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June's Journey, a hidden object mystery game,

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each chapter will take you deeper into

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You get to put your detective skills to

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the test, and fast, because it's to your

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June's Journey is definitely not a game I

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genuinely invested in both the storyline and my

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through Facebook games. Sci-fi

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The Galactic Football League is Star

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Wars, meets the Godfather, meets Gridiron

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Glory. I

1:25

get knocked down, but I get

1:27

up again. You're

1:33

never gonna keep me down. Yes, it's

1:35

the IGN UK podcast with me, Simon

1:37

Carty. Jesse Gomez, are you into

1:39

tub-thumping? What? You

1:43

say tub? Tub-thumping. It

1:45

doesn't sound- You're not familiar with the works of

1:47

Trumba Wamba. No. Do you

1:49

know any of the words I've just said? No,

1:52

not really. Tub-thumping sounds disgusting, to be honest. It's

1:54

a good song, eh? A bit

1:56

of an England national anthem for a period

1:58

of time. you're a big fan

2:00

mate. I wouldn't say

2:02

I'm a big fan however I do know exactly

2:04

what you're talking about. Okay that's good, that is

2:07

good. Maybe it's one for people in their their

2:09

30s I don't know. Anyway

2:13

we just came off a big old play

2:15

of a new, I say a big old play,

2:18

play about an hour of Helldivers 2 which out

2:20

today it kind of snuck off

2:22

on me. I knew it was coming soon, I didn't realize

2:24

it was as soon as out, well today we're recording this

2:26

on Thursday just so you know. The

2:29

new co-op game from PlayStation, it's

2:32

also available on PC. Four

2:35

player, I suppose the pitch is Starship

2:38

Troopers but a game

2:40

really? Yeah I think that's fair to

2:42

say is like Starship Troopers, if you

2:44

don't know what is it's a sequel

2:47

to Helldivers which was a top-down shooter

2:49

but this one is a third-person shooter

2:52

and it's very fun. I

2:54

think it kind of, like I was kind of half

2:56

interested in this game before I give it a go.

2:58

Always on lookout for a new co-op game just

3:00

because there don't seem to be many good ones

3:02

or kind of ones that try and push the

3:04

boat out these days as we were talking about

3:07

earlier. But Helldivers 2 I

3:09

think is taken by surprise bit just but

3:11

in that hour alone we've played the first

3:13

what three missions of the game and it's

3:15

genuinely very fun and if you like explosions

3:17

this is a game for

3:19

you especially comically big explosions.

3:22

I think that's one thing

3:24

we all took away from

3:26

it, it's explosive. Yeah,

3:28

it's a third-person shooter but I think it's interesting

3:32

that this PlayStation Studios branding is

3:34

on a multiplayer shooter to begin

3:36

with. Obviously

3:38

it's not made by one

3:40

of their in-house studios, this

3:43

is like the Swedish developer

3:45

Arrowhead Studios and it

3:48

is, I hesitate to say is

3:51

it a live service game would we consider it

3:53

that there is a... I mean

3:55

it's certainly got like a road map,

3:57

yeah somewhat of a battle pass I

3:59

suppose. Yeah, but it's not really

4:01

I had a look around the store It's

4:03

not really micro transaction heavy you can buy

4:05

some credits which you can unlock some cosmetic

4:08

stuff with but you can also earn That

4:10

currency in game so it's not like a

4:12

prohibitively. Yeah, got like this actually It's got

4:14

a long kind of forward ahead of it,

4:16

but in terms of the actual matches there

4:18

They're quite kind of their

4:20

four-player co-op We were obviously playing as three,

4:22

but you essentially start on this you customize

4:25

your own ship right like you give it

4:27

a name And it's all I gave him

4:29

under dawn of dawn Yeah, hilarious. It's very

4:32

starship troopers in its in its narrative kind

4:34

of like the hell divers are patriotic forces

4:37

going out into the galaxy to enforce

4:39

democracy on kind of other planets and

4:42

There's a galaxy map and

4:45

you choose kind of the sector to start

4:47

a match You're choosing a sector when a

4:49

planet from this galaxy map With

4:51

the idea that the more multiplayer matches that

4:54

happen on these planets you're gradually Overtaking

4:57

them and enforcing democracy and pushing

4:59

kind of like this galactic Frontline

5:02

forwards towards the end goal, so I

5:04

assume the point is is the more

5:06

people play The more we'll

5:08

get to bigger kind of events that will unlock as it

5:10

goes on I just found a lot to shotgun as soon

5:12

as we stop by the way I bought it So

5:15

yeah, I've got the shock. I say I thought it

5:17

was in game. You know yeah, I didn't get by

5:19

it But yeah, so there is there's a steady stream

5:22

of unlocks. I think my favorite those are these What

5:25

I've already forgotten what that orders Stratagems

5:27

that's what I can only think about impartures, right?

5:31

but um you buy these and

5:33

they're basically like like they're not Suppose

5:36

they're like killstreaks be dirt you have to build

5:38

up any kill. Yeah, they're deployed on a call-out

5:40

right? Yeah, which like I am not one which

5:42

was it's just like called an eagle gatling strike

5:44

Which basically just comes in and just like puts

5:46

a straight line of bullets down They're kind of

5:48

it's got that fun thing of it

5:51

did remind me of those old Modern warfare days

5:53

where you'd get the kill streak and you just

5:55

lay down the attack and just watch it do

5:57

its work And just everything will blow up And

6:00

there's just a lot of good, like, I think

6:02

that's just one element of like, surprisingly, there's a

6:04

lot of depth there. There's a lot going on.

6:07

It isn't just point trigger, run at aliens and

6:09

then extract. No, it's kind of like, so you

6:11

land, the point is, is like, you choose your

6:13

planet and you land on it and that planet

6:15

will have a number of objectives. So it's kind

6:17

of an open world-ish map, you know, not, not

6:20

like a full, you know, 75 square kilometres

6:22

or whatever. But you've got kind of an

6:24

open map of which there will be multiple

6:27

things on there. So sometimes it's hunting down

6:29

kind of giant monsters to kill. Sometimes it's

6:31

going and destroying like

6:33

stockpiles of ammunition and stuff like that. And

6:36

there's 40 minutes that you've got to do it. They're

6:38

almost, I guess they're sort of mildly considered suicide runs.

6:40

It's like, if you don't get it done in 40

6:42

minutes, we're not coming and picking you up. And

6:45

yes, so you're going around this kind of choosing

6:47

your objectives as you go. You know, there's that

6:50

sort of amount of freedom. But like

6:52

you say, you've got, you know, your buddies with

6:54

you, which have all got their on hand weapons,

6:56

you know, your assault rifles and your pistols. But

6:59

then these stratagems which come in kind of

7:01

like grenade form that you throw, which I

7:03

love about the fact that each one has

7:05

got a unique dial code that you essentially

7:07

dial into almost as if

7:09

you're telephoning for support. It'll be like down,

7:11

down, left, right, or down, up, down, down.

7:14

Fun little cheat codes. Yeah. Yeah.

7:17

And you know, there's that tactical element of kind of

7:19

like, okay, we're running out of ammunition. Let's

7:21

call in a supply drop. Okay,

7:24

there's 700 of these, they call

7:26

terminids, these giant bug like creatures.

7:28

Yeah. 700 of them running

7:30

over that hill. So let's get an orbital strike

7:32

in over there or, you know, or more crucially,

7:35

it's how you revive people, right? Yeah. If

7:37

one of us goes down, you have to call in the pods, you have to like

7:40

survive under pressure and try and dial in

7:43

this code on the D pad. I would

7:45

say that the first, like, literally

7:47

the first couple minutes when we selected like, oh, we're going

7:49

to do this mission is like, oh, we get to choose

7:51

what we're going to drop. Might as well

7:53

be near the objective. We all drop Your fire

7:55

and now the enemies, I Accidentally walk past, you

7:57

kill me. There is friendly fire. About

8:00

that comprise friendly fire, An Asus

8:02

absolute. Manic. Or the

8:04

virus motherhood That that kind of accidental

8:06

death element right is you start with

8:09

kind of okay I realize we got

8:11

any foreign of accident accepts him once

8:13

but my first death was we had

8:15

the some kind of like warehouses about

8:17

to blow up by it's cooking grenades

8:20

through the roof matches and they blew

8:22

up for the this physical properties attached

8:24

to the dick, the crumbling debris and

8:26

the roof and forth. this thing just

8:29

him. we old across the map and

8:31

talk me into the then it's like.

8:33

You you colin drop pods and I dropped down

8:35

and it's great that those problems when you can

8:37

control them as they fall from the sky so

8:40

I got to land on enemies and crush them

8:42

but then you come out into was the end

8:44

of that mission. The. It has like

8:46

an extraction system where you run to your

8:48

extraction points, you call in extracts and you

8:51

have to hold out for a couple of

8:53

minutes against waves of enemies. And we did

8:55

all that successfully on the draw The the

8:57

drop ship came down which of as he

9:00

has afterburner thrusters on the bottom to steady

9:02

as it comes in. I didn't look up

9:04

and just got absolutely roasted alive by the

9:07

ship that was coming to save me. It's

9:09

been an Ottoman all the way. every room

9:11

at Cisco that great combination of like. Funny.

9:14

Moments Free gameplay though so funny blight

9:16

some of the right and me that

9:18

guy really nice fun time to at

9:20

less the things the soldiers had to

9:22

sell like another when for democracy would

9:25

be ala aliens it's just a scar

9:27

lovely like tongue in cheek term Tome

9:29

two million two and and you compare

9:31

a lot to I've never really played

9:33

abs defenseless to see by notes galore

9:35

by energy the you enjoy yeah media

9:37

is you go into any as the

9:39

most cheesiest. Awfully. Delivered

9:41

dialogue you know there as well as like gotta

9:43

save the planet and all sorts and they always

9:45

home of democracy and like sing in low chance

9:47

together and stuff as I kill in aliens bucks.

9:50

Abs. Is. It.

9:52

As. It's. Of like low budget

9:54

but. Insane. war causeway

9:56

you know they'll be near know forty eight hundred

9:58

like ants and wasps and robots and frog

10:01

cyborgs coming after you with lasers and stuff

10:03

and you're dropping in tanks and you're dropping

10:05

in air strikes and whatnot. And it's

10:08

insane because there's that huge assortment of weapons

10:10

and abilities. And I've

10:12

been waiting for the new EDF to come out for a

10:14

little while now. It's been released in Japan for a little

10:16

bit, coming to the west soon, I think. And Helldivers

10:18

2 is, I wasn't expecting

10:20

it to be exactly what I wanted. Cause

10:24

it's just a really pleasant surprise. If it was a quite

10:26

a time and there weren't other games we had to play

10:28

for work and stuff like that, I would probably play a

10:30

lot of this game. But I feel I will, I do

10:32

want to play more of it. I just, I'm just

10:35

afraid I'm not going to be able to for at

10:37

least a couple of weeks, which is annoying. But I

10:39

hope it does. We're like the steam pre-order numbers were

10:41

quite big. They're like top of the steam charts this

10:43

week, which is surprising. And I hope it

10:45

does well. Cause I do want it to still like kind

10:47

of keep going, I think. So I

10:49

would like to get into it at some point in

10:51

the near future. And I think that thing about getting

10:53

into it is good. I think one of the

10:55

things that I found really interesting and what I think

10:58

is valuable to this game is

11:01

it is not the third person shooter. I think I

11:03

expected of it because, you know, one of the things

11:05

that we did very early on in this was we

11:07

called down a bomb, which you then had to go

11:09

and type like the code into it, arm it. And

11:11

then there's like a five second countdown on it. And

11:14

the explosion that comes out of it

11:16

is colossal. Like

11:19

so it is very funny in that over

11:21

the top kind of, you know, kind

11:23

of action 80s

11:25

action movie kind of elements got about that. And

11:28

so that was kind of suggest to

11:30

you that it's a very arcade focus

11:32

shooter and it absolutely

11:34

isn't. There are quite a lot

11:37

of tactics required to it. We've only played it

11:39

on kind of like the bottom rungs of the

11:41

difficulty ladder. And I imagine as

11:43

that increases, your tactical awareness needs to

11:45

go up. But certain things

11:47

that are streamlined in many other shooters

11:49

just aren't here. So for example, when

11:52

you run out of ammunition, you're out of ammunition

11:54

and you have to actively push the reload button

11:56

to put a new one in. There's no automatic

11:58

reload on empty. And also if

12:01

you reload halfway through the clip

12:03

you throw that the rest of that magazine away

12:05

So you have to be very you know active

12:07

with knowing how much ammunition you've got and then

12:10

there are things that when you swap To grenades

12:12

once you've thrown a grenade you don't automatically

12:14

swap back to your your pistol or your

12:16

main gun Like a lot of other games

12:18

do so which meant that I was just

12:20

throwing grenades Willy because I

12:23

assumed that I was switching back

12:25

and then like

12:27

all of these things Add

12:29

up and they make it a

12:32

surprisingly deliberate shooter Yeah, but for what

12:34

the energy of it elsewhere is just

12:36

a go on I

12:38

was gonna say I even appreciate those those small

12:41

little things as well those extra sort of details

12:43

where we haven't unlocked it yet but there's extra

12:45

sort of cooldowns you can

12:47

bring to the map where There

12:49

might be a rocket launcher that needs to be

12:51

manned or reloaded by another player so if I was

12:53

to fire something then oh Maybe you know cardio master

12:55

come up come behind if there's an enemy storm in

12:57

me or even just when we were going

12:59

to try And destroy these two silos out next to

13:01

each other you called in the hell bomb which was

13:03

that massive explosion? But we caught it and we're like

13:05

oh we done We wait a few seconds like oh

13:07

wait no we need to go there activate and then

13:10

run away And it's making those little decisions like am

13:12

I gonna be the person to stay behind and try

13:14

and do that whilst you know everyone's Defending me it's

13:16

just you don't really get another cold games like

13:18

this. No. I do think it fundamentally and it is

13:20

designed to be a Cold game. I'm not sure how

13:22

much fun. I would have by myself playing this game

13:24

I think a lot of fun does come in playing

13:26

with your friends in this and also just I'll

13:29

say the fundamental Third-person shooter gameplay is just

13:31

very good We were talking about it earlier

13:33

like not to rag on suicide

13:35

squad anymore But that is one of the common

13:37

complaints before that game that every gun feels the

13:40

same like the you can't have a loot system

13:42

Right where every gun pretty much feels same even

13:44

between an SMG and assault rifle and a pistol

13:46

They all kind of they're the same trigger pull

13:49

like there's no difference really no difference in reload

13:51

Whereas this each like already

13:53

I tried an SMG a pistol and assault

13:55

rifle the recall recall patterns are completely different

13:57

The way you have to reload them is

14:00

like the animations differently just you can tell

14:02

they spent a lot of time working

14:04

on that gunplay and I looked in the time

14:07

Helldivers was their last game Arrowhead in 2015 so

14:09

they've also been working on this

14:11

for a while and it shows because I think they've

14:14

really thought about all these systems

14:16

and how they interplayed I was expecting saying like

14:18

I think you said earlier so it's a lot

14:20

more shallow than it is exactly a lot more

14:22

involved and I'm really into it

14:25

that individuality of the guns so in

14:27

your base kit you can call down

14:29

a big heavy like

14:31

LMG which

14:34

obviously is pretty good for when you're having to hold out against

14:36

enemies at the end and it is it's a lot more powerful

14:38

than your other guns but I love the

14:40

fact that to reload that you actually have to

14:42

kneel down lay the gun on your leg and

14:45

spend a good few seconds kind of taking

14:47

the belt out of the ammunition bag loading

14:49

the new one in and all of these

14:51

things it's not just loot

14:54

with invisible like damage figures

14:56

on them where it's just like oh great this one

14:58

does three percent more

15:00

damage than my kind of

15:02

assault rifle there's the

15:05

feels functionality built into each

15:07

of the weapons that feels deliberate and

15:09

distinct and it creates

15:11

this sense of it's a weapon

15:13

it's not a stat block built

15:15

into a metal box yeah even even

15:17

when you discovered that I think it was called the arc

15:20

throw and we're up against all those different robots the first

15:22

time we'll play any like how does this work and then

15:24

you charge and then it like sort of sent a bolt

15:26

for a couple of enemies like oh that's gonna be really

15:28

useful in this scenario and it's just and if that sense

15:30

of discovery it's just really fun it's not

15:32

just staffs at troopers like aliens even there

15:35

are these like terminator android enemies as well

15:37

which their enemy design is there's a lot

15:39

already we've only done one mission against them

15:41

but there was at least three or four

15:43

different types of enemies in that first wave

15:45

yeah more relentless run at you ones that

15:47

fly at you like big tankier ones that

15:49

have got like swords for arms you know

15:52

and they can lay down mines as well

15:54

that we kept just ran into a minefield

15:56

accidentally and blew ourselves up i

15:58

think it's very fun I was gonna say

16:00

I think the main thing to the point I was like you

16:02

are gonna die a lot in this game because when we Started

16:04

like you know we want to obviously get some gameplay up on

16:06

the IGN and one I was sort of worried It's like oh

16:08

everyone's just gonna think we're always dying But I do think that

16:11

is a core part of the games

16:13

that you're gonna die in silly ways And you're

16:15

gonna have to think of when's the right moment

16:17

You know a tactical moment even when I can cool down

16:19

my teammate and they might be able to take down

16:21

and a few enemies With them with their drop pod.

16:23

It's not part of the experience Yeah,

16:26

I wanna I do want to play more it like I said

16:28

It's nice to have a good co-op game like these guys have

16:30

been doing I didn't I only just looked so I didn't realize

16:33

They've always kind of been into co-op their first game was

16:35

magic in which I didn't realize Which

16:37

I played a little bit off back in the day, but

16:39

yeah, it's good to just see sound

16:42

about the Swedish isn't it because it's also Hayes

16:45

it's hazelite isn't it's the name of studio who make

16:47

it takes to like the sign about they love a

16:49

bit of co-op over There and yeah, it's just nice

16:51

to have more co-op games Like I said,

16:53

hopefully we get to play us some more of this but

16:56

other things to play around this time of year

16:58

or this year in general really, um Speaking

17:01

which Matt you've managed to play like

17:03

the opening few hours of Final Fantasy 7 a

17:06

preview event lucky you yeah Yeah, I mean a

17:08

lot of people have been lucky enough to play

17:10

the first hour or two now the demos out

17:12

Which I have but you've you've got a much

17:14

more developed Palette

17:19

Okay, I don't know if you say so oh I'm

17:22

just going to talk to you some heartbreaking

17:24

breaking news here actually and I mean breaking

17:26

news Nestle have just announced

17:28

they're axing the breakaway bar after 54 years.

17:30

Well, how do you feel about that? Are you

17:33

familiar with the breakaway bar? Yeah. Yeah, it's

17:35

a very basic chocolate biscuit part It

17:37

feels like a staple. Well, I mean

17:39

why is there's an interesting texture to

17:42

the biscuit within the breakaway? Which is

17:44

almost like Chipboard when you

17:46

when you buy into it, it's kind of

17:48

like quite rough. Isn't it a breakaway? It's

17:50

not like a rocky burn edges, which is

17:52

like, yeah, it's almost got like a burn

17:54

edge to it Um, so yeah, our

17:56

IP to the breakaway bar. Where would that be in

17:58

your would they ever? make your lunchbox

18:01

rotation Jesse? I think so because

18:03

like we sometimes had these in the office

18:05

as well and I always enjoy their presence.

18:07

I like the crunch and the snap of

18:09

a chocolate with the biscuit and Breakaway

18:12

had that. They are like

18:14

a rung below the club right? The

18:16

club biscuits better. Yeah yeah yeah. Club's chunkier off

18:18

the top. And a gold bar. I love a

18:20

gold bar as well. 54 years

18:22

ain't bad. It's a good run. Well

18:25

done to the Breakaway bar. Anyway, Final

18:29

Fantasy 7 Reverb Matt. A

18:31

lot of people may well have played the

18:33

opening chapter which is the demo, the Nibelheim

18:35

flashback sequence but you've gone beyond that. Where

18:37

would you like to start with all this?

18:39

Yeah so is the demo only the Nibelheim

18:41

flashback? I believe it's just chapter one. Let

18:44

me double check that for you.

18:47

So because I have played chapter

18:49

one and chapter two. Confirm with

18:52

me first Simon whether the the

18:54

general public will have why they're

18:56

not. I will. The Final Fantasy

18:59

is whatever the Nibelheim flashback sequence

19:01

consists of. I am not a Final

19:04

Fantasy boy though. The demo ends when

19:06

you're crawling if that's a right. Okay.

19:09

That's a tease I believe. So yes

19:11

go ahead. So Final Fantasy 7 Reverb

19:13

obviously the sequel to Final Fantasy 7

19:15

Remake and the second game in the

19:18

remake project which will eventually span three

19:20

games. We

19:23

pick up in chapter one. We

19:25

don't really pick up in chapter one. Chapter

19:27

one is a flashback to much earlier

19:29

in Final Fantasy 7 story. If you've

19:32

played the original this is the famous

19:34

Nibelheim flashback. Even if you've not played

19:36

the original you will almost certainly know

19:38

the image of Sephiroth surrounded

19:41

by flames. It's like one of

19:43

the the all-time images of the

19:45

PS1 era and that's what you're

19:47

going to get from this. So if Final Fantasy Remake

19:50

as a project is the first time you're engaging

19:52

with the story you're finally going

19:54

to see that moment and it's it's

19:57

basically the point where Sephiroth flips. It's where

19:59

he goes from. being this incredible

20:01

war hero to being

20:04

the villain of the whole piece. And

20:09

chapter one is effectively

20:11

more of the same as what you

20:13

remember from Seven Remake. It's

20:16

a largely linear kind of trek up

20:18

this mountain which leads you to, surprise

20:20

surprise, a mecha reactor because they're pretty

20:23

important to the Final Fantasy 7 story.

20:27

But the key kind of trick that you've

20:29

got here is you actually get

20:31

to control Sephiroth. Now, in the original

20:33

game, Sephiroth was in your battle party

20:35

in this, but he was controlled by the AI

20:38

and you kind of just watched on in awe

20:40

as in that turn based combat he could just

20:42

do way more impressive spells than

20:44

you could. This time around

20:47

you are literally in control of him and

20:50

his combat arrangement, considering

20:52

that if they follow the

20:54

original game largely

20:57

beat for beat, in the same way that Remake

20:59

is largely beat for beat apart from the ending,

21:02

this is probably the only time you will play a Sephiroth.

21:04

They have put a lot of effort into this guy's combat.

21:07

It was cool. Like I said, I've played Denys so I've

21:09

played this bit. He's like

21:11

a full-fledged character. Exactly, and it's a great

21:13

kind of re-entry, like getting your mind back

21:15

into that combat first of all because he

21:18

is just overpowered and it makes you feel

21:20

great. But you're also, it's the same fundamental

21:22

button presses, isn't it? So that's what's good.

21:24

Yeah, so you know, it carries on that

21:26

like really wonderful reinvention of, you know, it's

21:30

not turn based but it has the fact that you can slow

21:32

the action right down to like 0.2%

21:36

of a crawl and choose special attacks

21:38

from a menu. But

21:40

on top of that you've got your hack

21:42

and slash and defend and dodge kind of

21:44

gameplay. Sephiroth has a

21:46

parry system which even in, you

21:49

know, you get to control him for probably I

21:51

guess about like 45 minutes, within

21:54

that case I hadn't mastered it and

21:56

I'm kind of like, oh it almost feels like

21:58

a waste if you never get to play as him. again

22:00

which I have no reason to believe that you

22:03

necessarily would but you know this

22:05

remake project is all about to find

22:07

expectations. But that's very cool

22:09

but I'd say like in general I think

22:11

if you've played remake and you're playing this

22:13

demo a lot of what you're gonna

22:15

get is what you would have expected from there from

22:18

from the original game because it's very very

22:20

similar. Where things kind of change up is

22:23

in chapter 2 the story catches back

22:25

up to where we left our

22:27

beloved characters at the end of remake.

22:30

They're in this little town called Karm which

22:32

again is from the original and

22:35

they're basically they're they're running away from

22:37

Midgar. Shimra

22:39

kind of turns up which they didn't in the original

22:41

game that's a little bit of a curveball and

22:44

you run out into the grasslands which

22:46

in the original game was

22:49

what we used to call the overworld in that kind

22:51

of era of games right where it's

22:53

just a very very simple scaled-down

22:56

globe to allow you to travel between the

22:58

more detailed locations and yes there'd be kind

23:00

of battles that you could do in that

23:02

area but in general that it wasn't it

23:04

wasn't very detailed it's not really a main

23:07

gameplay hook whereas here it's been

23:09

turned into an actual open world. So

23:12

what you've got is obviously

23:15

plenty of creatures around to fight but

23:17

also little odd locations which

23:20

have got you know kind of secret

23:23

treasure chests in there to pick things up and

23:25

then you get a little bit further and you

23:28

find the chocobo ranch which everybody kind

23:30

of knows. So there is actual like landmarks

23:32

emissions because when I first saw footage of

23:34

this and heard you speak about it I

23:36

was like oh no this sounds a little

23:38

bit like where Final Fantasy 16 went wrong

23:41

by having these open areas that kind of

23:43

had nothing of interest. I was really worried

23:45

that that was gonna be the same and

23:47

what I will say is the immediate kind

23:49

of vibe that you get from this is

23:52

these areas do feel far more organic

23:54

and expansive even if they didn't have

23:56

activities to do in them. The

23:59

way they've built it Final Fantasy 16

24:01

I think feels, they're flat

24:03

aren't they? A lot of the areas are very

24:05

flat, even if there's inclination in

24:08

the environments. The way

24:10

you get around them does just feel like you're

24:12

you're plodding from A to B. Whereas,

24:16

how can climb in

24:18

this? And I know that sounds like very

24:20

basic and in many ways

24:22

you could argue that it feels a

24:24

needless addition to it. There's a fair

24:27

few bits of Uncharted style, here's some yellow paint on

24:29

a wall and these are the bits that you can

24:31

find. Yeah that's in the demo, I was like oh

24:33

this feels a little clunky, I'm not trying to eat

24:36

this. But having

24:38

that and actually when you run at things that

24:40

are a little bit higher than his legs, a

24:43

little bit higher than his knees should I

24:45

say, he will clamber up over them and

24:47

you can leap yourself off higher things. Just

24:50

that sense of being able to tackle

24:52

the outdoors does make it feel more

24:55

like an adventure, like there is stuff to

24:57

do here. But that then feeds into the

24:59

fact that you will find just locations that

25:01

are hey there's four hidden items here. So

25:04

you start doing that but then you eventually get

25:06

to what are called Remneware Towers and

25:08

those in the most classic open world tradition

25:11

you activate them and they start to plot

25:13

activities on your map. And then

25:15

you can go around and you can scan things,

25:17

some of them are like Hunt-style battles and

25:20

this all, do you remember Chad Lee from the

25:22

original game? How can I forget that little bastard?

25:24

You guys mentioned Chad Lee I think. Chad Lee.

25:26

He is an obnoxious little teenage

25:34

boy who kind of, like

25:37

from what I've seen in this one, he'll phone you up and be

25:39

like every two minutes he'll phone you

25:41

up and be like hello. I didn't play it

25:43

long enough necessarily to get into that so maybe

25:45

that is something that happens later on. But his

25:47

whole deal is that he's

25:49

into intelligence, he wants to know everything

25:52

about the world and if you bring

25:54

him intelligence which is by completing the

25:56

side activities you gain things to bring

25:58

back to him. allows him

26:00

to build materia for you. Now materia are

26:02

the magic orbs that give you your special

26:04

abilities. Most importantly

26:07

he can build some of materia out of

26:09

it which I'm sure Jesse even as a

26:11

final fantasy novice you know the fact that

26:13

these are the big... But most importantly he's

26:15

a little weirdo. He is a little weirdo.

26:18

Any character named Chad and then even worse

26:20

Chad Lee just conjures images

26:22

in my mind. The thing that's weird is that

26:24

they have chosen Chad as a name and I

26:26

don't know if they've done this ironically he is

26:29

the least Chad Chad in any world. Like

26:31

I was saying I mean there's something nothing to

26:33

review but all I think of is NASA, Chad

26:35

Lee, former Spurs, West Brom and Belgian, Winger. Of

26:37

course that always wins the mind. The only person

26:39

I ever heard called Chad Lee before. Fair enough.

26:42

It's good for actually a name. Well

26:44

it's spelled differently. Yeah

26:47

he's just I remember him from the first

26:49

one just like the sign on setting about

26:51

him. What's his seat? What's he hiding? He's

26:53

a bit odd yeah but ultimately so I

26:56

didn't obviously when you go to a

26:58

preview event particularly ones that are to do where

27:01

they open up into open worlds you can obviously

27:03

only stay at the preview event for so long

27:05

so I had like a hard cap and

27:08

the chapter one is surprisingly

27:10

long. The Niebuhain flashback is...

27:12

That's a long demo it's almost two hours. Yeah

27:14

so it's a big part of the original game but

27:16

it's definitely not that long and so you do

27:19

get you know there's a boss encounter in

27:21

that that wasn't in the original that you

27:24

will recognize if you've played original final fantasy

27:26

seven from a different part of the game

27:28

they move it into that area. So

27:32

that took me a long time to get through and

27:35

so I didn't quite have enough time at

27:37

this demo to start getting a real feel

27:39

for every side activity so I

27:42

don't know how valuable they are

27:44

in terms of how good

27:46

are they to spend your time in but

27:48

the fact that doing them will lead

27:50

to new materia and summer materia suggests

27:53

that certainly some of them are going to be

27:55

worth doing even if it's just to get the

27:57

reward out of it not necessarily the gameplay of

27:59

them. I was a little worried from the

28:01

demo that I really really love remake. It was

28:03

maybe my favorite game that year one off and

28:07

Just I thought you don't need to

28:09

build too much on that formula. You can just

28:11

carry on turn the story You've already got great

28:13

combat great characters great locations It looks stunning like

28:15

you'd have to put too much on top of

28:17

this I'm worried maybe they're trying to

28:19

layer still like it's not big things. It's like

28:21

the climbing I don't know if I need that

28:23

always to that This isn't this is kind of

28:26

Haunting me in my flow a little bit and

28:28

especially in that demo twice they make you just

28:30

do hoovering for no real reason Yeah puzzles they

28:32

just make you hoover up some make I'm like,

28:34

why are we doing this? Yeah, I'm not entirely

28:37

sure about Why

28:39

it sounds like that second chapter is much

28:41

more what we want from this It's

28:43

I mean it's a it feels a lot

28:45

like what I wish Final Fantasy 16 have

28:47

been and particularly There's lots of this

28:50

and I don't mean to you know rag too much on

28:52

16 but 16 was a disappointment to

28:54

me I didn't come away with the most favorable

28:56

view of that game But

28:58

when you're in calm for instance calm

29:00

is a very small town in

29:02

the original It's been expanded a bit. You don't

29:04

actually spend a huge amount of time in it

29:07

at least at the start of chapter 2 But

29:10

it had a sense of hustle like like bustle

29:12

about it like it felt really lived in and

29:14

it's not like There are millions of

29:16

people to go and speak to most of them are just

29:19

in the background but there was

29:21

a sense of life to this place and a sense of

29:24

This is something worth Saving,

29:27

you know It's a game that will eventually lead

29:29

to you saving the world from Sephiroth and that

29:31

sense of lived in this about it Which

29:34

I never really got from Final Fantasy 16 you

29:36

go to places and they felt

29:38

really like they were just NPCs Rooted

29:41

to the spot not really doing anything

29:43

almost as if the towns were populated

29:45

by cardboard cutouts Whereas I didn't

29:47

get that from from seven there is it it

29:50

reminds me a lot of there's a market in Final

29:52

Fantasy 12 That felt really

29:54

hustle and bustle almost slightly Star

29:57

Wars Mausie is Lee about it. Yeah

30:00

And I get a similar vibe to that here,

30:03

which I really like. I actually quite like the

30:05

climbing and I think, Cardi, once you've gone past

30:07

what's in the demo, you might

30:09

see how it's a bit more valuable in the

30:11

open world. That's good, yes. At the moment it

30:13

just felt like it was another way to get

30:15

from A to B, and I was like, it's

30:17

slower than walking, why are you making me do

30:19

that? I can absolutely see that, but I think

30:21

the fact that the world doesn't just feel like

30:23

it's a flat grassland, the fact that it feels

30:25

like it's got texture and variety. That sounds good.

30:28

I think it really works for me. Then obviously you can get the

30:30

chocobos. I've

30:33

always pronounced it chocobos, it's actually chocobo. But

30:35

with that comes, you can dress them up,

30:38

you can put funny hats on them, you

30:40

can do little time trials and that will eventually lead

30:43

to racing. I could see like, so from that they

30:45

did a state of play this week, right? They look

30:47

like they're almost going to the levels Yakuza game goes,

30:49

with the amount of mini games there are in the

30:51

game. I thought that. So one of the things I

30:53

love about the original Final Fantasy 7, which kind of

30:56

stopped after this game, is it's

30:58

got a surprising amount of weird

31:01

aside gameplay. And that you saw

31:03

a little bit of in Remake in the, can

31:05

you remember you had to go to the gym and do

31:07

all of like the squats and then you had the bits

31:09

on the motorbike. And all

31:12

of those, those were kind of like the hints, because there's

31:14

not a lot of that in the first section of the

31:16

original game. But we're getting into

31:18

a point now where those become much more

31:20

prolific. There's a snowboarding section of the game.

31:22

There's a like

31:25

a strategy bit where you have to defend a

31:28

tower, like this tower on a hill. Like, I

31:30

don't know if you got much time to play

31:32

it. If it is in the demo, you

31:34

paid all, but I am a sucker for a deck building

31:36

card game in a game. Yeah,

31:39

if this one hits, then I will probably spend

31:41

too much time playing. Yeah, I wouldn't say it's

31:43

not the quality of Gwent by any means. And

31:46

I'm not sure if it's as good as Triple

31:48

Triad, which was Final Fantasy 8 card game. But

31:50

it's certainly you've got three lanes on a board

31:52

and it's getting... I

31:54

have a low standard for those sort of things.

31:56

If I can play it, then I'll probably play

31:59

it. It's essentially... a bit

32:01

of three, so you've got three lanes if

32:03

you can get more points on two out

32:05

of three of those lanes you win. Very,

32:07

very quick, it's not quite as, at least

32:09

I didn't get the impression that it's as tactically rich as

32:11

something like Gwent, but I think it's a fun side

32:14

attraction. But yeah, it does seem like

32:16

there's crap loads of those,

32:20

which I really like because I kind of

32:22

don't mind if they're not the pinnacle of

32:24

gameplay design, because I sort

32:26

of already have that for a Final

32:29

Fantasy in its character designs, both in

32:31

terms of their narrative arcs, their interpersonal

32:33

relationships and their combat design. I

32:36

genuinely think might be the best that

32:38

it has ever been in Final Fantasy.

32:40

There have been, there were small conversations

32:42

between Cloud and Tifa in that demo

32:45

that really made me think that

32:47

this is written by people

32:49

that have, I guess have had the benefit

32:51

of over 25 years to master what they

32:53

think of these characters, but

32:56

they felt so authentic and

32:58

honest and raw that

33:00

I was like, okay, they've got all this right.

33:03

I think the combat is, it's my favourite combat

33:05

system that's ever been in Final Fantasy. You know,

33:07

I do love the turn-based stuff and I think

33:09

we'll always probably default to that

33:11

in some way, but for a

33:13

modern day interpretation, I couldn't think of anything better.

33:17

So all of that seems to be kept

33:19

at its pinnacle. So I don't mind that

33:21

these mini games maybe are not brilliant, but

33:23

I love the texture and

33:25

oddity and absurdity it brings to

33:27

it. So I'm pleased

33:29

that they didn't forget that Final Fantasy

33:32

7 is weird and it's got this

33:34

stuff and they haven't just focused

33:36

on what would have been the expensive, I mean,

33:38

it must have been very expensive to make

33:40

all of these and I'm pleased that they put

33:42

that expense in rather than just going the game

33:45

is expensive enough as it is with all

33:47

of these cinematics and this very in-depth combat system.

33:50

I just can't wait to play this for only a

33:52

couple of weeks away now. I can't wait to play

33:54

this. Especially with

33:56

me, I know some rough beats. I knew

33:58

the, for example, that opening chapter I

34:01

kind of knew the Sephora story, I knew kind

34:03

of what his origin is. I

34:05

know supposedly the era of stuff

34:07

but whether that happens like

34:09

we everyone knows it happens in this

34:11

game is another question. I'm sure even

34:14

for someone like you Matt who knows the this

34:16

game inside out the original anyway there's gonna be

34:18

plenty of stuff. Yeah there's I think if you

34:21

know this game inside out you know if you

34:23

have the history with it that I have the

34:25

stuff in that Niebuhleim flashback that

34:28

they've obviously been able to retool and

34:30

the story in there that Simon is someone that

34:33

you've never played the original will

34:35

completely pass you by but there

34:37

are just such small little token

34:39

moments where I'm like okay I know I can

34:41

see that this is really well

34:44

thought out. As long as they

34:46

leave T for alone. We'll

34:49

see. That's a warning. But yeah yeah

34:51

in terms of kind of like building

34:53

up to they they've already said how

34:55

far that this game goes that it

34:57

finishes out a location called the Forgotten

34:59

Capital which is an important story beat

35:02

kind of like the major kind of

35:04

tipping point for the overall

35:06

story of the game so it's a good place to

35:08

build to but knowing what they

35:10

did with Remake and how different the end

35:12

of the Midgar section was I

35:14

am at the point when I

35:16

played that original I really didn't like that they changed

35:18

it and over time I've really changed my mind on

35:21

it it makes it very exciting for this remake project

35:23

in the same way I haven't

35:25

watched the but I think you have Jesse

35:27

the rebuild of Evangelion that has kind of

35:29

that vibe where it's not it's not what

35:31

you think it is right yeah and I

35:33

sort of wanted to ask actually like how

35:35

how has so far

35:38

anyway the you know one

35:40

and two remake been how's

35:43

it shaping up for you because I haven't the

35:45

only fan of fantasy I've really played was maybe

35:47

like half of 10 and then I

35:49

just didn't end up going back into it and my

35:52

plan is to however long it's going to

35:54

take is wait until the entire trilogy is done so

35:56

just push out like a mega upgrade and it's all

35:58

together and but Is

36:00

this shaping up to be the Final Fantasy 7

36:03

Remake you're happy with? I

36:05

think so. Yeah, so I

36:07

really like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, but I

36:09

think probably one of its problems

36:12

is that it took too small

36:14

of a segment of the game

36:17

to turn into too big of

36:19

an RPG. So you can

36:21

do the section of that game in about

36:23

four hours in the original and yet it's

36:25

a 40 hour RPG. I

36:27

think they've chosen a much better stretch

36:29

of game for Rebirth

36:32

to turn into a full RPG.

36:34

Yeah, but in general yeah like

36:37

They've got the characters absolutely bang on I

36:39

have absolutely no complaints about that and that's

36:42

the thing that ties me to those games so much.

36:44

Yeah, it's the character and the story and I think

36:46

they're doing that very very well. Obviously

36:49

a big part for me is that it

36:51

isn't the story that I've already played and it's

36:53

the joy of seeing how they've twisted it and

36:55

sometimes they twist it in places that I

36:58

don't necessarily want them to but I

37:00

still get excitement out of well,

37:02

what does that mean for these characters? Yeah

37:06

But for the most part all the stuff that you

37:08

do want to see happen happens. I

37:11

don't know necessarily how that will be for you having

37:14

it without the knowledge of the

37:16

original because you haven't played the original right? No. I

37:19

don't think I ever will to be honest.

37:21

Yeah, so I don't know what it's like

37:23

and I know Cardo you got on pretty

37:26

well with remake without that origin kind of

37:28

knowledge Yeah, but It

37:31

will all build to a lot of revelations

37:33

in this third game that I

37:35

don't know how they're gonna work without the original

37:37

knowledge and I'll be very interested because they've always

37:39

said this game is for

37:41

newcomers as well as returning hands I'm

37:45

fascinated to see how it all works

37:48

out because there are bits

37:50

of this story particularly how remake built

37:52

it that rebirth

37:55

surely has to address in part,

37:57

but I imagine won't fully reveal

38:00

until the third game. I

38:03

do wonder how bananas batshit that's

38:05

gonna appear to people if

38:07

they don't know how the original panned out.

38:09

Yeah, that's fair. We'll see. Well, in two,

38:12

three weeks when we can talk about this game in full,

38:15

I'm sure we'll have answers from both sides there, but... Maybe.

38:17

Yeah, that was a good chunk of Final Fantasy, but there'll

38:19

be more, don't you worry. There'll be plenty more to come.

38:22

I got myself, dug myself

38:24

out at the weekend out of the Suicide

38:27

Squad pits that I really

38:29

wasn't enjoying. I'm not gonna re-litigate

38:31

that again, go over all that, like in the

38:33

last weeks. Not a big fan of that game.

38:36

Just a shame that a single-player studio

38:39

has made a game like that, in my

38:41

opinion. So I was really hung... I had

38:43

the hunger, basically, for just a

38:45

really good single-player game just to kind

38:47

of, like, cleanse my palate a bit. And I was

38:49

like, do you know what? I've only played Uncharted the

38:51

Lost Legacy once since it... When

38:53

it came out, I played it, really enjoyed

38:55

it. And I was like, you know what?

38:58

This is six, seven hours of just really,

39:00

really good action-adventure game. And I

39:02

still do prefer Uncharted 4 overall. That

39:05

connects to me more. I just...

39:07

Nathan as a character, I just... I

39:09

love that. And it's an important story

39:12

beat for him. Exactly. Whereas this probably

39:14

is my second favourite Uncharted, Lost Legacy.

39:16

It is amazing. Like, it takes... Gameplay-wise,

39:19

it probably is the best Uncharted. I agree.

39:21

It takes the best bits

39:24

of Uncharted 4 and basically narrows it

39:26

down, right? Exactly. That big

39:28

open area that's, like, basically half the

39:30

game, really, where you go

39:32

around the different temples collecting things, is the

39:35

Madagascar section from 4 done

39:37

even better, I think. And the

39:39

last, like... I don't know how long it

39:41

is. Half the game. The train bit.

39:43

It is their best... To

39:46

use a wanky word, their best set piece. Like, it is,

39:48

like... Which is

39:50

saying something. It just picks the one from

39:52

4 to me, which is still amazing. But

39:55

to say that it's... Even

39:57

if you want to say it was better.

39:59

I think it's batting at the same

40:01

level as the car chase from four

40:03

and the train sequence from two. Like

40:06

it's the way it's just

40:08

that the seamless is full like

40:10

Indiana Jones just seamless car to

40:12

train to car to truck to

40:14

train like the way that all

40:18

like because you're doing it at your own speed as well. The

40:20

way it all loop

40:22

like all matches up perfectly timed

40:25

each time like you go right like

40:27

obviously they're doing tricks with you. The track is

40:29

repeating and stuff like that, but you never ever

40:32

feel you feel like that is a real like

40:34

tangible distance you're traveling and stuff like it's

40:36

just like those guys are naughty dog. Pretty good.

40:39

Yeah, we've actually got an art of the level

40:41

on the on the on the

40:43

car chase from uncharted four which

40:45

obviously they would have used some of that understanding

40:48

the knowledge to build this one that we're talking

40:50

about and I recommend people have a look at

40:52

that on YouTube or I just wanted to

40:54

mention it if you've ever played lost legacy for

40:56

some reason maybe you thought oh I you

40:58

know I've just played for or oh it's a

41:01

you know it's a B tier one or

41:03

something it's not it's unbelievable. I

41:06

just want more on child like don't get me wrong last

41:08

this absolutely love but there's

41:10

just sound like at my heart you know I'm

41:13

Indiana Jones kid I'm a I'm

41:15

an uncharted kid I want more just fun. I think

41:18

that's why I was enjoying hell but I was

41:20

so much because it's just pure fun like and

41:22

I do like mature stories in games and stuff

41:24

like that but sometimes I just want pure like

41:26

popcorn adventure and it does boggle

41:28

my mind that no one really attempted

41:31

to clone uncharted in any sort of way.

41:35

But like that even

41:37

then what since for like since uncharted foreign

41:39

lost legacy is anyone really I mean it's

41:42

not probably says more about the state

41:44

entry that there's no one's making big single

41:46

player campaign games like that regularly on a

41:48

big budget but I don't know

41:51

like when you consider the amount

41:53

of loot a shooter clones who've got an

41:55

amount of GTA clones when GTA was like

41:57

huge amount of clones we got those sort of games like.

42:00

Where are all the Uncharted clones? I mean

42:02

hopefully Indiana Jones lives up to it even

42:04

though it's not an Uncharted clone that's doing

42:06

its own thing. Yeah, I'm hoping that Indiana

42:08

Jones will hit that for me but

42:10

yeah just... It's my plea to

42:13

Naughty Dog, please make another Uncharted, or let someone

42:15

else make an Uncharted. Yeah. I just want more

42:17

Uncharted. I might... I've already played Fruit 4 like

42:19

two and a half times but I could probably

42:21

do it again. Jesus Christ. I would

42:24

even... you know what? I would much... Naughty Dog have

42:26

done it with The Last is Part One. If they

42:28

did the full remake treatment on two and three, you

42:30

could do it on one. I'm not as... I don't

42:32

care as much about one but... I mean wouldn't that

42:34

be the point though if you did it to one?

42:36

It would be the opportunity to bring it up to

42:38

par. It's just I don't think that story and it's

42:40

one locate... to me it's not as exciting. I'd still

42:42

absolutely play it and enjoy it but two and three

42:44

are... Like those are

42:47

in more need of a... than The Last is

42:49

Part One was I think but anyway, you know.

42:51

Maybe they're doing that. I don't know. I want more

42:53

Uncharted. That's all. That was my little stand

42:56

on a soapbox moment for... For

42:58

giving me fun. Indiana Jones likes games,

43:00

please. Erm... Do

43:03

you know what? Let's just take a little brief

43:06

break. We'll talk about a couple more

43:08

things and then get to your feedback. See

43:10

ya! As

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44:56

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And we're back. That's enough video game talk. Let's just, should

45:37

we talk about a couple of things we've been watching? We

45:40

are two-thirds through the season

45:42

of, the new later season is who detective

45:45

now. So we can, we have

45:47

some more developed thoughts on it. We haven't really

45:49

spoken about it yet. It's only six episodes this

45:51

season, which I didn't realize. Matt, I know you're

45:53

only three episodes in, I'm four

45:55

episodes in, Jesse, you're not watching

45:57

it, but you know, you can, we're not going to.

46:00

boil it don't worry. No that's good. I thought

46:02

we could finish season one. One

46:04

of the best seasons of television, if not the best

46:07

season of television ever. Why

46:09

episode of that one are you up to? I think

46:12

the last time I watched it, I can't remember what

46:14

episode it was, but it was

46:16

when Woody Harrelson was just doing something nasty. Something

46:19

I never wanted to see him ever do. I think

46:22

if it's the scene we're talking about, people

46:25

probably don't point out him in that scene.

46:27

Yes it is that scene. That's like episode

46:29

two I think. I

46:34

was going to say you haven't got

46:37

to a bit where basically

46:39

there's a great episode where I'm

46:41

trying not to spoil this. Matthew

46:43

Carney goes undercover at some point, that's what

46:45

I say. And there's just an incredible like

46:48

five minute long action sequence that's all one

46:50

shot which is just unbelievable. I

46:52

definitely have not seen that. I

46:54

think I might have seen like maybe three or four

46:56

episodes but the last thing that's really stuck in my

46:58

head is that one scene with Woody Harrelson. Really? Like

47:01

I said most people aren't looking

47:04

at Woody Harrelson in that scene.

47:06

Anyway let's carry on. Season

47:08

four, it's worth talking

47:11

about season one because a lot of the initial

47:13

impressions of this season when like all the pre-release

47:15

reviews are coming out, I was getting very excited

47:17

because a lot of people saying this is like

47:19

we're back at the level of season one which

47:22

obviously the history of two detective is one

47:24

incredible, two there, three

47:27

I thought was very good and

47:30

then they've taken a few years break and

47:32

people thought maybe we're getting back to it. If you

47:34

don't know the setup for this season is in Alaska

47:37

and it's Jodie Foster taking the

47:39

lead as kind of

47:41

a, she's kind of the grumpy detective this

47:43

time around really. She's not a nice person

47:46

even though she's not actively the villain

47:49

of the piece and doesn't always come

47:51

across as bad but she's clearly, the

47:53

work has got to her and I

47:55

think she has been warped by the

47:57

duties of being this station

47:59

officer. And yeah, she's she's not not

48:02

great at keeping life together Yeah,

48:04

that's kind of the space. That's the core

48:06

theme to every season the truth detective They're

48:08

separate stories, but they're about fundamentally kind of

48:11

detectives who aren't great people Yeah, and

48:13

I guess the toll that that sort

48:15

of work takes on you. Mm-hmm And

48:18

also starring is Callie Reese who is

48:20

a former box who I've never really

48:22

seen act in anything But I think is very good.

48:24

Yeah, I do think so Let's

48:26

start with the pauses. I do think the acting and

48:29

the tone of this series It's got much more of

48:31

a horror tone than any of the other

48:33

seasons And I think that's partly because it's

48:35

hard to do this sort of

48:37

setting that's all nighttime snowy and Alaska

48:40

and not Conjure up images of the

48:42

thing and this is very knowingly conjuring

48:44

up Thing that the the

48:46

DVD case for the thing is in the

48:48

first episode very prominently placed It starts at

48:51

a research station. They know what they're doing

48:53

and you know, I'm all for giving nods

48:55

to things Yeah, and also it's hard to

48:57

do a sick like kind of a detective.

49:00

Is it serious? A murder

49:03

story that has horror turns about conjuring

49:05

up silence of the lambs of chosen

49:07

foster in the role Even though you

49:09

do not very by bar. She's exactly a

49:11

character is so far removed from Clarice. It's

49:13

unbelievable I do I'm

49:16

enjoying the season I'm just something's not clicking

49:18

for me about it and I'm I'm a

49:20

bit disappointed because I really want to love

49:22

it and I think it is

49:24

just fundamentally they've got all the All

49:27

the like the familial drama and like town

49:29

tensions are there but the actual

49:31

central mystery Isn't really moved

49:33

on at all. Yeah, I don't really know

49:36

where I can tell you where it's I'm

49:38

not sure if even like the first season

49:41

Kind of had supernatural elements There were weird

49:43

like kooky things that you could either choose

49:45

to believe or choose to just think I

49:47

just kind of Matthew McConaughey's character Is a

49:49

bit bit a bit of a weirdo baby

49:52

Where's this one seems a bit stronger on an

49:55

almost ghost story element to it? Yeah, I'd

49:57

say this Whilst it doesn't have the tone

49:59

of this is actually actually probably a bit closer

50:01

to Twin Peaks. In that,

50:03

in the kind of, although

50:05

this has it, because it's so short, it's only

50:07

six episodes, it does find a

50:09

way to filter that into every episode. But

50:12

those kind of moments in Twin Peaks where you,

50:17

Cooper, wake up and there's like the weird

50:19

giant guy that talks about the owls and

50:21

stuff like that. There's generally something

50:23

like that in every episode that pushes

50:25

on the idea of, is

50:28

this actually a weird supernatural horror

50:30

story, or is it characters,

50:34

I'm not gonna talk about which characters kind

50:36

of like, I theorize are involved here, but

50:38

are the characters that are just maybe going

50:41

a bit insane? And I

50:43

like that balance. I've kind

50:45

of, I've realized that there are sort of

50:47

shared elements between

50:49

the characters that are noticing the supernatural

50:51

kind of elements, and then, you know,

50:53

that's making me question wider

50:56

narrative things. And

50:59

I do like that, because that's very up my street.

51:01

I've just come off, me and my partner have just

51:03

finished playing Disco Elysium again. It's my

51:06

second time with it, yeah, her first. And

51:08

doing the kind of Inland Empire routes

51:11

through that where you like talk to

51:13

corpses and have all of the weird

51:15

stuff, it's got a bit of that

51:17

vibe to it, right? But that's

51:20

very few and far between, and actually

51:22

almost takes up most of the case

51:24

work in it. Like you say,

51:26

quite a lot of the episodes are built around kind

51:29

of like the tensions between

51:31

the police working on the case

51:33

and the familial kind of tensions.

51:37

And there's definitely interesting stuff about that. I think

51:39

it's got like a lot about

51:41

kind of like how a small town

51:43

police force, like weird dependencies

51:45

crop up between different members of that

51:48

force and that creates rifts between

51:50

other things. There's a real big problem in

51:52

this force that like, there's

51:54

a son and father part of that

51:57

force, and you know, it

51:59

makes it very... very awkward when you've

52:01

got a family unit that are working

52:03

in a very small police force and

52:06

it causes tensions there, all

52:08

of this kind of stuff. And because the

52:10

town is so small everybody knows everybody, right?

52:13

So all of those tensions

52:15

overlap into circles and I think all of

52:17

that is really well put together. But

52:20

what it's causing for is a show that

52:23

I think is moving very slowly in terms of

52:25

its central case. And

52:27

there's not a lot, there's only

52:30

six episodes and I am concerned

52:32

that where I am in episode

52:34

three that not enough ground has

52:36

been trod in making interesting waves. There's

52:38

been waves made in the case but

52:40

I feel like it almost feels like

52:42

it's saving all of its interesting stuff

52:45

for maybe like the last two episodes or something.

52:48

The first series kind of did this bit, it was

52:50

kind of, it chucked several red herrings your way before

52:52

actually finding out. But I don't think it's throwing red

52:54

herrings, I just don't think it's throwing any herrings. Exactly,

52:56

that's what I was going to get. Like this is

52:58

going to just maybe like they

53:00

said, yeah, they basically said the last two minutes

53:03

per episode to be like cliffhanger

53:05

of some sort, but never really. I

53:07

don't know. I like it, maybe I

53:09

just set my expectations too high because I thought it was

53:11

going to get back to where it once was. But I'll

53:14

finish it, don't you, Colin? It's a

53:16

good show but when the problem is

53:18

when you've sharing your title and

53:21

actually a surprising amount more inspiration

53:23

from the first season than I

53:25

was expecting, you are

53:28

going up against one of the single greatest

53:30

seasons of television that has been made. Be

53:32

careful what you have, right? Because you might

53:34

not live for time. Also, I like the

53:36

song I always have but Bizarre Choice to

53:38

use Billy Irish's very

53:41

different, the main theme. It

53:43

worked. Again though, I think

53:46

you're going back to when you look at the

53:48

song that they use for True Detective season

53:50

one and the opening graphics and stuff like that.

53:52

Again, an absolute classic of when you hear that,

53:55

you know, you talk about the idea of when

53:57

you hear the HBO logo, the static, there's all

53:59

always a song that you immediately think of

54:01

and for many people it's Game of Thrones, right?

54:04

Or... Oh, it's Kirby and Fusil's. Oh, is

54:07

it? Yeah. For a long

54:09

time for me it was True Blood. But the True

54:11

Detective intro from season one is one

54:13

that I heavily associate like immediately following

54:15

on from the HBO logo. And

54:18

so yeah, kind of even the presentation

54:20

feels like it's a little bit odd. I

54:22

think it's got its own flavour. I love

54:25

that it's set in the Arctic. I'm

54:28

sorry, Alaska. Because

54:32

I think that that heavy,

54:35

you know, the 30 days a night

54:38

element, I think is a real

54:40

good way of creating this locked box mystery where

54:42

nobody's going to leave the town, right? Like,

54:44

you've got all of this sort of stuff going

54:46

on. And I think it's got so much going

54:48

for it. But yeah, I am. I'm

54:50

waiting for it to truly grab me.

54:54

Yeah. Yeah. I'm in the same boat.

54:56

I've been waiting for two weeks so far. But yeah,

54:58

it ends. Could be fantastic. Something I want to know

55:00

your opinion on, Max, I've been waiting and I think

55:02

a lot of people in the UK have been waiting,

55:04

it feels like months and months to see this film.

55:06

The Iron Claw is finally out in UK Sennhealls this

55:08

week. It's been out in America for I think about

55:10

three months. You're

55:12

lucky enough to visit the US in the last couple of

55:14

months. So you got to go see it in a cinema

55:16

a while ago. Sorry, on New Year's Day. Oh,

55:19

they go what. We

55:22

won't spoil the story. It's a real life story.

55:24

We have a wrestling family of

55:26

which we don't. I don't think we need to delve

55:28

in too much more about what happens to them. But

55:32

yeah, what do you think of the film as someone

55:34

who I know that you're not this isn't necessarily the

55:36

world you know a lot about? No, no, I

55:39

had been told a

55:41

little bit about the story of the

55:44

Iron Claw and the family that it

55:46

sort of like positioned itself around. So

55:49

I kind of knew a bit going in. So

55:52

I knew that this is not a, I

55:55

guess not a happy go lucky story. It's

55:58

a story of tragic proportions. Let's

56:00

say you know it's if you were watching it in

56:02

a Greek theater. It would have been branded as a

56:04

tragedy And

56:07

it definitely lives up to that It's not

56:09

a film that made me cry by any

56:11

means but certainly I felt some a good

56:13

deal of emotion and kind of like You're

56:16

led by this astonishing kind of central

56:18

trio, which is Got

56:21

Zac Efron who has

56:23

bulked up? Incredibly for this role

56:26

But also I'm not like a person

56:29

that knows Efron's back catalog by any

56:31

means I I'm too old

56:33

to have been on the high school

56:35

musical train So this

56:37

is probably the first time I've ever really

56:39

sat down and watched him. Yeah, he's very

56:41

good He can't be good like

56:43

I've seen him in comedies, but it's hard to judge

56:45

how good a naturally is in those I don't think

56:47

I've seen him in anything bad

56:50

neighbors for me, but he's pretty good in that

56:52

and The grayish over

56:54

my suppose he's okay in that yeah, like

56:56

in either of those He

56:58

famous like he's just tried to do serious

57:00

roles that have often backfired like the Ted

57:04

Bundy film which was but meant to be

57:06

cool. I mean, it's even old like science

57:08

extremely wicked shock enable Yeah, like that so

57:11

he has tried and But

57:13

yeah, like this feels like Finally,

57:15

this is a role where I think everyone who's

57:18

seen this has been like, oh he genuinely

57:20

can act. Yeah He's

57:22

great and he's backed up by So

57:25

Jeremy Alan White from the bear is in

57:27

it as one of his brothers again I

57:29

mean that guy can act Connie like that.

57:31

Very good. He's had a trial by fire

57:33

them as brothers as well That's kind of

57:36

like yeah, look yeah And

57:38

then Harry Dickinson is the other kind of

57:40

at the central brothers There is another brother

57:42

who I'm afraid I can't actually remember who

57:44

plays him, but he's a bit younger and has

57:48

You know a slightly different path through the story

57:50

than those guys But they feel kind of the

57:52

central three and from this kind of family there

57:55

their dad is a wrestler known as the iron claw

57:57

and they're kind of following

57:59

almost in a fighting with my family

58:01

sort of way, but a lot

58:03

more serious. But yeah, it's kind of this family

58:05

of people that are carrying on this task

58:08

to kind of like get the belt, I

58:11

suppose, as it is. And

58:13

it's a journey that doesn't really

58:15

go well for anyone in this.

58:19

I think it's not, I've

58:23

seen a lot of people talk about it being

58:25

like one of the best films that they'd seen

58:27

kind of like of that year when a lot

58:29

of the reviews were coming out last year. I

58:31

also saw that we gave it a five, which

58:33

I absolutely don't know. I didn't know that. I

58:35

don't agree with that. Obviously we

58:37

all have, all of our reviews have got different

58:39

opinions and that's fine, but it's not one that

58:41

I share, but I wouldn't have put it, I'd

58:44

like maybe give it a seven or an eight? Something like that.

58:46

I bet it was probably more of an eight if you had

58:48

more attachments. I do really want to see it. And I'm glad

58:50

it's finally out in cinema so I can go

58:52

see it. Yeah. Is there a

58:54

lot of 80 songs? Did they hit you over the head with them?

58:56

I wouldn't tell you yet. Become a recent bugbear of mine. Overly

58:59

obvious. Certainly not hit over the head with

59:01

it, but it's got the right vibe, you

59:03

know, kind of. It's got a

59:05

lot of the shots have

59:08

got that texture to it. And I think

59:10

the ultimate thing is their father,

59:12

who is, Cardi, you're gonna have to

59:14

remind me, who is the guy that plays

59:16

the elder partner in

59:18

Mindhunter? Hulk McAllanley? Yes. Is

59:21

that? I think they're... Hulk

59:23

McAllanley, yeah, McAllanley, I think that says me. So

59:25

he is their father, kind of like the original

59:27

Iron Claw and he's

59:30

got a bit of kind of like, wants

59:32

his sons to do the things that he

59:34

could never do. And so a part of

59:37

it is that story of parents pushing people

59:39

really hard. It's almost a little bit of

59:41

you, it's not very similar

59:43

vibe to Foxcatcher, if you've ever

59:45

seen Foxcatcher. Yeah. Yeah. I'm

59:48

getting that sort of, and I really, I think that film's fantastic. Yeah. And

59:50

those kind of like that story extend outside

59:53

of just sporting, right? It goes to, I

59:55

mean, I think of like whiplash and the

59:57

way that J.K. Simmons is kind of...

1:00:00

washing people forward but he gets a bit mean

1:00:02

with it. It's got a bit of that. I actually

1:00:04

think the film would have benefited from a bit more

1:00:06

of him in it because it's

1:00:08

so focused on the brothers that

1:00:10

I actually think that his relationship

1:00:13

with them is the pivot

1:00:15

around what this film makes and I kind of wish they'd

1:00:17

put a little bit more weight on that but

1:00:20

aside from that, it's not a

1:00:23

film I can really complain about. I could see how

1:00:25

it could have in my eyes elevated to a slightly

1:00:27

higher point but I do think as

1:00:29

a dramatic piece, it works. Like

1:00:31

it's good. I'm definitely gonna guess it. I've

1:00:33

been looking forward to it for a while and I haven't had

1:00:35

a trip to the cinema in a little while. That'll

1:00:38

be lovely. Now

1:00:41

we're gonna get on some of your feedback.

1:00:43

IGN underscore UK feedback at ign.com.

1:00:47

Email us about anything. I still wanna know what

1:00:49

gets you pumping. That's the

1:00:51

top of my list. I've been hearing that every week.

1:00:54

And you know what, let's reignite the

1:00:56

old what's the best lunchbox snack after

1:00:58

the tragic breakaway news of today. What,

1:01:01

where do you stand on a

1:01:03

Rocky maybe or a club biscuit, a

1:01:05

gold bar? What is the best chocolate

1:01:07

biscuit? A penguin. Here's a

1:01:09

classic. Remember the echo. Rest in peace

1:01:11

echo. What's that? Like the

1:01:13

bubbly one? Yeah, I got a biscuit and

1:01:16

then bubbly white chocolate and then covered in

1:01:18

milk chocolate. It sounds like

1:01:20

the edgy chocolate, the echo. Yeah,

1:01:22

it's good. It's good stuff. I've

1:01:25

seen a lot of people say is the endless search

1:01:27

dead. It's not dead. We will do it occasionally. It's

1:01:29

just maybe on weeks where we don't have so much

1:01:31

to talk about. We've already gone an hour or so at

1:01:33

the moment. So we're gonna go straight to feedback. But the

1:01:35

endless search will come back every now and then. Don't

1:01:37

worry. And if you hate it, I'm sorry. But it's

1:01:39

coming back every now and then. So there you go.

1:01:42

Like I said, your feedback, IGN

1:01:45

underscore UK feedback at ign.com for

1:01:47

all your chocolate biscuit and pumping

1:01:49

stories. Who have

1:01:51

we got first up? I believe Matt, you've got an

1:01:53

email first up this time from Jay Martin

1:01:56

who says, hey guys, long time listener

1:01:58

with the rumors swirling. that Xbox

1:02:00

will be announcing that they will be releasing

1:02:02

games on third-party platforms next week, I wanted

1:02:04

to get your thoughts on that. I'm

1:02:07

confused as to why people

1:02:09

are so surprised and upset by this. For

1:02:11

a while, I thought Xbox's main focus

1:02:14

was to become a platform first, much

1:02:16

like Steam. Gamepass has taken the PC

1:02:18

market by storm, and with their play-anywhere

1:02:20

mentality, is the ultimate goal now less

1:02:22

about first-party titles and console sales, and

1:02:24

more about getting everyone into their ecosystem.

1:02:27

If they could get Gamepass on PS5 and

1:02:29

Switch, that would be a huge win. I

1:02:31

think that is smart, especially considering that there

1:02:33

are gaming PCs for all budgets now. Just

1:02:36

wondering what your thoughts were. Have a great weekend.

1:02:38

From Jay. I thought we'd have a brief

1:02:41

chat about all this, because at

1:02:43

the moment, we honestly really

1:02:45

don't know what's happening. There's a lot of rumours

1:02:47

about Xbox games going third-party, etc. Next week, I

1:02:49

imagine on the podcast we'll be able to have

1:02:51

a good chat about all this, because Phil Spencer's

1:02:54

going to have a chat to all of us

1:02:56

next week about what's going on with Xbox.

1:02:58

He might not say anything about

1:03:01

this, who knows. It would be

1:03:03

very surprising if he didn't. Obviously,

1:03:05

we're basing this all on rumours, so who knows.

1:03:08

But I can see why

1:03:11

there's benefits and why there's not

1:03:14

benefits. I can't think of the opposite

1:03:16

of benefits for a second there. I

1:03:18

don't actually agree that getting Gamepass on

1:03:21

PS5 and Switch would be a good

1:03:23

move, because I feel that Gamepass is

1:03:25

the one thing that would get people

1:03:27

to buy an actual Xbox, because of the

1:03:29

value of it. I can see why the games might

1:03:32

go onto PS5 or Switch and be sold at full

1:03:34

price. So you could buy stuff. I think maybe the

1:03:36

angle that Jay is coming from there is

1:03:41

obviously Phil Spencer's comments in regards

1:03:43

to this have always been, we

1:03:45

want to be where the gamers

1:03:47

are, right? And they know that

1:03:49

people are on these platforms. And

1:03:51

I'm fairly sure that in the

1:03:53

big leaks that came around the acquisition kind

1:03:56

of loss elements, I think was

1:03:58

not something that suggested that the maybe

1:04:00

they tried to get it to

1:04:02

switch but ultimately PlayStation

1:04:04

and Nintendo are never going to

1:04:06

allow game pass on their system.

1:04:08

It absolutely makes zero sense not

1:04:11

particularly when they are in such strong

1:04:13

positions like Nintendo will if

1:04:16

they keep up the momentum of the switch

1:04:18

and they don't fail in the way that Wii

1:04:21

U did on whatever their next console is.

1:04:23

They have got such a strong user base

1:04:25

they absolutely do not need even

1:04:27

if you had to pay money to put

1:04:30

game pass on there. They

1:04:32

don't need that neither does PlayStation I

1:04:34

don't think that's happening but I do

1:04:36

see where Jay's coming from in

1:04:39

terms of the ecosystem. I think that

1:04:41

feels to me something that's come out

1:04:43

of a floundering. It's our

1:04:45

hardware side of plans is

1:04:47

not working. We're not necessarily getting

1:04:50

where we want to be with buying

1:04:52

all these studios but game pass is

1:04:54

important to them and if they can

1:04:56

get game pass everywhere that does filter

1:04:58

people into an ecosystem which would mean

1:05:00

that they are playing it maybe on

1:05:02

their TVs with the built-in kind of

1:05:04

app or whatever. Like you said I

1:05:06

can't see you subscribing

1:05:09

to Xbox game pass via PS5.

1:05:11

I just can't see that

1:05:13

happening and like and the whole thing

1:05:15

of just games going third party like we're obviously

1:05:18

in the privileged position of we have all these

1:05:20

consoles we have them for work we we can

1:05:22

afford to have them. Like I

1:05:24

do agree that more people getting to play

1:05:26

these games on as many platforms can only

1:05:28

be a good thing like I don't see

1:05:30

like being like

1:05:32

oh you know I'll be annoyed if

1:05:34

Starfills on PS5. More people

1:05:37

get to play it that's a pass in

1:05:39

my eyes. I do get this I do

1:05:42

get some people being annoyed if say two

1:05:44

years ago you could only afford either an

1:05:46

Xbox or a PlayStation and you were promised

1:05:48

the only way you can play Starfield or

1:05:51

Halo is by getting this console and

1:05:53

then two years later they go oh no PlayStation

1:05:55

have them now but because you got

1:05:57

an Xbox there's no way you're gonna be able to play

1:05:59

Spider-Man all God of War and Ninja's PlayStation don't

1:06:01

need to do that. I can understand the frustration of

1:06:05

not necessarily you've been lied to, but

1:06:07

like it's a little bit of like,

1:06:09

a little bit of regret

1:06:11

of like, oh, if I'd known this, I

1:06:13

would have bought a PS5 and had a

1:06:15

lot more games to play. Basically, I can

1:06:17

understand that frustration. I

1:06:20

just have no sympathy for the

1:06:22

people who are online

1:06:24

and taking it far too much to

1:06:26

heart and actually sending death threats to

1:06:28

people including our colleagues and even

1:06:31

the people who only months ago made videos about

1:06:33

me sending people to abuse me over a Call

1:06:35

of Duty review. I will then laugh at you

1:06:37

if you post a video on

1:06:40

the verge of tears because Starfield might come

1:06:42

to PlayStation. I will laugh at you. So

1:06:44

there you go. Just wanted to get that

1:06:46

out. It's just funny to me.

1:06:49

That's the tribalism that has been

1:06:53

the toxin in the game debate

1:06:55

waters unfortunately for time and

1:06:57

the people and communities and it could

1:06:59

all come back to bite some people

1:07:01

in the ass. Yeah. Yeah. And I

1:07:03

think, and you know, I largely don't

1:07:05

understand the tribalism

1:07:08

behind games even before

1:07:10

I was a game engineer and listen

1:07:12

could only afford, you know, one console.

1:07:14

Yeah. But I

1:07:16

can see sadness around

1:07:18

people that are looking beyond

1:07:21

what this means. You know, you start to look to

1:07:23

the future and it's okay. Okay. This

1:07:25

does seem whether you, you know, I

1:07:27

think that this is Microsoft floundering. Like they realize

1:07:29

that things are not going well and they're desperately

1:07:31

now trying to figure out

1:07:33

what to do next. And unfortunately

1:07:35

all this stuff keeps leaking. So

1:07:37

it becomes even a weird perspective,

1:07:39

especially when they've courted a

1:07:42

lot of these influences

1:07:44

and community members that are a little

1:07:46

bit kind of like on the verge

1:07:48

of toxic, right? And all of these

1:07:51

influences are pulling from the leaks as

1:07:53

well. So you've got this big message

1:07:55

that Microsoft has sort of encouraged people

1:07:57

to consume, right? Yeah. They've

1:08:00

just been on the back foot for so long now

1:08:02

like all their messaging is reactive like yeah It's not

1:08:04

there for these things have leaked necessarily

1:08:06

No, no, but you know what I could

1:08:08

see is you know if you're if you're

1:08:11

you know If you've only got an Xbox

1:08:13

and you've only ever had an Xbox and

1:08:15

particularly if you bought into the digital first

1:08:17

Ecosystem and you've been buying all of these

1:08:20

Games that are now only exist

1:08:22

in Microsoft space and

1:08:25

there's this feeling that it's like okay Is

1:08:28

the Microsoft Hardware market going to crumble from

1:08:30

underneath them are they going to become? I

1:08:33

don't think they've just be exactly what Sega has become

1:08:35

where they're just a publisher Yeah,

1:08:38

and own a bunch of studios or whatever

1:08:40

where does like your library go in the

1:08:42

future? I'm a man and the

1:08:44

hope would be is that they are

1:08:46

finding a way to do this play

1:08:48

anywhere where your library suddenly becomes accessible

1:08:51

elsewhere, but In

1:08:54

terms of those games that you have there

1:08:57

are You know digital only

1:08:59

games that aren't necessarily built

1:09:01

around cloud and you want

1:09:03

to play them on locally That means you've got

1:09:05

to go out and buy a PC. That is

1:09:07

good like yeah, like a play a series X

1:09:09

is a good PC Yeah, I'm not saying it's

1:09:12

the PCs that you know I know Jesse you've

1:09:14

got a monster of a PC It's

1:09:16

not that but it is still a grands worth

1:09:18

of PC in a box that cost like five

1:09:20

hundred Thing is you could you know

1:09:22

you could spend you know 200

1:09:24

pounds on like some old used PC parts and

1:09:26

stuff and like you would still be able to

1:09:29

play all those like them And you know

1:09:31

enough all of those Xbox games because especially

1:09:33

when Microsoft's were bringing those Xbox Exclusives

1:09:35

to PC like the rhinos on the wall kind of

1:09:37

then it's like you know it's more access for everyone,

1:09:40

but I Do feel

1:09:42

sort of sorry for the people who are like I want

1:09:44

to be able to experience these exclusives But

1:09:46

also have it have the hardware to back it

1:09:48

up And if suddenly you know that

1:09:51

starts to disappear the physical media section

1:09:53

starts to disappear as well It's like

1:09:55

you're not gonna have the thing there to

1:09:57

best preservation becomes

1:10:00

the problem right perfect yeah all that

1:10:02

stuff isn't it because Xbox game pass

1:10:04

is undoubtedly like the best deal you

1:10:06

can get like unbelievable value but it

1:10:08

is all digital a lot of its cloud love is

1:10:10

streaming like yeah that is why physical media is doing

1:10:13

but it's why I have been buying some of my

1:10:15

favorite films on 4k blu-ray because I I feel like

1:10:17

if I pay 25 quid to buy my don't know

1:10:19

an Apple TV who's to say they won't go no

1:10:22

no you now have to pay more to

1:10:24

keep those I mean it's actually the same

1:10:27

position and I've all like just this week

1:10:29

I started considering should I buy physical copies

1:10:31

of the games that are dear to me

1:10:33

because yes they're always gonna

1:10:35

be there in my digital library

1:10:38

as long as that digital library exists but

1:10:40

what happens if PlayStation falls through

1:10:42

the floor no I'm not saying it's going

1:10:45

to but you know particularly for it was

1:10:47

only I think of us last week spec

1:10:49

ops the line is again delisted from the

1:10:51

online store even an important game yeah and

1:10:53

it's just like you didn't live here it

1:10:55

might have been today or yesterday funimation is

1:10:57

no crunchyroll is you know shutting down and

1:11:00

people have bought movies or particular

1:11:02

things from crunchyroll it's not crossing over to funimation

1:11:04

it's just like if you spent money in any

1:11:06

of these digital places and suddenly that they can

1:11:08

just take that away from yeah I think it

1:11:10

happened recently with um the PlayStation sort of Warner

1:11:13

Brothers discovery things if you had bought TV shows

1:11:15

those suddenly just disappeared and now I

1:11:17

think those are coming back something like but just either

1:11:20

way losing access to that library sucks

1:11:23

and you can see why if you're

1:11:25

an Xbox owner I can

1:11:27

see why this starts to become a problem

1:11:29

it's all well and good being told about the

1:11:31

idea of oh well our ecosystem extends to we

1:11:33

want to get you to be able to play

1:11:35

just on your TV you buy a new Samsung

1:11:37

TV and it's got a game pass installed but

1:11:40

it's like okay but that means I've got to

1:11:42

stream a lot of people don't want to stream

1:11:44

their games like it's still not happy internet to

1:11:46

be able to do it yeah yeah exactly yeah

1:11:49

big big discussions we'll find out more

1:11:51

week more next week about hopefully about

1:11:53

what Xbox plans are and we'll actually

1:11:56

be able to stop just theorizing and

1:11:59

rumor I

1:12:01

don't know, just put words together. Who

1:12:03

knows. Anyway, some more

1:12:05

feedback. This one is from William Cleverley.

1:12:07

He says, D.I. Jen Crew, long time

1:12:09

listener, haven't written in since the days

1:12:11

of writing haikus. I don't remember. I've

1:12:14

completely wondered that. Maybe

1:12:16

go to Tsushima because there was haikus you couldn't

1:12:18

write in that. I've been

1:12:21

doing this too long. We

1:12:23

put out the call for what, like 90s

1:12:26

or early 2000s, like game shows would you

1:12:28

want to make a comeback after, but another

1:12:30

return of gladiators and then I suggested Scrap

1:12:32

Peep Challenge, maybe comeback is one. I would

1:12:35

like to hear one if you've got one,

1:12:37

Matt, because you weren't on last week. But

1:12:39

first, let's go on to William Cleverley. He

1:12:41

was suggesting Xfire. It's

1:12:44

a Channel 4 game show where a

1:12:46

team of contestants would basically play paintball

1:12:48

in an old airport against grunts and

1:12:50

experts who are almost like

1:12:52

the house robots. I used to watch this. That

1:12:54

sounds sick. I don't remember this. I do. I

1:12:57

do. It's incredibly video gamey.

1:12:59

They would earn money that they could then

1:13:01

spend between rounds. Those are

1:13:03

basically what it's like. Is

1:13:06

it the finals? Countless Strike. Yeah.

1:13:09

Money in between rounds that they could add turrets

1:13:11

and shields to bring back their eliminated friends. They

1:13:14

could even pick the difficulty of the final mission

1:13:16

to earn a bigger prize. I never thought it

1:13:18

is basically, yeah, Countless Strike. Sounds so dramatic. The

1:13:21

choice to host a new version of this? A

1:13:24

Bear Grylls type, maybe? I could see that.

1:13:26

First question, if you competed on this show, what would your

1:13:29

team name be? Thank you for

1:13:31

all you do and respect the sea. Let's do

1:13:33

that first. Team name, what would we be? I'm

1:13:35

just going to do what I named my ship

1:13:37

on Helldivers and all that. The Spear of Liberty.

1:13:41

Bring Liberty to everyone with a giant dagger. He gave

1:13:43

me the option to do Dawn of Dorns, so I'm

1:13:45

going to do it because it's stupid. Because

1:13:48

it'd be the Helldivers. Yeah, I've

1:13:51

never seen... I'm going to have to watch some clips

1:13:53

of this because this genuinely sounds fantastic. It's good fun.

1:13:56

Yeah. Oh, Jesse, you would have

1:13:58

been... I reckon you would have applied to Bear Grylls. on this foots

1:14:00

around these days. Have you done much paintball in

1:14:02

your life? No, not paintball,

1:14:05

more airsoft. I feel like I'm just... I feel

1:14:07

like paintball just hurts more. I don't know. I'm

1:14:09

not driving it. I'm scared. I'd

1:14:12

like to see you try. Matt, have you got

1:14:14

a game show from the 90s maybe? Not one

1:14:16

that I want to bring back, but a

1:14:19

90s game show that haunts me and I

1:14:22

think about it way too often, because it's

1:14:24

horrible, it's just I don't know how it

1:14:26

got made and it absolutely could never be

1:14:28

made. Now, do you remember Man O Man

1:14:30

with Chris Parrott? I knew you were going to say that,

1:14:33

where they'd push the men in the pool. But it

1:14:35

was just like you had a bunch of men and

1:14:37

these scantily clad women that would come out and yeah,

1:14:39

they just pushed the men that they didn't like in

1:14:41

a pool. And what was the song they'd play when

1:14:44

they did it as well? They'd walk up and down

1:14:46

the line. It was basically an even worse

1:14:48

version of Take Me Out. It had even less value

1:14:50

to it than that. Really weird, seedy, and like all

1:14:52

the people that would be in the audience and they'd

1:14:55

have telephones, right? And you could do things with the,

1:14:57

I can't remember if you could phone in down to

1:14:59

the stage. I'm pretty sure it was like when it

1:15:01

got down to like the last two or three as

1:15:03

well, it was like they had like whoever kissed worse

1:15:05

got pushed in and stuff. I'm seeing it's hosted by

1:15:08

the fucking man. It was real like bottom of the

1:15:10

barrel stuff, but I definitely watched it as like an

1:15:12

eight year old thinking it was hilarious, that just people

1:15:14

were getting pushed in pools. Who's the guy who hosted

1:15:16

who wants to be a millionaire in the evening? Chris

1:15:18

Tarrant. Who wants to, didn't he want to throw

1:15:20

a spoon at someone in a restaurant? I think

1:15:22

that's happened. Is that the story of his cancellation?

1:15:25

Let's have a look. I actually, I scrolled

1:15:27

past it on TV the other day. He

1:15:29

has a TV show which is Chris Tarrant's

1:15:32

Extreme Railway Journey. Wow. Extreme

1:15:34

can maybe? I don't know how old he is.

1:15:37

He's 7 now. Where's the, there must be

1:15:39

the con, where's the spoon? I'm gonna look.

1:15:41

This looks awful. I

1:15:44

was like, I thought

1:15:46

it was weird at the time, but weird because it

1:15:48

was like why are these people being chucked in a

1:15:50

swimming pool? In hindsight as an

1:15:52

adult, living in 2024, oh boy, that was

1:15:54

not a good show. There's

1:15:58

something I really despise about- I'm gonna watch the mano. early

1:16:00

2000s fashion. I guess a

1:16:03

more wholesome 90s show. Do

1:16:07

you remember You Bet? Yeah, yeah,

1:16:09

yeah. I liked You Bet.

1:16:11

Yeah, that's something. Or maybe get

1:16:13

Silla's surprise surprise back. I

1:16:17

loved Fun House. Fun

1:16:20

House? I think the kids won. Fun House is good. Yeah, Fun House

1:16:22

is good. When they got

1:16:24

in the little go-karts and you

1:16:26

spin around. Yeah, yeah. That was

1:16:28

good. Yeah,

1:16:30

so in 2007, Chris Tern was arrested on

1:16:32

suspicion of assault at an Indian restaurant. I

1:16:36

think he was released, but he did admit that

1:16:38

he did jokingly lob some cutlery onto

1:16:40

a couple's table after asking them to

1:16:42

leave him alone. Oh,

1:16:47

dear. Push him in a pool. I wouldn't

1:16:49

mind 50-50 coming back. Yeah,

1:16:52

50-50. Yeah, yeah. Get

1:16:54

your own back. Time

1:16:56

for some Dave Benson Phillips. Good stuff.

1:16:59

We want more emails about that sort of

1:17:01

stuff that is very specific to mine and

1:17:04

Matt's childhood marriage, if you could. Jesse,

1:17:07

you've got the last email. Yeah, this is from Chris Dawson. He

1:17:09

says, Hello, IGN crew. I'm a long time listener. That's

1:17:12

written in a couple of times in the past. As somebody

1:17:15

from the southwest, it's lovely to hear Matt talk

1:17:17

about Bath. This is quite specific, but

1:17:19

I vaguely remember him mentioning a pizza place in

1:17:21

Bath that he spoke very highly of. I think

1:17:23

it was the oven, but that may be wrong.

1:17:27

Could we get a Perslow Pizza recommendation

1:17:29

along with any insights he could offer?

1:17:31

Thank you very much. Respect the sea,

1:17:33

grave diggers and the firm. Keep doing

1:17:35

what you're doing. It's a weekly pressure.

1:17:37

Why is it not pressure? What is

1:17:39

the Bath? So

1:17:41

it is the oven, which is, if you're

1:17:43

in Bath, it's opposite the Five Guys and

1:17:46

the Z-Hotel. Very close to the

1:17:48

centre. You've got it mailed down. And

1:17:51

yeah, the oven, I used to, so I don't live in Bath anymore, but I

1:17:54

lived in Bath for a few years. When

1:17:56

I was working at another

1:17:58

publication and the oven. has

1:18:01

an exceptional Neapolitan style pizza

1:18:03

with one of the most delightful

1:18:05

crusts properly leoparded all the

1:18:07

way. It's nice

1:18:10

and crisp and charred on the

1:18:12

outside but in the middle it's

1:18:14

really soft and fluffy and pulled

1:18:16

apart. It's good. They do a

1:18:18

really good set of, like many

1:18:21

of the pizzas are kind of classic Neapolitan

1:18:23

flavours but there are some just slightly like

1:18:26

out there ones where there might be ones with

1:18:28

a bit of apricot jam on and some walnuts

1:18:30

or... Not for me personally. Funky though,

1:18:32

that sounds nice. I always like, there's normally

1:18:35

about two maybe three on there and I think

1:18:37

they're seasonal and they'll rotate but just a little

1:18:39

bit out there but you can obviously have your

1:18:41

classics. Yeah I'm very safe when it comes to

1:18:44

pizza so I don't like any real

1:18:46

fruit on there. You can have a salami one

1:18:48

that's going to be absolutely fine. You won't get

1:18:51

a pepperoni, it'll always be like a bit more

1:18:53

traditional. Salami is what I prefer, salami I think.

1:18:55

Less salty, less oily. And when I

1:18:57

was in Bath at

1:19:00

the bottom of Milson Street the oven actually opened

1:19:02

to a place called The Slice which was kind

1:19:04

of like their take on, you know

1:19:06

how in America you'll buy a slice of pizza particularly in

1:19:08

New York, it was their take on that. It

1:19:11

was not long for this world but god

1:19:13

damn did me and my friends use it

1:19:15

a lot because they had a punch card

1:19:17

system where once you'd had like seven punches

1:19:19

you could get a free slice or a

1:19:21

free side and they did arancini, a little

1:19:23

box with three arancini in or you could

1:19:25

get stuffed little green

1:19:28

peppers, they were good. Reminds

1:19:30

me a bit of, have you ever been to Voodoo Rays

1:19:32

in London? I do not know. That

1:19:35

might be a nice replacement for you, it's pretty good as

1:19:37

well in Dolston. Pretty

1:19:39

good pizza though. The idea. The only one I

1:19:41

want to know is just looking at the lowest

1:19:43

reviews on Google. Someone said the music was too

1:19:45

loud, did you agree? Well I

1:19:47

quite frequently sat outside, there's a really

1:19:49

nice outline section because then you get

1:19:52

to look across the area, you

1:19:54

couldn't look at, if you've gone late at night you get to

1:19:56

look across at the casino when people falling out of the casino.

1:19:58

And crucially you are out of the casino.

1:20:00

out of range of Kristofern's cutlery if you say outside.

1:20:02

Oh yeah, I like that. And

1:20:04

also it's very hot inside because it's quite a

1:20:07

small place and so the pizza oven. It's like

1:20:09

an oven in there. Well yeah, exactly. The pizza

1:20:11

oven probably fakes up about a quarter of the

1:20:13

space in there. There

1:20:16

is, back when I was there

1:20:18

was when Franco Manca was only just expanding. So

1:20:20

when Franco Manca's opened, I thought it was incredible.

1:20:22

I love how we get a full history of

1:20:24

the pizza restaurant, the barf. And I still do,

1:20:27

I think Franco Manca, particularly in London is, just

1:20:31

for the price of Franco Manca in London, it's

1:20:34

one of the best pizzas that you can get

1:20:36

in terms of a chain. But

1:20:38

everybody knows what it is now so it doesn't sound as

1:20:40

cool when you say, oh you can go and check out

1:20:42

Franco Manca. It's like we semi-regularly

1:20:44

visit a pizza union in London because that's

1:20:46

only six, seven quid for a pretty good

1:20:49

pizza. Not the best pizza in the world,

1:20:51

but it's a good pizza. So

1:20:54

yeah, there we go. There's some barf

1:20:56

and London pizza recommended. Fantastic. Good

1:20:59

stuff, what a way to end the podcast. I want pizza now,

1:21:01

but I don't think I'm having pizza today. So.

1:21:04

Why are you having party? That's a shame. I don't know,

1:21:07

not pizza though. It's not gonna be pizza

1:21:09

I don't think. Walk

1:21:12

barely carry out. Oh,

1:21:14

I think I'll have some sausages in the fridge. So I'll do

1:21:16

something with that. Well, I'll let you

1:21:18

know, I'll let you know. Brilliant.

1:21:20

iGen Unscored UK Feed,

1:21:23

oh God. I've lost it.

1:21:25

I've lost it. iGen

1:21:27

Unscored UK Feedback app, igen.com. Let

1:21:31

us know everything, everything that's on your

1:21:33

mind. What are you up in for dinner today? Democracy.

1:21:37

Yes, democracy, manna, fest.

1:21:41

Sounds succulent. Exactly, oh, I'd

1:21:43

like a succulent. That's a good word,

1:21:46

man. Right, let's go, shall we? I'll

1:21:49

pick some music, what have we got here? Oh,

1:21:51

something from Final Fantasy or Hell though. It's got

1:21:53

a succulent meals guy for end the song.

1:21:56

Actually, yeah, we should have done that, shouldn't we? Okay,

1:21:59

all right. Goodbye. Bye. Yeah.

1:22:30

Ah, yes. I see that you know

1:22:32

your judo. Good

1:22:35

one. And you,

1:22:37

sir? Are you waiting to

1:22:39

receive my limp penis? I'll get

1:22:41

your hand off the hat. I'm

1:22:44

not gonna get my... Hatter! Super

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