Nintendo Switch 2, Ubisoft Controversies, Retro Games| Game Junction Podcast 102

Ever wondered what the future holds for the gaming industry and how major companies are navigating the latest trends and controversies? Tune in to this episode of the Game Junction Podcast, where we promise a deep dive into the biggest headlines and latest developments in the world of gaming. We'll start with a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Dame Maggie Smith, celebrating her memorable roles in Harry Potter and Downton Abbey, and reflecting on her incredible legacy.

Join us as we speculate on the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 and what it could mean for the gaming market, along with the buzz from the Tokyo Game Show. We'll break down the chaos of the PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Edition pre-orders and the controversy brewing at Ubisoft France, where employees are on the brink of striking over the end of remote work. From the implications of these events on upcoming titles like Assassin's Creed to the broader impact on the industry's financial landscape, we cover it all.

Finally, we'll indulge in some nostalgia as we discuss retro gaming consoles, the challenges of playing old games

NYXI Gaming
- NYXI Wizard GameCube Wireless Joy-pad for Nintendo Switch. Use code "gamejunction" for 10% off!

PWRUP Grip 2
Use code "GameJunction" for 10% off.

Stone Age Gamer
Stone Age Gamer continues to add exclusive retro gaming products at low prices.

Dubby Energy
Get 10% all your Dubby Energy drink needs using "gamejunction10" and help support Game Junction!

Launch Your Own Podcast Now - Buzzsprout
Start for FREE with our affiliate link.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Gaming News Recap
• 6:53 Nintendo Switch Successor Launch Speculation
• 14:33 PS5 Pro Pre-Order Chaos
• 23:30 Ubisoft Remote Work Strike Discussion
• 31:57 Ubisoft's Stock Drop and Assassin's Creed
• 39:19 Gaming Remasters, Mods, and Collectibles
• 51:05 Sony's Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster Pricing
• 55:25 Lunar HD Remasters and Zelda Echoes
• 1:02:38 Legend of Zelda Timeline Discussion
• 1:10:25 Retro Gaming and Console Nostalgia
• 1:17:02 Pokemon Trading and Game Announcements
• 1:22:37 Upcoming Games and Remasters Discussion
• 1:32:38 Upcoming Games and Franchises Discussion
• 1:38:27 Ghost of Tsushima Sequel Setting Discussion

Transcript

Brandon Hurles: 0:00

everybody. Welcome back to the game junction podcast. We are here for episode 102. Are we good mark?

Mark Trobough: 0:06

no, yeah, we're good on this side now that we, you know, constant issues with obs and twitch and my computer for whatever reason.

Brandon Hurles: 0:13

But hey, we're finally live well, yeah, we're here for 102, episode 102. Uh, yeah, there's been quite a bit this week, so I know we're talking some Tokyo Game Show, right, yeah?

Mark Trobough: 0:27

definitely A lot of news, a lot of news still coming out that's still going on this week and this weekend. There's just a lot of news dropped this week in general, from the beginning of the week till ongoing all weekend long. A lot to talk about.

Brandon Hurles: 0:43

A lot to talk about. We got some sad news, some good news, some interesting stuff, some hot topics and debates with some garbage companies and, yeah, we got all kinds of stuff in the gaming and pop culture I'm talking about this week. I guess we'll go ahead and start off with we got some sad news, so we'll go ahead and get that out of the way, unfortunately. So we got Dame Maggie Smith has passed away at age 89. So she was Professor. I always forget how to say the name McGonagall.

Mark Trobough: 1:28

That's not even wrong.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30

She's in Harry Potter.

Mark Trobough: 1:31

Professor McGonagall, now you got me messed up my words. My bad, mcgonagall, is that right? How do you say it?

Brandon Hurles: 1:40

I legitimately don't remember. For some reason I didn't remember that being the name, but if you saw her you'd know who it is. She's you know instantly. I'm confused why I don't remember that being the name of the I don't know. Anyway, she's in a bunch of stuff, man. So, uh, downton Abbey, which is a very, very popular series. Um, she played countess violet, grantham, um, but obviously harry potter was like one of her biggest roles. Like I said, if you saw her, you know she is um very iconic character she was. She played the character very well. Um, she definitely came off as, like, straight to the points no, no, bullcrap, didn't joke. You never saw her laugh, smile and yet stuff in the series which was that character.

Mark Trobough: 2:35

She did it very well like I don't know how good she is in the book, that I read the books, but just like a no nonsense. Straight to the point you're here to learn, not goof off. Type teacher.

Brandon Hurles: 2:44

Yeah, exactly yeah, and she has that kind of look too, if that makes sense.

Mark Trobough: 2:51

No, it makes sense.

Brandon Hurles: 2:52

Yeah, it's really unfortunate. It says she passed away in a London hospital, as reported by the BBC. Yeah, so there was a bunch. I saw a bunch of tributes come out today. Um, we got, she was also in the prime of Miss Jean Brody and she's in that in 1969, which is wild, it's old, that's crazy.

Mark Trobough: 3:20

Um, uh but, yeah, we saw Daniel Radcliffe put out a tribute and said that she was a legend um yeah, mr mr coffee was saying remember her from death on the nile in 78 and sister act as well.

Brandon Hurles: 3:31

I don't know if you've seen either of those movies yeah, whoopi goldberg's in sister act man, I don't know if you could do that movie in 2024. I don't think you could, I don't could, why not? It would offend people. I want to do all that, uh. But yeah, we definitely wanted to mention that. That's sad. You know that she did get to live a long life and sounds like she had, you know, had some pretty great experiences, and I had no idea. You know that she was in things in the 60s, which is wild.

Mark Trobough: 4:03

Um, so she's been acting for a very long time yeah, probably most of her life at this point, up until, yeah, fairly recently.

Brandon Hurles: 4:10

I guess that last 10, 15 years right, yeah, so you know that's unfortunate, sad, um. We also got more switch to rumors. Uh, so what? What do you think on this? We've got a launch. We got a quote unquote launch date, which this lines up with everything we talked about last week and have talked about before. Um, but we got something that came out, a rumor, saying that it's going to launch in march or april of 2025 yeah, I think that's what we've all been around there.

Mark Trobough: 4:46

I think they say it could hit as early as March 3rd, because I think that's around March is when we got it, when the Switch originally launched, the month it was in. I think that's just kind of what we're hearing. Obviously, that's a lot of just a lot of rumors, but if all this is to actually believe and it is going to eventually be true, I think it really comes down to probably kind of what we expected. Sometime next month is when we expect to hear about the, the switch to switch access or the switch, something, whatever they're going to ultimately call it. But I mean, yeah, if this is accurate, it's kind of what we've been hearing and thinking about for quite a while now.

Brandon Hurles: 5:22

Yeah, yeah, I think it lines up. When we got the rumor that it was going to be delayed to next year, we instantly pretty much thought quarter one right, because I mean that seemed even late then and originally we thought you know it was going to come out this year. But that rumor, I mean it seems like it's accurate. It's obviously not coming out this year.

Mark Trobough: 5:40

Yeah, you just would have heard about it by now yeah I mean I guess early next year, like first second quarter, late first quarter, early second quarter isn't the worst window because not a lot has coming out. Most people drop their big thing fourth quarter for the holiday season, so it's not like it would have a whole lot to compete against.

Brandon Hurles: 5:56

Plus, it's got time to get the diehards out of the way for 2025 holiday season one of the good things is is it does have to compete with the PS5 Pro at all, so it's got a good length of time there, because that launch is October 10th.

Mark Trobough: 6:11

You wonder, if the rumor I don't know how well the PS5 Pro is going to do and how much it would actually Would the Switch actually be competing with a mid-life?

Brandon Hurles: 6:19

upgrade. I don't think so. I don't think it would actually be competing with it. It might affect some sales, I'm sure.

Mark Trobough: 6:25

But like how hard I assume this is going to be under $500, competing with an $800 console.

Brandon Hurles: 6:32

For something that's like half the price. Yeah, I mean I don't think like it's a direct competition to it at all, but it might affect a few sales. But I think you know, a little chunk, a very small chunk, but not much, I think sales.

Mark Trobough: 6:45

But I think you know a little chunk, a very small chunk, but not not much.

Brandon Hurles: 6:47

I think it's negligible, but that's just my opinion. But I mean, it's still. It is away from that. I don't think it has anything to do with that. Obviously we heard about that rumor of it being delayed before we even knew about the ps5 pro do you think we'll hear about this sometime in the next two weeks, though then around? I think we have the museum, I think, yeah. Yeah, we talked about that on the nintendite podcast yeah, because I know, uh, uh is it.

Mark Trobough: 7:11

Is it mustache gaming?

Brandon Hurles: 7:16

I'm sorry, thunder. I know it was I.

Mark Trobough: 7:17

I didn't have it pulled up. I, I, yeah that's.

Mark Trobough: 7:20

That's my bad you were tuning in when we were talking about that right periodically when I, when I was able to, but I know he because when I was able to, but I know he because when he was on, I think at least the last two times he was on, he brought it up and that was like where he was sitting there thinking around the museum and stuff like that. So I think, if he's right, you're right, within the next two weeks we're going to hear about it, but I think sometime next month. It just makes sense because you probably want a good six month window of just building up hype and advertising and stuff like that to get everybody excited ready. And then, alongside hearing this coming out, I guess the big news is what games are going to launch beside it. Are we because I know we are nowhere to not going to get a is all the game?

Brandon Hurles: 7:57

we just got a spinoff game and there's not been enough time since the last spinoff game, but it is spinoff game, but it is a mainline game, it's a mainline, but not in the way you'd think of Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom type style game. No, I think we're not getting a new 3D Zelda until probably like 2028,. Like a new 3D Zelda?

Mark Trobough: 8:17

Yeah, probably a few years in just because the timeline is going to be there, but it's been a while since we've had a mainline Mario game, I've been thinking that sometime next year that Metroid 4 comes out would make sense for it to line up with it. And then maybe one or two, because Nintendo has not been known to launch more than four or five games, a couple of big games.

Brandon Hurles: 8:42

They rely on third party launches with it and usually it's either one or two mainline game, yeah, and then like maybe one or two games like spin-off games or smaller third-party games, but it's like one or two system seller launches yeah, yep, yeah, and I think so. I think that has to be either the next 3d mario or Metroid Prime 4. Metroid Prime 4 would make sense because pushing into 2025 is like.

Mark Trobough: 9:12

I'm just thinking it would drastically not only get the Metroid series out there but just boost the sales by being one of a handful of games at launch, even though it's not like the main system. Seller say that's a Mario game. If you only have a handful of games coming out at launch, a lot of people are probably going to pick it up as a uh, that's the only really different game from like a mario platformer to a more first person shooter type game yeah, I think it's.

Brandon Hurles: 9:35

I think it's important for them to have a 3d mario at launch, because I metroid's not going to sell systems by itself we know that, but maybe it's not going to I systems by itself we know that it's not going to.

Mark Trobough: 9:45

I guess the idea is maybe launching it just gets the game in front of more people and more people into the Metroid series as a whole would be beneficial. You've got to find a way to help. It's lined up this way and it would help generate hype for a series that maybe a lot of people haven't played. They get a taste of this game and then they start spreading it out to other older games maybe.

Brandon Hurles: 10:03

Yeah, and then they start spreading out to other older games, maybe. Yeah, and do you think are you still thinking a possible cross-gen with Metroid Prime 4? Because I feel like.

Mark Trobough: 10:10

I think that's a guarantee at this point.

Brandon Hurles: 10:11

Then again, I don't know, I feel like it has to be, because you can't count on just a Switch. 2. A brand new install base for Metroid Prime 4,. I feel like you can't at this point, I feel like you can't at this point, I feel like you can't do that it's not big enough, but I think for a lot of people, if they're gonna get, they finally get in the switch successor.

Mark Trobough: 10:28

Are you really gonna get it for your old hardware or if you plan on getting the new one, you're just gonna get it with your new, with your new hardware, type thing?

Brandon Hurles: 10:34

but I think it's a guarantee it has to launch on both at this point yeah, I think so too, and I think that's potentially one of the reasons they got so delayed is because they knew they were going to do that. I mean, you got a separate team for something we're working with, with DLSS, and then you've got the old Switch 2017 hardware that you got to work with. So those are separated teams for sure.

Mark Trobough: 10:57

All I'm thinking is that is not running.

Brandon Hurles: 10:59

You know it's going to be different.

Mark Trobough: 11:00

It would make sense, though, if it ran significantly better. The only thing I can think of is, if there's a big enough 60, if there's a significant jump in hardware performance, that maybe they somewhere in development they upgraded it to this or they had a separate team working so to launch on both, but, like the ideal way to play, it will be on the switch too, just because it's like, yeah, what they like. Halfway through development they swapped to work on it on this one. So it's right, it's the same game, but it plays very different on both. I would say more.

Brandon Hurles: 11:30

Not only frame rate, but the graphical fidelity would be extremely different on both hard hardware yeah, with I mean, and with the dlss, like that does cut down some of what they have to do for that right, right. So I feel like I mean to be honest with you. I don't know that it'll be a stable 60 for the framerate. To me, framerate matters more than visuals. I don't know about you, but 4K doesn't matter.

Brandon Hurles: 11:58

Yeah, so it's hard to say if it runs at a stable 60, but I think it's going to affect both performance and visuals. Dlss is a big deal, so I think it's both. I think it's a launch on both.

Mark Trobough: 12:14

Yeah, I think it is too, but I'm hoping that at least just me personally, just being a Metroid fan that when this announces that, we definitely get that announcement Like hey, for sure it's going to be a launch title.

Brandon Hurles: 12:25

Yeah, for sure, because I don't know.

Mark Trobough: 12:26

Because I plan on getting it. But that for sure would push it over the edge where it's like, yeah, I'll get a Switch successor Because. I mean to be fair. The original reason why I bought the Switch was for Metroid 4 originally.

Brandon Hurles: 12:37

Yeah, I was going to ask you are you planning day one for switch? Are you going to try at least? I mean, I'm sure they're going to sell out, I'm sure of it but it's definitely try it's going to be a wait and see.

Mark Trobough: 12:48

I might. Just because I don't know the price and the availability, I'm I'll just have to wait and see, just because I don't know where I'm going to be at when it comes out. Need to wait and see what's going to come out, uh, but there might be the chance I might push it back a little bit just because I might have a few other things going on that might eat up some financial stuff. I don't know, everything's kind of up in the air right now. It'll just be a wait and see. I will for sure get it.

Mark Trobough: 13:16

I just don't know if I'll get it right at launch or if I want to try to fight for it right at launch.

Brandon Hurles: 13:22

That's fair. And then these rumors did come out from a peripheral um manufacturer, so we got this is from an executive at said company. I don't have the actual company name, but this is where, apparently, the leak came out of, and which is this is partially what we had talked about a little last week but also talked about on the other podcasts significantly, but it looks like it just kind of came out and they kind of solidified hey, this is what's happening. But it says that the consoles are done according to this rumor and they're ready to go, they're all finished. And it says, yeah, dropping sometime at the end of March or beginning of April. So we're not far away, realistically.

Brandon Hurles: 14:09

But Mercado went on to support some other rumors and leaks about Nintendo Switch and said, yes, the magnetic joy-cons are accurate, so they're saying yes to that too. And then, yeah, talking just solidifying the launch window. So, yeah, that's definitely interesting. I think that's pretty accurate to me. I mean, that's what I've been saying. Anyway, that's what a lot of other people have been saying and it makes the most sense. And correct me if I'm wrong, mark, but I think that the Switch 1 launched in April of 2017, right, it was a quarter one drop as well, or was that the Wiiii u? I can't remember which one I was pulling up.

Mark Trobough: 14:47

Uh the switch.

Brandon Hurles: 14:48

One marched, uh the switch launched march 3rd 2017 okay, so it was still quarter one nice, yeah, so that makes sense, and I think the wii u did too.

Mark Trobough: 14:58

I think it launched quarter one wii u uh launched november 18th 2012. Okay, okay, all right, so yeah, because the we, the we launched november 19th 2006, so before the switch, they were holiday launch windows.

Brandon Hurles: 15:13

Yeah makes sense, all right. Well, yeah, that's definitely interesting. So we solidified that. Uh, now we get to talk about the ps5 pro 30th Anniversary Edition Pre-orders selling out immediately and also people are getting their orders canceled. I tried to jump in on this to see if I could get through and I couldn't get through. I got through for the PS5 Pro, the normal one, but I wasn't able to order it right now. I have to wait. I am planning to get it, but I'm going to wait for the GameStop drop.

Mark Trobough: 15:45

Yeah, I know some people talking this reeks of we're just going to let allow more pre-orders but we actually are able to sell, and then we're just going to cancel a handful of people's arbitrarily because, well, we don't. We got too many pre-orders, so we have to get rid of some people's stuff are you able to pull anything up by chance to show what do you want?

Brandon Hurles: 16:06

chance?

Brandon Hurles: 16:06

to show what do you want me to show exactly eBay, to show what they're being sold for right now like prices, because it's absolutely crazy. I saw some and they're selling too. These aren't just asking prices. I'm going to pull it up. I was talking to somebody earlier. He's like hey, did you see what some of these are actually being sold for? I saw the price listings. I want to say I'm shocked but I'm really not that they're selling for what they are. But somebody asking prices like there's somebody on here that has the whole bundle that was $1,000 here for 50 000 or best offer, um. But there's other people for 4 000 or best offer, 3600 or best offer, uh. But then there's people that have the ps5 pro, the normal one, up for a thousand dollars and it's a 700 console, so a 300 markup, but those aren't selling.

Brandon Hurles: 17:03

Surprisingly, the PS5 Pro the normal ones stayed up for a long time Because I checked like four hours later and you could still get one. You had to go through the queue but it was shorter, it didn't take as long. But when I got in the queue and I was on the minute that it hit 10 o'clock I clicked on there and it said the key was going to be an hour, so it did actually take an hour to get through, and when I got through you could get everything else but that bundle, because it was sold out immediately. Yeah.

Mark Trobough: 17:35

I had to do some stuff around, but I can pull it up. It wasn't doing exactly what I do. It's like move some stuff around.

Brandon Hurles: 17:42

But yeah, I mean it's just crazy. It wasn't doing exactly what I do, it's like move some stuff around. But yeah, I mean it's just crazy. I want to say I'm like I said. I want to say I'm shocked but I'm not with some of the prices that I have actually sold. Yeah, like there's some being bid on here for thirty five hundred right now. Forty bids, three thousand thirty seven bids. It's just, it's crazy man.

Mark Trobough: 18:13

And there's somebody that's got the controller on here for 175 bucks. It's gonna make that larger that way. It's not stretched. But no, yeah, like I, uh, ps5 pro for 37. Someone's got some on here for for 50 000, another for 3 000, 1 000, 2300, like it's. It's crazy what some people are selling. It's the fact that I saw something on here for for 50 000 the thousand dollars.

Brandon Hurles: 18:25

You gotta keep in mind. That's just the console, right, and it was a bunch. The bundle was originally a thousand dollars, the whole bundle, everything, and that's just for the slim, like the thousand dollars, the 998, that's for the slim console. That's not even for the ps5 pro, like a bunch of these 1200. That's for the slim digital, that's not even for the pro. That's the crazy thing yeah, someone's got the.

Mark Trobough: 18:49

Uh, they say deal with lifetime. Ps5 pro 30th anniversary pre-sale november 7th 24, 50 000 or best offer crazy man uh, from chattanooga, tennessee. But yeah, I see a lot. I see a lot of stuff closer, like the, to the one to three thousand range. But that's, that's crazy. This one's got no bids, but there's one for 3500. That's got 40 bids on it.

Brandon Hurles: 19:16

Yeah, that's insane, that that is crazy, absolutely, yeah. So I mean, the price is nuts, not surprised. But the crazy thing is is that, yeah, people are getting some of their orders canceled. So, uh, I don't know an actual reason why some of them are being canceled. I'm assuming that it potentially went over on what they actually had, stock wise, because it's, you know, limited to that number, um, but it says, uh, they were sending email stating that the order for the ps5 pro 30th anniversary edition had been canceled through the purchaser. Uh, though the purchaser denies that they canceled it themselves, it seems there may have been some problems with process processing the payment, as the email reportedly stated that the payment method did not work and users account listed transaction reversal. So, yeah, what's your thoughts on this? The whole ordeal here?

Mark Trobough: 20:12

not surprised, but this is what happens when you do your stuff all online and not like in a physical store.

Mark Trobough: 20:17

Just ripe for for scalpers, yeah it's just crazy man, but I I'll say this if you're paying that much money you, if you're willing to pay that much money for for a ps5 pro, you, you deserve to get ripped off. I'm sorry that's nobody should even be. That should be. Not. Should be a thought. Like the ps5 itself plays just fine, you're not gonna. You're not getting that much of a boost to where you should be paying, where. If you're gonna pay 3500 for ps5 pro, spend,500 and get a high-end PC and it'll play so much better for you.

Brandon Hurles: 20:48

The thing is this isn't for the PS5 Pro. You've got to keep in mind, 90% of people that are buying this are keeping it in the box as a collector's item, Because if you look at the 20th anniversary PS4 Pro, there was one that sold for like $40,000.

Mark Trobough: 21:01

Well, yeah, I guess some of these are the anniversary edition. But it's just a skin on hardware. It's not worth that much money.

Brandon Hurles: 21:08

Collectors are wild. Man Collectors are wild but these are like whales buying them up, Like who can afford that, besides somebody that's got significant?

Mark Trobough: 21:16

money. Well, I'm saying it doesn't even matter if this is the Pro or this is like the anniversary edition, because some of those were the anniversary edition. Uh, kind of correct myself. You deserve to get ripped off if you're, if you're paying that much like it's so stupid it is stupid, I agree.

Brandon Hurles: 21:29

I don't understand that, can't it's?

Mark Trobough: 21:31

not worth it because it's just a piece of. I could make my own ps4 look like this by just getting an outside. It's just a new skin like it's not that hard it'd be extra work, arguably, but like they make it sound like you know this is like you have to have it or the world's coming to an end, and I just think it's ridiculous and a waste of money what one thing I will say.

Brandon Hurles: 21:53

I thought was kind of cool that I actually didn't know. Apparently 45 for fifth 54 games at launch are getting ps5 pro upgrades, so that's kind of cool. I didn't know there was that many at launch, which is good, because that's better than I think, the PS4 Pro. I expected just the 12 that they talked about.

Mark Trobough: 22:14

The PS4 Pro is marginal. It's not like it did a whole lot and it was just a little extra more hardware to make your stuff look better, run a little faster.

Brandon Hurles: 22:21

That one was even more marginal because this has the ai upscaling, so this has got dlss, this that's a whole different ball game. Right, but the ps4 pro, it was so marginal that I don't think it even made sense to upgrade, if you didn't already have one.

Mark Trobough: 22:35

But even with the dlss I still think the upgrade is going to be marginal and it's not worth the price of a brand new definitely not worth 3500 at that. A high-end PC will play 20 times better.

Brandon Hurles: 22:47

You heard it here first Mark does not like PlayStation.

Mark Trobough: 22:50

Alright, I sit with a PS5 in my background.

Brandon Hurles: 22:55

That's a knockoff, that's a PlayStation right.

Mark Trobough: 22:59

Yeah, you wish.

Brandon Hurles: 23:01

Alright, so I'm going to let you take this one, because I think you know a little bit more, and then I'll kinda give my opinion on what I know. But I wanna hear what you got to say, so we're gonna talk about. I guess we can just encompass kind of all of this part if you want to, or we can leave the other part for later. I mean, it kind of all goes together so I mean, yeah, we can kinda do all the same time we're talking Ubisoft this week, guys, shocker, everyone's been talking about it.

Mark Trobough: 23:30

So outside of the assassin's creed shadow drama, there was apparently some ubisoft france employees came out planning to strike. From my understanding this is new today. Now this has, I'll be. You know it's ubisoft related, but this more has to do with the fact that Ubisoft came out and was like you have to come back to the office. They were like hard nixing any kind of remote work and people got comfortable to it. So they announced that 1,000 workers in their Paris office alone or Ubisoft has 1,000 workers. I don't know if we got a hard number, but the a friend, the French union for their games industry. It's pretty much coming out there supporting, criticizing Ubisoft and, you know, obviously supporting the workers not wanting to strike. Uh, was trying to double check. So they were planning to strike on the 15th, 16th and 17th to stop remote work. I don't really think it's going to probably change anything because we didn't get any hard word of like how many people actually plan to strike.

Mark Trobough: 24:33

But it's an argument I get both sides of it. People want to do remote work, people want to do in-person work, but not everything is necessarily remote and if you had to ask me personally, I'd rather go to work in an actual office. I hate doing work from home because I get far less work actually done Plus me. Personally, I like the social element of actually being in an office place talking to other people. When I'm at home, it's just me, you know, talking to myself. I just don't think it's as productive. But I don't know if you had anything to say about this or not?

Brandon Hurles: 25:10

um, I mean about this specific part, yeah, if it's about the remote work, you know, I I don't. I don't think that's a reason to go on strike, if you ask me so they, they did come out, and it was apparently.

Mark Trobough: 25:27

Their demands were on top of the what they call formal remote work, whatever that actually means a salary increase and better social dialogue, which means absolutely nothing to be honest.

Brandon Hurles: 25:39

What is that supposed to mean? Because I don't understand.

Mark Trobough: 25:42

Who knows who cares, maybe that's just me, but it's like we want to work from home and we want you to pay us more to work from home.

Mark Trobough: 25:50

The one thing that I could see, potentially, because obviously a lot of jobs are in major cities very expensive, especially with the, with inflation, everything else driving the cost of just living in general. So I get like, if you want to be able to work for a major company but live in a more rural area where it's just, it's just cheaper to live, but that kind of makes commuting impossible or a several hour round trip, which is just not practical on a day to day basis for the most part. So I get that, though I get not. Every job can be remote. There needs to be amount. So I don't know, maybe the option is Allow certain type of remote work work if a lot of people want to live in a more remote area, maybe open smaller offices not near the head office, where you can still do in-person work but you don't need to be in the middle of a metro city. Uh it is france.

Mark Trobough: 26:38

I don't know a lot of a lot of that stuff. But I mean, I'm sure for some people that that matters because that's it can. You know, commuting to and from work for a whole year, you know, gets expensive the more you have to commute, and stuff like that. If you're not within walking distance, most people probably aren't, because it's it's ungodly expensive, probably to live in downtown paris, probably where their studio is I'm sure.

Mark Trobough: 27:01

I'm sure I mean the salary increase I think that's kind of up in the air, because if you're able to live somewhere cheaper but maintain your salary, I mean, we don't know what they're being paid, so that's one thing. It's probably all over the place, because you probably have people high up and people at the very bottom of the rung that were doing some kind of remote work.

Mark Trobough: 27:19

So it's all over the place and I just I can't speak for france because I don't know where france is financially, but you know you should at least be getting pay raises every year to at least match the rate of inflation. That should be like a minimum standard, just because cost of living goes up. But I don't know, to be fair, it'll be. We want more money. Ubisoft's very obviously not in a good, strong financial position because they've had two major games launched this year and they've both bombed drastically. So it's like, hey, we can pay more, but we've got to cut x amount of jobs, type thing.

Mark Trobough: 27:49

Uh yeah there's criticism all around, but you know, I don't know where they, where their finances stand, so I can't make make a decision on that. I'm just saying, realistically, assume you don't have a huge 20 increase in inflation, you know you're, you should be getting raises to kind of match that. That way your, your costs, your wages, master the increase in cost of living type stuff. Right, I'm I'm kind of back and forth when it comes to the remote work, because I get it for most people and for most jobs. You probably do need some kind of in-person work. But I don't have the numbers. I don't know if they're seeing, you know, a drop off in productivity or something else, or they just want people to come back to work.

Brandon Hurles: 28:27

Obviously covid changed a lot of stuff like that, but uh yeah, like you said earlier, people got comfortable with doing that and I think that's the problem right, because before covid it wasn't that way. Work from home jobs, that was very rare, you know what I mean they didn't really know people that did that and they work.

Mark Trobough: 28:46

But I do know people and I'm arguably one of them that when you're working from home, your productivity very obviously drops off yeah, I think that's different for everybody, because I know people that say that they, you know it increases.

Brandon Hurles: 28:58

But I do know, for, like me, um, it depends, right, like sometimes, I'm that way sometimes where, you know, productivity drops down a little bit. For me, some days are better than others because I do like a hybrid thing. I mostly work in person, but there's sometimes a day that I'll work from home. It just depends I get it.

Mark Trobough: 29:21

I mean, I mean, I guess you gotta work, figure out what works for you. Every work environments can be very different. This is not an ubisoft. Trust me, I'll take any any opportunity to to crap on ubisoft because I absolutely hate them and in the for the immediate future, I refuse to buy anything from them.

Brandon Hurles: 29:35

I don't care how good the game actually is essentially when ubisoft came out and said the other you, won't, you won't own it and you're just not gonna own your game type thing.

Mark Trobough: 29:44

That completely soured me. Yeah, we can go into that. But I mean there's just a lot of to me unknowns to to make an looking in to be like I don't, I don't know like I get there's a some level of drop off. Your game is kind of buggy, but your games have kind of always been buggy, but I I just don't a lot of the the details. But I mean both sides could be greedy for all I know and just wanting what's best, so kind of is what it is on that side of it.

Brandon Hurles: 30:12

Yeah for sure. Do you want to get in the other Ubisoft stuff then?

Mark Trobough: 30:17

No, yeah, we can. The Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Brandon Hurles: 30:22

Yeah.

Mark Trobough: 30:24

If you haven't heard, obviously not only did Ubisoft at the last minute pull out of the Tokyo Game Show, which was an immediate red flag on top of everything else but then they shortly after came out and said, yeah, this game's getting delayed and, I believe, getting pushed to February 14th, valentine's Day, for some reason, but it's essentially getting like a three month, three, four month delay more or less, which, if you're hoping for more polish, like a 90 day window, is kind of negligible at the end of the day, like there's only so much you're going to be able to fix. So the game is arguably in some level of broken state at launch, because obviously they've had Skull and Bones and Star Wars Outlaws which have been in some level of broken state at launch, because obviously they've had skull and bones and star wars outlaws which have been financial flops. And if you've not heard or watching some other videos that definitely track this, like ubisoft stock is like plummeting, it's like down 60 some percent on the year, something like that yeah, I actually got sent that by uh thunderstache.

Brandon Hurles: 31:21

He sent me because he brought up he's like how much you want to bet that the next day after that announcement their stock drops?

Mark Trobough: 31:27

and it went yeah so year to date ubisoft's. So this is a slight difference. So their year to date is down 54, but the in the past year their stock is down 60, just about 63, and if you go back five years, their stock is down 84%. Their stock peaked in 2021 at about $20 a share and it's right now sitting at about $2.31 USD a share. Wow, well, that's Ubisoft Entertainment ADR. Rep 1 5th. Let me double check just to make sure that's the right stock. Are you sure? I googled Ubisoft stock and that's what came up. Oh, okay.

Mark Trobough: 32:05

It just might be how it's listed, but I do know it's a huge drop. Even in the announcement of the delay their stock dropped a lot. It's not what I want. I just wanted to pull up just to make sure I'm getting the right thing. I guess I'll just pull up Bloomberg and it should be on here, because there's a bunch of different technically, because there's a jump around. So Ubisoft Entertainment SA is one of them, are you?

Brandon Hurles: 32:46

going to show me the whole thing apparently not.

Mark Trobough: 32:52

Sorry, some of these sites are just being stupid, but I mean regardless. There's been a huge drop in their stock, consistently. I'm pretty sure I had the right one the first time. But I mean obviously their stock's been dropping so low that the shareholders are one to like take action and be like I don't know what you're doing, but like this is, you're costing us a lot of money yeah, um uh, yeah, mr coffee, saying that forbes reported there was some talk about, uh, removing or reducing yasuke's right.

Mark Trobough: 33:26

The problem is if, if you wanted to make a major change like that, three months isn't a big enough time to like make any kind of significant change in a game. You'd need like a year. Yeah, because that really that affects so much of significant change in a game You'd need a year.

Mark Trobough: 33:38

Yeah, because that affects so much of the game and the story and I don't know how you can lower the One of your two main characters' role. Your game's essentially where it's going to be. That would just require so much change. It probably would just outright tank the game and it just would never launch. At that point You'd require Ubisoft to go back to the drawing board, cause.

Mark Trobough: 34:03

I don't, I don't know how much, how much there is there. But like I know it's not been good for Ubisoft. The fact that and more or less like if this game doesn't do well, like Ubisoft is like as a company in in massive trouble. Company in massive trouble as much as I would. It might be the wrong word, but I would be gleeful if Ubisoft just went under, because it just shows you know you put out crap, you kind of get what you deserve.

Brandon Hurles: 34:32

I mean it's wild because they're just making really stupid decisions. I mean, like none of it. Bad leadership from the top, none of it. It doesn't make any sense. I don't understand what these companies are doing. I mean I don't get it. I just do not understand what is going on. They've got all the political stuff backing behind these companies and, like they're throwing away dollars, they might as well be throwing money in the trash because they're losing people. It affects your sales, you know what I mean.

Mark Trobough: 35:01

Yeah, and your reputation's kind of in the gutter right now.

Brandon Hurles: 35:06

Yeah, I mean it's just like. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Mark Trobough: 35:09

You can't tell me that Outlaws and Skull Bones haven't lost money for them as a studio this year.

Brandon Hurles: 35:16

Oh for sure. I mean a quadruple a game.

Mark Trobough: 35:19

They spent a lot of money on that yeah, I mean, at the very least, the fact that, uh, you have shareholders threatening to try to get them, you know, trying to get uh other shareholders in, uh, I don't know what. You call it an agreement to try to force them to essentially fire the head ceo and then force the company private to essentially try to fix it or just to sell the company to somebody else. Because, regardless, you know, because I think they mentioned like something like black rock, which I think arguably would be worse um, yeah, it doesn't matter for ubisoft as a whole, for the shareholders. You have bad leadership at the top and it's it's going to destroy the company if they keep going the way they're going, like assassin's creed has to make money to at least stop the bleeding it's like I don't know if at this point, like at one point, assassin's creed was like call of duty, right like those are the two.

Brandon Hurles: 36:13

Oh yeah, it was a big one. It was a huge deal when it launched.

Mark Trobough: 36:18

The late 2000s into the 2010s. It was a really big series.

Brandon Hurles: 36:21

Yeah, it was massive. The big time sellers every year were Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty. Those were the big. You knew it was going to sell no matter what, nothing matters.

Brandon Hurles: 36:32

But now I feel like that's dropped off. I don't feel the same. I don't think Assassin's Creed is moving the units now that Call of Duty is. I just don't Like, I don't think it's as prolific of a series now and as important as it once was. So, um, yeah, it's just, I don't know, it's just crazy man, it's just crazy. Uh, it's just crazy man, it's just crazy. Uh, I think the whole decisions behind assassin's creed are stupid, like all of it from the the jump, everything we knew from the beginning. Stupid, man, I mean, I don't, I don't know about you, but like I just think it doesn't make any sense that they're doing the things that they are and like they are losing people, like literally losing people. Uh, people are, I mean, and for good reason. People are getting upset for good reason, yeah, so I don't know it's, it's crazy. I officially have no interest in playing assassin's creed um.

Mark Trobough: 37:29

I have no interest in an ubisoft game period like they lost me.

Brandon Hurles: 37:34

I I'm as. I love samurais, I love Japan, I love these type of games. I think this, realistically, would have been the place I would have wanted them to visit with Assassin's Creed. Why are you laughing?

Mark Trobough: 37:51

There's some comment there Gamer Freak wanted to talk about. We're trying to bring up some Godzilla stuff and then Miscopy retcons, and what if they reskin Yasuke and make him look like Godzilla? I just I couldn't help but laugh.

Brandon Hurles: 38:08

That's funny. Yeah, Craziness man. Is there anything else you want to say about Assassin's Creed, though? I?

Mark Trobough: 38:16

think we've said for the most part what's kind of already been said. There's obviously a lot of discourse around this in different ways, because obviously there's a whole discussion around the and Ubisoft, but that's like that's an ongoing discussion. But I don't want to get bogged down in that discussion right now. Yeah, all right, cool, just just keep keep it moving. I want to, you know know, get bogged down in some some culture war discussion stuff. Yeah, there's too much game to talk about.

Brandon Hurles: 38:43

So okay, so we got a classic ps2 horror game is making a comeback, and that horror game happens to be um, was it siren? I believe was the name of the game oh, yeah, yeah, siren, yep, yep, have you played this one?

Mark Trobough: 38:56

I have not, but I saw this and I know you're both a retro and a horror fan, so I thought I'd bring this up yeah, no, this is really cool.

Brandon Hurles: 39:04

I have siren. Um, it's. It's a cool game. It's not one I would have expected to ever make. A comeback. Um, it's definitely really cool and it's not expensive. If I remember, I've had the game for a long time now, so I didn't.

Mark Trobough: 39:19

It was a Korean game, if I'm not mistaken right.

Brandon Hurles: 39:25

It was a Japan studio game, Japanese game.

Mark Trobough: 39:29

Oh, OK, so no, it was a. So the news came from. The Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea.

Brandon Hurles: 39:35

rated Siren yeah that's kind of where this uh, which is kind of kind of where the board yeah, that's kind of where this, this leak slash news kind of came from.

Brandon Hurles: 39:43

Sorry, I misread that no, you're good, you're good. Um, no, this is really cool. It's like I said, it's one I would have never expected to make a comeback. Um, I, I would love to see it like. I think, if I remember correctly, it was kind of like people thought it was sort of mediocre. Uh, let me see what it's probably. Yeah, so I'm looking at reviews like overall metacritic, 72 out of 100. So that's still, you got to remember, that's still three-fourths of the way there. So it's not bad. Uh, I enjoyed it, and horror games used to always get bad ratings, so, like, don't judge it on if it wasn't, if it wasn't like a silent hill or a or resident evil yeah, the the top, top end touches.

Mark Trobough: 40:24

It's kind of like horror movies.

Brandon Hurles: 40:25

It's either really good good ratings or it's really bad yeah yeah, yeah, no, just like horror movies, horror games, like almost never universally get bad reviews, like they just don't get good reviews.

Mark Trobough: 40:37

I mean with all the, with all the games, the older games, getting like remasters, remakes, uh, obviously leaving out the fact that we're getting too many uh, uh, last of us, remakes, remasters that don't need it, and we just got news about the uh uh. What is it?

Brandon Hurles: 40:58

I don't know I played down the name.

Mark Trobough: 40:59

All of a sudden pulled uh the horizon zero dawn getting a remake remaster. When it's just too new, like the game's like maybe five years old, it's less than a decade old, it doesn't need a remake. Yeah, but I like the fact that we're getting a lot. A lot of retro stuff is starting to come back. It's gonna be remastered the 2D the 2.5D, you know 3D type remake. It's a really bad run on sins yeah, no, I get what you're saying.

Brandon Hurles: 41:29

I think it's great and like there's no reason a game that's less than 5 years old isn't getting a remake. It doesn't make any sense. I mean it's that last of us saying gets a remaster one generation, the next it getting a remake. It doesn't make any sense. I mean it's that last of us saying gets a remaster one generation, the next it gets a remake.

Mark Trobough: 41:41

The next year it got a remaster.

Brandon Hurles: 41:44

For the first, the original game from the PS3 to the PS4,.

Mark Trobough: 41:47

It was like.

Brandon Hurles: 41:48

How is that a remaster? That's just. It didn't play like a remaster either, because I played it.

Mark Trobough: 41:54

It was the same game. It looked better, obviously, but it's like. This game came out less than two years ago.

Brandon Hurles: 42:01

Why it was a buzzword to put it on the console and make you think, oh, this is a way, new, improved and best way to play the game and so you should buy it again.

Mark Trobough: 42:09

Then they did a game with the PS5, but they called it Part 1, since we got Part 2, because people are stupid apparently.

Brandon Hurles: 42:15

Yeah, that stupid apparently.

Mark Trobough: 42:16

Yeah, that makes no sense, yeah, talk about I said I would.

Brandon Hurles: 42:18

I would grab that if I find it for 20 bucks, but you ain't gonna catch me paying 60 dollars for that again. Then you ain't gonna catch me buying that game for 60 bucks again.

Mark Trobough: 42:26

Yeah, and then yeah, no, yes, uh, I saw that, mr coffee, it's, it's in our notes. We'll get to that. About the what do we got?

Brandon Hurles: 42:34

oh, yeah, yeah, okay, uh, before we move on for other news, I wanted to stop for a second and show off a couple things that came this week. Mark, you got some stuff too, yeah. I can pull it out, Obviously picked up new Zelda Echoes of Wisdom Still sealed. I did get to start it. Yeah, mark hasn't gotten started yet. You want to go ahead and show off your other thing?

Mark Trobough: 42:59

yeah, because my store only had two of them and I just kind of said, screw it, I'll go ahead and pick it up, having still in the box. But I went and got the, the light, the hyrule edition that they released along with it. So sick, still sealed I I don't know how much it cost me like 321. Whatever the price is, I don't know the receipt in front of me. I kind of said, screw it, they had it, so I bought it. Yeah, so cool, because I still have my original Switch. I don't have a Lite. I'm pretty sure it's just the Lite, so it's obviously got no OLED screen, which would be nice.

Brandon Hurles: 43:30

Well, there is a mod out right now I again today for the Switch Lite and OLED screen mod. That's really cool. I mean like it's so cool that somebody has done that already while the Switch is still currently active.

Mark Trobough: 43:44

I meant to ask did you get the tote bag with the game at all?

Brandon Hurles: 43:47

Nope, I didn't get anything because my GameStop both did not get my console in and also did not get the fabric poster. Pre-order bonus.

Mark Trobough: 43:56

So I didn't pre-order mine, I just walked in. I was like, do you have a copy? I didn't really care for it in the pre-orders.

Brandon Hurles: 44:04

I don't know if GameStop had anything specific, but I didn't pre-order. Yeah, it was supposed to be a big fabric poster and mine didn't get them. Again they didn't get the stuff the last two times I've made pre-orders.

Mark Trobough: 44:12

Yeah, I think they said he had like 20 to either 20 or 40 copies that weren't pre-orders and he's like that should get me through the through the week or the weekend.

Brandon Hurles: 44:20

It's not.

Mark Trobough: 44:20

It's not a big store, but it's. It's decent enough.

Brandon Hurles: 44:23

Right. And then I guess if you're.

Mark Trobough: 44:26

If you're doing it before you go to one I technically cause I wasn't so like earlier, I did get two other things to. They finally had it the second and the third initial d omnibus that I picked up as well, not just the first one.

Brandon Hurles: 44:39

So I'm a huge, I'm a huge initial d fan. So the moment I saw this, I was like yeah it just how much were.

Mark Trobough: 44:45

How much were those? 23 a piece for these omnibus it's not bad I mean it's more expensive than I prefer it. But I saw that I was like, yeah, I'm gonna get that that's rad.

Brandon Hurles: 44:55

Those are cool. Uh, the other thing I got that came in the mail is flippy drive. This is a um. It's a gamecube mod, so the peekaboo that I have in my uh gamecube. Now I've got it loaded up with the full library. This is similar to that. It's got new software, but the it's a solderless mod, so you don't have to solder anything. You bend this PCB flex here. It gets bent and put inside the GameCube. Basically, you literally screw this mod down. It's super simple. You can look up the directions. It's not out right now. Hopefully I'm saying this correctly. I think it is still a Kickstarter project. I believe they're looking at sometime early next year. They should be out, but people are going crazy for this thing. I know that they've already met their goals. They've done everything that they need to do. People are very excited about this. Being solderless is a big deal for a lot of people, because a lot of people don't want to touch a soldering gun, right? Yeah?

Brandon Hurles: 46:00

they don't feel comfortable with it and it's too easy to mess something up yeah, for good reason.

Brandon Hurles: 46:05

So, like you literally just have to screw this one down and insert the pcb flex where it tells you to put it in. It's super simple. You can load up. It's both got new software for the gamecube, so it's basically got like a 2.0 home screen where it will load up and when you go to your memory card selection it'll have all of your games that you've loaded up on there. Do you remember the memory card selection screen? How they were in blocks? Yeah, so all the games that you have saved there. One of the other cool things is you can actually back up. You don't even have to plug in your computer. You can back up your physical games straight to this and save them on the device and it'll actually rip the game in your GameCube. It'll read and rip your game so you can save up. You can back up your own games right on the GameCube. It's crazy to me, but it also has Swiss and if you know anything about GameCube mods, swiss has been around for a long time, but it's basically what it has been used For the GameCube for years At this point as far as the software. So it's really cool.

Brandon Hurles: 47:14

I'm going to dive into it soon. Hopefully I got to find another GameCube, though, because I've already got dive into it soon. Hopefully I got to find another game cube, though, um, cause I've already got this one set up. It's done, it's good. I need a different game cube. I don't want to, um, take out and desolder what's already in there when it's run perfectly fine. So yeah, um, I just need to find another game cube, but yeah, excited about that?

Mark Trobough: 47:40

no, absolutely. Uh, I guess this next thing wasn't something big, but obviously a lot of stuff's getting announced during the tokyo game show. But the? Uh, they came out during black moth wukong. Sorry, I couldn't blank name on on the studio.

Brandon Hurles: 47:49

Uh what's that? What what's black moth wukong?

Mark Trobough: 47:54

it's the game that just came out like I'm just kidding like at the beginning of the month or something like that. Uh, but it came out announced during the Tokyo Game Show that Black Widow Kong has sold over 20 million copies in its first month, which is very impressive, more than any Metroid game. Probably combined.

Brandon Hurles: 48:11

Yeah, realistically.

Mark Trobough: 48:13

They're claiming it's one of the top-selling games. I've tried to get hard numbers on some of the other games. I don't think it's one of the top-selling games. I tried to get hard numbers on some of the other games. I don't think it's. Stellar Blade's not the right thing to think of. But what was it, stellar Blade? You get in DLCs, did you see that? I did so. I had this pulled up and I lost it all of a sudden.

Mark Trobough: 48:34

So I don't know where it stands with the like, with the, with seven rebirth, infinite wealth. Hell delivers two. Um, as far as like the actual numbers for what they've sold. Uh, just because the years and out. I don't know how many people have hard release numbers until probably the end of the year when they do whatever they're to. They come out during this their investors and say, hey, this is what we I mean copies, we this FY and everything else and stuff like that, how much money we made and stuff. But it's arguably it's going to be one of the top-selling games and I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a top-selling game in 2024, even with its short window.

Mark Trobough: 49:12

I think this is Game of the Year Easy, frontrunner, easy what should be a winner of of game of the year. To me personally, I just don't think any other game holds up to it. I just think far and away it's just gonna be the best game and probably the best best-selling game. But obviously it's hard to tell because I found pretty early on that games media, for whatever reason, didn't like it because they came out and the whole stuff a few months ago with the uh, with where they told them to just eat sand, yeah. But I think, regardless the actual game, it's a very good game.

Brandon Hurles: 49:45

I still need to beat it. Have you beat it yet?

Mark Trobough: 49:46

I haven't beat it, unfortunately. I should have by now, but I didn't. But to me, I just see this as being the easy game of the year. It shouldn't even be a competition.

Brandon Hurles: 49:59

Yeah, I think it's definitely going to be in the discussion. I I can't think of what else like besides assassin's creed would have been one of them yeah, it's just not.

Mark Trobough: 50:08

Maybe if it was a a 3d 3d mainline game I, I still think if it's a mainline game, but it's kind of doing its own thing and it's not going to be seen as like a triple a mainline game I'm trying to think of what else so would even be before the controversy assassins you would have said assassin's creed, but controversy.

Mark Trobough: 50:26

Now the delay. It's not even coming out this year anymore and then, yeah, I don't know, I mean to me, it instilled a blade on my two favorite games oh, so well you came out this year.

Brandon Hurles: 50:34

Yeah, I don't I?

Mark Trobough: 50:35

that might make the list.

Brandon Hurles: 50:36

I don't think it's going to win. I don't think it's going to win either.

Mark Trobough: 50:39

I don't think it's going to make the top five, but I could see, like a Dragon, helldivers 2, definitely being in competition.

Brandon Hurles: 50:45

Helldivers 2 will be in the discussion. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's probably going to win. I mean I can't.

Mark Trobough: 50:54

Yeah, yeah, probably is there's just no other game, not only in sales and popularity, but just the game itself is just that good.

Brandon Hurles: 51:01

I won't support it because I don't. I think it's sketchy. I think you're getting your data stolen and all that stuff with it.

Mark Trobough: 51:09

But to be fair, your data's getting stolen from Facebook. It's getting stolen from everybody else. It's just who's taking it and selling it. Your data's already out there, there's. There's no stop and stuff like that I disagree with that. Um, I don't think everybody's data is out there, so most people, anybody that's on the internet, your, your data is whatever you put on the internet obviously it's out there and it's getting sold to advertisers for money.

Mark Trobough: 51:35

It just is what it is. Yeah, like I get it. If you don't like it, for it for the its roots with chinese company based in china and stuff like that, but as a game by itself, you know it's, it's just a really good game well, we got uh, so horizon, zero dawn, uh price after remaster announcement.

Brandon Hurles: 51:54

So they doubled the price after they made the announcement for the remaster, because you have the 10 upgrade option and they don't want you to do that, they want you to spend more money.

Mark Trobough: 52:06

So stupid because they went from 20 to 40 after they announced, hey, we're gonna remaster and release it. What's the point of increasing the price, other than you're just great. It's just so greedy so blatantly green like it's give me more reasons to stop supporting sony. Like it's just. This is pointless. It's. It's a what a five, six year game at this point came out in like 2017, 2018, I think, 2017. Yeah, they came. They came out the same year the breath of wild did, but it's just like.

Brandon Hurles: 52:35

That's just not necessary wild, I mean on top, of you're gonna release another game.

Mark Trobough: 52:42

So what, you're trying to get people that want to play it now to pay more, like you've long since made your money on. This game is a really popular game. You know it's a really good, really good and fun game. But like, yeah, just, I agree, it was great. You see stuff like that and you're like first of all, I didn't need a remaster, it's a new coat of paint. But like what I just there's no, there's no support, I don't even know.

Brandon Hurles: 53:04

I don't even know. I just we were just talking about the last of us stuff. This very well might be one of those situations where it's like, okay, the game runs a little bit better, but like there is no like remit to me. Remaster, that means that you're you're working with the original source code and you're working from sort of the ground up with it so you're kind of rebuilding and the visuals should look significant, significantly different when it's being remastered.

Brandon Hurles: 53:32

Remastered to me is not just a new coat of paint, or just now it's a stable 60. That's not a remaster to me. I don't know.

Mark Trobough: 53:46

You're remastering a game that you've already had access to, and it's not that old.

Brandon Hurles: 53:51

It's still playable on the PS5.

Mark Trobough: 53:53

Well, less than a decade old at this point it runs physically and digitally.

Brandon Hurles: 53:57

So why, are we doing this?

Mark Trobough: 53:59

like I get it with old games that are like 10, 20, 30 years old that if you don't have the old hardware they're essentially impossible to play. That's one thing. But a game that's this new and sony's been physically been doing this for a while now they're just doing it more and more, like it started with last of us when they went from the ps3 to ps4. But it's just like this, it just seems unnecessary and it nobody, nobody should buy this. The only reason you should buy this remastered version is if you never played the game to begin with. Like if you already have it, there's no point, especially now that it's on pc. Like I can make this game look and run better by just modding it on pc.

Brandon Hurles: 54:33

Like I don't need a remastering and it's like, yeah, it's crazy man. Yeah, I don't know, that's the only thing you could say it's just corporate greed.

Mark Trobough: 54:41

I'm like I don't, yeah, no, sony, you just I saw the video.

Brandon Hurles: 54:47

It's like uh, sony's doing decisions like yeah, sony's back, oh no, we're gone.

Mark Trobough: 54:52

Oh no, we're back. Oh no, sony's done for type thing. I was like this just feels like sony, like the past, like two. They do something really good, then something really bad, and then it just goes back and forth.

Brandon Hurles: 55:02

It's wild man. I don't get it. I mean I don't get it. Is this something you would buy?

Mark Trobough: 55:09

I already have the game. I have it on PS4 and on PC. Who are they trying to sell this to then? I don't know At this point who cares about this?

Brandon Hurles: 55:18

If?

Mark Trobough: 55:18

you wanted to have played this. You probably already have the game.

Brandon Hurles: 55:22

Yeah, it's wild man.

Mark Trobough: 55:25

But speaking of stuff that actually deserves a remaster, I know you talked about it and I think you posted it on the Facebook and some socials. Lunar is coming back after God knows how many decades it's been gone yeah, funny enough.

Brandon Hurles: 55:40

Uh, today is, uh, 19 years ago today, lunar dragon song came out on the ds, so I posted that today too. Um, kind of funny timing, uh. But yeah, no, I, this was my. I was more excited about this than anything in the playstation showcase because I want these games to hit a new audience. So, just like we talked about with trails and uh tails and some of those games that you know ease that hadn't hit with, like, an American audience before, this is another one of those ordeals. These games are. These games in this collection to me are 10 out of 10 games. I love these lunar games like I deeply, deeply love these games. They are so good.

Mark Trobough: 56:25

So from what I saw, it's lunar silver uh star story and then lunar eternal blue are the two games in this hd, because it looks like it's still the same pixel games a little bit maybe of some some 3d with just the graphics and stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles: 56:37

But it looks like the old pixel game just with a fresh coat of like high def pixelated art, essentially yeah, that's a good way to describe it yeah, and there's like, honestly, like these games, just bringing them to modern, a modern platform, is a big deal. Because here's another one of the things just like so many other jrpgs, these games are expensive, so there's no legal way to play these without spending several hundred dollars to buy them, because these came in box sets. These games did. They were in like so the ps1. It came in a sleeved box set that was about this thick and it came with the book and map and stuff like that, um, but no, that they're doing all new english voice acting um, which will modernize the classic experience, they said, and I think that's really cool that they're doing that, because that means they're actually putting work into it.

Mark Trobough: 57:29

Yeah, they said they're. They're bringing the cut scenes to high def, uh, because I've seen some cut scenes where it looked like the old, like 90s anime. I assume they're just uh, upsc, those the new fresh paint and stuff like that. I don't know if they're completely redoing the cutscenes, I'm not sure.

Brandon Hurles: 57:42

Yeah, I'm not sure about that part either. Just looking at the cutscenes, it is so cleaned up and looks really good. I think it looks excellent. From the screenshots that we have. It looks very cleaned up from the original game. You gotta remember. Like PS1, we're talking where the era of we talked about it many times where things maybe didn't look so great or don't hold up as well today. Now, this is a little bit different because it is a 2D game. But even then I've gone back and played Silver Star Story and it can be a little rough in some areas just because PS1, but the game itself is an absolute 10 out of 10 amazing stories like these. These two games are fantastic. So I'm so happy that they're coming to modern platforms and I hope that it reaches a new audience so that we get new games.

Mark Trobough: 58:29

I mean because this is a series I would love to see continue there's just a lot of good rpgs from the 90s that are stuck in that that top-down 2d pixel art style that some people might be turned off on, but they're just really good written stories. It just requires you to have like 40, 50, 60 hours of time to get the whole story that's.

Brandon Hurles: 58:48

You know that is the thing about jrpgs is they are a little bit of a time sink, you know so, um, but it's also one of the great things about is that it's uh, you get your money's worth out of the game.

Mark Trobough: 58:58

You know what I mean.

Brandon Hurles: 58:59

Like that's, the cool thing about JRPGs is that you really legitimately get your money's worth. Like a 60 hour game, yeah, it's an investment, just take your time with it. Then, like, who are you rushing for? Just take your time and enjoy it and you're getting your money's worth. That's pretty cool. And we didn't actually get to talk about it, but I am going to bring it up to Zelda. So I started playing it. Apparently, this is around a 15-hour game, which is pretty good for a 2D Zelda game. It's actually, I mean, I would say, really good for a 2D Zelda game, but yeah, so I got a couple hours in and it's really cool, man, it's definitely different. It's really neat. It's no spoiler, because you saw it in the trailer, but you start the game out as Link quickly. I won't say anything beyond that for that, but it's very interesting Right from the get-go.

Brandon Hurles: 59:51

You're thrown into the action of the game right away. There's no waiting, which is really neat. The echo ability is freaking cool man. Game like right away. There's like kind of no waiting, which is really neat. Um, the uh echo ability is freaking cool, man, like really really cool. It's such a cool, um, such cool concepts, taking kind of like a semi thing from tears of the kingdom sort of it's. It's similar in ways, uh, but the echoes, which is like a copying ability and building ability, is really, really neat. And there's like 150 different echoes in the game, different things that you can use to get around the environment and solve puzzles, and it's really, really cool. So I did want to just mention that with it, but I'm enjoying it, I'm excited about it. One thing I will say though the overworld. When you're going through it, it's got the Link awakening problem. The frame rate is not stable when you're going through the yeah, that's what I heard.

Mark Trobough: 1:00:44

Hopefully that's something we'll hopefully get patched, because nintendo's not known for well, they never patch links awakening. It's still that way I hope not for for such a big game, because it always feels like it's a big thing when games are Nintendo. Games are not polished when they come out, so hopefully it's not an issue.

Brandon Hurles: 1:01:01

Link's Awakening was one of those very few exceptions for Nintendo where, like oh, this has got some actual performance problems.

Mark Trobough: 1:01:07

Outside of the Pokemon company, which just doesn't care, oh yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 1:01:12

I feel like those were the only two that I can think of Scarlet and Violet and Link's Awakening, which is very unfortunate because it doesn't make sense with it being a 2D game. Why there's performance problems? I don't know what is wrong with the engine they're using, but something's up there. It's very weird and it's crazy to me that they would let that happen again after Link's Awakening. The frame rate in that game is rough.

Mark Trobough: 1:01:34

Especially on a game that they're advertising as a brand new.

Brandon Hurles: 1:01:42

It game is rough, especially on a game that they're advertising as a brand new. It's not. It's not remaking, it's like a brand new from the ground up. Own, yeah, like I don't even know if this is where this goes in the timeline either when it starts out, because I guess it's not a spoiler. Like zelda doesn't know who link is, I'll just say that. So, like, where does it go in the timeline? It?

Mark Trobough: 1:01:55

might be its own random thing.

Brandon Hurles: 1:01:57

I assume based off of what they're going to split off to a four timeline now I mean, that's what they kind of did with the, with the two new games.

Mark Trobough: 1:02:04

Uh, they just kind of like uh put a line and said, hey, these two games are connected and they're just kind of not connected in my experience I.

Brandon Hurles: 1:02:12

I think lynx awakening is worse, but I've seen a few people comment that this is significantly worse than Link's Awakening. And I'm about three hours in, so I've spent a good chunk of time in the overworld. I don't think it's as bad as Link's Awakening, but it's there. You can tell like right from the get-go when you get into the overworld. It doesn't happen in dungeons, anywhere. If you go inside a house it doesn't happen inside anything, just the overworld.

Mark Trobough: 1:02:36

Yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 1:02:36

It's weird. And this is how many times bigger than Link's Awakening, like I think they said, eight times bigger than Link's Awakening, like the map, because it's an open world game.

Mark Trobough: 1:02:48

Yeah, and it was significantly larger, and you would expect them, taking a not being restraint to a old game on the Game Boy, being able to do a whole lot more with it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:02:55

Right, right. Yeah, it was so disappointing to see that Link's Awakening because it was like it was so rough that at points I didn't even want to continue. It was pretty bad and I love Link's Awakening on the Game Boy, so, um, of course I did beat it. I beat that game twice the remake.

Mark Trobough: 1:03:12

Yeah, I was trying to figure out where.

Brandon Hurles: 1:03:14

I think they said eight times bigger. But it is like there's a whole map you gotta unlock, like here's the kingdom, yeah.

Mark Trobough: 1:03:20

I just wanted to go back. So, if you're not sure, link's Awakening takes place after A Link to the Past and the Heroes Defeated Timeline. It's the second game in that timeline, hmm.

Brandon Hurles: 1:03:31

And it's just confirmed by Nintendo.

Mark Trobough: 1:03:33

Yeah, it's the official timeline placement, because we all know that all the games that have no proper timeline placement were in the Heroes Defeated timeline.

Brandon Hurles: 1:03:41

This is after A Link to the Past.

Mark Trobough: 1:03:43

Yes, it's the next game after. That's weird, and then Link's.

Brandon Hurles: 1:03:47

Awakening is after that right.

Mark Trobough: 1:03:51

I mean.

Brandon Hurles: 1:03:52

Link's Awakening is just a dream, so it's like how do you? Yeah, it's Link to the Past Link's.

Mark Trobough: 1:03:55

Awakening.

Brandon Hurles: 1:04:02

The one I pulled up is not the best. And then there's another game, and it's the, the oracle games, and it's, uh, the oracle games.

Mark Trobough: 1:04:05

I think have to be next for remakes that you would think so.

Brandon Hurles: 1:04:07

Ages, oracle of ages, is in my top three zelda games ever, so I think it's phenomenal, um yeah, so it goes uh, in the heroes of feet.

Mark Trobough: 1:04:17

It's linked to the past links awakening the, awakening the Oracles, then the Link Between Worlds and then Zelda 1, zelda 2.

Brandon Hurles: 1:04:24

Yeah, so, mr Coffee, it looks like Link's Awakening is set after this game. Right? I have no idea. I thought you just said it.

Mark Trobough: 1:04:34

You mean this brand new game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:04:36

Yeah, this is set before Link's Awakening and after Link's Awakening, no Link's.

Mark Trobough: 1:04:40

Awakening because I was asking this specific question. Link's Awakening is placed after Link to the Past. We have no idea where the Seiko's game is.

Brandon Hurles: 1:04:48

Well, that's what I was saying, that's what you were trying to say the whole time.

Mark Trobough: 1:04:51

Like no, because they said in their new announcement that we talked about a few episodes ago.

Brandon Hurles: 1:04:55

I think this is its own game.

Mark Trobough: 1:04:57

It was like a hard line. Then it was Breath of the Wild, tears of the Kingdom, completely detached, and then I assumed this one was going to be somewhat attached to those. But I don't know if it's going to be a spinoff or there's going to be a huge time jump.

Brandon Hurles: 1:05:08

So maybe after uh it could be before tears of the kingdom, potentially I don't know, or maybe this takes place doesn't know.

Mark Trobough: 1:05:16

Link is this takes place after, because I can't remember how the ending went for, for tears of the kingdom, but maybe there's some amnesia that happened after. These are their. They're the offspring of the future because we know that's the still the whole. You know they're they're doomed to repeat the cycle type thing. But yeah, I guess we'll just have to wait until they officially put it into a timeline or we get another mainline zelda game that you know mentions this game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:05:41

Maybe probably won't well I'm wondering if this is its own thing. I legitimately I don't think they would want to split off and make a fifth timeline who knows at this point it's, it's, but. I did say, like what I was most excited for with this game was the story, because I wanted to know is this part of you know the Tears of the Kingdom timeline?

Mark Trobough: 1:06:04

and.

Brandon Hurles: 1:06:04

Breath of the Wild.

Mark Trobough: 1:06:04

I have to finish the game and see, I guess, maybe, maybe it'll tell you you should play more.

Brandon Hurles: 1:06:09

Yeah, maybe We'll see. I Maybe We'll see.

Mark Trobough: 1:06:10

I'm sure someone's already beat the game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:06:12

I'm glad there's already more story there than Tears of the Kingdom had for the whole game. I'm only a couple hours in.

Mark Trobough: 1:06:18

I mean there's a decent amount, but that's open worlds. In general, there's a give and take, Well this is open world too. Yeah, so there's a limit on how in-depth the story can be compared to a super linear game where it's just pure raw story that moves the game forward.

Brandon Hurles: 1:06:36

Well, apparently Nintendo's ending repairs on three consoles right.

Mark Trobough: 1:06:43

Yeah, so there's for sure, two of these were Japan specific. So, if you didn't know, apparently for the Famicom Classic and the Super Famicom Classic, which in the US it was known as the NES Classic and the SNES Classic, they're ending support, essentially once parts run out, as well as, apparently, the new 2DS XL. The fact that Nintendo does this and they advertise it, it's still amazing to me.

Brandon Hurles: 1:07:09

Maybe the other consoles do.

Mark Trobough: 1:07:11

Nobody consoles. But they're like, hey for the Famicom Classic, super famicom and 2d new, 2ds xl. They're saying, hey, once parts are out, we're not fixing these anymore, so you need it fixed. Get it fixed now, send in now. Yeah, like we've heard this before recently with some of their old stuff, but just like stuff that's like 10 years old.

Mark Trobough: 1:07:29

So it's like it's it's end of life type thing with the hardware and and they're like, yeah, we're just not going to support it anymore. Something kind of small, but you know, some need a decent amount of Nintendo stuff. I don't know where Brandon ran off to.

Brandon Hurles: 1:07:45

Oh, he's still there. Yeah, okay, so we got Kingdom Hearts creator. Comments on ugly characters in video games.

Mark Trobough: 1:07:54

Yes, I thought that was just kind of funny. I did see some people talking about this, but essentially he came probably when he was a classmate. One of his friends was playing a game in which he came out and said the protagonist wasn't good looking. So his friend actually asked why do I have to be ugly in the game too, not only in her world world but in a video game? And apparently that highly influenced him on his character designs to be like you know.

Mark Trobough: 1:08:20

You want a because obviously people's like. It's not realistic but it's a kind of a game. It's more of like a fantasy or something you would wish to see. Why, you know, because not everybody's like this top one percent, the best looking people in the world, if you want to look, you know, plays a nice person or look good in a video game and not not everybody wants to look like themselves in an actual video game. They want maybe a more idealized version of themselves or somebody like a blank slate character that they could kind of like imprint themselves on as they're playing the game, with the whole blank slate character type thing. I can't imagine this getting a whole lot of uh drama around it. I'm sure some people would would do that. It's just I thought it was kind of funny and a little neat that people were talking about they came out and it was kind of yeah, this is kind of like why I make my characters the way I do that's a very interesting.

Mark Trobough: 1:09:11

I think a lot of people funny, probably, would, probably, would agree with the statement. The whole, this whole drama around you know, eastern western character design and stuff like that.

Mark Trobough: 1:09:20

Yeah, I would agree. I mean, let's just be, it's not real, it's a video game, so why not have you know, play into the fantasy of, of you know and pretty yourself on somebody that you probably aren't like? Not everybody's like the hero in the real world Going to be a go on this huge quest, say, the world. I was going to know your name, but you can be that person in a video game, that idealized version that you see yourself as.

Brandon Hurles: 1:09:45

Seems sketchy I don't know.

Mark Trobough: 1:09:47

I think it's just you.

Brandon Hurles: 1:09:49

It might be, it might just be me, but it's definitely interesting.

Mark Trobough: 1:09:54

I thought it was kind of relevant, just because you see a stark divide between East and West. As far as character design goes, it's very different.

Brandon Hurles: 1:10:01

Yeah, it's definitely interesting, for sure.

Mark Trobough: 1:10:06

I guess you could stay around Nintendo a little more. So apparently Platinum Games has gotten its full rights from the Wonderful 101 from Nintendo, so Nintendo was the publisher of this game, but now apparently Platinum Games got full rights for the game that they made back in 2013. I don't know, did you ever play this game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:10:29

No, I have not have you.

Mark Trobough: 1:10:33

I didn't really have much of a wii u presence. What hold on? I have a wii u but I didn't uh, so it's what's it like? What it's like a wonderful joe game or something like that is what the wonderful, oh wonderful 101.

Brandon Hurles: 1:10:45

Yeah, sorry, that's what I thought I I played this, yeah, so no, this is uh, I don't know how to explain it. It's like a game where you've got 101 characters on the screen that you're controlling. They're all superheroes. It's very wacky, very interesting, and Platinum Games is always great. I liked it a lot.

Mark Trobough: 1:11:04

They're a really good game studio.

Brandon Hurles: 1:11:06

Yeah, they are. They put out, obviously, Bayonetta and stuff like that. So they do some really good stuff and you can't go wrong with any of those games like that. So they do some really good stuff and you can't go wrong with any of those games. But a sequel for Wonderful 101 would be really, really cool.

Mark Trobough: 1:11:20

I mean for sure hopefully that means good things in the future. They got the rights back. They want to continue on or release the game or do a remaster. Maybe Nintendo had it and they didn't want to do anything with it, but you know the studio did so yeah, yeah, no for sure.

Brandon Hurles: 1:11:35

I mean I would love to it, but you know the studio did so, yeah, yeah, no for sure. Uh, I mean I would love to see them, you know, do something with it. Uh, yeah, mr coffee said it's like pikmin meets beat em up. So yeah, that's a great way to describe it, for sure yeah, I think I bought the.

Mark Trobough: 1:11:51

I have a wii u, but I bought it to play a handful of Wii games. I got Mario Maker on it, but I got the Wii U at the end of its life A year or two before the Switch came out, oh yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 1:12:03

Do you still play?

Mark Trobough: 1:12:04

it, I haven't pulled it out. In a few years, like five years, I haven't pulled it out.

Brandon Hurles: 1:12:10

Do you have? What retro consoles do you have?

Mark Trobough: 1:12:14

I've got the SNES, the 64, the GameCube. I got the Vita. It's like edge of retro. I guess I got the Wii U and stuff like that, but I've only got a handful of old consoles. Do you have the 64? Yeah, these are the consoles that I grew up playing with. So, to be fair, they all technically need refurbished, okay, but I have them, them. I just don't really really use them, play them a whole lot at this point.

Brandon Hurles: 1:12:42

So more or less, they just kind of they sit in a closet. Uh see, that's, that's sad. I don't have a proper sit there.

Mark Trobough: 1:12:47

The problem is for for the, for the snes 64 and, I guess, more or less for the GameCube. I don't have a proper CRT to play games on. I've got a 55-inch flat screen which they don't play well on. Even with an adapter. They still look stretched, distorted, highly pixelated on a modern, you need the retro tank. Yeah, probably I do.

Brandon Hurles: 1:13:13

No, 100%. If you use those cheap adapters, you might as well not even play it. They look so bad. I've got it here. It's under a bunch of cables so I can't show you. That's what I use for modern TV and it fixes that problem completely. You can even put scan lines on there to make it replicate like a CRT, because there are some games where those pixels were designed around the scan lines on there to make it replicate like a crt, because there are some games where those pixels were designed around the scan lines being there.

Mark Trobough: 1:13:39

Yeah, so if you don't have them there, it just looks off actually I thought it was funny because I saw somebody talk about that like like duck hunt, like apparently it's designed around, it's looking for where it is. It was like what they say, like a flash on the screen that it's looking for through the, through the gun, and if and if it sees that flash, it counts it like it's a hit. So apparently you could just put it under a lamp shoot and you would hit every time.

Mark Trobough: 1:13:59

It's super high Cause, it's just it's based off of the screen would flash super fast and that just determines based off where they did it flash, where the, where the barrel or whatever the thing is looking for aiming essentially which I essentially, which I guess you know that the wii?

Brandon Hurles: 1:14:18

no, no, you're good. Did you know the wii? Um, you can use a candle instead of the sensor bar, and it'll work. I didn't know that. Yeah, you got serious. There's videos of it. I've tried it and it works. Isn't that crazy?

Mark Trobough: 1:14:27

that is, yes, it's wild, the jankiness of old technology trying to do something neat. No, because I was just trying to say apparently it technically works on modern uh lcd and led screens just not as well, just because it wasn't designed. It was designed around what the crt actually does but in theory can still work.

Brandon Hurles: 1:14:45

It's just not as not as effective yeah, the retro think solves all those problems. Um, I don't, I can't say I 100 understand the technology behind it, but the guy that does it like there's a retro think 4k now that's out, which I don't have. It's just it costs too much. I just can't afford it right now. But I've got the 5x, which is good enough for 95 of people. Um, and it it works perfect. It's Like it fixes all those problems and you can work around. Obviously everything up to, like you know, sega, saturn, ps3, even Like it does a lot of stuff. It's crazy.

Mark Trobough: 1:15:29

I guess the last thing I'll say on this is I could go with the CRT. The problem is a lot of these old games that I had and I actually played a lot, if not. Most of them are now like on the nintendo switch online. So it's like I don't have ways to play a lot of these games and like I want to play it, but like I'll play it for like a day or two, a few hours, and then it's like I want to move on, like I'm not just going to play these game religiously, it's just like you get the itch periodically, periodically go back and play a game that you played to me. For a lot of these games you can beat within a day, do?

Brandon Hurles: 1:15:53

you still have any of your handhelds I?

Mark Trobough: 1:15:55

got my Game Boy Color, my Game Boy Advance. They're both missing the battery back but they've been missing those when I was a kid. Classic, I think. I've got the Vita and then the Clamshell. I think the Clamshell one its battery's kind of shot. I think it has to stay plugged in at this point, and then I've got my old DS but it just doesn't work.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:14

I'm pretty sure because I think I showed it before. It's pretty sure the battery's long since corroded and probably just damaged it permanently because it just sat in the closet for like a decade.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:22

What you should do is at least unscrew that vac and pull that battery out, just in case it hasn't ruined it. Because it'll implode in there.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:32

I ended up also getting like It'll implode in there. I ended up also getting. I've got two new 3DS XLs, so I have ways to play my old DS games.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:39

I might need to buy one off of you. I bought them when they were cheap.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:44

Before it was announced, because I think I got both of them for no more than $100, $120 a piece or something like that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:50

Yeah, I remember, I wish I had grabbed one. You said new 3DS, right piece or something like that.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:55

Yeah, I remember, I wish I had grabbed one. You said new 3ds, right, yeah, the new 3ds so that's what I mean.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:58

I've been trying to find one.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:59

I have to buy one off you that was the time when I was playing. I was playing uh pokemon games both on the, on the, the online store, as well as like the, the newer games they had on the ds and pokemon need to trade, and I was right that was like really when I was into working on the pokemon living decks which I got through all those games, uh, so that was like the main reason was I needed ways to trade for myself for for yeah, that makes sense stuff like that.

Mark Trobough: 1:17:23

Um, but yeah, that was. That was back when it was like 100 bucks. It was like whatever it's. You know really cheap, plus I've got deeply not grabbing a couple of them plus, yeah, the old ds is neat to have, but like just having the bigger screen, I'd rather play old games. They work and it's.

Mark Trobough: 1:17:40

It's just a better hardware so it looks better on the 3ds too, and if it's not, if it's not stretched it'll still give that box, but like you can play them just fine on modern, on the modern they're backwards compatible, so there's no real need to pull out. You know 20 year old handheld hardware and play it. Yeah yeah, it doesn't it doesn't necessarily have like picto chat or something like that on it, but more or less I could still play the games I want to play but it is good to play picto chat too.

Brandon Hurles: 1:18:05

Yeah, so, yeah, all right. So what we got? Next mark?

Mark Trobough: 1:18:11

uh, I guess two more quick things before we get on to a bunch of our big stuff. So, uh, it was like a quick little note steam broke, uh, its own record for concurrent players. So they this past sunday, uh, trying to pull up the actual date on the on the 22nd september 2024, uh, they hit 38.3 million concurrent users on steam, which broke their previous records back in january 23 and july of 24, uh, which just kind of goes to show how popular steam really is it wasn't something that was just like hey we, they, they broke a one of their records of just concurrent people on steam, which is crazy.

Mark Trobough: 1:18:54

That is crazy. Uh, the other one was some something I saw like right, like within like a half hour before we actually went live, uh, just because I have one of these versions of the of the game on the 360. But we got just got an announcement that the venus vacation prism dead or alive extreme was announced for5, ps4 and PC, due out in early 2025 from the publisher Koei Tecmo and the developer Team Ninja. And if you don't know anything about the Dead or Alive Extreme, it's essentially it's a immersive romance adventure game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:19:31

That's a way to put it. I didn't know the dead or alive.

Mark Trobough: 1:19:36

Extreme games had anything other than volleyball, so this is like even the old, dead or live extreme had volleyball, but there are other aspects of it where you're like buying outfits for the girls, try to get them to like you, or something like that.

Mark Trobough: 1:19:47

There was always like a remember that I don't remember trying to get you to like you part some maybe't remember, because there's a few games I thought, but there was always like a romance, dating sim light version to those games on top of the girls are just the dead or alive girls just in skimpy outfits at a beach, so which is very obviously the main selling point of the game and it might not be extreme it might be one of the other games, but hey, if you're a fan of these quasi-dating sims, especially the Dead or Alive Extreme series, hey, you get another game. They haven't forgotten about you.

Brandon Hurles: 1:20:27

I will say this, and this is nothing I would ever play. I'm not interested in dating sim, but it looks really good. Like visually, it looks better than it should, in my opinion.

Mark Trobough: 1:20:41

Like the screenshots, it looks really good it's kind of like some quasi dating sims as the boss on. Venus Island, where summer is everlasting. You will interact with the girls you encounter there. Your story with the girls will unfold based on the choices you make, resulting in a variety of outcomes the heart-fluttering sensation caused by casual gestures, the thrill felt as you draw close to your love interest. The worry about which girl to choose. Are you ready to experience true romance on the island of everlasting summer?

Brandon Hurles: 1:21:14

And there's, uh, six, six girls, I I'm assuming the same with the previous looks like a visual novel. Yeah, that's kind of what these games are. Just watch the trailer.

Mark Trobough: 1:21:23

I mean this is, this is probably a probably gonna sell far more better in japan than probably everywhere else, just because it's like the primary marker for these types of games. But there are people here that that like visual novels and and there are some decently good visual novels, even though the choices you make are select what dialogue option and then the story just kind of moves forward. There's really no interaction more than that. But yeah, I just thought it was funny, I saw it and thought I'd mention it because why not? Yeah, no, it's definitely interesting.

Brandon Hurles: 1:21:53

I legitimately didn't know that that consists of spinoff series of fighting games, which is wild that this is like a spinoff of a spinoff Pretty much Wild. Yeah, it's definitely interesting, and there's no volleyball in it, though. That sucks.

Mark Trobough: 1:22:09

I mean, who knows, maybe there is, you just don't know. Yeah, there might be a small little mini game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:22:16

Maybe, yeah, all right, so we moving on to the bigger news.

Mark Trobough: 1:22:22

Oh yeah, we can do that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:22:24

OK. So we got the Tokyo Game Show announcements on the Xbox side, so we saw more about Metal Gear Solid, delta Snake Eater, which is really cool. A lot of people have been asking about this, wondering what's going on. Are we going to get release dates? Are we going to get any more info? And we didn't. It doesn't look like we really got a release date for it. Is that right?

Mark Trobough: 1:22:51

I'm not sure, or at least what GameSpot wrote up didn't have anything announced on it. There might be a better one, but just the fact that we're getting new news about a new Metal Gear Solid game. It's exciting. Now just hopefully they don't mess it up. Fix your audio, your headphones, oh you good. Your headphones, oh you good.

Brandon Hurles: 1:23:24

Oh, brandon's doing something. I lost my audio, guys, sorry.

Mark Trobough: 1:23:25

I'm trying to fix it.

Mark Trobough: 1:23:27

Yeah, he's trying to fix it real quick. On top of that, I guess we'll do something a little bit smaller. If any of you are still an Overwatch 2 fan. Apparently the game's getting a bunch of my Hero Academia skins for certain characters. So you know different stuff, like All Might Uravity, deku and Himiko Toga are getting certain skins and I get a few other ones. I'm just not sure for who the character is. I think from what I saw, tracer is the one getting the Deku skin, but I don't remember about the rest of the characters. It looks good. I'm not an Overwatch 2 fan, but for those that are both the my Hero Academia and Overwatch fan, it's good. You're probably gonna get ripped off on what they're charging for it, but Are you an hey?

Brandon Hurles: 1:24:12

are you a age of mythology fan?

Mark Trobough: 1:24:16

uh, I played it once. I didn't really care for it, but I'm glad we're getting more of the remasters because I am a big fan of the age of empires 2. Uh, remaster it's, yeah, it's just a really good classic game and style of game yep, looks like we got more on indiana jones before we, because I did skip one while you were gone, though. Did we get news about StarCraft Remastered and StarCraft 2? Apparently they're both expected to be coming to Game Pass. Which is good Talk about just classic games.

Brandon Hurles: 1:24:49

That's exciting. I'm excited about that. I definitely would love to revisit StarCraft 2 for sure I love would love to revisit Starcraft 2 for sure I love that game.

Mark Trobough: 1:24:56

You got a fan for the Age of Empires DS. Mr Coffee commented big fan of the DS version, which I have, but I've since long since lost. I think Brandon still has his. It's probably what he's going to grab. I played a lot of it and it definitely played more as turn-based. I just prefer the Age of empires 2 on PC. It's one of those games that I wish I still had. Just, you lost it god knows how long ago as Brandon. Yeah, I think I put a decent amount in. Yeah, it's a. It's a classic old game, the age of kings, back when I was like the only expansion. Now there's like it feels like five different expansions I love it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:25:39

I I replayed some of it again not too long ago but it runs like garbage. But I love it just because I have that nostalgia for it. It runs really bad though it's got a lot of issues, but I still loved it.

Mark Trobough: 1:25:51

I put another like eight hours into it, yeah, but I mean I got that itch when I got age of empires uh, age of empires 2, the remastered version of it, so I've been going back playing the old campaigns, plus there's new, like. The one thing that was really great is the game. That's like 25 years old. Once they remastered it, it's still getting more content, more updates, which I think is absolutely great, because it's just like the peak of what you know of RTS really is peaked in like the late nineties, early two thousands.

Mark Trobough: 1:26:18

There's really no need to to innovate on it. I think it works just fine at that point, but for sure.

Brandon Hurles: 1:26:24

Then we also got Tanuki pond summer, which is an interesting, interesting kind of game. I was watching a trailer of it. It looks it looks fun, it looks game. I was watching a trailer of it. Looks it looks fun. Looks it looks really fun. Um, looks like it'd be a pretty short game, but fun, fun stuff. I'm kind of excited about that one.

Mark Trobough: 1:26:41

Now I don't know if you call this time yeah, I don't, I don't know if you call that more like one of those, uh, those cutesy type games that tend to like pop up like the like a comfy game or whatever you want to call it. It's what it feels like cozy, yeah, yeah, cozy game. It's what it felt like to me.

Brandon Hurles: 1:26:56

Yeah for sure, but Threads of Time. Oh my God, does this game look amazing? Holy freaking crap. So it's a new JRPG, so it's supposed to be in lines of Chrono Trigger, and you look at both the gameplay, the art, aesthetic, and then it's got full anime cutscene sequences in between that are really good.

Mark Trobough: 1:27:21

It's got that really popular pixel but that 2.5D art style for old retro games it's really starting to become a big thing. Come back, yeah, I think that 2.5D really works in the modern age for these pixel games, whether it's new or like a remaster, because it has a 3d environment, but it still has the, the pixel artwork that you really like about the characters in the environment yeah, it says it's uh threads of time.

Brandon Hurles: 1:27:45

The team describes it as an era-spanning turn beast rpg inspired by the timeless classic. So it's very much supposed to be in the line of chrono trigger and it looks. The aesthetic is beautiful. I mean absolutely beautiful it looks, the animated cut scenes too, thrown in there like holy crap, dude. Like it looks awesome.

Mark Trobough: 1:28:04

I think they did a lot. It's just how many games do we need before we get a chrono trigger actual remaster that we so desperately need? Well?

Brandon Hurles: 1:28:11

I would. I would love that, but I'm also like new games, new ips. Oh yeah, like I'm all for it, man, this is what we should be getting more of is new ips like getting past this stigma that flat 2d games are bad, like not everything needs to be this triple a 3d game like you have really good storytelling and the graphics look good, but you don't.

Mark Trobough: 1:28:33

You're not putting in 200 million dollars into a game and hoping to god it doesn't flop. You can put like 10 million dollars into a game like this.

Brandon Hurles: 1:28:41

It could be wildly successful yeah, yeah, no doubt I'm excited about it. Looks really, really awesome, so I can't wait to check that out. No, yeah, absolutely that's a really cool one from it and definitely to see in the xbox showcase. Here's another one I'm excited about. Uh, we love katamari, katamari reroll plus royal reverie, so I bought the.

Mark Trobough: 1:29:03

It is yeah, they say it's available.

Brandon Hurles: 1:29:06

I can't remember which katamari that I bought. That was a remaster for the switch, but this one is my favorite Katamari game, so I'm really excited about this.

Mark Trobough: 1:29:14

Yeah, so I think this is both on Game Pass for both the PC and the Xbox itself that's out right now, and I mean they're just, they're great fun games.

Brandon Hurles: 1:29:24

Yeah for sure. And then we got to see more of what may be my other than Zelda. My most hyped game that I'm looking forward to that comes out next month, which is metaphor right Re Fantasio. I it's gotta be. You. Look at this game. It just looks beautiful, man. Just looks so good. I'm. I'm just, I'm so excited to see more of these types of games coming here, cause it's yeah, it's just not something that happened before, and if it did, it just didn't do well, it didn't hit with other people. But this is up there for what I'm most excited about. This game just looks so freaking awesome, man. What do you think about this?

Mark Trobough: 1:30:02

game. I think it's pretty good. I don't know if I'm going to get it at launch. I might have a rule of thumb. I at least want to give it a few days just to see the reaction and stuff like that. But it assuming this game is actually good, I'll probably get it like within the first week it comes out. I'm hoping that it does good. I think the game looks amazing, at least from what we've seen.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:23

Yeah, the visuals man look really good.

Mark Trobough: 1:30:29

It's really interesting looking like monsters that really look like they pull from like Japanese mythology or just general Japanese, like weird horror art. It's like a monster with like four eyes, a weird tongue, that's got like a flower with an eye on it and stuff like that, but it's like coming out of a flower. It's just crazy.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:43

You want to let us know about this next game if you want to play it.

Mark Trobough: 1:30:47

You mean Frag Punk?

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:50

Yeah.

Mark Trobough: 1:30:52

It's a new hero shooter. Of course it is. It's a new hero shooter. Of course it is a hero shooter.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:57

It's a new 5v5 hero shooter. It's getting your closed beta and signups are now available for it.

Mark Trobough: 1:31:02

It can't do any worse than it doesn't look nearly as bad as Concord. But yeah, I don't know.

Brandon Hurles: 1:31:09

I just don't know how well it's going to do.

Mark Trobough: 1:31:11

I guarantee you it has not the amount of time. I mean, it probably looks a little bit more unique than that game, but I don't. I know now. I know why you may talk about.

Brandon Hurles: 1:31:19

It's a hero shooter so by default, I just don't care for, for hero shooters, I don't care, like I tried, overwatch 2 and I played that for about a few like two hours and I was like, yeah, I'm good yeah, I. I just I never even touched two, it just didn't. One didn't click with me at all. Uh, so we also got a. Tell your yuma, the alchemist of memories and envision land. Oh, he's gotta have these crazy long titles yeah, thanks japan.

Mark Trobough: 1:31:44

They've had, they've held like titles, like anime and manga. That's like a full-on sentence. It's crazy.

Brandon Hurles: 1:31:51

Uh, this next one I have no idea how to say it AsuraJing Rumble. It's a Battle Royale game, anime-esque Battle Royale, so probably something I won't play.

Mark Trobough: 1:32:01

Yeah, it's a Battle Royale fighter type game With an Asian skin to it. The best way to describe it essentially.

Brandon Hurles: 1:32:11

And then you want to talk about this next one.

Mark Trobough: 1:32:17

I assume not the fallout 76 one. What's there to talk about fallout? 76 I have no idea. I'm just getting more content with the game. What?

Brandon Hurles: 1:32:26

why are you?

Mark Trobough: 1:32:26

you can you can get a cat in fallout. 76 is what they're. What they're bringing to the wasteland Seems like it didn't really need a big announcement for it, if you ask me.

Brandon Hurles: 1:32:38

I don't quite understand.

Mark Trobough: 1:32:39

Sinduality. If I didn't butcher that Echoes of Ada, which is the PvPvE type game, kind of looked interesting. It's more of the it goes into that live service type game, but it had an interesting premise from what it looked like.

Brandon Hurles: 1:33:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure I'm I'm pretty excited about a new bleach game.

Mark Trobough: 1:33:04

I gotta say I love vip. What sorry I was being a little, what I was being a smart ass. Oh, you know, I like bleach yeah I know as well. Yeah, I know.

Brandon Hurles: 1:33:12

Sorry.

Mark Trobough: 1:33:15

But you never got into it right the anime, not really.

Brandon Hurles: 1:33:18

Yeah, I think it's great. I thought it was under the most. I mean it was because of the big three the One Piece, naruto and Bleach. It was the least popular, I would say, and I just thought it was great. Man, I mean it's my favorite of the three. Like, I like Naruto a lot, I like One Piece too, but Bleach I think it's a great. So, yeah, I'm excited to see if this is any good. This is one I'll, you know, wait to see what people say about it or whatever, and like kind of get the general consensus, but it's coming out early 2025 and, uh, it looks pretty cool yeah, and then we're getting another, uh, another remaster, suikoden one and two.

Brandon Hurles: 1:33:58

It's getting an hd remaster yeah, so we knew about this, but we finally got a release date, march 6 of next year, because it keeps it keeps getting pushed for some reason. So for some reason we weren't getting like a solid release date. But again, just like the other ones I talked about when I was talking about lunar 10 out of 10 games absolutely fantastic. I'm so happy they're being brought to modern platforms, because they're expensive and they're not accessible. So I'm all for it. Yeah, and then all you need is help. What's?

Mark Trobough: 1:34:31

the next game. It it's a multiplayer puzzle game, essentially.

Brandon Hurles: 1:34:37

Yeah, best way to describe it Like something I probably wouldn't play.

Mark Trobough: 1:34:41

Yeah, of course not. I've never been the biggest. There's only one puzzle game that I actually played.

Brandon Hurles: 1:34:47

Thousand Year War is a bomb. I agree it is. Have you seen the trailer to Date? Trigger, no Vita, it's basically fortnite, but it's all waifus. Have you seen that mark? I don't think so. That's up mark sally. He's the waifu guy. Uh, I'm gonna skip that one because another multiplayer online game uh, so we got slitterhead, which looks like an interesting horror game. I definitely saw some discourse about this game, so I'm interested to see if this ain't good it. It looks kind of cool, but I always remain skeptical. Yep, I'm saying wrong, you know, I just kind of usually the horror stuff. It depends, but I usually wait to see what people say.

Mark Trobough: 1:35:31

People I know yeah, so yeah and then this next year we kind of already knew about the dragon quest 3 hd 2d remake, and then the trials of mana and the legends of mana.

Brandon Hurles: 1:35:43

Uh, games, yeah trials of man has been out for a long time. It's just coming the game past same with legends, uh, but we kind of already got cool.

Mark Trobough: 1:35:51

Yeah, we kind of already know it's coming. The dragon quest 3, hd 2d is coming later this year, november 14th, and then obviously we're getting the one and two sometime next year. Just, you know, getting more information, more, look at it. You know, just can't wait for that game to come out.

Brandon Hurles: 1:36:05

Were you smiling while watching the trailer for the waifu game?

Mark Trobough: 1:36:10

I don't know why he's a waifu game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:36:13

He said it, not me.

Mark Trobough: 1:36:15

Yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 1:36:16

I don't even know what that means, but we also got Final Fantasy 1 through 6 pixel remasters coming to Xbox. So that's really cool, man for Xbox. People are getting a lot of JRPGs.

Mark Trobough: 1:36:26

Yeah, and obviously this was the Xbox One. There's still stuff going on today you used to have the rest of the weekend so there's still stuff going that was going on today. There's you used to have the rest of the weekend, so there's definitely a lot of more stuff to come, hopefully, because obviously there were different, different studios doing, you know, different announcements throughout the whole weekend. But I mean, this is like a really good start for stuff that's coming out, both new and stuff that we kind of already heard about. That's great. I just like the fact that we're getting a lot of, uh, these old jrpGs getting a new life on new, a new console, new hardware where they knew more or less go to paint on top of them, cause these, these are older games that definitely deserve people that either didn't play them back then or I've never heard of these games to get to try some of these old JRPGs and if you want to actually play a really story rich game that's actually well-written, that's the kind of way to go.

Mark Trobough: 1:37:16

Yeah 20, 30 years in the past.

Brandon Hurles: 1:37:19

Yeah, for sure. Uh, so it looks like the last thing we got is ghost Sushima. Dev reveals plans for spinoff projects for the series. Um, so ghost of Yotei signals a major shift for sucker punch as it signals the start of a new Sony franchise. Sucker Punch's plans for the franchise include more spin-off projects and a movie adaptation. I don't know how I feel about that, because I don't think everything needs a movie.

Mark Trobough: 1:37:46

Yeah pump the brakes on the movie crap that's either going to do really well or it's going to bomb.

Mark Trobough: 1:37:50

I just don't think it's necessary. There's too many adaptations that I'm sorry. The medium of video games just works best, uh. But yeah, it looks like the whole ghost of is gonna be a new, a new series running forward, whether that stays in japan or whether they they branch out even to this day in japan, like there's a lot of good storytelling you can do like there's definitely a lot of history. And for this one, uh, for ghost of yotei, we're going up to hokkaido, because I believe yotei is, if I'm not mistaken, the name of the mountain that's being shown. That's like the big mountain up in hokkaido. Yeah, yep, uh. So yeah, it's a lot of stuff to see.

Mark Trobough: 1:38:27

This game takes place. I believe they say what is it? Uh, 1603 is the year uh. So for like a quick little reference, essentially the uh in the year 1600, which is like the last major battle of the Sengoku period, essentially the final death nail of it. That's like the battle of Sekigahara, I believe happened in 1600, and then officially in 1603, the year this game comes, takes place, the tokugawa shogunate officially comes to power and it enters the whole uh shogunate period where japan's kind of closed off to the world and stuff like that, except for, yeah, they only trade with the dutch. So at least I have like a quick little uh reference to when the game kind of takes place, but with it taking place in hokkaido, uh, I highly doubt it's going to interact with a whole lot of what's going on down there. I do, and I don't remember because I don't have it pulled up. I do know there were some people talking about. There was some famous, well-renowned, was it samurai or sword person, sword guy, I can't remember his name.

Mark Trobough: 1:39:30

I'm not sure that existed in this time and some people were kind of hoping for it to kind of like take place and stuff like that. Uh, some people disappointed that we were going away from from jinsukai, from ghost of tsushima, but this game game takes place in 1603. Uh, the mongol invasion was in the 1200s, 1240s, something like that. Uh, so it's like a you know 350 or so years in the future type thing. Yeah, not expecting any kind of reference to that, but I mean more or less we know this game is coming out next year and we got like a sneak peek of where the game is going to be at your main character but outside of that kind of left don't really know a whole about the actual story. From the trailer it's just yeah, yeah. Actual story from the trailer, it's just yeah, yeah. And then I can't remember what the main protagonist, I can remember what her, what, what her name is.

Brandon Hurles: 1:40:21

I thought they came out and said her name.

Mark Trobough: 1:40:24

Uh, I know it was put out there, but I may be missing it. I don't know, yeah, I don't know if it was, if I had a pull on Nate, nate.

Brandon Hurles: 1:40:31

Fox. No, it's not Nate Fox.

Mark Trobough: 1:40:34

No, it's not Nate Fox, it's Otsu.

Brandon Hurles: 1:40:36

That's their name.

Mark Trobough: 1:40:37

It's Otsu. Sorry, I thought it was Nate. No, no, okay, All right, but it just looks just as good as the original game and I assume it's going to play very similar to the original game. To be fair, I don't think they needed to change up the whole gameplay a whole lot A new story, new location, new stuff to experience. They've got the formula down perfect. No, Essentially crossing your fingers. They don't screw the game up. Hopefully they've got a new franchise, but hopefully Ubisoft didn't run it to the ground as well as their studio.

Brandon Hurles: 1:41:20

Yeah.

Mark Trobough: 1:41:20

I'm hoping for the best. I ghost of tsushima. I played it twice, playing on ps4 and ps5, but I I did see some fun stuff. It's like, oh yeah, this is essentially the style of game that assassin's creed should have been. Uh, but assassin's creed just wants to. You know, crap the bed like there's a better samurai.

Brandon Hurles: 1:41:32

That way, I would have wanted to play it. Yeah, because I like that, that time period, and I just like all the japanese culture stuff and yeah, a lot of people.

Mark Trobough: 1:41:43

I'm not playing it now I'm not.

Brandon Hurles: 1:41:45

I'm not giving them 70 bucks for that game, yeah, but they can go take a hike yeah, but all all they knew is, uh, it's coming out sometime next year.

Mark Trobough: 1:41:55

They did announce. Let's see. Well, it still appears to be a way off. Amazon Prime animated anthology Secret Level is set to release a Ghost of Tsushima themed episode in one of its 15 planned episodes when it arrives in December. So for those that have a Prime and are interested in what Secret level does, hey, you can get a little you know insight sometime this december. I don't know, I assume they're just probably gonna drop all 15 episodes at once. Um, but yeah, no, yeah, definitely, definitely a lot, a lot of good stuff to look forward to and hopefully a promising new franchise. But I mean, you know, fingers crossed, just because a lot of games you can make one really good game, then one that you know craps the bed, you know the next game.

Mark Trobough: 1:42:35

So no, you said nate fox that was the creative director was nate fox and jason. Jason connell gotcha okay, that makes sense clarify that from, like you know, however many minutes ago it was yeah, yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 1:42:51

So all right, do we got anything else?

Mark Trobough: 1:42:55

uh, anything, I don't know if there's anything that you want to pull up or talk about. I know there's a lot of. I mean, obviously a lot of stuff has dropped and is dropping, so it feels like it's impossible to to catch anything. So I didn't know if there was anything you were missing, or yeah, no, I mean any breaking news over on the Twitter X sphere.

Brandon Hurles: 1:43:14

I honestly have not even been on and checked anything. I did want to say. Are you able to pull up what Metacritic has for Zelda right now?

Mark Trobough: 1:43:26

Yeah, give me just a second Double check.

Brandon Hurles: 1:43:32

It's out of curiosity to let the viewers and listeners know.

Brandon Hurles: 1:43:40

Oh, that's right Metacritic did want to mention that the mod retro chromatic is up for pre-order on GameStop right now so you can buy that if you want to play your Game Boy or Game Boy Color games. It looks really awesome. I may be getting a review unit I don't know they had. I had spoke with them a while ago through email so I'm not sure but it looks really, really cool. It's it's going to be an interesting new device to check out and it's got new games, brand new games coming out too that are uh Boy games that you can play on it.

Mark Trobough: 1:44:16

For the Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. As of September 26th, it's got 91 critics with an average of 86. Based off 66 user scores, it's sitting at a 9.0.

Brandon Hurles: 1:44:30

9.0, okay.

Mark Trobough: 1:44:32

It's 66. I don't know how many people are on that side of it, but it looks like it's doing decently well with the ratings. That's really good, weirdly enough.

Mark Trobough: 1:44:43

IGN has it at 9.10. Best Buy's got a 1.6 out of 5. I don't know who's rating stuff on Best Buy. Are you serious? Yeah, that's wild. How many ratings. Someone's 1.6 on 63 ratings over on Best Buy. I wonder if it'll let me see why people are upset about it. It's got 81 star reviews, huh, but I don't think people actually wrote anything about it. Who knows what people are upset about over on Best Buy? I can't tell why you don't like it if you don't think people actually wrote anything about it. So who knows what people are upset about around best buy?

Mark Trobough: 1:45:16

I can't tell why you don't like it if you don't, if you don't write anything yeah, it doesn't weird doesn't help me know why you're you're upset with the game right, it's interesting yeah, uh, but yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a. There's a lot of people that are in the process of agreeing or playing it. It's it's a zota game. It's not gonna of people that are in the process of reviewing it or playing it. It's a Zelda game. It's not going to be. It's not like the CD-i games, which just got awful bad. That's a really low bar to hit.

Brandon Hurles: 1:45:43

Yeah, it really is. And I guess the last thing you mentioned, the Incredibles are coming to Fortnite, so play Fortnite. That's interesting. Yeah, I think that's all um been good episode.

Mark Trobough: 1:45:57

Yeah, I think this I don't know uh might have some more to talk about, might be old news by by next week, because there's a lot of stuff going on uh but, I mean, maybe we'll see some new stuff because obviously, for those who don't know, uh for sure, over on uh on Twitter, we're gaming tomorrow at 6 pm Eastern Time. That's right, or is it 8 pm Eastern Time? Oh, 8 pm Eastern Time. Sorry, it's 6 pm Mountain Time. That's where.

Mark Trobough: 1:46:25

I'm at 8 pm Eastern. We'll be live on the Twitch doing a little bit more of War of the Process, playing through Gears of War, the Ultimate Edition for Gears 1, so we definitely have that going on. I don't know if there's any other streams you've got planned coming up.

Brandon Hurles: 1:46:41

I'll probably stream Zelda this coming week. I just don't know when for sure yet. Maybe like Monday night. I'll have to see when time comes, when we get a little bit closer.

Mark Trobough: 1:46:51

So yeah, and then this Sunday uh should be noon eastern on the junction network got another uh anime junction cast episode coming out, so definitely look forward to that as well. And then, yeah, don't know if there's any last things you want to. You want to pitch before we head off no, I think that's all.

Brandon Hurles: 1:47:13

Be sure to check out the socials over there Facebook X, instagram, tiktok, all that jazz. You can find it in the link tree in the description. Yeah, we'll be live playing some Gears of War. I think we're going to play through all the games. We got a good chunk of the first game done, so if you want to check out the full playthrough of that, we'll be doing that. And then, yeah, I'll be streaming Zelda at some point this coming week.

Mark Trobough: 1:47:40

So yeah, definitely look forward to that and we will see you all. For those going to be on the stream over on Twitch, we'll see you all tomorrow, and for those that are just here for the podcast, we will see you next Friday. Have a good one, everyone. Peace out everybody.