R -E -S -P -E -C -P, not quite what Aretha Franklin
would say, but welcome to the very first edition
of Video Game Ramblings on the Respec podcast.
So hello, thanks for joining us. I'm joined today
by a very familiar face to me, and I hope some
of you guys as well, the lovely Tom Ori. It's
a great first. Am I lovely? Well, you can be.
Yeah, that's fair. Okay, I'll take it. That other
voice, that other face you see if you're on the
video version is Rebecca. And we all have something
in common, right? We do. Video games? Is it video
games? It is video games. Broadly? Yeah, broadly
speaking, yeah. We've all written about video
games together in the past at various places.
I think most prominently VG247, but also Eurogamer.
And we recently left that operation and we've
decided to do Shock Horror, a website about...
video games tom are we are we unhinged are we
unhinged i don't know i mean i spent a long time
trying to get out of games media literal months
just trying really hard and then i was like i
give up alex just let's just do it let's do it
let's go for it i love how the real life version
that you said to me was much more like i've decided
i still This is where my passion is. I still
want to do it. And the audience version you present
is, I give up. One could never possibly emote
that hard in front of a camera. It's all an act.
Everything is an act. And you've got to play
your role. My role is this kind of slightly helpless,
depressed, sad individual. Well, if you want
more of that, you've come to the right place.
And Rebecca, obviously you've recently just departed
VG247 a little bit after us. Yes. And you're
going to be one of the faces that is going to
be appearing here, which I'm really excited about.
Me too. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I don't know
how much I want to get into it. But yeah, I decided
that independent games media was where it was
at. I decided to be here instead. And thank you
for letting me, basically. I guess that's a good
segue, right? In the sense that why are we doing
this, right? Are we deranged? Well, I don't think
so. I mean, obviously, so folk will know, you
know, some people will know me from Eurogamer,
from VG247. Other people might know me as like
one of the regulars on VGC's podcast, which is
something that I foresee continuing. Like we
want to work with those guys quite a lot, I think,
and just... create a cool ecosystem because um
i've been inside the very very big corporately
owned games media machine and you know i won't
speak for you guys but where i stand on it is
there's there's loads to love about it resources
and support and being able to send an email and
get a problem fixed relatively quickly without
having to fix it yourself perhaps not too quickly
um But, you know, there's a power to independence
and I've been watching what other sites are doing
and it's really excited me. And also, obviously,
I've had the element of all the time I was working
in the big corporately owned games media for
ReadPop, for Ziff Davis, etc. I also remained
the co -owner of RPGsite. And so a lot of the
vision of Respec as I see it, and I'm sure Tom,
you may have. thoughts as well, but it's very
much about continuing some of the stuff we loved
doing on VG247, on Eurogamer, on Videogamer,
in your case, Tom. And I'm sure, well, I can
promise you're going to see familiar faces from
those places on the website bylines and on the
pod and stuff like that, on videos. But also,
I'm really proud of what RPGsite is. If you have
never visited before RPGsite .net, it's a...
what it says on the tin it's a role -playing
game website and i want to bring some of that
energy to a website that covers everything rather
than shuts itself out of half the games that
come out um so yeah that that's where i yeah
independent i think it's the way to go um i think
we need more of it i think as these big websites
lay more and more and more people off um the
best thing you can do is be an independent small
ship that does something uh really well and we
want to do a certain type of coverage really
well i don't know how you you feel tom no i think
that is it i think i mean we've both had years
working like you rpg site it's been around for
a long time i was a video gamer for 12 years
and like there's a different feel to those websites
than working for i mean as much as i love for
you 24 7 and you're a gamer and i was there for
nine years or so um There's just a feeling that
you can just be a bit scrappier, a bit more reactive,
a bit more kind of, let's do this thing. And
you have the idea in the morning and then you
launch it in the afternoon kind of thing, which
is very hard to do when there are multiple teams
working across every single idea. There are benefits
to that, obviously, but I think being able to
just do what we want, I guess, is the big thing
here. And just kind of... try to get back to
like why we kind of started doing this in the
first place like the reason i started a video
game website is because that's what i wanted
to do i wanted to write about video games right
and um as you stay doing a job for 20 years you
gradually do less and less of that thing and
do more and more of the stuff that you didn't
really want to be doing which is sorry for you
two but managing people like you two um so you
end up writing less playing less games talking
about games less and it's just more about like
the uh the numbers behind everything become the
more dominating factor and i'm sure like i'm
saying this now in a couple of months i'll be
like looking at google analytics in a depression
every night but um I think that what I want to
achieve with Respec is that feeling of like we
all are doing this. Yes, we do want to earn money
and have a living from this, but also because
we just enjoy doing it. I'm being wary of using
the word passion because passion is often abused
as a kind of like do something for free, which
is not what we're about at all. It's about that
feeling of like when I was a kid. i was obsessed
with reading about video games i used to buy
as many magazines as i could all my pocket money
all the money i earned from my little side jobs
and stuff on magazines if i couldn't afford them
i'd read them in smiths um and i'd just be like
take this magazine would be like other kids might
take stuff on holiday with them like i know like
you might take your comfort bear or something
i used to take official playstation magazine
with me and read it over and over again um So,
I mean, that's the kind of thing I'd like us
to get to is that feeling of like video games.
I mean, there's a lot of negativity around video
games rightly at the moment because things are
a bit of a mess. And a lot of stuff is happening
that is terrible, but I'd still like to be able
to celebrate the good side of it, which is games
are great, actually, when you ignore all the
other stuff, which is hard to do, obviously.
But it can be easy to get lost in the fact that
everything is terrible when actually some of
these things even like some of the stuff you
don't even know is released is actually really
great i know rebecca is big in the on the indie
side of things um so yeah i think there's a lot
to celebrate still without ignoring all the the
bad stuff should have really written a little
flyer for my podcast and just held it up at that
point that would have been yeah no plug plug
plug away yes please um podcast .co .uk We just
recorded episode 61, which is our mid -year check
-in. It's me and Liam Richardson and Rachel Watts,
who are also ex -Gamer Network people who are
awesome and even more talented, way more talented
than me and way funnier. So go listen to us talk
about indie games and get really sidetracked
every fortnight. Thank you. That's why I'm looking
forward to it, to be fair. Like having you joining
us, Rebecca, like, you know, so on RPGs, we love
a lost leader. you know because because because
so we you know in in too many to some degree
this is boring business stuff right but to some
degree you end up writing about so much about
final fantasy or persona or whatever Because
you want to, but also because that pays the bills
to write about some tiny Japanese indie that's
on Steam that is a really excellent genre piece
that no one's heard of. And I definitely want
to do a lot of that here. Yeah, I mean, that's,
you know, that's the sort of wonderful opportunity
that's kind of disappeared in sort of mainstream
games media over the last few years, even like
since I joined, what, seven years ago. That was
still kind of feasible. back in sort of 2020
2021 but now it's a lot more i mean i understand
why it has to be but a lot more results focused
a lot more numbers focused and yeah i mean i
i love specializing in all these stupid gacha
games that do ridiculous numbers but i also really
like to be able to talk about the one hour indie
that three people have played yeah i definitely
want to do a bunch of that i mean you know that
the whole idea of like you know um of Well, if
someone's got an hour to spare, they could spend
that hour writing about something that thousands
and thousands and thousands of people are going
to read that's less interesting or something
that perhaps less people are going to read, but
it's really going to interest those people. It's
always a difficult balance, but it speaks to
what Tom just said actually about, I mean, for
one time, you are my most enemy because I was
all about N64 magazine. I was never an IPM guy.
I used to buy that too. I was like, look, it's
just the one I remember because I had the issue
that had the official F1 game on the cover. and
as a kid i loved f1 don't know why but i loved
it it was on tv right um i used to look at the
screenshots in that and think this and go to
my mum look is this real or is this a is this
a game i used to do it all the time with games
like fifa on the mega dive look mum looks real
doesn't it and she's like yeah it does i mean
obviously now that that sounds ridiculous but
at the time that's what that's what you believe
right as a kid yeah it's i yeah i uh yeah i guess
i was a nintendo kid although the one i always
remember is the very first issue of um the official
dreamcast magazine and they clearly obviously
got us like now i'm in now now i've been in this
world for two decades more or less um i now understand
what probably happened there where they probably
literally had no assets for the cover and they
were like shit What do we put on the cover of
our very first issue? So they had like a model
posing where she represented the Dreamcast in
some ethereal way. And weirdly, that cover is
burned into my brain, even though it's just like
the most weird, esoteric thing. It's very much,
it's of an era and it instantly transports you
back to that era just to think about those, like
any sort of like game adverts as well with just
real people modeling in a very tenuous way. Yeah,
I mean, the ads, well, sometimes the ads, that
was a different, that was a different matter.
I mean, you know, that's one thing we won't be
able to do here. We won't be able to, I don't
think we've got the money to pay any models.
Or it'd be extremely cheap models. Or maybe we'll
just get YouTube. I was on a Bartlett's catalog
once. Oh, there you go then. So technically,
we can add model to your, to your resume. You
know, we can put that on the, on the site when
we, when. This is a pre -record, so the site
isn't live yet, but it will be when you hear
this. But we can add that to the opening post
to say, noted model, Butlin's model, Thomas Horry.
Can you remember the year? Because it looks really
good if you can put the year in. I want to say
1991. Wow. It was a long time ago. Is that Sonic
the Hedgehog 1 year? I think that's Sonic the
Hedgehog 1 year. It's just my hand as well. To
be clear, it was just my hand. Well, that's not.
Hand model. We get a lot of that. We used to
get a lot of those in video games because you
get, you know, people holding the Wii remotes
or whatever. These days, not so much. This speaks
to, you know, as you can probably tell, you can
expect some retro stuff from us. We do love a
little bit of a backwards looking name. Yeah.
Indeed. I mean, you probably see my in -progress
retro, mostly Sims shelf, but this is all retro
PC games. I can't go because it's quite small
on the thumbnail. But is that all like the old
big box Sims? Yeah, that's the whole top shelf
is the Sims 1 to 3. Next shelf is Sims 4, which
has fallen over, but also isn't complete because
they've gone all digital now. And then it's like
a bunch of random PC games all the way down.
And that's sad that you can't actually have a...
a complete sims collection anymore yeah well
i was buying codes in boxes but then i started
mostly getting them as review codes so also there's
like the trade -off of like i didn't actually
have to pay for a lot of them so it's a bit like
this shelf this shelf is like is is playstation
x playstation ps2 xbox ps1 game boy game boy
advanced ds but like there's just a tiny tiny
number of switch switch and switch two games
up there and a tiny tiny number of ps4 ps5 because
i have largely stopped which friends of mine
like you know um John Lennon on Digital Foundry
would tell me off because they're beating the
do not let physical die. Yeah, absolutely. I
mean, given the choice, I'll always buy physical.
Most of my console stuff's downstairs because
my partner is also a gamer. So it seems quite
unfair to steal it all and shove it in my office
when he might want it to. But yeah, absolutely.
Physical is where it's at. Love a limited run
on its emergence. Yes, shout out to those guys.
So what else are we going to say about this website?
I mean, you know, it's going to be, we want...
We want you guys to help us to shape it. Something
we're not doing is we're not doing like loads
and loads of paywalled content because my conclusion
is that times are pretty rough and pretty hard
economically for a lot of people right now. And
so, you know, some people just want to read about
video games and then maybe don't have the cash
to pay for that. However, people who do want
to support us, direct support really helps, you
know. the guys at vgc are very good at beating
that drum and um i shall try to be as uh to be
as brazen as they are with it said with love
by the way lads um but uh yeah you can you know
you'll be able to support us directly and there'll
be little bits and bobs but we want to have a
conversation with you guys about what this site
should be we've got some ideas you'll see features
and stuff which give a good idea of where we're
going with it but i suppose it's important to
say that bit and i suppose that's that's the
pitch for the site right and you can get on the
site and you'll hear more in future weeks on
the podcast about what we're doing and how you
can get involved and stuff like that and if you
were a fan back in the day of something that
we were involved with before whether that was
the websites whether that was something like
video 24 7 best games ever pod whether that was
the old video gamer shenanigans we should uh
we want to hear about what things you loved because
we want to consider how those things might be
transposed into the new royal purple respec era
um but i guess let's talk a little bit about
obviously this is a pre -record right and when
we're recording this we don't actually know launching
a website is a lot like you know that bit in
wallace and gromit the wrong trousers where gromit's
on the train and He's putting the track down
in front as the penguin chases him. I am currently
the grommet. And I suppose Tom, who he's keen
to get going, is the penguin. My nickname at
school was penguin. Okay, hang on. Let's take
this detour. Absolutely, no. I will not let this
continue. It's just because kids are mean, right?
And when I... I used to play football at break
and lunchtime in the playground. And it was claimed
that I ran like a penguin. Okay. That is it.
It's like arms to the side kind of style. Did
you? Deliberately. I don't know. I mean, I was
too focused on being brilliant at football to
notice. Fair enough. If it was your secret, then,
yeah. But, I mean, maybe. But deliberately now,
the amount of times I've run in the last... 10
years are like maybe once at sports day for my
son who wasn't watching um but i deliberately
make a big point about not having my arms down
to the side now like proper full -on like olympic
sprinting style that was it was a when i was
a child um you know when i was like nine ten
whatever um there was a period of time on the
playground where i absolutely did do the anime
slash sonic hands behind the back run because
i thought it made you know in my brain i was
like clearly it makes you faster um and this
was brought up in my uh in my best man speech
at my wedding and i have to say despite all the
other things they said about all the times i'd
got paralysically drunk and vomited everywhere
or whatever it was probably the most embarrassing
thing they said in the uh in the best man speech
and now i've just aired it on a podcast um So
there you go. I mean, that was a simpler time,
right? Now, these days, kids are doing the thing
from weapons, right? Where they run with the
arms to the side. Is that just the kids in weapons
or is that? Who let their kids watch weapons?
The amount of kids that are watching like stuff
you wouldn't believe. Right, yeah. As the only
one here who's not a parent, I defer to you entirely
on that one. I mean, my kids aren't. They're
like, are you old enough to watch? Are you 15?
No, you're not watching this then, are you? Very
strict. It's a slippery slope though, because
it's like my daughter's obsessed with K -pop
demon hunters. Of course she is. And she's obviously
not even at school yet. And that's a perfectly
appropriate film really for that age. But it
is all about, and I wasn't that bothered about
this, but I think it alarmed my wife a little
bit. It's obviously all about demons and killing
the demons. And so very quickly, she's then talking
about... I'm going to kill this. I'm going to
kill this demon. I'm going to kill that. I'm
going to kill the baddies. A lot of killing.
Yeah, you do want to be careful because I was
allowed to watch Buffy when I was around, like
maybe a little bit older than that, around that
age. And I grew up to be a games journalist.
So you want to keep an eye on that. But then
again, you know, a lot of six, seven year olds
or whatever are watching Doctor Who and watching
people get, well, not anymore, but were watching
people get exterminated or whatever. So I suppose
it's all the same. It's always been deemed family
appropriate, right? Yeah. Where does Doctor Who
get the pass? Doctor Who, The Predator, they're
basically the same in my mind. Well, that actually,
I would honestly, I stopped watching about five
years ago. I would start watching again if that
was the direction that they took with Doctor
Who in the next, if there's a next series. Maybe
Arnie should be the next. Let's start the petition.
Yeah, I can. Something really left field to launch
with the website, a petition. For that specific.
That's the big thing. About 15 years ago, websites
were all about campaigns. Campaigns to get stuff
happening. Like let's campaign to like reduce
the price of video games by three pounds in the
UK or get game to increase their trading prices.
Big campaign. I don't think that's going to work
anymore. Yeah, no, that's not going to happen,
but we could. Cast the next Doctor Who. I believe
in that. I could see Arnie. For me, it's Arnie
or it's Ben Starr. That's the options. There
you go. There's a plug. That's someone I'm sure
who will come and join us at some stage. Yeah,
it's... If you are famous and listening to this,
someone might be. Make sure you don't just...
It really bothers me when people do this, right?
And maybe you've done this, so I apologise, but
don't just like the post. on social media share
it properly yeah i don't i don't if you're just
a liker not a sharer i'm not i've got no time
for you you know that's uh i wouldn't say no
time we might want these people to give us something
if you're okay fine if you're paying us as well
fine do you remember that if you've made the
sensible switch to blue sky from the old awful
place then likes basically don't do anything
on blue sky so you do need to share on blue sky
exactly is that true i'm only on blue sky Me
too. I'm getting social media tips now. I'm only
on this guy. That's the limit of my knowledge.
Apart from when people shout at me about bugs
on the website and then I have to go on extra
reply from the brand account and go, we're trying
to fix it. Which, you know, you might be experiencing.
I'm sure I'll be experiencing some of that with
this website when it launches. Anyway, we should
probably talk a little bit about video games.
Like I say, this is a pre -record, but there
is some stuff. Oh crap, we have video games.
there is some stuff we can talk about one thing
i know i can talk about is um by the time this
goes out live certainly uh the embargo will have
lifted on starfox which i have been playing um
which i think is really good um it's really good
but it's in fact i'm dressed appropriately i
got a starfox t -shirt on which was not intentional
but there you go um but that probably speaks
to how much i like this franchise or some of
it um and starbucks 64 is probably it's certainly
in my top five games of all time um i think it's
amazing and so it's a tall order to remake this
game um and i guess what i'd say is there will
there'll be a review on the site by the time
this goes out but um i would sum it up as um
it's the best looking game ever released by nintendo
Now, there was a whole thing, obviously, this
wasn't technically developed by Nintendo, developed
by a US studio called Vellan Studios, and then
there was another... Did they do the... Not the
dodgeball game, like a multiplayer dodgeball
game. Is that them? I know they did some VR...
It was called, like, it was really good. My son
was obsessed with it. It was like a multiplayer
deathmatch dodgeball. No, they... I think it
was them. Let's, um... I've derailed this terribly.
No, it's a good... No, no, no. It's a good...
Let's find out. Knockout City. Knockout City.
That's it. Knockout City. It was really good
and it died because I think someone dropped support
and they just went independent and then it went
downhill. But it was a very good game. Well,
they did that Mario Kart as well. That was their
first brush for Nintendo. They did that crazy
Mario Kart where it was a physical kart you put
down and you raced it through your house. So
that was their first brush. um with nintendo
um so yeah so the velan and then the cut scenes
which are gorgeous as well was also done by us
studio called waterproof and they did sort of
like the cut scenes in mortal combat one and
and hogwarts legacy and things like that um it's
really good looking it's really cool i do really
like those character designs um now they've grown
on me um but there's challenges like the art
style um the feedback is much They made it less
gamey, I suppose, even though the game itself
is identical. And so the feedback the game gives
you is, I think, less potent than in the original.
To give the really obvious example of when you
do a barrel roll while a laser's hitting you
in the N64 game, it makes a very distinct sort
of noise of the lasers bouncing off. In this,
there isn't a noise like that at all. You know,
because I guess they've gone for this more grounded,
realistic look. Or similarly, like when you got
hit or when the bosses got hit, the vehicles
would like really heavily shake and flash bright
red, like arcade style. And all that sort of
gone, which that one actually has a weird consequence
because some of the bosses, it can be quite difficult
to tell if you're hitting them in the correct
space, in the correct place, because. When you
had that big, very visible feedback, it was really
obvious. And I was fine because I've played this
game hundreds of times. But I'm curious how someone
new is going to find it, if they're going to
find some of the bosses a little bit difficult
to initially puzzle out. But it's a really cool
remit. And let me just dispel as well, there
is no extra stuff. There is no hidden... extra
character no hidden star wolf campaign no extra
levels the multiplayer is completely different
so there is that and it is quite good um but
there's nothing new so you can dispel that thought
from your mind this is a one -to -one remake
the cut scenes are they are they new as in are
they is that there's new writing and stuff or
is it just exactly What was said previously?
No, it's new. It's new. It's been rewritten.
So before you started each level, you would have
like a briefing with General Pepper where it'd
just be like a static image of him where the
mouth would flap and a static image of Fox where
the mouth would flap. And they'd say one thing
to each other, maybe two things, and then it
would go to the mission. Now it's like... pepper's
on like a holograph table in the middle of the
common area of the great fox and the other guys
are like you know falco's getting something out
of the out of the fridge and chugging it while
while fox is talking and then you know the missions
get laid out the options when you've got more
than one option peppy will go well we could go
here we could go there they're not long um they're
probably like two to three minutes per level
but they're nice There's lots of little small
changes as well. So Star Fox Series 4 has this
thing going on. Obviously, you can take multiple
routes through the galaxy to get to the end.
And there's two versions of the final mission.
And then which one you do depends on whether
you get the true end or the normal fake end.
In the original game, you would roll credits
regardless of which you got. They've changed
that so you don't get credits on the easy route.
You only get a teaser which tells you that you
need to go. to do the harder route in order to
actually see the end of the story. So they've
changed things. And the story stuff is mixed.
I think the new voice cast is mostly great, but
it's just different, I guess. So a really good
example is there's a boss on Zone S, which is
like a polluted water planet. In the original
game, they give him a pirate voice and he's full
on, he's doing all that. And they just don't,
he doesn't have that in this. He's just more
of a generic bad guy. Or like the boss of Meteor,
halfway through that boss, he pretends to be
defeated. He pretends to surrender. And in the
original game, he sort of goes, you're no match
for me in this really like sarcastic voice. I
admit defeat. You can tell from the tone of his
voice that he's lying and he's going to do a
sneak attack on you. Whereas in this, they actually
turn this guy into quite a good actor where he's
like begging for his life with the line. It's
the same line, but the performance completely
switches it around. And it's like, it isn't one
that is specifically better, but you're going
to have a preference. And I think some of the
line reads for me, some of the line reads are
better. Some of them are worse. And Andross's
voice, I think is great in this game. But yeah,
I've really, really liked it. It's good. I don't
know if you guys have any particular questions
about it. Would you, if you were like, I'm going
to play through Star Fox 64, would you choose
to play through on the N64 version or this one?
Jury's out a little bit. What I'd say is this,
is I would, if it's casual play, I would choose
to play this. I've got, I'm going on holiday
in a few weeks and I'm quite looking forward
to like. I was like, I've got a two -hour flight,
and two hours is more or less two runs of Star
Fox if you skip all the cut scenes. And I was
like, I'm going to do two runs and see how high
a score I can get. However, if I was like seriously
score attacking, so this is actually, this is
the thing I suppose, important context to me,
is that I used to be super into this game. And
by which I mean like I literally... used to like
score attack it and had all the strats down and
all that sort of stuff and like would post scores
to websites that were like in the region of top
50 or 50 or 60 people in the world at scoring
in this game and if i was doing that i don't
know what it is i feel like somehow weirdly the
n64 version feels a little better i don't know
if that's because i miss the slowdown this is
beautiful silky frame rate but actually for a
score attack and stuff a bit of slowdown can
be quite nice i don't know if it's um the analog
stick on the switch to i really need to try and
play this with the nintendo 64 controller they
have for switch to should do that before i write
the review um but yeah so it's keep in mind i
guess they had a clear mission with this which
was that um they wanted to bring starfox to a
newer audience after the mario movie and stuff
like that and if you've never played one of these
games before or you've only tangentially played
it or maybe you played one of the newer crapper
ones like you had the misfortune to try and zero
on on wii u or whatever this is a perfect place
to just come in that's what i'd say fantastic
that was you've answered my questions really
already because yeah as someone who completely
missed starfox the first time around i was gonna
ask is this like a good place for me to start
but it sounds like that's a yes Yeah, it's good.
It's 100%. And I'm really curious because obviously
the rumors that revealed this game suggested
that there was another Star Fox game in development,
which also tallies with what I have heard. And
so I'm very curious about how quickly that will,
and that seems like it will be an original game
rather than a remake. So I'm very curious about
how quickly that might follow and what exactly
that game might be. Will it be... another rail
shooter? Will it be something more in the vein
of Star Fox Adventures, which is a bit of a Zelda
-like? Will it be something that sort of splits
the difference and does a bit of both? It's definitely
made me very excited for the future of the franchise.
And also, one other thing I'll say is, if Nintendo's
willing to do remakes like this, because I expect
Zelda might be a bit different, but if Nintendo's
willing to do remakes like this that are relatively
one -to -one, one has to wonder, like, are we
going to do F -Zero? Or, you know, Opens the
door for some old IP, I think. Punch out? You
could totally do those in this vein. This game,
like, Star Fox 64 was a very different era, right?
So, like you said, an hour to do a run -ish.
Is that how, for people hearing that and going,
40 quid or whatever, I don't know how much this
is, 40, 50 quid. What is the appeal of this?
Why are you getting your money's worth for this,
even though it is a short run game? So a run
is, how many levels is a run? A run is, I'm just
counting it in my brain. It would be one, two,
now I'm counting it out loud. One, two, three,
four, five, six. So a run is seven levels and
the game has like 16 levels, I think, off the
top of my head. Yeah, that's right. There's all
sorts of routes you can take through. There's
hidden paths to find. There's a difference between
mission complete and mission accomplished. So
if you do a level to the standard of mission
complete, you might be sent down one path. If
you do a level to the standard of mission accomplished,
you might be sent to another path. And also it's
an arcade style rail shooter. So the idea is
you do go through. over and over again and try
and get the high scores on levels try and score
medals on each level which is when you get a
certain score threshold which is relatively challenging
or in some cases very challenging to hit um so
there's a lot of replay value but you do have
to understand you are going to be replaying the
same some relatively samey stuff quite a lot
of times but that is sort of the beauty of it
it's a game that you want to master over time
and I wrote an article about this years and years
ago on VG247 saying like, and I think I wrote
it in the context of Star Fox as well, saying
like, it's time for everyone to admit that it's
okay for games to be short. Like, and I'm sure
you talked about this earlier, Rebecca, with
short indie games. 100%. Yeah. You'll never hear
me argue against short games. It's as long as
it needs to be. That's the important thing. Yeah.
Yeah. Like this doesn't outstage welcome. It's
fun. And actually when you finish a run, you're
going to finish it and go. I want to run through
that again. I want to see different levels. I
want to see different interactions. Oh, Pepe
got downed in that mission. I want to get through
that mission with him alive to see what he says
in the next mission, whatever, whatever. And
so you'll want to play it again. Whereas Star
Fox Zero was a game they paddied with loads of
crap in order to make it longer. And I finished
it and thought, I never want to play that again.
And so I think that's the difference. And I just
checked, sorry, it is actually, so on Amazon
right now, it's 42 quid, which I think is. pretty
reasonable to be fair um for what it is that
that's probably like i think i probably paid
70 for the n64 version back because it came with
the bloody did it always come with a rumble pack
yeah yeah yeah well i don't know maybe they released
it without after but i definitely had the the
the big box with the rumble pack in it i've still
got it somewhere um yeah it's it's it's it's
good um the rumble pack that needed batteries
for no reason so it's such a weird Do you know
that? It's true. No. I didn't know that. Well,
actually, it's not no reason. So I've actually
got a rumble pack, like a prototype rumble pack
that doesn't require a battery that I bought
off eBay years ago. But the reason the rumble
pack has a battery is because it would work with
one, with two, with three. But if you had four
controllers plugged into N64, all with battery
-free rumble packs, it would draw too much power
and it would damage the system. So that's the
only reason that they all have battery packs.
There's your fun retrofactor for the day. Sort
of a crazy, how much money did I spend on AAAs
for no reason? But yeah. What have you guys been
playing? Tom, would you like to go or shall I
jump in? I'm trying to think because when I had
my another midlife crisis without a job, I was
like... fuck video games i'm not touching them
for ages and i literally didn't play a game for
i don't know eight weeks or something and then
and then alex and me had the conversation i was
like please give me some work and then i started
playing so i played i played um pragmata which
i really enjoyed i played forza which is forza
good um i played um saros which again Like I
didn't, I could go on with a returnal because
it was just, just too hard. Like I couldn't dedicate
enough time for the amount of time I was doing
essentially nothing because I kept making no
progress. Whereas I think Saros, I think some
people don't like it as much because of this,
but I feel like progression in it is a lot easier.
So even though it is hard and I still am not
amazing at it, but it is a game that you can.
get somewhere with so I think if you are thinking
like Returnal wasn't for me as much like I see
why people love Returnal and I like playing it
in the moment like moment to moment it's a great
game to play but I don't like playing it in like
a I've put all this time into it and I've literally
got nowhere whereas Saros gets over that but
at the same time the story in Returnal even though
I didn't see all of it was far more interesting
like what they were doing with it was more in
game I wish I could have seen more of it rather
than looking at like youtube videos and stuff
um rosaros i didn't get that i didn't get the
same sort of desire to see where it was going
as much you you could see it because i could
progress better um yeah that's what i've been
playing mostly um and it's like yeah it's nice
to have games to play that like are good there's
a lot of good games around at the moment bit
of a lull june i think but i've obviously got
um starfox very soon or out now if you're listening
to this when it's been released but yeah i i
played a game recently that i i think it came
to switch or switch to it's called um parking
garage rally circuit or something like that but
it abbreviates to pgr um and it's it's like a
a retro style rally racer set in parking multi
-story parking garages i saw this it looks like
a saturn game doesn't it yeah and it's deliberately
styled like a saturn game you can obviously make
it look like a more modern sort of basic looking
pc game but it's much more interesting to look
at if you play it in like the low res wobbly
textures and all this kind of stuff and it looks
really authentic as much you can make those kind
of things look authentic on a modern display
or whatever um it's really fun like it just handles
like you expect an old school rally arcade game
to handle um and it's got a load of like far
more content than you'd get if you bought a sound
game like we've got three tracks whatever this
has got way more um there's a dlc pack out now
as well i think um it's really good and it's
cheap and it's fun and it nice soundtrack and
it just feels like that kind of you get a lot
of these like retro styled games that don't feel
exactly apart from the visuals, but this actually
feels like a proper, like if it'd been released
on the Saturn, you'd be like, yeah, it's a Saturn
game. Is it an indie? I forget who publishes
it. It's by like, what are they called? It's
not this, but something like Warble. Oh, okay.
Something like that. They made... Wallaber. Wallaber.
That's the one. That sounds Australian to me.
I can't remember if they made something really
like... notable like jelly car or something maybe
something like that jelly car worlds and replica
cube i played replica cube that was fun so yeah
it's um but i recommend it a lot if you're into
like arcade racing games it's i had it i've got
it on my steam deck it's the kind of game that
you just play and it works really works really
well yeah nice we I don't know. I feel like,
is there more to go or should I jump in? I'm
done. That's fair. Yeah, well, I kind of had
the great good fortune that the week off I had
between finishing at IGN and sort of starting
with Respec stuff was SGF week. So I, for the
first time in a long time, didn't have to pay
any attention or do anything for SGF. Took full
advantage of by not really watching any showcases,
except I watched Nintendo Direct because someone
told me Ace 27 was going to be announced and
I fell for it. It didn't happen. Maybe TGS. Feels
like it's time. Maybe. I've got a piece to go
up on the site about it. And honestly, I'm a
little bit terrified that between me writing
it and... the site going live, it will get announced
just to screw me over personally now that I've
made the whole point. Capcom like a show, man.
They like it. It feels like the sort of announcement
that maybe fits it because they're not going
to do the Game Awards, are they? The Game Awards
doesn't seem like they're at home for it, but
there'll be another Nintendo Direct in November,
I think. So there's a couple more opportunities.
I do kind of think that another Ace Attorney
game might be announced this year. I feel like
that it's around time now. Whether it will be
mainline or whether it will be a spin -off, I
don't know. On the topic of Capcom, I just want
to say I'm fascinated coming out of SGF because
I was really interested that they announced Monster
Hunter and Veronica, Resident Evil Veronica,
because Capcom always have something at the Game
Awards every year. That's a good point. What
could it be? I thought they'd announce Monster
Hunter at SGF and then have Veronica at the Game
Awards all the other way around. But now they've
blown both of those. I'm like, do you just have
a nice trailer for Monster Hunter or something
at the Game Awards? Or Veronica or whatever?
Or do they have another game up their sleeve?
And I was trying to think what it could be because
Ace Attorney is on that list. Maybe a Dead Rising
2 deluxe remaster. Yeah. I think we'll get another
remaster from them before we get a new Dead Rising.
I think they'll do DR2 because that one's so
beloved. So anyway, I'm curious. I've been thinking
about that a lot. My biases aside, I think that
Ace Attorney is more likely to show up at Gamescom
than at the Game Awards. I feel like that's more
of a... yeah oh yeah 100 % or like TGS like I
say yeah that's true it's just I know it's like
it's one of their top 10 franchises but it's
not in their top five I think so kind of in terms
of how they market them I think a mid -year announcement
for quite a rapid release is usually how they're
certainly with the um all the recent remasters
they've been doing it's sort of been like announced
a fairly prestigious showcase and then released
a couple of months later is kind of the rhythm
that they've got into largely with it so I definitely
feel like seven was announced so I definitely
feel like Seven was announced at TGS. I definitely
feel like that's what I remember. I really vividly
remember that trailer for Seven with the Seven's
cornered music in it, which was really good.
Oh, well, I'm just like super excited, but obviously
like it just keeps not happening to a hilarious
degree. So the funniest thing to do now would
be to announce it so that it really screws over
my launch coverage for Reese Bag. That would
be obviously good. Well, I hope not. Hopefully
not, but it would be quite funny. But in terms
of what I've been playing, I've taken the opportunity
to go back over the things I was excited for
earlier in the year that I've not really had
a chance to play because I've been too busy with
work. So I just finished Life is Strange Reunion
and I've started Dark Pictures Directive 8020,
which are very me games. Those are both franchises
that I have been deep into for a long, long time.
Life is Strange Reunion is like such a cursed
one to talk about in a lot of ways. I really
want to be generous, but honest. And I would
say that it's the one in the franchise I've enjoyed
the least. It's probably the first Life is Strange
game where I've got more bad things to say than
good. I think that the play for nostalgia was
misguided, but that the original stuff they're
doing is still really exciting. And I hope that
despite the last couple of games being a bit
divisive. To be generous. I hope that they get
funding to do more anthology style stuff like
they were doing with Life is Strange 2 and True
Colors because that I think is where it was always
more interesting. I don't think you can afford
to keep making the conclusion to Max and Chloe's
story every 10 years whenever you need to sort
of draw the original audience back in. Please,
please don't do it again in 10 years, please.
It's enough. Having them as pensioners. Oh, goodness.
Actually, I don't know. Maybe that, no, because
they would still act like teenagers, which is
one of the things that really bothered me in
Reunion is that they're meant to be like 30 years
old and they just have Max more so than Chloe,
I think, in the way that they're written, but
not really grown enough as people, in my opinion,
to sort of like, yeah, it was very, you liked
the teen romance, so they're still going to be.
teenagers when it comes to romance i'm like no
you're 30 stop being embarrassed like cringing
for you at this point like oh my god but it's
a shame because it really overshadows that that
the work that um deck nine who've taken over
from don't not obviously with the series are
they their new cast work you know the way that
they can build up a large ensemble with very
little run -up and make all those characters
that i really care about is so good and i think
that to see all those like you know a dozen or
so major characters overshadowed by like the
returning protagonists was a It was a real shame.
I've not played any of these games, but in my
head, I have played Mixtape, right? In my head,
they're like Mixtape. Are they like Mixtape?
I haven't played Mixtape yet, but from what I
understand, Mixtape is very much being given
the Life is Strange -like sort of label. which
I think you are now starting to see like smaller
indie takes on the sort of genre of this like,
oh, it's like quite a navel -gazy coming -of
-age story with like very nice music and sort
of like very pleasant graphics, but kind of some
hard -hitting emotional themes. That's like A
Life is Strange, right? It's been around for
11 years now as a franchise, so it's had time
to kind of spawn its own successes. I think so.
Is the difference between them that... Life is
Strange, especially when that first one came
out, it was really like of the moment. People
who were the same age as Max and Chloe saw themselves
in that game. Yeah. Whereas mixtape is more,
I think it's speaking to people right in Tom's
age in a weird way with this weird 90s nostalgia.
I don't know. Or is that speaking to young people?
I don't know. I really don't. I need to. I really
need to play Mixtape. That's kind of one of the
next things on my list of things to play. I'm
interested to see because I, you know, despite
my youthful appearance, we're actually quite
a similar age. So I'd be interested to see how
the 90s nostalgia of Mixtape kind of hits me.
I really like Mixtape. I know everyone loved
it. And then there was a wave of, actually, it's
not that good. Yeah, that was really, that discourse
was weird to follow as someone who hadn't gone
around to the game. I mean, I can't relate to
anyone in it, but I don't care. Like I can relate
to, I can. but i can see through their eyes how
they are experiencing the story i don't have
to relate to every single person it's something
i watch um that's definitely true like i just
i just like i enjoyed it it's a fun game with
a lot of like cool little moments in it and it
felt a bit like like it's it's a kind of like
if you go like this is a terrible comparison
but something like wario ware right where it's
a lot of mini games that are silly but make that
for people that are like into a bit more serious
stuff and it's like that's it feels like it's
just a it's like a a fun story about some teenagers
with some fairly interesting mini games and like
there's a bit where you just throw stones in
a lake and i probably did that about half an
hour yeah throwing these stones and you make
them bounce and you hit all the you can hit loads
of different stuff in this lake and it makes
something else pop up and i just i was like i'm
unemployed i might as well just do this all day
if i want i mean and it was fun and it's got
music in it that is good like i'm not like a
big music guy but it's got music that i recognize
some i didn't but it all sounded pretty good
it's got some music from the transformers movie
in it 10 out of 10 i mean what else do you need
i mean that is the question that is the question
i think came up with mixtape a lot is is the
idea of like is it meant to be nostalgia for
the audience or is it the devs enjoying their
own experience of nostalgia and then communicating
that to an audience so you know it's an invitation
to empathize without it needing to be your experience
which i strongly think i mean nobody can make
art without bringing their own perspective to
it right there's no there's no and there's no
expectation when i play life is strange like
i didn't grow up in washington you know i didn't
i don't have the amazing twin peaks like rural
mountain memories of childhood i'm from them
in leicester but you know that those the the
sort of like emotional core and and the ability
to empathize with the character and like the
invitation as well i think it's really interesting
that you mentioned the skipping stones minigame
like the invitation to do something quite contemplative
i would say is another big hallmark of this genre
of games and so yeah that that sounds like a
that sounds like a very life is strange like
to me i would say if you were looking to play
more in the same genre and you weren't sure where
to start particularly with life is strange if
you never played it Try The Awesome Adventures
of Captain Spirit. It's a free, short demo for
Life is Strange 2. I love it. It's one of my
favorite games in the series. It's adorable.
It's like two hours long. You play as a little
boy on a Saturday morning just trying to have
a Saturday morning slightly interrupted by superpowers
because that's what Life is Strange does. It's
a lovely game. Yeah, I'd give that a shot after
mixtape, I think, if you're looking for more.
Yes, and then, of course, Directivator 20, which
I've only got two chapters in, but I'm enjoying.
sci -fi horror it's weird that series isn't it
because i've i think like i think you said you
played all of those games i think i have as well
yeah and every time i'm like this is all right
but it's never like i'm all like i loved the
original until dawn right it was like and maybe
it's like of the time like it was it came like
slightly surprised that it was so good um but
i think back fondly on that and like as a really
like cool game that i really enjoyed playing
and then obviously these games sort of trying
to be like that but also not quite and they're
all like fine like i've enjoyed them mostly but
they've never quite been like i don't know what
it is but they haven't quite been as engaging
as that was and i can't really explain why maybe
you can because you are oh maybe i can maybe
i mean for me it's like one of the big complaints
i see about everything post until dawn is that
it's not really scary um and i was even though
i'm a big horror fan i'm kind of not playing
these games because i want to be scared i think
they occupy a different space in my brain um
and maybe it's the guides writer and me coming
back out because i just love the working out
all the paths i love the first run through the
story where you don't know what's going on you're
like playing a movie that you get to decide the
outcome that's just a nice one -off experience
but then for me going back and just trying on
and like really working out down to like this
point of like okay if i do this interaction five
hours later this will come up and the the sense
of accomplishment of kind of being able to deconstruct
A sort of narrative tree like that is something
that I really enjoy. And the character work,
again, I think is usually quite good. I think
they've come along quite a bit in how they kind
of write beyond this. Because until Dawn, they're
all like real stereotypes. And then they sort
of start to build into more interesting facets
of the characters as the game goes on. And I
think they've got a bit more confident and more
experienced in kind of fleshing out those characters.
So they're just entertaining to... to be around.
But yeah, with Directive H20 in particular, obviously
there's been like a huge break. The last dot
pictures game came out in 2022. So it's been,
I don't, I can't even do the maths on that. It's
just a different life entirely. Is that three
and a half years? Three and a half years maybe
since the last one. And they've clearly tried
to do a bit more broad appeal. They're kind of
leaning into the stealth section. I hate stealth.
Stealth is my least favorite thing to do in a
video game. Maybe, is it worse than dodge parrying?
It's hard to decide which is worse, but those
are the two. Those are just so bad. But yeah,
in terms of stealth, it's not like too punishing.
It's still very much focused on the story. But
all of these things that are massive pros for
me might be a massive... Like if you love a really
punishing stealth game and they've advertised
it on the stealth and then you play it and it's
really like stay behind cover and crouch and
they just never see you, then I can see why someone
would be like, well, this is kind of... This
is just another super massive narrative horror
game and you're either going to... gel with that
style at this point or you're not. I even like
the casting of Frank Stone which was their Dark
Pictures style Dead by Daylight tie -in game
which was quite divisive but I thought it was
really good. I just really like their style and
what they do. Hopefully it's really working for
those guys because like Maybe one of the reasons
there was the, because they literally did a game
a year, didn't they? Between like 2019 and 2022,
2023. They had a hugely ambitious plan that did
not come off at all, unfortunately. But also
then their publisher was Bandai Namco. And so
I don't know, but Directive is self -published
and I don't know, hopefully, that difference.
It'd be a question for Chris Drink to answer,
but hopefully that difference is giving them
the greater margins needed to take the pressure
off. Yes, I would be interested to see if season
two continues to be self -published, which it
probably will, because they kind of do them in
four game packets, right? And so they had the
four game deal with Bandai and then this one's
self -published. So I imagine that the next three,
fingers crossed that they can. pull those together
because I know that they were sort of like all
in development at the same time. Hopefully they
managed to get those out. But yeah, I'm interested
to see what they do with this season, especially
because now we've got an Until Dawn 2 that's
been enhanced that's not anything to do with
Supermassive. Which looks terrible. It looks
awful. It does, but I'm so excited. I mean, I
was just, I appreciate that it was just a trailer,
but it looked, for what is a Sony, it is a Sony
published game, right? Yeah, because Sony still
has the license to Until Dawn. It looked so...
cheap like i can't i mean that that's just a
bit judgy but i know maybe it's going to look
a bit trashy or whatever because of the setting
and everything else but it just looked like in
a showcase it had quite a lot of good looking
stuff in it it just looked a bit naff which i
was surprised by because the first game looked
for the time like cutting edge right it looked
proper good partly i think it's the choice of
like making it visually the the opposite of the
original until dawn which was all at night like
the darkness was part and i think that that covered
a lot of sins especially in the original The
2015 original, where it was all like the very
blue light filter and a lot of darkness. And
they've gone daylight horror with this one, clearly.
So like, you've got to be ready to bring a lot
more literally very visual scares to that. I
think, yeah, I do see what you're saying about
the trailer. I mean, I was just like, it looks,
I can't in all honesty say it looks any good,
but I am excited for it just because. I like
the premise. I like the idea of faking paranormal
guys, like a Derek Okora type, getting blown
up by something really horrifying happening.
That's what I'd say. Especially with Neil Newborn
in the cast as well, so you know it's going to
be fun. It could be like terrible, but there's
going to be some charm to it, for sure. I mean,
for me, even though I know the quarry was the
real Until Dawn 2 by the real... you know, like
the team that actually made Until Dawn and it
was pitched that way and then it was rejected.
So they changed the title basically, but still
made The Quarry. I'm there just at least, let
me have one thing where I'm just there for the
brand name, even though I know it's kind of a
tacky sideways move and just play it day one,
enjoy it for hell. Maybe it will be pleasantly
surprised. It's still got some time, I think,
left. It's next year, right? So they got half
a year at least to kind of put the shine on it.
Have you seen the movie? Yes. Until Dawn movie.
It's awful. Spoilers, spoilers. But I mean, if
you haven't watched it, this is going to save
you having to watch it. But the bit I didn't
get was how, why they just decided to make everyone
explode all the time. I thought that was the
best part because it was so stupid. It was so
stupid. It was so dumb. And it's weird for me
because I was watching, as part of my unemployed
watching films all day phase, I watched that
and I also watched a better film, which... abigail
which i think is like which is the the ballerina
vampire girl and that also has quite a lot of
exploding in it bizarrely and i also watched
a completely different film in terms of style
but it's i can't it's called it was it's about
teenagers and they suddenly start exploding i
can't remember it feels like i should have seen
that but i can't it was like it's like a very
dark comedy and i think it was like And then
suddenly they're in this classroom and someone
just explodes. And then gradually other kids
start exploding. All right. If you do find out
what that's called, please tell me because I
want to watch that now. It's called, I want to
say something like combustion, but it's not combustion.
It's like a word like that that means exploding,
I think. But the bizarre thing was, I watched
all three of these films within like a couple
of days because when you don't have a job, you
could watch the surprise of a lot of films. And
they all heavily featured exploding people. Exploding
teenagers. I didn't deliberately go out of my
way to do this, but that's just what happens.
The only exploding teenager movie I want to watch
is Battle Royale. Even though it did give us
Fortnite. I just read the book. I just read the
book, but I haven't seen the film yet. You haven't
seen the film? I haven't seen the film. I read
the book. I do think the film is actually, it's
one of those rare occasions where the film be
like. I can see that I liked the book, but it
was quite slow going. I can see how picking up
the pace for a feature film might improve things.
But yeah, I do definitely need to watch it now
that I've finished the book. But yeah, the Until
Dawn movie, the thing about me is, unashamedly,
I kind of love everything. If it's got anything
to do with something I love, I'm on board. So
to have not hooked me for the Until Dawn film,
I was like, this is low. That's how you know
you've screwed it. Yeah, that's how you know
you've dropped the ball. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
it was not great. And I'm a little bit worried
that the attempt to bring the film into the universe
of the original game will then tie into the second
game in a way that I will be sat there like grimly
disapproving of. Maybe because the film totally
bombed, that won't be. Maybe they're, I hope
they're wiser. Yeah, I mean, it's like, I don't
know. It just doesn't, I'm not going in with
like the idea that, oh my God, this needs to
be canon and this needs to be like a perfect
follow. I'm just going to go and enjoy it because
like I say, Neil Newborn, always a delight. It's
got a bit of a just cause sort of thing going.
I'm kind of interested, like you say, in the
setting and the premise looks fun. Whether they
can stick the landing, that's why you play it,
right, to find out. Yeah, and relatively new
studio, right? So it'll be interesting to see.
This is their first game on their own. I need
to look into the studio a bit because I know
that when the Until Dawn remaster came out, Ballistic
Moon was formed from a lot of ex -Supermassive
devs. And I'd be interested to know whether this...
So this studio, they did that Horizon game. They
did that Horizon VR game. Yes, I looked into
it the other day, actually. They have done a
lot of VR stuff. They've done a lot of Vita stuff,
but this is their first sort of... It's still
them taking an existing IP, but it's their first
time developing specifically for home consoles.
So that'll be an interesting... It's kind of
a bigger scope for them than I think they've
had in the past. But I'd be interested to know
if anyone formerly of Supermassive has joined
the project, because I don't know that at this
point. Because that could, but then again, people
really were like slating the remaster and I was,
it's the same people with a different name. I
don't know. I don't know. I think it aged less
well. And also the remaster, as I recall it,
I mean a long time, like suffocated a lot of
the atmosphere and stuff with the lighting changes
and stuff. Yeah. I mean, it's fine. I reviewed
it for VG at the time and I think they're both.
perfectly respectable versions of this story
and really it's it's like a matter of aesthetics
really as to which she prefers there are some
things that i thought were better in the original
there are some things i thought were better in
the remaster it wasn't a huge difference in my
opinion play both if you can would be my just
my feeling about it because they're both pretty
good so yeah Right. We're coming up on an hour
now, so we should probably let people go. I want
to give one more quick shout out to something
I've been playing because I talked about something
I've been reviewing, which I've loved. But there's
a Battlestar Galactica game on Steam, Battlestar
Galactica Scattered Hopes, which is, I mean,
it's technically indie because the studio behind
it, Alt Shift, is an indie. They did the also
really good strategy game Crying Sons. a couple
of years ago, more, five years ago. But it's
published by Dot Emu. So how indie can something
published by this giant corporation be? It's
Dad the Diver all over again. But I just want
to give a shout out. And also it's a licensed
IP, right? But I want to give a shout out to
it because it is absolutely excellent where it's
just, it is part FTL, part adventure, choose
your own adventure, story branching game. uses
the IP really well. You know, you're jumping
from system to system. The pressure is constant,
constantly ratchets up in a very similar way
to FTL. But then you've got these characters
you're getting to know. And if you know anything
about the Bachelor Galactica TV series, the reboot
version, a big element of it is the Cylons are
among the humans and they don't know actually
anyone could be a Cylon. And so that's an element
in this as well, where as well as fighting all
the fires, you naturally fight on your ship.
you are fighting fires of that we're fighting
literal fires that have been set by the hidden
Cylons and you're trying this so there's also
like a detective game element in there where
you're looking at clues and stuff to try to figure
out who the Cylon is it's really good I think
it's also really difficult it's proper nails
initially and then a lot like FTL as you unlock
more stuff and get more knowledge um it becomes
more manageable but i i've really really really
enjoyed it and it's something that assignments
pushed me off it came out um sort of about a
little over a month ago like around the second
week of may and so i quite quickly got pulled
off it to go and do bond which is also excellent
but i can't wait to play more of that and i just
want to recommend it to people because it is
mint Sounds rad as hell. Also, somewhere Jim
Trinker's neurons just activated and he won't
know why until he watches this podcast, which
you better do. But yes, so thank you everyone
for listening. This is a first little run out
and we've had everything from Impressions on
Games to Tom in Butland's catalogues to Arnold
Schwarzenegger as Doctor Who and beyond. So I
think that sort of sets the tone. So thank you
guys. I don't know if you guys want to say goodbye
to the people? I went really high pitch there.
We'll say bye. I think we should also point out
the patron page. Yes. It's got to be business
at some point. We do. I don't know what the URL
is, so I'll leave that to you. I'm looking it
up as we speak. This is the problem with having
a website that isn't launched yet. I'm pretty
sure it is just... I'm scrolling up the chat.
I'm stalling. I'm stalling. I'm in the wrong
chat. That doesn't help. It is... I'm pretty
sure it's patreon .com forward slash respecnet,
N -E -T, because the URL of the website is respec
.net. And if it isn't that, then it's going to
404 and you will find out next week. Because
I can't find it. We are so organized. This is
the beauty of being independent. They would never
have allowed this sort of stupidity at a big
brand. Well, they didn't allow it in the end.
True. Sure enough. Right. That's it. One note
to end on. Yeah, one note to end on. It's just
the pure incompetence. We will see you all next
week from whenever this is released. And once
we're no longer on pre -records, we'll actually
have some current affairs video games to talk
about, which based on what's been happening the
week that we're recording this, is probably going
to be grim as hell, but we'll cross that bridge
when we come to it. Until next time, everyone.
Bye -bye.