about it, but I try to be like, well, if I'm going to read these, I don't want to know too much. But then I'm like, I'm not. Insurance isn't one size fits all. And shopping for it shouldn't feel like squeezing into something that just doesn't fit. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressive's Name Your Price tool for years. With the Name Your Price tool, you tell them what you want to pay, and they show you options that fit your budget. Enough hunting for discounts, trying to calculate rates, and tinkering with coverages. Maybe you're picking out your very first policy. Or maybe you're just looking for something that works better for you and your family.

57:23Either way, they make it simple to see your options. No guesswork, no surprises. Ready to see how easy and fun shopping for car insurance can be? Visit Progressive.com and give the Name Your Price tool a try. Take the stress out of shopping and find coverage that fits your life, on your terms. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Look, we've all been there. You've got the angle, but you still lose the trade. In competitive gaming, milliseconds aren't just a stat. They're the difference between a Trophy and a GG next. That's why Logitech G just changed the game with the new Pro X2 Super Strike.

58:02This features revolutionary hits technology, the haptic inductive trigger system. By swapping traditional switches for magnetic sensors, it gives you a massive 30 millisecond advantage. Under the hood, you're getting a Hero 2 sensor pushing 44 ,000 DPI and an 8K polling rate, all in an ultra-lightweight 61-gram chassis. If you're serious about climbing the ranks, this is the weapon of choice. Stop playing fair and start playing faster. Go to logitechg.com and use code GAMESCOOP at checkout to save 25 % off Logitech G products. Exclusions apply, non-stackable. Grab the Superstrike today. The winning click is finally here.

58:53Thank you.

59:24Sam Claiborn:Wayfair, every style, every home.

59:37Okay, before we jump into 20 questions, do we need to address Espionage Gate? Oh, God. Well, I thought it was interesting because I think in your brain, you were like, this is an anti-terrorism game or it's kind of a military conflict-y game. I mean, Kiefer Sutherland is the head of an anti-terrorism unit in 24. 24 was the game. He's always trying to stop a bomb from going off. He's not like sneaking into, disguising himself as another person, sneaking into another country. He's not doing that. And then the counterpoint is they literally are just working in an office with a screen spying on people.

1:00:14And the whole game takes place in that office. Yeah, yeah, sure. Well, so here's two things I would say. but you're but you're you were thinking of the bond type of espionage where it's like he's not he's not a spy i wasn't thinking that you were you were trying to determine if it was a bond game so even if i had said yes i don't think it would have helped you i wouldn't i don't think it would have to get to 24.

1:00:34Sam Claiborn:us knowing the ant us having a yes to espionage would not have helped us in that situation what i would have preferred is that we and we asked the question is this a vampire game and then you would have said kind of and then we would have got to keefer sutherland i thought you're gonna say what we would have preferred is if the game was bionic commando always prefer that wait instead of espionage i should have asked has anyone in this game ever played big boss from metal gear salt yeah totally totally yeah was that only in the the setup to five the pre-only in ground zeros and phantom pain yeah he's in phantom pain also okay okay um the The other thing is that 24 was a 2000s era game.

1:01:17I think it ran the bulk of that decade. If you went back and read everything that was written about 24, all the reviews and all the articles, how many times do you think the word espionage would have popped up? I don't know. Maybe when they were reviewing this game, they brought up tactical apps espionage action as the genre. It's the third-person shooters. You didn't get there. I don't think you knew it was a licensed game, but I don't remember now. If you had known it was a TV show from the 2000s. 2000s then it would have been lost prison break or lost came up but that didn't help us before like that's you you think that licenses are going to help us or i think that but they don't because i didn't know there was a reservoir dogs game that's there shouldn't be it's like a bernstein bears paradox for me i'm like what that came out a real quick google search of 24 the game from

1:02:11Sam Claiborn:GameStop, its little splash page, and Google says, step into the thrilling world of espionage. Oh, my God. Okay, all right. I submit. I submit. This is great. You guys win. Okay. The espionagers win. And that brings us to this week's Video Game 20 questions. It comes from Kasher. It says, I have a fantastic suggestion for Video Game 20 questions. I'm going to be a freshman at NYU this year, majoring in game design. And my submission, Redacted, is the game I dedicate my passion for being a game designer to. I'm a huge fan of the podcast. I hope that you all will discuss a game I help create in the future.

1:02:53And with that, let the questioning begin. Any clues there? This game is the game he dedicates his passion for being a game designer to. Okay.

1:03:02Sam Claiborn:All right. I got to burn one question. Is this an espionage and or military game? No. no and i know i know it's not well definitive no um what if you know his passion for game design came from how bad this game was like i need to correct correct the universe i need to write things right so if that was the case it might be bonanza

1:03:32is this game from the 70s 80s or 90s no okay that was just a joke that's why nick laughed at it. That's why we don't need emails. That was good. That was good. That one got me. Okay, so it's from the 2000s, or from the distant future.

1:03:47Sam Claiborn:And not an espionage or military game. Yeah, that's great. That's super helpful. And at the same time, not helpful at all. Based on our previous experience. So let's do is this on? Is this did this appear on a PlayStation system in any manner? Yes. What was that PlayStation system originally? Did the game originally appear on an even numbered playstation system yes two or four and probably a four if they're just going to be a freshman in nyu it's important to remember that i'm now getting to a point where i was like okay the ps4 might actually be people's first console nowadays and i'm not saying that's the case with this one might be people's favorite console too um let's see is this game made in japan no that's five uh a lot of first-party playstation 4 titles are europe right is this just horizon even if it's the start of it or in the middle of it is this just part of a series no wow that's unusual not a series okay is this a ps2 game no okay ps4 standalone game I'm thinking and it maybe is on other systems I'm thinking it's an indie have we asked if it's exclusive to PS4?

1:05:09no go for it

1:05:11Sam Claiborn:is this a multi-platform game? it is today okay so it was ported nice platform exclusive at the time now it's around maybe it's like Ghost of Tsushima or that era of PC, PS4 because there's a lot of those ports Wait, so, and that would still be fine because he said not in Japan, right? So we want a Western developer like Ghost. So God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn. Do we know if it's published by Sony? No, we do not. We don't need, we need to know that still. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Is it published by Sony? Yes. Okay. I think it's got to be one of these PS4 games then. Like one of those ported to Steam games.

1:05:53Sam Claiborn:So let's see. Did this get a port to PC at some point? Yes. That's 10. There's not that many games that are like that. There's Horizon. Was this? Right? There's Last of Us. Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, Last of Us. And not a part of a series, so it's standalone. How weird is it that all those are Western developer games, too? Like, Sony's stock of games is so... I wonder if it's Days Gone. That's the only one that I know got ported to PC that doesn't have a sequel. That's the only one that stands out to me as, like, not having a sequel. Days Gone. not yeah it has to be not part of a series yeah that's it what else is there does this game feature freakers damon no okay so it's not days gone what i can't wait maybe i'm not no yeah i mean happy horizon can't be ghost Returnal?

1:06:54Returnal, because its sequel isn't really a sequel. It's not really a series. Yeah. That's good. Man, you're really coming up with these fast. I need more coffee. Is this a...

1:07:06Sam Claiborn:Well, it's a roguelike, right? Yeah, that one's a roguelike. I'm just trying to think of anything else that could be in this bucket, but that's the only one that stands out. Yeah, I mean, is it roguey? Is it roguey? No. Oh, man. I just don't know. Are we replacing roguelike with rogui? Yeah, rogui. Because I don't know when to use light or light. Roguelike or light, yeah. Smart. You heard it here first. This is the new Metroidvania term. It's going to be all the rage. Yeah, exactly. Metroid is a better term, too.

1:07:42Okay, we're missing something really obvious here. But it can't be like a sly or something like that. Oh, what about dreams?

1:07:51Sam Claiborn:I don't think Dreams is on PC though. I don't think so either, but like it's going to be something that well, yeah, what the PC usually indicates it was successful, right? Yeah, there's like only a handful of them too. That's what I thought. What about Spider-Man? It's definitely part of the series. Part of the series. Let's see, maybe we can distill it down to like game. Maybe, maybe Heavenly Sword or something like that. that was like I don't think of that has a port or no PC port on Heavenly Sword definitely not no shoot do you play as a human in this game no no okay so like an astrobot type knack has never been ported as far as I know I mean I know Oh, yeah.

1:08:48Sam Claiborn:Not a human. PlayStation 4. So you have animals in humans, robots. Should we eliminate two of those or one of those categories? Yeah, go for it. Well, how many categories do you want to get rid of? We can say humanoid shaped. Well, I don't know if that counts for robots. Are you an animal in this game? No. Are you a robot? Yes, that's 15. Shoot. Okay, we play as a robot. Oh, what's it? Detroit Become Human. It's got to be. Did Sony publish that? Yeah, Sony did. What? Really? Does this game feature narrative alternate choices based on button prompts and QTEs? Yes. You've defined the game. Now just say its name.

1:09:42Is this game Detroit Become Human? Yes, it is. Detroit Become Human. The game that Casher dedicates his passion for being a game designer to. What did the studio, like, what are they doing now? They're making that Star Wars Eclipse. Eclipse. Okay, so this is the Heavy Rain people, right?

1:10:01Sam Claiborn:They also apparently made a game as a service, like, two years ago that just got canceled. But I never even knew about that, so it's crazy. Interesting. Okay. Okay. So Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls, Detroit become human, and now Star Wars Eclipse. Was Indigo Prophecy like a TV show tie-in one? No. No, it's just its own thing. What am I thinking? I'm thinking of an Xbox game. It was called Fahrenheit in Europe. Yeah. Fahrenheit. That's so foreign over there. They're like, what does it even mean? It has an extra zero sometimes. It's crazy. Yeah, I like this game. I think it's pretty solid.

1:10:39Sam Claiborn:I think it's definitely one of the best games that this studio made. I think I prefer this over Heavy Rain. I think it's their most successful game. Okay. It's crazy just looking 10, 15 years back how sometimes games look like they were just made by a slightly less funded developer now. Like, there's graphical changes. Yeah, they don't look that much worse, right? Yeah, yeah. Like, especially the voice, facial animations and stuff. Yeah, this is 2018 PS4, and then it came to PC the year later. I really appreciate I didn't know that did you know that Nick that this was on PC yeah yeah a year later oh yeah that seems weird well you did a good job guessing it because I wouldn't have done that that seems like it would have been a big deal at the time yeah that's why it's like kind of blowing my mind like I didn't think that it was that feels like a Horizon Zero Dawn era thing right they do that five years after the game what what happens if you fail pouring the water during the QTE i do i think this game is a little bit goofy in terms of some of its subject matter but apart from that i really do appreciate how it does how it handles the like different paths for um choice in the game because once you like roll credits on the game where you get an ending it shows you different paths that you can take and shows you like the first step in getting into that path so it's like oh wait how do i get over there and then it kind of gives you a little nudge in the right direction, which I really appreciate.

1:12:04Sam Claiborn:And there's some really cool capture stuff. Plus, you got, what's his name? Mr. Krabs in this as one of the cops. What's his name? Mr. Krabs, voice actor. From Spongebob? What's Mr. Krabs? Clancy Brown. There you go. Clancy Brown. Well, nicely job. Yeah, we got one. It's been a while. Thank you for the suggestion, Casher. Hope you have a great year at NYU coming up. and that is good luck yeah seriously have a great semester that's all the scoops that we have for you this week thank you to sam and nick thank you to jobert working behind the scenes to make this episode possible my name is damon this is ij and game scoop and we're out

1:12:54how long do you think it's going to take me to figure out a game per per year for us It didn't take me that long. All right. I'll book myself out. Although I think it's interesting with something that we'll discover there are, there are down years where you're like, yeah, I guess it's this game. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was already talking to my mom a little bit actually about like, what, you know, do you remember me being around games at this year, this year, you know, like certain things like this Pac-Man, I was like, I'm pretty sure I played that when I was three and she was like, yeah, that, that was at this person's house and you were three.

1:13:27Spider-Man scores biggest first week in box office history. Crazy, crazy.

1:13:33Sam Claiborn:I don't think it's still going to help doomsday though. Yeah. I mean, we're, Alan and I were talking about the Spider-Man and Batman are immortal. Everything else is like, that's fine. I mean, Spider-Man had those amazing years that were not amazing, right? They can screw it up. I mean, very true. Andrew Garfield Garfield. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe those did well at the box office and I don't remember it being that way, but they felt a lot like the bad Batman movies in the nineties to me. The first one did well enough to get a sequel, right? Yeah. I like, I think it performed, but it, their quality varies.

1:14:08Sam Claiborn:Right. But I believe they perform in the box office regardless. I mean, getting Avengers to be the most popular thing on the planet with the Avengers they chose is shocking, right? Cause Captain America and is, and Thor and stuff are not the popular Marvel comics of my German. And wasn't before. either as Iron Man. I know. Yeah. I used to complain about it in GameScoop. I'm like, why should I care about these characters? I like the X-Men and Spider-Man later on in it. Getting us to care about them was the trick. It was because they wrote good storylines and they got us to care about them. It was cool.

1:14:41My garage is loaded with arcade machines right now from other people because we're bringing them all to California Extreme tonight.

1:14:53that's another thing I forgot to bring up you know at the end of the movie they don't really wrap up damage control like damage control is still there and still gonna be hunting Jean Gray and now probably be hunting spider-man so yeah it's interesting she's supposed to be super powerful too and you can see why with the jumping but like professor x is good at finding other mutants right and it's like I was really hoping they'd set up like a little thing like she's like I can sense other people like me out there. You know, that'd be cool. Because we know there's one other mutant, right? It's Kamala Khan.

1:15:23Right? Right. And Beast. Yeah. Well, yeah, they've hit into his bubble for that one.

1:15:29Sam Claiborn:But literally, like, the weekend after this movie, they're like, by the way, we cast Emma Frost, we've cast Cyclops, and we've cast... I'm like, all right, well, the cat's out of the bag now. I didn't look at any of those actors. They're all young, so it's actually going to be, like, a young... They're all young, yeah. And Cyclops is one of them. I saw the Emma Frost one. Correct. Yeah. Crazy. That's crazy. So Jean Grey and Cyclops are now cast. Are they going to fucking recast Wolverine? Apparently Indy Navarrete has also been in talks with Marvel too. For what? From Obsession. No one knows, but she says that she would love to play Mystique.

1:16:02Mystique. Good. And we missed all the morning meetings. We did a good job, everybody. Success. Success. Have good weekends. Yeah, have good weekends, everybody. Enjoy. I'll let you know if Dungeon Crawler Carl is at CAX. Cool. Bye.