100th Episode Special, Indie Mania, and VR's Future | Game Junction Podcast

Celebrating our 100th episode of The Game Junction Podcast is an emotional rollercoaster! From the thrill of the fall season packed with new game releases to the heartwarming dedication of Mike Odyssey in organizing Indie Mania, this episode is a testament to persistence and passion. We dive into the importance of indie games in shaking up an industry often monopolized by AAA titles and discuss some of the more disheartening trends, such as microtransactions and exploitative practices.

Have you ever wondered about the broader implications of delisted games like Flappy Bird or the impact of significant layoffs at major gaming companies? And let's not forget the exciting gossip—Tony Hawk teasing an anniversary plan for his series and the potential new VR experiences that could redefine how we play. From the return of Flappy Bird to the future of PlayStation VR, there's a lot to look forward to and discuss.

We also share personal anecdotes about our journey as content creators, the highs and lows of transitioning to YouTube full-time, and the importance of continuous learning. Whether it's

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Chapters

• 0:00 Celebrating Episode 100
• 7:41 Importance of Indie Games in Gaming
• 17:58 The Dangers of Polarization and Consumerism
• 21:37 Revived Tony Hawk and Flappy Bird
• 26:38 The Impact of Delisted Games
• 40:40 The Future of VR Gaming
• 53:43 Xbox Layoffs and Annapurna Departure
• 58:11 Discussion on Gaming Industry Trends
• 1:10:33 Harry Potter Franchise and VR Upgrades
• 1:27:09 The Future of PlayStation VR
• 1:35:06 Favorite Horror Games Discussion
• 1:51:05 Gaming News and Horror Game Picks
• 1:56:22 PlayStation 5 Pro Discussion
• 2:06:19 PlayStation 5 Launch Day Experiences
• 2:16:26 Gaming Projectors and Industry Challenges
• 2:31:38 Favorite Physical Games and Nostalgia
• 2:41:49 Transition to YouTube and Video Games
• 2:55:03 Learning Video Editing and Content Creation
• 3:01:49 Upcoming Game Reviews and Excitement

Transcript

Brandon Hurles: 0:00

What is up everyone? Welcome back to the Game Junction Podcast. We are here for episode 100. Holy cow, it's hard to believe, man. It almost brings tears to my eyes. Episode 100. How are you doing this week, Thunderstache Gaming?

ThunderStash Gaming: 0:19

I think I talked about it on the last podcast that we're getting into busy season for for everything. Yeah, you know it's all coming together. This is that time of the year starts to cool down, fall starts to uh make its way in, and then you got all the games coming out, you got the sports, kids are back in school and it's, it's the sprint. It feels like to the finish line, right to the end of the year. It feels like a sprint and it really does right right and the rest of the year.

ThunderStash Gaming: 0:56

You know, sometimes they're slower than others, but once we get into september, end of august, september, it just feels like a straight sprint. So yeah, super busy, a lot of fun stuff. And again, congratulations on 100 episodes. It's uh, you know, I what I see a lot is podcasts don't last that long. People usually crap out a lot earlier, you know. Maybe it doesn't take off. So they say you know what, I'm not gonna do it because nobody can find my podcast, or nobody watches it, or this, or that. There's a million excuses in the book that everyone can use, and not to say that none of them are valid. But the thing is is persistence. You got to stick with it and your persistence has now paid off. You're at 100 episodes, so congratulations thank you, I appreciate that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:50

Yeah, I mean that that is the truth. Um, you know, I've spoke about it on the podcast many times. There. There are going to be times where it feels like who am I doing this for? Nobody's watching this, nobody's listening to this.

Brandon Hurles: 2:03

Yeah, the thing is, is that you, you just have to keep doing it. You, you find that strive, you know, like we started collecting, you know a lot of audio listeners and, like you just never know what's going to happen. Um, you know, you try different platforms, you try different techniques with the podcasting, different formats. Um, you know, because, like we, you know, we do new stuff but also, like we like to do topical stuff, and there are podcasts where they have one question for the whole podcast and they answer that one question, you know, and that's, that's the podcast, and so, like, there's so many ways that you can do podcasting and obviously there's the podcasting in person, which I've also have a podcast that's on hiatus that I've done that with and it's it's fun. It's fun to, uh, podcast a person. It's also fun to podcast to people all over the world, you know, and, um, I think, I think it's one of those things where it's just like consistency, man, consistency, you got to keep up with it, you got to be doing it.

Brandon Hurles: 3:07

If you have a scheduled time that you're doing it, you got to do it. That scheduled time, no excuses. I mean I you know not saying I'm you know anything, but like I've gone through, I've had COVID four times on this podcast and made it through when I felt deathly sick, and you know you, just you got to do what you got to do to make things work. And you know it is a lot of I hate to say it that way, but there is a lot of excuses that people use, for you know why their thing isn't working, or why why don't people watch my videos. Or you know why is nobody watching this podcast. Well, nobody has to watch your podcast. You need to give them a reason to watch your podcast. You need to give them a reason to be entertained or to laugh or to feel emotional or whatever, or nostalgic or whatever it might be. You got to give them that reason. They don't have to do anything, you know there's a hundred percent.

Brandon Hurles: 4:07

That's, that's just the truth. And, uh, you just got to keep doing it, man. Um, you know, no matter what issues come about, you know there might be problems that come about through. Uh, whatever you're doing, you never know like real life things happen and it will impact your content or whatever. But you still gotta, you still gotta ride through it, man, you just gotta, just gotta do it. So, uh, that's kind of, uh, amen, how I feel about that. But, um, yeah, so we've been, uh, we, we're gonna get, just gonna be all over the place on this podcast. This is gonna be a little bit different than when you've been on before. So we are going to cover the news, obviously, uh, but I do want to go ahead and just bring up first because we've been doing it two days in a row and we're doing it again as of this recording tomorrow um, indie mania. So I want to go ahead and just out front, talk, talk about that and, um, what's, what's your thoughts been with, uh, indie mania this year?

ThunderStash Gaming: 5:04

Well, it's its first year and I would say that you can't really tell that it's the first year because it's been a really polished performance by Mike Odyssey and Paul Gale Network. They've done a great job and you know, this has been Mike Odyssey's baby for three years. He's been working on this. This is something that he's wanted to do and he had some hurdles he told me about along the way and again he had scenarios where, like, things came up where a lot of people would have probably said, okay, I'm going to walk away, maybe this isn't what I'm supposed to do. You know, maybe this is a sign that I'm not supposed to do this, but he didn't take it that way. He. He just continued to push forward and break some walls down and and so I got. I'm very proud of them. I got a lot of respect for them in that manner. They did a great job.

ThunderStash Gaming: 6:07

Now, more importantly, or the things that you guys are probably excited about, that's a little bit of the backstory. So you got some really good dudes behind it, but, yes, a lot of great games being shown for the first time, and they're all indie games. So the smaller developers not not the, not the companies pushing out the huge triple a games with, uh, microtransactions at every corner and battle passes and all this stuff. You know it's the smaller studios and we've seen some really, really interesting stuff. There is a game that I just can't get out of my head that we saw yesterday called Rough and the Riverside. When I say rough, it's spelled like a dog barking. You know, rough R-U-F-F, rough on the Riverside and I swear to you it looks like a Banjo-Kazooie kind of game right.

Brandon Hurles: 7:04

Love it. Yeah, I love that style of game. I I had the same vibes and it's stuck in my head as well, so I I'm definitely looking forward to that one yeah, so the gameplay looks like great, right, but I think the other thing that really sticks with you is the.

ThunderStash Gaming: 7:21

It's not just the, the unique art style, but also the animation of the characters, like the way they move. It gives me almost like stop stop motion vibe. Yeah, but but modern, modern day that's a good way to put it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 7:37

Yeah, it's just, it's not like something I've seen before. And when you're like Brandon and I and chat, when you're like I'm sure you you've seen so many video games throughout the years and when you see something different, it's a rare thing, yep, and if it's different in a good way, it's gonna stick with you. So you're like, okay, I got. I gotta have this game on my radar, because it's rare to be following video games for 35 years and to see something that looks different in a really good way. So that was exciting. Uh, there was a, a handful of really cool games I mean at least at least 10 to 15 games that I would be really interested in playing so far and we still got another day.

Brandon Hurles: 8:34

Yeah, that's so I had and of course I have it over there I I actually had a list of some of the games that were looked interested, interesting to me, uh, and it was a lot of them there. There was a lot of them that looked super interesting and like very intriguing and also just like it. They felt like video games. Just watching them it felt like video games. Yeah, you know not, not these trip. You know not, I'm not hating on all AAA games or anything like that, but we know how this industry is right now. It doesn't feel like that. It feels like fun video games that we had back in the day. It can be. You know, these indie games can, you know, look perfect and look like a modern day game and, you know, still be better than like a triple A game, because it feels more like a video game. It just does Like. That's the thing About indie developers is that Most of them love video games. That's why they're in it, so that's why they do.

ThunderStash Gaming: 9:41

I think a big thing of it is Is that they don't have telling them how to make a game and what needs to be included in said game. To, you know, appease all the people in the world and to make sure everyone feels OK playing this game, feels okay playing this game, and you know we need to include this now and then this and before you know it, the, the foundation that was initially laid with all with the idea for this game has went and transformed into something entirely different because too many people in the boardroom are trying to tell the people who actually make the games what they need to do to make this game. Yes, and we've seen this in corporate. Anyone who's worked in corporate America, how many times have you had corporate visit? And they have no clue how to do your job.

ThunderStash Gaming: 10:43

They have zero clue how to do your job. They have zero clue whatsoever, and you know for a fact that if you got up and left right now, they could not sit in your chair or stand up and do your job. They would have no clue. Yet they want to critique possibly and I worked in corporate for almost 20 years to critique possibly, and I worked in corporate for almost 20 years. I was the complete opposite of that, because I worked every position. I got promoted to every single position. I worked 11 positions at the mortgage company, and so I saw everything, I did everything and I could train everyone on everything.

ThunderStash Gaming: 11:27

But a lot of the people that I did work with, you know, like other other people in corporate management, they had no clue, man. They had no clue. But they, they want to run their mouths and say this and that about people it's like yeah, yeah, well, have you tried doing it? It's not easy, it's not an easy job, man. And so I, I I know the same thing happens in video games, guys. I know it for a fact and it's sad it is but thankfully we have indies and we need them.

ThunderStash Gaming: 12:03

We really need them because with without them, I think the gaming industry doesn't grow as much as it has, and I think it would become stale I agree, yeah, yeah so it's very key, and so I'm a big believer in indie games. I know you are, and I think it's probably for a lot of the same reasons. Not only that, but I mean I enjoyed the indie games, that's. I think that's a given, though, but they're very important. Yeah, we need them. We really do, and especially nowadays Because AAA developers are.

Brandon Hurles: 12:43

Dropping the ball left and right. They really are. I mean they tarnished the thing that I love. That's how I feel. I mean they have truly tarnished one of my many passions, but one that I'm very passionate about. It just feels like this is how it feels to me. It feels like they've thrown gamers in the trash can and now it's just dollar signs that they're looking at. They're not looking at people anymore, and we know that obviously all these companies need to make money right to survive, but it feels like they don't target gamers anymore. They're just targeting making money, Like that's all it is. It just feels like uh, these micro transactions, even though a game is 70 with you know stuff, that it just feels like you know. Obviously we went through all the the sort of loot box gambling stuff that was going on for a long time.

ThunderStash Gaming: 13:41

it still is going on it's a lot of trickery and it's a lot of psychology that they're using. It is. I've read up on it, I've watched videos on what they do, I've looked at some of their trainings and it's disgusting. So they take advantage. You know they take advantage of a lot of people and on the other on the other side of the coin, though, people got to wise up too. They do Vote with your wallet. If you don't want to see this anymore, then don't give them your money and things will change. But they know they can take advantage and they do, and you could say a lot of businesses do that, a lot of these big corporations, and that's a lot of what we have nowadays.

ThunderStash Gaming: 14:25

The brick and mortar is, it's going to the wayside in the same way. Physical is in the same way that, back in the day, you go to the mall on a friday, friday night, a saturday, and everybody's there. Now we don't even have malls. You know what I'm saying. Like, things have changed, and I I miss those days, but a lot of things have changed. When it comes to, like video games, I feel like that was the last thing to get infiltrated, because I saw tv get infiltrated with government and politics and everything else. I saw hollywood with the movies, yeah. So I saw tv go way downhill and it all started with the reality tv.

ThunderStash Gaming: 15:14

Horse shit, because it's that's not real, obviously they tried to act like it was yeah, it all started with reality tv and, um, you know the the moral decline of society through tv. Then it was hollywood with the movies. Not only that, but just the constant remakes, no new ideas or anything like that. Uh, music took a huge hit. Like I stopped listening to new music decades ago. Obviously I listen to video game music when I play games, but I listen to the oldies stations 60s, 70s, 80s, some 90s but really after that there's not a lot of great stuff in my opinion from the things I've heard, so I tuned out of that.

Brandon Hurles: 15:56

Yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 15:57

And then, sadly, sports has been infiltrated now with politics and everything else that none of us want. And I thought you know I still got that one, that one place right, that one safe house, the safe haven, video games right, like it'll never come here, right. And then, sure enough, things are changing there too, but thankfully we all have probably a massive backlog. Yeah, so if they need, like you said, if everything needs to burn down so it can be rebuilt, right, I think we'd have enough games to hold us over while it's burning down, right, yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 16:44

Yeah, no, I mean and I say that and I truly do mean that I think it just needs to, it needs a reset. I think there needs to be a reset. I mean, like we're never going to have the video game crash like the actual video game crash, it's never going to happen, but it really needs to have like a a at least a soft reset. Or these companies, they, they go, they hold back and and they talk in their board meetings like, okay, hey, we're doing this wrong. Let's get some young guys in there that are gamers, right, like, people that are into entertainment, and like, hey, we want to satisfy these people and we want them to continue to buy from our company and continue to trust our company with our video games. And we don't want to throw politics into every video game, because that's the other problem. Right, like, and I, I'm, I'm like down the middle, I, I hate politics to begin with and I just don't like all the crap.

Brandon Hurles: 17:44

I don't like all the crap being thrown in, though I don't need stuff shoved in my face. I don't think you need stuff thrown here, there, you know.

ThunderStash Gaming: 17:53

No, it's unneeded, that's just no, there's no need for it. And you know what it was like growing up. Yeah, how many friends did you have where you knew what their politics were? We didn't talk about politics. We didn't what their politics were we didn't talk about politics we didn't talk about it yeah we didn't talk about none of us did.

ThunderStash Gaming: 18:10

We don't, we don't care. Yeah, none of us talked about it, and that you could think that the mainstream media yep for the division and that was a planned attack. Yes, it was. That was a psyop on everyone in this country and other countries too. They're going through the same stuff and, yeah, so much has has changed and fallen to the wayside. And, yeah, politics is the last thing we need. It's the last thing we want. Uh, politics, like you said, you don't like politics at all, and neither do I, and it seems these days that everyone wants to be defined by politics. It's like, hey, man, we're all better than that, and that you, you can't truly say that I can easily be defined by either this side or that side and that's who I am like.

Brandon Hurles: 19:12

Come on, man, you don't have to pick a side yeah, that's the thing right people think they have to be on a team they have you don't have to be on a team for everything right like and it's, it's, it's. It's as silly as video games too, with the, the console wars like right like it right, they had to be on a team. A majority participates in the console wars now look, the console wars in the 90s were were cool and fun.

ThunderStash Gaming: 19:41

Right the genesis and they were fun because they weren't as serious like today.

Brandon Hurles: 19:47

Is is like bonkers with yeah, like these people need to grow up. You've got like 40 year old men, uh, arguing the xbox is better than you know. I don't play nintendo switch because that's for kids. I literally see that stuff all the time and I'm, um, you're the one that needs to grow up there, cause, uh, that's a little absurd to me.

ThunderStash Gaming: 20:09

Trust me, bill Gates does not care about you. Nope, certainly, if anything, he would like it if you weren't here. Yeah, that's the truth. Uh, that's getting into that too much, but that's the truth. Uh, that's without getting into that too much, but that's the truth. So why? It's like? Why do you defend these billion dollar corporations, right? Like like they're your best friend, like they're your ride or die? It's like, come on, dude, are you for real? Yeah yeah, they don't care about you?

Brandon Hurles: 20:39

nope, not one bit not one.

ThunderStash Gaming: 20:42

Yeah, it's just wild, but hey, you know, that's where we're at, that's where we're at.

Brandon Hurles: 20:50

It's unfortunate.

ThunderStash Gaming: 20:51

It is, it's truly unfortunate.

Brandon Hurles: 20:54

Yeah, so getting a little sidetracked, which is perfectly fine, but Indie Mania just kind of top that off. It's been great, and if you're watching live now, obviously for audio listeners it will have already ended. But we are streaming again tomorrow at 12 pm Eastern Standard, which is that's 9 for you, right? Yes, 9 for you, okay, yeah, I'm getting the time zones down. I feel like an idiot. I'm 30 and I'm getting the time zones down. I feel like an idiot, I'm 30, and I'm getting the time zones down. But yeah, I mean, indie Mania has been really cool, so I've had a blast with that and it's been fun. And I guess to go ahead and get into some news, we'll break up the show with some news and then some of the other things that we want to do to kind of celebrate the 100th episode. But to get into some small news, we got Tony Hawk teased a anniversary plan for the series. I don't know if you saw that I did. Yeah, looks. That sounds pretty cool if it's not like Pro Skater 5.

ThunderStash Gaming: 22:04

Yeah, well, I'm wondering what it's gonna be, because obviously we got the tony hawk, uh one plus two, yeah, they came out on uh last gen, and then they had the ps5 boost for it, yeah, which, and you could upgrade for ten dollars, and I did check that out see how it looked and I thought it looked great. Yeah, it looks good. You know, are we going the remake route? Are we getting three and four? Are we going the underground route or are we going with the new numbered entry? So that's the question where are we?

Brandon Hurles: 22:36

going with this. I would love a new numbered entry. Honestly, I really would. I think, uh, I love the, the pro skater one and two. I thought it was done very well, um, especially with that, that, um next gen boost, and uh, it really did well with those games. I I do wonder, though, like, what about the underground games? Are we going to get like?

Brandon Hurles: 23:00

an underground one and two type deal, like we did with that, or are we? I would like to get a new game, but I also wouldn't mind them doing underground one and two, because I thought those were good games too, that actually people don't talk about that much no, they don't, but I enjoyed them a lot. I mean, I really like there was some weird ones like tony, like skateeland was weird and then Downhill Jam was weird. Do you remember Tony Hawk Ride?

Brandon Hurles: 23:30

yeah oh, yeah, I remember that that was a weird one so yeah, it's hard to say where they're going to go with that, but there were hints, apparently, or talks of a 3 plus 4, so that could be the thing there. I don't know. I guess we'll see. I don't know. 3 plus 4 to me it's not as exciting, but it's not.

ThunderStash Gaming: 23:57

I don't think it will sell as well, I really don't. But you know, tony Hawk's still the king of skateboarding. He always will be, especially in the video game space. You know what else do we have?

Brandon Hurles: 24:12

uh, skate yeah, yeah, skate yeah, yeah, it'd be nice to to have the king on console I agree, yeah, um so I guess, I guess we'll see what what happens there, but that is interesting news for sure. Um, so we've also got uh, I briefly brought this up to you yesterday, I think yesterday and yeah, uh, flappy bird is back, so it's very interesting.

Brandon Hurles: 24:43

It's very interesting, it's back, but it's not the same flappy bird. It's definitely not the same game. I checked it out. It's not the same game but it's back. So I already it's.

Brandon Hurles: 25:02

Apparently the company is called the flappy bird foundation. That's literally the company's name. Yeah, so I, I don't know they. They somehow got the rights. The flappy bird or something is what I'm guessing. I, I don't, I don't know the. The backstory there, but it says keck, the developer of pew pew, was involved in, commented today, is a milestone, not just in gaming, but for me personally. It's so cool to see how influential Pew Pew has been for developers and hundreds of millions of gamers over the years. It's incredible to work alongside such a dedicated team of fans and creators who are truly passionate about changing the industry narrative and and together bringing the original flappy bird back to life. I mean, it's not the original flappy bird, though it's obviously like flappy bird, but flappy bird was just a you touch the screen game and you got through the the pipes, so it sounds like they're trying to do like an angry birds type thing to me, where they're making it like more than what it kind of is, if that makes sense yeah, so I didn't play flappy bird, like I didn't.

ThunderStash Gaming: 26:13

I didn't own it on my phone and I guess when I say own it, you never really own it. Yeah, and in this case you really didn't, right, because the game was removed. But I I looked into the story of this earlier this week and, in case everyone doesn't know, maybe there's some old people like me who just never saw this news but uh, originally flappy bird. The creator designed the game as a simple pastime, he says, but its addictive nature led to a flood of obsessive players and it stated that many users expressed frustration with the game's difficulty and some even reported that it negatively affected their daily lives. This is as of 10 hours ago. I Googled why was Flappy Bird discontinued? And so the creator had it removed because, from what I had read, he had so much stress from hearing that his creation negatively affected people's lives, and so he's like just remove it. I don't want to deal with this, and I think people were contacting him directly. Wow, which is just wild, like dude for real, that's that's crazy.

Brandon Hurles: 27:34

I I did not know that part that's. Oh, you didn't yeah, so I did not either.

ThunderStash Gaming: 27:40

Wow, very weird, very weird again society is just. Sometimes they just floor me with some of the stuff like hey, this is a game, like this isn't. This isn't hard drugs. Yeah yeah, delete the game, move on with your life, find something else to do. The fact that people basically said it it made them probably angry and depressed, and that you went after the creator is just I mean, how was it his fault that you're obsessed with the game like? It was a simple it was at there.

Brandon Hurles: 28:18

There's no simpler game in the world. I can't think of anything. So even pac-man is more intensive than what you do with flappy bird. You literally just touch the screen, oh yeah there's a lot of strategy in pac-man yeah, yeah, I mean, like there I can't think of anything.

Brandon Hurles: 28:32

I I don't know. That that's absurd to me. That's yeah crazy to know. Mr coffee said I thought it was a cheap, uh, one-time play game I was. I never was impressed by I mean, I was the same way. I just played it like once or twice and it was a cheap, uh, one-time play game I was. I never was impressed by, I mean, I was the same way. I just played it like once or twice and it was because it was on, I think, my friend's iphone touch or something. Um, because I I didn't have an iphone touch or an ip. Am I saying that, right? Not iphone, ipod touch sorry.

Brandon Hurles: 29:02

Ipod yeah, ipod touch yeah um, yeah, I had it on there, so I I didn't know, but I do know that there was a time where if you had that game still saved on that ipod touch, it was selling for like a lot of money oh, is that right? Yeah, I guess that would make sense. You kept the game. You didn't lose the game, it was just delisted so I was gonna ask you.

ThunderStash Gaming: 29:23

So that means they didn't.

Brandon Hurles: 29:25

They didn't remove the game like right tony removed concord right yesterday from everyone's playstations yeah, so we can kind of move into that because, uh, that's some interesting stuff there. Um, this is why we support physical games and this is why we don't like live service games. Yeah, what's, uh, what? What's your thoughts on this? Because I mean, I could go on and on and on about how much I just am not for live service games at this point because there's too daggone many of them.

ThunderStash Gaming: 29:56

Well, yeah, live service games as a whole. I'm not interested in it. I don't think a lot of gamers are interested in the live service games. I think when sony said that they were going to be working on, I think what was it? 10 live service games. Everyone's like what wait, you're going from zero to 10 yeah like are you sure this is what you want to do?

ThunderStash Gaming: 30:19

yeah, because you guys are known as a as a powerhouse for single-player, rich games. It really engrosses you, the single-player story. And then now you want to do this and it just came across so clear that they were chasing dollars, like everybody else that's trying to do the live service game. That's trying to do the live service game, and so I think you know, and I think the chat knows, because we've talked about it Before on this podcast, but not a fan. Yeah, what is interesting to me I guess the best word is alarming to me Is that Everyone who downloaded this game game and let's say this too, so sony gave a refund to everybody that downloaded the game.

ThunderStash Gaming: 31:14

Yeah, and they said if you bought it from the playstation store physically, you can return it to us yeah it said also that if you bought it physically from somewhere else from other, you know retailers that you're subject to their return policy yeah we all know what other places return policies are.

ThunderStash Gaming: 31:38

If you open the game, you can't return it. It's been this, has been like that since the 80s and so get this. So if if I bought concord and I installed it right and now I have the game and now I can't play it, and not only that, but sony removed it completely and I have this open disc and I can't return it anywhere, I mean, is that terms for a lawsuit or something?

Brandon Hurles: 32:12

I feel like there has to be something that comes out of this, because this is like this is a pretty big deal. I feel like there's going to be a lot of people that cannot return the game because they opened it to play it here's.

ThunderStash Gaming: 32:27

Part of the problem, though, like the good and the bad, is that not a lot of people bought the game. Very few people bought it physically, so it's not it didn't affect a lot of people, but it's effect is felt throughout gaming. I think, right, yeah, yes, because it's like. This is concerning, because we're already, we're already seeing stuff like this. I was on the the the communication error podcast on Monday and we're talking about physical and digital. That was our, our lone topic, and you know, obviously I'm for physical, but I I brought up all the pros and cons for both, and one of the big things is, with digital games, is stuff being removed or the games being removed entirely, right, right, and there's even games like when you talk about, like game preservation. There's games where you can't even access dlc from. Like you know, that was released years ago yep so you got this game.

ThunderStash Gaming: 33:38

That's incomplete now because the dlc was removed, because it had, you know, some sort of licensing in there from something else. Right it had an ad for Taco Bell. You know if we're talking like Crazy Taxi on Dreamcast right.

Brandon Hurles: 33:57

There was recently that racing game that got delisted because of the cars in it. The title is escaping me, but it just recently got delisted, uh, like a few weeks ago, but it was a racing game and it had specific car models in it, and so it yeah, it's gone forever I think the concerning thing is that the frequency of delisted games is increasing and it's not decreasing.

ThunderStash Gaming: 34:22

Yes and and. So we talked about it. And obviously we're never going to see Zelda get delisted, we're never going to see Mario, we're not going to see the Last of Us. It's not going to be big name games, right, but they can. And you know a lot of people are upset about this. But the question was does it really affect them? Because it's not a game they play.

ThunderStash Gaming: 34:49

Well, I think these decisions are felt throughout the industry because it scares people. It makes them think, wow, if they can do this, what else can they do? If this company is going to do it, why wouldn't that company do it? If a big name company did it, like Warner Brothers or something, then it feels like it gives the smaller companies a license to do it now, license to get away with it. So it's the concern that is so concerning here is that they're able to get away with it. So it's the concern that is so concerning here is that they're able to get away with it and there's no repercussions. And you know, for the few people who bought concord, physically that sucks yeah, it does.

Brandon Hurles: 35:37

um, I mean from the beginning, like from the get go of seeing the game, I was already uninterested. The very first preview we got of the game it felt generic and we're all we saw were cinematics. Do you remember? Like the first first? Time they showed it was just straight up.

ThunderStash Gaming: 35:59

I showed it to my girlfriend. I said, hey, check this out. I'm like this is the next big live service game that's going to flop. I said this is the next Su big live service game that's gonna flop.

Brandon Hurles: 36:07

I said this is the next suicide squad watch and we'll reconvene in a year yeah, yeah, I mean, I was from the get-go.

Brandon Hurles: 36:13

I was uninterested because all they showed was boring cinematics and we knew what type of game it was going to be. And overwatch was popular in 2015. Okay, it's not popular anymore. So, like that style of game. You know people play Overwatch 2, but it's not popular like it was.

Brandon Hurles: 36:32

It's not, you know, a Fortnite or what these companies want to be is a Fortnite. Right, that's what they're all trying to achieve. They all want to be a Fortnite, the next Fortnite, because that I mean whether you play fortnight or not or like it. You know a lot of people that watch hate fortnight and I understand, you know, I get it, um, but that is a it that is now a brand that is around to stay and going nowhere. It is a live service type of game. That is it. It is a live service type of game that is going to be around for a long time and some format or another. I can foresee a Fortnite movie. I can foresee a Fortnite cartoon series. I can foresee, you know everything. It's already got toys, it's got plushies, it's got you know. I can foresee Fortnite and so many mediums. It's not even funny, but that's what these companies want is the next Fortnite. They want to be Fortnite or Warzone, one of the two right.

ThunderStash Gaming: 37:31

Yeah, but they're all going at it the wrong way. They are. I agree, yeah, like when you try and create something and the most important thing is to make money, you will actually do the worst at making money. And I talked about I'll give you a quick, a little analogy. So both, both businesses I worked in restaurant business and mortgage. I actually pretty much told my employees the same thing because this is how I worked and I believed in it. We'll just say mortgage business.

ThunderStash Gaming: 38:11

So if, every day, the most important thing to you is how much money you're going to be able to make and all you think about is money, you're not going to do good at this job. If that's your main motivation, you're not going to do good. That's a great way to put it. Alternatively, if you truly care about helping the borrowers helping customers, call them borrowers change their lives, refinance their house, pay off their debt, get that monkey off their back permanently so they don't have to deal with this, so they have a lower monthly payment, so they can take some money, put it into savings, possibly be able to go out to Blockbuster video and afford to rent a few for to rent a few movies, you know, uh, maybe be able to get some, some more groceries, the important things really right? Yeah, these things can really change people's lives by lowering their monthly payment, consolidating debt with that, with a home refi. So so if you really care about your borrowers and we talk to them all the time on the phone, all the time they called, all the time they all had our numbers, they can call us anytime but if you actually care about these people on the other end genuinely and you genuinely do your job like that, the money is going to follow you.

ThunderStash Gaming: 39:43

You're not going to be following the money. The money is going to follow you. You're not going to be following the money. The money is going to pour in, like you wouldn't believe, because you're doing it the right way and it has to be in that order. You have to do the right thing and when you do, you'll get the money. Same thing with restaurant biz Take care of the guests that come in, do the right thing. If you don't get a good tip, that's okay, carry on. Yeah, treat everyone right, treat everyone the way you want to be treated and eventually things will come around if you have the right attitude and you'll make a lot of money and you'll move up. This is the same thing, though, guys Like if. If all you care about is making money, you're not going to make money, and we see this all the time. Right, all these companies Suicide Squad. It was so clear the first time we saw, with this battle pass crap.

Brandon Hurles: 40:40

Yeah, from the beginning.

ThunderStash Gaming: 40:43

Yeah, and the fact that this isn't an arkham game, because that's what we all want it. We all love the arkham games. Everybody does. Yeah, and now we haven't had one in 10 years. It's crazy. We gotta be.

Brandon Hurles: 40:55

We got a vr one coming but you know, yeah, but you gotta have quest three. Yeah, we're gonna be talking about that a little bit at this point.

ThunderStash Gaming: 41:04

I got a quest 2, I got a psvr 2. I'm not gonna buy a quest 3 for it yeah, I don't have.

Brandon Hurles: 41:12

I. I've never had a quest, but I do want to get a quest 3. I'm glad I waited because we're going to talk about in a little bit why, um, yeah, I, I do have interest in it because I do like the fact that A it's wireless. There's a good bit of things I want to play on it that you can't play on PSVR 2. I hate being tethered on PSVR 2. Sometimes it feels like just a drag pulling it down. And I got the PC adapter. Now I still haven't done anything with it. I haven't tried it yet. I need to. Yeah, um, but you lose a bunch of the capabilities doing that too. That make it special, you know, um, but I am interested in checking out quest. I just VR like. The VR experiences I've had with the PSVR too, have been pretty good, but nothing like-blowing. It just hasn't captured me in that way yet. I feel like there's been some great games Don't get me wrong played some cool stuff, but a lot of it just feel like cool experiences and not really game games, if that makes sense.

ThunderStash Gaming: 42:23

Yeah, to me VR still hasn't figured a way out to be a deep video game experience, like actual video game. Yes, like this is more like, like you said, an experience. Yeah. But not a true. It doesn't feel like a true gaming experience. There's a difference there. We all know it, you feel it.

Brandon Hurles: 42:49

Yeah, and what's crazy is you said you know you're not going to get a quest three for Batman. Well, this is the first game that I am aware of where it is like a game game. Like this is a game. So that I am interested in.

ThunderStash Gaming: 43:03

I have a way I think you have a way to play it too. Oh, yeah, yeah, you have a way to play it on your pc with the psvr too oh, okay well, yeah, there's a way. You'll google it, it's not too hard okay cool.

Brandon Hurles: 43:18

Yeah, I'll have to look that up then. But yeah, it's like the first, like full. I'm sure there's something out there that I'm not aware of, but it's a, it's a full game, like a legitimate game I'm following it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 43:32

I am. I'm following it.

Brandon Hurles: 43:33

Yeah, I'm I'm excited about it because I love arkham, I love batman, um, I love them, I love all of it, so it hits all all the things that I love there. Um, and I think vr is cool and that looks like it is gonna look pretty cool in vr, like it looks. It looks like it looks probably pretty.

ThunderStash Gaming: 43:51

Stunning is cool. I'm rooting for vr. I am too. I am too.

Brandon Hurles: 43:55

I'm not holding my breath, but I'm rooting hard for them yeah, I want it to be successful and it's just going to continue to grow. I mean, that's what it is like meta obviously has has it in the palm of their hands legitimately, like I yeah, there are other than, just because of this podcast, like I don't know anybody else out there that has a psvr2 only like people in this community that I talked to on the podcast, things like that most people even on the podcast want nothing to do with it. So there's been a couple of people you're one of like a few people I know that have one, so if that you know, says something there. But I know I know people that have multiple meta quests in their house because they've got several kids. And you know, I know a guy that has three of them. He got three kids and he also plays, so he's got two of them for the kids and then, yeah, so yeah, yep, uh, johnny popped in here and said hey guys, what's going on, mr coffee?

Brandon Hurles: 44:57

man why we haven't gotten a corridor rpg for vr baffles me, you know. That's a great, that's a great question. I would love to have that style of rpg and vr.

ThunderStash Gaming: 45:09

That'd be really cool yeah, I saw that comment and I was mentally shaking my head like, yeah, for for a while we got that. It just seems like a no-brainer.

Brandon Hurles: 45:20

Yeah, yeah yeah, it really does. Um man, could you imagine like well, there, I mean, there is, there is a do I have it actually, but I don't have the psvr one so I can't play it, but that do I think it's doom three that has vr. Have you played that? Yeah, I don't have the psvr one so I haven't been able to play it, but is it cool.

ThunderStash Gaming: 45:44

Yeah, I've played it. I've played some cool stuff. I've played some really weird stuff too.

Brandon Hurles: 45:50

Yeah, the only thing I played and I played through the whole thing was Astro's. It's Astro's Player right, or was it Rescue Mission? That was the one on PSVR. Rescue Mission. I'm like that. I played through all that. I was amazed at that game, that beautiful, beautiful game. Uh, gosh man, astro, astrobot is is is like mario and sonic to me at this point, like I love astrobot I do too, and I think there's a problem with it, though what's the problem, and it's unfortunate?

ThunderStash Gaming: 46:29

it's the fact that you like it and I like it, but not everybody likes it, and really yeah, I haven't heard a single person say anything. Dude, the sales is what I'm talking about. Oh really, abysmal. Wow. Week one sales in Japan. They sold a little over 12,000.

Brandon Hurles: 46:56

Week one oh my God, I didn't know that they were bad.

ThunderStash Gaming: 47:02

I thought oh man, get this. Didn't know that they were bad. I thought oh man, get this.

ThunderStash Gaming: 47:10

So for comparison, brandon and and chat for comparison, uh, when, mario odyssey came out yeah, it sold about, I think in the first week, 450 or 500 000 in japan. Now here's the key part is that when it came out, the Switch install base at the time was a fraction compared to the PS5's install base right now Because, remember, it came out early, yeah, with a low install base Versus PS5's install base At the time. Astro Bot's releasing, so it's like it's even worse. Is what I'm saying then it looks Not only is 12,000 just horrible.

ThunderStash Gaming: 48:00

But it's like man. This is sad Because I figured, if I figured, if one region was going to really support astrobot, it would be japan, because I feel like a lot of the gamers out there are real gamers, old school video gamers. It's in their blood, right, and they would appreciate a game like this yeah is what I thought, and I I presume that the the western society would not treat it as such.

ThunderStash Gaming: 48:39

They'd look at it as a kiddie game, or a nintendo game basically on PlayStation, which is what I hear a lot on Twitter. It's like, despite the 94 Metacritic score, kids I say kids, but teenagers, young adults, even adults. They don't want to almost be caught playing this game because it's a kid's game and I gotta look cool. It's like, like dude, what. This is wild.

Brandon Hurles: 49:10

So many Playstation fans are gonna miss out on this see you have got a complete different feed than I have, especially on Twitter, because I have not seen. I can't think of anything. I'm trying to think of one negative thing. I've't seen it. I can't think of anything. I'm trying to think of one negative thing. I've seen about it and I can't think of anything, especially on Twitter. I mean that's where I catch most of the news and people's reactions and stuff. Well, the reviewers like it, I mean just in general, just general people like us, you know, like smaller YouTubers, like us, smaller YouTubers like us talking about stuff. I've seen good things from them. I haven't seen anything from. I guess I haven't.

Brandon Hurles: 49:54

I try to not read as many comments these days when it comes to that stuff. I try to avoid it. It becomes a time waster. I imagine probably in some of the comments there's probably more stuff being said. I do read some of it. I just try to avoid it if I can. But that's that's. That's truly uh, that's kind of heartbreaking. Man, I'm looking it up on on uh twitter now just to kind of see live reaction on what the last things were said about it. It looks like yeah, I mean, it's good stuff. I don't see anything negative. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, that sucks, that really sucks.

ThunderStash Gaming: 50:40

I love that Well it's not to say that there is anything negative. No, I mean it's there.

Brandon Hurles: 50:43

It's there for everything. Yeah, let's not say that there is anything negative. No, I mean it's, it's there, it's you know, it's there for everything.

ThunderStash Gaming: 50:48

Yeah, it's just. It's just. No one's buying. You know people aren't buying it and, like to me, this is one of the the most hype games of the year.

Brandon Hurles: 51:01

Yeah, the year. Yeah, it was for me too. Yeah, me as well. I mean I and that's because I think for us, we, we like, we really like these old school 3d platformers and 2d platformers, but these old school, just platformers that are fun.

Brandon Hurles: 51:22

They're usually family friendly, you know just, anybody can play it like you know thinking Spyro and Crash, and you know thinking uh, croc and and Banjo-Kazooie, and you know all that stuff right, like, all of that just brings back. It brings back great memories. It's stuff that I can still play now and still enjoy um it. It was a different time with games like, we still get them, it's usually indie. Now, uh, we don't really get the big stuff besides nintendo. Um, we don't get the big stuff anymore from from other people. I mean croc's coming back. So that's a good thing. I'm pretty excited about that because I love croc, uh, like notoriously coming back too. Dude, I love gex as well. I mean, I, I love gex.

Brandon Hurles: 52:09

So I didn't did I, did we cover? We must have covered that. I think we did. I think I remember that it was coming back. There's so much, so much news, man, that's just you can't, can't keep up with everything. But yeah, that's outstanding, that's coming back. I was shocked when I saw that Croc was coming back, though, because that was one where I didn't really know anybody else that knew anything about Croc. I played it on PC, you know, I had it on a PC disc back in the day of it I played it over and over and over and going back to it, the controls are atrocious, Horrible.

Brandon Hurles: 52:53

They're the Tomb Raider style controls, so you know you've got to turn them Tank controls.

Brandon Hurles: 53:00

Tank controls. Yeah, but, man, I loved it back in the day. Man and Gex love Gex back in the day. Man and Gex love Gex on 64. So much fun, A lot of good memories with those, All right. So zooming through a little bit more of this small news so we can get to some of our other stuff We've got. Ubisoft is adding offline modes to the Crew 2 and the Crew Motor Fest, but the original is gone for good. So kind of adding on a little to what we talked about, but also they're making offline modes for some of them, Kind of weird.

ThunderStash Gaming: 53:36

Yeah, it is kind of weird. You know there's a win, there's a win and a loss. Yeah, they use the old sandwich method there. Hey, we're taking this away, we're going to give you this, yeah, the good and the bad.

Brandon Hurles: 53:50

So, uh, yeah, great that there's offline mode, though yeah yeah, I mean, um, I know people love the crew, like I know people absolutely love it. I've never played it so I I don't know much about it, but I get the concept of the games. It sucks. I I wonder why they're removing the first one and not adding and just not adding an offline mode to all of them. I wonder if maybe it's like they think it's too similar to the crew two, or I'm guessing it has to do with something that's licensed in there and it's not worth it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 54:26

Not worth it to pay to renew the license. So they'll get rid of this one not worth it to them.

Brandon Hurles: 54:30

yeah, yeah, yeah, that's probably it. So there's that. Uh, we've also got just a second. Okay, had something going off there. Oh, it looks like the Something going on with the TikTok, so I'll Bring them into that what Looks like we got.

ThunderStash Gaming: 54:52

Um, we got the layoffs man, the Xbox layoffs.

Brandon Hurles: 54:55

Yeah, let's go ahead and get into that. Sorry, I'm trying to deal with this and we can talk about both layoffs there.

ThunderStash Gaming: 55:00

So, yeah, xbox Woke officers. So, yeah, xbox. Uh, woke up. Saw that on twitter 650, if I recall, employees laid off, and it just seems like I don't know. All throughout the year. Over the last 12 months, I keep seeing more and more and more of it of xbox layoffs, yeah, xbox layoffs, and it's like you know, there's going to come a point where everyone's laid off and they just they go completely software, completely game pass. It's just a matter of when. I really truly believe that. I think the one that, yeah, I think the one that really caught me off guard, though, was Annapurna Interactive.

Brandon Hurles: 55:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that is wild.

ThunderStash Gaming: 55:53

I did not expect to wake up. I think it was the day after the Xbox layoffs, or no, I think it was the same day.

Brandon Hurles: 56:05

It was later in the day it was the same day, yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 56:07

Yeah, I did not expect that. Obviously no one did. But All 25 developers Left yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 56:17

All of them.

ThunderStash Gaming: 56:17

They have no, they have no talent there. They all left, the whole studio left and that's that absolutely insane.

Brandon Hurles: 56:28

I mean just just crazy.

ThunderStash Gaming: 56:32

Um, I don't even know where to start with that um, well, they're one of the most successful indie developers, and so this is a. It's a big hit to the industry and, from what I read, they were trying to work on a split and they couldn't come to terms. The developers wanted to split off and have their own company, and they just couldn't figure it out. And then I saw one of the developers on twitter tweet out that like hey, it's not over. Like we're, we're gonna get, we're gonna get what? What is ours?

ThunderStash Gaming: 57:16

I'm like okay, this looks like it's gonna get interesting, a little hot and heavy and uh, it's just, it's never. It's never a good look sad. It's unfortunate because they do. They've. They made some really great games yeah, I, I don't.

Brandon Hurles: 57:37

I don't know what to say about this, because I mean it's just kind of it's just crazy really. I mean it's just crazy Really. I mean it's just crazy. They this is a kind of unheard of happening, everybody just leaving Um, I, I still don't quite understand everything. I guess, um, I just don't know, I don't it kind of sucks? You shared that image which was just yesterday, um, which I thought was funny. I, I had to ret, don't know, I don't it kind of sucks? You shared that image, which was just yesterday, um, which I thought was funny I I had to retweet that.

Brandon Hurles: 58:09

That was. That was hilarious. Is that gonna have value? Yeah, probably, um, yes, I mean, what do you think is gonna happen? Like what, what's the, what's the, the end goal here, what's what's gonna happen?

ThunderStash Gaming: 58:22

well, well, I mean, the company has got it. Yeah, like all that's left is the suits, and again the suits don't know how to sit in the chair and do the job. You know what I mean? Like they will be a shell of themselves.

Brandon Hurles: 58:42

Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if they closed down, but I would be surprised either, honestly, I mean, with all the problems right now, I wouldn't they have their ip, someone might swoop them up, someone might try and buy them.

ThunderStash Gaming: 58:57

So yeah, look at that too. But you know, I'm on their website just kind of like looking at some of their games here. I'm just like man, this is just wild I mean, they put out. They put out such good stuff man yeah, it's not like they weren't working on anything. They have games like they're working on right now, and stray was fun that was a good game. I love stray uh, it was free on playstation plus so I played it, really enjoyed it.

Brandon Hurles: 59:33

Solar ash that was a good one. Yep, that's a good one too that I've never heard anybody else talk about.

ThunderStash Gaming: 59:38

Oh yeah, it's cool uh, the pathless, that's a good one yep, I actually have two different versions of that game. Weird, weirdly enough nice uh kentucky route zero tv edition.

Brandon Hurles: 59:51

Great game good game, very good game. That's again another game that I've never heard anybody else talk about.

ThunderStash Gaming: 59:58

Yeah, that's funny uh journey. Yes, who hasn't? Who hasn't played?

Brandon Hurles: 1:00:02

journey, journey is a masterpiece of a game. Everybody should play that masterpiece theater.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:00:08

I love journey. That was a good one. Uh outer wilds very good. I enjoyed the. The uh archaeologist edition is coming out in like a month oh, I didn't even know about that physical edition, and so you know, who knows what's going to go on with that.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:00:25

Uh, what? What remains of edith finch great game. That's a good game too. Yep, there's so many good games, and I named maybe 20 of their works right there. So there's a lot of great games, and it's unfortunate, yeah, that uh truly won't be able to see this through, and then it looks like we did have a bunch of people pop in.

Brandon Hurles: 1:00:50

Uh, kp the beard man over on tiktok. We got steven getz saying hello. Uh, sister, duncan erica just wanted to shout all you guys out, um, yeah. So I mean, the anna pureness stuff is absolutely insane. But we do have some good news. We know what the uh we know about the playstation plus game catalog for september. So, yeah, yeah, uh, would you anything, um spark your interest out of these games here, because we've got, we got. I mean, yeah, yeah, me too, me too.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:01:31

The obvious one for you and I and I hope for everybody. Yeah, go and tell everybody what we got. All right, we're getting a day one release. If you got PlayStation Plus, I mean, you don't have to buy this game, you can play it day one. I'm really happy about this. The Plucky Squire. It's a game that's been on everyone's radar for quite some time. It's been in development for a long time, so we should be able to feel confident that this game is going to release in a good state. It's going to be optimized.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:02:11

I hope so, and you know, uh, not many bugs, hopefully, hopefully. Yeah, that's a game we've all been looking forward to. That's for free. You got night in the woods. That's a nice indie title and it's a good pick, of course, for the season we're coming into oh yeah spooky season, of course, and and then you got chernobyl light complete edition and I think that's a I mean that's a really good release if you look at what's going on in the world, with the possibility of yeah yeah the looming possibilities around the world of, uh, you know, tactical nukes.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:02:53

You got chernobyl 8 coming out to play. That's a way that's a way to sell the game. Maybe you play the game and you learn something you didn't know and and it it. Maybe you'll have to apply that at some point in real life. Uh, and then you got the harry potter, you got the quidditch game, is it? Did I say quidditch?

Brandon Hurles: 1:03:17

quidditch, quidditch, yeah, yeah I was. I was gonna try. I had it booted up on the start screen earlier today, but then it's counted down to like two minutes, so I was like, all right, I'm just going to switch back over. I want to try it. It doesn't look good at all, it does not look good whatsoever, but it's free on there, so I just want to try it. You know, say I tried it. I like Harry Potter.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:03:42

Well, I do too. I tried it. I like Harry Potter, Well, I do too. And it's funny, my lady likes Harry Potter a lot and she had asked me I think it was last week or something. She said, hey, do you want to watch all the Harry Potters again, because we're getting into the season, right? So she wants to watch them all. And I'll tell you what I had an emergency appendectomy when I was in the restaurant business and, of course, when you have surgery you can't lift and there's a lot of lifting in the restaurant business.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:04:21

So I was out for a little bit and of course I'm playing video games, but at the same time I'm also on some medication to where it's kind of hard to concentrate. Yeah, and I said you know what? I've never seen any of the harry potter movies. I never watched any of them. This is like in 2000, I think 13, when I had it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:04:45

Wow. And I said, you know what? I'm going to buy them all. I'm going to buy the box set on Blu-ray, yeah, and I'm going to watch them all. And so I did when I was out on medical leave and I, of course, I really enjoyed all of them. I'm like this is great. I love the soundtrack. John Williams, of course, a legend. I think he's the greatest film composer of all time.

Brandon Hurles: 1:05:14

He's a legend, for sure.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:05:15

He's a goat. Yeah, and so I was. I really enjoyed them, and I enjoyed them so much that I said I not gonna watch them again for a long time because I want to forget everything. Yeah, I just saw, and the only thing that remains is how I felt about it right but I want to forget all the plot, everything, because I want to do this again later in life. Yeah, here we are. This is 11 years later. I'm going through them again like, are you?

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:05:49

actively going through them. Yeah, we watched last night. We were we almost finished chamber of secrets, but, as I told you, my favorite is chamber. I haven't been feeling great so I you know, I took nyquil and I can't can't stay up too late because I literally can't. I was falling asleep, yeah. Yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:06:07

So, you know, we enjoyed the heck out of it, though, and it's been very good, and there's a lot of movies, guys, that I have seen hundreds of times Well over 100. The Rockies, the Star Wars, the Back to the Futures, the Indiana Jones, the Godfathers, the Karate Kids there's so many.

Brandon Hurles: 1:06:30

Yeah, for sure.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:06:31

I'm an 80s movie buff. Hardcore Me too, so I abused these movies. As far as watching them, they were absolutely abused. They were absolutely abused and I always said, if there's movies I find later in life, I'm going to wait until later to return to them so I can feel that experience again I get that and that's what we're doing I get that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:06:56

That makes sense. Yeah, I mean, um, I I know people always say this and I'm not. I'm not a reader anymore. I haven't read a book in uh well, over 10 years I haven't read a single book. I just I I have adhd, like legitimately, and I can't focus to read. I just can't.

Brandon Hurles: 1:07:17

it's even a problem with games, um, so I have to really, really, really really be involved in the game to be able to stay focused. It's hard. That's the thing about content creation is that it's also on my mind 24-7. So I'm like I'm not doing enough. That's what my head tells me all the time. I'm not doing enough, you're not doing enough. You got all this other stuff to check. Why are you playing this or why are you doing this or that? And it's like a whole.

Brandon Hurles: 1:07:49

It's a whole battle that you know especially well I have it too it's.

Brandon Hurles: 1:07:54

I mean, it's the problem of social media, right, like, at the end of the day, it's the problem of social media. It's. It's not necessarily like about just creating content, I think it's it just. I work in social media and in all of that stuff, so like I see what happens. I know the ins and outs of all the platforms. I get it right. I build up pages and sold them multiple times over, so I understand how it all works.

Brandon Hurles: 1:08:22

But it is like a problem with social media where you're you're thinking you're not doing enough. If you create content, if you're just using it like a normal person does, that's different, right, like you know, it's not, it doesn't have to be on your mind all the time. However, it seems it's still a problem with those people, too that aren't creating content. They're just scrolling instead. They're just scrolling and scrolling. Yeah, I don't scroll, I at all. I, I can't do it anymore. I I check some friends, stuff here and there. You know what I mean and that's about all I can do, because there's just I don't have the time, so I don't blame you, but yeah, it's one of those things.

Brandon Hurles: 1:09:00

So what I was going to say. Getting back to what I was going to say, is I know people always say this, but the Harry Potter books are absolutely amazing and I truly do think for several of them. I would say for the first, the first book, goblet of Fire I almost want to say Chamber of Secrets too, but I would say for the first book, gob, goblet of Fire. Those are at least those books for sure are better than the movies. The movies are great I love the movies too but the books you just get a way bigger experience of everything going on. You get more immersed in the world, you understand more of what's going on. You get more immersed in the world, you understand more of what's going on because they're limited. In those movies, even though they're long movies, they're very limited. It doesn't capture everything.

Brandon Hurles: 1:09:55

So those are ones where I will say you definitely should read the books, and the only other ones I would ever say that about too is Lord of the Rings. I would also say that about Lord of the Rings. I feel like those are an essential read. If you like the movies, you really should read the books. So but Harry Potter, the books, man, I'm telling you like you won't be wasting your time if you haven't read them. They're very good, they're all good, and several are better than the movies, in my opinion and many others opinions, but I love the movies too, so I just I love the franchise as a whole. It's unfortunate, kind of what's happened with the franchise now, which is kind of really nothing besides. We got Hogwarts legacy, but we got that, that play book after and like I can't remember what it's called, I bought it just to add to the collection of the other Harry Potter books. What's it supposed to?

Brandon Hurles: 1:10:54

be, yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of kind of sucks. And then the whole stuff behind JK rallying and the political crap. Um, it's unfortunate, man. There's so much that can be done with that franchise, so much. I mean truly like there there really really is, and there's been talks of them rebooting it. There's also been talks of them bringing it back with the kid, like the kids of, you know, harry and and ron and all those guys. I think that would be cool. I think it'd be cool too, and so you get to experience, you know, hogwarts again. Um, so I I just feel like something should be done. Man, like, hogwarts legacy was fine. I didn't, I didn't love it. I didn't think it was a fantastic game. I enjoyed it, but I think it had a lot of problems, um, especially at launch. Uh, they definitely have fixed some stuff with it, but, uh, I feel like I had the early access on it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:11:57

Oh yeah, I experienced it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:11:59

Yeah, I live streamed it actually and yeah, there was a lot of bugs a lot, a lot of a lot of bugs, a lot of problems, um, so I was a little disappointed in that um didn't, didn't love it. It was like a six out of ten. Like I said, I don't like the rate games, but if I was gonna rate it was like you know it was. It wasn't, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't like what I was hoping it would be Did you play it on.

Brandon Hurles: 1:12:27

Next Gen. Yeah, I played it on Series X. Okay. Yeah, so, but like you said, I enjoyed it too. I mean six out of ten isn't bad. I mean that's still above average, right Like average is five.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:12:42

I don't give numbers either, but if I did, I'd give it probably an eight.

Brandon Hurles: 1:12:50

Yeah, see, I wouldn't be there with it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:12:53

I don't like numbers either, but I don't know. Somewhere in the ballpark of six or seven or something like that. I enjoyed it. Like I said, I had fun with it, but did have a lot of problems, a lot of problems, a lot of problems got fixed. But you know what, when you, if you're like me, you, if you beat the game and like they add these, patch stuff later like it doesn't matter to you because you've got other games to play, you don't care um it's only for the new players.

Brandon Hurles: 1:13:21

At that point I'm sorry I don't go back to all these games that get 50 million patches all the time. So now, once it's done, it's done. Yeah, once I finish the game, it goes on the shelf because I got other stuff to play um so that's kind of where it's at with me, but, um, yeah, anyway.

Brandon Hurles: 1:13:40

So we got also. Uh, we were speaking earlier on the MetaQuest, so apparently there was a sort of leak with a MetaQuest 3S. This was leaked from the Meta support page. Apparently there is. It says the action button on MetaQuest 3S is located on the bottom right of the headset. Press the action button to switch between seeing your room and pass through and seeing immersive virtual surroundings. So this was on um, this was on X and yeah, it was tweeted out. I mean that it looks pretty legitimate to me. Um, like I can't, you know, say for sure, but it looks like pretty legitimate to me. Like I can't Say for sure, but it looks like Pretty legitimate to me, and I can see, obviously Like a mid, a mid Up, fresh, you know, refresh, I mean.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:14:39

Yeah, mid gen Upgrade.

Brandon Hurles: 1:14:42

Did they do that for Meta Quest 2? Was there like a upgrade for meta quest 2 or?

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:14:48

I there, there was something, there was a revision, but I wasn't advertised as such. But if you were in the market of buying one, you knew to get that one, if that makes sense.

Brandon Hurles: 1:15:04

Okay, well, I can totally see this Because the Meta Quest 3. The good thing about the PSVR 2. Is that you are Working on the horsepower of the PS5. So, tech wise, psvr 2. Like if you're just talking about the wireless headset with the meta quest 3 and then your wired psvr2 tech wise, you, you've got better tech going on there, so I can see them doing this and obviously there's a ton to improve on vr. I mean, you know there, there's just there, just is right, like even the PSVR too. It's it's a high tech little toy man. It it's got a lot, a lot going on, you know, with with the 4k and the eyes and it's got a lot the eye tracking. There's a lot going on with that that thing and I definitely can see them wanting to improve the MetaQuest 3 for sure, and it sells, man, it sells. Metaquest is doing very well, as far as I'm aware it is.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:18

I'm quite happy that I've held off on getting one because it's been on my list for a while. I've wanted to. On getting one because it's been on my list for a while um, I've wanted to get one since launch and because I got the PSVR 2, I was just kind of like what you know, this is probably enough for me and I I don't even play that that often, but one of the reasons is, uh, a space, um b, you got to be plugged in, so I gotta, you know, unwrap it from the back where I've got it on there and it's just like a whole, it's a whole thing just wait it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:16:52

Just wait until you hook it up to your pc. Yeah, it'll be even more of a thing. Oh yeah, yeah, I've got.

Brandon Hurles: 1:17:00

I've got the box over here. I gotta, I gotta up soon. It's just sitting there, it's been waiting on me to open it up, so I assume you've messed with it then.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:17:11

Yeah, I hooked it up to the PC. What are your? Thoughts. Well, I tested it out like day one or two and it was very finicky. It was tough to get the controllers connected to the bluetooth and I bought an external bluetooth as well. What's like an external bluetooth adapter? Because it says on sony's, like on the actual blog, that these are the recommended Bluetooths to use.

Brandon Hurles: 1:17:48

Is it like? Are you talking about their PlayStation Bluetooth adapters?

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:17:54

Yeah, but it's not a PlayStation branded one Okay.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:17:57

It's like I think T-Link was one of them. Oh, okay, that might have been the name TP-Link. Yeah, I got it for like 10 bucks. I was like, yeah, sure you know that might have been the name ep link. Yeah, I got it for like 10 bucks. Yeah, I was like, yeah, sure you know, I think the bluetooth on my pc is fine. But you know if, if this is what everyone's saying, I'll spend the ten dollars on amazon and and get it over here quick so I can actually experience this. But long story short, it was very finicky. I need to revisit it. Uh, I, obviously I have plenty of vr games downloaded on steam. Yeah, that I had for the quest 2, because I have the quest 2 pc plugin yeah, I was gonna ask you if you had that and how that was as well yeah, what's the?

Brandon Hurles: 1:18:43

how big of a difference do you see versus being wireless?

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:18:49

well, you mean as far as quality yeah quality resolution whatever no difference there. I mean really what it is is. It opens up all these games to you. It turns, turns it into a PC VR headset.

Brandon Hurles: 1:19:07

Okay, I thought that in For some reason. I thought it worked like the PC. My understanding was that plugging it in made it more powerful. No, oh, my god, okay, I'm completely out of the loop. Then I've been told that literally um. So that's interesting like more powerful than what like it's using it's using the pc, how it's using power from the pc oh yeah, like you have to have the the power in your pc to be able to do this yeah, but but you're saying it doesn't change fidelity or resolution or anything right yeah, so like resolution, no, like it doesn't change your base games on quest, but it allows you to play PC VR games using your PC.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:20:05

It's because it's a PC. Vr headset, now with the adapter. So yeah, you're working off of your graphics card.

Brandon Hurles: 1:20:13

That makes sense. What card do you have, by the way, uh?

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:20:22

it is. I think it's rtx. Uh, was it 30, 80 ti?

Brandon Hurles: 1:20:29

okay, I gotta, but yours is bad.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:20:32

I got a 40 60 so yeah, I got that and I got a 40, I think 80 in my uh laptop dang.

Brandon Hurles: 1:20:41

Yeah, I've got a 3050 Ti in my laptop.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:20:46

Well, I got this laptop not too long ago and I got it from Costco. Actually, it was just absolute steal of a deal. It had what I wanted for memory. They had one that was like 8 gigs memory and I ended up getting this one. Obviously, this was 32 gigs and that's what I have in my pc and so, yeah, got a great deal on it smoking deal. And uh, I hadn't had a laptop in years, honestly, and I needed one, so I didn't even own a laptop that's, that's fine.

Brandon Hurles: 1:21:21

Yeah, I believe it or not. Until, about what was it? 15 episodes ago? This show has been ran off of a laptop. Oh, yeah, yeah, I didn't. I didn't have a desktop PC and I hadn't had one in. I haven't had one since. We had a family computer in like 2006. It's seriously been that long. Um, I had laptops between that whole time and then I bought this laptop. At the time when I bought it, in 2021, it was pretty powerful, 3050 ti. It was, you know, decently powerful little thing and obviously it's it's gotten quite outdated. It can't run. Some things aren't great with it. I don't really game with it or anything like that. I do like the Asus TUF Gaming laptops. I think they're pretty cool. I've messed around with another one. When I went to a convention in my buddy's hotel room, he was showing me his new one that he had they're pretty powerful these days.

Brandon Hurles: 1:22:33

What brand is the laptop that you have?

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:22:37

It's a HP Victus gaming laptop.

Brandon Hurles: 1:22:41

Gotcha, I'm still learning a lot about. I'm excellent with retro pcs, retro retro, retro computing period, commodore 64. You name it zx spectrum. Uh, I'm I'm great that stuff can code on on things, but when it I'm I'm relearning, uh, new PC stuff, just because there's so much to it now.

Brandon Hurles: 1:23:09

You know things are coming out, like graphics cards are coming out. We're getting refreshes on graphics cards now, like there used to be like gaps. Now we're getting refreshes where there's supers and you know, and the TIs and the super thing blows me away that like the boost is so minimal, it's just so minimal. And I there was a guy that I know I'm not going to call him out, um, we'll just say he's kind of in our circle of people uh, he had a 4090 and upgraded to a 4090 Super and I think just so he can say, oh, I've got the most powerful graphics card like consumer card that you can get.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:23:54

How silly is that? I mean you do for now, but for now it doesn't last long.

Brandon Hurles: 1:24:01

It doesn't last long at all.

Brandon Hurles: 1:24:03

It does not last long at all I did want to shout out. We had, um a couple of comments that came through that's. Uh, I did message one shout out said uh, what is gaming podcast? Said I love your podcast. You guys are great. Um, I'm watching on tiktok too. Uh, playing traded games. Said they like the up movie. Um, what is gaming podcasted. Thanks for podcast. It's the reason we are starting well, thank you. I'm glad that you're starting a podcast and I and uh stick with it. I hope it's uh successful and that you have fun with it. Uh, mr coffee said the first movie is just a bit rough for me, referencing uh harry potter.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:24:43

Each one got better my girlfriend was saying that too. She's like the first one's pretty rough. She's like the uh, the special effects are pretty bad. I'm like yeah, I know, but you know I grew up in the 80s. So, bro, like I, I appreciate, uh, cheesy special effects yeah, good yeah, yeah me too you don't have to preface that for me, yeah me too.

Brandon Hurles: 1:25:06

Me too. Uh zapdo said uh, I love the meta quest 3, totally a vr guy and you guys seriously have a cool podcast. Thank you a lot, appreciate it. And then, uh, content streaming co came in here and we, we got a love y'all. So thanks a lot, guys, appreciate, appreciate it. Yeah, so last thing, on small news, before we jump into some of our other stuff that we we planned and talked about, that we were going to do, we got.

Brandon Hurles: 1:25:36

So this one's a little interesting because we're just talking about VR, obviously, and there isn't a ton behind this. But I, I can actually at first I was like there's no way, but I don't, sony is so unpredictable but basically there's a supposed leak that a wireless PSVR2 headset is coming out. So, yeah, I was looking into this and it has to do with in the firmware update. Apparently there's something in there indicating that there could be a wireless headset coming. So the data mining with that, that firmware update apparently shows that. I mean, I don't see a specific thing that was said, but it was like talking about it was just. Apparently it was in the firmware update, from what I understand.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:26:36

Yeah, I see it. I'm looking at the screenshot. So it has a battery icon. Yeah yeah, I see that on the psvr2 headset, which obviously we know that it plugs into playstation, so there is no battery icon right, yeah there would never be a need that would never be needed for a wired headset. So that's I think that's very telling. It sounds like it's being tested.

Brandon Hurles: 1:27:09

That is a risky move for PlayStation. Let me tell you.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:27:17

It is. I mean, I'm happy if they do. Yeah, me too. Me too, Because I was a day one adopter. And you know, obviously, when you day one adopt new technology, sometimes you get burned by it, and we know that. Anyone who's done it knows it. You know. Yeah, some people say we got burned by Dreamcast. Hey, dude.

Brandon Hurles: 1:27:44

I.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:27:44

I enjoyed my time with it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:27:46

I'm still playing it. It's plugged up right now, ready to go. I love the Dreamcast man.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:27:52

Right and you know. So there's stuff like that. It's all in how you look at it. I still had a good time with it, and same with the PSVR too. It's like, hey, are there a ton of games, are there a bunch of killer apps? No, maybe gran turismo. Yeah, if you like racing games, that is the coolest experience that is the best way to play gran turismo outside of having a custom racing rig, and you can have both.

Brandon Hurles: 1:28:27

Yeah, exactly, I got to experience that and let me tell you that is a crazy experience. To have the full setup with the headset on. It's so cool, and the crazy thing is just the preference. That's not even a VR game Like, that's not.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:28:43

I know it's just a regular game that's got a vr mode in it yeah, it's so cool, and when we get to our other segment I'll talk about some other vr experiences. But uh, you know, I'd like obviously to see it be successful and to see future support. And if a wireless headset is in the making which, again, if this screenshot is real right then I I think that's some pretty good proof that it's, at the very least, being tested right now. So it's great news, because I want to see some more games come out. Yep, and it makes sense though, too, with the pc adapter right, because yeah, yeah, it does I agree yeah, if you, if you, if you really want to sell more of these, there's a way.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:29:43

If you want to increase your library, there's a way. I mean, obviously you got to have a pc, though, and a graphics card capable and all that, so the port of entry stuff. But if you're into pc, vr, this, this would make it a really good option, because a lot of people have said, yeah, but it's wired. That's the biggest gripepe.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:02

Yeah it's the number one thing I hear, yeah. It could help Imagine if they had just not made it wired from the get-go. I imagine that Battery. I wonder if it would have did better if it would have just launched as a wireless headset with a wired headset, with a wired option with a cable in the box.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:30:29

Yeah, I think it's the battery life and I think it's the fact that it runs off the PS5.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:40

Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, I get it. It kind of sort of doesn't make sense, but that's yeah, you can't.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:30:49

You can't run it streaming.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:51

I mean, you could, but so what does this mean then? That's the question, what, what? The question I I mean maybe it's a to play c to play the pc headset so they're like hey, here is a uh headset for the pc to play our pc releases that don't have vr modes in them.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:31:14

Um, maybe it's a wireless headset with a, I was gonna say maybe a playstation like a storefront or front yeah yeah, but no one's gonna buy that just for the the playstation vr2 games. Like you need to have the steam games too yeah, I'm think, bluetooth.

Brandon Hurles: 1:31:43

I have no idea, man, it's very confusing because I'm thinking like what, how is this gonna work? But I don't know. Yeah, with the adapter coming out, like one thing that happened is what? First of all, the adapter sold out and it kept selling out over and over, right, um, and then the sales for the psVR 2 skyrocketed, right. So the funny thing is that I've had them sitting on my store shelves. Nobody's touched them. I've seen the same ones there forever. They were all gone. I kid you, and I live in a very small town. I live by a cornfield I'll just put it that way, right, small town. So the five that were in there, they were all gone. I was shocked. I mean, I was legitimately shocked, um, so that's a, I mean, that's a great thing, obviously. Yeah, they were. They sold a lot. As long as they're not resellers, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, there are a lot of resellers around here. Um, we got a big yard sale, community yard sale in the morning. I'm going to go film and do some game hunting. Yeah, good luck.

Brandon Hurles: 1:32:54

Yeah, there's a lot of competition. Let me tell you that's why I stopped doing it for a while. But yeah, anyway, what was I even saying about the? Yeah, they were sold out. Obviously it isn't staying that way, right, like that was the initial, like hype, I think, for it. So maybe you know so, the occasional units here and there, and we'll see probably in the sales charts, like how much it's selling. But yeah, I don't't know, I guess we'll see what happens yeah, we'll see, I don't.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:33:29

I don't mind the wires, or you know, the wire for the power, I'd rather. I'd personally rather plug it in. I would then, uh, have to worry about the battery lasting for an hour, because, yeah, me too, the battery life's not good. On the, on the quest, I heard good at all.

Brandon Hurles: 1:33:48

I heard the quest 3 battery life is pretty decent. Uh, good, like four hours so that's great. Yeah, I heard it's pretty way better than the two and they have the extended battery pack for it, so you can. I don't know why somebody would play for, like you know, nine hours straight in vr it's not good for you.

Brandon Hurles: 1:34:08

But you have like a battery pack for it too. But yeah, I mean, yeah, who knows man, who knows? All right, so we'll get to jump into, I guess, first, first. Well, it's Friday the 13th, so I guess we'll start with that stuff first, jump more into the retrospective stuff, jump into the other games and all that jazz, and then hit up the big new topics. So, um, we picked out five games that we have in our collection that we love. So these are ones. I preface that that you know there's a lot of games that I don't have, and also, I did not go in my other room with like all my much older games, like ps2 and under. So I I didn't do that because we're running behind the podcast already, but, um, I did grab some games and some of them kind of go together, but I just had to. I just had to grab them because I love them all. But I'll go ahead and let you go first and show off your five horror games.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:35:13

Okay, I'll go with the horror games. Yes, All right. So What'd you just say? What's that? What'd you just say? The horror games. Excuse me the horror games, Excuse me the horror Horror. Now, some of these I think a lot of these can fall under horror, but maybe some of them not so much. So the first one I got to go with Is a game that scared the crap out of me when it came out back in the day. We played my cousin and I played this on Halloween night and it was after we went trick-or-treating, because that's how long ago this was. It came out on the PlayStation 1. You guys might be able to guess what it is, and that is Resident Evil the original. And I'm talking about when the dog when there's the crap out of you.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:36:16

Yeah, it was such a special experience playing it on the PS one because like this was those pre rendered backgrounds in Resident Evil, or like game changer they were yeah, that was the future.

Brandon Hurles: 1:36:27

Those dogs, man. Yeah, never forget that, because I went back and revisited and the same thing still happened to me. Because it's still. I knew it was going to come, but it still got me. You know what I mean. Even as an adult, I was like, oh, I got that childhood fear back in me for a second and I loved it. It's so cool. Did you like Zero? Because I loved Zero.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:36:54

Yeah, I have all of them. I own them all on PS4. Because they were all released physically. Everything except for Code Veronica, right.

Brandon Hurles: 1:37:03

Yeah, I think I've still got it on Dreamcast.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:37:07

I don't think they re-released Code Veronica on PS4.

Brandon Hurles: 1:37:10

If they did, I have it they didn't.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:37:13

So, yeah, I love them all. I've played them all. I love the remakes they're doing. I got to go with another Resident Evil game because this is a different experience, guys, and I'm holding Biohazard, but I also have resident evil village and I have resident evil 4 and I'm talking about playing this on playstation vr or playstation vr 2. My god, yeah, that is wild, horrifying. That is that is. Yeah, it is so cool, it is so scary. There's a lot of horror games right on VR but, again, a lot of them are experiences and to me, the Resident Evil games feel like video games.

Brandon Hurles: 1:38:01

They do yeah they do to me too.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:38:09

And they're truly scary in vr and so I really love the resident evil games. And then next up, this is a game that really did a good job of scaring me, in the sense that when I played this game and I hear the audio, I'm afraid to look around the corner. It's like one of those games where you slowly enter your character and you're like, oh god, I just know something's there, I can hear it and you probably know what I'm talking about. This game did a great job with the audio. Originally came out on 360 and PS3. That is Dead Space Wild game Very scary game back in the day, absolutely. It just did such a great job with that sound and then I got two more here.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:39:02

Now I want to give an honorable mention to, before I get to these these, to the Last of Us, the Clickers. The first time being around the Clickers in the Last of Us was I don't know if scary is the right word I think it partially is, but it just made you like on edge, probably gave me like a little bit of anxiety while I'm playing, and I really like that Personally. I like it when games can do that. So I will mention that. Now. This is the game that some may not consider a horror game, but there's many times to me that it felt a little horrifying, and that was Fallout 4. And I ended up platinuming this game. I really enjoyed it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:39:57

I played this right when COVID started. I had bought the game when it came out in, I think, 2015. I have the Pip-Boy edition, where you can actually wear the Pip-Boy and connect it to your phone with the Pip-Boy app. So it was very cool. And I just got so busy with work where I was working like 60, 70 hours a week and playing Fallout just wasn't going to happen.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:40:24

Fast forward to right around when COVID starts. Six months before that, I had already started working from home permanently Because I was managing employees in other countries and so it didn't make sense for me to drive to the office. So I was already working from home, and that's when I decided to play. Fallout was when covet hit. I'm like this is the perfect game, I think, for right now, the perfect dystopian escape from the real dystopia we're in right now. So that was fun. And then the last one, guys, is going to be an nes game and you might be thinking, really an nes game for, for a horror game, but I think this was probably the first horror game that I ever played was on the nes and I played it with my brothers and my cousin. It was one of my all time favorites and that is Maniac.

Brandon Hurles: 1:41:30

Yes.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:41:31

Yes, love this game so much, huge fan of Maniac Mansion and of course it's sequel Day of the Tentacle. But this game was. It was creepy as a kid. You know I was born as a kid. You know I was born in 85. So I I think I was playing this in a 1990 with my brothers and cousin and it was creepy. And you did get kind of scared in the game, like when you enter the kitchen.

Brandon Hurles: 1:41:59

Yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:42:00

Or you enter a different room You're like, oh man, I hope like Dr Fred's not there or uh, what was his wife? Uh, edna, or a weird Ed. You know, like these characters that can if, if they get you, they put you into the cellar, the prison, where there's like a skeleton down there, you know, chained up still. And it was just another one of those games that kind of gave you like that Gary anxiety to it and it's something that stuck with me my whole life. I love this game. So those are my favorite Horror games. What do you got?

Brandon Hurles: 1:42:41

Well, I was going to ask you first do you have any others that you don't own but would like to own?

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:42:51

For horror games. Yeah, you know what Actually gosh? I almost forgot one. I literally just looked down at it and forgot about this. Guys, it's right here. Eternal Darkness, love this game and actually this one's factory sealed what?

Brandon Hurles: 1:43:13

Whoa yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:43:16

Whoa, I know right, that's a good one. I love Eternal Darkness I love it too. When I first played it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:43:23

you know I remember it messes with you, man. I can tell you we're off the top of my head, because this is how much I frequented planet gamecubecom back in the day yeah uh, the developer was silicon knights. I read so many interviews from dennis dyack who was like the creator of silicon knights and, of course, eternal darkness and there was so much hype going into this game and I just remember like the sanity effects yeah I like this is so freaking cool, man, like a race, here you're safe and still to this day we, we haven't got anything like it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:44:04

Yeah, you know, I mean, and it's, it's crazy because Nintendo owns this IP now.

Brandon Hurles: 1:44:09

Yes.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:44:10

I've looked it up. They own it and it's like why haven't we got another one? This game, I think, came out in 2002. Yeah, yeah, 22 years ago, another Nintendo IP that needs to get some love two years ago, another nintendo ip.

Brandon Hurles: 1:44:31

That needs to get some love. So I guess we'll go ahead and move on mine. I've got two honorable mentions before I jump in. Also some of mine, some people will say, aren't horror, maybe horror adjacents, I guess, but to me like I had to grab what I had here and then also what I just really liked in general. The first one is a little weird because I'm showing the Everdrive for it. I don't have the cart. There's a. There's a reason why I don't have the cart it's very, very expensive. But I'm showing this for Resident Evil Gaiden. I love that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:45:05

I absolutely love that game, so much I actually replayed it again this year and still had a blast with it. So that's a game I loved and at the time playing it with your worm lights, you know, in the dark, it was pretty creepy, man, like it was pretty creepy. You know what I'm saying. So I remember I had one I don't remember what the brand was that put these out, but they made like these monster lights for the Game Boy Color. They would be like tentacles and like stuff like that. They were like monster-y things. So that's what I had and that's what I was using playing the game with. So, um, I remember the warm light. Yeah, I, I had the twirly warm light too. Yeah, yeah, I remember all those. I I don't miss them. I'll tell you that I don't miss those, but I do have a couple of them sealed um.

Brandon Hurles: 1:46:02

Next is this is again. Some people will argue this is not horror, whatever. Also, a lot of people hate this game, but I love it. Resident evil operation raccoon city. I love this game. I thought it was so much fun online I thought that online was great.

Brandon Hurles: 1:46:21

Um, it got a lot of hate but at the time, at least at release, yeah, I do hear positive things now for some reason. Now I do hear I I know a larger youtuber uh did a whole video on this and it kind of blew up and the price went up a little bit and now people are aware of it. But I think just at the time didn't get good reviews from critics and didn't sell because it was a spinoff, that was multiplayer. But I think it's a lot of fun.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:46:52

You know, it reminds me of what's that, and it was the same generation when Castlevania released their multiplayer. Yeah, yeah, it's like what you know. What are you guys doing? You guys make single player games that we love, and then now you're doing this, and I think that was part of the problem, brandon, is that people wanted the single player? Yes, and even though this was good, it's just not what they wanted, so I didn't get as much love, unfortunately.

Brandon Hurles: 1:47:21

Yeah, it is unfortunate and it's one like if anybody is looking like for any 360 games, especially now with, like you know, the store closure and stuff like that, I do recommend that game. I think it's a lot of fun. I've had a blast with it. I played it again last year. Still thought it was fun. I kind of wish they had continued like the sort of semi-story with that game and like kind of what was going on there. The story was essentially, you know, in between some of the some of the games and just like what was going on. Basically that was the story. So it was kind of like there was a story but kind of no story at the same time if you know what I mean.

Brandon Hurles: 1:48:06

So I do, but for the games that I picked for my actual game. So the first one is Zombie U. I love this game. Good pick, love this game. Wii U version is the best version. It is the to me is the only version. I'm sorry, but without the game pad. Like the game version. It is the to me is the only version. I'm sorry, but without the gamepad. Like the game's. Just it's just not the same, it just isn't.

Brandon Hurles: 1:48:32

The gamepad makes it, it literally made the game, and to me this has got to be in the top five, maybe even top three, like essentials for the Wii U, Because this takes so much advantage of the gamepad and it's so essential to it that I I just I think it's one that you have to have. If you have a wii u you're looking for games, you you've got to have this game I think so too.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:49:00

That's a good, really good recommendation, I think, for for everybody.

Brandon Hurles: 1:49:05

When it comes to wii u, that's a great one to play yeah, definitely, and I I still love the wii u I mine's hooked up at all times. I I like it, um, and I obviously I use it for my wii games too, um, but I I thought it was a great console and I had a blast with it. Uh. Next one we actually talked about this yesterday. So some consider it horror, some don't, but I would consider this one, this first one, horror, and that's bioshock. This is actually the two-pack with bolivian, but, uh, the first bioshock yeah it terrified me, um, just walking through the different areas and corridors.

Brandon Hurles: 1:49:43

It just terrified me at the time.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:49:45

Yeah, it does. It has a way of doing that, and I would agree with you. Uh, playing bioshock can be very creepy can give you that, that kind of horror anxiety, as I like to, I guess, call it. I keep referring to it as that, but that's what it feels like.

Brandon Hurles: 1:50:05

It does. I like it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:50:07

I like it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:50:08

Me too.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:50:08

Bring it on. I like those feelings. Some people are like oh, I don't play this, this is cool man.

Brandon Hurles: 1:50:13

I chase those feelings man.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:50:15

I'm after it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:50:17

Get your adrenaline pump. It's good for you I agree, it's healthy so these next ones? I'm realizing I actually forgot one.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:50:29

So hold on, give me just a sec you know there are so many horror games I thought about too that I could go through. There's a lot of other good ones. One of them I was looking at, the Evil Within. That was a good one. That's a good horror game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:50:56

So, yeah, well, I'm about to bring that up, so I guess I'll go ahead and bring that one up, don't worry. Yeah, evil Within Another awesome game. I loved this game when it came out I thought it was fantastic. Tango game works obviously Unfortunate everything that's happened with that deal, but I didn't think the sequel was as good as the first one. Personally, I don't know how you felt like I thought it was fine. Yeah, not as good, I didn't love it, but yeah, I I would have gave it like if I I guess I rate it like a, like a 7 out of 10. I thought it was fine, but I didn't love the sequel this is for Mr Coffee, Mr Radar and Chat.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:51:45

Just show you real quick.

Brandon Hurles: 1:51:48

Let's go. Yeah, I remember when that went up.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:51:50

This is Ghoul Patrol Right here, Zombies Ate. My Neighbor is Ghoul Patrol Classic. Love that game. Lucasarts once again.

Brandon Hurles: 1:52:04

Yeah, that's great stuff. I remember when that went up and I was totally considering grabbing that. There's just too dag on many limited run things that I want. There's one, there's one this is a off topic there's one that I regret so much not getting that probably nobody else cares about, but but it is, uh, the eye of the eye of the typhoon for 3do. It's the only 3do release that they did and uh, I don't think they're probably going to do any more again.

Brandon Hurles: 1:52:36

Uh, but it's a fighting game for 3do and it's I I, so I have a I get, I get. You would call it modded. My 3DO is modded. I have an external essentially an external ODE. So instead of removing the hard drive, I've got an external ODE to keep the hard drive still intact so I can play whatever I want on 3DO at this point and I've got it loaded up with games.

Brandon Hurles: 1:53:03

But I do regret that one just because I do love that game and I think it's a a great fighting game. It's it's very fun and like kind of shows off the 3do. Some people don't like it, some people love it. Um, I've seen it where it's been played at tournaments. So like, obviously it's got a crowd of people, but I do regret not that's cool not getting that game. Um. So then the next one. I went back there to go. Look, the reason that I didn't put it with these is because I actually have that one in the other pile to talk about, because I like that one the best. So I'll just go ahead and mention these are I'm going to mention them all together fear one, two and three oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, good choice yeah, I, I really enjoy these games.

Brandon Hurles: 1:53:51

Fear three is is probably my least favorite of the series, but I still enjoyed it. Um, I, these games are just super fun, and these are ones where some people would consider it not horror more. I mean, because it is. It is obviously more action horror based. You know, I I don't I don't know what term you would use for that. It's, uh, not survive. Well, it is, it's still kind of survival horror, but not in that way where you've got, like, you know, super low ammo and things like that. Um, yeah, but they're really, really fun games. I think it's a great series. I wish it would make it return with a new, like a new game, not just like a remake. I would love to see like a new entry in the series. I assume you've played them, yeah, yeah, yeah, super, super fun. And then I want to show off the other one when we talk about the other games in a bit. So there is all those and that's all my horror picks there. So I guess, very nice.

Brandon Hurles: 1:54:56

Well, before we do some retrospective, I guess we should probably hit the big news, because obviously we did have some really big stuff this week, the biggest being, uh, the ps5 pro announced pretty much right after the last podcast, uh, I think. Anyway, it feels like it. What? What was the presentation monday? I mean, that was only a couple days later later, realistically, I don't know Monday, tuesday, I forget which day, but it was one of those days. It was eight minutes long or something. I considered streaming it and then I'm like, eh, I'm not going to stream for eight minutes, I'll just react on Twitter.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:55:42

It was three days ago, oh, three, I think Tuesday, tuesday, yeah, it was like it was a week ago oh, three, I think tuesday.

Brandon Hurles: 1:55:51

Okay, tuesday, yes, it was like it was a week ago, though it doesn't. It does? It feels like it's because a discussion, and I've talked about it on a bunch of different things since then I've been on two different podcasts this week talking about it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:56:01

We talked about a little bit on uh during indie mania. We, you know, I've been talking about it. We talked about it a little bit on uh during indie mania. We, you know, I've been talking about it all week long. So, um, yeah, so what's your thoughts? What's your general thoughts on this?

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:56:15

okay. So general thoughts. Hey, I tweeted about this as well. Out the door in arizona. Okay, in arizona, if you want to buy the ps5 pro and the vertical stand, that is sold separately, so ridiculous. Yeah and uh, you want to buy the physical disk drive. So if you want a physical ps5 Pro in Arizona, with our sales tax, which is a lot, it's 5.6. There's other places that are 7 and 8.

Brandon Hurles: 1:56:53

Yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:56:54

California. It's $855 out the door with no game, unless they include if they're still including, astro thought, the original astro astros playroom, which is a great game. But yeah, so 855 out the door. So initial thoughts yes, it's very expensive. Uh, deeper thoughts into it as as kind of the week went on, is what? What does this mean for the future of consoles? What does this mean for ps6? How much is it going to cost if we're getting a mid-gen refresh that costs 8855 out the door? So my first thought is okay, well, what's PS six going to look like? Right, I can't say what's you know Xbox next going to look like, because I don't know if there's going to be an.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:57:57

X Xbox. I'm not I am not in any means anyway sold on that. So that was one question I had. The other thing that came to me was there's only one SKU.

Brandon Hurles: 1:58:12

Right.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:58:13

And it's for a digital edition. So what does that spell for the future of physical? And to me that is a telltale sign that they want to get out of physical. I think ASAP. I think Sony wants to have everything on their storefront. They'll make way more money. The devs won't have to worry about any of the logistics involved the production, the printing of the disc, the materials, all that stuff. Everything goes to the store. Do like Steam does, and of course, I think that's the way we're going.

ThunderStash Gaming: 1:58:57

I will support physical until the end. I'll be there until the very end. But when it goes all digital, that's okay. I'll never stop gaming. I'll do that for the rest of my life. But you know, those are things that I saw as I went into the week and I kind of let it simmer. I was like, okay, how much are game consoles going to cost now and what does this mean for physical? Now there's other thoughts I had to, outside of just the very high price. One is that Is is it worth it, right? So I watched a live stream, ok, and then later I went back and I watched it in 4k on YouTube. I made sure to put the settings to 4k max settings so I could really see right like I'm trying to be sold. Essentially, give me a reason for this to be something that's worthwhile, and I couldn't find a good reason for myself right now. If you want to buy a ps5 pro, more power to you, literally, literally. More power to you.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:00:19

There's more power, yeah, more power and there's nothing wrong with anyone who wants to buy this. If you want to buy it, buy it. You know what I mean. Uh, I I look at it this way, like if I was going to be buying a ps5, what would I choose if I didn't have one? You know? Like what would you choose? Right? And it literally like if, if you didn't have a ps5, if you don't have a ps5 right now, I would how would you? How into, how into playstation are you? Are you into it enough to be like oh well, I waited four years and now I'm really into playstation.

Brandon Hurles: 2:00:55

I want to spend 8.55 to buy a playstation 5 pro with no game I mean if I didn't have one now I would just go with the PS5 Pro. I mean it's hard because all in the cost is crazy. I mean it is crazy, it's hard to even say that. I mean I think that I think I personally probably would still, I would just go with the PS5 pro if I didn't have one. Of course the entry is expensive. So I think, realistically, like, say, I didn't have any of the modern consoles, I think at that point, um, we'll exclude, switch on this.

Brandon Hurles: 2:01:40

I guess if I were I would just get at that point, I would get a series X. Now of course we don't even know what's going on with Xbox, but that doesn't mean you, there's still plenty of games to be played right, like and, and the cost of entry is significantly lower. And series X's are on sale all the time, I see all the time, all the time. So it would be hard to say you all the time. So it would be hard to say you know, don't get a series x over, you know I, I obviously I think that we're not getting a midlife refresh, because they did announce, they just announced, a two terabyte series x and um, I don't think we're getting one um.

Brandon Hurles: 2:02:23

But I think I personally would go with the ps5 pro if I did not have one um. I would just save up the money and I guess just go that route, because you know I I do. I do feel like my thoughts are the price is ridiculous, but the stuff with the ps5 Pros is pretty awesome, the stuff they're doing, and it is a game changer. It's not just like a small refresh. The AI upscaling and the machine learning is a bigger deal than people realize and if you dig deep into what it is, it's a game changer. You can't tell in that presentation when they're showing older PS5 games. You can't tell. You can't tell in that presentation when they're showing older PS5 games. You can't tell. You can't tell in compression with YouTube. I don't care if you have it at 4K you can't tell.

Brandon Hurles: 2:03:13

You just can't. So it's very hard to demonstrate and show that there's no way over the internet really to show that You've got to see it in person, right to show that like you got to see in person. Now, obviously, obviously you, you've got to, um, along with all of that, you've got to have a pretty good tv, right, you've got to, got to, you got to have a good tv for sure, like not just a generic 4k tv either you want to be able to have a tv that is capable of hdmi 2.1 and being able to do all you know um, vrr and and all the things that.

Brandon Hurles: 2:03:51

Yep, you can't even use some of that with the ps5 unless you have a tv that does that stuff. So that is another point of entry. People don't really talk about um no, they don't, yeah, I mean like the ps5 pro, if you, if you have a generic 4k tv, or especially if you have 1080 pt, uh, 1080 um, I would definitely not go the ps5 pro route at that point, brandon, how?

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:04:17

many people own a 4k ready tv and they think they have a 4k tv um, I'll list a lot of people, a lot of people think they have no idea that they're just just having upscaled. That just means you can accept 4k yeah, signal yeah, and that you're not running it in 4k. And I think a lot of people don't even understand that the stuff you're watching on tv is not in 4k yeah, nope, nope, it's not.

Brandon Hurles: 2:04:48

And uh, a lot of people also don't realize, you know, like they advertise 8k on the box of the ps5. People think, uh, I mean, the ps5 is not even natively playing 4k games, right, like it's not even. Yeah, they advertise 8k and it doesn't even natively play 4k games, right, like it's not even. Yeah, they advertise 8k and it doesn't even natively play 4k games. Um, so I, I don't know, man, it's like that, that was a crappy move on sony to put 8k on the box.

Brandon Hurles: 2:05:18

That was that's dirty, you know what I mean because, like people like us, we know right, like I knew before launch, like we all did, and then you know what happened. They did that to sell 8k tvs, and it did sell 8k tvs. I was in a and I still am a bunch of playstation 5 groups, like when the when it first launched I. So I got the series X day one. I went and waited in line on the pre-order day and for like four hours the pre-order day and so on launch day listen, this is a crazy story. I think I've told this maybe one other time in the podcast but on launch day there was a line of people there to get the series x, like a long line, like down to two other stores, right, because it's in a shopping mall. Yeah, and I go. They, they don't believe me that I pre-ordered it, so I had to go in the back of the line.

Brandon Hurles: 2:06:19

Um, I was like I was kind of irritated because I was like I pre-ordered it, like here's my receipt. Some lady got mad at me and it's like no, you can come back there anyway, they start letting people in. I was the only person that got a series x. They had no extra series x's, only me and two for the other two people on the pre-order day that were there but they hadn't came to pick it up, so I was the only one that walked out of the store at the series x and they had to have a. I I told them no, but they had one of the game. Stop and please walk me out. Because people were so pissed off like yeah, it was like and I was a little like sketched that like somebody was gonna. You know, I don't know I was a little sketch becauseed that like somebody was gonna. You know, I don't know, I was a little sketch because people a little crazy around here. Yeah, that's a a funny story. Um, I don't even know how we got to that.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:07:14

Um well, yeah, it was. It was a big deal, though, like because I got my ps5 on day one, I was lucky enough to secure a pre-order, and you know what I did, brandon, what I didn't want. It shipped to my house because I live in a rural area and sometimes my packages don't get delivered to my property.

Brandon Hurles: 2:07:36

Yeah, I've had it happen.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:07:38

I get it, they get delivered somewhere else. So I got it from Walmart, which is across the street from me. I had it pre-ordered and I set it for store pickup. Now, if you remember, there was no PS5s in store.

Brandon Hurles: 2:07:53

None.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:07:54

None. So I'm going to Walmart to go. I'm the only one with a store pickup at my Walmart. They told me that. Yeah mart, they told me that. Yeah, so you know, I'll just say that if anyone tried to do anything, I was prepared. Yeah, yeah, I'll just say that. But for real, people get jumped, they get, they do, they get, they get held up, and it does happen, it totally 100.

Brandon Hurles: 2:08:24

There was a guy and they're like, yelling like he was, he's what. And he's like why is this? Why is this mother effort able to get one? I can't, I'm trying to get it for my son. I'm like, I'm sorry, I I waited here for four hours on the pre-order day. You didn't, I'm sorry, you just showed up and it's not my, you know, fault.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:08:44

Um you know, this is november 2020 yeah, and this was so yeah people's, people's uh mindsets their heads. A lot of people's heads weren't in the right place and then at that point in time that that's true and something similar.

Brandon Hurles: 2:09:00

I got the ps5 three days after it came out and then something kind of similar happened where I went in there and there were a bunch of people that saw me like they were. They were, you know, eyeballing me about getting the ps5.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:09:16

Yeah, some people will case you. They'll literally case you in the parking lot.

Brandon Hurles: 2:09:19

That's what and I was like, so I I did. I did have pocket knife with me with me because I was a little nervous. But yeah, they were eyeballing me so I thought that maybe they were going to come out in the parking lot or something. So nobody walked out with me for that. And I actually felt a little more nervous about that one because the way they were looking at me I didn't like it.

Brandon Hurles: 2:09:41

And the ps5, uh, people wanted both, but the ps5 obviously was way bigger at launch than the series x. But I was surprised, man, I couldn't believe how many people were there waiting for that series x I'm talking. This went like three stores down. There was a long line like I. I don't even think I saw lines that long for some of the older Call of Duty launches or some of the big game launches where it was a big deal. So I was kind of surprised by that. But around where I'm at, the Series X is very popular. Xbox as a brand is very popular here for some reason. Interesting, yeah, a brand is very popular here for some reason. Like interesting, yeah, like everybody, back to high school, 360 people had just stuck with the xbox brand.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:10:31

Yeah, but that's how it is in different areas of the united states, different pockets, that's that's how it goes. You know that yeah yeah, it's definitely.

Brandon Hurles: 2:10:40

I don't know what it is about that, but the xbox brand definitely has a suck around here. So, um, yeah, yeah, that's uh interesting stuff about that. So, ps5 pro, I guess you know it's like, if you want to get it, get it. I mean, is it? I love the upgrades to it, it's just the price is the the hindrance? And, and I will say this, I put a short out about it and I'm not defending the price, but these companies do lose money on the consoles and and rely on on software sales. So I don't know, I cannot give a number on the loss of what the ps5 pro will be, but my assumption is it's going to be bigger than the loss for the ps5.

Brandon Hurles: 2:11:27

Yeah I think so too yeah, because what you would, the the hardware they're using, that the so they're the pssr the pro uh, playstation super, uh, super something resolution, super, sampling super yes super sampling resolution, um, so that is their proprietary version of dlss.

Brandon Hurles: 2:11:51

So the cost of all of this I mean if you were to count in, like development costs, even um, creating pssr, um, it's definitely a significant jump it's got to be. And then people argued with I got a lot of nasty comments for that short, I was not defending the price. I was just saying, hey, like I get, the price is expensive. Yes, I, I don't like it either. But hey, these companies are also losing money on these console sales and my assumption is they're losing more money on this one, because that was also the case with the ps4 pro. They're losing more money with that and um, losing money but selling more 4k tvs.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:12:36

Yeah, that's what it's all I am.

Brandon Hurles: 2:12:38

So making money back on the 4k tvs they're selling I'm so glad that you said that, because that is one of the things, so that I mean that's why 8k was on the box, right, yep it was a sellout that is why, 100%, it's always been that way. The consoles are selling the TVs right. Always been that way, and nobody else really talks about that either. I don't hear anybody talk about that one, but it's been like that for a long, long time.

Brandon Hurles: 2:13:03

People want to be ready. Uh, I remember in the playstation, uh, five groups before the console even launched. People are getting their tvs and making sure they were going to, you know, be in series x groups to make it sure they're going to be able to have all the green check marks on there.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:13:18

And, um, you know, totally yeah ps play, uh, yeah, ps play, uh. Sony has branded on a whole line of their TVs which ones are PS five ready and which ones are like PS five preferred, so not just ready, but like, hey, this is your best experience right here. So, yeah, they, they, they did the same thing. So they did it with PS four pro. Yeah, they sold more 4k TVs, and so they did it with ps4 pro. Yeah, they sold more 4k tvs. And then they did it with the newer tvs with hey, this is hdmi 2.1, this, this can give you the vrr, and you know so it works.

Brandon Hurles: 2:14:02

Did you know that they actually made like a ps5 monitor? Sony did, yeah. Yeah, so the end zone monitor, uh, very interesting, it matches the color scheme and everything. Um expensive, very expensive, yeah I'm looking at it look at it now. It's on sale for 650 versus the 900 it was at, so it's yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:14:26

I always looked at that and thought, well, if, if the price is ever cut in half, if it was cut in half for sure.

Brandon Hurles: 2:14:33

I mean like I'm looking at you on my ps3 monitor right now.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:14:37

So that's funny, yeah I use that as my secondary, one of my secondary monitors um yeah, you know it's expensive, brandon, but I think people, it's up to people what they want to do with their money. You know, ultimately and for me, um, I think we're more than halfway through this ps5 gen yeah, this is uh, we're what? Two months away from being four years. Yes, yeah, and the. I don't see that ps5 going for eight years. I don't either.

Brandon Hurles: 2:15:22

I could see it going for I think most likely six, seven, six most likely six, seven, max, but I could see six.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:15:32

And then you, you continue to support it, yeah, until year seven, eight, just like they've done with the ps4. So for me, it's like do I need? This comes down for me. To me, it comes down to needs and wants, and I get a lot of what I want, but sometimes I also need to look at the needs part and hey, here's the thing Sony has gotten me used to choosing if I want fidelity or performance, yeah, and I always fidelity or performance. Yeah, and I always choose performance, me too, and it's all about, for me, the gameplay.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:16:12

I do appreciate the graphics, we all do. We appreciate everything, though, and if you got to choose one, I choose performance, and, from what I've gathered, for the most part my performance is going to be unaffected. Yeah, uh, because I'm good with words that I have tv. I have a tv. They take advantage of it. It's ps5, ready in every way, shape and form. It's 85 inch. And then I have my, my benq uh 4 4k gaming projector. I have, I have their top of the line projector with a pull down widescreen. Oh, wow, how is that? Oh, dude, that's what I play on most of the time wow, I've never actually 100, I've never got 150 inch screen.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:16:56

I have the uh benq x 3100i I want to look it's it's there. Yeah, it's the x 3100, and it's their flagship gaming projector. There's no input lag. It's a beautiful experience. I have it hooked up to my 7.1 surround sound in the living room and it's badass, and I have it blacked out in there so I can game it any time of the day. There's no light that's going to come in and it's a great experience boy, that that is a.

Brandon Hurles: 2:17:29

Uh, that's a. There's a hefty price tag, though I know how much. How much did you pay for it? Because I'm seeing like very varying prices on it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:17:39

So get this. Yeah, I was looking at this projector and I had already bought a couple gaming projectors and tested them out and ended up returning them because it just wasn't right. There was something wrong with them and a lot of them was the color. The color was not accurate yeah and it just bugged the crap out of me. I'm like I I'm not gonna spend this kind of money unless this is right you know what I mean. I'm not gonna.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:18:09

I'm not gonna settle. I'm not gonna settle is what I said. So they, they got returned yeah and so I had seen this one on benq's website and I'm thinking, okay, like this sounds really legit, but that's very expensive and it wasn't out yet At the time I was looking at it. It was when it was still not out, brandon, I go on eBay and I'm looking at BenQ projectors. Yeah, there's one on there. It's that one and I'm like pulling up the website and doing a side-by-side.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:18:45

A side by side like this is the projector. That's not out. I look at the description. The guy said he got the projector from benq to do a product review on it. It's only been used for one hour. I've done my review. I'm selling it. Oh my gosh, dude, I was like, holy shit, are you serious, because you know there's a review embargo too? Yeah, of course. And so I'm like well, I'm not subject to those terms. Yeah, they have nothing to do with you. So I I bought it on ebay and I reviewed it. I have the review on my channel. It's, it's gotten. They got over 100000 views.

Brandon Hurles: 2:19:24

Wow, I'll have to check it out and that's that's wild.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:19:32

Long story short. I got it for fourteen hundred, all right, which you see what the price tag is I see, yeah, yeah, that's the deal. So it was a steal and it came. It came in the original box. It looked like ben q shipped it to me. That's, that's all. That's awesome. I was shocked. I was like this is so freaking cool. I I like one of the rare instances where I got a a coveted a piece of electronics early.

Brandon Hurles: 2:20:04

I you know, before everyone else that makes me wonder how many people do that sell, uh, review items, because I, I could tell you this I, I don't buy a lot, yeah, probably a lot. I've, I've never sold one, I've, I've never sold one. But I mean, I guess, like, if you, if you're a big youtuber and you get them all the time, I, I mean I know I get enough, as is you probably get overloaded with stuff, I'm sure.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:20:32

Yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 2:20:33

I have like four projectors. All right, well, send one my way, because I have never been in the projector game ever. I've never had a projector. I wouldn't know anything about them, to be honest with you.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:20:46

Um well, we used to have them for sports, like we'd watch yeah, football and watch all the suns games on a projector, and so projectors, for the longest time, were not suitable at all for video games because the input lag was absolutely horrendous yeah, that's what I would think like they were horrible and it's changed over the last 5-10 years and now, like this projector, I have zero input. Like that projector's input lag is better than all my tvs in game. It's better than my NVIDIA G-Sync Dell gaming monitor. That's right here. It's better than everything.

Brandon Hurles: 2:21:32

That's crazy.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:21:34

It's amazing.

Brandon Hurles: 2:21:35

Yeah, it's just shocking. I would not think that a projector would look better than a high-end screen.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:21:41

Dude. I played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on the projector with the surround sound and man it was it was such a good. It was just such a good experience because you know the soundtrack yeah, and final fantasy and rebirth especially, I was just like dude.

Brandon Hurles: 2:21:58

That's amazing I am in my own world right now I love it, dude, that's so. I'm glad to know that, because that's not something I knew. I have seen a couple shorts of people making like I saw they had like a project they made like a projector area on the side of their barn or something for gaming and so like they painted it specific color and everything for the projector.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:22:27

And yeah, when I've camped out for consoles, yeah, I always bring the projector and I. I have many, many instances where we've camped out and you can literally see the giant 150 200 inch screen. It's however big you want it to be, but on best buys wall at night, like after they've closed that's wild and literally everyone's playing, like playing on the projector, playing mario kart, playing smash brothers uh, I remember. Like bringing my 64 and we're playing uh, no, which I love that and 64 Wrestling Games.

Brandon Hurles: 2:23:08

Those two.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:23:11

Tons of fun. Projectors are sick now, If you ever have any questions. I've been tinkering with projectors for almost 20 years.

Brandon Hurles: 2:23:25

I will tell you this. A company reached out to me um, there's, there's been a few things that I've denied because I didn't think that it was something I could use. Company reached out to me about three months ago for a gaming projector company. Uh, find out.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:23:44

I'd have to go back in my email and look, find out off, uh, when we're not on the podcast, let me know, and I probably know who they are and I can tell you about it okay, all right, yeah, I'll do that.

Brandon Hurles: 2:23:53

And then, uh, all right, so next, couple of uh big things. Uh, real quick, we've got, obviously, the xbox layoffs 650 more. Um, yeah, yeah, man, I man, I can't say that I would recommend getting into the gaming industry and the AAA gaming industry in 2024. It's hard to say, I mean, like, will you have a job, you know, in six months of starting at a place?

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:24:20

It's not only that, though, it's not just development, it's journalism too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not just development, it's journalism too, yeah yeah, yeah, that's taken a big hit. The credibility aspect has taken a big hit, I think, over the last, especially over the last 12 months. Yeah, over the last year or two it's been taking some hits in the mainstream.

Brandon Hurles: 2:24:43

Well, what's funny is journalism is that like I don't know if you remember this, but I definitely do and I remember this all the way back to like the nintendo forum days, um ign always kind of had a stigma around them because they always they always put out a very opinionated pieces on pieces that weren't supposed to be opinionated, if that makes sense. So there was always stuff around them, but I just noticed it start to dwindle down over time. I feel like it's been a little bit longer than that, that the credibility has just been gone for them. Yeah, and you're definitely accurate in saying like it's definitely worse in the last 12 months, like credibility for any mainstream video game journalism is like it's out for me to be honest with you I.

Brandon Hurles: 2:25:38

I have said it over and over on this podcast the critic scores and things like that mean nothing to me anymore, mean absolutely nothing.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:25:47

I'm more interested in what the people have to say that are leaving google reviews, that are taking time out of their day to tell me how much they either love this game or how much they hated it, because you're really not getting much in between. You know what I mean. Yeah, like they're either gonna tell you if they loved it or they hated it. They're're really not getting much in between. You know what I mean. Yeah, like they're either going to tell you if they loved it or they hated it. They're not really going to tell you usually if it was OK or this or that. Like I'm interested in what the people have to say, just like movies, right, yeah, same, it's the same thing.

Brandon Hurles: 2:26:20

I don't care about the critics score at all with movies. I want to hear about the viewer score.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:26:23

If, if siskel and ebert, uh, gave happy gilmore two thumbs down, you know what? What would happen if no one saw that? Yeah, to me that's a. To me that's a great movie. I loved it. I saw it in the theater growing up, you know. I mean like you always got to look at that, and I think the thing is, though, is that for the longest time, gaming journalism was pretty much on the same page as us, like if they thought it was good and we played it, it was good. Yeah, but movies I thought was pretty divided on, like what the critics thought was good versus what the moviegoers. Yes, and I think that is closing now.

Brandon Hurles: 2:27:03

It was because of people like eber at the time, like you had like these kind of heads for the, the you know doing the, the movie ratings like there were there. There are big names for people that you know like oh so and so rated it this, so like I'm not gonna watch it at all. You know, yeah, exactly.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:27:23

Yeah, exactly, and you know I. I think what really matters is what the people have to say, the people who are playing the games, the gamers, us who are playing it. What do you guys think about the game? That's what I'm more interested in, and you know, that's why, like, I take reviewing games so seriously and that if it's not a good game, I want to tell you guys, yeah, if it's a game that I really think is questionable coming up upon release, I'm gonna make sure I play it and review it asap, like I did with teenage mutant ninja turtles, wrath of the mutants. Yeah, okay, I don't think this game's like I got. I got a, I got a vibe about it. It's not gonna be great, yeah, and so I want to play it and review it so I can fall on the sword for everybody. Yeah, okay, I'll spend the money, because if this sucks, I'll tell you guys this stay away from this game it's funny, we kind of connected over that game, yeah, because I couldn't find it anywhere.

Brandon Hurles: 2:28:26

And then I went and watched your video about it and I was like I just love. I love turtles a lot.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:28:32

I do too. I'm a big love them.

Brandon Hurles: 2:28:34

Yeah. So I wanted it kind of regardless, but I had I had a feeling it wasn't going to be good to be with. Like I just had a feeling it wasn't going to be good to begin with, like I just had a feeling it wasn't going to be shredders revenge uh, it wasn't going to be any of the games on the collection, um.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:28:51

but yeah, you fell on the sword for everybody and and we appreciate that well, you know, yeah, and I think that's just part of reviewing games, but it's like it's about being honest yeah, and when you, when you can't trust journalism and you can't, I mean I'm in a mainstream media in it in itself, I haven't trusted that.

Brandon Hurles: 2:29:12

Yes, since, like I don't know if I ever did, but I really didn't in the late 90s, early 2000s, when I was still a teenager I have a clause that I have written down for any video games I review, so somebody sends me a teenager. I have a clause that I have written down for any video games I review, so somebody sends me a code. I have the same thing that I say to every single person that if I do not like the game, I'm just putting in terms if I, if I don't like the game, I'm going to say that I don't like the game. So if you're not okay with that because there are companies I've been reached out to before that they just they just want to hear positive stuff and they ask to see your review before you post it- and I and I deny it, so I won't do that hey yeah, we, we've, we've seen this.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:29:58

It's obvious when this happens, yeah, you know, like it's obvious when certain companies, certain developers, are like, hey, we need to get, we need to get this game code out to streamers immediately to start stirring up some, some positive views, right, yeah, I mean we pretty much just had that with a game, yeah, yeah we did, which had that with a game. Yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 2:30:26

Yeah, we did. Which one are you talking about? I think I Star Wars Outlaws. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:30:35

Yep, yeah, pretty much exactly what happened.

Brandon Hurles: 2:30:37

Yeah, they even. It was so bad that I was listening in on somebody's podcast and they were saying that they were. I guess so like they were saying that they were. I guess so like they were. What were they doing? They were checking they were playing the game beforehand so that they could talk about the game, but they had to play with ubisoft employees talking to them and they had to play. They had like a designated time and then, like you got a 30 minute break and then you play it again for like another hour and they would like tell you the story here and why this is this and all that.

Brandon Hurles: 2:31:17

I'm like, are you kidding me so you're connecting to their server to play the game and so that you could talk about it? That's ridiculous. I'm sorry, and ubisoft has already lost my trust completely. I, I'm sorry they. They have to. They. They've lost my trust completely and I love some of their properties and I mean, like, what's going on with rayman? Like rayman is one of my favorite video game characters ever. Yeah, I, and like those last games that we got.

Brandon Hurles: 2:31:45

No, I'm not, not the raving rabbit stuff but was legends, our last one, legends, and then the one after that, um, oh, yeah, yeah, uh, the one after that 10 out of 10 games, excellent platformers, really fun, loved it. And, uh, you know, even like 3d rayman back in the day, like it just was fun, man like I, I you know they have other prop. You know, like I like a couple of the assassin's creed games and like they've got I like far cry. Far cry three is one of my favorite games of all time. Um, so it's unfortunate, but they, they've lost my trust.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:32:20

Oh, my god dude. Rayman origins came out in 2011 and rayman legends came out in 2013.

Brandon Hurles: 2:32:33

Oh wow, it's been 11 years holy crap, I didn't know it's been that long, wow it doesn't feel like that does it. It does make sense because I played origins on the vita. That's how I played it. Um so I guess, wow, yeah time flies it. Sure has I mean it. It flies so fast it really does.

Brandon Hurles: 2:32:56

This keeps happening too yeah, I, it's crazy, um. So I think that's all we got for the big news, so I guess we'll, um, we'll, jump quickly into our games that we picked out. These are just some of our favorite games that we own, that we physically own. We decided to just go physical. So obviously this isn't like my top five games of all time by any means, but these are five that I really like and I think are really cool and unique and stuff like that. So I'll let you go ahead and go first.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:33:31

Okay, so I grabbed a handful right of physical games that I own. That I'm like really happy. I guess you'd say that I own these, aren't again, they're not my favorite games of all time. I mean some, some of them are probably right up there, but these are games that I'm just like man. This is so cool that I guess I do say that I own these physically. Okay, and this is, uh, the Oracle of ages and seasons.

Brandon Hurles: 2:34:02

Yep. And this is one of my favorite ever.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:34:07

So I bought these when I was in high school and I still have them Somehow in immaculate condition, with all the times I moved when I was younger. When I say younger, when I was a young man at 18, 19, 20. I was moving all the damn time. Next is a game that this was a gift from my processors, my team at Lone Depot that I managed. It is Factory Sealed Super Mario Brothers 3. That's so cool. Famicom, and again. Yeah, I have it in my glass cage normally Just over there. I love it. I was so shocked, mike. You guys got me Factory Sealed Mario 3?.

Brandon Hurles: 2:34:53

That is so cool.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:34:55

They also got me Factory Sealed, mario 2.

Brandon Hurles: 2:34:58

Wow, mario 2 USA yeah, that's cool.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:35:02

That's pretty rad. And then just to round out a few more, this is, uh, the broadcast satellite. Yeah, legend of zelda. Yep, I got the s zelda loose cart for it we got these babies right here. Yep, the legend of zelda master and the good old promotional disc Really happy, I still have this one physically. Symphony of the Night. And then this just came in the Castlevania Requiem Nice, this was a San Diego Comic Con exclusive.

Brandon Hurles: 2:35:45

Oh wow, how did you manage to snag it?

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:35:49

Limited Run was doing a sale Like a For the Comic-Con version. Yeah, like a stock sale. They did it like two or three weeks ago.

Brandon Hurles: 2:35:59

Oh yeah, their blowout sale they do every year. Yeah yeah, I grabbed a couple things from that too.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:36:05

We got Garbage P every year.

Brandon Hurles: 2:36:06

Yeah yeah, I grabbed a couple of things from that too. We got yeah yeah, nice, nice.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:36:09

Matt and.

Brandon Hurles: 2:36:10

I love the cart for that.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:36:12

There's a Jay and Silent Bob Marlboro.

Brandon Hurles: 2:36:16

I got that one as well, good stuff.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:36:18

I enjoy them and A. I'll leave a couple of other ones for another time, but here's one. We got a factory sealed still ducktales remastered nice, that's pretty rad. I love that game, that's a really good good remaster right, but who would have thought that this game would be removed?

Brandon Hurles: 2:36:41

I right, I it's crazy man. I know it's crazy yeah. I. I actually played that on the Wii U. I did too. Yeah, I loved it, man.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:36:53

That's so much fun.

Brandon Hurles: 2:36:55

Um, all right. So, like I said just, I just grabbed a few. I also. It's kind of quick and didn't get any of my like older, older stuff because it's in another room. But the first one is lock'em, sock'em for the dreamcast. So I actually played the rom. I have not played this dreamcast version of it yet, um, but I did play the rom and I just thought it's really really cool. It's sean hancock's game that he recently put out and my buddy changeling sent it out to me. Um, for some reason he sent it out to me and that that was really awesome of him. So I appreciate that. But, um, it's really really cool. It's a neat puzzle game. I thought it was pretty fun, kind of unique, and I think that he also has it on. I think he put out on the nes as well. I want to say and John made it yeah, john made it.

Brandon Hurles: 2:37:47

I love the Dreamcast so I have a bunch of Dreamcast homebrews that they're being put out all the time, so I love it. So next one is Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo for the 3DO, the essential version of this game, literally considered the best version of the game. Uh, it's arcade perfect. Um, that's absolutely flawless. I love this game in general period, but, uh, it's just, it's awesome. I love it. Really, really good stuff, uh. Next one is metroid prime hunters.

Brandon Hurles: 2:38:23

This game just means a lot to me. Um, it was during a time when I had a lot of medical issues. I played this online a lot with friends, um, and this was during, like the nintendo insider days. So I met a lot of my friends there and then we got to play and it had voice chat. So I got a my little I still have one sealed the little headset for the voice chat. I got the Wi-Fi USB connector. But I loved the multiplayer. For this game I played. I must have put in over a thousand hours in the multiplayer Just phenomenal. And then obviously a pretty new one, but I can safely say it is my favorite game of all time. Tears of the kingdom I just love it. Um, I still love breath of the wild too, uh, but I just I. I know a lot of people don't feel this way.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:39:19

Actually, I've recently learned that's what I've heard too, actually, you know, it's funny. Nate just uh commented in the chat and I actually learned this from being on the nintendite podcast that a lot of people prefer breath of the wild over tears and I I was like why? You know, for me, I think tears is. I think they're both amazing games. I love them both.

Brandon Hurles: 2:39:47

But, if I could choose one, I'd choose Tears Me too, it's more it's just more, there's more, it's more of Breath of the Wild with more to do. But yeah, I've recently learned that people don't feel that way. Somebody told me I, somebody told me the other day, actually they, they said they started tears of the kingdom just stopped, like they, just just stopped it, like I, they, they didn't like it at all, they didn't like the new mechanics, um, so I, I don't know, um, but for me, tears of the kingdom, one out over breath of the wild, but I still love breath of the wild. That experience, uh, of course, is unmatched. First time playing, you know, zelda in that way it was like ocarina of time, like you know what I mean, experiencing it in 3d for the first time. This was experience, this open world, zelda, and and you you know, you could argue it, and I always say that Breath of the Wild is most similar to the first Zelda game.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:40:48

That's what I've always said too.

Brandon Hurles: 2:40:50

Yeah, so that's how I feel. I mean always felt that way. But last one, which is kind of sort of part of what we were talking about earlier, is Fear Files, and not a lot of people are aware of this, but it essentially is kind of like standalone expansion packs, um. So for like the pc version of fear, I think fear 2 and fear 1, um had like expansion packs that you could buy, but this is basically them on a disc and I actually I weirdly enough, like fear files better than I do any of the other fear games. I don't know why I don't know if I'm like an outcast saying that, because I've never bothered to look, but I love it. And also, obviously, these are delisted now. So like the price is already expensive on this. I I don't know how much it went up, but it was like it was like going for like 60 bucks or something at the time. But anyway, yeah, it's really good, it's cool. Staying alone Expansion pack. So yeah, and you're right.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:41:53

You're right on those prices, because as soon as you pull that up to me just right off the bat, I'm like this sounds rare. I'm going to look this up on eBay as you're talking about it and yeah, sure enough. Yep, it's right around that price range. You said yeah that's unfortunate.

Brandon Hurles: 2:42:12

Hopefully it drops back down for people, because I'm not. I'm not with the inflation on games. There's this weird thing where somebody owns a game, they want it to stay super pricey. Somebody owns a game, they want it to stay, uh, super pricey so other people can't get it, or they just want to like, feel and you know better or something, because they've gotten it. I'm sorry, I'm not that way. I want people to be able to play games, but absolutely hopefully that gets back down. But, um, I guess, yeah, just uh, you kind of a couple couple minutes before we close out, I guess sort of talk about kind of like a retrospective, I guess, on your content, what you've done, and then I guess, as far as the Nitin Byte podcast is included in that now, and then I guess kind of talking on my, my end. So, um, yeah, just tell us sort of kind of like why, why you started the channel, what, where did you start, like what? You know, what was the, what was the thought process?

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:43:16

yeah, I'll tell you, it's still all fresh in my mind. So, after working, uh, 10 years in the restaurant business and I was a traveling fixer for the company, meaning they would literally move me, they'd send me the U-Haul, they'd pay for everything, I'd go to different parts of California and if you guys are familiar with Island's Restaurant, in fact they even brought it up in Cobra Kai. Oh, really, in the recent Cobra Kai season. I'm like what? Yeah, they were talking about islands, but I managed for them here in Arizona and then out in California and San Diego, up and down the coast and then up in Monterey Bay. So I did that for 10 years. So I did that for 10 years. And if anyone, anyone who's worked in the restaurant business, knows it's, uh, it can be very, you know it's it could be taxing. Yeah, especially in management.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:44:12

You're working tons of hours. You know you're on salary and so when I was in the restaurant business and this is why I bring it up I had always thought about doing a youtube channel right and reviewing games. Yeah, and it was interesting because when I got towards the end of my time there, I wanted to continue, like moving up into a director role, and I didn't get it because and this isn't a reflection on the company, this is just a reflection on the regional manager I had at the time but he said you know, steve, you go run circles around all of our other directors. The problem is you just don't look old enough. You just don't look old enough.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:45:07

Okay, I didn't look old enough. So that's when I was like, alright, this is a Mickey Mouse company and I don't mean that as a whole For the company, because this is a great company and I still know a lot of people there but this operation I'm in here With this district Is Mickey Mouse, I'm out. So I gave him my. I think I gave him a three month notice because I was going to be moving from monterey bay back to arizona, and that was a big move and I wanted to give them time because we were a very remote location.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:45:39

Yeah, and I cared, like I still cared about him and I I still do today. So I moved back to Phoenix, back home to AZ, and I was planning on transitioning over to doing Twitch and YouTube. And, guys, this is in 2014,. Okay. Yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:46:06

I ended up going to the Christmas party for loan Depot mortgage company with my cousin and my brother as their plus one. They said there would be a lot of hot women there. So I said, okay, I'll suit up, got the suit on, we went before you know it. I talked with a lot of people that are like you should really come work here because you know how to multitask. You're in restaurant management, so you'd kill it over here yeah nope, okay, I ended up interviewing.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:46:32

I spent about 10 years there, ended up becoming a director there, uh, started entry level. I got I think 11, 11 promotions throughout that time and when I was in it, working in mortgage, I had said to everybody because I always said, steve, what would you do if you didn't do this? Or what would you do if you got fired or you got laid off? Is it simple? I go do what I've wanted to do. I'd go do what I was planning on doing until this job kind of fell on my lap. I'm going to go do YouTube. So in September 2022, that's when I decided to transition over and start doing YouTube I will tell you guys this I knew absolutely nothing.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:47:23

I've never used Photoshop. I have never edited a video. I've never recorded a video. I don't even record videos on my phone. I didn't use social media. I didn't have anything. I didn't have instagram, I didn't have twitter. Uh, I didn't do snapchat. I don't do anything because I was literally managing for like 20 years and I, like, I really believe in leading by example. So my phone's not my phone's never out, never out, never on my phone, never texting uh, I'm always helping, yeah, I'm always helping my team right. So I knew zero and I want to make this crystal clear for anyone who's interested, maybe like in doing youtube yeah just know that I knew nothing and I also don't have like youth on my side.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:48:13

I'm not like a teenager. I'm not 20 years old, I'll be four, I'll be 40 in may, and so you know, the older you get, sometimes the harder it is to like learn certain tech.

Brandon Hurles: 2:48:25

It is I agree.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:48:26

Yeah, yeah. And you know like video games is not learning new tech. Obviously, I play video games to the end, but learning how to do everything else yeah. Video editing, setting up a camera, lighting, learning how to like mix music correctly, like there's.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:48:47

I'm not even scraping the surface and, brandon, you know this from being in it yeah, the things you have to do on social media, uh, trying to make sure that you come across authentically. You, yeah, because that's important to me, yep, and I want to make sure I always come across authentic. But learning how to talk in front of a camera, that's the hardest thing People don't know Talking by yourself to a camera is so hard.

Brandon Hurles: 2:49:12

When you start, it is difficult.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:49:14

It is very hard, and the difference with this is that I was on camera all the time With Lone Depot, in meetings, hosting meetings With other people, hundreds of other people, yeah, and I've been up in front of hundreds of people, uh, every month, for our monthly, you know sales rallies. I was in front of them on a microphone and that's all fine and dandy, like that. That's my uh, that was my wheelhouse, that that's my uh, that was my wheelhouse, that's what I did, and going from that, though, to just like talking in front of a camera about, you know, your passion with video games, it's just different. There are some differences there, and if there's one thing I don't like to do, it's like waste people's time.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:50:03

Yeah, so I had to figure out how to deliver what I want to on YouTube without all the ums and the uhs and the filler words, so I had to work on that as well. The delivery and so there's been a lot is what I'm trying to really get to, and then I had to figure out what is it that I want to do, because I know I want to work in video games. That's been my dream. Yeah, all life I want to work in video games.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:50:34

So how how can I do this? And then so you got to try some things out and I tried things, like I first video I did was in like Januaryuary or december 2022 I think, and it went up january 2023. So I've been on youtube since january 2023, basically, and I reviewed the analog pocket and I reviewed it because I was very excited to get it and I was on the first list of people to get it yeah and I noticed that nobody was showing video game footage.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:51:08

Like really good close-up footage, yeah, like everyone's talking about how great the screen is, but nobody was showing it close up yeah and I'm like I need to show people how this looks because no one's doing it, so I need to fill this void.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:51:22

And then it became this, this and that and ultimately I figured out what I wanted to do, which was review video games. And again, that's what I always want to do. And then, as time went on, I started seeing actually a real need for honest video game reviews. Yeah, because I've seen I'm very aware I've been going to ign since they were n64.com. Yeah, since 96 I've been going all these video game websites and I have seen a a shift over the years to where I think paid. Yeah, I think good, honest. I'll just say I think good, honest video game reviews are needed. And so that's what I'm doing now. That's how I got into it and I would say my biggest hurdle in the first probably 12 to 15 months was learning all the technology and how to video edit and how to do all this stuff.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:52:24

And yeah, you learn it with no help from anyone and you watch youtube videos and it's a crap shoot if they're going to answer your question or not yep and then you're on to the next video and before you know it, uh, you've been sitting at your computer for 12 or 14 hours yeah, yep yeah, I mean yeah, yeah, yeah I mean.

Brandon Hurles: 2:52:43

That is so true. Same for me. It was all very grassroots effort. I didn't. I didn't use anything other than Facebook, so I had like an Instagram from a long time ago. Didn't use it for years, for years. Didn't use Twitter at all All the socials. Didn't know anything about video editing. Didn't know anything about audio editing, which is completely different than video editing, mixing, mastering all of that stuff. The talking in front of the camera to yourself Listen, let me put it this way. Last year I spoke front of the camera to yourself. Listen, let me put it this way. Last year I spoke at seven panels at conventions and that, for me, was easier than learning how to talk in front of a camera to myself to nobody interesting.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:53:41

So you and I had the same hurdle, because in front of people easy, yeah yeah, you know that's like, that's how I am, I'm, I am an outgoing person in person, but on camera. It's like how I was more concerned with how can I make sure I'm being myself? Yeah, to the point that it was debilitating at times yeah, yeah, it really was too.

Brandon Hurles: 2:54:01

Really was too. And it's like I I try my best to not filter myself as well and I mean that in the way of telling my honest opinion about anything, you know whether it might hurt a feeling or something like that, I can't really control that and I'm not talking about saying stupid stuff or anything like that, I just mean just being literally honest about it and that's it at the end of the day. So there's that, and like you want your delivery, that you have in like everyday life and a certain way Like so I want to talk how I talk, how I mean this is how I talk to anybody.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:54:43

The way I'm talking.

Brandon Hurles: 2:54:44

Yeah, so that talk, how I talk, how I mean, this is how I talk to anybody, the way I'm talking. Yeah, so that you know there's that. And because at the beginning I wasn't talking like me, learning I wasn't, I wasn't talking like me, I was talking like a robot. So like I had to learn how to talk like myself to the camera. So like it's crazy, it's just all crazy. But the video editing, I gotta say is, is definitely the uh, the most difficult. Um for sure, that's definitely a hurdle if you've never done it. Um, yeah, it is, it's not, it's not easy, I'll put it that way. That's why, as soon as somebody can't afford it, a youtuber, they have a paid editor. For the very reason. It's time consuming.

Brandon Hurles: 2:55:27

It's time consuming and it's it's not easy Like you want to do. You want to do like extra stuff. It just takes extra time. You want to do like a little effect that might be like one second long, like you might be spending like 15 minutes on it. You know what I mean. Like for a little, I don't know, it's really little effect that happens in it, where it's like in a model fx yeah, and, like you know, you could be spending, like you know, 15, 20 minutes on something that lasts like a second.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:55:58

So you know, I was told to get an editor. Were you told to get one?

Brandon Hurles: 2:56:02

yeah, I was so.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:56:03

Yeah, I was told right away to get another, but I I haven't I think, I think it's important to learn, yes, everything, because that's what I did in the restaurant biz. I learned every position exactly in mortgage, I learned every position, and when you do you, you're equipped for anything. Yeah, if anything goes wrong, you can step in, because you've done it.

Brandon Hurles: 2:56:29

Right, right.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:56:30

And I feel like this is no different. It's like, yeah, I could hire one, right, we could. Um, obviously it costs money and they need to learn your style and this, this and that, but once you learn how to do it, it makes a huge difference.

Brandon Hurles: 2:56:51

It makes a massive difference. I think like some of these skills and then, like I will add in because of what I don't just do videos, I mean, I do like photography and posts that I make. Like I do actual photography with some of the posts that I do, a lot of posts that I do, uh, including picture editing and and everything. Um, so I was learning that too, because I do a lot of posts, I do a lot of stuff like that, a lot of written stuff. I don't just do videos. You know a lot of people might, yeah, if you're watching this channel, go check out like my Facebook and stuff like that. Like I'm doing other stuff all the time, so I'm learning that stuff too and it's a lot for sure. I mean it's a lot to dive into, especially if you've never done it, and I get why people are scared to start it or try to do it. You know, because I was a little nervous as well, like starting. I'm like, well, what do I do, you know? Yeah, so yeah, it's a humble beginnings for sure, and I come from like a DIY punk rock background background. Um, like I I've always done everything myself when, because I played music for years, uh, in hardcore bands and and stuff like that, metal bands and and it was all very diy like that was. That was kind of our attitude mentality around everything that we did, um, and I've kept that positive.

Brandon Hurles: 2:58:23

I think that's a very positive mentality to have to be able to learn every skill that you can yourself so that you're able to do it. Should you need to step in for that, you know, someday, for something as you will, yeah, you, you will, and like just for yourself, even, like I think I think this is how I personally feel, just for yourself, even. I think this is how I personally feel. I think it is better to edit yourself as long as you possibly can, because you're consistently learning new things. Is that not true? You learn new things with editing all the time.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:58:57

I know, I do All the time, yeah, all the time, and it's actually kind of fun. I know a lot of people don't like the editing stage, but you have to get that mentality, I think, out of your head. Yeah, it's, it's stinking thinking right yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 2:59:13

Yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 2:59:14

If you go into work thinking I'm going to have a bad day, you're going to have a bad day. And if you go into editing thinking one thing, that's probably what you're gonna end up thinking like, yeah, this isn't fun, but if you can find some enjoyment out of it. It's like when you enjoy, you know, doing a job that's not fun, but you find things to like about it and then eventually you know what you end up do, liking the job. It's the same thing here yeah and uh.

Brandon Hurles: 2:59:46

Nintendo prime said I need to improve my thumbnail game. Um, look your thought I think his thumbnails are freaking great. I think they're great, and that's another thing. So, like learning, that are too learning that stuff, learning the, the art of the thumbnail, right like that's a whole thing too. That is a whole thing in itself. That's why I said I'm so glad michaela does them, you are so lucky, because I'm telling you, I still, I am, still, I can, consistently, am learning the art of the thumbnail game, like I do.

Brandon Hurles: 3:00:19

like I said, I do like, uh, freelance work and stuff with graphics and things like that for for people and it's, you know, I'm always, always doing it. So like I'm consistently learning new things, but like I still, you know, there's tons I can improve on. For sure, like I'm never perfect at anything that I do, you know, and that's good mentality to keep. Never perfect that anything that I do, you know, and that's good mentality to keep, you know. I think that, uh, it's good to um, I think it's good to to to learn all the tools that you need, um and content creation or, in life, honestly, um, anything that you can learn.

Brandon Hurles: 3:00:58

I love to learn. Now, I hated to learn in high school. When I was at school, I hated to learn. Now I love to learn. It's a complete different thing.

Brandon Hurles: 3:01:08

Life life skills and like real life things, and I like to learn other like oddball stuff, history and things like that too now, but I just love to learn and take in what I can from other good people around me. Surround yourself with good people, surround yourself. If you're a YouTuber, surround yourself with other good people around me. Surround yourself with good people, surround yourself. If you're a YouTuber, surround yourself with other good YouTubers. And that's why I feel like I've gotten so close with you so quick is because when you find a genuine person, you know they're genuine. You know, yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:01:40

So that's how I feel. I'm with you on that. That's how I feel about you. That's how I felt about Nate as well. You know, like I knew he was good people, I'd watch the show. I knew Andres was good people and Eric, and that's the thing like it's in person, right? It's important to me who I associate with. I'm not going to associate with people that we're not. I wouldn't say we're not on the same page, but I'm not going to just hang out with anyone. If you are a super negative person, we're probably not going to spend a lot of time together yeah, that's not good, not healthy because it's going to be draining for me yeah

Brandon Hurles: 3:02:30

yeah and uh, you know what I mean. Just a comment there. Um, you can ask, steve, I was trying to find my other headphones before the show. I was using them. Yeah, I did not want to wear these, I was specifically saying that so, uh, ps5 pro day one. I see it in your future. Oh my gosh, yeah it's so funny but yeah, um, I yeah. Is there? Is there anything else that you wanted to to mention about?

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:02:58

you know anything that um going on with you, or uh, yeah, as far as my content, I just posted my review today for haunted castle revisit it, which, again, that was the bonus title in the castlevania dominus collection. And of course, the dominus collection is the Castlevania trilogy of DS games that just came out I think what two, two, three weeks ago. Yeah, the physical went up for preorder today if you're interested in getting a physical. But I reviewed Haunted Castle Revisited because it was a compelling title to me.

Brandon Hurles: 3:03:40

Yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:03:40

The developer M2. I would say it remastered the game, but if you've played haunted castle, the arcade game, it's not a good game. Yeah it's not and so that's why you guys got to watch this review, because maybe it's, maybe it's worth buying now.

Brandon Hurles: 3:04:05

Yeah, it's more like a remake, isn't it? Because to me it looks. I kind of go through it in my review. Okay, cool, I do some.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:04:16

I pull some capture from the arcade because I played through the arcade game and beat it, and I played through, revisited it and beat it, and I played through, revisit it and beat it, and so I pulled some footage to where I show you a scene in the original and I show you a scene in the new game and I I think that will kind of help to put it all together and kind of let everyone decide for themselves. I guess you could say if it's a remake or a remaster. What I will say is that it's worth revisiting for sure. So yeah, check out the review and outside of that, I am figuring out. Well, you know what I will say. One more thing I am figuring out. Well, you know what I will say.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:05:05

One more thing I did just post my review on Wednesday as well for Iron Meat. Yes, good video, thank you. If you're a fan of Contra or Metal Slug, you will want to check out my review for Iron Meat. The game comes out September 25th by developer RetroWare. They've came out with a lot of cool stuff, a lot of gamers that work there, brandon, you know yeah and you know the guy uh, was it jason or justin jason, just justin silverman?

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:05:38

justin silverman, yeah, yeah, and cool company, and I was really happy to be able to review this game early. So that review is up and now I'm trying to actually figure out what I want to review next. Well, I still haven't got to talk to you.

Brandon Hurles: 3:05:55

We're going to have to talk tomorrow, probably before we go live, because there was still stuff I wanted to talk to you about Some opportunities with that too. So, yeah, maybe I can you about some opportunities with with that too. So, um, yeah, maybe I can help you out a little bit with that. Yeah, um, yeah.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:06:13

So I of course. Yeah, we have indie mania, both of us in the morning?

Brandon Hurles: 3:06:16

Yeah, of course, yeah, so if you're, if you're watching live or shortly after, uh, we got any mania and we're going live again at 12, correct? Uh, 12 PM EST and nine PST, is that right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. All right, You're getting it down getting it down. Um so yeah, super excited Final day. It's going to be a blast. I've had a lot of fun man with it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:06:47

It just even just talking to you has been fun, uh, but the show's been been fantastic.

Brandon Hurles: 3:06:49

So yeah, and tomorrow's retro where, yeah, I know I'm excited yeah, I, I am well, they're the finale.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:06:55

I think, yeah, they're a finale, probably for a reason.

Brandon Hurles: 3:06:58

I think they got some, probably some goods to show off to us they probably do, man, and they put out some really good stuff, like they are. People need to pay attention to them, for sure. When I said I streamed Iron Meat and then when I streamed it, lucas that we were talking about earlier came in he loves Contra and like didn't understand the name, but then he saw it. He's like oh, I get it. Like I want this game now.

Brandon Hurles: 3:07:25

Yeah, it's so badass, it's so good man, it's so cool. Yeah, it's awesome, I love it.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:07:33

But you know I will say I want to get a game reviewed quickly, like when I can review soon, because you know the plucky squire we got on the 17th, yeah, because the plucky squire we got on the 17th, oh yeah, that's coming out in four days. That's going to be one I want to jump into.

Brandon Hurles: 3:07:53

Day one. Yeah, I may do something on that one too, because I'm really looking forward to that. So I'm going to jump in day one as well, but I'll have to see Depends on when I start the game and how I feel. That's usually how I am. So, yeah, I'm excited for that. That's cool, gonna be good and another game I'm gonna play that.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:08:15

I don't know if it's gonna be good none of us do but I'm willing. I'm willing to. No, not that game. It's a game that comes out the 20th. So I want everyone on the podcast to know that I'm going to be playing a game that you guys probably might want to play, but we won't know if it's going to be good, so I'm going to find out. That's Karate Kid Street Rumble.

Brandon Hurles: 3:08:39

For real, it looks good, does it? I got to look it up then it looks like you know, the scott pilgrim beat him up. Yeah, it looks like that it could actually be good well, if it, if it is like that, then I believe it. Or uh, double dragon guidance yeah, I was gonna say that art style.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:09:01

It looks like that gameplay. Wow, and I'm not. I love the karate kid, I have my whole life too. I signed up for YouTube red. Youtube red just to watch Cobra Kai when it came out. Yeah. Long before it came to Netflix. Yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 3:09:21

OK, I I have my eyeballs on this because this looks really good. I'm watching the the trailer this way better than it should be exactly, and it's, and so and it's a, it's a game, mill game too I know, game mill is notorious. I am notorious I'm notorious for trashing, trashing game mill.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:09:48

So am I, they're, they're, they are the modern day ljn they.

Brandon Hurles: 3:09:52

Yeah, they are where ljn has like a couple of bangers but a lot of really bad games.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:09:58

Well, they get the license yeah, and then then they put out crap, yeah yep, so now I'm a little concerned wrath of the mutants is uh game mo yeah, yeah, it is.

Brandon Hurles: 3:10:10

Yeah, uh, I don't know, man, this one's a, this is a toss-up I don't know exactly I I don't know if I want to to spend the money and take the chance like and it's, it's 40 bucks, it's not 30 yeah, it's 40. I mean that usually that's also like not a great sign um.

Brandon Hurles: 3:10:31

I guess we'll see it looks good, so maybe it's one of their bangers. They game mill has put out a couple of good games, because I own a few, have um, but they put out a lot of a lot of garbage too.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:10:43

I'm sorry, those are probably my next three for sure reviews as plucky, plucky, squire, karate kid and then, uh, echoes of wisdom yeah, echoes are so excited for echoes.

Brandon Hurles: 3:10:54

Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm reviewing echoes as well and then I'm getting the uh, the switch light, so I'm not gonna open it, but I'm gonna show it for part of the review and show it off box and I will too. Yeah, it is kind of unfortunate. I'm not gonna to open it, but I'm going to show it for part of the review and show it off box, and I will too.

Brandon Hurles: 3:11:06

Yeah, it is kind of unfortunate that I'm not going to open it, cause it's really pretty, but it's like, what am I going to do? Like I have an. Oled switch. What am I going to do with it?

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:11:14

Uh, just going to lay around. So, just, yeah, just be disciplined, it yeah yeah, definitely, it's a nice piece.

Brandon Hurles: 3:11:21

It's good to have. Yeah, for sure. Well, I think we'll go ahead and close out. This has been an awesome episode 100 and great to have you on, of course, as always, uh got it.

Brandon Hurles: 3:11:34

Yeah, super awesome to to hit episode 100. Definitely really happy about that. And and um, I'm excited about indie mania day 3. So definitely be sure to watch that. Tomorrow We'll both be streaming, and then Mark may be streaming as well I don't know for sure yet, so he may be joining in with us on that. But of course, we'll be live again next Friday at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time. So we'll see you all later. Have a great night and, for our audio listeners, have a great morning, evening, afternoon, whatever it is.

ThunderStash Gaming: 3:12:11

We'll see you all later. Thanks to all for tuning in.