#397 | Nothing Seems To Fill This Place

15:39Colin Moriarty:That's where I lost it. that's what i heard what is what do you think is gonna happen i i doubled over man it's good stuff yeah it's entertaining it reminded me of like uh i mean it reminded me of trash tv which

15:52Chris Pranger:is you know just what really got me i love it we we didn't you know people wrote you know called in couldn't call i don't want to get into so many non-gaming things if we could do shit like that though that doesn't touch third rails like make everyone mad and still yeah have fun though i I think, but I just, it's like David Jaffe is, it's what I used to say about, like about Nick Scarpino or Nick and I used to say all the time is like, you know, like the razor's edge, like the best thing in the world and the worst thing in the world. You know, you have to like stay on board and not, not cross the line.

16:26Chris Pranger:But the thing I was saying is I said this to Dustin is like, people always talk about how like belligerent Jaffe is or like how he goes overboard and says, and I'm like, honestly, like I'm not sure in any show we've ever done where I feel like why did you say that like how could you say something like that I don't think he's ever done anything like that on a show unlike what he did on his other show on locale live or whatever where he was talking about the dude's

16:50Colin Moriarty:fiance okay he's talking about keen stars wife's vagina right that was that's I mean that's a legendary moment like that's a that is a legendary Jaffe moment and I feel like this is another one

17:04Chris Pranger:so I'm glad everyone enjoyed it we'll have him back I already emailed him he already confirmed so that will be what the 16th I think something like that yeah it was it was it was the one time

17:12Colin Moriarty:I was like I was like damn I'm like I'm sad I was recording something else you can definitely come

17:17Chris Pranger:on it'll be the Monday the 16th he'll be back so you're more than welcome yeah yeah Dustin how'd you feel about it you were there you were hanging on for dear life

17:27Colin Moriarty:I know I I was I became the target for part of it though I did notice there's been some a small amount of discourse about people that were like wow Jaffe was too much of an asshole to Dustin oh another

17:40Chris Pranger:one of these and here's the thing good good

17:42Colin Moriarty:good I thought like on the stream we like took a moment we're like just everyone knows we're good but that's not wasn't enough it's I don't know you can't

17:54Chris Pranger:dispel that kind of thing it's just the way it reads I guess to people yeah yeah but it was fun it was a lot of fun oh the Schindler's List line was like that was fucking hysterical. That was an absolutely hysterical thing that he said. What was that?

18:11Colin Moriarty:I don't think I remember that one.

18:12Chris Pranger:He was making fun of Dustin for not being enthusiastic enough when he reads Super Chats and he says that every time he reads a name it's like he's adding something to Schindler's List.

18:21Colin Moriarty:Yeah, Jaffe shows up on our stream very successful stream maybe more successful than his and then tells me how to do my job. okay evil all right fair enough dude the thing that the thing that got me was um oh my god what did he say do i listen to punching up or do i play with my kid this is a good thing he's a naturally entertaining person i wonder if he understands that i think he does but like also i also don't think he understands it as much as he i feel like he could understand it more you know what i mean yeah I also I'm also maybe just because I know him well and stuff like that but I'm also surprised

19:09Chris Pranger:by how people how many people are put off by him I'm like you're really put off by this and I'm like that's surprising to me I don't find him that divisive he feels a certain way politically or whatever probably more aligned with Chris I think that's perfectly fine it doesn't really come up And if it does, it's like, who cares? You know, the he's a he's a true entertainer. He's he's really funny. And I'm glad that people enjoyed that stream. I had I messaged Justin afterwards. I was like, I had a great time. On that stream. Because sometimes I would much rather do that than play a game. That's what I said to you, right?

19:44Chris Pranger:I'm like, I would rather do that than play a game any day of the week on stream. Like, yeah, period.

19:50Colin Moriarty:end of playing games on stream is uh kind of like the least like the less like the least fun i've

19:58Chris Pranger:ever had streaming is playing a game yeah i feel the same way actually yeah i think yeah go ahead

20:04Colin Moriarty:go ahead i was gonna say i i feel like if we did some of my suggestions for games and if we had a more cooperative experience it would lend to the streaming you know medium yeah and we have those would be better yeah like what would you what would you say what was the suggestions that you probably like friend slap or something like something like that we don't need to do that every week but i think that we haven't touched the surface on playing together enough that's true well there might be a game that accommodates three persons that was just announced that oh true i

20:41Chris Pranger:I feel very confident I'll play online.

20:47Chris Pranger:So we might be able to do that. But the betas, I mean, well, they're probably gonna be closed, but we'll get to that. We're of course talking about Horizon Hunter's Gathering, which we'll talk about a little later. I'm very intrigued to see what you guys think of that. Yeah. But you're right, Dustin. We do need to play more games together. I am slowly trying to, it's a mental thing for me where I'm like, I'm not even acting on it. I'm just kind of trying to be mentally malleable where I'm like, yeah, yeah. And then because I just love playing games by myself. It's just what I've always done. It's just always for my entire life what I've done.

21:19Chris Pranger:And 64 was a little bit of an interruption to that. I was in high school and everyone had one and we loved it. But I just it's just so antithetical to the reason I play games that it's hard for me to get enthusiastic about that. And since you're not playing games at the standard that you would play them by yourself when you're streaming anyway, then putting me in an unfamiliar situation, it's not going to be. great you know but that's not what people are there for i guess yeah i mean well here's the

21:44Colin Moriarty:other thing too it's like con like listen then we're all getting old you know we're aging there's gonna be a time you know multiplayer games are gonna be fucking impossible yeah you're not gonna be able to hear you know you'll have to they'll probably say they'll probably make

22:01Chris Pranger:like these whole bot networks where you can like always play them but you'll play with like bots that are catered towards your skill level. Oh, yeah. That'd be interesting.

22:09Colin Moriarty:Yeah. But like, you know, experiment a little bit, you know. There's a lot of good stuff out there that's not like necessarily, you know, like reflex and like hyper skill driven or like it's not like Counter-Strike or something, you know.

22:22Chris Pranger:It's funny. I didn't put this in the news, guys, because I didn't think it was that interesting. But it's funny you say that, Chris, because the whole division definitive edition thing blew up into being nothing. That's crazy. it's i it is correct i can't even but i can't i don't know because when i saw that i'm like all right at the very least they're porting it to ps5 cool right and i was i was i say that because i was looking forward to it because that is one of the online games that i really love even though i play by myself you go into the dark zone you do with other people like you can kind of interact with it in the way you want and then they just i was like come on man it's just it's is so funny with with the division, which is I or Outriders, which was a much less popular example.

23:06Chris Pranger:But like these these games with online components that I really love and then like, yeah, never mind. And they did that with the division heartlands, which I was excited about. Like I was authentically excited about that game and we have to wait for the division three. But I just thought that was funny coincidence because I am more in that mood. Helldivers might have turned something on in me a little bit last year as well. Two years ago. Actually, it wasn't last year. Believe it or not, it was two years, two years ago to the month. Helldivers came out. Can you believe that? Anyway, what were we talking about?

23:42Chris Pranger:That's right. Patreon.com slash last day media early at free access. All the rest. Please support us over there. Merch last day media dot store. T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, stickers, and so on. It helps us do this for a living. All right. Sacred Symbols is sponsored by BetterHelp, a novel and modern way to receive the talk therapy you may need. Learn more now at BetterHelp.com slash symbols, where you can get 10 % off your session. So, I don't know if you know this, but the internet has revolutionized just about everything. It's why I've made a living talking about video games for more than two decades, how I can get just about anything delivered to my house with the click of a button, why I can watch virtually any movie or TV show ever made, and so on.

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27:29Chris Pranger:Guys, a few things here before we get into the news, which we have more news than I expected. after the horizon announcement and all the rest, we have much to discuss. Tropic Yeti wrote in and said, Hey, Colin, I was curious what your plans are for the big game. Let's talk about the Super Bowl, of course. Will you heed the Dan Hanzoose call? Dan Hanzoose is the co-host of one of the podcasts I listen to and root against the Patriots. Or will you be supportive husband and cheer for them instead? I'll pitch a tent directly next to the 49ers electrical substation and listen. Do you guys know about that?

27:58Colin Moriarty:I heard about that.

28:00Chris Pranger:Do you know about this, Chris? No, I have 49ers electrical substation. This is a good shit. This is a good story. the Niners have a practice facility the 49 you know the San Francisco 49ers that's next to an electrical substation and they've been experiencing an unusual number of serious injuries over the last few years and people have connected that it's the electromagnetic whatever going on at that place that's injuring the players apparently to the point where even the players are starting to be like yo we got to look into like moving this place and not playing here which I think is awesome yeah it's really interesting the big game the Super Bowl I was curious what are you guys doing for the Super Bowl is neither of you are sports fans really but it's a but it's a cultural event that non-sports people regularly partake in so Dustin what are you doing yeah I've had years where I've not watched it at

28:50Colin Moriarty:all and just stayed at home but this year my mom was kind of interested in watching it just because she likes she's into the cultural event aspect of it so she invited us over and we're getting frozen pizzas and snacks cool probably have a few beers i'm always down for that frozen pizza you're not bold enough to try to order pizza no no no no yeah i'm not doing that i always wonder like how

29:14Chris Pranger:bad it really is because like does every is everyone scared didn't you say you did that

29:18Colin Moriarty:once that you ordered pizza and it was totally fine yeah that sounds familiar it might have been like a couple years ago like papa john's or something yeah the pjs dude papa came through what um what's what's the the frozen pizza of choice my personal favorite is a new recent discovery it's like some detroit style pizza that's frozen i can't remember or is that what it is no it's called like is it motor city pizza oh i've never heard of that motor city pizza yeah if you guys ever see this stuff it's actually pretty damn good but since my parents are buying I assume that it will be Aldi frozen pizza which is pretty good they have some that's like not just it's more like a Sam's Club frozen pizza where they make it there and they package it up so it'll be you know it'll be good it'll be free pizza and free pizza is good for me yeah

30:16Chris Pranger:I love pizza yeah

30:18Colin Moriarty:him uh what are you doing chris i don't know i think i've heard rumblings of like two different things that are happening but i'm kind of just like i don't know i kind of don't want to do anything but we'll see i'll make a stamp decision on the day i guess of like which one's more convenient to get to get to probably but yeah i mean i've been to i've done the super bowl party thing before where you know the game's on in the background but it's not really like you know it's kind of there and then the commercials pop up or the halftime show shows shows up and everybody kind of kind of pays attention oh the commercials i feel like are not that big of a deal anymore

30:51Chris Pranger:no because they even publish them sometimes before the super bowl now um yeah so it's like all right the internet changed that whole that all that right video on the internet really it wasn't even the internet it was video like high speed internet changed that i remember i remember that when it was it was not as exciting anymore but yeah i've i've got some some tentative plans

31:12Colin Moriarty:but i've kind of opened myself up to the possibility of like you know what i mean like I don't have to go, which is nice. Freedom.

31:21Chris Pranger:Yeah, it is going to be a good game, I think. Seahawks, Patriots. Tropic was asking if I was going to root for the Patriots because my wife's a Patriots fan. I'm definitely not rooting for the Patriots, but I was telling Micah, it's like I have become, she knows a much more mature Colin because I really hate the Patriots, like a lot. and I've really had to turn that off just to be nice you know just to and not to be such a sore loser because it's not even like it's a competition or anything I just hate them because they always beat us like I hate them um and uh but my wife's a big fan and it's like yeah it's time to like so I just try to be neutral I congratulate her on wins I'm like oh it was a nice play you know that kind of thing but I'm not like getting crazy with it and in my in my heart I want the Seahawks to win.

32:12Chris Pranger:Of course. You know, I mean, of course, just don't let her hear that. She knows. I mean, she knows. And by the way, I think, I do think the Seahawks will win the game. But I don't think it's going to be a lot of people think the Seahawks are the obvious favorite. I'm not so sure about that. But the thing that bothers me the most, I might have reflected on this in the past, is I hate neutral site games. And a Super Bowl is a neutral site game, and I hate that. I think it's so stupid. The team with a better record should play at home. in the Super Bowl. That would be sick. Then you'd have like the craziness of a home crowd.

32:47Chris Pranger:You know, that's the thing about Super Bowl is like it's$20 ,000 or so to go at least. And you, it's just really wealthy people and then people with money that are fans of the teams that want to see them. But these two teams have not only been in the Super Bowl recently, but won the Super Bowl recently and played each other in the Super Bowl. Someone somewhat recently. So it's not even that novel. Like if the Jets ever make the Super Bowl, that's a truly novel thing I'm not saying that because I'm a Jets fan I'm like that's going to be like that's going to draw so many people out of the woodwork to go to that game and it might be but I was saying the game I would go to is the AFC championship game the game that gets into the Super Bowl because that game would be in New York if they had the better record and that would be nuts that would probably be like the craziest Jets fan crowd ever it would be so cool to be in that but that's never going to happen so right um they were in the AFC championship twice you know in 15 years ago, but they played away.

33:39Chris Pranger:They played in Pittsburgh, actually, one of those years. They lost.

33:42Colin Moriarty:I saw that the NFL draft is going to be in Pittsburgh.

33:45Chris Pranger:Yeah, they're starting to move it around the last few years because it used to be in the same places over and over again, which is cool. To give each fan base a little bit of a taste, you know?

33:52Colin Moriarty:Yeah. So, you know, Brandon, friend of the show, Brandon Duncan. He worked, his job is right in that area. And because he works at a place that runs like server, like a data center and servers, they're discussing having people stay there for multiple days at a time because getting in and out of that area is going to be so fucked in Pittsburgh so they're just gonna have him like live at work yeah which he's fine with because he'll get like time and a half oh yeah that's

34:25Chris Pranger:sick while he is sleeping yes yes I was just thinking about not that I had not that it was a big paying job or anything like that but I was talking about my groundskeeping job at Northeastern when it would snow they would send everyone around in box trucks with like salt and shovels and you would like have a little strike teams and when they knew it was going to snow or they were expecting that so they would put you on time and a half and just keep you on and they would call you and i had many moments where i got to sleep and get paid it was like 15 an hour or something you know right and i was like this is fucking oh this is awesome because i never had a an hourly job like that except for that job where it's like oh like time and a half didn't exist at ig and they just expected right whatever you're going to do for your salary so um well we'll see what happens with that big pick for the jets in that in that draft pick too i can't open this fucking bottle i i there's something going on with uh the the smart water molds the last few months where like i i shut my caps i shut my caps really tight you know like i said what what happened

35:25Colin Moriarty:I'm just laughing at the smart water molds

35:27Chris Pranger:yeah well the mold the bottle mold it's I think they changed something about it because or maybe it was the cap because I just like there we go I got it's like I don't know I just I just I don't know if it's like a fidgety thing where I just keep twisting the bottle in my hand and it's just so tight but it's never like because you know some people like they'll they'll have a two liter and then they'll just twist it the cap a little bit and then you'll go and pick it up and it's like it's like what did you do can't you shut the fucking

35:53Colin Moriarty:bottle come on man yeah i feel like i sometimes i uh i'll tighten like i wouldn't even think about what i'm doing but i'll like accidentally tighten something to the point where like i fucked it up for myself i did that with a fucking jar of olives the other day where like i was trying to open it i was like what the fuck did i do to this thing bring out the eyes i can't get this fucking thing

36:16Chris Pranger:open for the life of me i had to do the tap thing you know oh yeah yeah that works on glass bottles with metal container like the taking the knife and just hitting it it does work i don't straight up i don't understand why that works but it does i i don't know like like on jelly or something like i think it just kind of unsticks things or like just tweaks things a little bit because you're talking about like a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a millimeter it just needs to like bop but i yeah that does work total and what's funny is that like it like if you have it do it with a jar of pickles or something and it's like the the metal jar or the metal top it leaves dense in it and then over time you just have this dented this dented thing oh Micah just texted me do you need a new bottle of water before I leave no I'm good thank you oh you're right there I thought you were downstairs like screaming alright RIP Marcus wrote in and said howdy boys I'd like to respond to Mr.

37:15Chris Pranger:Feldudo's write in last week concerning how people select about how I'm sorry you select entries and if new names influence your decision. Thanks to Chris, I am one of the people who change their names often. I've had probably 20 things read by you, Colin, and close to 100 across the other shows, although never on Duke. The only name I ever did to intentionally catch your attention was Lost Profits Memorial Daycare Center. Other than that, I just let my name be whatever random bullshit I wanted to hear Chris say. Do you feel betrayed, or would you agree with my view that I must be a decent question to ask or take care of both?

37:45Chris Pranger:Yeah. Both things. I mean, in one way, you did betray me. On the other hand, you are a good question, obviously. Because when we get an exit survey every once in a while where it's like I submitted five questions, I never got selected. I'm like, your questions must have been horrible at that point. Horrible. Yeah. So you are obviously a talented question asker, but you're also grabbing my eye and my bias towards new names. And you took advantage of that. You knew what you were doing. You did it anyway. and it really is snark tank's fault which is it is

38:26Chris Pranger:100 you know so what are you gonna do just wanted to acknowledge that that that it was you know it's it is what it is i try to get to everyone be patient with me i am special needs

38:38Colin Moriarty:i often think about like how many like normal shows are ruined by like our toxic audience. Yeah. Like I think about that. Like if there's like somebody who's just like writing into a, I don't know, like a finance podcast or something and you know, come Lord wrote in. Oh, yeah.

39:01Chris Pranger:And I'm just like, hmm. Curious. Now, Lost Profits Memorial Day Care Center is a good name. I've been using that DJ component on Spotify. do you guys use that ever where like introduce i started using it again recently just because i

39:16Colin Moriarty:remembered how funny it was when i started using it and it's less funny now i don't know what

39:19Chris Pranger:happened to it well the guy's voice is kind of like he's like hey uh you know i heard you like stone temple pilots or whatever and then he's like so let's start you off with something cool

39:29Colin Moriarty:or whatever i'm like all right yeah it's like a vaguely it's like a vaguely black affect right right definitely have him which is very odd because it's like who is this based on somebody like is this based on a person or did you just like create a black ai like it's very odd but like he's yeah he goes like he's like i heard you like stone temple pilots yeah here's some cool stuff to bring you into the afternoon yeah right that's exactly right and it's like sabrina carpenter or something that has nothing to do with it I

40:04Chris Pranger:she's so short it's crazy Sabrina Carpenter I thought you meant the AI

40:10Colin Moriarty:oh no the AI doesn't exist yeah no Sabrina Carpenter like yeah I mean she strikes me as like damn near 4 foot 11

40:18Chris Pranger:yeah I think that's like what it is something like that like a little munchkin but I bring up the DJ thing because it played a lost profits a couple times

40:29Colin Moriarty:what if the AI I acknowledged like, well, RIP Bozo. Yeah.

40:34Chris Pranger:It's funny because I think Shinobi versus Dragon Ninja came on and then later on, like another day, start something, which is a great song. And I was like, these songs are fucking awesome. It's too bad that it's the singer.

40:46Colin Moriarty:Yeah.

40:47Chris Pranger:You know, that's the least replaceable.

40:49Colin Moriarty:It's the least replaceable part of the it is. I mean, no disrespect to every other member of the band, but I mean, let's be real. You know, it's just like it's it was too bad. it wasn't like the bass player or something where you can be like all right well yeah i mean they're all important on some level but like i mean that that identify that that identifiable nature was

41:09Chris Pranger:like that's a shame yeah because when you're singing along to it or hum it's like oh i'm

41:13Colin Moriarty:singing the the child rapists fucking lyrics right all right that's a that's a bummer and next up we're giving you sex criminal vibes yeah he's lost profits it's like it really does it really does feel like that's how the ai does it it like here's a couple bands whose lead singers are dead

41:35Chris Pranger:it did recommend me um a band i never heard of which is a and it's a i was reading about them and they were an older they're an older band they still exist but band called architects it's like a metal band from britain oh yeah like i vaguely know that yeah never heard of them architects ain't bad all right what else wrong window Derek Beak wrote in finally and said last week Colin was talking about once football stops he struggles to find things to do during what was once football time may I recommend watching Colin's slop movies over the past few years there's been so many movies I consider Colin's slop like Oppenheimer Civil War Nosferatu Eddington Dune and many more I think movies offer the best narrative experiences you can have in easily digestible packages I have thought about it There are a lot of things like just cultural touchstone films that I've just not seen the last.

42:23Chris Pranger:I mean, there was a time when I didn't miss any cultural touchstone films, but probably in the last 20 years. I haven't seen that many movies. And in the last five years, I've not seen almost anything. Now, I'm familiar with all of these films except for what is Eddington?

42:39Colin Moriarty:That's the latest Ari Oster movie. I've not seen it yet. And I'd like to. but these other ones he mentions I he's right on the money as far as these are like pure Colin Bate movies Oppenheimer Civil War dude you'd be super into Civil War you'd like it

43:03Chris Pranger:yeah the thing that the thing what I like about it I know a little bit about the story because I remember they announced it where it was like California and Texas joined together and I and it's a cool idea but i think they did that intentionally to give it no real world feel

43:16Colin Moriarty:right because that would not happen so yeah a lot of people don't like the movie because it's not about it's not about the reason why the civil war happens it's about the people within it right specifically journalists within it right right so if you're not sold on that then you won't like it Then there's the Jesse Plemons mindset. Yeah. Oh, yeah. What kind of American are you? That's a dude. Did you see Civil War, Chris? No, I've been meaning to check it out. Like I've been I've been on a weird kick of like catching up on a lot of movies. But like that's on my list. I'm like stuff to watch because I heard that meme was going around like crazy.

43:55Colin Moriarty:But it's I've been trying to get better about movies because I keep remembering like lately I've been better about my letterbox. I'm just like, oh, yeah, I have this. I should like use it because it's a good just record of like stuff that I've seen because sometimes I'll forget that I've seen this I guarantee you I've seen more movies than I remember you know like that oh yeah and by the way not even like remember as in like oh I remember the plot I mean just straight up remember that I've seen you know so I'm trying to get better there but that the Civil War is on my list what was it uh light the lighthouse is on my list Swiss Army Man is on my list as well like those are the three that I'm kind of like trying to cross off in the immediate yeah the light I feel like I saw the lighthouse which is weird yeah I did

44:39Chris Pranger:was that maybe a knockback you saw the lighthouse yeah that's crazy it came out in 2019 yeah I don't know I did see it like um

44:51Colin Moriarty:that's one of my hottest takes on Letterboxd or one that people focus on is that that movie

44:56Chris Pranger:is yeah I did see this one fine

44:58Colin Moriarty:I think it's really overrated

44:59Chris Pranger:it's good yeah

45:01Colin Moriarty:Chris I need to add you on you'll be one of my one of like three people that I follow on Letterboxd

45:08Chris Pranger:who else do you follow

45:11Colin Moriarty:my friend Phil let's see you don't have a fucking friend named Phil get out of here oh I do he might be listening

45:19Chris Pranger:he goes to a different school yeah I do know Phil Summers the artist that does the Mega Man stuff is a a friend i was i think i've known a phil or two phil and i go way back yeah he was uh he went

45:37Colin Moriarty:he was a fan of my dad's band oh wow and so then eventually became friends with my dad and then became friends with me and he likes uh we one of our early times hanging out he was like oh i like uh i like also like podcasts beyond he's a podcast beyond listener interesting so we've had a good podcast beyond oh yeah when you were on it yeah of course yeah that was so mean i don't know why oh that was well

46:15now now dune i want to see there's two of them right yes and they're working on a third and uh

46:20Chris Pranger:but i i've said this we we talked we've talked about this for sure is that like i read dune when I was younger and I just don't think I understood it so I bought it and I want to read it again before I but I dude I haven't read a book in like a year no that's not true I read a couple books but I'm not reading I'm reading less and less as time goes on because I'm you know I'm all full up

46:43Colin Moriarty:on the words that's enough you know I'm too I'm too cognizant of like we're not cognizant because that implies like there's like a level of intellectuality there like i'm too paranoid about how much time i feel like i'm wasting when i'm just reading a book like how i can't multitask

47:02Chris Pranger:you know yeah yeah that's true you can't do anything else well i yeah i i have to i have

47:06Colin Moriarty:to have silence when i read pure silence yeah i just i don't know it's hard for me and then also i like i i like i i think i like uh what is it i rationalize like i don't need to like what if what if somebody read a lot but they only read captain underpants are they really well read you know i mean like what people are people are always making fun of that with like uh

47:28Chris Pranger:especially women reading like romance stuff and then they'll be like i read a hundred books this year and they'll like stand next to a stack of them and it's like this is trash like legit trash like a minotaur fucking a woman or something kind of thing you know that's like the whole thing right now is like women being into like this like mainstreaming kind of like yeah reality in a

47:48Colin Moriarty:They're all they're all gooners is the issue. It's like we don't we don't treat it like we should, which is like you're maybe keep that to yourself. Right. You know, feel more shame women. I'm reviewing Chris's letterbox because this is what we've done for me.

48:07Chris Pranger:Yeah, sure.

48:08Colin Moriarty:Go ahead. Yeah. Some I'm taking a look. Your half stars are not, you know, anything surprising. Suicide Squad or the Dark World. I don't know if I have them as half star but I can I can stand by it yeah I threw a lot of the Marvel movies in there because those are ones I knew I knew I saw there's certain I'm more intrigued by this two and a half star section some of the films you have in here some that I find frankly offensive oh yeah first of all UHF you have as a two and a half star movie oh the weird al movie and as a weird al fan you know we're both weird al fans yeah two and a half stars i feel like two and a half to me is like middle because it's like that's ultimately like you know well i liked it though okay that's kind of i like letterboxd because you can rate a film but then also you can say whether you liked it or not and that's what i like about it because there are movies that i think are like it's like kung pao or something which is like that's yeah that's not a great movie but i like it right or whatever and uhf is one of those things where it's just like i don't know if it's a great movie but i i do like it see really what i'm trying to do right now is deflect some of the heat that's on me onto you particularly you can do that go ahead you can people can uh people can judge my letterboxes all day that's fine particularly once upon a time in hollywood two and a half stars with no like heart i did i didn't like it man well i did not like it what i under that's like that's a that's the quinn tarantino movie about like um what is it the manson yeah yeah the manson murders i think and it's just like i i don't know that movie's a movie for people who really really love Hollywood and like Los Angeles and I just don't like it's like it's just like I don't care like there's good scenes in it maybe I should watch it again because like I was like when I first saw it I was like this is not this does not feel like a Tarantino movie that I wanted to see sure but maybe I was like judging it too harshly I don't know I've only seen it once I'm looking your five stars are all fine Puss in Boots five stars dude man talked about that five stars though I'm telling you dude that second that second Puss in Boots movie is unreasonably good I don't know why I don't know why they did that but it's it's crazy how good that movie is although it kind of like you know how um you know even even in games right but like there's like something that popularizes something and then like a lot of movies do it that movie had like how do i how do i even put this there's a lot of movies like kids oriented movies that like now feature panic attacks you know what i mean yeah you know what i'm saying do you understand what like and it's like and when puss in boots did it i was like that's kind of crazy because it's the first time i've seen this and now like a lot of people now a lot of those movies kind of do it and it's just kind of like oh it's a bummer because now if you go back it like comes across as like them trend hopping but really it was kind of like actually just a good scene within the context of this very specific movie but right yeah that's a bummer i hadn't thought about that i gotta use a menace four stars i've never seen phantom menace actually really i've uh really yeah i i missed star wars was just not a thing for me growing up so interesting like my parents didn't care about it um my cousins didn't care about it people at my school cared about it but the people that at my school who cared about it i didn't like so like it was already like oh well that's fascinating um yeah like i watched i watched the original star wars movies like the first uh what is it new hope uh empire and and jedi i watched those for the first time in like 2017 or something like wait i think after i saw force awakens actually or maybe before or something like that like so interesting it was something around that time because i think the force awakens was big people were excited about it and so i was like i should probably know a little bit about this big

52:01Chris Pranger:thing that's happening god you're just kind of not watching him at that point you've come so far you know it would have been funny if you just never watched it well i liked new hope oh yeah

52:11Colin Moriarty:new hope and i liked uh and i liked empire quite a bit i hate jedi oh really i think they're all all three of them are great i can't stand jedi feels like because the jedi is when it starts you start to feel like uh they're doing like the they're doing like the toy thing like there's like oh here's the fucking here's the ewoks and it begins to feel like he-man or like those old like 80s commercials that they just are not 80s commercials but the 80s like uh action tv shows that they just made purely for toys and it's like that was i i didn't know i hate is probably a strong word i don't really feel strongly about any star wars movie to be honest with you but um yeah jedi i just didn't like and i just because i didn't like that i was like well i'm not gonna to watch phantom menace or the other three i did see force awakens and a little bit of last jedi

52:59Chris Pranger:but last jedi sucks i fucking hate that movie i i can't even believe there's like always this attempted revision of it and i'm like nope you know what's a bummer about the last jedi yeah

53:08Colin Moriarty:the real the real sad thing about the last jedi is that of the three movies it is the best one no i think force awakens is the best one it's directed better it looks better it's and and the thing about like force awakens is better but force awakens is also a rehash you know what i mean it's very same so like i don't even know if you could count it really because it's just it's it's like copying your own homework but like of those the last one the last one's terrible from

53:34Chris Pranger:what i heard oh dude so i didn't even well it's like i don't know what it's the whole they didn't have a plan believable that like the worst case scenario was actually true which is that they had no plan. It's like, it's like what you would like, yeah, like what sometimes look,

53:51Colin Moriarty:sometimes it works out. You gotta, you gotta have the right people though. Like you gotta have, like, you gotta get Vince Gilligan, you know, Vince Gilligan is like the master of just like, I think they had no plan.

54:01Chris Pranger:I think JJ Abrams was the right person. I think that like they let him go and then he had to come back and try to fix it. And at that point it was like, I don't know anything about Ryan Johnson. I'm not a film guy. I know you're like knives out people love and a few other things he's done i'm not i'm not shitting on him but i i really think the last jedi is so bad that it's unbelievable like like to me i'm like i i saw that with ramon in the theater in santa monica at the arc light near the water and i was like that was unbelievable like i can't i can't believe how bad i i can't i can't believe it like i they blew it they fucking blew it like that was the whole thing that really bothered me because the force awakens was great and rogue one which came afterwards is arguably the greatest star wars movie ever and then you and then you get and then you get it's either that or empire for me like i i'm like obsessed with rogue one i think rogue one was and when i saw rogue one i was like i was like dude what the fuck they are killing it they are killing it this is awesome i can't believe how good they're doing you know and yeah i don't i don't know it's such a heartbreaker it's such a heartbreaker

55:02Colin Moriarty:I just watched a video on YouTube and this makes so much sense that so the original director of the third new Star Wars movie was supposed to be Colin Trevorrow. I think is his name. He directed the new Jurassic Park movie, the Jurassic World. And his script was all about Leia. But she died. Unfortunately, she passed away. Carrie Fisher. And he was like, couldn't figure out how to fix it. And also, apparently he was fucking insufferable. so they fired him and brought in jj who not only needed to somehow fix that script but also fix the mistakes of the previous movie because they were like everyone fucking hated last jedi so it's like what do you i'm not defending his decision because it's horrible but it was like dude you brought back palpatine and you you brought him back in the title crawl it's bad stuff man that movie is like speak or was it the dead so i'm trying to remember the first line crazy yeah it was something like i know what you mean like i don't know man i think um because ryan johnson's a good director like those knives out movies are really fun like genuinely and he's a good director i don't know i don't know if he wrote i don't know if he's like i don't i don't pay attention to him enough to know if he like wrote all of them or like whatever but like to me like that movie the last shot i makes a lot of decisions where i'm like that's a crazy decision this is going to have to be justified at some point right and it's like i think you can do that i think you can make like really controversial decisions and then like have it pay off in a way but like you can't you can't do this thing where like you set something up and then you like subvert and then you set something up and then subvert because that's that entire that's that entire trilogy of movies is like oh we're going this way uh people didn't like and never mind all people didn't like that oh never mind you know what i mean it's just it's constant course correction with no actual chance to pay pay something off it's like the first season of seinfeld's like the worst one you know what i mean right right like it pays off at a certain point because then like things you know there's callbacks to it there's characters that come back and it's just like you didn't let it you didn't you didn't let things marinate you ever like i like i like the idea of like a shit bag luke personally but like i think they did it shitty

57:17Chris Pranger:i think they i don't think they should have killed him it's funny because i uh i've i said this when when Dagan and I would talk about this and we've done episodes about it over a knockback and stuff, but the, uh, I wanted them to make Luke bad. That was like the whole thing that I, and I knew they wouldn't do it. I knew they wouldn't do it. And I, I don't think even Mark Hamill would have been on board for it or whatever, but like it would, there would have been an interesting thing to make him the bad guy in some way. Like he becomes corrupted. Um, and I also Dagan and I, and people, some people love it and some people hate it, but Dagan and I did like our fictional, like how we would have done our own trilogies.

57:50Chris Pranger:and my whole thing was about like a religious cult and like that uses the force as like a like leans into the religiosity of the force and creates like this cult of personality around Luke and stuff like that.

58:01Colin Moriarty:Sounds like the acolyte.

58:02Chris Pranger:What did you say?

58:03Colin Moriarty:It sounds like the acolyte. Oh the acolyte.

58:05Chris Pranger:Oh is that? Oh yeah. It's apparently like that yeah.

58:07Colin Moriarty:But it's like a feminist I like um.

58:11Chris Pranger:It's a cool the religiosity of the force is awesome that's what episode one fucked that all up for a lot of people and I thought that was disappointing because that was what was cool about it. midichlorians or whatever right like um vader walking into the death star like conference room with when tarkin's in there and just strangling that one dude like that that to me is so scary because everyone's like what the fuck you know like this this idea of this literal supernaturalism as opposed to something that is deterministic which is what they made it and that sucks so like like recapturing that like that is such a bad decision that i can't believe it that like that that's what he did and everyone was like it goes back into the whole like like everyone no one would tell him no so it's like and it's like dude that's a horrible idea well

58:57Colin Moriarty:dude you know what disappointed me about like force awakens even even though it was a fun time at the movie is that like it started off with the stormtrooper like that was like the first thing that you saw was like the stormtrooper's coming in and then he catches the laser and they're like it's cool and i remember thinking like oh is this gonna be about like a stormtrooper that like You know, defects or something? Yeah, yeah. This is awesome. And then they just completely abandoned it. They just focused on this like a Luke copy. And it's like, what the fuck? That's such a cool idea. Turncoat Stormtrooper is awesome.

59:26Chris Pranger:Yeah, it's awesome.

59:26Colin Moriarty:A turncoat Stormtrooper who learns over time that he's kind of vaguely Force-sensitive. That's sick. But then like, no. Agreed. What a bummer.

59:36Chris Pranger:Yeah, they focused on the wrong character. Yeah, in my opinion. Am Ray.

59:41Colin Moriarty:It's a holly and a joke. She's like, Am Ray. oh dude i love fly now dude have you guys seen like i don't even know if they're fake but i don't care there are videos of the reaction to the end of the final move of rise of skywalker which spoilers i mean this has already been i'll write the time stop the time save this spoiler save which he's like i'm ray ray skywalker and people are like oh come on like audibly disgusting yeah come on man would be cool she said would be cool if she said palpatine actually it would have still the movie would have sucked dude if she could have like redeemed the palpatine right that would be a lot more interesting but it wouldn't save the movie it wouldn't

1:00:25Chris Pranger:make the movie better but like i can't do this spending a long time on who cares star wars can't take it anymore yeah fuck them it was fun while it lasted and then and then i get so sad it's not disney it's not star wars but i seeing what paramount's doing that's star trek like just ruining it more and more for people it's so funny man you gotta let things die man just let things it's fine it's just funny how like these this is what dagan and i were saying when we liked it our rewrites of star wars i mean not that like we're that they were the greatest things in the world but it's like you could just find random people to make better movies in this like like obviously you would need the technical skill to make the film but like the people that are writing it to people that are like directing like this should happen and this should look like this and whatever like literally random people could have made better decisions yeah like that that's what's so funny about it and it's like well okay george you shouldn't i thought it was i was so happy when george lucas sold and uh i wish that that ever happened dude i love it when he's like i and i

1:01:30Colin Moriarty:sold it to white slavers.

1:01:35Colin Moriarty:It's amazing, dude.

1:01:37Chris Pranger:He's awesome. All right. He's eating right now. He's at Panda Express. He's at the food court right now. If you're

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1:02:24Colin Moriarty:I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end. huh nibbles gone too soon may he scurry in peace hey sorry about your pet but i just wire stuff

1:02:35Chris Pranger:nibbles would have loved you like a brother connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years angie the one you trust to find the ones you trust find pros for all your home projects at angie.com let's get into the news my friends this uh was announced this morning and we referred to it earlier in the show and we'll get into it i'm very curious to see what you guys think Sony announced Horizon Hunters Gathering, Gorilla's new co-op action game. There's a press release over on the PlayStation blog. I, excuse me, there we go. I couldn't find like a real press release for it. So this might be the only release they did along with a 10 minute video.

1:03:14Chris Pranger:But Arjan Bach, who's the game director of Gorilla, and we'll talk about him in a minute. He says, today marks a monumental step for Gorilla as a studio as we announce our new chapter in the Horizon universe, Horizon Hunters Gathering. By the way, I'm really annoyed. They're doing this thing where they don't use colons. You know, in their name and their naming conventions. These companies are very, very careful about the way they type things like infamous. Lowercase I, lowercase n, all capital, you know, like they're intentionally not using a colon in this name and it bothers me. Horizon Hunters Gathering.

1:03:45Chris Pranger:It doesn't read right. Anyway, with the very first ideas that shaped the world of Horizon, we dreamed of players hunting machines together. we started with a small group of gorillas including myself back in the days as design director and began exploring what that could look like drawing on our experience from the killzone multiplayer titles and the momentum of horizon zero dawn we set out to bring cooperative action into the horizon franchise let's stop here real quick because there's something interesting in here it seems like this game was and it makes sense based on where it is and probably come out next year I would assume it sounds like it was in development before forbidden west came out based on the way they talk about it here the momentum of horizon zero dawn he continues since then the team and the game have grown tremendously throughout its development we've done extensive testing patching and feedback iteration one of my favorite moments was our first in-studio play test with the entire team a special milestone where the vision and hard work from every discipline finally came together in a playable form it's always nerve-wracking to share early builds but the moment but moments like that test as well as today's announcement make it worthwhile horizon hunters gathering written without a colon again because it looks so fucking stupid is it and it's by the way it's no possession either so it's like hunters plural we have to get used to that is a cooperative action game developed by gorilla for ps5 and pc that lets up to three players team up as heroic hunters to protect the world under threat from deadly machines combat is tactical reactive and deeply skill-based building on the tactical precision of the horizon games while embracing the dynamics of team play the foundation of horizon hunters gathering centers around challenging and replayable hunts.

1:05:20Chris Pranger:Today we're revealing two game modes. Machine Incursion, a high intensity mission where waves of machines pour out from underground gateways, led by a formidable boss, and Cauldron Descent, a longer multi-stage trial in which ever-changing rooms push hunters to their limits, from brutal machine encounters to hidden doors that promise power and rewards for teams prepared to open them. Both modes will be available in our upcoming closed beta test through the PlayStation beta program on PS5 and PC. We're excited for players to get hands-on and help shape the game with their feedback. In Horizon Hunters Gathering, you choose from a roster of uniquely skilled hunters, each with distinct melee or ranged play styles and weapons, and select hunter roles further embedded with a roguelike perk system to craft the build that best suits your style and your team.

1:06:00Chris Pranger:These hunters have their own motivations and personal struggles, which come together in new stories we want to tell in the world of Horizon. The game has a narrative campaign, which will introduce new mysteries, characters, and threats, but we're keeping it under wraps for now. What we can say is that Hunters Gathering is fully canon, and its story doesn't stop at launch. As you hunt dangerous machines in the wild, you'll travel through a range of environments that bring missions and stories to life. Each location offers its own atmosphere, challenges, and opportunities for your team to explore and master together.

1:06:25Chris Pranger:Between missions, you'll return to Hunters Gathering, a vibrant social hub where players can connect, prepare, and celebrate victories together. Here, you can customize your hunters, visit vendors, upgrade gear, and team up for your next adventure. So you can sign up for the beta now. If you go to the PlayStation blog and click on the announce link, you'll see a link down in the story near the end where you can sign up for the beta program. and then get maybe ingested into the system to try the game for PS5 and or PC. Cross-progression and cross-play will be available between the PS5 and PC versions.

1:06:55Chris Pranger:And I like here that they specifically say to avoid the Helldivers drama. It says, by the way, Horizon Hunters Gathering supports cross-play between PS5 and PC plus cross-progression when you are logged in and save your game using the same PlayStation account. So they're getting ahead of that now, which is smart. They say it's early. It's obviously not coming out this year. It shouldn't come out this year, but I would say next year based on the amount of time this game has been incubating and now in development. So I'm very curious to see what you think. This came out alongside a 10 minute video that shows the game extensively and interviews some people that worked on the game.

1:07:31Chris Pranger:I promised I would bring up Arjan Bach again. He is the director of this new co-op Horizon game and he does have chops at Gorilla. he was the he was an environment artist on Killzone 2 and Killzone 3 he was the art director of Killzone Shadowfall and he was the art director of Zero Dawn so he didn't work on Forbidden West at all so he has been working on this for quite some time all right Chris let's hear from you first what do you think about Horizon Hunters Gathering a game we knew existed but I didn't

1:08:04Colin Moriarty:expect to see it for the first time like this yeah no for sure I uh a little shocking they kind of surprise announcement like because this was announced like this morning right or something like a little just a little bit before we started recording so pretty fresh but i mean i don't know i'm kind of i don't know how i feel i feel like it looks it looks pretty high quality like the animations really high and like every freeze frame looks really like curated and cared for and there's like a lot of work into the animations it's got a little bit of um it's got a little bit of a fortnight meets spider verse feel and i don't quite know how i feel about that i feel like it works better than i thought it would but also it's not necessarily what i would have liked to see specifically um as far as the gameplay of it i mean it looks a lot more stylized than horizon there's some there's some straight up like there's like a repeating gif in this playstation blog post where like a character is just doing straight up anime shit so like it looks like they're leaning into a they're leaning into a bit of a different style with this like where's like where they're zooming back and forth and shit yeah yeah totally um i don't know i i'm curious about it it's it's it's my interest is peaked and i think i'll definitely give this a shot and give it a try but i don't know like the the visuals are throwing me off you know i guess this is just how multiplayer games look now but like i don't know i mean colin you're like you're big on the look of Horizon like you you you've said multiple times that you think it's like the most one of the most beautiful games if not the most beautiful game that you've ever played so like when you see this

1:09:43Chris Pranger:like does it like how do you feel about it um this way I think it looks awesome like I personally think it's fun and whimsical um I want Horizon mainline games to look like that but I don't think everything that is in the Horizon universe needs to necessarily have the same art style and And in fact, I kind of give them, you don't want to give Guerrilla too much credit for something we don't really know too much about, but it's like, it's kind of cool that they're doing something different because it would have been very easy for them to not. And I don't mean that from a, like a, an effort standpoint or a creativity standpoint.

1:10:20Chris Pranger:I mean that like all the shit literally exists in the highest possible quality from Forbidden West and will no doubt be in the third mainline horizon game, whenever that comes, probably a PS6 game at this point. so that they didn't just so that they didn't dispatch this team and sit and then say like, all right, well, here are all the assets we have here, all the maps like the option, you know, or here's like the these huge maps we have San Francisco and all these different things we did and like use this stuff and make some$40 multiplayer game while we make the third Horizon game. And instead, it seems like what they've done is worked a great deal with at least a major portion of the team.

1:10:54Chris Pranger:I don't know if it's all of them at Gorilla because I think there's probably other things going on there, but they made this their next real game. And so I guess what I'm saying is that there's a vision here. Like that's it's actually more expensive than it needed to be. And they would have gotten a probably more positive reveal bump if they actually had just made it look like the original Horizon. But I'm kind of I'm kind of stoked it doesn't. I like them doing different things. I just don't think all of them work. Like I don't think the VR game was very good. I didn't even beat it. Lego Horizon was really a fart in the wind.

1:11:27Chris Pranger:I mean, like it wasn't, it was ostensibly a Lego game, but yeah, not really. I mean, and like when that Lego Batman movie game comes out in a few months, like that's going to be a real Lego game. And I understand that that's not what horizon was going to get, but it's like, it was kind of a way. So I think people are a little gun shy and I do think they're, they're overexposing horizon. I think those are also just two different things, but this specific game I think looks sick. Yeah. Actually. I love it. I think it looks, what'd you say, Chris?

1:11:56Colin Moriarty:I'm sorry. oh sorry i cut you i do like the like the way it's shaded like there's particularly like some scenes where there's like grass and i there's like they're doing like like i think in in the beginning of this uh this repeating gif here the first one i don't know exactly if this is like in the trailer or like where it is but like the grass looks really cool like i like the way it looks i just like i'm kind of surprised to see it look like this i guess um and i guess i the big the big question is going to be like how does it play and how how sticky is it and you know how deep is it going to be um that remains to be seen but it's my interest is peaked i'm curious about it which is more than i can say for a lot of multiplayer games i like what you say too

1:12:37Chris Pranger:about the anime or even just a cartoony kind of thing that they're going on with obviously literally but they're in again in that gif where she the the female hunter attacks like that crab like um or the the machine with like the crab like pincers the way he animates is not machine like right it's it's it's alive like if it just feels and looks different that's not the way the original horizon looks and so i think it's there's something there's something here i think i i know yeah i haven't read too much about the way people feel about it but i'm positive people are not that there's like a lot of people that are not into it uh because everyone's predictable and fucking tired at this point and uh it's getting a little old but dustin what do you uh what do you make of Horizon Hunters gathering.

1:13:23Colin Moriarty:Yeah, I am excited as a Monster Hunter fan. There was a lot of comparison to that game Dauntless, which I didn't I wasn't into Monster Hunter at the time, so I didn't play that at the time. But there's not too many games in this kind of space. And so what really intrigued me is that they were talking about their mission types, how there's ones that are going to be very clearly Monster Hunter like you're in the world. You got to go find the thing that you're hunting and then you and your teammates go and take out that specific monster. But there's also sounds like some kind of wave encounter. And also in part of the longer extended 10 minute video, they talked about something that kind of at least reminded me of a raid where you're in those more like the the cauldron place where they make all the machines, the vault.

1:14:12Colin Moriarty:And that sounds really intriguing to me to play a raid like experience that has puzzles and platforming where you have you need to work as a team in order to progress that sounds pretty cool in terms of the art style i think the only gripe i have with it is i don't really like the way the characters themselves look i think the world itself it has kind of a lighter pastel look to it while still being very colorful so it's not quite as like neon soaked as something like fortnight the characters though i can they i can take them or leave them really yeah i did laugh about the the really really fat girl yeah yeah i like that she's a tank like i think it's

1:14:57Chris Pranger:i think it's kind of cool like the way they like at first i actually was like like what are we doing with this design but then they show like a distant shot of her attacking these characters and it's like she yeah it's in other words i don't know if it's body inclusive as much as it's like this is like the tank character you know right so it didn't bother me as much after that yeah

1:15:15Colin Moriarty:we'll have to wait and see yeah definitely definitely i'm really disappointed the most disappointing thing about this to me is the hero design of it i am sick of hero-based games and i really one of the things i mean again to compare it to monster hunter sorry it's the it's this this game is trying to emulate monster hunter clearly yeah obviously i love the character creator in that game and i am disappointed this game doesn't have a creative character situation um so that's a little bit disappointing what also intrigued me colin for you in particular i know we were talking about that you're more open to the idea of playing some of these games multiplayer but in this 10 minute video they mentioned you'll be able to play the game single player yeah they

1:16:03Chris Pranger:do yeah and they they say yeah and in the write-up as well they say uh up to three players which i think it's good and i think that's going to be really vital because horizon the horizon fan base is a single player fan base and that was one of the things they said in the video too and i really appreciated that um i think it was uh jan van der beek or whatever that guy's name is who's like the the lead who took over after um herman left um at gorilla and he was saying that like we are a single player studio and we are going to make single player games and it's funny they're getting smarter it's like watching a sentient machine like sony become more intelligent it's like we know you have to get in front of this stuff you have to say it up front you have to just like dispel all this things this stuff so people know that you're not abandoning things oh and by the way mention kill zone and do the like so it's it's it's good like they're they're they're getting smarter from that that perspective um well let's hear from the audience oh i'm sorry go ahead

1:17:00Colin Moriarty:One other thing too, speaking of Herman, we're seeing what he said a few months back when he was maybe longer than a few months at this point when it asked about like what happened to Concord. And he said that part of their course correction is that they're going to get players in earlier. And you can clearly see that evident here where they are doing the beta tests. And as you said, that seems like this game probably won't even come out this year, but people will be playing it this year. And I think that's a super smart decision. Get people in, see what they like, what they don't like. And you don't have to just like bet everything on initial launch of the game without having anyone played it like Concord.

1:17:43Colin Moriarty:So I think that's a good move. And I'm expecting that that will be the case for other PlayStation Live service games. I'm curious what the monetization model is for this. will this be a free to play game? Will it have a I don't know$40 price tag plus microtransactions? I mean surely they're going to have microtransactions.

1:18:07Chris Pranger:That's what they like to do. It seems like that's going to be the thing they do. You know yeah is the$40 plus microtransactions. That's what Marathon is right? And that's what Concord was. That's what Helldivers was. Fair games will be that. I don't know what's going to I don't know. Oh man. I wonder I mean they haven't shut that game down. I mean that team still exists doing something. Yeah. So we just assume that's the model, right? I would personally love to see them make it free to play, but I just don't think they're going to do it, especially from a first party team. You know, like it's that's a big risk.

1:18:37Chris Pranger:Hundreds of millions of dollars probably spent. Well, it's definitely a nine figure game, but it is being made in the Netherlands, so it's going to be a little cheaper.

1:18:47Colin Moriarty:Yeah, I am. I feel like we need to know more about like how much content is there to like say is like is a$40 price tag going to be warranted? Because if you think about Marathon, Marathon is kind of, I mean, it's a one mode game. Yeah. And it's$40. And assuming, I mean, from what we know is that this is going to have, technically you'll be able to play it single player. There's multiple mission types, multiple maps. I mean, we haven't played Marathon yet either, but I could see this being$40 and being worth it. But again, we need to wait till we see more.

1:19:25Chris Pranger:Yeah, I think that they, I think Helldiver, well, maybe they'll even figure it out after Marathon and see what happens. And then people's feedback on the, I guess this would be an alpha. And then maybe go from there. But I think they are all about like some sort of money up front. Pay the piper and then you don't really have to spend any more money, but you could. Like when I played Helldivers 2 for 50 hours or whatever, I never spent any more money in there. But I could have very easily done so. they give you a nice way of earning in-game currency and perhaps they'll do the same thing

1:19:56Colin Moriarty:here with horizon yeah um yeah yeah go ahead chris no i was gonna say like i think free to play i don't know it's it's i feel like i feel like sony must be smart enough to know this that like free to play for multiplayer is kind of like a double-edged sword because you get a lot of attention but also like the cheating situation gets bad with free to play like the like the 40 price tag and even just a price tag in general is a pretty good barrier to prevent that kind of thing um it's why even i think destiny like parts of like they're really competitive modes like when destiny went free to play piecemeal um they had a lot of cheaters come into their really competitive mode they were like now we're locking this behind the expansion so i wonder if um oh but this is going to be like cooperative it's there's no competitive there's no competitive angle right now so like i don't know like it could go either way this looks like a premium product though to me like i would expect 40 minimum um probably even get away with 60 maybe depending on how much content there is but 40 is a safe bet there's something very attractive about that 40 price point it's a good price point um again i i think when you look at it through because

1:21:03Chris Pranger:it would have been interesting to see what what would happen with the last of us on the line which i assume would have probably also been 40 but with these particular games you're talking about big bites from big expensive studios and the opportunity cost of utilizing them um unlike arrowhead making hell divers where you're kind of contracting or whatever so you might want to get more money out of it i don't know but again the other side of it is marathon like they have every reason to squeeze the shit out of that game because bungie is such a disaster and they're losing so much money on on the acquisition but yet they kind of remain stayed and went with the $4 price point, which I respect.

1:21:39Chris Pranger:But as predicted, let's hear from the audience because people wrote in. I selected a few inquiries. I will say that some people are into it. It seems like a lot of people are not into it. But let's hear from Nick. Nick wrote in and said, hey, CCD, as a Horizon and Monster Hunter fan myself, there's always been an inclination to imagine how well suited the game would be for a Monster Hunter-like take on the game. Despite my positive slant to be positively biased in the exact game that Monster Hunter's Gathering is, I found myself largely uninterested. This game does not look or feel like their game for me.

1:22:10Chris Pranger:It looks like a kind of watered down Fortnite-esque version of Monster Hunter. I'm totally open to my mind being changed as we see more, but my first impression as the target audience for this game is I'll pass. We often reference Fortnite. I do it as an external factor because I've never played it, but we know what it is. We know what it looks like, and you guys have played it for sure. I do think we are getting how do I put this when Borderlands came out and it was cel-shaded and cel-shaded games would come out people would say it looked like Borderlands and I'm like no it's cel-shaded it actually doesn't really look like Borderlands and Fortnite is becoming a similar thing for me where like a cartoony simplified art style is not necessarily Fortnite to me and I don't know how you guys feel you can tell me I'm wrong I don't mind I don't I get why people think it's like fortnight but I look at it I'm like it's really not you know like it's just cartoony and you're conflating the whimsy of it with everything being like this one thing a la borderlands and cell shading for a lot of people for years where it's like you're you're you're you're just honing in on this one factor.

1:23:27Chris Pranger:And I personally don't, so I'm personally not turned off by the art style. And I don't think it's like, I think there are many things that are much more Fortnite like, actually. Yeah.

1:23:35Colin Moriarty:Yeah. I mean, I don't think the art style is like, I don't think the art style itself, it's definitely, so I think people use Fortnite as a, as a shorthand for cartoony, really like, like I look at this and I do see a little bit of it, but I also see a little bit of spider verse. I see a little bit of, I just see a little bit of like other things as well. But I don't know. It's hard to it's hard to argue necessarily just because Fortnite is the biggest. It's the biggest thing. And it is like it's not quite like Borderlands. Borderlands is big. Right. But like Fortnite is like kind of like Borderlands.

1:24:08Colin Moriarty:Borderlands. Fortnite. Fortnite. Fortnite is like Fortnite is like it is a it's so all encompassing and it is a lot of people's reference point. So a lot of people are going to it's like whenever somebody is like back into like, oh, it's a Doom clone. you know what i mean this is the first person shooter like we we have terms for this but i don't blame people for like maybe having knee-jerk reactions to it because like when you see especially when you see an ip that has a distinct style or already or that has like a particular look to it and then you see it kind of um refracted through a prism of like a different art style like this it's going it's it is going to come across as like a fortnightification you It is going to come across as like we want to appeal to a lot of people, so we're going to tone down the visuals a little bit.

1:24:57Colin Moriarty:We're going to make it a little bit more expressive. The other side of that is because Horizon is so realistic looking and so detail oriented, we get to cut down on potentially system strain for a multiplayer game. It's probably easier to run a game that's a little bit more stylized because there's less detail to account for and it's not as big of a deal if things don't draw distance, doesn't apply in the same way. and there's a lot of different tricks to that um but i yeah i don't know i i i think we are approaching a point where fortnight is kind of becoming like the word slop in some way where it's just like oh it looks like fortnight or oh that's slop and it's like is it i don't know maybe a little bit but not overwhelmingly in my opinion like it looks it kind of looks like in boots like that movie actually yeah which is like spider it looks more like spider verse to me i posted in our our chat here our our friend uh sandy posted a direct comparison of aloy in fortnight versus aloy in this game and actually aloy looks a lot more cartoony in this game than

1:26:07Chris Pranger:in fortnight definitely she definitely looks i like the way she looks comparison i liked i liked seeing her just for a moment. You know, I wonder what role she'll play in the game, if any. She's a little midget, just like she was in the VR game. It was so weird. It's like, what are you, like three foot two?

1:26:30Colin Moriarty:Why have we asked our contractor we found on Angie.com to be our kid's legal guardian? Because he took such good care when redoing our basement that we knew we could trust him to care for our kids, all eight of them, should something happen to us. Are you my dad now?

1:26:45Chris Pranger:Uh, no. Sorry, I do basements. Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. Hunter's Gathering. Well, I'm excited. So I guess we'll all try. I mean, I'm definitely going to play it when it comes out. Yeah. We have heard from others, though. I want to get another inquiry in here before we move on. Sweet Jones run in. And said, is Horizon at risk of losing its identity? PlayStation has become very Disney-like with this series. The first one sells well and in an effort to milk it, sees themselves running it into the ground.

1:27:22Chris Pranger:The latest attempt being a Fortnite-looking canon multiplayer game. Seems like a wasted opportunity to me considering Zero Dawn was one of the most original concepts at release. Since Forbidden West, I've been increasingly disappointed with the direction of the series, kind of wishing we were getting the Chinese ripoff, especially since the Korean MMO isn't coming to PS5. I still am flummoxed by the whole MMO thing, but it makes more sense even now about why they want to keep them separate to not flood the zone although I think you should just what I assume will happen with the MMO is that if it does well enough on PC they probably will bring it to PS5 but it might be a wait and see approach and this game's success because it's first party being made by one of their biggest teams is just much more important

1:28:03Chris Pranger:I just I will say this sweet Jones is like I agree that they're doing too much with Horizon I agree and I don't think that this is too much though it's too bad that the VR game and the Lego game exist because if you just removed those and again but on the other side does it really matter that they exist if like if you most almost none of you played either of those games you have to have a PSVR 2 to play the Horizon VR game most of you don't have one which is fine there's really no reason to have a PSVR 2 and then no one played I'm the only person in the world that might have played a Lego Horizon in the entire world.

1:28:42Chris Pranger:So these games exist, but if it's like a forest in the tree or a forest, a tree in the forest, like you're not even there to hear it. It doesn't matter. And that's kind of what I think people need to focus on more. It's like, yeah, an overexposure thing hurts the brand generally, but I actually think it's not been overexposed for normal audiences that really actually only have access to Horizon 1 and 2, and you do have access to Lego Horizon as well, but so yeah I think they're getting a little aggressive with it but I also think people seriously underestimate the popularity of the franchise I think people conflate this overwhelming hate for everything on the internet with it translating to real life and I just think that that's not necessarily true Zero Dawn was a huge success but Forbidden West was as well and I just think people people think it's something's not for them or they're tired of it.

1:29:39Chris Pranger:Everyone's tired of it. I don't know that that's necessarily true. In other words, speak your piece like we just did about Star Wars. But I still understand that it's not for me anymore. And I'm not exposed to really any of it because I don't have Disney Plus and I'm not going to be able to watch it or whatever. So I get it. I get what people's consternation is about this. But at the same time, I don't know that it really matters. And because it's fairly clear to me that we're not getting Horizon 3 anytime soon. this is totally fine for me, especially as a release next year. I mean, think of next year.

1:30:11Chris Pranger:So if this year is like a marathon, Saros Wolverine next year would be something like this. Intergalactic. Maybe the dark outlaw game or something, or got a, you know, some, I wasn't gonna say got a war with Santa Monica's game or. So it's going to be, it's going to be a, a leg of the stool for sure. And, um, I'm rooting for it. I think it looks fun, but I will say that there is a little bit of a went to the video on YouTube for the, the, um, the trail of the 10 minute trailer and, and interview sequence, which people can go check out for themselves. You definitely should make up your own decisions on whether you think it's interesting or not.

1:30:53But, um, the thumbs up to thumbs down is like six to four, something like that.

1:31:01Chris Pranger:So that'd be three to two, I guess right so not as bad as you would not great but still more people liking it than not which is a little bit of a victory in this day and age I think where it's very easy to thumbs things down write things off as with everything that Sony releases I mean this is the big thing for intergalactic in my opinion is it's going to be all about the game like once you see the game once people play it you'll be able to make better decisions conclusions on whether you really are into it or not. But I'm personally excited about it, but I love Horizon. So I am biased towards it.

1:31:40Chris Pranger:Is there anything else we want to say about Gorilla or Horizon or whatever else? I guess in some way, it is a little bit of a shame that this studio has just been wrapped up into this one franchise, but that's the way it's going for a lot of the Sony first parties as the games take longer to make. They've basically been all in on horizon when you consider so Shadowfall comes out 2013 so around 2013 till now 13 years so it is I would like to see something else from them at some point and I don't know that that's going to happen anytime soon

1:32:16Colin Moriarty:I'm intrigued by this point that Sweet Jones made and I saw a lot of other people that says seems like a wasted opportunity I guess the thought behind that is just that if gorilla is making this game then it's taking longer for them to make horizon three

1:32:33Chris Pranger:is the thought right right i mean i i would assume let me see if we gorilla wiki uh i didn't spell with two r's there we go i was just wondering if um we had a head count for a head count for it or not let's see yeah 385 so i bet you that there's two games going but the thing is is that they're both horizon games almost certainly yeah the more fascinating thing would be if they were making a kill zone game or something or just something new but i don't i don't think so i think i'm

1:33:15Colin Moriarty:trying to it's weird because i feel like in my life i've been disappointed by franchises that i like or whatever or feel like something's a wasted opportunity or whatever that like i'm like post jaded at this point where it's like i don't know i i see this and i'm like well this looks like it might be kind of cool and i guess if you're disappointed that you're getting horizon three later than uh what it might have been if they hadn't made this i guess i don't i think about this too like i imagine like if you're going to pick up a pizza and the guy at the counter is like oh by the way we're also making subs now or hoagies and you're like oh my god i can't what about my pizza like uh is this gonna it's gonna affect how long it takes to make my pizza what it's like i don't like hoagies it's like well then don't order that we're still making pizza for you yeah yeah you know interesting interesting analogy maybe it's not totally accurate because these games do take a long time to make yeah a lot of resources they do i i also

1:34:28Chris Pranger:just think i don't know that it hurts horizon as a franchise to just give it a little space between the second and third games but then again this kind of release just interrupts that space so part of me wants them to just get the third game out and over with not only because the second game i thought was so awesome and told a great story and i want to see how they're going to wrap it up it's so crazy the whole story but just because it gets it like all right like yeah i would be very curious to know like what their people want to do and how that all plays in but I don't know I will say we've noted this over and over again especially in the last year or two is I am just so tired of everyone hating everything as someone who is naturally pessimistic and dour and all the rest like I even I don't get it like the level dude yeah it's you're post jaded right but it's like whatever but it's but to me I'm like what are you it's it's not even trying to be a dickhead i think people imbibe video games differently over different amounts of time and but it's like why are you so tired of everything it's it would be highly unlikely you've played more games than say me or play as many as long as i do every day or every week or every and i'm not saying we're all the same we're all different but it's like I am constantly it's what Jaffe always really refers to it's like I find different ways to be delighted all the time like things surprise me all the time and I just feel like everyone has this very closed minded disinterested uncurious outlook on games and I think it kind of sucks and I'm kind of over it like I just people were always I always bring up Zelda and stuff like that back in the day on GameCube and people make fun of Wind Waker or whatever.

1:36:33Chris Pranger:People always hated shit. There's no doubt. I was there, I know. But it has gotten to a degree where you're almost not even allowed to be earnestly excited about something. And you lose sight of, like, look at the conversation around Yote and then how well it sold. Right? These are disparate things where a group of people that like something and are buying something are not even talking about it to the degree of its popularity because it gets flooded by sardonic fucking insights into everything, most of which these games. See, the thing I try to do is I try to play games instead of judging them.

1:37:15Chris Pranger:And we judge things from the outside all the time. We judge things enough to not play them. And we all do that. And that's OK. But it feels like people are doing it for everything. and in an era where we have so much choice and option it seems like that should be dying not becoming more powerful that's my whole take and i think this is just another example like it's sad to me that i can just look at something and know how people are going to react to it right i just know i saw i saw i saw that i went and watched the horizon video and i'm like i I'm like there's nothing really wrong with this but by the way nothing they did with horizon is going to be good enough so yeah it's like there's I'm sorry to interrupt Chris I just wanted to say too that spider-man 2 is another example of this spider-man 2 still sells hundreds of thousands of copies a month and yeah and people are like this game fucking sucks this woke bullshit with the deaf black girl and the gay couple.

1:38:22Chris Pranger:And I'm like, yet, yet it is slowly churning these many millions of copies over time and people like it and they're drowned out by this endless negativity. And it bums me out because some games really deserve that negativity. Think of Mind's Eye. But it's funny how neutered almost the reaction of Mind's Eye was comparable to the way people treat everything to where it didn't even feel that impactful and i don't know i don't i don't get it so chris i don't know if you remember what you're going to say but i wanted

1:38:56Colin Moriarty:to just throw that out yeah i mean it's it's weird i feel like there's no um because there's criticism i think i think a lot of times people hear us have this conversation they're like well oh they're just like on corpo defense or whatever or like you know like it's um how can you listen podcast and think that i know i know but like i'm not saying it makes sense i'm saying people think it and it's like you know oh you're not allowed to criticize anything it's like no there's like there's room for educated critique i think educated critique is is great i think i i have a lot of criticisms of spiderman 2 i don't think it's a game that sucks like by any means but i do think it's in some areas weaker than the first one and that's fine and i don't know i i it sucks that i can't prove this but i really feel like i know it to be true where like if you could somehow take this culture and bring it back to like the early 2000s or the late 90s you'd get the same responses from like for crash brandicoot or like spyro or like any number of other things that were that are that are now considered like kind of like iconic uh you get the same kind of sardonic like oh they're they fucking they're they put crash in a go-kart you know like it would be this you'd get the same cynicism and i i think that's just true like i think people will see like games that are just good or at the very least like completely inoffensive and just not for them and then they'll just freak out and i just kind of don't get it um and it makes paying attention to the space really exhausting

1:40:34Chris Pranger:yeah i agree i know we talked extensively about high guard and that game's obviously dying on the vine but i still feel like what happened in that game was unnatural was not purely economic in nature but something well do you know what the proof of that is yeah there's like do you

1:40:53Colin Moriarty:know there's like there's like there's a streamer like i can't remember it's like a controversial guy i think actually but like there was like a guy who's like yeah i'd actually like high guard i would play it more often if my twitch chat wouldn't complain it didn't complain about it oh was that i guess i'm gonna tim was it tim the tat man yeah i think it might have been um yeah so he was he was streaming it was like yeah i like it i'd play it more but like my my chat hates when i do so i guess we'll play something else and i'm like that's kind of

1:41:19Chris Pranger:that's kind of crazy domino dominoes hits when you don't have some bitch in your telling you how bad it is yeah i mean high ground's got problems yeah but i but for sure but that's I mean, that's totally. I mean, and that level of audience capture is to be expected, I guess. Sure. Yeah. But to me, I. I don't know, like, I think there are more and more interesting stories about like, what is really going on here? Like, what what is what is all of this? This distorted this distortion field around everything. It feels like nothing is truly what it is. and I feel like oh I don't mean to be like I like gatekeeping sometimes and I think that there's a place for it and there's not a place for it but what bothers me is it seems like a lot of this shit comes from people that simply don't really know games very well don't really play them are there to their shit in the game like I like playing games I play games every day for hours these people's exposure to or influence on the industry is to start narratives or to create drama or whatever.

1:42:30Chris Pranger:And that's your right. I mean, whatever, but it's becoming a powerful force that is acting as like an unseen weight on the scale. And I don't know. I just, I just, I get bummed out about it because I just feel like we're, I don't think things always deserve the benefit of the doubt I always make fun of previewing games and how much I hated doing it because you have to kind of be like well it's not done every preview would end with like it's this isn't the completed package so anything can happen it's like yeah we know that but like you could still try to see what they are and stop being so jaded with in a world of great choice like unmitigated choice and infinite backlogs it's just it's just confusing to me and i just feel like i'm saying the same thing over and over so whatever yeah you say we

1:43:20Colin Moriarty:know that but i mean do we broadly do we broadly know you remember when gta the gta leak happened and everybody was like i can't believe how shit this looks it's like there's a lot of us who just don't know what the fuck know anything about this and what's worse is that like there's a lot of people who don't know anything about the games industry or how games are made or anything about it but then there that also are tourists to the thing that they complain about i saw that a lot going I saw that a lot this what is it this week with like the fallout show or whatever like a lot of people just a lot of people dunking on like there are these like famous or not famous but like a notable kind of I don't know what you would even call it like a take farm damn near where they're just like just like tweet is complain about like oh this is I can't believe they made them this and it's like everybody who play the game is like in the comments like it was like this this was like this throughout all of New Vegas actually and it's just like oh no it's i don't know my the thing that i lament is that none of it feels genuine i like i like an earnest hate man like that they used to be all in the form those those used to be all in the forums though you know what i mean like the dedicated like i remember like the halo 2 forums back in the day like people hated halo 2 which is hilarious but like there that was it was always isolated to like these like hyper specific but now like it's just kind of like front-facing and all of it's like muddled in with everything and now it gets algorithmically boosted because people are engaging with it at a higher level than they would normal stuff so it's like it's all i don't know it's all synthetic well and i think what makes it hard too is that sometimes the criticism is or the pessimism is valid right like you do get games like concord that's like a broken clock situation i did i was uh i was thrown down with the members of the last and discord earlier this morning and i found on reddit a post about marvel rivals when it got announced yeah feels like i'm taking crazy pills because this looks absolutely miserable goes to show how badly people want overwatch clone i guess another comment i'm with you this doesn't pass the smell test on the mobility of characters and how quick the kills seem to go it'll be dead in a year after launch or reworked and scrapped entirely it's like so crazy and now look at it you know so it's like the gut reaction and i get it and you know i think all three of us get it as

1:45:45Chris Pranger:very pessimistic people yeah i mean i do get it i am a pessimist i just don't i guess there's a line between like selective schadenfreude about things you don't like and then just having the schadenfreude and this kind of death wish for everything and it's like very it's just unrelatable to me it's just totally unrelatable so um i don't know i don't know what else there is to say horizon hunters gathering though go sign up for the beta on ps5 and pc if you want i guess it's interesting no xbox version not a huge surprise there i still think the hell divers thing i think what they were doing and i think it's by the time they have a marathon's already going to be on xbox but by the time they have the opportunity to have another hit outside of those multiplayer games i don't think xbox is even going to be a going concern of any kind and i think what they were doing with Helldivers was simply propagating the player base as much as they could in the moment.

1:46:42Chris Pranger:Yeah. But I think that like them not announcing these games for other platforms is pretty indicative of that being a one-time thing or at least a seldom thing. I wonder if they'll bring something else over. All right. Horizon Hunters Gathering. That's that. Good luck to you, Gorilla. Be interested to see what happens. Sony's financials are what we're going to cover next. and this is for quarter three fiscal year 2025. So the quarter we're in now, January to March 31st, January 1st to March 31st of 2026 is Q4 of fiscal year 2025. So the next fiscal report will be the big one because that will be the annual stuff.

1:47:24Chris Pranger:But we do have details here to go through and I wrote notes and pulled them out. People can go to the Sony's website and read the presentation and all the supplemental information. There's also a presentation that they do in Japan where people ask them questions or whatever. I have not watched that yet because that happened overnight. But here's what we need to know. For Sony overall, year over year, sales were up 1%, so kind of weak, but a little bit of growth. But operating income profit up 22 % for the entire company. So things are going very, very well for Sony. Volume, not higher, but operating income higher.

1:47:59Chris Pranger:For PlayStation specifically, the games and services, the games and network services section of Sony, the biggest part of it, which is PlayStation. Year over year, sales are flat a little down. Operating income is up 15 % or so, which is good. So they're in decent shape. one of the things I realized when reading the reports is that they have these slides for tariff effects and that it seems like the tariff effects haven't been as bad as they thought they were going to be and revised quarter over quarter downward about the effect going into quarter four so that's good news especially if you're in the United States year over year PS5 sold fewer units in this it's sixth holiday season isn't that crazy so 2020 2021 2022 2023 2021 that's six holiday seasons with ps5 it feels like time is just flying i remember when people i remember when we were doing the show chris and ps5 was like a like not even announced just yeah it's just it's just very weird um so fewer ps5 sold year over year not a huge surprise i was and i Dustin, I want to hit you with this in a little while, but keep it in mind is I was fascinated that PS5 sold more units than Switch 2 in the holiday season.

1:49:22Chris Pranger:I don't know. This is the sixth year again for PlayStation 5, the first holiday for Switch. I wonder what that means for Nintendo. Although Nintendo stock took a beating, I think, too, because of that. Sony might have as well. Numbers are getting better for Sony for a few different reasons. Foreign exchange is improving. which is good for them. They're obviously doing, they're doing a business in US dollars primarily, translating into a weaker yen. Things are doing better because of network services and first party games. Ghost of Yote, according to the CFO of Sony, actually has sold faster than Tsushima.

1:50:00Chris Pranger:Not a huge surprise yet. You're telling me this for the first time. That's especially impressive considering they sold it into about 90 million PS5s while Ghost of Tsushima came out to probably something like 105 million PS4s. So pretty nice. And they're revising upwards for the next quarter, which is also a good sign. They beat their expectations for Wall Street and for Tokyo Street. Third-party sales are expected to be very strong next quarter. Not a huge surprise. Games are going to start coming out. And we're in this quarter now. So we're looking at games like Resident Evil and so on and so forth.

1:50:43Chris Pranger:December 2025's monthly active users were a record for PlayStation. 132 million people were active on PlayStation platforms in December. This is up year over year from 129 million units. It's 129 million people. It's important to note that the MAU numbers vacillate by quarter greatly. People are less engaged in certain quarters just traditionally than in other quarters. So it's always important to do quarter or year over year comparisons. by quarter. And in that reference, they're up 3 million monthly active users, which is good. It is a little concerning, though, because it suggests that it's people churning PS4 into PS5.

1:51:24Chris Pranger:They're not getting... They only have 3 million new people, in other words, year over year. PS5, through December 31st, so more than a month ago, 92.2 million units shipped. I was trying to think about how many consoles are probably in the channel at any any given time. And you have to assume it's something like a couple million. So it's likely they've surpassed 92.2 million units sold to consumers at this point. In quarter four, I'm sorry, in quarter three, calendar year quarter four, so October, November, December, holiday season, Sony sold 8 million PS5s. It's down from 9.5 million last year.

1:52:07Chris Pranger:not a huge surprise there and game sales are booming i did these quarterly breakdowns year over year quarterly breakdowns quarter one last year sony sold 53.6 million units and this year they sold fiscal year sold 65.9 million units quarter two 77.7 million units to 80.3 million units and then this last quarter quarter three 95.9 million units to 97.2 million units so game sales are increasing even though the inertia of these free-to-play games is growing as well but that's a good sign people are buying games still at a higher clip than ever and dust and bad news year over year digital trends from 74 to 76 so people a little getting a little more digital than usual um that's about it dustin do you have any thoughts on any of the numbers anything you want to go over um the switch stuff is interesting i mean it's not directly rated related to play

1:53:10Colin Moriarty:station but you brought that up yeah i mean what does that mean i i i looked at that and i was like

1:53:13Chris Pranger:really because at first i saw i well at first i saw that they sold 17 million switches which i was like switch twos was like that sounds pretty good but that's pretty bad for the holiday season my

1:53:24Colin Moriarty:assumption is is that there's just nothing to play yeah and they had such a big amount of sales at launch fastest was it am i right in saying that it was the fastest selling video game console launch ever i think so and i remember that yeah correctly um and i feel like i mean they've had some some huge hits on the console of course mario kart world donkey kong bonanza but i think that i I mean, we still don't have a dedicated Mario game. We have Mario Kart, of course, which was the best-selling game on Switch 1, so it made sense, but I think it is a little bit barren, maybe particularly for American interest too, because I know the Kirby Air Riders went crazy in Japan, but not necessarily as appealing here.

1:54:19Colin Moriarty:Yeah. Anything strike you, Chris? Not really. just really just the switch stuff but i i the switch stuff to me like is interesting because i kind of feel it personally where it's just like i think i think overall the like the overall curiosity of that type of that type of device is is not as novel and so there's less of a there's less of an inclination to jump on board with it because it's not a unique experience anymore it's just it's it's more of the previous thing like i got a switch i'm not i wasn't even like a nintendo person i genuinely wasn't even i wasn't looking forward to a mario game i wasn't looking forward to breath of the wild i wasn't like there was nothing on it that interested me the only thing that interested me was the premise of what the machine was in comparison to what other machines were doing at the time which was this hybrid console model which i had not seen before ever and uh that was unique and interesting and it's still cool and interesting but it's like i i i have experience now as as as a lot of people that i know have as well where you get a switch and it's cool and it's interesting but you use it for like Three days a year or something.

1:55:28Colin Moriarty:And it's just like kind of just kind of sits there and collects that. Like, I can't even remember the last. I genuinely cannot remember the last time I turned my switch on. It could have been either last year or two or three years ago. I genuinely don't know. So. It's it's probably a little bit of that also with just like, I've seen this before. I kind of get it. I played my switch in about six years. So. I just got a second one. Really? switch switch to i bought a switch to for holly because there was some kind of deal that if you did order pickup at sam's club they were 375 for a switch to with mario kart world why so why are you trying to get rid of them i don't know if it's they're trying to get rid of that skew or something but um with the ram prices going the way they are i'm like dude you're gonna want one of these eventually when something which you know she's going to play dragon quest on it but i was like it's time to pull the trigger now because it's it's not getting cheaper no by the

1:56:32Chris Pranger:way that's i'm glad you mentioned that in the because i haven't listened to the call yet i just read some reporting on it on the um on the financial call but the cfo apparently said that they feel like they have component pricing and access lockdown for the rest of the year for ps5 so that should indicate that as long as the economic situation remains stagnant and there's not new inflationary pressures or tariffs or whatever that hopefully the ps5 will at least stay constant um because i know that this is a major problem for the steam machine and that they they did announce that it's still coming this year soon but that they've delayed everything because of access and pricing and it's like yeah because you this is it i give myself a little bit of credit because i don't know too much about hardware but i did say that i feel like if any company will suffer it's going to be valve because they just don't have the channels and access that major electronics corporation companies do you know it's going to become it's going to become very complicated for them um it's going to become very complicated for everybody but i thought that was good news no indication as far as i can tell on what's going on with ps6 as well not that they're going to talk about it really i guess more literally but um because there's a lot of there are a lot of rumors that the next xbox is coming next year and that'll be so interesting because i It just feels so premature.

1:57:49Chris Pranger:I think that that's about it, though. They did note, as I said, Goseyote, they didn't give specific sales numbers since their last update, but did note that it is outselling Tsushima time adjusted and that it contributed significantly to their profit. So there is, to all of us first party single player fans and second party as well, there is still a place for us and there's still money to be made if the game's still appreciably. It's just that it's very hard to get these games out regularly. You can't really rely on them. And then for every one of these, you have a Concord or something like that that's going to hurt them.

1:58:24Chris Pranger:And that's what I'm really curious about with Marathon. They seem, I don't want to say bullish, but confident in Marathon. I think it is coming together. I think Chris has made the point many times that Ark Raiders has been a great benefit to Marathon, to grease the skids or whatever, as it were. and we'll see. But I feel like that will be a moderate hit for them. I don't know how long term it's going to be. We'll have to wait and see. All right. I was kind of curious. I saw this on Push Square. I just wanted to bring this up because I was wondering what you guys think of this. They write over there, fans hope this mysterious PS Store listing points to a PS Stars replacement.

1:59:06Chris Pranger:Last year, they write, Sony quite suddenly dropped support for its PlayStation Rewards program, PS Stars. While it had its flaws, the system gave customers the opportunity to earn back a bit of money in the form of PS Store credit. Unfortunately, now PS Stars is no longer active. We're back to there being no reward scheme at all. Now fans have discovered a strange new page on the PlayStation Store, and they're hoping it suggests a replacement is on the way. While it's yet to be officially acknowledged, a listing for something called Wallet Credits is viewable on the browser version of the PlayStation Store.

1:59:34Chris Pranger:Currently, it contains no further information other than Sony Interactive Entertainment being listed as a publisher. Oh, and you can wishlist it if you want. Radek, our friend, real Radek, is the one who discovered this, I think, or at least one of the people that propagated it. They have a picture of his tweet here. The leading theory they write on this is that Sony is looking to replace PS stars with something new. Perhaps you'll earn wallet credits with every purchase and they can be turned into proper wallet funds at certain thresholds. That's purely speculative at this stage, though. An alternative theory, it doesn't make a lot of sense to be able to purchase PS store credit for yourself.

2:00:05Chris Pranger:So could Sony be preparing to finally allow gifting on its digital storefront. Maybe you'll be able to send wallet credits to a friend's account so they can purchase something with it. I don't know. Dustin, I don't know what to make of this. I don't know why people are assuming this has to do with PlayStation Stars necessarily. It's an object in the back end. That's what's so weird about it. The picture Raddick shares is an object as if it was a game or an expansion. It has an about page. It has an add-on page. I don't know. I don't... That doesn't mean... If it was... I mean, it could be something like that, but if it was that like why would it be appearing like this yeah i don't know what to make of this

2:00:41Colin Moriarty:what do you think yeah can you i it's still live yeah i'm trying to figure out what the point would be because if you get like a playstation gift card you redeem it and then you have money on your account to spend so but there's no way to buy just money for your account on the console itself.

2:01:08Chris Pranger:Right? No, I don't think so. Well, you only stars did that, which I like you could send the money to your wallet, I guess. But it's not like the Wii used to be or something where you would put memory that you'd have to buy$25 worth of credits then spend the money. So you always have this awkward amount of money left over.

2:01:27Colin Moriarty:Right. So that's kind of what it sounds like is the ability to just instead of buying a game directly buying credit But why? Like, why would you want to do that? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what this is. They should add gifting, though. That seems like a no brainer.

2:01:47Chris Pranger:Yeah, I don't know what they're what they're. Everyone else does that, right? I mean, Nintendo has done that forever. I think you can do it on Xbox. Certainly you can do it on Steam. Yeah, I don't know what that's all about either. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe abuse or something. I think everything they I think they're scared of everything because of abuse.

2:02:04Colin Moriarty:so right yeah i'm reopening my friends list you have to gift me a uh a copy of balan wonder world in order to join i'll take any other credits dude that's we got to figure out how to abuse the system once it happens maybe that's it you want to like you're gonna for your free games you're

2:02:26Chris Pranger:gonna hold people up yeah yeah something like that yeah i don't know i don't know wallet credits i don't know what this is but i send a link to you guys in the chat here i mean the the objects up yeah i see it and what's it what's interesting about it is they're like in radix picture i don't know where he got that like there's even a playstation like the the sacred symbols low not not the show logo but like the you know square triangle x circle

2:02:52Colin Moriarty:logo next to it the mobile version oh yeah maybe that's what it is

2:02:56Chris Pranger:so that's what it looks like

2:02:59Colin Moriarty:who

2:03:01Chris Pranger:knows they need to get a I would love to think this is a replacement for stars I mean that's wishful thinking I think but we do need a reply like we in there needs to be a loyalty system on PlayStation and that was about as close as they got to it and it was quite generous I thought actually if you buy a lot of games so we'll see what else is here on the list oh a couple of uh new patents to talk about these both come from our friends at video games chronicle who dug these up and we appreciate their hard work the first one is sony has patented a touchscreen playstation controller that lets players choose where to put the buttons they write sony has obtained a u.s patent for a special controller with a touchscreen that lets players choose where the button should go the patent was filed back in february 2023 but was issued last week and is described as, quote, designs and methods for a game controller, end quote.

2:03:56Chris Pranger:According to the patent's description and accompanying images, the controller would have a large touchscreen covering most of its top surface, where the buttons would usually go. The idea is that players would be able to customize where the D-pad, sticks, or action buttons should be positioned on the controller to best suit their personal taste, accessibility needs, or what best suits each specific game. It appears that players can also choose to resize the buttons or even remove some buttons altogether for certain games. So there's some images here. interesting idea that's one and then the other thing sony patents ai generated podcasts voiced by characters from its games they write sony has acquired a new patent for the creation of bespoke ai generated podcasts starring video game characters the patent which was applied for in july 2024 and granted in late january 2026 is titled llm based generative podcast for gamers quote video game platforms currently lack the ability to provide unique and targeted content to gamers to update the gamers about things that are happening on the platform.

2:04:53Chris Pranger:There are currently no adequate solutions to the foregoing computer-related technological problem, end quote. The solution proposed by the patent is to, quote, generate a podcast of news related to the data with the podcast presenting the news and a voice of a video game character of a video game played by the video game player. And say video game one more time. Its description depicts a scenario where the player starts up their console and are shown a message on the home screen informing them, your personalized podcast is available for today. Rather than a pre-recorded podcast made available to all users, the podcasts in this example are all individual to each user based on what they've played and may even star characters from the games they've been playing.

2:05:29Chris Pranger:It could even lead to potential crossover situations with the patent describing a character from one game potentially having dialogue with a character from a different game. As the patent describes it, the console would pull data from various elements, including recent gameplay, friends lists, and other console level events and inform the player about them in this podcast. In one example, the player is watching two AI hosts presenting the podcast. One host says, Jack Brown just won trophy 532 in Space Explorers. You should try your hand at that game, to which the other host replies, ha, if you think you have the skills.

2:05:58Chris Pranger:And another, the first host says, in other news, there's a software update for Gen X, so update now. Their co-host adds, also try a spin move on the boss next time. Chris?

2:06:13i am genuinely fucking i don't know i i is there a demand for uh is there a demand for more podcasts

2:06:26Colin Moriarty:that's so great so crazy i look man i get that patents are patents and like they often don't like end up really anywhere um like even just the even the touchscreen controller like i feel Like it's just kind of them just spitballing ideas about like, well, what if we do just kind of eventually like not have buttons? Like how are we going to navigate that if that ever does happen? Patent this for safety or whatever. It's an idea. Why not? But I just the very idea of this like is so like, oh, man, did you hear about Colin getting a trophy? Yeah, it's like, is that what you really want?

2:07:01Chris Pranger:What the fuck? It's so interesting. And you said it and I should have I should have even led with that. It's like Sony undoubtedly has thousands of patents that it's never used. So right there, they just have ideas and they're just protecting them. But, and we've, we've thought over the years of sacred, we've talked so many times about random patents that have never materialized. So, right. So I don't expect that this is going to happen, but it is very, the controller might, but this is a very funny nonetheless. It's, I just, it definitely sounds like shit. I'll say that.

2:07:35Colin Moriarty:that yeah yeah i'm just thinking of the meme because chris brought up like do we need more podcasts like there's the meme of like three white guys are like hey we can we can start a podcast it's like kratos he's like boy i have an idea we we could start a channel and also i like in this in this write-up the last end says uh in certain instances the audio may include a joke at the video game players expense oh cool so again like is this kratos like i see you're playing persona 5 are you a pedophile are you gay boy yeah sly and sly and bentley in there like have you seen the epstein files slide like oh cool this is absolute this is abysmal dog shit but like uh this is very funny.

2:08:29Colin Moriarty:This is, it's a very funny thing that this exists, but like, I can't, I can't imagine the podcast thing ever happening just because like, it's just so inherently cringe that like, you're, you're better off just like avoiding it altogether. I guess it's good to have a patent in case you ever want to intentionally shoot yourself in the foot, I guess, but like, um, and legally do it. Um, but I can't imagine an AI generated podcast ever going well. The meme already is that there's too many podcasts. So the idea that like, oh, you know, we need an infinite supply. That's generated on the fly forever.

2:09:04Chris Pranger:Like I know, no, brother. Agreed. I also just can't help but think of the licensing issues. And because they're talking about it being an LLM. So it's training. And what is Master Chief going to talk to Kratos? It reminds me of the like the like all the problems they have with Smash Brothers and shit like that. you know like we can't have any images of kratos getting beaten up by mario it's simply not possible that's the kind of shit and i'm not saying that that specifically happened but that's the kind of shit that happens where it's like these are that how people justify their jobs is like my job is to make sure that there's no marketing in which a lawyer is shooting master chief with a fucking bow and arrow and that's never happening on my watch and that's their entire job and then everyone wonders why there's 10 000 layoffs every fucking two days at uh Microsoft or one of these other big companies.

2:09:54Chris Pranger:The patent for the controller sounds kind of cool. Although. Yeah. Digital sticks are not a thing that work. I mean, I think that some people get used to it on phones and then that's the way people that, but what would be cool is to have some sort of magnet. I don't even know if this would be possible. Wouldn't it be cool to have like a touchscreen, total touchscreen, like a, like a normal dual sense with some sort of magnet. thing where you could put the sticks on it wherever you want to like plop plop and then the other buttons are digital right i think i know what you're saying i mean yeah that would

2:10:33Colin Moriarty:wow that'd be something like that kind of exists on phones where you can put something it's almost like a 3ds stick that can plop on top so you have a physical stick on a phone love the word plop you know plop it on there but what's interesting what i thought about this because i had the same thought as you colin where it's like dude touch screens no thank you but maybe is that an unk take because you know like my little cousin he primarily plays games on his because he has no taste i know that i know i agree i don't even know i don't know that boy but there's a whole generation of kids that are used to playing games, full 3D games on a touchscreen.

2:11:17Chris Pranger:Yeah, you're right. I mean, you're absolutely right. And it's also like there have been major success stories on phone of 3D action. So it's not like like Infinity Blade is one of those games people loved back in the day. You know, I also want to be clear about one thing because we say this about Vita sometimes is the Vita was dope because it was it was a touchscreen and all the buttons and sticks like being able to have that option of using a touch screen while playing with sticks and buttons is it is the ideal in my opinion but that only works if you are playing on the screen as a controller in other words that kind of shit is useless if you're playing on the tv but i loved games where it's like you have some like you're playing and you have all these options but you can also like press the screen to like bring up a menu or kill zone you'd slash the screen to like i was like this kind of that's kind of cool so i don't want to make it seem like i'm totally against touch controls i just think they need to be augmented by i'll yeah i'll believe it

2:12:16Colin Moriarty:when i see it fair enough type of thing you know i mean because we all felt that way about like iphone you know i remember specifically being like i want my buttons and then eventually just got used to it but granted we're staring at the buttons if we have like you just like you mentioned with like the it's one thing on a phone where you're already staring at the screen you kind of like have you kind of know where the buttons are because you're already looking at it if you're looking away like you kind of need that tactile like non-visual represented representation of like where the buttons are to really play effectively if they can solve that somehow like that'd be pretty impressive i'll always remember and i've certainly said this in a

2:12:52Chris Pranger:previous episode but that it was parapa the rapper in eighth grade that taught me where the face buttons were like that words like you got to learn what the fuck triangle x you knew triangle x but circle and square, I would often get confused when I was a kid. And then eventually you learn where all the buttons go. And so the idea of even moving them after all this time is like, are you kidding? Like, are you fucking kidding me? Also, that controller sounds like it's going to be about$800. So yeah, prepare yourself for that as well. But Dustin, you might be right. Maybe that is a little bit of an older person's take.

2:13:30Chris Pranger:I hate it. But I just couldn't imagine playing a game like i can't imagine like resident evil 4 chris always brings up like it's impressive that it runs on a phone it is but imagine playing it like what no matter like how nice your phone is or how big your phone is it's like what your fingers are all over the fucking screen it's it's it's like it's really ridiculous what do you think about it you gotta bust out you gotta

2:13:56Colin Moriarty:bust out david lynch for for that right that famous rant that he's like if you think you've experienced Resident Evil 4 on a phone that's sad it's fucking depraved

2:14:08Chris Pranger:yeah that rant is one of my favorite things and then they talk to him about how long Dragon Quest 7 is and then he takes his headphones off he's like who the fuck cares about how long it is who the fuck cares about how long a game is

2:14:21Colin Moriarty:every day with this every day

2:14:26Chris Pranger:alright this was a big piece of A lot of things happened in the week because this was a pretty big piece of news that was originally a little more top loaded for our show, but we got to it finally. IGN and Variety, Variety being the kind of more of a filmic publication, IGN, obviously my alma mater, both wrote stories that are interesting in relation to Grand Theft Auto 6. Take Two, the owner of Rockstar, had their Q3 financial results for fiscal year 2025. and they basically confirm and this is where things get a little exciting they basically confirm grand theft auto 6 is coming or at least uh that they feel very confident that it'll be coming november 19 2026 which is the most recent release date and there's a lot of skepticism reasonably so until you get to that day until you're about really until you get the message like six weeks out like we've gone gold probably no reason to really be truly confident that they're not going to push it because they're gonna have to do what they have to do but as we've noted in the past you have to shit or get off the pot at some point with this game it's extremely expensive you're paying a ton of people you gotta get a return on this and um ign writes the following grand that thoto 6 is november 19 2026 release date is drawing near and while the game has now suffered multiple delays take two interactive is starting to sound more confident than we've ever heard them that this time it's really happening.

2:15:50Chris Pranger:So confident. In fact, it's announced that Rockstar will be spinning up its marketing beats this summer. This comes from Take-Two's Q3 2026 earnings results, which were just released. In those earnings, Take-Two reaffirms that GTA 6 is indeed still planned for November 19, 2026. That on its own would be exciting news after two separate delays, but even better is a sentence at the bottom of the release sent to IGN, quote, Our execution throughout fiscal 2026 has been extraordinary, and we are highly confident as we approach fiscal 2027, which promises to be groundbreaking for Take-Two and the entire entertainment industry, led by November 19th release of Grand Theft Auto 6 with Rockstar's launch marketing set to begin this summer.

2:16:30Chris Pranger:That's sounding pretty, that's end quote. IGN continues, that's sounding pretty confident. Speaking of Take-Two, CEO Strauzelnik earlier today, I'm sorry. She asked Strauzelnik earlier today how he felt about the release date. this time to which he replied, quote, I feel good about it. Very good about it. And then she writes, now we've all asked Zelnick this before, and he said he felt really good about the fall 2025 release date that was originally announced ahead of two delays. So I asked him if this time was different in some way. And he said, quote, of course, because anytime you're getting closer to marketing beats, you're obviously in a place where your confidence level is as high as it can be so i think that's that variety meanwhile reports that there is basically no truth to the rumor according to stralsdelnik that there will be no physical copies of grand theft auto 6 at launch to avoid spoilers and leaks so that closes the loop on that for us as well um where are we on this.

2:17:26Chris Pranger:Dustin, is it happening?

2:17:29Colin Moriarty:I think it's happening. I thought that before this, even just because it feels like compared to previous Rockstar games, I think about the delays of Red Dead Redemption 2. I'm not sure the exact number, but it feels like it's gotten the same exact amount of delays. Maybe give or take one or two. I don't know. But it just seems like at this point based on how long this game has been in development and their messaging around when it was delayed because I think they were saying like they really wanted to polish it up. Like the game is probably done and being done for a while and they are just really, really polishing it to a T.

2:18:13Colin Moriarty:And there's also the whole element of like making sure Grand Theft Auto Online is ready, probably not at launch, but shortly after. the physical copy thing makes sense to me i think that with this game being as big as it is and for so many people that love grand theft auto that i think that even though there's certain people that would normally buy this game digitally that are going to want to go to a store and they want to own a physical copy of it just because it's so important to them maybe maybe maybe not a huge amount but it just seems it would seem insane to not have a retail presence for this game at launch so i understand the the spoiler aspect of it but i don't know maybe they'll do a thing where and i i know this negates the idea of a physical copy but maybe you can get a physical copy but it needs to be you know updated in order to actually play it at launch like where you have to go online or something.

2:19:15Colin Moriarty:Yeah, people are. So there are ways that. Yeah, there are ways that they could still achieve people not being able to play it until it comes out. But people don't like that either. So, yeah, people wouldn't.

2:19:27Chris Pranger:People would lose their minds if they did that, I think. But obviously, it'll be updated many times, but you know what I mean? There'll be some sort of base version of it. Maybe what they'll do is just keep. I don't know. I don't know, man, like. They are rock star. They have a lot of money. you could just do this really close to the vest is, but, but things always walk away. Like things walk off. Do you don't, you don't think there's going to be any sort of that people working at these various factories aren't going to know that they're printing Grand Theft Auto six and that there'd be massive demand for a few of those to walk off the assembly line and that you're making millions of them.

2:20:05Chris Pranger:It's going to be very, and it's just the disc. You don't need the case, you know? So like literally these discs are just going to be made hundreds of thousands a day or whatever it's just i don't know i don't know it's gonna be uh i wonder if and again using rockstar's influence i just simply wonder if sony and microsoft on their side could just say like these games simply will not boot you know um until a certain time or like you could put something on the disc for to pass a time stamp sort of thing or whatever i wonder i wonder like what the possibility would be or if maybe we're just overthinking and it doesn't really matter.

2:20:41Chris Pranger:But I just know like you have to understand that like if anyone gets their hands on that game a few weeks early, they're going to fucking ruin it. And I don't. So I think it's totally reasonable to expect that they're going to do something about that. And not having physical versions is the only way to stop it. You know, so that's what I'm disappointed in. Just prepare yourself. Come late October, early November, that game's going to be everywhere. Yeah. So now they're going to hunt and copyright strike and go after these people, no doubt, but that's not going to matter at that point. It'll be there and they'll just put in places where they can't get to it.

2:21:18Chris Pranger:So, Chris, Grand Theft Auto 6, November 2026, after two other delays. Charles Elnick seeming pretty confident and they've, I think they've, by the way, they're incorporating the assumption that it's launching into their financial guidance. So, it just seems like things are clarifying. What do you think?

2:21:39Colin Moriarty:yeah no i mean i'm i'm pretty at this point i feel good about it i'm just excited to see what it is man like i'm just like there's like a mysticism around this game that i'm just like so painfully curious about it so you know i'm i'm looking forward to it uh i'm feeling pretty good about the fact that we're going to be able to play it this year which is kind of wild um that's a long man what was it 2013 yeah long winding road holy hell man that'll be something And it's so funny because like the, I I'm still so taken aback by the screenshots that they use because like even in the little preview window for when you click the link here in the Google docs, it shows that main character lady at the pool with like a, like a martini.

2:22:22Colin Moriarty:And I look at that and I'm like, it really does make, I can't stress enough how much it makes GTA five look like a PS two game. And GTA five looked impressive to me at one point. I didn't think it could. I didn't think I could I would get that again you know from one game to the next that like that level of job I guess it's to be expected when it's been like 13 years but it's still kind of cool to see like uh because I feel like that's the kind of jump that we used to get uh we used to take for granted really from game to game yeah and now we're seeing it agreed seeing it again it's

2:22:55Chris Pranger:vaguely nostalgic in some way I'm um I'm just excited to see what a game what this game is and we've marinated on this before this idea of what a game that is this expensive and this deliberate looks like and that your expectations for it like there's so much pressure on this game it's not really going to matter because it's going to sell so by the way uh grand theft auto 5 uh 225 million copies sold as of the last financial result. Christ almighty, man. Holy shit. So it's not real. It's funny because the pressure is there, but it's not really going to matter. It's going to be a cultural phenomenon and everyone's going to buy it, which is why I'm very curious to see what Rockstar is going to do.

2:23:42Chris Pranger:I think there are indications that they're going to do a preview cycle. right I think even maybe Greg that kind of funny said something about sending someone to play it or whatever

2:23:53Colin Moriarty:that was a instance of over an over excited poster somewhere of misunderstanding what they said on the podcast

2:24:02Chris Pranger:interesting again it keeps happening yeah I'm the victim of that sorry Greg yeah I'm like I wonder again I just stress I don't know that they need to do anything And I would be so curious to see what that looks like, where it's like, no more. You're not seeing any more of it. We'll have like a launch trailer. You're not going to have any previews, no reviews. And you're all going to enjoy it at the same time. I think that that would be so bullish. And I feel fairly confident that a more guerrilla marketing style of splashy ads and promises of hitting this release date will be more effective and less risky than exposing your game to previews and reviews.

2:24:52Chris Pranger:Because this goes back to the cost of making the game and like you really should. Nothing's perfect. Did you guys have teachers that used to say practice makes better? you know the term is practice makes perfect but then there's no such thing as perfect so they'd be like practice makes better okay well like so there's not going to be anything perfect the game will probably crash every now and again and like that it's like whatever just the soup to nuts like it's got to be the most impressive thing you've ever seen in your life in a video game or it's not hitting the mark and i don't know why you would expose yourself oh so I'll be very interested to see like what their plan is but my assumption is that they're going to let people review it I mean I have a good relationship with Rockstar and you know Simon over there and the people that like run marketing and PR and it's like I was saying this about Saros and a couple other games like where it's like it's going to be hard I'm not going to do it but it's like I know I can get this game early if it was going to be available early it's it's one of those things where it's like ah too bad, I guess.

2:26:00Chris Pranger:I'll wait like everyone else, of course. The Fresh Prince of Despair wrote in and said, Hey guys, curious if you guys have felt this way before, but has there been a franchise you loved but realized you are no longer the target audience for? For me, I adored the earlier GTA games, GTA 4 being my personal favorite, but feel like the games are leaving behind the storytelling and unique characters in favor of a more online multiplayer setting GTA 5. I know it's too soon to tell what GTA 6 will be, but given the success of GTA 5's online mode, I can only guess as to what the focus of GTA 6 will probably be.

2:26:30Chris Pranger:Thanks, stay gay, and keep cranking that hog. Thank you so much for writing it.

2:26:38Chris Pranger:I think what they're going to try to do with Grand Theft Auto 6 is be a game for everyone. I think that at some point they lost sight of the GTA 4 mantra with GTA 5, reasonably so. GTA 5 is orders of magnitude bigger and more popular than GTA 4. But my suspicion, and I have nothing to go on with this, but my suspicion is that there is going to be robust single player support for the GTA 6. That's my feeling. I think they're going to do everything. And I'll be very interested if there's some sort of... Mind's eye is trying to do this. I wonder if there's going to be some sort of truly buildable functionality in the game ultimately to make your own shit in the game, to do your own thing, to make it platform level stuff.

2:27:25Chris Pranger:GTA online already has very, you know, I watch things on it every once in a while. It's like, it's got incredibly deep role-playing servers and it's like really, it's interesting. I find it interesting just because I can't believe people play games like this. It's how I felt about, um, about, uh, second life back in the day when I learned about that. And there was like awesome documentaries on that game. But so my feeling is that they're trying to make something truly immersive and they've already done that with GTA five. And now I think they have to close the loop with single player functionality and user generated content in a grander way.

2:28:00Chris Pranger:And that's my feeling of where it will go. I don't know if that's where it's going to be at first, but that's what I think a lot of the, I don't want to say a lot of the trouble, but I feel like there's going to be a major component of like in-game economy. Remember the auction house in Diablo 3 or something like that? Yeah. yeah like just like a lot of things to like i feel like there's so many ways to monetize it and so many ways to keep people engaged and for people to be able to make a true living on it like i don't know i just think that that's where it's going and i think that anything less than that it's kind of puzzling how you spend a couple billion dollars if you don't have something truly incredible but what i what i would love though is a gta this is not what i'm getting gta online is huge, so huge.

2:28:51Chris Pranger:I would love a GTA 6 with just single player content, but that's not that's not what's going to happen. And so are there franchises that have lost me over time? Yeah, but it's surprising that Grand Theft Auto has lost you because there's not that many of them. I feel like I feel like a major thing that's going to get people in is that there's just not that if you if you after the PS2 era, there's two Grand Theft Autos. It's really interesting when you think about that too. In 18 years, by the time it by the time it comes out, it'll be close to 19 years. since GTA 4 so I don't feel like there's enough to to lose you over that time that's my opinion

2:29:26Colin Moriarty:I agree yeah I don't know like it seems strange like I feel like if anything I feel like Rockstar with Red Dead Redemption 2 as their most late late as their most recent project like I feel like they've kind of that makes me more excited for the next GTA as opposed to you know GTA 5 because I just I feel like they understand that they can deliver like a really solid compelling single player narrative i feel like they and i feel like they understand that that's worth doing as far as like whether or not you're going to like i don't know like you're a little bit more bullish on the do you like do you think that there's going to be single player support in the sense of like they're going to add like there's going to be like lost in the dams yeah

2:30:04Chris Pranger:i feel like they'll i feel like they they know that they should have done that to begin with and i think they just got lost in the sauce with gtm and i feel like and it's just it's wish casting but it's my hope that they look at it and say like we could do both like why didn't we do both

2:30:17Colin Moriarty:um i would love that yeah me too i mean me too i would i i i'm a little bit doubtful of it but like i would love that i think i think they're they're just gonna deliver you a really great um really really really well written single player game with a lot of lived in feeling to it and i think i think the multiplayer component is going to lean into that like uh the role-playing thing like it wouldn't surprise me if like you could like record like you pulled out your phone in grand theft auto like in the game and like recorded shit and uploaded it to a like a fake social networking site in the game right like it wouldn't it wouldn't surprise me if you could like scroll on your phone in grand theft auto online yeah that would be cool like that wouldn't say that wouldn't surprise me or even like some of the multiplayer feed even some of the stuff that's like recorded in multiplayer like ends up in your single player feed or whatever like like stuff like that like i feel like it's gonna they would be they would be dumb not to lean into that aspect of it i mean it is like a massive thing that's kept that game alive and going for so long and it might not be the prime thing but um it's not insignificant and uh anything that they can build to kind of sell that fantasy of like uh you know just being able to live in this place is probably worth doing and like you said you would imagine that they would be doing that with all the money they poured into it like i don't know what i don't know what else you would be doing really if not pushing the envelope in those really weird meta directions because like how many pixels could you possibly squeeze onto the ass of a stripper you know like it's they gotta be they gotta be doing something more than just fidelity yeah Dustin's gonna find

2:31:51Chris Pranger:out the answer to that question let us know um yeah yeah you're right I mean we'll see what we'll see what happens with this I'm very I'm so excited to see I feel so bad for anyone that's releasing a game around it or even thinking about releasing a game around it but and that's the kind of the shitty part is that i assume now that it's becoming more clarified that what we're going to end up finding is like games will come out in october i think wolverine will probably come out mid-october or something like that but then it's everything's going to stop coming out you'll get yeah the sports games call of duty a couple other things but i you you'd be fucking nuts no matter what your game is and like what pocket you think your game fits in like oh we're releasing like a really traditional Japanese role playing games like doesn't matter don't release it there's gonna be no oxygen you won't even be able to light a fucking match there's gonna be so little oxygen you know so be mindful out there I think everyone already knows and I'm sure they're making their plans now in earnest again September October I think it'd be very crowded we'll see what happens okay this rumor was just published this morning from when we're recording this and it comes from push square they write rumor with a u because they're british starfield ps5 release date is set for 7th april again the date because they're british they write it's basically a case of when not if starfield is ported to ps5 and according to polish retail leaker grazdari the when is april 7 2026 A new report from the leaker claims Starfield will get its PS5 version on that date with a standard and premium edition on offer.

2:33:33Chris Pranger:The elephant in the room is the same source that now incorrectly claimed Rockstar wouldn't have a physical version of GTA 6 on release day. However, their claims in relation to Microsoft have been accurate in the past. They correctly corroborated a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2025 port to PS5 and supposedly shared early information surrounding the physical edition of Oblivion Remastered. rumors of Starfield rumors they write later rumors of a Starfield port the PSI have been doing the rounds for two years now there is word people have people seen the new stuff like I thought I thought I read

2:34:07Colin Moriarty:that oh like a Starfield 2.0 yeah that's I think I've heard Matty talk about that

2:34:13Chris Pranger:did he go and see it

2:34:15Colin Moriarty:I don't well no one's it's not been announced I thought maybe they had like I think there's rumors okay there's rumors about a Starfield 2.0.

2:34:22Chris Pranger:So this is all wrapped up into that. Who knows if this guy is accurate or not? Again, the Polish rumor about GTA 6 is that he got that wrong is obviously very, very notable, but that he's got the Microsoft stuff right is also notable. I guess this dude's reputation hinges on if Starfield comes out April 7th, but I would believe it. It does seem like Microsoft is releasing a lot of shit, though, at one. Like, obviously, we're getting everything, but I would space things out more because I think Avowed's coming out like somewhat soon. right yeah give things a little bit of space for christ's sake but i guess they don't really give a shit so um i'm uh compelled by i think i'll play starfield when it comes to ps5 probably not right away but i'll probably succumb to it at some point all right um there were there was word so i don't know if you guys remember in the spring there were there were interviews i think with craig Mazin and others where Mazin where he had said that they were kind of finding it hard to finish the series The Last of Us part two or The Last of Us HBO series in three seasons obviously season two and three are going to cover part two maybe even more than that but he had indicated that there would probably be a fourth season and yet in a an article from Deadline it is noted that it's likely that um the last of us will probably not see anything past a third season though they have a bunch of other um stuff in the in the works include so have you guys seen this heated rivalry show about the hockey players the gay hockey one yeah like i've not um i don't know anything about it i i was listening to a tim dylan thing yesterday where he was making fun of it or whatever and then i asked mike i'm like what is this show and she was like oh it's about like it's like a really sexually gratuitous show about like gay hockey players or something I'm like oh that's interesting

2:36:11Colin Moriarty:this article literally says the hockey gay romance with America by storm so accurate description according to deadline

2:36:22Chris Pranger:so I'm trying to find sorry my computer is acting up here here we go so deadline asks HBO executive since we're talking about endings I'm going to ask about hacks in The Last of Us. I don't know anything about hacks. Upcoming season also being final. Is this something you can confirm? So he's asking, is The Last of Us' upcoming season, the final season? And the executive answer is, it certainly seems that way. But on decisions like that, we will defer to the showrunners. So you can ask them. Well, the showrunner said that they were doing more than three seasons. So I don't know what to make of that.

2:36:53Chris Pranger:But I wonder if they're kind of reanalyzing The Last of Us as a long-term product for HBO. Obviously, the first season, both seasons did extraordinarily well. but I feel like the second season definitely missed comparable to the first and I wonder if they're just seeing softer returns and there's just no need to invest in this further plus there's really no subject matter you know material after we get Abby side of the story with the exception of I was wondering if they would do the Santa Barbara part of the of the Last of Us part two as the fourth season which I think would have been kind of cool and maybe even give Neil a little time by Neil a little time to see maybe if they get the game out by that point because by that point it would be 2029 maybe or something but I don't I don't know I don't really care anymore it's kind of a bummer yeah the more I've thought about the last of us part two or the last of us season two on HBO the more I'm like I don't know man I don't know yeah it's too bad it's too bad because I really liked the first season a lot and there are a lot of parts of the second season I like too but again just Bella Ramsey yeah I don't know I don't know what they were thinking with that ultimately yeah I was fine with it at first but the longer time has gone on I'm like yeah I don't know yeah no it's not working for me can't do it man sorry sorry man I thought you guys would find this interesting over at Reddit someone is still using their Netflix streaming on PS3 and they got a notice when they put it on as of a few days ago, saying, unfortunately, Netflix will no longer be available on this device after March 2nd, 2026.

2:38:37Chris Pranger:Visit Netflix.com slash compatible devices to see a list of supported devices. I couldn't even believe it was still working on PS3. This is surprising. Now, Dustin, I was curious if you had any insight into this because some people are saying that, and I don't know if I'm just missing something because I went and tried to find information about this, that they're saying that this is happening specifically because the PS3 circumvents like some copyright controls or whatever that allow people to dump things from Netflix and at least 1080p or whatever from PS3 to digital media. And that might be the reason why they're nipping this in the bud.

2:39:11Chris Pranger:But to me, I was like, I don't see any evidence that that's what they're saying. And maybe that's maybe that's the way they feel. But also, it's just old. Like they have the numbers, like how many people are watching the fucking PS3 Netflix app anymore? It's probably in the hundreds of thousands. but at some point it's like you get a fucking smart tv or something if you if you if you need to use a console so i wonder what what the what the true reason is but i suspect it's just like

2:39:33Colin Moriarty:it's old yeah i the copyright thing doesn't make sense to me just because as you know colin that the playstation 3 is notoriously locked with its uh hdcp which is like a thing that makes it so you can't use an elgato on a ps3 unless you this thing you got to use a splitter that gets it out so that doesn't make sense to me I was looking though Netflix on the Wii okay so it's been shut down but as of 2019 so it had a good run

2:40:08Chris Pranger:they must have I wonder Nintendo probably has to pay some sort of licensing fee you would assume and they might not have wanted to do that it's why they didn't put a fucking DVD player on the GameCube you know

2:40:21Colin Moriarty:which is the best

2:40:22Chris Pranger:I love that

2:40:23Colin Moriarty:I'm yeah wasn't there some kind of want to pay 50 cents per unit or something what did you say there was some kind of fuckery with Netflix where something about like did they have an exclusive deal with Microsoft and so they were able to get around that by sending people discs that's what happened I was going to bring that up is that like for people that net Xbox 360 had an exclusive

2:40:44Chris Pranger:Netflix as a downloadable app so to use Netflix on Wii forever but on for PS3 in the beginning you how to put a disc in your drive and it would run the netflix app off of the disc and then eventually i think in 2011 maybe or something like that you didn't have to use the disc anymore and i think on we always had to have the disc in but yeah that was that's exactly right dustin good memory that's that's that was to circumvent like the exclusivity that netflix and microsoft had and i remember when netflix finally came to ps3 it was a big deal at some point you didn't

2:41:18Colin Moriarty:need the disc on we i think okay because i remember because i remember watching i watched all of breaking bad on netflix on we that's awesome at 480 when i first saw it which is very funny i don't think i ever thought about that that's exactly that's how i watched it but yeah um and i remember i don't remember ever having the netflix disc i could be wrong yeah it just came

2:41:41Chris Pranger:in a normal sleeve like the old dvds would what they would rent and uh i think it was white and yeah you would have to put it in i remember it so clearly because i lived in an in-law apartment in san francisco at the time and i like all i had to do was watch fucking netflix so um isn't it man

2:41:58Colin Moriarty:is it isn't it weird to think about like there was a time where like netflix was xbox exclusive

2:42:03Chris Pranger:that is so weird yeah it is weird it's funny i mean that's a good that's a good deal for them that was smart yeah that's why it's just so funny like i i am so incredulous by their like gaming's for everyone. Shut the fuck up. You had like all sorts of stupid exclusive deals back in the day that fucked everyone over on PlayStation. That's the game. That's the way it goes. But yeah, I'll never forget that PS3 thing and yeah, RIP in peace. Yeah. Because that was the genesis of digital Netflix. It's so funny that like digital... I remember when Netflix started appearing like you could watch it on a web browser.

2:42:44Chris Pranger:And there was just like some random shit. And it was kind of cool. But it wasn't until House of Cards that it became like a real thing for people. And then they really exploded this whole sitch from there. So I definitely watched a lot of Netflix on my PS3 and we will miss you. Dagan's wife, I haven't been to Dagan's house in years, but she used to watch everything on PS3. I wonder if they were still doing that. finally over on the PlayStation Store via the PlayStation blog we have January 2026 top downloads for PlayStation Network for PS5 games PS4 games etc for both the North American market and for the European market so we'll stick with the North American market since we are primarily an American podcast.

2:43:30Chris Pranger:Arc Raiders was the most downloaded game of January 2026 on PlayStation Store. It was EA Sports Football Club by the way in Europe. Not a huge surprise. GTA 5 was 2 in the US. NBA 2K26, 3. Minecraft 4, Madden 5. Black Ops 7, 6. Kind of interesting watching this fall off. Comparable, of course. Battlefield 6, though, below it. Somewhere like, what is that, 11? And a few other games. Interestingly, Fallout 4. One of the most downloaded games. Oh, the anniversary edition came out? Right, right. And of course the show and everyone's excited about Fallout right now. I was happy to see NHL 26 holding on at 16, which is great.

2:44:18Chris Pranger:And Ghost of Yote at 19. In clear obscure, by the way, based on probably its hype in December. People may be getting it for Christmas, the game awards, all the awards pops back up at 17. PS4 games, nothing too surprising. Red Dead Redemption 2 remains the biggest game there. And Star Wars Battlefront 2 is still kind of percolating. you know there was that kind of move to try to get them to bring battlefront back that's obviously not going to happen but um and uh bloodborne number 19 by the way psvr2 games the discontinued beat saber was the number one game on psvr2 job simulator at number two it must have been cheap a few other odds and ends free-to-play games things are kind of getting back to normal over here fortnite number one roblox number two 2x ko which is the uh league of legends fighter right right i think so yeah the free-to-play fighting game that's number three marvel rivals for high guard five so there might be more of an audience i mean more people play high guard on free-to-play

2:45:22Colin Moriarty:than rocket league or warzone more people downloaded it in january that doesn't mean

2:45:28Chris Pranger:they stuck around the game we uh we were talking about dustin just a week or two ago arc knights and field that's been that's been pretty heavily promoted on psn i don't know if people have been seeing that but that was number nine and where wins meet i've still not played that game looks kind of nice but i've not i've not played that that's number eight so that's it that's all we have for the news all right my boys let's get into what we're playing chris it says here you're playing jack and daxter and so we'll begin with you

2:45:55Colin Moriarty:yeah yeah i'm still playing splurcel too but there's really not much more to say about it playing through Jack and Daxter. I'm about 50 % through now is what it says. I don't know if this is one of those, you know, 150 % games, you know what I mean? But like, as far as I know, I'm 50 % of the way through and I'm enjoying it. This camera is really fucking with me though, man. Like this, this, every time I think I get used to it, every time I think I have a handle on it, the inverted camera, like really it's playing with me, man. It's toying with me. and so it's it's a little difficult but i'm enjoying uh i'm enjoying it overall i like the tone i like the style of it there's a lot of there's a lot of spyro in this actually like more though than i thought there would be i guess it's a naughty dog game so like i guess i assumed that there would be a little bit more crash in here and there is somewhat there's he's got a spin attack um which is very very crash and like you're breaking boxes in the first jack and daxter so there's like quite a fair bit of that there's like this also I don't know what I expected out of Jak and Daxter but like like a seamless like in older games like these I kind of expected there to be like dividing lines between levels or whatever like there would be like okay that you did a loading screen but as far as I've been able to tell it seems like it's been a like somewhat of a seamless experience on and for a ps2 like i don't know if this is how it originally was or whatever but like it's kind of wild going from one one level to the next level to the next level and you're just kind of walking from level to level you're not really like choosing it out of a map or you're not going to like some hub world where you're you know you're choosing which world to teleport to it you are kind of like walking through the space and driving through the space in these various like chase sequences and it's i don't know it's it's surprising like there's a lot more there's a lot more that's impressive about it than i guess i would have assumed or kind of otherwise thought um but i'm still i'm having a good time the boss fights are fun very crash they're very they're very crash feeling boss fights which is to say they're like they're not particularly hard but like there's like a cadence to them that i appreciate there's like a rhythm and I'm kind of uh I'm kind of into that it's just really it's so funny looking at a game like this that came out at a time where they didn't iron things out entirely and or we as an industry didn't iron out entirely how things should be like you move the first person like when you go in first person when you press triangle you go into the first person view and you can use it to direct fireballs or just like kind of get a better better angle on certain things you move the camera with the left stick oh yeah shit like that and it's just like yo this is crazy this feels insane and as far as i know there's no way to really change that like i know that there are some games that you can run like old ps2 or ps1 games where you play them and you open up the options menu on ps5 and it lets you remap the buttons i don't think you can do that with the ps4 port of Jak and Daxter.

2:49:13Colin Moriarty:I have not been able to find that menu. I've pressed every button that I could find and I just haven't seen that menu. I've used that before in other games to un-invert the controls. I haven't found it in this. I feel like there's only so many buttons on a controller so I don't know if it's just not there or what, but that would have helped a great deal. But I'm enjoying it. I dig the characters. I dig the soundtrack. You can feel a lot of crash in it. At this point, I've heard that the later on or the further you get from Jack one, the more unrecognizable kind of becomes like becomes like a very, very it shifts pretty dramatically in gameplay and tone.

2:49:55Colin Moriarty:So I'm actually very curious about that. I think I will move on to Jack two once I'm done. But it's a nice little kind of nighttime rhythm game for me where I'm just I do a little bit do a little bit of platforming, do a little bit of collecting, and then I just kind of doze off. But it's it's nice. I'm enjoying my first experience with Jack and Daxter.

2:50:17Chris Pranger:Jack and Daxter.

2:50:18Colin Moriarty:Jack and Daxter.

2:50:20Chris Pranger:Well, well. Cool, man. I don't. I played Jack one. I've never played Jack two or three. Oh, really? Yeah, I don't think I've ever. I really don't recall it. Yeah. Oh, wow. I wouldn't have assumed that. Yeah. I don't think a lot of people would assume that. Yeah, I was more into Ratchet and Sly. So. It's fair. all right well that's it for chris dustin let's go over to you josh harris wrote in and said boys boys boys where's the excitement for neo 3 the demo was stellar and it's a playstation adjacent franchise colin i get it you're bad at games but chris they added a jump button and a grappling hook what more do you want what not enough grenade jumping for you and most importantly dustin a japanese homosexual such as yourself should surely be frothing at the gash for such a treat humor aside i know it's packed a year but don't let this banger pass you by he was a

2:51:12Colin Moriarty:little bit insulting to you there yeah i've never been i mean i've been called gay a million times oh yeah me too in my life but specifically a japanese homosexual creative i like it it's not very nice uh yeah neo 3 so this game i was interested because the reviews for it are really really good and they are doing kind of a more open world style for this game that's intriguing i talked about code vein 2 they were doing an open world and it's not very good but seeing this reviewed well and there was a extensive demo which i think the demo is limited until the game maybe comes out i just know when it booted up it said that it wasn't going to be there forever so i decided to check out the demo and my problem with previous neo games in the past were mostly that i was annoyed with how much i was managing my loot in the games um and i also felt like it was just a little too it was too many systems and it kind of uh like frazzled me like it was like ah this is too much and so playing the demo for neo 2 i or not neo 2 neo 3 i am a lot more interested in it i really like that the one i think big change one of the new factors in the combat is that you can switch between a samurai mode and a ninja mode on the fly by hitting your r2 button and so each one has their own weapon and their own special abilities and they play totally different and so swapping between those during combat is pretty interesting another thing that i really like quality of life and maybe neo2 did this but i don't remember it is that you can go under your armor and auto equip armor and you can say like okay make it so uh i can't remember the word's not dexterity but it's like have it set to a or b but that's like a very dark souls thing you're oh your equipment weight so it's like if you have a really high equipment uh equipment rate then you won't be able to roll properly but anyway it basically automatically does all the armor stuff for you so that's pretty sick uh the open world stuff is probably where i spent the least amount of time because i played about i don't know two and a half hours and uh the demo a lot it's a really long intro sequence but the open world part colin kind of ubisoft like where you need to go around and there's like different fortresses and like encampments that you need to take out you kill all the enemies within there's like one kind of more powerful boss character and then you get loot from taking it out and so there's a little bit of map clearing in the game that seems pretty interesting I'm very interested in it but I'm going to wait because I just went out and bought Dragon Quest 7 and that's going to consume my life until Resident Evil comes out most likely so Nioh 3 pretty cool I'm not sure how long the demo lasts but apparently people in my YouTube chat were saying that the demo can be like 30 hours to play all of it some maniac was saying that he spent 100 hours in the demo maybe not being truthful but either way there's an extensive demo out so yeah you gotta can't do it man can't do it 100 hours in the demo uh the other game that i haven't played too much of uh this was before neo 3 is neon inferno and so the developer of this is xenovia interactive and published by retro wear and i can't remember i think i saw this game in a youtube video and thought i'll give it a shot so this is a 2d pixel art game that uh is a running gum game kind of we were talking about this on the show with Jaffe where I was like it's not quite like Contra because it has really big sprites and the way you progress through the level is more like a beat-em-up but you're using guns but the thing that's really unique about this game is that it's both played on a 2D plane but when you hit I can't remember which button maybe triangle or something you shoot into the background of the stage like it's wild guns and so it's a really interesting mix up of being in the foreground and then shooting into the background as well there's a cool like deflect mechanic where you can deflect green bullets that come out you come at you and then deflect them towards different enemies the other thing too is that this game visually is awesome really really excellent pixel art and low-key the crt filter on this game is actually awesome usually crt filters in games I feel like just make this screen kind of dark because it adds, you know, black lines every other on your TV.

2:56:21Colin Moriarty:But whatever they're doing for this game and you can turn it off, of course, but I recommend keeping it on. It looks fantastic. So I will be playing more of that just like a few levels here and there. I think it might have been on sale when I bought it. OK, it's$19 not on sale. I think it might be 16 or 17 dollars right now on PSN. maybe that's a ps plus deal but uh yeah it's pretty cool and then next week i will have plenty of dragon quest to tell you guys about but colin i meant to work this in earlier did you see that uh ninja gaiden 2 is coming to playstation 5 ninja gaiden 2 the the oh the no and let me send you the so this was announced during the nintendo direct the arcade archives is there's a new line of it called console archives wow two will be coming to ps5 february 14th why ninja guyden 2 it's that and uh cool borders yeah so i see that which is interesting which is i think a sony ip i probably should i should i meant to bring this up earlier and i forgot so yeah i missed this i wonder if like i didn't see

2:57:38Chris Pranger:this on like push square or anything either. I wonder if people just missed it.

2:57:44Chris Pranger:Dude, I love Ninja Gaiden 2. I mean, I love Ninja Gaiden 3 as well. What did you say?

2:57:49Colin Moriarty:Hopefully it has a plat for you. That's what I was thinking. Yeah, I think they do.

2:57:52Chris Pranger:I think the arcade archives do platinums. Because I have a few arcade archives. They release like a new one every week or so, or every two weeks. So there's a million of them. Like on Christmas, Christmas Day, they released, what was it? Space Invaders. Like the original Space Invaders, which I thought was kind of cool. So I didn't see that though. Ninja Gaiden. because when you said Ninja Gaiden 2 I was like well like the Xbox one yeah no yeah it's interesting cool that's exciting alright is that it for you that's it Neon Inferno does look good I wrote that down because I did want to I looked at it last year I want to say it I just I don't know why I didn't buy it it looks like a Genesis game yeah it's got some metal slug in it oh yeah definitely and I totally mean know what you mean about the beat them up kind of stylings of it as well.

2:58:40Chris Pranger:It is natively a shooter, but I know what you mean. Alright, so for me, I platinumed Castlevania Requiem. I beat Symphony of the Night with Richter. That was obviously fun, difficult, whatever. That's over. So I moved on. I was playing a couple other things. Like I downloaded Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, which I own and I just felt like playing it. So I played that a little bit. And I also played through Mega Man X because we were talking about that recently. But X1. but I was like where am I going to go what am I going to do and I you know I love me some boomer shooters as you guys know so last year at some point it might even been two years ago I bought the Turok trilogy one two and three because I think they were really cheap they were like a few bucks or something and I'm like I'll get to this at another time I typically don't do that because I don't I feel like that's a trap and you usually spend more money than you were otherwise going to spend because you're buying the shit because it's cheap but you never get to it so So this could have easily fallen into that trap.

2:59:37Chris Pranger:But I was looking around and actually, and I might have noted this last week is that I've been looking at Borderlands 4, but it was on sale forever. And I never bought it. And then now it's back to 70 bucks. And just principally, I'm like, I can't do it, you know, because I know I could have gotten it for 50 or whatever. So I started going into my library and looking for things. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to play Turok. So I played through all of Turok Dinosaur Hunter and 100 % it. no platinum in this game, but it has trophies, but no platinum. And now I'm playing Turok to Seeds of Evil, which is its sequel.

3:00:13Chris Pranger:For people that are not familiar with Turok. I wasn't familiar with how deep it all went until I was older. Turok is a 1950s comic book character. That was revived in the 90s. That revival was, I think, owned by Random House. they licensed it to Acclaim or to, no, to Acclaim. And Acclaim worked with a studio called Iguana, which it later bought and became, and they made a bunch of Turok games after that. They became like Acclaim Austin or whatever. So through some sort of licensing deal and with Acclaim or whatever, they acquired this IP to make a video game based on the Turok revival comic book.

3:00:58Chris Pranger:And really, Turok, it's one of those examples where Turok is biggest in games. like I when I was a kid I had no fucking idea that Turok was a comic book either old or new I had no idea I didn't know I didn't know that until just now yeah I mean it's fucking crazy and um it became like Turok was highly relevant to you know so Turok one came out when I was in seventh grade and that's when the end it was I think I don't know Dustin you might know this better than me I think it was like the ninth N64 game or something like that in order of release It was a very early N64 game. It was supposed to be, I think, available at launch, and it was delayed.

3:01:37Chris Pranger:It finally came out that March, and I wasn't really a shooter person. I love the N64. I didn't own Turok until later. I didn't give a shit about it. In fact, we were talking earlier about, like, games that, like, I was like, oh, this is, like, I didn't know how to articulate it at that time, but it's like this bro shooter bullshit. Like, I was playing, like, Wild Arms and shit at this point, Castlevania Symphony of the Night and whatever. and I don't really remember Turok 2 there's actually there's actually four Turok games on N64 because there's that multiplayer game Rage Wars I think it was called but there's like a Turok trilogy of 1, 2, and 3 and then Turok continued on you guys might have played it on PS2 and Xbox and stuff but then and then there was a PS3 Xbox 360 version but the series has been gone ever since then and I think Embracer is bringing Turok back right?

3:02:24Chris Pranger:because we saw a Turok trailer I think last year Anyway, that's the whole rigmarole of what it was. And it was just not a very relevant IP to me. And so I played through Turok 1. And like I said, 100 % it is. So I found all the secrets, beat all the stages, whatever. This game is really funny because what I remember about this game more than anything from being a kid is how weird the controls were. Because it was a first-person shooter on a console with a controller with a single stick. And what I remember is that I think you moved with the stick and you, you use the C buttons to like turn. And because of the inexactness of the, of the locomotion in the game, you literally just kind of shoot in a direction and it works.

3:03:18Chris Pranger:Like you can kind of be like within a couple, like an inch of an enemy on the screen and it'll just hit them. Like whatever the weapon is. And what's funny about Turok Dinosaur Hunter, and I don't think I really realized this at the time, because this was one of those games I bought on eBay and stuff like that, like when games were really cheap in the 90s, the late 90s, there isn't a fucking lick of story in this game. Like, I have no idea what was going on in the game whatsoever. I'm sure it was in the instruction manual and whatnot, but I like was playing this game and I'm like, what the fuck is going on in this game like what is happening in this game it's crazy you're fighting these dudes you're fighting these guys with like axes and spears then you're fighting dinosaurs then you're fighting dinosaurs that have guns some of them are holding the gun some of them have guns like attached to them so so i beat the game and then i'm like i'll move on to turak 2 so turak 1 came out march 97 turak 2 i remember very well i was in ninth grade when this came out and they it came out early December that year that you can tell they were trying to get it out for Christmas wise decision of course for that year and I remember this box art so well because it's the close well the turn the original Turok box art's iconic too but the close-up of just the um like the dinosaur skin with the Turok logo over it very iconic I remember that so well um and it sold like crazy I think it sold a couple million copies like almost immediately and the N64 wasn't that popular so a lot of people own this game and it's funny how much better it is than the original Turok one of the things that I was thinking about this when you were talking about Jack Chris was one of the things I have to keep doing is going back and I did this with Turok one and Turok and I'm doing with Turok two now is like go on YouTube and look at long plays because I have to remind myself I'm like what did this game really look like because it didn't look like this and it looks like shit but it looks even worse when you when you look at the old versions and it's so funny and I was realizing like a lot of things i was going in the menus and realizing yes this is they like you could turn the fog off for instance which was like a major part of these games because the draw distances were so bad um so i like would turn the fog off and you could just like launch but you could shoot any gun and it just launches in a straight line like whether it's a shotgun or it's like you could just use your shotgun across the map and just like launch these weapons like these bullets at them and it takes like a couple seconds to hit them and you can just like kill them from afar because you can see so much further than you're supposed to be able to.

3:05:47Chris Pranger:So there's little things like that. I will say Turok 2 amps up the story, though I still have no idea what's going on in it. But they had like a year and a half or so to make the game, a little more than that, which was a lot of time back then, a nice amount of time. So they did a good job. And what I remember, I was reading about Turok 2, as I remember this, I was like, they were going to port it to Dreamcast, which is so funny because we associate these games with Nintendo 64, but there was nothing tethering them to N64. I think PS1 simply couldn't do this level of breadth of a game. Obviously, I think the original Turok was something like 20 megabytes, which is so funny.

3:06:24Chris Pranger:So obviously that could have fit on a PS1 disc, what, 40 times. But it was how obviously that data was used. The games, though, Turok 1 is like this and Turok 2, I think, is a little more like this. The maps, and this is the thing, I was like, I don't remember this about this stuff at all because my friends are really into Turok. and I was like, these maps are fucking huge. Like, they are massive maps and they are really confusing. Like, it doesn't, it tracks some things for you, but you don't really know what you missed and you don't know where you've been. And I don't know, there's a problem with that.

3:07:01Chris Pranger:Like, I've gotten lost like twice where I'm like, I got to find a guide. And like, I don't know where I'm supposed to go. And the other funny thing is, is like the game will tell you, like your mission here is to like rescue for children, like children that are prisoners. kill these dinosaurs, do whatever these things. And if you get to the end of the stage and haven't done all that, you simply can't leave. So you're kind of trapped in these locations, which is interesting. But I'm enjoying the process of just playing these games, and they're very nostalgic just from that time period. I love the N64, and I love the PS1 more, frankly.

3:07:33Chris Pranger:But the Turok games are part of the lineage of that console, and really the first third-party game of any consequence that people really loved. Because in 98, you started getting like Shadows of the Empire and even in 97, like things like that, other things that were coming from others. But really, just like it is now, Nintendo is so reliant on itself that it's fun to play these games. And it reminds me of, I think I brought this up a while ago, but the Wii franchise, The Conduit. I don't know if you guys remember those games. Yeah. Those were also like Nintendo aligned third party first person shooters.

3:08:13Chris Pranger:I really want them to bring those games out. The cool thing about those games was it wasn't it about. It was about like America, like some conspiracy in the United States. I think the conduit about like the American government or something was like some weird shit. And there was a second one that they made as well. What was the studio? Was it the high voltage?

3:08:29Colin Moriarty:High voltage software.

3:08:31Chris Pranger:Yeah. I don't know why I remember that.

3:08:34Colin Moriarty:Published by Sega.

3:08:35Chris Pranger:Yeah. Sega. Sega. That's right. So anyway, that's what I've been spending my time with. So the thing with Turok 2 and well, first of all, still here somehow wrote in said, hey, CDC, this one is for Colin. Are you annoyed that Turok doesn't have a platinum, but Turok 2 does? Yeah, that's a little annoying. Turok is kind of a small game, though. Comparable to Turok 2, I could see them getting away with it. The bigger confusion I had with Turok 1 not having a platinum was that it came to PS4 in 2021. So So that was well after the time when developers were being weird with trophies. Like they were trying to give platinums at that point.

3:09:12Chris Pranger:So also it's worth noting that there are PS4 ports of all three Turok games, but there are PS5 ports as well. And I played the PS4 port of Turok 1 and then I'm playing the PS5 version of Turok 2 for some reason. So there's that. And the Turok 2 Platinum Trophy is interesting because it's one of those games that doesn't give you shit until you... So like it's just... I have one bronze trophy and I've played the game for three days. um but you start they start popping when you get all the collectibles so like you know you're just going to start getting all these golds at the end of the game it's like all the secrets all the weapons all the that so it's that kind of trophy list um which i find interesting as well um

3:09:49Colin Moriarty:i'm gonna skip this and colin by the way there was a new trailer for turok origins this morning at the nintendo partner oh fun and it's set to launch fall 2026 interesting so i'll be all caught up yep caught up for Turok origins yes oh Saber is doing it yeah yeah so uh yeah and Saber is

3:10:11Chris Pranger:under embracer I think so that makes sense but yeah the the comic book came out in 1954

3:10:20Colin Moriarty:that's so crazy I really are I earnestly had never heard any of that and I played a bit of at least the Xbox to rock um I don't know if I delved in any more than that though well Well, what I remember about that era, Chris, was there were like a, it was like what happened

3:10:37Chris Pranger:to Crash? And Spyro, I think, too, where it was like these games that were once tied to a console started coming out for everything. And that was a big deal when Turok 4 or whatever it was, or I guess it would have been 5, came to PlayStation because N64 did lock that shit down or Nintendo did lock that shit down. By the way, I knew it didn't sound right. Saber was owned by Embracer until 2024. They're under a different company that they were sold by Embracer to Beacon Interactive. so just to be clear about that so that's it for what we're playing good little selection of games still kind of waiting for new things to come out there is that game what the fuck is it called I saw the trophies went live Lovish do you know this game what is it I'll send you guys a link on Steam Lovish yeah this is a game I'm going to be playing and this came out today so I might get to this at some point it's definitely not a game for you guys but it's it's definitely a game I'm looking forward to oh wow this looks cool I never heard of this yeah it's like it's almost like WarioWare in a way yeah oh huh but like much more deliberate not quick yeah

3:11:54Colin Moriarty:interesting so I'm gonna definitely check it out I think I have seen this where have I seen this February 5th though that's today.

3:12:01Chris Pranger:Yeah, it's today from when we're recording. And Dangan is publishing it and they do some good stuff. They're a nice little, they did that game Astalon which was kind of cool or published it. They're like a smaller publisher of some of these indie games. The first game I remember, they did, they published CrossCode I think too which I never got to but that was an RPG people really liked. But remember that game Iconoclasts?

3:12:24Colin Moriarty:That sounds so familiar.

3:12:25Chris Pranger:That was like the first time I became familiar with that publisher.

3:12:30Colin Moriarty:oh yeah i have seen this

3:12:36Chris Pranger:iconoclasts shall we get into the uh six questions comments concerns thoughts and ideas and wrap this bad boy up let's do it for all for the uninitiated welcome to sacred symbols six questions comments concerns thoughts and ideas and every episode of our show from the audience you've heard your inquiries throughout the show i pull six more out there for uh out of the uh the thread each week for miscellaneous conversation. Remember, the threads for each show go live for your submissions on Patreon in the news feed each week and are deleted when they are no longer needed. So Sacred's Goals Live Wednesday afternoons deleted Thursday afternoons.

3:13:08Chris Pranger:You have about a day to get your inquiries in. We begin with Daniel Bavi, who says, Hello, Sacred Goyam. With Sackboy now confirmed to have been associated with Jeffrey Epstein following the latest tranche of files released by the DOJ. What other gaming mascots do you suspect have spent time on aisle at the Epstein. Leisure suit Larry is a given, but I've also got my suspicions about people like Master Chief. What's really hiding behind that mask? Andrew Ryan, Tom Nook, and Dr. Robotnik. Tom Nook's interesting.

3:13:35Colin Moriarty:Oh, yeah.

3:13:36Chris Pranger:We can get further into this. A lot of people wrote in about the Epstein stuff. I was curious what you guys, I was going to put it in the new, well, all right, there's two things. I should have said this earlier when we're talking about Sacred Plus. Originally, I had wanted to do a Sacred Plus episode about all the gaming stuff in the Epstein files because there's some funny shit in there. But as I was taking notes and going through it, I was like, there's nothing to really say. You know, like we can't do an episode about it because it's like, it's just things that happen. But it is funny. Like he was banned from Xbox Live, which is fucking hilarious, especially when he was banned from Xbox Live.

3:14:12Chris Pranger:No one got banned from Xbox Live back then. He played World of Warcraft. he bought little big planet three he had correspondences with bobby kodik about microtransactions there's a lot of weird shit in there have you did you guys see anything that that was uh most interesting to you interesting to you uh i mean i think i i heard i don't know if

3:14:40Colin Moriarty:it's like specific like those are the ones that i clued in on specifically like the fact that he fan from Xbox Live, the microtransaction stuff. I saw something about, or I heard people talking about Leslie Benzies being in there, but I don't know how true that is. Well, he was, he released

3:14:57Chris Pranger:a statement. Like he, he's, I think, I don't want to speak too out of turn, but I think he was like maybe accused of being somewhere or doing something. And he released a statement. This is why, remember we talked about this and I understand people's rolling their eyes about it, but it's like, there's going to be a lot of innocent people in this shit that are just getting aspersions thrown at them because it's all of the unvetted accusations you know so like who's innocent who's not I don't know but I do think that that was one of the concerns and I kind of get that you know in a way where it's like sure yeah I mean

3:15:29Colin Moriarty:I guess like there's definitely people who are listed who are just they're literally just being talked about because they're select like I think Weird Al was mentioned three times and it's literally just what is it because he got updates about his concerts

3:15:39Chris Pranger:oh

3:15:40Colin Moriarty:but like but then sometimes you got you know sometimes elon's there being like when should i go to the island dude that shit's so funny but he was they didn't want anything to do with it he was too much of a dork is crazy but i don't know like as far as the question goes because i don't know if there's really much else to say like i because i don't know of uh i haven't looked super deeply into too much of it but the xbox live shit was funny to me like that was the funniest part of it he got banned from xbox in 2013 right so it's like that was like has a big year for xbox yeah i wonder what he did so i think i think uh i don't know man maybe maybe he gave them the advice to be like hey put a put a cable box in yeah right yeah i saw something that so when did he initially get charged like what year was that he for the first time in florida

3:16:41Chris Pranger:i don't know because i think it was 2012 i'll look because he has an earlier charge from like the 2000s or something or like yeah that's the whole thing everyone is like he was charged with the shit in florida and like was given work release that's why everyone thinks he's an asset um but i'm trying to find god there's this got arrested again i think in 20 in 2019 the first criminal case is 2005. Right. Okay. And he went to prison I think in 2011. No, he went to prison from 2008 to 2011 then was released and then 2019 the whole thing the sex traffic and then he was arrested then he killed himself in quotes.

3:17:21Chris Pranger:Yeah, by the way you keep going. I got it. Treble's barking at something. I got to go take care of this.

3:17:25Colin Moriarty:Yeah. I had seen something that he may have gotten banned because if he was a registered sex offender, they may have just auto banned him for that. but i don't know is xbox live scanning for a registered sex offenders no way on there i don't i honestly feel like how would you how would you even do that like yeah i don't know i there was a lot of stuff in there that was just like this is wild but also you know you gotta wait you gotta sift through what's real what isn't some of the gaming stuff there is really fun the fact that he bought little big planet 3 and that's just that is true is very funny i like to imagine that he uh he built a couple levels yeah it's tough because so much like it's so easily memeable to make like a fake document yeah it's very easy yeah the one i saw going around today uh this is from a twitter account just because i saw it floating around i don't follow this account but it's a big account pirate nation on twitter they have 284 000 followers uh in the Epstein files there's a receipt from YouTube where his username is littlest Jeff one and apparently you can find a Fortnite account tied to littlest Jeff one and it shows that he was ranked silver one in chapter five season one of Fortnite which was after his death oh weird yeah I don't know so that's interesting it's all crazy so is Jeffrey Epstein alive playing Fortnite

3:18:55Chris Pranger:he yeah well isn't that there one picture of him well there are people that claim to have pictures of him after he after he supposedly died and problems with his it's fascinating i'm i basically have not been paying too close attention because i'm just waiting for someone or not someone many people to just go through all this shit and then i'll read like uh here's the most interesting tidbits piece yeah there's millions and millions and millions it's like i don't know

3:19:18Colin Moriarty:who the fuck's going through this yeah if you want to know more about some of the people implicated in that shit uh there's many joe rogan episodes with with the people so like you can go watch

3:19:28Chris Pranger:but now i was on rogan twice and i am not yeah you're in the epstein files did you search your name out of curiosity i i did i didn't know i there is a searchable database right that's kind

3:19:39Colin Moriarty:oh did you did you did anything come up no kind of a bummer i thought i would be like at least like look at this guy you know not even a mention yeah it's a bummer i but i never i never uh

3:19:52Chris Pranger:you guys know that i uh mike and i like make up all these stories about our dogs and the new one is that rush was in the epstein files under our pup our pup we're trying to get him to trying to get him to tell us why but he wasn't even rush was born in 2020 which is even funnier yeah so look

3:20:10Colin Moriarty:as far as the question go i the question itself like i like where your head's at with some of the and andrew ryan and tom nook i could believe they're like uh you know they're landlord like entrepreneur you know types i could see that master chief i don't know he was literally abducted as a child so like maybe he's in the files but i don't know if it would be for the same he's probably a victim uh as far as robotnik i don't know about robotic you know who i know for sure moneybags the guy from uh spyro who would block your progress right right yeah that guy is unquestionably like if my first guess would be him yeah see okay tom nook he strikes me as almost like a bill gates type figure where he's like very wealthy but also a total fucking dork that has nearly zero bitches you know i guess bill gates was married so he he had some level of might have given his wife an std yeah so like tom nook that's where he was like he'd never been around women before quite so that's he fell into the trap right so i feel like uh in this this is kind of obvious maybe gex in the f-team files what is quipy though like i it's funny because

3:21:28Chris Pranger:leisure sue larry is a great selection like leisure sue larry was so in the weeds on that fucking island it's not even yeah he's like prince andrew level you know oh easily like yeah so he's a great selection

3:21:41Colin Moriarty:Gex would be like if you get invited to a pizza party on Epstein's island don't go like yeah dude it would be exactly that it would be exactly that I love those like those mega specific like highly formulaic incredibly dated references yeah that he would make

3:21:59Chris Pranger:um I what's frustrating about the Epstein stuff with in terms of the Xbox stuff specifically is we know what his email address was they know he had an account like they can there are people there that know i can figure out like everything about it like why he was banned what he played and bought like it would be so interesting i know what it doesn't i know you're a house of cards and it just reminds me of frank underwood a little bit although he was a playstation guy is it a huge surprise that epstein was an xbox player not really you know but he did buy a little big planet so he was coming over to unfortunately he was his unsavory aura i i would assume i would assume he would uh he would be into whatever the kids were into yeah right touche i don't think he was playing

3:22:53Colin Moriarty:a little big planet touche i would love to think he was playing i like to think that too i like to think that he made levels but like i feel like it's more likely that he's like i don't know he's he's got a van or whatever he's like look i got a little big planet i don't know i really have no

3:23:06Chris Pranger:idea but it's the same thing because we know his email address like people at sony can look at that email address and see who that is and what his account is like i would love to know what his

3:23:14Colin Moriarty:psn was sometimes you buy a little big planet three for nefarious purposes

3:23:24Chris Pranger:i wonder how frank would feel about um horizon i'm sure he's eager for everyone to go back to

3:23:30Colin Moriarty:kill zone i should make a video you should do like a clue like a kona o 'brien clueless gamer but it's it's frank underwood playing games yeah why not bad man that that all went down because that was such a great character did you see that he said he was open to playing jeffrey epstein in

3:23:45Chris Pranger:a that's not a joke i swear to god he needs work but but yeah am i mistaken in that he was

3:23:55Colin Moriarty:exonerated wasn't he there's look i don't know all the details weird as far as i i now i don't want to tell any tales out of school yeah but my my recollection says that it was like a weird it was almost like a hillary clinton-esque kind of thing we're like oh the people who accused them happened to suddenly die or something there's like some weird shit like that right right we're like and then he got exonerated i don't know if that's him specifically i feel like that's him that's ringing a bell that's true to me but um but uh it's a wild world out there guys it's a wild

3:24:32Chris Pranger:world i'll say all right daniel thank you for writing in the drunken merchant wrote in and said hey boys just a random observation about people discussing games nowadays i see so many similarities in expression with content creators i follow they'll see a game trailer and go there's nothing i can really say it's not something that interests me without any speculation compliments or critiques about the game in general. They'll feel uncomfortable shitting on a bad game, presumably to not insult developers. They'll have a hard time getting hyped for a game that looks great because they'll wait and see how it turns out.

3:25:03Chris Pranger:There's nothing wrong with speculating what a game will feel like, and it's fun to talk about how a story will play out. There's nothing wrong with being disappointed with a game you were openly excited for. I feel many just want to stay in their niche and not fantasize about games, just waiting silently until they have an actual product. I know I'm stupid, but am I crazy? Probably. This is an interesting inquiry, I thought, because and thank you for writing in. I feel like the churn. We were talking about this earlier with Grand Theft Auto and more specifically with Horizon, though, was the. The specificity with which there are haters today, like Chris said, unhindered by the forums and all the rest and just on social media.

3:25:51I personally disagree that now I don't I don't know who the creators are that you're talking

3:25:56Chris Pranger:about but I feel like everyone gives their fucking opinion on everything to the nth degree I do think there are probably people out there that are trying to protect their relationships I understand that to a degree and I also think that like and we were talking about with previewing earlier and I tried to keep this in mind when I previewed stuff was you do kind of have to give them the benefit of the doubt and therefore it does kind of negate the need to talk about it because you really don't know and a lot of things you're seeing and and playing and demoing are not even final some of the shit doesn't even appear in the final game i that stuff always is my favorite like there's like four scenes in this trailer that aren't even in the game you know and it's like yeah i'm always fast and that happens in film obviously too i mean it's not a huge thing but so i don't know exactly where you want to like what you were looking for drunken merchant i don't know if you guys have any threads from this that you want dustin is anything you want to pull out in this

3:26:50Colin Moriarty:i can understand that there may be content creators that are hesitant to champion something that they are excited about in case it ends up being bad because i have seen instances where people were like you know even if even if said creator is like man i can't wait for this i think it's going to be awesome it comes out it sucks people are like well you thought this was going to be awesome um and i think a lot of i mean some content creators may or may not everyone's different but it's like some may be like yeah it sucks it didn't turn out the way i thought it would you know um but others may just try to ignore it completely and there's also like i know there's some weirdness too like you were saying about like keeping a relationship you know good with a publisher or something um but i i think too when you get close to and you're talking about games and really looking at the business whether you have a relationship with publishers or developers or not i think you start to get a little bit of a softness where it's like you understand more like how long and how hard people work on these things and so it's it's harder for me to immediately shit on something that I have not played that I can't actually assess its true quality because it's like let them let them actually show it to me it's interesting because even I'm sure this has happened to you Colin but like there's been a few instances where I have heard of developers that uh we had a reaction to something on the show that was negative and they're like, ah, dang it.

3:28:31Colin Moriarty:Like I know of one or two instances of that happening where it's like, oh, they hated it already. It's like, oh, well, you know, sorry, but we're just we're just going to say it like it is. But at the same time, you want to be fair.

3:28:44Chris Pranger:Yeah, I think that there's a I have gut reactions all the time. We all do. I try to just kind of reserve my reactions to things that are more germane to the to what i'm known for what i like and what i would have an opinion on you know like i just because i think it's a video game doesn't mean i should have an opinion on it right that's like video games are like like do you really give a shit what i have to say about like a mmo or something what do i know about that really i don't know anything about that so i i think that there's a there's a level of objectivity and fairness that has to be employed and decency we were talking about this earlier even with high guard and stuff like just the ability to let things wash out and and let the product stand or fall but we all get sucked into like some levels of hype and we all get tricked sometimes i think the one major thing though chris that bothers me about the space and just a lot of spaces is i think people care too much about what other people think and about what other people think about what they think and right i will say this with all earnestly and honesty and i've said this a lot about the bands i like or whatever if it were commercially and realistically possible that i were the only fan of band X or game Y, I wouldn't give a fuck.

3:29:53Chris Pranger:That's obviously not possible because you have to spread the field and be viable. But the point is, is that like, I don't really give a shit. Like, you know, what other people think about my opinion. So Dustin, you were saying earlier, like they don't want to be wrong or it's like, I'll just champion whatever, like the things I like. And if people, people make fun of me for things I like all the time, but it shouldn't really matter. So Chris, you have anything you want to add?

3:30:18Colin Moriarty:no i mean i agree i think there's i don't know there is a bit of just a culture of like now it's it's kind of poisonous to uh champion something or be excited for something largely because being excited and uh earnest about something like earnestness is weakness in some way because you're you're revealing a truth about yourself to it to an army of you know anonymous people who really don't care that much ultimately at the end of the day so you are revealing part of yourself to people who don't who aren't owed that um and who have and by the way who have generally been proven to be pretty irresponsible with with that access so i think it's partially a self-preservation thing i think it's partially um wise to maybe like kind of keep certain things to yourself but at the same time like i don't know i've i've i've been doing this a long time at this point i don't really care you know like i'll yeah i'm excited about marathon i am i've tweeted about a lot and i talk about a lot uh that would that was controversial that was more controversial a couple months ago than it is now but like i you know it's the same feeling i just i just wish that um less about i wish not so much that there was less timidity in that or that there was like that there was that there would be less hostility so much that I just wish that a lot of the noise at least comes from an educated place and that's kind of what what bums me out is that there's a lot of noise and a lot of takes and a lot of videos that are made by people who either don't truly care or don't truly no and it kind of comes from places that you'd be surprised but like i was watching a video and i won't name the person because this is actually a pretty common take that i was kind of surprised to see where like uh it was in response to fable where they they finally announced or they finally showcased like the that you could be a boy or girl or whatever and they were like oh they probably added that as a result of feedback because people were like upset with the with the girl character in the trailers and it's like you thought a fable game what like have you played like did have you played fable like what do you like the idea that like the it's like the the fem chef stuff right like there's the trailers for mass effect exist and they use male chef but you could you you could always change that there was never like a response so like the idea that like the idea that they would have responded to criticism with that as opposed to that simply being the chance that's simply being the plan from the get-go and the easiest way to showcase the game would be to showcase a consistent character like they do with many games that have that option is like it just that strikes me as just like a very odd like almost like willful like you're kind of willfully giving into like a bit of negativity just so you can seem like oh no i'm not i'm not like i'm with you the uneducated it's like why right you really thought that that blew my mind because that was a take i saw that was a take i saw from a lot of people who I thought would know better.

3:33:32Colin Moriarty:And I'm just like, that's kind of, that's kind of wild.

3:33:35Chris Pranger:Yeah, people. That's a great example of just talk. Like, I have no opinions on Fable. I know Fable. I know that Fable has male and female characters, protagonist characters, but I don't give my opinion on it because like I don't play Fable. I don't really know much about Fable and I don't care about Fable. So like, why would you even really want to hear from me about it? That's that's knowing one's place, I think, is and it's it's not to say like stay in your lane. It's just like you're in a lane. It's okay to be in a lane. Yeah. What else can you know than your lane? Let someone else talk about that lane.

3:34:07Chris Pranger:You're in your lane. Right. I feel like I'm doing a Seinfeld bit. All right. Matthew Buchanan wrote in and said, hey, boys, I'm highly anticipating Resident Evil Requiem's release later this month, but couldn't help but notice the release of extensive gameplay footage and trailers showcasing seemingly all aspects of the game. I can't help but feel a lot of this is going overboard given that most people already will be sold in the game and keen to avoid spoilers. Surely less is more with such a huge release. Am I reading too much into this? Thanks for offering respite during the long winter nights over in Scotland.

3:34:39Chris Pranger:You're very welcome, Matthew. Thank you for writing in. So I'm of two minds with this. For me personally as a consumer, I don't want to see any more. I haven't seen almost anything out of it. I haven't literally seen almost nothing from this game. maybe like a couple minutes of footage tops over just states of play or whatever or is it state of plays I don't know so I think part of it is like avoid things if you don't want to see it the other part of me says this kind of marketing exists for those that are not convinced and need or want to see more and want to absorb as much of it as possible, especially I consider myself a big Resident Evil fan, but there are people that are really, really, really into it.

3:35:28Chris Pranger:And this might be an exciting moment of hype for them. And that spins out from the center and gets more people excited. But generally, I'm with you, Matthew. But I don't understand this level of marketing at some point, but I also understand I could simply it's not like I'm in fucking in Clockwork Orange, you know, with my eyes, you know, stapled open or whatever. Like I can just avoid it. So I do that. I would imagine that they know enough about marketing Resident Evil, particularly at Capcom to know what works. And it does seem excessive and overboard to me, but I guess people don't really care.

3:36:03Chris Pranger:Like I was saying that I'm disappointed that they were even so overt about Leon being in the game at all. Like, I think it would have been much cooler to just say he's not like to say nothing about that.

3:36:12Colin Moriarty:you know yeah um very similar to metal your style too those days are so gone though you know like the days of a surprise like that being like under wraps you're right you're right so long since we've

3:36:26Chris Pranger:had something like that it's i just think that that kind of like that that total subversion is is fun you're you the more you show the game the more you are removing the element of surprise but certainly they're not showing you everything so and a lot of it is probably repetitive as well but I'm also really looking forward to Resident Evil Requiem Chris have you been tuned into the cycle of footage and trailers I really have not been paying attention

3:36:48Colin Moriarty:I've not there's one kind of meme clip that's been going around of Leon taking his sweet time to save a woman who he clearly could have saved but it's I think it was like the caption was like Leon had eight business days to save this woman so I saw that and I thought that was funny but Like I've been kind of tuned out of it, but I do have to say like as somebody who's like, you know, I'm convinced about Resident Evil nine. Like I'm excited about it. I have some, I have some worries about it, but like, I think Capcom has done enough to like, you know, earn my trust that it's going to be a great game.

3:37:24Colin Moriarty:I think I've talked a little bit on the show about before. Like I worry about whether or not going half, half and half on like, you know, horror and then action will end up kind of trying to please everybody and end up pleasing nobody. I don't think that's necessarily the danger with Capcom, but it would be the danger if I heard that, pitch from any other any other company so i mean i'm just kind of on board already like i didn't need to be sold but i will say like as somebody who was just kind of you know i'm looking forward to it but it wasn't really at the forefront of my mind uh the trailers that they've been putting out because they've been reaching people in my circles who don't necessarily care for media blackout who just want to consume all that stuff they're talking about resident evil more now and it is actually it is having the effect of getting me more excited almost like vicariously or like or like in a in almost like a meta way that's even beyond like i don't even have to see the trailer for the trailer to have affected my excitement for it so like i i understand why they do it like they're they're reaching the people who don't care about that kind of stuff and we can still as as enthusiasts and as people who care we can choose whether or not we expose ourselves to it or not we're adults you know um we have impulse control i haven't seen any i haven't seen anything outside of that clip so like i genuinely don't know what to expect out of resident evil 9 dustin anything dad i saw the initial trailer of course and i saw a little bit of gameplay at summer game fest and after that i was good and like i have seen like a small portion like a two seconds of a Leon gameplay clip but other than that I have not seen anything with that and I like you guys I don't need to be sold the thing that I wonder is just that I think people like us may be the minority by a significant factor where a lot of people like hardcore Resident Evil fans might want to know as much as possible because they're so anxious to get the game and to them knowing more just adds to the excitement over spoiling it because we see a lot of games market this way i brought up many times before dude kingdom hearts 3 marketing pissed me the fuck off because we knew every single world that was going to be in the game and they released a trailer i want to say it was called the final battle and it was from the final battle of the fucking game and i knew better not to watch it but what was funny is that i watched it afterwards and i was like holy shit it really just did show you like a large portion of the end of the game so it's not for me but i hear people all the time like people in our discord or whatever they're like oh yeah do you see this about resident evil i watched this i i you're gonna be able to do this in the game this game i'm like dude why do you some people just enjoy things in different ways.

3:40:22Colin Moriarty:Yeah, that's fine. And like Dagan, Dagan Notorious loves to read

3:40:27Chris Pranger:everything about a story. Dagan Reed loves reading leaked scripts and shit like he like he ruins everything for himself. It's so funny. Like he loves it. He loves doing it. Yeah.

3:40:38Colin Moriarty:It adds his enjoyment. God bless him.

3:40:40Chris Pranger:Yeah, it couldn't be me. First, just to warn people, Requiem physical copies apparently are leaking already. I saw that. So be on the lookout because that's going to be spoiled soon. And otherwise, I think we all agree. It's like it's a opt-in situation. I understand why people would be excited. I grew up in an era where I was probably most excited about individual games where information was scarce. And I wonder how I would have felt if I had access. Like I didn't watch an online video until the 2000s because you really couldn't on dial up. You might get like some small images. you get your write-ups your previews you get your magazines and that's how you get excited that's how you would know and so i guess maybe i was just brought up in an era where there wasn't many options and i'm just used to kind of being underexposed and sometimes that blows up in your face i've bought so many games over the years where i'm like this game fucking sucks and i probably could have i probably could have saved myself from that or games that i just get excited about or like mine's eyes and interesting of a game that i'm like oh this looks interesting and then i just never pay attention to anything about it again everyone's like have you seen this shit with mine.

3:41:49Chris Pranger:It's like maybe the worst game ever. I'm like, oh, I thought it looked interesting. The same thing happened with that. What was that game? Rock Hay City. I was like, oh, this looks dope. And then I just never thought about it and never looked at it again. Then it comes out and it's like it got like a 40 on Metacritic or something like, oh, right. So you can get burned. And there's a bunch of games. I talk about how I bought Beyond the Beyond back in the day. I fucking hated that game. Saga Frontier hated that game. Dagan and I talk about buying Deadly Towers on NES fucking game sucks. Like one of the worst games ever.

3:42:17Chris Pranger:So like being unaware or underexposed can blow up in your face and certainly the more you expose yourself to the pre-release marketing and all the rest and the materials that they put out there the more likely you're going to make a good decision for yourself but i think there's a line where you're like it's like well you're seeing so like why do you want to see so much the reality dude and i'm being dead up is i don't know what the fuck resident resident evil requiem is about at all yeah i don't know i have no i have no idea i know the characters and like some of the this but i'm like i don't even really know what it is i know leon is in it and there are zombies right and again they should have they should have kept that hidden would have been in an ideal world you know i would

3:42:56Colin Moriarty:have loved that personally you have yourself a ride a ride in solid snake style moment you know it's a bummer though is that like i feel like the reason they don't do that is because the because the internet exists and they're aware that like whatever whatever explosion of surprise you could get out of like anybody is going to be so short-lived. Yeah, that's true. Compared to the marketing boom that you could have if you just were honest about it. That's true. Which is a bummer.

3:43:22Chris Pranger:Yeah. I always think about just the young Drake moment in Uncharted 3 about how cool that was. And now I got to play and beat the game before it even came out at that time, but that was specifically like you absolutely under no circumstances can acknowledge that this is in the game. Yeah. Can't put it in your preview or your reviews and stuff like that. So

3:43:40Colin Moriarty:they did that they did that in halo 2 also where you played as the arbiter characters and then they and then they just didn't mention it we used to be a proper country i know we used to be a country

3:43:49Chris Pranger:it's crazy man islander but not long wrote in and said good day cdc dragon quest 7 is back and i need some help i have never played a dragon quest game but after hearing colin talking about them for years i thought this would be the best time to try one out after playing roughly two hours of the demo last month i found myself quite bored almost immediately the battling is dull in the game lets you fast forward all battles. How can this be engaging? Am I missing something? Please explain it to me like I am five. I don't know that you're missing anything. It's important to it's important to note that the fast forwarding through battles thing is a product of often new JRPG re-releases.

3:44:28Chris Pranger:There are some games that natively let you do it. The first game I ever remember seeing this in was Final Fantasy seven when it came to PS4, the like the port of Final fantasy 7 and they have like the three times and five times like make make you move faster than the pixel remasters have that that's like becoming a more common thing i obviously the dragon quest remasters all include that too and i understand why some people would have a problem with that but i like that kind of thing of just moving these these animations faster and just moving on with the game quicker it's it's it's it's uh quite the qol um addition for me but i will just be honest with you if you're not feeling it i mean i don't remember the beginning of dragon quest 7 and like what maybe there's something missing in the game, but I doubt it.

3:45:11Chris Pranger:I mean, if you don't like the cycle that you're already in, I don't think these games are for you. These are very, very traditional games. And if you're not into, I like grinding. That's like the thing, Mike always says that she doesn't like doing it. And I'm like, I think that's like such a fundamental part of role-playing games. Like I like to grind in role-playing games. I like to become stronger. I like the stats and brute forcing my way through games and stuff like that. and that's just a thing that you're either into or not. And so if you're not into like turn-based, menu-based combat, Dragon Warriors or Dragon Quests is not going to be for you.

3:45:46Chris Pranger:Do you disagree, Dustin?

3:45:47Colin Moriarty:No, I completely agree. I almost don't think I have any notes. It's probably not for you. You gave it a solid two hours. I feel like that's plenty of time to know if you like it or not. And for me, the combat, that I didn't even feel like I needed to fast forward battles in Dragon Quest 7 when I was playing. And I only played the demo, which is like two and a half hours of the game. But if you're already feeling that way, then not only is it that Dragon Quest 7 isn't for you, it's probably none of them are for you.

3:46:22Chris Pranger:Yeah. I mean, I would just say turn-based role-playing games aren't for you. I mean, I guess I know some people take umbrage with me saying this, but I just don't think the Dragon Quest games are playable for story first. Like, I just don't believe that. I think that they're they're comfort food role playing games with cool stories, but familiar worlds. It's like playing a Pokemon game almost where you're falling into like familiar characters, familiar enemies, familiar tropes. It's comfortable and homey. I think if you want to play a more turn based or active based, active turn based game that is more store, like I'd be curious to know what you think of Final Fantasy 4 or Final Fantasy 6, a game that is much more about the characters in the story but also great combat so maybe dragon quest is just simply too traditional for you yeah big oh i'm sorry chris you have anything i didn't want to

3:47:15Colin Moriarty:you because i didn't know if you had anything you want no no yeah i mean i yeah no i mean i think i would agree like i just think like you gave it a solid try which is more than a lot of people do which is good you know um but it's probably just not for you it wasn't for me either man like i I played, I played, I think, a couple hours of Dragon Quest XI. And it wasn't even so much that I didn't like it. Because I thought it was charming and there were parts of it that I thought were cool. I like the animation. I like the style of it. But I could just tell. You know, you can just tell when you're playing a game.

3:47:43Colin Moriarty:It's just like, yeah, this just isn't really what I'm looking for really right now. And that's just, that's fine. Like, you don't got to beat yourself over it. Like, I just feel like I get questions like this a lot from people who just like, I just don't get it. I want to get it. you know from like people who are playing like these critically acclaimed games or like these like really storied or like important games but it's important to just be aware that like sometimes they're just not for you like video games are really vast like medium like it's insane it's it's probably like that it's probably more diversity in in video games as a medium than there is in probably any other medium to be honest with you oh maybe maybe books maybe books is like the the next one because you got shit like house of leaves just like really really esoteric and eclectic shit but really like there's you don't need to force yourself to like something just

3:48:30Chris Pranger:because it's popular and huge yeah i would also say that a vast majority of games are not for me so i scroll through the psn even just not the ship but just random things and i'm like nine out of ten of these games i wouldn't play that's probably the way a lot of people feel about a lot of things so that's okay yeah big dumb stupid idiot wrote in said hey cdc google's genie has the industry spooked, but should it be? Larian was bullied out of using Gen AI. Take-Two and NetEase both took a hard zero AI stance. It should also be noted that OpenAI is trying to raise another$100 billion. I don't even know what they spend money on at this point.

3:49:04Chris Pranger:This may mean AI companies are running out of money. Genie could one day make a completely generated game, but Google's AI division may burn too much capital to be sustainable, and the audience clearly doesn't want AI games. I'll hang up and listen to AI Tommy not know who the sniper is in Last of Us 2. That's in the podcast.

3:49:22Chris Pranger:You'll get that podcast on your PlayStation soon. So this Genie stuff, which is part of Google DeepMind, I think.

3:49:33Chris Pranger:Did it seemingly did, I guess, Genie three did spook the gaming market, because I think a lot of it could be on untethered to this, but it seemed like a lot of gaming stock went down when people saw what these things can do. I want people to remember something that I think is vital, which is that like people keep focusing on the product as it is now. And we always bring up the Will Smith spaghetti video, right? And making a video game in AI is going to be much more complicated. But you're focusing on the wrong thing because you're going to have to recalibrate your entire argument when they figure it out, which they will.

3:50:11And so you need to be rooted in something else, something more

3:50:17Chris Pranger:substantive and human and i continue to say because everyone like i i've seen some of these ai things and they're fucking awful right like they make no sense there's a mistake every fucking half a second somewhere on the clip there was like some guy on a train i saw like like gunplay i was like this is awful the zelda shit is awful the mario shit is awful i just think it's not always going to be awful. And you have to add. And so you have to delineate what you want and what you're looking for. And I continue to ask the question of why do we want to empower non-creative people to make creative items in a world flooded with creativity?

3:50:58Chris Pranger:If you can't draw, I can't draw for shit. I grew up with a brother who's a, who's an Emmy award-winning artist. And I felt like a dumb fuck. I couldn't, no matter how much he taught me, no matter how many books he got me, no matter how much I practice, I can't draw. It's not for me. It is preposterous to imagine that you should want me to go on a generative AI engine basing its work on real artists. And I put a prompt in and then I release that to you. We have to be able to talk about this in a a more philosophical way because people are just focusing on the slop and it will not be that way for much longer.

3:51:42I'm telling you, you know, um, so I, I don't think people don't want AI games.

3:51:54Chris Pranger:I think that once you, people don't give a shit. It seems like about AI as far as like what it's doing to erode the creative field. And so I don't think they want these AI games because they look like ass um i don't know i don't i don't know that i have even a point i just yeah i see what these things are doing i think it's really interesting they're not playable it's going to take so much work to make them playable remember that really beautiful it was like a beautiful pic of like a guy with a sword running down a mountain and then there was another one that was like pixel art role-playing game but like but 3d with a 2d feel but then people were noting it's like you can't do anything you can't even go off the path that's on this thing right and i like it and i'm like yeah but we're gonna have to confront this at some point um do you

3:52:45Colin Moriarty:have anything you want to say yeah no i mean i i think it's um i i agree i think people are focused too much on the fact that like oh it looks like shit now but it's like yeah but it won't always the sad reality is and i've kind of been weirdly attuned to this for a long time is that the human brain is a computer like in a lot of like there's people who like they get their head they hit their head and they just they get entire portions of their memory wiped or they just they form entirely completely different identities and like it's like it's not unreplicatable like i believe that i believe like at some point you'll be able to have like a computer that thinks or whatever like or at one point i think you're going to be able to have like an ai film that is ostensibly like indistinguishable from like a i don't know like a b movie or like a shitty motion picture made by some like guy who's like inexperienced or maybe even better you know um and so the argument can't be that it looks like shit the argument is has to be that it's it's sourced from material that is inherently valueless which is to say that it's like who gives a shit what a computer's perspective on anything is it's not art is for people it's for people to make it's for people to consume and that's really all there is to it like that's where your argument needs to be rooted in like it can't be rooted in like whether or not it passes you know right exactly there's a place for that argument i think in other areas or whatever but like not in ai because like i think a lot of people i wonder how it's going to affect certain people because it's like there's going to have there's going to come a day where like people have to confront the fact that like the human mind is replicatable and it and it kind of maybe isn't as like special as maybe we think it is that's

3:54:28Chris Pranger:what jaffey always argues is that like ultimately things could be reduced to a determinism even if you go into the chemistry you know like in the biology of things like it's all predictive and i just think that that's such a shitty way to live that i though i know that that is fundamentally true it could also be like a three body problems type thing where actually it's not so predictive because it's simply the three body problem for people that don't know is like when three you know three um pieces of mass interacting gravitationally with each other create on like unforeseen effects like you can't you simply can't predict their movements and i feel like maybe that's the way it is in the human mind as well is that like there are a bunch of things we know this protein and this thing and this but like really we don't know exactly how it all works and we might never work.

3:55:19Chris Pranger:And the AI is replicating what it thinks works through the eyes of humans to look and feel human. And that's why I say over and over again, Chris, to you too, it's like simply people always say like, I get tricked by AI now. Tricking me is not going to be the litmus test. Because you can trick me easily. You can trick me in a million different ways. It's not just AI. It's about where something comes from. So I wish I was so optimistic. and Dustin, I want to hear from you. I wish we were so optimistic as to say the audience clearly doesn't want AI games. I don't know that I believe that. Because they want AI everything.

3:55:59Chris Pranger:So why wouldn't it stop here? They don't give a shit about anything as long as it's good and it's going to be good one day. So again, you just need to figure out a different way to approach it. What do you say?

3:56:11Colin Moriarty:Yeah, I agree with that. I've noticed recently, both in around where I live, but I also saw it in Los Angeles where you'll see a business that has an AI generated logo or character or something. There's a business I see every time I drive to and from Pittsburgh that I'm like, bro, you have an AI generated character that you plastered on the side of your van. And that's like unthinkable from even 10 years ago, maybe less than that, where it's like, oh, well, you can generate an image with AI, but it's not going to be good enough for anything. It's like, well, no, now it's totally usable. And so it's like, why wouldn't that be the case here as well?

3:56:55Colin Moriarty:And I don't know, maybe there is a degree where AI can get 90 % of the way there, but there's like some final bit that it just can't quite do. but I've learned over the course of these last few years that it's like anything that you think isn't possible ends up being possible the thing about genie is that it's all about and I think

3:57:21Chris Pranger:it's like environment only with some interactivity so it doesn't even have the underpinnings of a game and I don't mean from like systems I mean like engine wise like it's not a game but it's going to be one component of a greater whole, you know, and this is just where Jaffe and I just vehemently disagree where I'm like, I just.

3:57:43Chris Pranger:It's old man yelling a cloud, really, because it's like a cloud, it's not cloud, the Final Fantasy seven character, because. I just I understand where this I understand where this is all going. I know exactly where this is going. And. It feels like and what bothers me is that, like, I think when people see this about level of me sometimes, but I see this about a lot of people that talk about it a lot more vehemently than I do is like your Colin or whoever is worried about this only from their own commercial perspective or. like how it affects their businesses and how it's like, I don't think you understand, dude.

3:58:15Chris Pranger:It's not that. If I were like more in the trenches still, I would be more worried about that, but I'm not, I'm fine. I'm really talking about this from the human level that like we might be at the very end of a, of a human tradition of abject, unadulterated storytelling and creativity that is not affected by some external force. And that fucking sucks. Sucks. And again, I think AI is a mega useful tool. I love asking questions. I simply, you know, it's a great search engine. I just can't imagine offloading creativity to it. It's such a cop out and it's so lame. And I feel like the people that are most into it are the people that are the most uncreative and i'm just being honest with you about that like i can't draw but i can write and this person can't paint but they can sculpt and this person plays music but they're not a great writer or whatever like it's about the interaction between all those things that makes great product yeah offloading it all to a computer that could that knows everything

3:59:29Colin Moriarty:is and the thing too is that like a lot of and the thing too is like if you're if you can't draw or whatever and you like and you like study and you study and you really you figure it out you eventually learn how that's like that's its own process you know and that informs whatever comes out of it or vice versa like you realize this isn't for you it kind of drives your focus in other directions where you might find more success and it and it might direct you towards a place where you actually do have maybe like a bit of a natural proclivity or a natural talent to like pursue or whatever you know like maybe you're not like imagine like somebody who's like a really good musician but doesn't know it yet because they wanted to be in they wanted to they wanted to draw but they couldn't draw and then they just relied on an ai to do it because they're just like well this is working for me and they never even realized that they could have just done this other thing and it would have been completely humanly sourced like i don't know man it's uh i agree where i just i it's it is a bummer that we're kind of like at this place now where uh you can't be certain of it now i'm already of that mind where like if i see shit on the internet i just assume

4:00:34Chris Pranger:it's fake like no matter what it is yeah i'm in uh i'm in a similar position yeah it does suck it does suck it goes back into my whole thing about making fun of myself or i'm like i just assume everyone's telling me the truth so then it's like look at this fat guy jump in this pool and the thing falls off the balcony and i'm like well that's obviously fake but it certainly looks real like situationally that's nuts but visually right it's actually quite good um and it's just it's a shitty thing to say like it's like you could say it about anything like film or anything it's like we're about to get films from people that can't make films why the right fuck would i want that can you like can you describe it's because he has a great idea he just doesn't know how to execute on it because he doesn't know how to make films do you get it yet.

4:01:23Chris Pranger:Like also there are a million things I can't do. And that was what I was saying about drawing. Like I, I tried sometimes you're just not cut out for it. Like, I guess if I really, really, really put in time, I could do something, but I don't think so. Like, I actually just don't think I really have the acuity of skill to do something like that, but I am a good drummer, you know, and I can write, but, and I can play hockey and I played basketball and baseball, but I can't, I wasn't really very good at soccer or it's just like people, people are, are basically going around saying like, but I can't do it.

4:02:00Chris Pranger:And I'm like too fucking bad. That's called being human.

4:02:04Colin Moriarty:Well, the, the thing I know we're getting so deep into this, but I do think it's interesting where I almost think we have it backwards in some sense where like what AI should be doing is freeing up people's time doing stuff that is is not creative right doing stuff that is um you know menial or you know i don't even know what you would call it right but what it should be doing is it should be freeing people up to be able to explore and get better at these things themselves you know like maybe you can't draw right but maybe you don't have time to draw because you got to do all this you got to do x y and z and you're like you're fucking always busy doing like all sorts of shit that you don't find any joy in um but maybe if you had that time you could actually study up a little bit maybe you could actually learn music theory if you had like the time that's what ai should be doing yeah it should be a good point it should be freeing up our time to be able to explore those deeper trenches of what being a person is yeah i like as opposed to like this reverse thing where it's just like oh don't worry we got all sorts of movies being made so now you can go to work like what do you it's so backwards it's crazy

4:03:17Chris Pranger:it's so vile or live off of ubi or whatever like it's it just feels like very dystopian and right i mean it is dystopian but but also people are like well what's the delineation between usable and unusable ai and i'm like well i just think things have answers and that's where you use ai i was talking about like the weather i think i talked about it on sacred streaming about how like the most accurate weather forecast for this late recent storm was an ai weather forecast that like forecasted it more accurately than any model because it understands things because there is an answer but like there is no answer to what a blue sky looks like you know i guess if you want photo realism you have a picture of it but in terms of art like describe the blue sky paint the blue sky write a song about the blue sky and there is no answer to that there is no answer to that there is an answer as to like what is the third you know on the periodic table what's the third element or what's two plus two what's the capital of Texas like don't people realize that there's a difference yeah that's the whole thing like I don't know man Dustin anything else you want to talk about or is that enough fucking pontificating

4:04:27Colin Moriarty:everything sucks and you're going to die alone as Jaffe would say

4:04:32Chris Pranger:what's going to happen

4:04:38Chris Pranger:buzzard wrote in with the final inquiry says hey fellas recent information information pardon me suggests the next xbox could be launching 2027 do you guys think there is a chance that xbox could perhaps be playstation to market by at least a year and if this does take place what do you think it can mean for the success of either console i think xbox is going to be playstation to the market i think that was going to happen with or without the recent rumors of delays and all the component issues. And it wouldn't be the first time. Obviously, Xbox was late to market, the original one, against PlayStation 2, but Xbox 360 preempted PlayStation 3 by a year, and that was a big deal.

4:05:15Chris Pranger:Especially turning over a console generation in four years, which is what they did, is unheard of at this point. So it's happened in the past. I think they have to... Look at it this way. When you reset the market, you're doing so out of necessity. Dreamcast went first because a Sega had to get the Dreamcast out. They were dying. And then you had things like PS2 percolating, obviously, and then you get into like the Xbox into the Xbox 360. You get into the Wii U. You get into the Switch and so on. And Switch 2. So I think going off balance is a good way to disrupt markets if you feel like you have something to gain from them.

4:05:53Chris Pranger:And Xbox has a lot to gain from the market because it's losing a lot. And Dustin, I'm curious what you think about this. It's just like, I just don't know I don't want I know I know I have a reputation for being like a an Xbox maker a hater I was gonna say make funner of person but and I don't hate them I just think that they're badly run um this thing feels to me like dead on arrival like I don't under I don't understand who like who this thing is gonna be for outside of a core group of people and that components are gonna be so expensive that if this thing is really a PC with an Xbox shell over it, how much is it even going to cost?

4:06:34Chris Pranger:I think they're kind of in a bind here with this. Because if they don't go early, then they're definitely done. This is basically the last hurrah. And I wouldn't... I'll say this. Dollars to donuts, I think the console is coming out. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't at this point. That's how I feel.

4:06:53Colin Moriarty:Yeah, currently like I'm looking the just to make sure the series X uh you can buy the disc version at Walmart for $599 that's crazy that's what the pro costs right I think is the pro 650 the 650 maybe I I'm not sure but either way the series X at$599 so there's already you know a huge expense for a console that is uh over five years old at this point my oh the pro is 750 oh it's 750 oh yeah because it was it was 699 at launch right and they upped it so my assumption about the next maybe not assumption my theory about the next xbox is that it's just going to be a way more a niche device that is going to be in line with what the ROG Xbox ROG Ally is, which is a PC console hybrid thing.

4:07:51Colin Moriarty:And it will be very expensive and hopefully very powerful and only appeal to people that are looking for that kind of thing. But it's clear just from their actions that they kind of want out of this at this point. And this can kind of be their off ramp, a PC hybrid device, because that's potentially going to be a new vertical with Steam Machine. This can sit alongside it as something that's more expensive and more powerful. And I mean, where it goes from there at that point, because it's not really a console anymore. I mean, it is a console and how you interact with it. But with it being a PC, it's kind of its own thing at that point.

4:08:36Colin Moriarty:but with the pricing of what this thing will have to be i think it's going to be a niche device chris anything to add yeah man i don't know i i uh they i you said that a lot of people give you shit for being like an xbox hater i'll say this i've been an xbox fan for a very very long time still still kind of em like i think they're i feel like they make really interesting shit even if I don't like it all the time like I think Pentiment is like really weird and I think they they they're good at curating a lot of like really offbeat interesting games um Sea of Thieves and like all these other things like I I respect the output in a lot of ways but I mean there's no I don't know what you could do to sell me on a new Xbox that I'm going to have to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on like I just I don't know what I don't know what exists for me there at that point um halo's coming to ps5 this year and that's your that's kind of like the golden goose man like so i don't i don't really know what to i just don't get what the i don't know the pc hybrid thing is kind of interesting because the one the one the one aspect of it that i do appreciate is that like i do have a really old xbox library i'm playing splinter cell pandora tomorrow on there right now and it's my digital copy that i bought forever ago right and And so that's really cool.

4:10:03Colin Moriarty:I can't bring that. I can't bring those games from that early on in my library onto that Rog Ally thing because it's not truly an Xbox. It's not built in the same way. So it can't run those games that I have dating back forever. If they could figure out a solution to that, I could I could see myself potentially maybe jumping in and maybe being curious about it. But even so, the amount of people who have a really old digital Xbox library that dates back so far, that's a very small percentage of people. I'm like, I'm not your average person in that regard. Like most people do not have that. Especially most people who have been around since the PS5 and PS4 have been the domineering, you know, machine.

4:10:45Colin Moriarty:So I'm not your average use case. I could potentially be sold on it. but like even in that mindset as somebody who is open to it and who does enjoy xbox and who likes the stuff that they do generally um it seems to me that it's clearly over and i don't really know how else to i just don't know how else i don't know another objective way you can really look at it other than at the very least they're pivoting to maybe a more niche boutique model of a weird thing that they're going to offer in addition to them being a multi-platform third-party publisher, that just seems to be the direction they're going.

4:11:29Chris Pranger:So I don't know. Yeah, it does seem, yeah, it is what it is at this point. I'll be very curious to see the new hardware as an off-ramp. But again, I believe it's going to come out, but I also just wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. Because I was looking at their numbers like they're down another 30 % of the hardware quarter over quarter. That's like 16 quarters in a row. What is a number that's down 30 % a quarter look like after 16 quarters? 30, 30, 30, 30, 30. Like you're getting into infinitesimal numbers. Yeah. So anyway, that's it, boys. That's all we have. This episode of Sacred Symbols of PlayStation Podcast.

4:12:07Chris Pranger:It was a good one. I enjoyed it. Glad to be here with you. Let's go around the horn and say goodbye to everyone. Chris, goodbye to you. Be well. Any plans? nah man i'm gonna go pick up some allergy stuff i'm gonna go pick up some i don't know what are

4:12:20Colin Moriarty:they it's been a while since i've got allergy meds so like i don't even know i remember zyrtec was a big thing yeah i don't know i gotta figure it out yeah gotta be careful that can make you crazy zyrtec yeah it happened to holly oh yeah she like was having like a major meltdown in college for like a week or two and then someone asked her like are you started taking zyrtec she's like actually i have so uh certain people it can uh that's so there's like stories we looked it up there's like stories on reddit people that were like my kid has never been a problem and now he's like losing his fucking mind and getting in trouble at school zertek that's so that's so interesting wild so but yeah i don't know i'm gonna go i'm gonna go look for some medicine and then probably just i want to finish up jack and daxter i i i'm in this weird space and i think we're all kind of in this weird space we're like in between like now and Resident Evil and for me in between now Resident Evil and Marathon which is an even shorter period of time it's just kind of like I don't really know what I'm into playing right now so I'm going to try and polish off Jack and Daxter then maybe move on to Jack 2 if I'm if I like how it ends not really sure cool I don't know well be well

4:13:33Chris Pranger:get better Dustin goodbye to you anything to report

4:13:40Colin Moriarty:i'm gonna try to finish up my work as quickly as possible eat dinner and i already have dragon quest installed uh so i'm gonna be diving into that tonight i'm so excited sweet other than that no plans super bowl party but we talked about that already it's already here but it's about it keeping it low key i think there might be more snow on the way so oh really i'm even maybe not crazy i just so have you have you guys found that the apple weather app is the worst thing in the

4:14:13Chris Pranger:world it's totally all over the place yeah it's it's awful it is awful let's see 60 chance of snow tomorrow who knows if that's true yeah it says 50 for us complete fucking lie um all right we'll be well yeah i'm just gonna hang out to eat dinner work out we'll work out then eat dinner um I got to work this weekend because I we're beginning to wrap up a Saintslayer and I need to do a lot so got to get going on that I really only have weekends to do that so I'll be spending my time on Saturday and Sunday doing that and then Sunday night yeah the Super Bowl go to a party at my Uncle Mike's yeah we'll see everyone next week for sacred streaming and sacred symbols and I got to do sacred symbols plus tomorrow as well alright that's it guys appreciate your time be well thank you all out there for your love kindness and support couldn't do it without you here on Sacred Symbols and Last Stand Media.

4:15:03Chris Pranger:Patreon.com slash Last Stand Media for early ad free access. Last Stand Media dot store for merch. We'll see you next time. Until then, goodbye. See ya. Take care, guys. Sacred Symbols, a PlayStation podcast, is a product and trademark of Last Stand Media and Colin's Last Stand LLC and is proudly recorded in the USA. The show is conceived by, is written by, and is directed by me, Colin Moriarty. My co-hosts are Chris Raygun Maldonado and Dustin Furman. The show is produced by executive producer Dustin Furman. All of Last Stand's theme music is by my best friend, Ramon Narvaez. As you know, all of Last Stand's shows, including Sacred Symbols, are fan-funded on Patreon at patreon.com slash laststandmedia.

4:15:45Chris Pranger:The following names are at the producer level on Patreon, our highest tier, and we're grateful for your thoughtful and kind contributions to our independent endeavor. Thank you. Aaron Betke, Aaron Temple, Adam Refriended, Albion, Alex Cabrera, Alex Gates, Alex Lapierre, Alex Monez, Alan Tiniak, Alan Tremblay, Alan Einer, Anthony Akire, Anthony Vazquez, Anton K, Antonio C, Asak Paredes, Austin Riley, Betty Ann Moriarty, Bjorn Campbell, Blackjack, Boots, Brad Cooley, Brad Lohman, Brandon Runiger, Brian Williamson, Cannonball Jones, Captain Verde, Carlos Algaret, Chad Lewis, Chris Galvin, Chris Morton, Chris Ritchie, Christopher Devayo, Christopher Moore, Christopher Morgan, Cody Benin, Conrad Pennyfarthing, Corey Beacom, Dan Nolan, Dan Root, Daniel D 'Amour, Daryl E.

4:16:33Chris Pranger:Naaman, Dave Alvarez, Dennis Usel, Denny Woodnever, Don Lee, Donald Difford, Donald John Vaders, Double Duty Dirk, WTF, Eddie Smith, Electric MD, Ellis, Emmanuel Perez, Enrique Perez, Enteshas, Frail Cabbage St. Matthews of the Diocese of Brig, Gabe's New Gabe Cube, Gary Cavallo, Gavin, Ghost Storm 672, Gio Corsi, Grayson Maxwell, Gregory Slavinsky, Gus, Hush, Jad Rita, Jake C, Jamie Fraley, Jason Arzon, Jay Getter, Jean-Francois Forzi, Jeff Mercado, Jerome Ferreira, Jimmy Rodriguez, Joe McPartland, Joey Gondaliger, John Schultz, John Zile, Johnny Waffles, John Cordero, Jonathan Coates, Jonathan Cortez, Joosh, Jorge Pal, Joseph Baker, Joseph Lopez, Josh Godfrey, Josh Gravelick, Josh McKinney, Josh Schullinger, Joshua Smallwood, J.P.

4:17:26Chris Pranger:Lynch, Justin Payne, Justin Wagaman, Cam Wallace, Keith Richards, Kendrick Caius, Kyle Hagel, Kyle Martin, Lizard King, Logan Little George, Madmoc Media, Miranda Grubba, Martin Beck, Mason Bouchard, Matt Flowers, Matt 20, Matthew Ash, Matt MGS24, Michael Buffal, Michael Gates, Michael Mashed potato michael vecchio mr tom morgan ashley mr finkler mr molf my name is mayo nate izod nathan r neil amin nick amato norse nuts ollie fritz omar omar rosa orchard organic produce out of focus bigfoot patrick leslie paul joyce peyton stone phil crone qualia freak randall holsey rallo Relentless Rex Remington James Ray Lijah Robert Byers Robert Schultz Roto24 Ross Marenka Ryan T.

4:18:18Chris Pranger:Mandel Saqib Alam Saul Balcazar Sean Mason Shane Brecky Shane Miller Shane Rayoum Silent Butt Deadly Simon Conception Jr. Sketch McGetch Spencer F. Steven Glasman Steven Innerfield Stewie 108 Sunny Sides Up Sweaty Magic Sweet Jones Terry Tip The Fandom Traveler The Shady Mailman Throw Seven Toby Rylan, Tony Zuniga, Trelon, Trench Goat, Trey Woodward, Tyler Tremel, Uncharted Shinobi, Vance Cody, Vega the Late, Vitra, Who is Steven Day, Will Williams, William Holbert, Worry-san, Whiskey-Sin, Zach Cohen, Zachary Wood, Zen Red, Z-Man 8601, and Zainal Yuichi.

4:19:03Colin Moriarty:Why have we asked our contractor we found on Angie.com to be our kid's legal guardian? because he took such good care when redoing our basement that we knew we could trust him to care for our kids, all eight of them, should something happen to us. Are you my dad now?

4:19:18Chris Pranger:Uh, no, sorry, I do basements. Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com.

4:19:31Colin Moriarty:Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster Nibbles in our yard for me? Because I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet Nibbles after his untimely end. Huh, Nibbles. Gone too soon. May he scurry in peace.

4:19:49Chris Pranger:Hey, sorry about your pet, but I just wire stuff.

4:19:52Colin Moriarty:Nibbles would have loved you like a brother.

4:19:53Chris Pranger:Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com.