0:05

You hear that? That's

0:13

the awkward silence of a family dinner after

0:15

you just got caught vaping. Most

0:18

vapes contain high levels of nicotine and

0:22

disappointment. Brought

0:25

to you by the Real Cast and the FDA.

0:49

What the heck is going on everybody?

0:52

Welcome back to another episode of the kind

0:54

of funny X cast your home for all

0:56

things Xbox here at kind of funny. Of course, I'm

0:58

one of your show host Snowbike Mike. And

1:00

today I am joined by my two

1:03

gaming dads and gosh darn it. It's

1:05

this. It's a holiday season and I'm thankful

1:07

for both of you. I am thankful each and every

1:09

week we get to gather around this big old table

1:12

and talk all things video games and Xbox. And

1:14

also a little bit of life sometimes with you

1:16

too, which I really, really love. Let's go around the table. Of course,

1:18

Paris, happy holidays to you and yours. Welcome

1:21

back for another week. How you doing, big dog?

1:24

I'm doing good and happy holidays. Really looking forward

1:26

to tomorrow. I'm going to eat a lot.

1:29

Oh yeah. We're going to talk about what we're eating, what

1:31

everybody's up to for all of that. So I like that. Save

1:35

that for a moment. Gary, how are you today? I'm good.

1:38

I'm happy to be here. As you know, I threw my

1:40

back out yesterday with 50 50 whether or not

1:42

I was going to going to make it. I

1:43

was worried. Yeah. Yeah.

1:46

Staged a minor recovery today. Get the best

1:48

Gary and you look dapper as can be. Well,

1:50

thank you. No, I am Mr. Orton man. You know,

1:53

I, I do like this. This is my season.

1:56

I don't like summer and spring. I like fall and

1:58

winter fall and winter.

1:59

I like the early

2:02

dark night. I like

2:04

Christmas. I like Halloween. I like Thanksgiving.

2:06

I like that whole season. I like that. And

2:09

I thought, you know, this is my Thanksgiving finery. You

2:12

look good. So I barely get the chance to dress up.

2:15

Gary, well, I'm glad that you just said that you

2:17

had the golden joysticks last week dressed

2:19

up to the night. It's true. I had you more dressed up

2:21

because I went to Vegas twice. Yes. And

2:24

London for the joysticks. And I got dressed up. Reminded

2:27

me, I used to dress up once in a while. What

2:29

is one tip that you would give to Paris or

2:31

blessing and Greg who will be at the Game Awards

2:34

next month when it comes to dressing up nice? The

2:36

idea of me giving any of them fashion

2:38

advice is a joke. I

2:41

mean, I still do most of my shopping

2:43

at Target and Old Navy. Hey, hey, hey. You know, they're

2:46

decent stuff. Yeah. You know. You look good.

2:49

Yeah. I thought you were gonna be like,

2:51

hey, Paris, make sure to always go comfort

2:53

over, you know. No, no, I mean, I will. I

2:56

mean, look, if you want to look good, then don't talk

2:58

to me. If you want to be comfortable, absolutely

3:00

come to me. I've said many times, the older you get, the

3:02

more you prioritize comfort. One

3:04

of the things I love about my job is I essentially get

3:06

to wear pajamas all day. I just,

3:09

I, if you look at what I wear like 99% of the time,

3:11

I have a lot of hoodies. I have a lot

3:13

of pajama bottoms. I have a

3:15

lot of, you know, track, you know,

3:17

sweat bottoms and t-shirts.

3:20

And that's pretty much all I ever wear. The ultimate.

3:22

Paris, what do you got?

3:24

You know, it's funny you say that because I've been debating

3:27

back and forth to do I go all out this

3:29

year for the game awards. And honestly,

3:32

I just think I'm going to recycle what I wore dice.

3:34

I don't think I'm going to do anything. Is it dressy? How do people

3:36

typically dress at the game awards? Because, you know, I've

3:39

never been invited, Paris. So I wouldn't know. Well,

3:41

some people get pretty outrageous with it. You

3:43

know, I would like a Met Gala kind of vibe

3:46

or black tie. Like, what is it? It can

3:48

be like last year. I went pretty loud.

3:50

I wore all purple, but I

3:53

don't think I do that this year. I think I would be conservative.

3:55

I think, to your point here, I think I'm going

3:57

comfort for staff. the

4:00

key. I love that. And I want to agree

4:02

with him, but can I can I play on the other

4:04

side for a second? Paris, it's the biggest

4:07

gaming year ever, right? This

4:09

is the year of games. I

4:11

think this is the year where you got to go all out. If there's

4:13

one year to go all out for the game awards,

4:16

it's got to be this one. Okay. This is the

4:18

year with the high profile names, all

4:20

of the big games. This is the year we'll

4:22

be talking about. This is the year that we'll be, as I

4:24

said, brother, this is a year that will be remembered in gaming

4:27

history as an all time great year.

4:30

But here's the problem. I can't top blessing.

4:33

No, I mean, that's, yeah, you're kidding yourself.

4:35

Yeah, I was trying to pull up his fit from last year

4:37

because it was awesome.

4:39

Yeah, you can't top blessing. So I'm not

4:42

even going to try. Like I said, traditional suit

4:44

and tie. I think that's what I'm doing here. I

4:46

like that. Okay. And then the end of the day,

4:48

like you could, you could put me, you could

4:50

put me with like a designer

4:53

with like, um,

4:54

you know, like a consultant. They could look at

4:56

me dressed. We do the whole queer eyes thing or whatever,

4:59

the whole makeover course. But at the end

5:01

of the day, my, as they say, where I come from, you can't

5:03

polish a third. There's only so

5:05

much you can do with the base model. You

5:08

know, I mean, it can look, it can look better. It's

5:10

never going to look good. Yeah. Okay.

5:13

Well, I disagree with that because I think you looked

5:15

great. Well, you know what in London,

5:17

I was, I, that was the closest I've ever come to like feeling

5:19

good about how it looked when I was in London. That's a good fit.

5:22

Let's talk about what we're eating tomorrow. Because of course,

5:24

if you were tuning in to this week's X cast,

5:27

it is the day before Thanksgiving.

5:29

And of course we're giving thanks to all of you watching

5:32

and listening all around the globe. Man, I'm

5:34

so thankful for these two. Of course, bear

5:36

it over in the control room and all of you

5:39

watching so much. Thank you for tuning

5:41

in, letting us being a small part of your lives

5:43

and just tuning in each and every week talking to Xbox

5:46

and games with us. It is so much fun, but

5:48

it's the day before Thanksgiving, which means it's time

5:50

to eat big and be big. Paris

5:53

Lilly, what is the dish you're most looking

5:56

forward to tomorrow?

6:00

looking forward to is probably

6:03

my sour and

6:08

bake and I'm good at it. So that's probably what I'm

6:10

looking most forward to but nobody

6:13

in my house likes turkey, nobody in my house

6:15

likes ham except me, I'm the only one. So

6:17

I'm not doing either one of those. I'm

6:19

going to smoke a brisket and

6:22

I'm gonna smoke a whole chicken and then

6:24

we're gonna do some collard greens, we're gonna do

6:26

some mashed potatoes, we're

6:29

doing an apple pie as well for the other

6:31

dessert and what else are we

6:33

doing? Something else, oh hey, what else? There's something

6:35

else we're doing. I'm not thinking of it but it is gonna be good.

6:38

That sounds like a good meal over there.

6:41

I'll tell you what, I like that brisket

6:43

too. I'll be messing around with some brisket.

6:45

Well here's a crazy thing, I'm probably

6:48

going to start it right after we've offered here. Yeah because

6:51

you've got a long time, low and slow right? I mean hey Khalif Adams, are you taking

6:53

notes? Because like

6:57

glistening up Khalif, what's the point? He can

6:59

take all the notes he wants, he's still screwing

7:04

up. Gary

7:06

I asked you, are you eating big tomorrow? What's the vibe

7:08

tomorrow? Always eat big at Thanksgiving. I love this

7:10

season, I love the food.

7:13

I definitely

7:16

bust out the Joey Tribbiani Thanksgiving pants,

7:19

the extra stretchy ones and

7:22

yeah so like this year's going to be a bit

7:24

different though. As an English

7:26

person I find it a little bit odd

7:28

because typically we have turkey for Christmas dinner

7:31

and Thanksgiving is only a month before Christmas right? So having

7:33

too big

7:34

turkey, I know you're going to ham as well but like too big turkey

7:36

dinners back to back just seems weird to me like space

7:38

them out more but we typically do it. We've

7:41

done turkey most years with

7:43

you know all the trimmings.

7:44

This year we just kind of decided like

7:47

just the four of us this year it's just me,

7:49

Leah and the kids. We're not having, we're not part

7:51

of anything bigger and

7:52

like it's a lot right? It's a lot of cooking,

7:54

hours in the kitchen, slaving

7:57

away and then all of the you know Washington.

8:00

you know, dish washing and cleaning up afterwards.

8:02

The kitchen looks like a bomb hit it by the day. It's a

8:04

lot for like, what, 20 minutes of sitting and

8:06

eating. So we just decided, let's not bother this

8:08

year, let's just do something else.

8:11

I did a Thanksgiving, kind

8:13

of halfway Thanksgiving preview thing

8:15

this early this week so we could scratch the itch. I

8:17

made my signature roast potatoes

8:20

with Yorkshire pudding and stuffing

8:23

and gravy. Just basically a vegetarian

8:26

version of, you know,

8:29

Thanksgiving dinner. Just there

8:31

just wasn't any meat. Honestly, I think that's

8:34

the least good part. I like all the sides better.

8:36

Okay. The meat. Okay. It's not Turkey's, Turkey's

8:39

bland. It doesn't really taste like much of anything. Yeah.

8:41

But no, we just started because everyone in the house

8:43

likes it. We're just going to do

8:45

like a massive

8:48

serving of spaghetti and meatballs.

8:51

I got these really big, good spicy

8:54

Italian meatballs. We got the good

8:56

pasta sauce. We got the good Parmesan

8:58

cheese. We got garlic

9:00

bread. We got it all. And

9:03

then for dessert, we're just all we all kind

9:05

of pick like our own dessert. So I typically go with a

9:07

pecan pie. That's my Thanksgiving tradition.

9:10

I'm kind of regretting pivoting away.

9:12

I might still try and like grab one at the last minute because

9:14

I went chocolate cream pie this year. You can't go

9:16

wrong. Chocolate cream pie go wrong. My wife's

9:19

got a little apple pie for herself

9:21

and my daughter, we got her

9:23

a completely plain cake,

9:27

a completely decorated. She's going to decorate herself. Oh,

9:29

fun. And then we'll, so we all have our own desserts.

9:31

That's great. You can't go wrong with spaghetti

9:33

and meatballs. I like that you two are going

9:36

the non-traditional route. Yeah. Some fun in

9:38

the kitchen. Yeah. Changing. We're thinking about doing Indian

9:40

food for Christmas dinner as well. Like, you

9:42

know, you make your own, you make your own traditions.

9:45

I love that. Make your own traditions. Did you know that in

9:47

Japan, KFC is

9:49

a massive tradition for Christmas dinner? You

9:51

have to order it like two weeks in advance.

9:54

KFC is huge for Christmas

9:56

dinner in Japan. Okay. Yeah. Really

9:58

exciting stuff. Yeah. They know

10:00

your traditions are what you what you make of them, right?

10:03

So I like don't give me I like the

10:05

turkey dinner if someone else is cooking it

10:07

on someone else's house But it's a lot

10:09

if you're not having people over just eat what

10:11

you want to eat We're gonna eat balls. You can't miss you

10:13

know

10:14

guys here. We've done three years of The

10:17

X cast we've had our traditions of saying

10:19

what we're thankful for and so this year we're gonna

10:22

We're gonna continue with traditions with a little

10:24

twist So I got a little twist for us here later

10:26

on in the show to tease everybody out there But we

10:28

got a little bit of stuff to talk about before

10:30

we move on and speaking of food before we

10:32

move on I gotta ask you what he got here because as

10:35

you know the great Thanksgiving tradition in

10:37

the first I have no idea Does

10:39

that you what happens? I don't know She said about the five American history

10:41

but in the five so I am told

10:44

in the first Thanksgiving dinner the Native Americans

10:46

shared their Food with the

10:48

pilgrims. Okay. It was a big feast.

10:50

That's where the Thanksgiving tradition comes from He

10:53

wrote here are the foods of our culture. Yeah,

10:55

Mike I would like to introduce you to one of the foods of my

10:57

culture I just came back from London in a

10:59

way brought any English food I don't think you

11:01

were here when I did this Oh, no, but I

11:03

brought for you one of the crown

11:05

jewels of English cuisine

11:08

I brought for you the McVitie's

11:11

Jaffa cake

11:13

Have you ever had a Jaffa cake my I never heard of

11:15

something about to change your life That's what I

11:17

was about to say in my mind about to change your life now

11:19

There's a two pack twin pack here don't get carried away.

11:21

I'm taking this on one home. It's a twin For you my

11:24

friend. Oh, okay So it looks

11:26

almost like a a cookie So it's

11:28

like a spongy cookie with a chocolate

11:30

top and then there's like an orange kind

11:32

of gel filling inside I

11:35

think they're delicious Paris and sorry, you're not here to

11:37

be able to enjoy this But it

11:39

is it is a spongy cookie Paris. It's

11:41

a very soft cookie chocolate on

11:43

the top Yeah, and then and then the

11:46

orange jelly filling in. Yeah. Oh I'm

11:49

so jealous of you about to eat your first Jaffa cake. Oh

11:52

Right, oh

11:55

Yeah, I'm telling you it hits I'm

11:58

gonna have one myself

11:59

that is a soft cookie, which is

12:01

delightful with chocolate wrapped

12:04

around the top, which nobody can say anything

12:06

bad about chocolate. And then a punch

12:08

of just that orange tangerine. Just a little orange.

12:11

Yeah. Oh,

12:12

Barrett, you want one? Garrett,

12:16

tell you what you made my day. Come out

12:18

there. Come out here. Yep.

12:22

That was delicious. Gary. Thank you for sharing

12:24

your. I'll leave the rest of the

12:26

sleeve with you. I'm going to eat all those before dinner

12:28

tonight. Have you never had a suffocate before Paris? I mean,

12:30

sorry, Barrett. I have not. Oh,

12:32

what is, what is Paris got? What is Paris showing off?

12:35

Don't rub that in my face. This is

12:37

a steam deck. Oh, lead.

12:40

It just arrived about a couple hours before

12:42

we started recording. Wow. Tell me

12:44

right now, this is the road coming as well.

12:46

Screen that I have ever seen in a

12:48

handheld. It's better than the

12:51

switch. Oh, lead is better than the rogue

12:53

ally. It's better than any other

12:55

handheld screen that I have seen. Wow.

12:59

I know I kind of want one, even though I barely

13:01

used the steam deck that I have. Yeah.

13:03

I can't. It's, Oh, that is

13:05

a game changer. There's no question about it. Well,

13:08

let's hit the brakes on this steam deck really quick. Because

13:11

we've, we've given a lot of praise to handhelds

13:14

this year. 2023 has really been the year of

13:16

the handheld coming back. But Paris,

13:18

you did have some reservations

13:21

about the Xbox experience on the steam

13:23

deck. Of course, we know there are Xbox games on

13:25

steam available, but we're

13:27

not getting game pass natively, right?

13:29

Like what am I missing out with the steam deck

13:32

from an Xbox perspective? That's still missing

13:34

to this day. So like on my old steam

13:36

deck, I did the, you know, the, not

13:39

even a trick, but basically the tutorial, you go

13:41

into desktop mode and you can set up cloud

13:43

gaming on the steam deck and it works

13:46

fairly well. So you can cloud

13:48

stream the game pass games on your steam

13:50

deck. But unlike the rogue ally,

13:53

you can natively play game

13:55

pass games on that. So if

13:57

you're heavy into the Xbox ecosystem.

14:00

And you take advantage of game pass the

14:02

allies actually the preferred device that you're

14:04

probably want to get if you want to choose between the two

14:07

the thing that I would like to see at a minimum

14:10

would be That valve in and Xbox

14:12

work together to at least get the the

14:14

cloud app just on High-level

14:18

talks between valve and Xbox right now about getting

14:20

proper. I'd be I'd be stunned like someone's

14:22

a switch I would too

14:24

like if they were to figure

14:27

out some way to say hey Let's because obviously

14:29

Xbox games work on on the steam

14:31

deck because if you buy it through steam You

14:34

play you can play forza horizon 5, you know

14:36

starfield stuff like that, right? But

14:39

obviously people that have game pass would love to take advantage

14:41

of that. So to your point Gary Yeah, if they

14:44

could figure out some deal so that it's

14:46

beneficial to both parties and just natively

14:48

You can't because that would seem that from where

14:50

it is Which is already great with the over

14:52

the new OLED refresh like that It would say it would be

14:54

undeniable at that point if it had To

14:57

get the rogue ally at that point I would go because

14:59

like the the advantage that this OLED one has Over

15:02

the old steam deck and even the rogue

15:04

ally is the battery life It's old vastly

15:07

superior to both of those device

15:09

because that's probably my biggest knock against the

15:11

rogue ally

15:12

You know once you get used to the UI Just

15:17

flat-out sucks, it's not good. So um

15:20

Yeah, if valve and Microsoft

15:22

can figure this out that that just it

15:24

just becomes a no-brainer handheld device

15:27

to take with you I was looking

15:29

at it. The OLED screen obviously is the

15:31

That's the headline feature, but the better battery

15:33

life, of course is huge as well The

15:36

other thing that valve said recently I thought was really interesting

15:38

is that they said they're not even close yet in

15:41

terms of the software Optimization and getting like

15:43

full performance out of the steam deck like it's gonna get

15:45

better. Oh, yeah. Okay.

15:48

I like hearing that Yeah, I am waiting for that

15:50

moment like pair springs up of like how do

15:52

I as an Xbox consumer and customer get

15:55

the most out? of the steam deck and it feels like it's

15:57

there but of course for someone like

15:59

me who Doesn't want to do the workarounds

16:01

and sit there with the tutorial. Yeah, I just want it

16:04

here. I am waiting for that moment I

16:06

like the red accents on the thumbsticks, too. That's a nice

16:08

cut. Yeah Yeah, that's why I just

16:10

said screw it and I went and got the limited edition

16:13

one because I was only the limited that has That okay.

16:15

Yeah, it's just a limited edition to get that afford

16:17

Are they hard to get like the original one was like if I

16:19

would decide if I just thought it only wanted one today am I

16:21

just Am I out of luck? No, you can you can

16:23

still get one So here's here's the little trick

16:25

that valve did you know to screw over the

16:27

scalpers They actually have this limited

16:30

edition Barely available until

16:32

the end of the year I ordered one you're gonna

16:34

get one So when everyone was going crazy

16:36

like myself, you know on launch day

16:38

and was like I was like, oh my god I'm not gonna get one two

16:41

hours later. I easily ordered one as you can see

16:43

I got in less than a week What do you think

16:46

let me ask you this? What do you think I could get for my old

16:48

one in terms of offsetting the pray if I wanted to get the

16:50

new one? I go. What do you think an old one's worth on the market

16:52

now? Probably at least a couple hundred

16:55

Got a couple hundred bucks off. Yeah. Yeah,

16:58

so I think 200 You know when you know when the steam

17:00

deck first came out and you couldn't get

17:02

one somebody offered me $1,500 for

17:04

it and I didn't take it. I feel silly now. I should

17:06

have taken it Yeah, there's no way I

17:09

got $1,500 worth of use out of it. Why not? Yeah.

17:11

Yeah, that's right But here's one awesome

17:13

thing. I gave my old one to my youngest

17:15

daughter. So

17:17

Technically Oh

17:21

Right

17:22

Yeah, well

17:24

good. Let me get a little doc as

17:26

well. Yeah. Yeah, I have the dog. Yeah. I have the doc

17:29

I never use it. So yeah, she wants to use it She

17:31

can send that it really is a gaming PC or I

17:33

got up to an external display and you're all good Well

17:37

guys, let's talk about some games. Let's talk about 2023.

17:39

We got a bar. What's the verdict

17:41

on the Jaffa cake? Oh the Jaffa cake

17:44

Roger and I agree. It was really good. That's a thumbs up We

17:46

were shaking our heads on camera at Paris because

17:48

we both feel like we should have OLED steam

17:51

decks We

17:53

can't can but you you got like a shop

17:55

that like imports of course, they got like cost

17:57

plus you don't have your pay like

17:59

over the odds for him.

18:01

Let's talk about some games. Let's talk about our break ahead

18:03

and what we'll be playing. And let's talk about what we're thankful

18:06

for on this special Thanksgiving

18:08

edition of the Kinda Funny X-Cast. Of

18:11

course, don't forget, we post each and every

18:13

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18:15

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18:17

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18:37

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18:46

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to our Patreon producers for the month of November,

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Thank you for your support. This week, the Kinda Funny

19:38

X-Cast is sponsored by DraftKings Sportsbook,

19:41

but I'll tell you all about that in just a

19:43

little bit. Guys, let's talk

19:45

about it. We got the break coming up

19:48

and it's Thanksgiving. Did you say

19:50

you had something you wanted to show me? Yeah, I have something I'm gonna

19:52

show you. Okay, you're saving it for later? Yeah, I got something

19:54

special for you. I think you're gonna really love it, Gary. All right, okay, we'll

19:56

get there. But guys, for the past three years, we've been

19:58

doing the X-Cast. And of course I

20:00

have been so thankful and lucky to work

20:03

with the both of you, with Baird and Control,

20:05

of course Alana Pierce, and so many

20:07

incredible hosts and creators have come on

20:09

the show, and I'm so thankful for all

20:11

of you. And over the years,

20:13

every single year we gather around, we give thanks

20:15

for what we're happy with and what we're thankful for

20:17

from Team Xbox. But this year,

20:20

I

20:20

thought we'd do a little twist.

20:22

We'll keep it all in good spirits, but I want

20:24

to know what you're unthankful for

20:26

in the Xbox engaging

20:27

world. Aw, let's not go negative, Mike. Surely

20:29

not. I want you to tell me, Gary,

20:32

Witte, and Paris, Lily, what you're unthankful

20:34

for. I think you're trying to bait me, Mike, because you know how

20:36

much I like to complain a bitchy moan

20:38

about shit. Gary, let

20:41

me pull you and everybody behind the scenes really quick.

20:43

Hey, it's the holidays, and there's no gaming

20:45

news. Okay, I just want you to know that Xbox,

20:48

there's nothing going on. Everyone's already checked out for

20:50

the year. Thanksgiving. So there's not much

20:52

gaming news, so we had to get fun with it, and

20:55

then people said, let's get a good rant

20:57

out of Gary Witte. Rise him up a

20:59

little bit, Mike, and let's have some fun

21:01

with what he might be ungrateful for. So, Gary,

21:03

I'm going to let you sit on that, because

21:05

I know Paris, Lily, is prepared. Paris,

21:07

what are you unthankful for this

21:09

holiday season?

21:11

No, first and foremost, I go back behind

21:13

the curtain again, because you hit me up, too, and you're like, hey,

21:15

there's no news, and I'm like,

21:18

there's nothing, because we've either

21:20

already talked about it or, what, the Game

21:23

Awards. You know, there's nothing else to talk

21:25

about, you know, until we get to there. But

21:27

to your point, when you came up with this great idea

21:29

about what we're not grateful for, I got

21:33

to tell you, this Activision

21:35

Blizzard deal, that's what I'm not grateful

21:37

for. As great as 2023 has

21:40

been from a gaming standpoint, the

21:43

news has been dominated, but

21:45

it's literally the last 18 months has been

21:47

dominated, but is Activision Blizzard

21:50

acquisition. And don't get me wrong, understand

21:52

why Microsoft did it, understand how

21:55

this is going to benefit Xbox moving forward,

21:58

2024 and beyond, all of that is great. But

22:00

here in the now, this entire

22:03

year that we've been doing Xcast has

22:05

sucked

22:06

because of the Activision Blizzard deal. That's

22:08

all anybody wants to talk about. Everybody,

22:10

you got people online becoming all

22:13

of a sudden you got these financial gurus

22:16

and you got these internet lawyers and all these

22:18

other things that are telling me how stuff is

22:20

going to work. Then you got the actual

22:22

FTC thing and Phil and

22:24

Sarah and Pete Hines and all these people having

22:26

to testify and then you got to go back

22:28

and forth on that and listen to that and

22:31

there will be the YouTube videos with the

22:34

clickbait thumbnails. Oh no,

22:36

Microsoft is doomed. It's like all

22:38

these things for an entire year. We talked

22:41

about that other than we

22:43

weren't talking about Minecraft Legends. We

22:45

weren't talking about Forza. We weren't talking about

22:48

Starford. Well, we did talk about Redfall. We

22:51

weren't talking about all these great games

22:53

that came out this year for Xbox. We didn't talk

22:55

about all the great third party stuff that showed

22:57

up on Game Pass this year. Everything

23:00

started and ended with Activision

23:03

Blizzard. I am so, I know

23:06

I'm ungrateful for that, but I'm so thankful

23:08

now. It's over. This shit is

23:10

over. We're not talking about this no more. We can move

23:12

ahead. Now we can go into 2024

23:16

and see what all the stuff that they're

23:18

going to do now that this acquisition

23:20

is done. I know right now it's,

23:23

I saw Xbox tax trending as

23:25

well and the Call of Duty campaign

23:28

didn't get the high scores that certain

23:30

people thought it should get. So that again is

23:32

another repercussion

23:33

of this Activision

23:35

thing. Thank God it's over

23:37

because it took away

23:40

from what was such an amazing gaming year for

23:42

Xbox that that was what we had to talk

23:44

about.

23:44

So that Mike and Gary is what I

23:47

am ungrateful for. Give it up to

23:49

Paris.

23:50

Shout out to you. That is a great one right

23:52

here to gather around the table. Because yeah, Paris, that

23:54

was almost two full years of that.

23:56

High five rush. Forgot about that. High

23:58

five rush.

23:59

kicked off the year with this amazing

24:02

game that got not five nominations

24:04

at the game awards by the way,

24:06

but nobody's talking about it because they're talking about Activision Blizzard.

24:09

There you go. I'm done. Great

24:11

year of games.

24:12

And it has always been a cloud over our heads

24:15

of this Activision Blizzard King deal. And

24:17

it is us trying to become lawyers and

24:20

reading all this insane courtroom

24:23

drama that none of us are equipped for. All

24:25

of us just wanted to see the deal go through, move

24:27

on with our lives and celebrate games. And

24:29

I agree with you, Pairs. I think we got caught up

24:31

in the noise, missed out on so much fun

24:34

to be had because the focus was, hey,

24:37

when is this deal going to go through? When can

24:39

we speculate that the papers will be signed?

24:41

And we sat here for far too

24:42

long.

24:43

It did suck. But you know what? We did have a

24:45

great year full of games. And I appreciate Pairs highlighting

24:47

that. High five rush was a standout start.

24:50

We got Age of Empires 2 and 4

24:52

on console. What a great time to be alive.

24:55

It is awesome to see us moving in the

24:57

right direction. And as I said last week,

24:59

I think Xbox had a good year to great year. B

25:02

plus B plus vibes. But I think

25:04

we're finally trending in the right direction. I'm

25:06

hoping for something special. Gary,

25:08

are you ready or should I give what I'm?

25:10

No, go ahead. You go. Okay,

25:12

Gary, I was going to save this for a little bit later, but I

25:14

want you to know that I swiped the card

25:16

on something stupid this week. Oh, here we go. And

25:18

I know you're going to love it. He was hyping this before we even

25:21

got on air. So this is better be something. It's very cool

25:23

because I can talk about it on the X cast and

25:25

that's a little little one for you to think about.

25:27

I'm happy to say what has he done

25:29

that I've returned

25:32

to Azeroth. World of Warcraft has called

25:35

my name and I've swiped the card for $15

25:37

a month to enjoy the world's best

25:40

MMO. And oh man, am

25:42

I grateful but not grateful

25:44

for this situation that I'm currently in

25:47

where I'm paying $15 a month for game

25:49

pass ultimate alongside now a wow

25:51

subscription for a grand total of $30 a month

25:54

when this deal should have gone through. Filling

25:56

the team should save me and my bank account

25:59

and help me. Save some dollars and some

26:01

money by bundling this all together

26:03

in some sort of game class ultimate plus or

26:05

just put it in there Why am I still paying $15

26:08

a month?

26:09

I mean Gary you and I both know well I'm I'm

26:11

I'm fast because you know I used to be as hardcore

26:13

as hardcore get I don't back in the in the

26:15

in the prime Days of a Warcraft. I was in

26:17

the high high NPVP raiding guild at play

26:20

probably 12 16 hours a day What

26:23

I'm fascinated because I've never seriously

26:26

thought about going back is like I don't want

26:28

to go back yeah, like that my memories of

26:31

Warcraft and my guild are enshrined

26:34

in amber

26:35

and I will always think fondly of

26:37

them But I will never try to recreate

26:39

that it was a moment in time I'm

26:42

some of my best gaming stories come from

26:44

my summer workup I have no

26:46

interest in ever going back But

26:48

just into lab curious to know because the game

26:50

has obviously changed and grown so many expansions

26:52

It's become much more bloated and convoluted

26:54

and it's I probably wouldn't even recognize it from the game that I

26:56

played For someone good when I when

26:59

I played I played I was in beta and

27:01

I played day one launch Which was over

27:03

it which was Thanksgiving? I think 2007 you may

27:05

remember what a shit show that was when when

27:07

it first Whatever year it was it was an absolute

27:10

nightmare the service didn't work, but it was just Warcraft

27:12

It was just you know there were no there was no Northrend

27:15

there was no burning

27:16

You know burning legions or anything. It was just

27:18

very basic now. It's so

27:21

huge I've got to ask you what is what

27:23

is it like the experience? He's

27:25

back for more Jaffas I'm telling you Good

27:28

shit

27:30

What do you think for someone now coming to warcraft

27:32

and rolling a new character? What is it like entering warcraft

27:35

in its new in

27:36

its current form or it's so much more vast and complicated

27:39

than it used to be? Yeah, it's very interesting Gary

27:41

because you're talking to someone who has gone in

27:43

come out gone back in come out so many

27:45

times But for me, I think World

27:47

of Warcraft is in such a welcoming place

27:50

where if it is your first time I think

27:52

it's better than ever on when

27:55

it comes to receiving quests understanding

27:57

where you need to know where you need to go zone

28:00

you should be and where you need to then deliver

28:02

them right the fun part is they also have Wow

28:05

classic currently going on which I'm currently playing

28:07

and that takes you back to bare bones.

28:09

Are you playing classic or retail? I'm currently playing

28:11

classic right now. Oh okay well that's different than

28:13

retail. But here's the deal I've gone

28:15

back to retail we'll be in retail soon enough

28:17

because classic hardcore once you die you're

28:20

gonna give up and go back. I don't know why anyone plays hardcore

28:22

is absolutely mad. But I love World

28:24

of Warcraft because I do think it is welcoming I do

28:26

think it is approachable and I do think that

28:28

there is a number of tools in place where

28:30

it once was back in the day in the early 2000s to now

28:33

where you had to have mods on to understand

28:36

what was going on. I used to have all those curves

28:38

and all that stuff. I

28:40

used to have all those mods. No so I mean

28:43

you're playing classic which the whole point of that is to replicate

28:45

those early days. That nostalgic feeling.

28:48

I'm curious to know what it's like going into like regular

28:50

retail Wow now what

28:52

that's like because my understanding is a very different

28:54

experience than it used to be. I think it is but I think

28:56

it's still welcoming I think it's great right because

28:59

you have so many classes and races to

29:01

choose from. What did you roll by the way? We

29:03

went dwarves okay

29:05

they all go together and go into Ironforge. I don't

29:07

think you figured as a horde guy. I am I am

29:10

I'm only doing it for the boys okay they want to be

29:12

Alliance I'll be Alliance alright I'm dwarf

29:15

priest right now to make sure I can heal the team

29:17

you know we got a hunter we got a warrior

29:20

we got a sorcerer so it's

29:22

a fun little blend right now or a mage and

29:24

yeah just loving going back to a game that

29:26

I cared for so much and it's always

29:29

that kind of bug in the back of your head of like let's

29:31

go back let's see what it's like and whether

29:33

it be classic or the retail I always have

29:35

a good time running around Azeroth I think the world

29:37

that they created is something truly stunning.

29:41

I love all that lore in the world come

29:43

on I've said it a million times on this show it's become

29:45

a bore but like for me the best games are a

29:47

place that you go to and you disappear in to another reality

29:50

another world Azeroth was that

29:52

for me for such a long time I just I just lived

29:55

there and I loved it so much and it's special for

29:57

like a new player like myself who comes and goes

29:59

right but like The opportunity to say, hey, create

30:01

a character, we'll level boost you to whatever

30:04

that new level cap is and be able

30:06

to do 10, 20 levels of

30:09

you're up in the higher level area. So you can

30:11

learn what's going on. You can see where

30:13

everyone really is, right? Because if you go back

30:15

and create a level one character, sure, there's a number

30:17

of people, but the population has moved on,

30:19

right? And so for me, it's been nice,

30:22

right? Jumping back in and just exploring

30:24

and having fun.

30:25

Paris.

30:26

So, Mike, let me ask you this question. Just

30:29

look as we're killing some time here, but

30:32

you talking about this is making me think ahead

30:34

to the future. Obviously you're jumping in now. You

30:36

spent the money from your

30:38

standpoint. What do you think

30:41

Xbox is going to do

30:44

as far as any kind of incentive

30:47

discount?

30:49

If you're a game pass ultimate sub when

30:51

it comes to Warcraft, do you think they do anything? Yeah,

30:53

I truly think that the business model will

30:55

be to stick with the $15

30:58

a month for anyone out there. But I do

31:00

believe if you sign up for Xbox game pass,

31:03

you should receive at least three months minimum.

31:05

I'm thinking they're going to give you three to six months

31:08

of World of Warcraft token for you to be

31:10

able to jump in and play with some time. I

31:13

would be stunned if they drop the $15

31:15

a month and just bundle it with Xbox

31:18

game pass. It would be so great

31:20

for my wallets. I think the consumers out there where

31:22

you have if they roll that stuff into my existing

31:24

game pass, I'd be tempted to dabble. But I mean, my

31:27

wife used to play a lot with me. Like I

31:29

talked about dabbling recently. My wife is like, don't

31:31

even joke about it because she knows like

31:34

I got I got really sucked in. Yeah, that's

31:36

the question. Paris is like the high

31:38

business level of like, what is this team going

31:41

to do? Can you drop the subscription after

31:43

so many years and just bundle it in the

31:45

game pass? Then we'll get

31:47

into another one of, you know, poor Gary over

31:49

here. I'm going to hit him with four different levels of game

31:52

pass now with one bundling World

31:54

of Warcraft. We're still waiting on a family

31:56

plan as well from game. Pat has been

31:58

testing it right. territories.

32:00

Yeah but they ended the test. I'm

32:05

not so sure we're gonna get that anymore. Really?

32:07

I think they tested it and I think that that

32:09

test is done and rumblings

32:11

have said that we may not get it at all. Interesting.

32:14

So I mean yeah interesting but to the

32:16

point of you know we're talking about World of Warcraft I agree

32:19

Mike I don't think you'll get a just

32:21

a hundred percent free subscription

32:24

if you're on Game Pass. I don't see them getting rid of that

32:26

maybe some kind of discount is

32:28

in order like you said maybe if you're a Game

32:30

Pass Ultimate sub get the first

32:33

three months free or something you know something like

32:35

that. That's what they do with EI Play where

32:37

it gets rolled in as a bonus. Yeah. It'll

32:40

be really interesting to see. I hope they do because

32:42

yeah you have a big product there in World of Warcraft

32:44

with the Blizzard team. What are you gonna do with

32:46

it? And I think that's also the fun conversation that

32:49

we all can talk about kind of you know armchair

32:51

quarterback this whole situation like

32:53

what is still in the team gonna do with a number of these

32:55

files? I think there is a conversation to be had about an

32:58

Xbox version of the game. Why not? I

33:00

think that happens. I mean I don't think

33:02

I don't believe you get it anytime soon but I do think

33:04

that eventually happens. Yeah. I've

33:06

been hoping for that. Can I say this because I

33:09

know I've mentioned it to you offline

33:11

Mike and I think I can publicly say this

33:13

is not a big deal.

33:15

I was originally going

33:17

to speak with Mike Ibarra at Blizzcon

33:20

and then just with scheduling it didn't happen

33:24

and they reached out

33:26

he wants to come on the show. So

33:28

early 2024 we are going to

33:30

get Mike Ibarra on the show and

33:32

I think exactly what you're talking about

33:34

Gary is something I for sure want to ask

33:37

him about like what are they thinking when

33:39

it when it comes to World of Warcraft. Let's get my old pal

33:41

Chris Metzen on as well. He's back at Blizzard now.

33:44

The vibes are a little bit of this. This

33:46

last Blizzcon, you know Blizzcon after Blizzcon it's been like one

33:48

shit show after another. This last one

33:50

I think the vibes were back because I think a lot

33:52

of people a lot of people in the Warcraft and the Blizzard

33:54

community who have been a little bit jaded

33:56

by some of the directions that Blizzard

33:59

has gone in recently.

33:59

still love Chris, right? Because

34:02

Chris is one of the core geniuses of

34:05

Blizzard's golden age. He obviously left him when

34:07

he did his own thing for a while. Now he's made this glorious

34:09

Steve Jobs-like comeback. I think a

34:11

lot of people who still love and believe in Chris

34:13

and his

34:14

creative vision and his brilliance are

34:16

optimistic that he will breathe

34:19

some of the old Blizzard magic

34:21

back into it. I hope

34:23

so. Well, I would be honored to speak

34:25

with Mike. And yeah, that would be

34:27

fun if we could get the crew on here to talk about it. But

34:30

it is a big question of where do we go? What's

34:32

the deal? What is the future of this? But

34:34

I am currently

34:35

paying $15 a month for World of Warcraft.

34:37

I'm happy to be back. And I

34:40

am not thankful for paying that subscription.

34:43

Gary, I want to hear what you are

34:45

not thankful for right after a word from our sponsors.

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36:08

All right, Gary. What do you got for me? We've been patiently

36:11

waiting. Do you have anything that's uh,

36:13

not in your gears? Well, first of all, like I said,

36:15

I really don't appreciate you trying to drag me into this negative space

36:19

I I try to keep it positive as much as

36:21

I do and I don't do like performative rants if

36:23

I go off on one It's because there is really something

36:25

bothering me. So Oh like poke me with this thing Oh

36:27

Gary rant about something like it's not gonna be

36:30

of course the same like you

36:32

could if you wanted to Try to get

36:34

me going off about how Xbox sent Andrea

36:37

Rene a bluey Xbox

36:38

like by the way,

36:40

that's totally legitimate because as

36:42

we all know Andrea has a very

36:45

close connection with Xbox and has been

36:47

tweeting and talking about bluey From

36:49

the beginning since you know, even

36:51

before knew it even before bluey was

36:54

a thing Andrew that this is the best

36:56

show on television. Oh, no. Wait, that's me. Oh Doing

36:59

that the whole time Guy

37:02

I'm the bluey guy. You are the blue. We

37:04

need to do the fucking math on this one

37:06

for me Mike You've

37:09

got fucking Xbox Paris over here agent Paris

37:11

getting all the PlayStation. Yeah. Yep You've got

37:13

Andrea who I'm sure watches bluey,

37:16

but it's not been anything like as vocal. Uh-huh

37:18

about it I checked it check the

37:20

tweets. I don't see Check the

37:22

history, I mean the

37:25

math's not adding up Mike How

37:27

did you not get this bluey Xbox? Yeah, I mean

37:29

like honestly, it's like they They

37:32

could have made that that's literally like the Xbox for

37:34

me and I saw it. So look Leah's

37:37

my wife literally said oh look at this. It's the

37:38

perfect Xbox for you I like them to our better

37:40

only making one and it's a one-off thing. I'm not even gonna bother

37:42

trying to get one. I

37:45

Don't know Mike I don't know my

37:47

point is I'm not going to be going off on stuff like

37:50

that

37:51

Beneath me.

37:53

I'm not petty. Yeah, it's

37:56

fine. It's not like this man Dress

37:58

the Andre would be getting Xbox Bluey goodies instead

38:00

of me it makes total sense the Xbox Podcast

38:04

host Paris would be getting all the PlayStation

38:07

goodies from PlayStation Makes

38:10

total sense to me. Yeah. Yeah, it makes

38:13

no sense It makes total sense after crushing

38:15

it at the dice awards and at golden joysticks

38:18

I can't even get Jeff Keeley to return my

38:20

cause about Hosting something,

38:22

you know appropriate to my stature at

38:24

the gate all makes total sense it all track. I

38:27

Did I'm not like I said, I'm not gonna

38:30

go to a negative space. We're not taking it to

38:32

a negative space I won't okay. No, we'll do one

38:34

because I can't give me one. Give me one. Give me good one. Um I'll

38:38

give you a trick. I'll give you a journey in one. Okay. I am

38:41

ungrateful for the

38:43

state of Social

38:46

media discourse in video games right now.

38:48

Yeah, I think it's I think it's gone downhill and

38:50

in particular It's gone downhill on Twitter

38:53

just as all of Twitter has gone downhill I think

38:55

that's a crying shame Twitter used to be such

38:58

a brilliant place to come together and talk

39:01

to people and Hear from people who are experts

39:03

in their field and have interesting discussions

39:06

in the I joined Twitter in 2008 So

39:09

in 15 years I've been on Twitter. I've

39:11

met wonderful people. I've had

39:14

career opportunities come out of it I've made lifelong

39:16

friends. I've you know enjoyed

39:18

creating content now I've enjoyed like, you know

39:20

other people that things other people have created some wonderful

39:22

wonderful things. That's all over It's

39:26

over. I don't know if I mentioned this before but

39:28

I'm done like I fucking quit Twitter

39:30

last week I am done. I

39:32

am done. I made my last post I haven't the

39:35

account is in cryogenic suspension

39:37

because I think there's a I think there's a non-trivial chance

39:39

at some point

39:41

Twitter will find its way back into more responsible ownership

39:43

and we can come back But until that point

39:46

I am done. I

39:47

am done fucking Elon Musk

39:49

aka phony stark aka

39:52

dollars store Ozymandias aka

39:54

we have Ozymandias at home. Yes

39:57

has ruined one

39:59

of the great communication platforms

40:02

of our generation

40:04

and I'm deeply ungrateful

40:07

and resentful about it. It's such a shame that

40:09

it's been shat on and ruined and

40:11

turned into this, I didn't even know what to

40:13

call it, but I'm done. I'm

40:16

enjoying myself on threads and on blue sky, on

40:18

Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, basically everywhere else.

40:20

But I am, 2023 is the year that

40:23

one of the great social media communication

40:25

platforms for reasoned intelligence. I mean,

40:27

there was always, there was always clowns on

40:29

there, but you could go there and find

40:31

reasonable people. The verified mark meant

40:33

something. You could find experts who knew what they were talking

40:35

about. Now it's an absolute shit show

40:38

and it's, I think it's a tragedy. It's a real

40:40

tragedy for our social fabric

40:43

and understanding each other. It's a real,

40:45

like it's fucking unusable now. I used

40:48

to love Twitter. I used to love it. And now

40:50

I just, I can't even go there anymore.

40:52

It's done. And I think it's a tragedy.

40:54

It's a crying shame. What has been allowed

40:57

to happen to Twitter. What a shame. No, I love that

40:59

you so real about social media. Cause you know who I

41:01

think is always a bright light and really has

41:03

fun with it and encourages positivity

41:05

is Paris and his social media presence. And

41:08

I always find close to being Gary and

41:10

find that parents. You do. I mean, look,

41:12

everyone has to make their own decision and I'm, I'm

41:14

the last, I'm not, I'm in no position to stand in

41:17

to make moral judgments about anyone, but how, how

41:20

anyone can stay on that platform given

41:22

what it now represents. It's

41:25

fucking baffling to me. No, it's tough.

41:27

It's tough. And to Mike's point, yeah, I have

41:30

tried to be, you know, positive

41:32

and you know,

41:34

whatever little insight I could bring to,

41:36

but to, to exactly everything that you

41:38

said at the beginning, what I love so much

41:40

about that platform is, and I even tweeted

41:43

this the other day because I am starting to get fed up myself

41:45

is I

41:46

will always be thankful for the amazing

41:49

people that is allowed me to meet. Right.

41:51

Exactly. Right. Over the last 15 years, so many great people.

41:55

Yeah. But what it has in

41:57

the past calendar year become.

41:59

Yeah, it's world borrowed time. It's

42:02

like you said, I hope it

42:04

gets back into some responsible hands,

42:06

but it is so toxic now

42:09

that when I do say something, I don't read

42:11

the comment. It used to be a really

42:13

good place to talk about games. And

42:15

it's harder to do that now than it used to

42:17

be. That's

42:18

something we lost this year. I understand

42:21

that's a big thing that we lost this year.

42:24

We totally did. And you know what the unfortunate

42:26

thing is, just staring us back into Xbox,

42:29

some of the more higher up

42:31

leadership in Xbox used to be very active

42:33

on there and interact

42:36

with the community as a whole. If

42:38

you notice, I don't do that anymore at all. I

42:41

do think that we're at the beginning. I think this most recent shit

42:43

show, I do think this is the beginning and the end. It's not

42:45

sustainable. At this

42:47

point, the hull is breached below the waterline.

42:50

Oh, that's

42:51

too bad. Because, yeah, like you said, it was fun

42:53

to talk video games. It was fun to

42:55

be in a community where others

42:58

loved it and were celebrating it and having some fun

43:01

and sharing their cool clips, their dumb moments. And

43:03

I loved that. The people that are still on

43:05

Twitter are that part of the Titanic where they're still

43:07

milling around, like wondering when they can go back to dinner

43:09

without they don't they don't yet know that

43:12

the ship is fucking going down. Yeah. Yeah.

43:14

Oh, Gary,

43:15

those are good ones, Gary. Yeah. I'm glad that

43:17

you opened up in the blue. I'm obviously

43:20

joking about the blue Xbox thing. I'm not bothered about that

43:22

at all. Makes total sense to me. Who

43:25

they would say in my show notes, it says makes

43:27

total sense. Gary would not receive this. Absolutely.

43:30

I mean, why would I get that? I don't

43:32

care about blue. I don't talk about bluey. Let's talk

43:34

about the break. Of course, all of us now

43:37

here in America get to celebrate Thanksgiving.

43:39

We have a couple of extra days off. We

43:42

get to watch some football, eat some nice food, hopefully

43:44

spend time with family and friends and maybe even sit

43:47

down in front of the television, play some games. I

43:49

want to catch up with you guys. Of course, it's been

43:51

a big 2023. There's been a lot

43:53

of games. It is hard to be one

43:55

human being playing all of those games near

43:57

impossible.

43:58

So I say and so. I want to know hey

44:01

with this extra time off are there any games from? 2023 that

44:04

you will play and maybe want to catch up on first of

44:06

all when you say time off I don't know what the fuck you're talking

44:08

about. I have two kids No

44:13

mommy my backlog is I joke about it, but

44:15

I'm genuine It's it's it's a cause of real

44:17

frustration for me like I have a very

44:20

busy life And I have a two-year-old and you know my

44:22

wife does most of the heavy lifting and we have

44:24

you know Someone who comes and helps but like it's a lot

44:27

very rarely by the time I get to the end

44:29

of the day And it's like time to play a video game. I'm too fucking

44:31

tired. Yeah to play I

44:33

mean, I don't I'm telling why I am saying I'm so

44:36

thankful for certain games Vampire

44:39

survivors, I know that came out last year, but they actually got me

44:41

decided just kind of having a hard time Personally

44:44

at the start of this year and vampire survives and

44:46

Diablo 4 actually really helped me get through that

44:48

like video games are a Great distraction when

44:50

you want to forget about like any shit that's going on in

44:52

your life I Diablo 4 was my most

44:55

played game this year I don't have any hours.

44:57

I have him but way more than any other game. I really really

44:59

enjoyed

45:00

playing Diablo 4

45:01

And then spider-man 2 I've only got

45:03

like 10 hours in I

45:05

got to get back to it Alan wait Too I'm not even

45:07

had a chance to get to yet so many

45:09

games that I want to get to the idea

45:12

the backlog just keeps Growing and growing my

45:14

hope is over the holidays I will finally

45:16

be able to carve out some time to play some

45:18

play some games. I like that Gary yeah I

45:21

know it's always tough. You're moving a mile a minute.

45:23

I wish you had all the time in the world big dog You

45:25

know that's

45:25

Paris. What are you gonna play?

45:28

So I'm completely on the halo

45:30

train, so I'm not gonna stop And

45:32

I'm just a hundred percent like a big bit

45:35

to that So I'll definitely be playing a ton of that over

45:37

the break But you know two games

45:39

that I have not played that I want

45:42

to find time to jump in and play One

45:44

will shock you I'll save that to the last but Final

45:46

Fantasy 16. I do want to jump in

45:49

and start playing that And

45:53

Britt I hope you paying attention when I say this I'm

45:55

going to play Resident Evil for remake. Oh,

45:58

okay

45:59

What? I thought he was going to go with Yakuza. And ironically

46:02

enough, as controversial

46:04

as it may or may not have been that it was on the

46:06

game of the year list, that's what kind of pushed me over the

46:09

edge. I go with a remake with

46:11

that freaking good that you had people

46:13

vote to put it on the game of the year list,

46:16

whatever you may personally think that it deserves

46:18

to be there or not, that intrigued me enough

46:20

that you know what? I own this game, I need to play

46:23

it. Well here's the thing, Paris, it's

46:25

not controversial. No one's denied

46:27

that it's a great game, right? It's just because it's such a stacked

46:29

year, right? Exactly. It's like,

46:32

is this really one of the top five games?

46:33

Like again, we talked about this recently, like,

46:36

okay, if Resident Evil is going in,

46:38

what do you take out? Like there's too many games that

46:40

are deserving. It's really hard to come up with a short list

46:42

this year. Yeah, of course.

46:44

I like, Paris, have you played the other Resident

46:46

Evils before or have you ever played four before

46:48

this remake?

46:50

I've never played four. I mean, you know, I played

46:52

the original, obviously, Resident Evil 2, stuff like

46:54

that, but it's never been, you know,

46:56

in Brits, like we joke about it, but you heard her had a

46:58

serious talk about it. It just never grabbed me. So

47:01

I just, it's not when I see a new one, like, oh,

47:03

let me go play it. But this

47:06

one, this remake has got such high praise and

47:08

I'm like, you know what? Let me, let me just go check it out. I have

47:10

the game. Let me sit down and actually play it and

47:12

judge it for, you know, myself and go

47:14

from there. I think, yeah, I think because

47:16

Leo and I like to play games together. It like

47:19

generally, she'll

47:21

like, Resident Evil 2, she played it and I just

47:23

like watched, but I'm having, I'm just having fun. Like

47:25

I'm experiencing as well, even though I'm not driving

47:27

the controller, I'm still like experiencing

47:29

the game and all of the jump scares and all of the fun and the

47:31

atmosphere and the story and everything else over

47:34

the holidays. I think we're going to try to do that either with

47:36

Alan Wake 2, been waiting a little bit

47:38

on the, I literally spoke to Thomas at

47:41

the, from Remedy at the Golden Joysticks. I

47:43

said, should I jump in now or

47:45

should I wait for this audio patch? He said, he said,

47:47

he said, just wait until next week when the audio pattern, you'll be like

47:50

golden. I think that's now, I think that's

47:52

now out. I think the, there was an issue

47:54

with like some of the audio in the early part of the game

47:56

on the Xbox. I think they've now patched that. I've been

47:58

waiting for that.

47:59

So I think either Alan weight to a Resident Evil 4 might

48:02

be our

48:03

you know shared horror

48:04

Experience okay. I like that

48:07

one way too scary. Is it like legitimately

48:09

scary? Okay? Yeah, okay some

48:11

jump scares Someone who's not

48:13

a huge horror game guy like

48:15

I think Gary you and I are kind of a line where it's

48:17

like Maybe maybe not

48:19

a hundred percent, but like scary movies

48:22

I can hang with yeah, not you know That's

48:24

I I'm immersed, but I'm not so into

48:27

it right playing a video game a horror video

48:29

game That's happened to you. You're in that

48:31

yeah game to me games a good scary

48:33

game is scarier than a good scary movie

48:36

to me Yes, so I'm a big baby

48:38

When it comes to horror games

48:40

for sure Thankfully

48:43

Andy gets more attention for that so would you be

48:45

capable of barely if it was like for a charity thing

48:47

or something? Would you be capable of playing

48:49

a horror game like in a dark room all by

48:51

yourself with the lights off and then headphones on? Absolutely

48:54

not you couldn't do it. Yeah, I couldn't either It's

48:56

gonna sneak up on me at some point. Oh, yeah, but

48:58

I will say like

49:00

The vibes are bad in Alan Wake 2 But

49:04

it's still really good like at one point.

49:06

There is a sequence that I played Like

49:09

slight area spoilers where you're in kind

49:11

of like a train tunnel, and I played

49:13

that entire sequence I was like I think I'm done with this

49:15

game This sucks is too scary, but then

49:17

two days later and the back my brain I was like,

49:20

but it was kind of cool. That's why Alan Wake 2 has

49:22

me over a barrel It's a tricky month and begins as a

49:24

genre that I usually Will not

49:26

play course, but yeah, but a genre

49:29

aside It's clearly such an incredible example

49:31

of just video game crafts and shiv and artistry

49:34

that you have to play it I don't think I think

49:36

Gary is like you as a writer

49:38

especially I think you could get like just like

49:41

Appreciate a lot about what they're doing

49:43

for this game. I think even

49:46

having not beaten it I think this should be the

49:48

front-runner for best game

49:50

direction for this year at the game

49:52

Awards It's like the they directed the fuck

49:54

out of I think it's a shoo-in. I mean I haven't

49:57

not played it I think in one game direction

49:59

At the joysticks, I think Baldur's Gate 3

50:02

is gonna win most things But I think direction is something that feels

50:04

carved out for Alan Wake 2 And I got to the sequence

50:06

that everybody's talking about for Alan Wake 2

50:09

and like the scary stuff

50:11

Like

50:12

was all made worth it for that stuff

50:14

And I don't know it people people

50:16

post pictures is there a photo mode or something

50:18

because people post Or

50:20

maybe they're just screen grabs that people post pictures from

50:23

Alan Wake 2 like these moody images

50:26

And like I haven't seen a single one yet that I wouldn't

50:28

frame and put on a wall Like every frame

50:30

of that game is perfect. It's beautiful.

50:32

So So my thing is having

50:35

played it from start to finish. I Went

50:37

and I've talked about this before but I was

50:40

skeptical when it leading up to it

50:42

went to that preview event I was like, oh wait, this is gonna

50:44

be good playing that from start to finish.

50:47

Yeah, Baldur's Gate 3 is good

50:48

Honestly, it's gonna wind up winning damn

50:50

near everything for game of the year. But me personally,

50:53

it was my favorite game this year

50:55

I mean, that's just how good the narration

50:57

the story was everything about it To

51:00

your point I think the award it probably

51:03

will get is a is the direction war

51:05

award because I think the Luresgate

51:07

gets game of the year but Wouldn't

51:10

be sure

51:11

if it wind up winning It would be a

51:13

happy surprise in my opinion because I think this

51:16

was a master class. It really was it's funny I

51:18

don't get I don't get starstruck anymore because

51:20

I've been around too long I've you know

51:22

met everyone been everywhere done everything I'll

51:25

tell you this One of

51:27

the one of the few people I can think of right

51:30

now the only one that I can think of that I other

51:32

than Miyamoto who I was once

51:34

briefly next to and always had a heart attack

51:37

The only person that I in this industry

51:40

that I could meet and be genuinely kind of impressed

51:42

by and be a bit fanboy Sure out is Sam Lake

51:45

Sam Lake is who I want to be when I grow up.

51:47

He's a cool dude. I met him. I

51:49

Got to hang out with ya. Yeah, cool. Cool

51:52

dude. Cool, dude For

51:54

me it's Alan wake too and

51:56

it's also spending some time and

51:58

I finally released game for Xbox? It's

52:01

Arc Survival Ascended.

52:03

Of course, Gar if you know Arc Survival Evolved,

52:06

this is Arc Survival Ascended. Is this the one that has been

52:08

diesel in it? No, that's Arc 2. We're not there

52:10

yet. This is the Unreal Engine 5

52:13

makeover treatment for Arc Survival Evolved.

52:16

So it is finally now on Xbox. It dropped

52:18

yesterday. Me and my friends love the survival

52:20

games, whether it be Sons of the Forest,

52:23

whether it be Arc or Valheim. Any

52:25

of these games where you have a giant world, you

52:27

can put a lot of people in and you guys can

52:29

just create, explore, and

52:32

adventure with dinosaurs. It's beautiful.

52:34

This is one of those games I've always been aware of, but

52:36

I've never really investigated

52:38

or I've completely slept on this the whole

52:40

art thing. I cannot wait to lose

52:43

time to this game, especially now on Xbox.

52:45

This actually, this game before,

52:48

was the only time where I did another

52:50

dumb financial decision where I bought

52:53

a second Xbox Live Ultimate account

52:55

so then I could have a second Xbox running

52:57

the dedicated server so then my main Xbox

53:00

with my friends could play on the dedicated server.

53:03

It was a whole thing.

53:04

What kind of game is it? It's

53:06

a survival game. So those are you can craft

53:08

anything, build bases, you can also

53:10

befriend dinosaurs where you can ride them, tame

53:13

them. Is it one of those kind of games where I'm gonna get, I'm

53:15

running around for the first 10 hours trying to find two fucking

53:17

pieces of sticks to run together to make a fire? Because

53:20

I get frustrated very quickly with that game. Just a little bit.

53:22

Just a little bit. It's a little bit like that. It's a rust

53:24

vibe, but it is awesome to have

53:26

this now over on console. I know

53:28

it did take some time, Studio Wildcard working

53:30

through some of the issues and bugs. Now

53:33

it is officially out. So this is a game that I will

53:35

waste a lot of time and lose a lot of time to

53:37

and I can't wait for it. You know what I think might be a good

53:40

person to have in your

53:43

life, Mike, given that you have been known to make some

53:45

questionable financial decision.

53:47

You know how like when you have a trust fund for someone,

53:50

that someone is designated

53:53

to be like the executor of the trust.

53:56

So like for example, when my daughter

53:58

reaches a certain age, She'll

54:00

there's a trust fund assets

54:03

that become available to her Oh, you can't just spend

54:05

it willy-nilly There's someone that she has to like that

54:07

can approve what she can and can't spend money on She

54:10

can't just like go to Vegas and blow it all or whatever Yeah,

54:12

she wants to buy a car or a house or do something responsible.

54:14

That's fine But there's someone there

54:16

to make sure that she doesn't make stupid financial decisions

54:19

I wonder if you might bet if you could benefit from

54:21

having someone like to be my converter because

54:23

I'm as irresponsible as you

54:26

are responsible

54:28

person that could have you know

54:30

some kind of that would be there to like kind of just

54:33

you know, Check your financial

54:35

decisions. Well, you're like, hey Mike You don't need a second

54:37

Xbox live ultimate account because

54:40

just because you want to be able to run around in a video game Right

54:42

why do that right did it cuz I had to you

54:45

know, I mean I wanted to Parents, what

54:47

did you have for me? So you raised your hand a second? Oh,

54:49

no, I just before I forget Another

54:51

thing that happened this week was Bethesda

54:53

put up that update to starfield Oh,

54:56

yeah side. So now

54:58

you have what was it like some HDR

55:00

improvements? But the big one is DLSS

55:03

and the frame generation is

55:05

added to instead of having you FSR

55:07

to I believe So I did it because

55:10

I didn't have the steam version so I didn't jump in the beta But

55:12

on the Xbox app now that the update came out

55:14

I went in enabled it You know for my Nvidia

55:17

card and yeah, the performance increase

55:19

was great. I mean, I'm I'm

55:21

doing 4k ultra settings Now

55:26

I looked into that patch and I booted it up the other

55:28

day But what the one thing that they haven't added

55:30

yet, which they promised I'm presuming is coming in next

55:33

patch I hope is the super ultra wide monitor

55:35

support because that's what I want. Yeah, that's a monitor 32.9.

55:37

Oh

55:40

You'd be lost in the gal. Oh my god. Come on.

55:42

No going back guys. Let's end the show with a fun

55:44

one Shinobi 602 over

55:47

on Twitter reminded me of a fun

55:49

day today. It's a celebration It's 10

55:52

years ago today that the Xbox one

55:54

launched November 22nd 2013 it

55:57

is a console generation. We don't usually

56:00

like to talk about, we like to forget about, but there

56:02

was some moments that we had some fun with.

56:04

And so yeah, I just wanted to highlight this of November

56:07

22nd, 2013, 10 years ago, the Xbox

56:11

one, what a special time that was getting

56:13

bundled in with the Kinect, jumping

56:16

into rise son of Rome. What

56:18

a wild experience. And you know what, one that I

56:21

will always love thanks to Titanfall

56:23

one. That's the one game that I like to

56:25

look back on the Xbox one generation and go, man,

56:28

I

56:28

was living well with that Xbox

56:31

one and Titanfall number one. Is there any case to

56:33

be made for the Xbox one? Like

56:35

do you think at any point in history or be kind

56:37

of reassessed or revisited? Because my

56:40

personal opinion on it, and we've got some distance from it, is

56:42

that it was a, it was just an unmitigated

56:44

failure of a generation for Xbox. The

56:48

Kinect is one of the, I think we'll go down in history, is

56:50

one of the most ill-advised

56:53

bits in console history,

56:55

as was the, you know, one

56:58

box to rule them all, your entertainment, your

57:01

cables going to run through it. I think it was a good

57:03

idea in theory, but it didn't work.

57:05

And jacking up the price of the Xbox,

57:07

because you couldn't get it without the Kinect, right? It was bundled

57:10

in and that made it more expensive than the

57:12

PlayStation four. It

57:14

was just, what a flop. I just wonder if there's

57:16

like, are there any redeeming, Paris,

57:18

do you think there's anything redeeming to look back on the Xbox

57:21

one? Or was it just like all out, just best

57:24

left in the trash can of history?

57:26

I think the redeeming

57:28

factor of the Xbox one was that

57:31

was their generation of lessons learned of

57:33

things to not do. Moving forward,

57:35

it's got on their lesson. Yeah, it totally

57:38

is. But when you think about it, you know, from a more

57:40

positive standpoint, yeah,

57:43

the Kinect thing early on was a mistake. The price

57:45

was a mistake, but that

57:47

also spurred Xbox to then come

57:50

with the backwards compatibility program. Game

57:52

Pass was born out of this, right?

57:55

So yeah, they had some

57:57

missteps in there and obviously they

57:59

learned. that they needed more first-party

58:02

studios in-house to

58:04

rely on. So that was something else that came out

58:06

of this, that as we're in this generation,

58:08

you can look back and go, oh, well that started in

58:10

the Xbox One generation to get us to

58:12

where we are today. But I will tell the

58:15

story really, really quick to your point about Connect,

58:17

because I'm in agreement with you. You know,

58:19

the first time I ever got to speak

58:22

to Phil Spencer, Danny and I

58:24

had an interview with him in

58:27

E3 2014, he was less than a year on

58:29

the job at that point. And

58:31

I turned to him and I said, I do not

58:33

like Connect. And the reason that I gave

58:36

was the fact that you bundled

58:38

it in, which in theory sounds

58:40

smart because now you're assuring developers

58:43

that that camera is with

58:45

any game that you make,

58:48

but it was almost like premium

58:50

price because of Connect, because it was

58:52

a hundred dollars more in the pair of fours. To

58:55

me, that will always be the fundamental mistake

58:58

of the Xbox One at launch. Okay,

59:00

if you're going to include Connect, you better be giving

59:02

it away to the consumers in comparison

59:04

to your competition. So the fact that

59:06

PlayStation was able to undercut them by a hundred

59:09

dollars, it was doomed to fail right then

59:11

and there. And obviously they pivoted and

59:13

decoupled it, lowered the price of the Xbox

59:15

One. But at that point, unfortunately it was just

59:17

too late, I think.

59:20

It was an interesting technology. Yeah.

59:23

And people did find interesting ways to use it outside

59:25

of the Xbox. So they would plug it into a PC and do

59:27

kinds of interesting stuff with the

59:30

various sensors that were built into it. But it wasn't

59:33

ready for prime time. It wasn't, I

59:35

don't think it should have shipped. You remember the

59:37

demos where people, where the guy was like reacting

59:40

after the game did, remember just trying to land the space

59:42

in Star Wars and it didn't matter, you could tell it was the prerecorded

59:44

video and people could see it was fake. That was embarrassing.

59:47

It didn't work as advertised. I remember waving my

59:49

arms around trying to get down central to work.

59:51

Like, just give me a controller. This is the thing. I

59:54

remember being a kid's birthday party.

59:56

It was at my house and there was a bunch

59:59

of like kids.

59:59

that were the right age for something like that. And I can't

1:00:02

remember what it was. Maybe it was a Sesame Street game or

1:00:04

one of the other Kinect games that was meant to be the

1:00:07

kind of thing that kids play at a party.

1:00:09

And I set it up with them. There were seven or eight kids there. And

1:00:11

at one point one of them said, can we just play something with controllers,

1:00:13

please? And I remember thinking, that's it. It's

1:00:16

dead. And

1:00:18

so it proved. Maybe you should have shown

1:00:20

Connectimals.

1:00:21

Do you remember that? What, is

1:00:24

that the reality of Kinect and even the PlayStation

1:00:26

move? That was just basically Xbox

1:00:29

and PlayStation reacting to Nintendo with the Wii.

1:00:32

Because the Wii was such a smash hit. So

1:00:34

they thought, well, this is the way to go. PlayStation

1:00:36

move, another flop, right? Yeah, yeah. And

1:00:39

they pivoted obviously from it pretty quickly as

1:00:41

well. Footnote in history, stuff happens,

1:00:43

you learn from it. Just don't make the same mistakes

1:00:45

again. Yeah,

1:00:46

yeah. And here we are, three years in,

1:00:48

heading into year number four, right? We're looking at

1:00:50

it. One more thing, one more thing about the Xbox

1:00:53

One. If you, because I did this,

1:00:55

I don't know, probably two years ago or so. But I remember

1:00:57

going back

1:00:59

and watching that eat, that 2013

1:01:01

E3, forget the

1:01:04

price of it at the end. If you look

1:01:06

at the games that they had,

1:01:09

that they announced in that initial press conference

1:01:11

at the 2013 E3,

1:01:12

this pretty damn good, the winter three was debuted

1:01:14

there. As an example, Metal Gear Solid 4 was

1:01:17

debuted there.

1:01:18

They showed off Titanfall. There, that's what

1:01:20

closed the show. There

1:01:22

was nothing wrong with their showcase as far as from

1:01:25

a game standpoint. Rome,

1:01:27

the rise or whatever it was called, that was it. Rise of

1:01:30

Rome, baby, you could forget. Yeah, I believe

1:01:32

they did a sneak peek of

1:01:34

Sunset Overdrive at that showcase

1:01:36

as well. They had games. They

1:01:38

had some stuff that you were like, oh yeah, I wanna

1:01:40

go play this. I wanna check what it is. But

1:01:43

it was just

1:01:44

the price.

1:01:46

And then what PlayStation did right after.

1:01:48

I mean, that's like a footnote in history. That is

1:01:50

a day I will never forget being

1:01:52

at both of those showcases in person. I just,

1:01:55

the difference of the crowd reaction

1:01:57

where when Phil came out and said $500.

1:01:59

Everybody was like, and then you

1:02:02

know go a few hours later You hearing 400 for

1:02:05

the PlayStation 4 and that crowd just erupted

1:02:07

I mean that alone a hundred point a hundred plus

1:02:10

like you're connected better be something really special

1:02:12

if you get a jackup They think if you're gonna lose the price

1:02:14

and it wasn't I remember and I mean when

1:02:16

Phil was on the show He said something that I never thought about before I thought

1:02:18

was really interesting in terms of the long term

1:02:21

because it didn't just contact spots in that generation

1:02:23

They continue to pay for that failure When

1:02:26

he made the point about how like he said it was the

1:02:28

worst generation to lose because it was the first

1:02:30

generation where people Started to really buy games digitally

1:02:32

and build their digital library and once you

1:02:34

get embedded in a digital ecosystem Like

1:02:38

I'm like an app I'm an apple guy right because all

1:02:40

of my shits like in the Apple League it would be hard to move

1:02:42

it Would be a big hassle to move to like something else I

1:02:44

like if half your game libraries on Xbox or PlayStation

1:02:48

It's like well my stuff's over here already like I might

1:02:50

in other circumstances But no like I'm already

1:02:52

embedded in this system and that was

1:02:54

the generation where that started where people started to get

1:02:56

embedded more in PlayStation than in

1:02:59

Xbox and that is something that Microsoft is going to

1:03:01

be chasing to catch up with for

1:03:03

You know the rest of history

1:03:05

It is wild that we will always look back

1:03:07

on this anniversary and talk 11 years 15 years 20 years

1:03:10

It will always be a very similar conversation

1:03:13

of how the Xbox one just didn't land.

1:03:15

What is fun metric doing now?

1:03:18

I

1:03:19

don't know By the way, I said Metal Gear

1:03:21

Solid 4 I'm in 5. Oh, yeah, I

1:03:23

can see the comments already. It was 5 not 4 Guys

1:03:27

it is time to say goodbye and head into

1:03:29

the holiday break. I am very excited to

1:03:31

eat big I am thankful for both of you

1:03:34

for Baird and control and all of you watching and

1:03:36

listening out there Thank you for tuning in to

1:03:38

another episode of the kind of funny X cast. We

1:03:40

will be back week We'll be back next week

1:03:42

after Thanksgiving Heading in to the end

1:03:45

of the year and looking forward to 2024

1:03:47

with you here on the kind of funny

1:03:50

X cast We're bringing a whole lot of green into the kind

1:03:52

of funny studios And we're so happy to share it with

1:03:54

all of you on behalf of pairs Gary myself

1:03:57

and Barrett We are thankful for all of you. Have a

1:03:59

wonderful day

1:03:59

wonderful weekend.

1:04:00

Goodbye gamers.