New Year's Goals, Nintendo Rumors, & Gaming Insights | Game Junction Podcast

Have you ever started a new year bursting with ambition, only to find your resolutions hilariously off track by February? Join us as we kick off 2025 with a humorous look at our New Year's goals, balancing the chaos of work and family life with dreams of refining our editing skills and venturing into cutting-edge software. We also muse about the thrill of returning to conventions and traveling, hoping for a year where the Anime Junction Cast grows in popularity and reach.

The buzz of the gaming and entertainment scene is impossible to ignore, with exciting updates on Godzilla, Nintendo rumors, and a new season of Squid Games on the horizon. The salvation of Tango Gameworks by Krafton sparks joy, promising a continuation of the hit Hi-Fi Rush series, evoking memories of the Dreamcast's glory days. Nostalgic nods to comedic legends like Chris Farley and John Candy blend seamlessly with discussions about classic film favorites and the gaming industry's latest triumphs and missteps.

Prepare for an exhilarating journey through military history in media and nostalgic video game experiences. From the historical significance of stories like Six Triple Eight to the adrenaline-pumping narratives of military-themed games like Spec Ops: The Line, our conversation captivates with a mix of historical insight and gaming retrospectives. As the episode unfolds, we speculate on the industry's future, including Marvel's Rivals and the ever-elusive Half-Life 3, while eagerly anticipating Nintend

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Chapters

• 0:01 2025 Goals and Plans
• 12:29 Chris Farley, John Candy, and Comedy
• 25:48 Military History Movie Discussions
• 38:45 Video Game Military Discussions
• 44:18 Marvel Rivals and Industry Speculation
• 55:28 Gaming Industry News and Speculation
• 1:05:47 Marvel Multiverse and Character Complexity
• 1:15:50 Spider-Man Animated Series and Steam Awards
• 1:29:56 Pokemon Games and Future Anticipation
• 1:40:57 Godzilla Movies and Embarrassed Gaming Confessions
• 1:46:44 Nintendo Switch 2 Leaks and Speculation
• 1:57:24 Nintendo Switch 2 Upgrade Speculation

Transcript

Mark Trobough: 0:01

Hey everybody. It's Mark here with the Game Junction Podcast. Here's Brandon as well. What's up?

Brandon Hurles: 0:07

My name's Fred.

Mark Trobough: 0:09

Oh, he's so stupid. Welcome everybody to episode 114 of the Game Junction Podcast. It's been another week, another good week, not the most busy week ever, but happy Friday. It's the first episode of the new year 2025. We'll be always having a good, or had a good, holiday season, at the very least. Yeah, you know, christmas and New Year's and stuff like that. Yeah, for sure.

Brandon Hurles: 0:32

Yeah, crazy 2025, 2024. Flew by fast, it seems like to me. It's both fast and slow at the same time. Yeah, yeah, it seems slow at the same time. Yeah, it seems slow at the time, but it's like afterwards. You're like man that flew by. But it's like the older you get, the faster time seems to move. It's just a thing. The older I get. That's how I feel. Yeah, I don't. I think it's. You know, it's us thinking about our inevitable doom, right?

Mark Trobough: 1:06

I mean maybe you, not me, I'm going to live forever, okay.

Brandon Hurles: 1:10

You must be tight with Elon Musk.

Mark Trobough: 1:14

We get that brain chip implanted. Get some nanobots in me. Yeah, that's the way to do it, man, that's the way I'm doing it. Yeah, for sure. Do you have any big plans for 2025? You call it a New Year's resolution. I don't call it that. I think those are stupid but stuff that you'd want to do in 2025.

Brandon Hurles: 1:34

Yeah, I don't really do New Year's resolutions either. It was like five days in 95% of people it's hey, I want to lose weight. They go to the gym for the first two months and then they stop. So, like I always make that joke, which is the truth, I mean, that's the truth, right, like that's when gyms make the most money.

Brandon Hurles: 1:54

It takes about 21 days to form a habit to be consistent with that habit and then people are saying they're going to the gym and they're going like twice a week, that ain't doing nothing. I'm sorry that's not doing anything. You got to be going like five days a week. Yeah, realistically, yeah for sure. But I mean no, I mean 2025, like I guess I don't know. I want to semi say keep doing what I'm doing, but I just want to get better at what I'm doing doing, but I just want to get better at what.

Brandon Hurles: 2:25

I'm doing. I want to learn, yeah, I want to refine it, I want to learn new things. I mean, editing is a big thing where I want to keep learning, because I don't want to be complacent, I don't want to be stuck and then like, like you can attest to this, you know, the beginning of editing can be very frustrating when you don't know anything at all and you're you're literally learning on your own. Um, there's still so much I don't know. I mean, I'm not, you know, uh, a great even though I edit for other people. I still wouldn't say I'm like a super good editor, any or anything there's, you know, and I've switched now to a third software, um, so I'm wanting to learn that software a little bit more. And, uh, you know, as far as like game junction goes, I guess you know just, um, I for the most part, I mean, I think, 2024 there's definitely been too many weeks that I've missed videos.

Brandon Hurles: 3:19

That bothers me, um, not just you know, know, I, I still did good, but there's just been like too many weeks where I've you almost in your head make excuses for yourself, like I, I am really freaking busy. You know, I've got a kid, I've got two jobs. Um, I am very busy. I don't have free time. I don't get to sit down and play video games. My sitting down and play video games is when I stream, and that's doing double duty. I get to stream, talk with people on the stream, but also it's like I dedicate this time. It's scheduled out, I'll get to play, but yeah, I mean I don't get to do anything else.

Brandon Hurles: 4:04

I would like to maybe travel to some more conventions again this year. Didn't really do that in 2024. Did it like crazy in 2023. I got kind of burnt out. I went to 17 in total and then last year I went to two. So I would like to go to some more because that was my. That's the only time I've traveled, I mean realistically, before that, the last time I traveled out of state was going to Washington DC in seventh grade. So you know you can get out more.

Brandon Hurles: 4:41

It's hard as a kid man. You can't really just like just guys. It's hard with. It's hard as a kid man. You can't really just like just guys if it, if it's work related, you know, and with the game juncture stuff that was. You know, I was able to work around that to be able to do that, but it's not like you're gone for a week at a time or whatever. You know, some of them are one day, some are two days, some are.

Brandon Hurles: 4:58

But yeah, I would like to do that because I enjoy speaking at panels and stuff like that. I think it's fun having people in there asking you questions and people that are interested in content and stuff like that. But I guess my big goal is just to learn more, soak more stuff in, get out of my comfort zone a little bit and yeah, I mean that's you know a little bit it. But you know, as far as anime junction cast, like not necessarily a goal, but it's doing very well we're not that far in and, like you know, kind of my hope is that, you know, really really takes off in 2024. I wouldn't have expected it to take off or do anything until like 2025 because, like we're, you know, and over a hundred episodes in with this, and like we're how many episodes in with the anime junction cast?

Mark Trobough: 5:51

14 or 15 episodes in 16 this week 15 episodes in we're doing.

Brandon Hurles: 5:57

We got people in what Bangladesh listening? I'm like that, Spotify and India and stuff, which is the coolest thing ever to know that somebody out of the country is checking out your podcast. It's just a cool feeling. So what about you, man?

Mark Trobough: 6:13

Yeah, I mean I guess it's up in the air. You obviously want the Anime Junction stuff to take off. Continue to do well. But I got a bunch of stuff in my personal life that's up in the air that I'm trying to figure out. I'll hear in a few months. So ideally, there's some stuff that I want to have happen that I'll talk about more when I know what's actually going to happen for sure and stuff like that with timelines and what's actually going to go on. But I've got some other stuff, personal stuff I do need. There's other stuff I need to do. I need to stop being lazy about going to the gym.

Game Junction: 6:44

That's an obvious thing, that's a big thing for me too.

Mark Trobough: 6:51

I would say try to continue working on school, but starting Monday I've got eight weeks worth of two classes. Then I'm done and I swear off school. I'd never want to sit in a classroom ever again. I hate it so much.

Brandon Hurles: 7:09

I don't blame you here. I am considering going back again, even though I just went last year.

Mark Trobough: 7:13

With this one, I'll have that fully off my chest and I'll have $2,000 or $3,000 of debt that I still owe them, or something like that.

Brandon Hurles: 7:22

I mean that's great because I'm well over that amount of debt, but I still owe them, or something like that. I mean that's great because I'm well over that amount. For me personally.

Mark Trobough: 7:28

Yeah, I had the benefit of essentially not needing to pay, having my school paid for.

Brandon Hurles: 7:33

Yeah, that's cool man. That's cool stuff for sure. Hey, not to break up the show at all, but did you alert the Discord that we're live by chance? I'm trying to get that, I will, okay.

Mark Trobough: 7:44

Yeah, sorry, it auto-pings the Discord, but people don't see it because it doesn't add everyone. It auto-populates, but it doesn't ping everybody. Yeah, exactly.

Brandon Hurles: 7:57

Yeah, so sorry for audio listeners. We're just setting up a few things, just realizing we didn't get promo out right before the show.

Mark Trobough: 8:04

Yeah, the Twitch is going to look a little weird for a second while I do this.

Brandon Hurles: 8:07

Yeah, no worries, I want to get some other stuff out, but yeah, I guess for this new year we'll see what the year brings us. I think there's a lot of good things to come. I mean, we've got plans for stuff. When we're not on air, we talk about some different things we're going to do. We talked about with the Junction Network channel about you maybe doing like a sort of top ten for anime. That's all different, maybe once a month, which I think is really cool because I mean that's kind of endless, which I think is really cool because that's kind of endless. You get a top 10 hentai, top 10 shoujo he's so stupid. Yeah, all kinds of top 10s you can do. But yeah, I think we got some pretty good plans there. We also broke a thousand on one of our videos. Right, that was the top 10 starting anime video.

Mark Trobough: 9:10

Yeah, first video on that channel to break 1,000.

Brandon Hurles: 9:13

Yeah, that's pretty cool man. Good stuff for sure. I think one of the things I got to figure out was like what content direction I want to go with Game Junction, because I've got like the way that my brain works is that I have too many ideas if that makes sense, and it's like I can't decide on one particular route and I really don't want to ever be boxed in route and I really don't want to ever be boxed in. But unfortunately, the way that YouTube works is that you kind of find a little I don't want to say niche, because it's just gaming but you find a little pocket that you fit into and then that's where people start watching you. You know what I mean.

Brandon Hurles: 10:00

It's like you find that little pocket and it's like trying to find that when gaming channels are a dime, a dozen, you know there's so many gaming channels, you're you're competing with so many people, um, just to, just to get your video scene, so, and then I feel like we talked about a lot. Anime is not as bad. Um, definitely definitely not as bad, especially in the podcast.

Mark Trobough: 10:23

It was like a decade ago, a decade ago for sure.

Brandon Hurles: 10:26

Yeah, there was the big guys and we both watched them and stuff like that, and they're still around, but I feel like what?

Mark Trobough: 10:34

they've done is shifted and stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles: 10:36

Yeah, for sure, and it's definitely different with. It's interesting to see the sort of comparison with viewers and content wise and what's already out there with gaming versus like anime and stuff like that. And then we're about to launch, relaunch the the culture junkie stuff, which I think is probably going to do very well, because that is the least boxed in podcast that we could possibly do. It's just all pop culture. We do whatever the heck we want. We have no limits. And then we did say we're going to do go through all the Godzilla movies, so maybe like every third episode or every every other episode, whatever it takes to get through all the movies and stuff like that. We're going to, we're going to do that. So that's one of the big plans. We're going to do that. So that's one of the big plans. We're going to start that this month.

Brandon Hurles: 11:24

We just got to figure out what day we're going to get those recorded and obviously, before hand, we got to watch the first two Godzilla movies I've seen. I've seen Godzilla and Godzilla raids again a dozen times, but I want to rewatch them just to refresh my memory and maybe catch some things I might've missed, cause that first Godzilla movie is amazing. There's there's so many details that people miss that movie that you know for the time is just crazy. But you know, look forward to the, the culture junkies, coming back here soon. So we do have that plan, but I guess we'll go ahead and get started.

Mark Trobough: 11:57

Yeah, as well as this quick little shout out, we're a what's it? Seven subscribers away from 150 on the junction network. So if you have not subscribed yet, we would appreciate it. Go over there, check it out, check out the contents, give us a subscribe. That's where I can speak that like stuttering all over myself.

Brandon Hurles: 12:13

We're only six away.

Mark Trobough: 12:15

There's stuff to watch, stuff, stuff that's consistently coming out. That's more than just the podcast, yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 12:20

We're six away from 3,600 on a game junction as well.

Mark Trobough: 12:26

Always, always got to shout that out. So yeah for sure yeah, we can get.

Mark Trobough: 12:29

Get into the meat of the actual podcast. Yeah, let's go. Uh, cause we. What's that? We had some some Godzilla news that dropped. All right, p for for Pluto TV. We got some Nintendo rumors that dropped. Uh, rip for Pluto TV. We got some Nintendo rumors that dropped. We haven't watched it yet, but there's a new season of Squid Games as well as their. Oh, there was something else I was trying to think of. I can't remember the other big one, but yeah, let's just get into it. We'll run into it eventually. Oh, make sure I bring that up properly. So what's it? Tango Gameworks came out and said what's it? Rebirth is getting saved by Krafton, if I don't have that misinterpreted.

Brandon Hurles: 13:15

Yeah, that's good news, man, because we were talking about that. I was like really bummed out to that studio, closed down stuff, because I that game is really good. They put out the. Was it Bomb Rush Cyberpunk? I think they did, or was it the other one that was supposed to be like Chess Set Radio?

Mark Trobough: 13:35

I thought it was Hi-Fi Rush. Yeah, hi-fi Rush, that's what it is.

Brandon Hurles: 13:37

Sorry, hi-fi Rush.

Mark Trobough: 13:38

Yeah, so apparently they were. Tango Gameworks is a Japanese studio. They were bought by the Korean publisher Krafton.

Brandon Hurles: 13:47

Yeah, which is good. I mean that means that they can continue working on Hi-Fi Rush 2, which was already in development. It is a phenomenal game, especially if you're a fan of the Dreamcast era of Jet Set Radio Definitely a spiritual successor to that and a really good game. Bomb Rush Cyberpunk is really good too, so don't sleep on that one as well. High Fire Rush that's cool. That means they can continue that development of the game.

Brandon Hurles: 14:15

Overall, it did well. It was perceived well. I just don't know if it had the sales there for it. You know what I mean. Like, yeah, I don't know, I don't know the whole behind the scenes thing with it, but it did well. Everybody I you know had talked to loved it. Even journalists liked it, like it, you know, got pretty good, pretty good scores across the board. People seem to enjoy it. And then it just got scrapped. And you know it was even in the Game of the—I don't know it was in the Game Awards conversation, not Game of the Year conversation, I don't think, but it was—I think it won even an award. So yeah, that's good news. I mean, for once we don't see that very often. For once we got some good news.

Mark Trobough: 15:06

Yeah, and I guess this studio is probably best known for both PUBG and for Subnautica. It's probably their two most well-known games that they published. Subnautica is a pretty chill game. I like that one. Yeah, it is. Was it Subnautica and Below Zero? Yeah, yeah, it's a chill game.

Brandon Hurles: 15:23

They've worked on a series of other games.

Mark Trobough: 15:24

Those are just the ones that really seem to jump out as the big titles, at least here in the West that I know of. Right, yeah, unless you're super into Golf, king World Tour on mobile.

Brandon Hurles: 15:36

Absolutely love that game. I don't know, maybe you are Play it every single day of my life.

Mark Trobough: 15:43

Yeah right, but it's good to see something positive coming out to start the new year, at the very least.

Brandon Hurles: 15:50

Yeah, for sure. Sorry, I'm still trying to get a few things.

Mark Trobough: 15:54

No, you're good. They also worked on I think you said they worked on Ghostwire as well as sequel to the Evil Within. Yeah, they've done good work.

Brandon Hurles: 16:06

They've done a lot of stuff.

Mark Trobough: 16:07

They've been acquired by a studio that has money.

Brandon Hurles: 16:10

For sure. That's definitely good news. I do hope that Hi-Fi Rush 2 comes to fruition. That was a huge bummer when that happened. It was out of nowhere. That game did well, was perceived well, people really enjoyed it, and then it was closed down, yeah.

Mark Trobough: 16:27

So does that mean you're going to stream that game now? High Fire Rush 2,. If they do it, either one, yeah, I'll stream it For sure. No, I'm not trying to back you into a corner.

Brandon Hurles: 16:40

You're always backing me into a corner. What you're, baby, now, it's a movie reference man. You're too young.

Mark Trobough: 16:50

Too young. I'm like a month older than you. You don't get the reference Dirty.

Brandon Hurles: 16:53

Dancing Never seen that movie. Nobody backs baby into a corner. I didn't like the movie. It's a classic. Come on now. It's a classic.

Mark Trobough: 17:04

Come on now it's debatable. Come on, it's no. It's no. I don't like Dirty Dancing. We were just talking about that. It's no, joe Dirt. I hate Joe Dirt. Yeah, we can't be friends now.

Brandon Hurles: 17:21

I don't think that David Spade Is funny at all. I've never found him funny, old David.

Mark Trobough: 17:25

Spade is funny at all. I've never found David Spade is funny. When you like some of the Adam Sandler stuff but it's like the old Adam Sandler stuff, his early stuff, old Adam Sandler stuff is great, but I never thought David Spade himself was very funny. See, cause you had like what water boy oh there's so many Happy Gilmore Big. Daddy. Oh no, it's not. It's David Spade and, I think, john Candy. What movie were they in together?

Mark Trobough: 17:55

I love John Candy it's more of a meme, where it's like they're trying to explain what happens with the trucks on the table and one's on fire and it's a whole mess, if you know what I'm talking about.

Brandon Hurles: 18:05

I know what you'm talking about. I know what you're talking about.

Mark Trobough: 18:07

I can't think of the movie Tommy boy. Oh yeah, Tommy bud. Yeah, I remember in high school I think we used to have like a math teacher that was always putting quotes up there and I think he was really into like yeah, Mr Dilly.

Brandon Hurles: 18:18

Yeah, um. So Chris Farley was my favorite actor for years and years and years. I always thought he was super, super funny. He was, I mean, absolute genius of of comedy. The guy was just so unfortunate, uh, how things went, but man he was. You know people that people like that that are, um, what do they call them? Tortured artists?

Mark Trobough: 18:41

Uh, he, I think it's it was. It was both what Chris Farley and John Candy were, both in that same situation.

Brandon Hurles: 18:45

Yeah, john Candy. No, he went on drugs and stuff.

Mark Trobough: 18:50

No, but he passed away pretty early in life though.

Brandon Hurles: 18:52

Yeah, but he was really obese. He was even bigger than I mean he probably had.

Mark Trobough: 18:56

I mean they still both passed away at the peak of their John Candy was old man.

Brandon Hurles: 19:02

Chris Farley was only in his 30s when he passed. I don't think he was that old.

Mark Trobough: 19:07

Yeah, I'm pretty sure John Candy was older no, I'm sorry, john Candy is not who I'm thinking of. I'm thinking of somebody else.

Brandon Hurles: 19:17

John Candy was 43 when he passed it's still pretty young it is now he's not that old.

Mark Trobough: 19:24

He's not that old.

Brandon Hurles: 19:26

It's not that old, but he looked older than he was, though, for sure.

Mark Trobough: 19:29

I mean because he wasn't healthy. It was. John. Candy who I was thinking of. He passed pretty early. 43 is pretty early.

Brandon Hurles: 19:37

I'm looking to see, because I don't even remember John Candy. Yeah, John Candy wasn't in Tommy Boy.

Mark Trobough: 19:46

You're thinking of.

Brandon Hurles: 19:47

Chris Farley.

Mark Trobough: 19:49

I meant both of them.

Brandon Hurles: 19:51

They're both. Chris Farley was a genius man. He was hilarious. He was my favorite actor for a very long time. I love so much stuff that he did the SNL skits and all that stuff. He was awesome man. That was a big bummer when he passed A lot of classics with him. John Candy's got a lot of classics too Planes, trains and Automobiles and whatever that Christmas movie is. I can't remember what the Christmas movie is, but it's hilarious.

Mark Trobough: 20:27

It was in what Uncle Buck.

Brandon Hurles: 20:30

Yeah, that's the one.

Mark Trobough: 20:31

Uncle Buck, yeah, baseballs, you have the great outdoors.

Brandon Hurles: 20:35

Uncle Buck's, probably his best movie, I would say.

Mark Trobough: 20:39

Yeah, I think I would agree with that. I was trying to see if there was anything else that I was missing.

Brandon Hurles: 20:42

Hey, what's up? Extreme Games. Thanks for coming in. Got Johnny Garboil over on the Facebook. So, hey guys, what's up? Mr Coffee, what's up? Best advice if you have too many ideas, just write them down, throw them up in the air and grab one and follow through with it. I mean it's not bad advice. That's my problem.

Mark Trobough: 21:05

Too many, too many ideas, and then you know brain is a hundred miles a minute. Yeah, but don't forget, john candy was also in stripes, and stripes is really good really, really good.

Brandon Hurles: 21:14

What's the main actor's name in stripes? Oh, it's bill murray bill murray. Yeah, that's another good one too. Man, I love Bill Murray. He's funny. He just you ever see the videos and stuff where he just shows up places just completely unannounced, and people will be taking pictures of Bill Murray at a bar or go to a small little local band show.

Mark Trobough: 21:41

Is it like a peak popularity of just showing up right in places? Yeah, one of my favorite, the dude's loaded.

Brandon Hurles: 21:48

Yeah, he's crazy. One of my favorite things of Bill Murray is in Zombieland. Yeah, that was super funny.

Mark Trobough: 21:58

He's just like dressing up acting like a zombie, and that's kind of what ends up getting him shot.

Brandon Hurles: 22:02

Yeah, oh man Good stuff for sure.

Mark Trobough: 22:07

Actually, I don't know. I think one of his best movies might be Caddyshack. Yeah, caddyshack's really good too. Such an iconic movie, Very iconic.

Brandon Hurles: 22:14

I mean Groundhog Day too. I don't like his backstory in that movie Groundhog yeah, those are like two movies really good. In that, too, there's so many man with this. Yeah, hollywood is just not the same as it was man like there's so many classics, creative.

Mark Trobough: 22:29

No, nobody takes any risks anymore.

Brandon Hurles: 22:30

They don't and a lot of those movies did take risks like I mean like groundhog's day, like the, the whole premise it's like silly. It's got a silly premise and stuff, but it works like. And comedy films aren't really a thing anymore either. We don't get comedies like we used to.

Mark Trobough: 22:49

The problem is to have good comedy you need really smart writers to know how to write it, because comedy it's either really good or it's really bad. You're either getting a Caddyshack or you're getting a Freddy Got Fingered. There's no in between.

Brandon Hurles: 23:03

Yeah, we just don't get those type of movies anymore. We don't Period, because people aren't taking the risks that they used to at the box office.

Mark Trobough: 23:11

Because it's all about. Well, this has proven it works. Let's just do that a thousand times.

Brandon Hurles: 23:16

The problem is eventually you start getting the barbie movie.

Mark Trobough: 23:18

People get bored with it.

Brandon Hurles: 23:20

Yeah, stuff like that. Safe bets I don't like safe bets.

Mark Trobough: 23:24

The problem with safe bets is eventually it starts losing you money because the audience gets bored with it. I think that's the problem with modern Hollywood is it's just the same thing over and over and over again. It's just so monotonous. Take a risk.

Brandon Hurles: 23:37

I mean, what's the last really good movie that you watched, that's, you know, like a newer movie. What's the last?

Mark Trobough: 23:45

Because that is really hard to think.

Brandon Hurles: 23:48

actually Last really good movie I don't either, I don't either, but probably for me, I don't know I would have to say maybe Oppenheimer or Deadpool and Wolverine, which was like kind of a. I mean, deadpool and Wolverine was good, but it's a popcorn flick.

Brandon Hurles: 24:13

It's a popcorn flick, but it's better among many of the Marvel crap that we've been getting. So, like I guess, like I said, I don't watch a lot of stuff. Like, the next thing I plan on watching is a Sonic 3 movie which I'm hearing good things about, but I guess, honestly, legitimately, I thought the Super Mario Bros movie was really good.

Mark Trobough: 24:34

I thought it was really, really good, probably the best in the last decade that I've seen.

Brandon Hurles: 24:37

To be fair, it was a really good, so much so I own two freaking copies of it and I've seen the movie like seven, eight times.

Mark Trobough: 24:44

I'll take this. It wasn't the biggest fan of a lot of the CG, but the movie it came out in like what? 20s, I think, maybe around 2019. It was the Midway movie. That was a really good movie. If you're into that historical flick, what's it called? Just because it's called Midway, look it up. It centers around the Battle of Midway. If you know anything, about the history.

Mark Trobough: 25:07

It was decent. Obviously Didn't have a lot of money, too much CG for my liking. Obviously Not 42% on Rotten Tomatoes. It told the history really well, which matters to me when I'm watching a history movie.

Brandon Hurles: 25:18

Let me ask you a question. Have you heard about that movie? Aswin Gold did a reaction. He actually defended the movie too. Um, I have to look at what it's called to netflix exclusive movie and it's about a all-black battalion in world war ii that delivers mail.

Mark Trobough: 25:39

It's all about the mail delivery how do you make a movie out of that? Exactly? That's my point, without manipulating. The problem with history is there's a lot of good stories, but sometimes you have to actually find something that's entertaining. The problem is you see that and you're like. You just look at it and you're like it's called the Six Triple. Something that was completely had no significance on history at all, had no impact on it.

Mark Trobough: 26:08

It's called the Six Triple Eight and I was like Not that it wasn't essential, but look at this, I'm like it could be a good movie, but it's all about male though.

Brandon Hurles: 26:17

No, there's nothing interesting about that.

Mark Trobough: 26:19

The topic itself isn't compelling for a good history movie.

Brandon Hurles: 26:23

The thing about that movie is a lot of people were like oh, dei DEI, well, aspen Gold brought up some pretty good points.

Mark Trobough: 26:29

Just looking at it to be fair, it was real, it was track record.

Brandon Hurles: 26:33

It screeches that from the get-go it screeches that, but in its defense that was a real historical event. I mean, there was an all-female black battalion that was all for male delivery.

Mark Trobough: 26:46

Yeah, I'm not criticizing that, I'm just looking at it.

Brandon Hurles: 26:47

But people are immediately like DEI DEI because they're so used to it. Now you know what.

Mark Trobough: 26:51

I mean Well, because Hollywood's conditioned you to it. It could be a really good movie.

Brandon Hurles: 26:55

But regardless, I have zero interest in watching that about male delivery.

Mark Trobough: 27:00

My criticism is there's far more compelling history that is either had an impact or it's just far more interesting as a topic. If you're looking at history movies or military history and stuff like that, yeah, I guarantee you know just as insignificant, but the Battle of Eater Castle far more interesting topic, because I guarantee you don't even know what that is.

Brandon Hurles: 27:27

I have no idea. Sorry, I was trying to fix. Uh, yeah, brandon's is just fine. No, you're good it's. Uh, I missed a bunch of comments for some reason. I was just checking here. Uh, johnny over on Facebook said I seen the movie Sonic 3. I promise no spoilers. It's great Thrifter. Charlie Brown says, left Facebook to join y'all here on YouTube. I love the username.

Mark Trobough: 27:54

Thanks guys for coming out. I just bring that one up because the plot is interesting and compelling, because it takes place after the fall of Berlin.

Brandon Hurles: 28:07

Let me ask you a question Is it as interesting as the PS5 remote?

Mark Trobough: 28:13

I think it's far more interesting personally, if you ask me, Okay, but I really love history and military history. But the basis and I'm not going to dwell on this too long the basis of it essentially is you've got American troops, German soldiers and a SS officer defending a castle full of French POWs from hardline SS. That's the premise of that battle that lasts about, you know, about 24, 36 hours, something like that.

Brandon Hurles: 28:43

I like military stuff too, but I feel like this is obviously going way back because it's old. It probably came out in 2006 or something, but still, one of my favorite things besides Saving Private Ryan, which is a great movie, was Band of Brothers. I thought that was an awesome series.

Mark Trobough: 29:00

Because it had a lot of love, passion and it told the story really well, how it's shot it like it holds up today really well written. Yeah, I think it's better than a lot of stuff that comes out today, I mean I can't think it does the same thing right.

Mark Trobough: 29:12

That uh uh, same prior writing and even though same prior brian is a fictitious story, it it's really well done, historical, uh like a period piece essentially, essentially Taking place around a real thing. The actual story's not when Bandit Brother. While it simplifies a lot of stuff that actually happened, it properly tells a really good and interesting story, an accurate story of what actually happened.

Brandon Hurles: 29:36

Yeah, that's cool man. I can't tell you the last military thing I watched that I really loved. I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

Mark Trobough: 29:44

I'm also really critical about them because it's like a hobby topic that I really like. I mean let me ask you.

Brandon Hurles: 29:51

this Is Girls in Pans. Accurate Like is that you know?

Mark Trobough: 30:01

Yes, but mostly no, if that makes sense. There's a lot of accurate references. The tank designs themselves are real and characters themselves will reference certain things. But the actual how the battles take place and the types of shells that certain tanks would bounce or take a hit, wholesale inaccurate. But it's just a fun story. But even there's even times where they reference it, where they're like yeah, this tank should drastically, you know, uh, like this tank has like a max speed like 15, this one has like max speed like 40, like it, it one tank should now drive the other.

Mark Trobough: 30:38

Right, they do because, well, it's just that doesn't matter. But they'll reference it like yeah, we know this is not accurate, but it's, it's cool. So who cares? It's, it's a, it's just that doesn't matter. But they'll reference it like yeah, we know this is not accurate, but it's cool, so who cares? It's a show that was written by people that love history but also need to make a compelling and fun interesting story at the same time, or at the very least the action is interesting. The overall plot is kind of simple, but that's what you get from, essentially like a sports type show.

Brandon Hurles: 31:04

Palmer. Froggy Guy says don't like. The illitary Pearl Harbor turned to a chick flick.

Mark Trobough: 31:14

Oh yeah, if you want a proper story that deals with that, you have essentially a midway that came out in the late 2010s and you've got Toro, toro, toro. Realistically, what's it called? I mean tour, tour, tour. It came out in like the sixties. It's a really old, really historically accurate, but it can be boring. I wonder how accurate the history it actually is. But I love military history. I love military movies, I love history in general, but some people absolutely.

Brandon Hurles: 31:41

I like History too. You gonna watch Gladiator too.

Mark Trobough: 31:44

I know, because I don't want to ruin the first movie for me. I haven't heard the best reviews on it.

Brandon Hurles: 31:52

I haven't heard anything. I had to shout out something funny real quick. It's the great thrifter. Charlie Brown said in the chat you know me, brandon. I said do I? He sent me a message on Facebook. I knew it was. He's like yep, you do. I thought that was pretty funny.

Mark Trobough: 32:14

Yeah, I mean it's sitting at a 71 from the critics, an 82 from the audience. From what I've seen it screams more of a popcorn flick, but it's far less accurate. Even how inaccurate the first movie really was to the history, it was much more better. The first Gladiator was a better period piece than this one is, from what I understand, or from what I've seen talking about it. But that's just me just having an aversion to anything that Hollywood puts out. Yeah, I mean fair enough. I don't trust them.

Brandon Hurles: 32:42

I mean, I don't trust them. I don't either. I've lost all faith, you know.

Mark Trobough: 32:48

I've watched, like, I rewatched, the original Lord of the Rings trilogy and you're just like Hollywood could never make something that lives up to that today. If they remade those movies they would pale in comparison to the original trilogy. Like not only those really good movies. It's probably the best way, best adaptation that you could ever do Ever. Yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 33:12

Did you like? What was it called? Let me see if I can look it up real quick, really good. I watched this six hour long World War 2 documentary. I really get into it too. I love history as well. It was like 6 hours long. I had to watch it in like 4 or 5 different settings it's a documentary. Yeah, it's a documentary, I think it's just called cause I had it on DVD. I think it's just called.

Brandon Hurles: 33:43

World War 2. Yeah, there's a lot of them. The movie I was thinking of is oh wait, that's not it. Oh, fury, have you seen that?

Mark Trobough: 33:54

Oh yeah, it's probably one of the One of the better World War II tank movies out there. There's not a lot of them, but I've seen.

Brandon Hurles: 34:03

Another really good one Inglourious Bastards. That's a really good movie too.

Mark Trobough: 34:07

It's a good comedy. It's a really good movie, because I've heard I can't remember I think I might be mistaken what's it. Iron Fury might be considered one of the better tank movies of all times, but I'm pretty sure that's a Russian movie. I don't think I've seen that one. It deals with the, with the, with the Eastern front of the war.

Brandon Hurles: 34:32

Oh yeah, another good one to American sniper, which is obviously based on true story. I really liked that movie as well.

Mark Trobough: 34:39

Um, yeah, um there's a lot of good. The problem, if you look at like military movies specifically, there's a lot of good ones from the 50s, 60s and 70s, a lot of good ones from that time period.

Brandon Hurles: 34:54

I mean, bro, I like mash, like I think it's a comedy, but like also with some serious tones. Did you ever get into that, or was it too old for you?

Mark Trobough: 35:07

I watched it growing up. I never got into it, but I would watch it if it was on TV.

Brandon Hurles: 35:11

My grandpa loved it, so we watched it.

Mark Trobough: 35:13

But I mean, just because I brought it up, because you got like what A Bridge Too Far. Kelly's Heroes, patton Bridge on the River Kwai, and those are like really old movies.

Brandon Hurles: 35:23

Okay, so to transition this to video games, what do you think are the best?

Mark Trobough: 35:30

Way Okay. So to transition this to video games, what do you think are the best Way off on a chance right there?

Brandon Hurles: 35:32

No, I mean yeah, there's nothing to do with anything, but what do you think are the best? Video game war, you know, military games what do you think are the best? Because I mean you've got like Medal of Honor, which I would say 1, 2, and 3 are really good.

Mark Trobough: 35:52

If you want to call it more arcade-y style, it's the old Medal of Honor games from the early 2000s, like around what the 2001 to like 2008,. Right before COD took over those were some really good games.

Brandon Hurles: 36:02

Yeah, medal of Honor was amazing and there's a lot of Metal of Honor games. I mean Airborne, you've got whatever. The second one was called.

Brandon Hurles: 36:14

There's one that you have probably never played, and the only reason I played it is because it was a PlayStation Plus game a long time ago. It's called Hell let's Loose and it's like too accurate of a military game, if that makes sense, like it's good, and it's like too accurate of a military game, if that makes sense, like it's good, but it's too accurate. What is it called? Again, it's called Hell let's Loose, it's it. I don't know how else to explain it other than like it's like as accurate of a military game I've ever played. Like it's almost too accurate. Essentially, I've never played. It's almost too accurate. Essentially, I've never played that.

Mark Trobough: 36:50

But when I think of Medal of Honor, there's three games that I played. It was Allied Assault, european Assault and then the Rising Sun. Those were the three Medal of Honor games that I played growing up.

Brandon Hurles: 37:00

Did you ever play? I had this growing up. Let me see what it's called. Did you ever play the actual US Army video game? Did you ever play the actual US Army video game? Did you ever play that? I had it. It was terrible, but I can imagine. Yeah, it was really bad. At the end of the game, they essentially try to recruit you. Like no joke, you can sign up to also serve your country. It's called America's Army Proving Gr. Also serve your country. It's called America's Army Proving Grounds. That's what it's called.

Mark Trobough: 37:33

To be fair, that's more of advertising than anything else. It's straight up advertising. There are some good games out there. If you're more into the sim, you've got, obviously, armor 3, which is a really big sim game. You've got World of Tanks, what's it World of Tanks? What's it World? Of One of those other games. They're free-to-play games World of Tanks and I think it's War Thunder the two free-to-play games and stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles: 37:57

Did you ever get into either Ace Combat or what's the other big one? I'm trying to think of the Battlefield games. You ever get into Battlefield 1942.

Mark Trobough: 38:09

The Battlefield I played. What's it? Ace Combat 7 is the most recent one that came out, I believe yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 38:16

I played it.

Mark Trobough: 38:16

I never got super into it, but I have played it as well as you could argue. What's it? Uh, I mean, age of Empires is not really the same game, but like the Total War games, I played Total War, shogun and some of those games. Those are pretty good games. Yeah, if you want more Total War, shogun is the Japanese one, but you also have just the regular Total War which deals with Rome and some of those more pre-medieval battles. I guess Does that make sense.

Brandon Hurles: 38:44

Yeah, no, for sure, I was trying to pull. There was another weird military game that I had back in the day, I think on PS1.

Mark Trobough: 38:53

I don't remember what the heck it was called oh, um, never had PS1, so I probably haven't played it.

Brandon Hurles: 39:00

Did you ever play any of the army men games?

Mark Trobough: 39:03

because it was on 64 like the ones based off the little toys. They were really fun. Yeah, I played those on 64.

Brandon Hurles: 39:12

Yeah, there's like five of them.

Mark Trobough: 39:15

Yeah, because I played Star. I remember playing Star, just Heroes, that's the one. That was the one I was on 64.

Brandon Hurles: 39:22

These are the games I was thinking of. So there's a bunch of these. It's a long-running series that's still going on now. Spec Ops Did you ever play any of the Spec Ops games so fun, I mean like Spec Ops? The Line is in my top 5 video games of all time yeah.

Mark Trobough: 39:37

I know people that have.

Game Junction: 39:38

I haven't personally though, but I know a lot of people that everybody I talk to that has is raped about it.

Brandon Hurles: 39:43

Yeah, Spec Ops the Line especially, but I played. I played it all the way back to the PS1 because there was a couple Spec Ops games. But Spec Ops Align my God, that game still holds up. I replayed it.

Mark Trobough: 39:53

I think in 2022, and it is so good that has the infamous that white phosphorus scene in it, doesn't it? Yeah, I remember hearing about that back in the day.

Brandon Hurles: 40:10

I don't know why it was drama. It's like an emirated game. Yeah, we rented that. So we rented that game from Blockbuster. Beat it the same day.

Mark Trobough: 40:14

It was a pretty short story but it was so good. Usually people do that with a lot of older games. You could beat them and it wasn't even an old game, though.

Brandon Hurles: 40:18

It was a 360 game, so it was weird that it was only seven hours long.

Mark Trobough: 40:31

But it was a really good seven hours, like, even like uh, the game we played back in the fall, what is it? Um, oh, it's the, uh, oh, I'm blank on the name a game that we played. Yeah, we played it on stream. It was one of the first games we started streaming together. I don't remember uh, gears of war, sorry oh yeah I don't know why I blanked on the the game. That's a game you could arguably beat in like 8 to 12 hours. You could beat that in one sitting.

Brandon Hurles: 40:52

Did we beat it in 2 or 3?

Mark Trobough: 40:54

streams. I think we beat it in 3. I think we beat it in 3 streams. Yeah, realistically.

Brandon Hurles: 40:59

If you know what you're doing, we could have beat it in 2.

Mark Trobough: 41:05

If you know what you're doing and you're not delete down, you're just trying to get through the game. Yeah, you could very easily beat that in one sitting.

Brandon Hurles: 41:13

I forgot how short that game was. I forgot it was that short. I think Gears 2 is significantly longer, if I remember correctly, because it's like a 20-hour game or so, mr Coffee said depends on how hard you set it. Not sure what that one's on. Oh, uh, it's great threat. There's brought up akari warriors, absolute classic. Um, but I'm old. Uh, operation wolf, another good one. Um, uh, red october, best movie. Uh, red october is really good. Oh, world war ii and collar, that's what it's called. That's the one I was talking about.

Mark Trobough: 41:51

It's like a six Red October best movie Red October is really good. World War II and Collar that's what it's called. That's the one I was talking about.

Brandon Hurles: 41:55

It's like a six-hour documentary. I think it's like multiple parts, though yeah, I had the whole DVD set for it and watched the whole thing. I get really interested in that stuff, so I really like history.

Mark Trobough: 42:03

There's another one I had. I don't know which one it was, but I had one of the Brothers in Arms games on DS.

Brandon Hurles: 42:10

Oh yeah, Brothers in Arms. That was the only one I played On DS, so that DS one was. What was that called? Because I had it too.

Mark Trobough: 42:18

I think it was just Brothers in Arms, brothers in Arms DS. I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

Brandon Hurles: 42:23

It very well might be, I can't remember. I had it as well. Yeah, it's just called Brothers in Arms DS. I actually thought that was a good game. I don't know if you liked it. I thought it was good.

Mark Trobough: 42:34

I never beat it.

Brandon Hurles: 42:36

I even played the Call of Duty games on the DS and I thought they were good too. I mean, they were still FPS games and the Wii games really good as well.

Mark Trobough: 42:50

You ever play Hell's Highway then for Brothers in Arms? Yeah, I know I haven't. I've only ever played the DS one. Yeah, I have it, yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 42:55

I have it. Yeah, it's good stuff. I like military games. I got burnt out for a very long time because of Call of Duty, especially the World War II stuff, because there's so many World War II video games. It's kind of ridiculous. I stuff because there's so many World War 2 video games. It's kind of ridiculous.

Mark Trobough: 43:08

I mean, you had that with Medal of Honor, but Medal of Honor it was like what couch co-op multiplayer and you really played it for the single player and each game was, at least the very least, trying to tell a different story. But after a while you're like there's only so much you can do with this. That's how Spec.

Brandon Hurles: 43:21

Ops was on the PS1 because there was, I think, three spec ops games on the PS one. It was like they were all basically the same game, like reskinned.

Mark Trobough: 43:31

Yeah, I think that the other problem with a lot of those war two games is they're all in Europe, like that's the problem, like hardly any of those games go. Pacific, yeah, which to be fair was, was, you know, far more brutal, which I could see why people want to shy away from it, but like there's a lot of potential that they just kind of ignored with that yeah, they, yeah, for sure, for sure but all right, yeah, I guess one game.

Mark Trobough: 43:54

Why not? You know, it's a medieval game. I want to play as gang as the con come on I like medieval games a lot too.

Brandon Hurles: 44:03

Yeah, all right, I guess we should go ahead and dive into the news. What do we got going on?

Mark Trobough: 44:08

Yeah, the second thing that we had on this list. Like you know what, 45 minutes into the podcast. Are we 45? Oh, crap. We're close to it 40, 45, something like that. The Fantastic Four is making its way to Marvel's Rivals. Maybe this will be a good form of the what's the Fantastic? Four, what's it? Fantastic, for it's in front of my face and. I was like I don't know what it says yeah, no, I think it's great.

Brandon Hurles: 44:31

I'll be honest with you. We were talking about this off-stream and we crapped on that game a lot on the podcast before it came out. We crapped on it a lot. This is going to be another failure. Why are they doing this?

Mark Trobough: 44:46

I mean to be fair the industry has conditioned you to just expect failure. They have.

Brandon Hurles: 44:50

And I'm trying to now not do that because, not, I've got to stop doing that, because what it what it's become is, there's been so much that's happened, especially 2024, in the video game sphere, the movie sphere, whatever where I'm just instantly I just crap on stuff Because I'm like, why are they doing this? But I like Marvel Rivals, I think it's really fun, yeah.

Mark Trobough: 45:17

It makes sense. It was made by a Chinese developer.

Brandon Hurles: 45:20

I probably helped Arena shooters. But there's something about it where I really enjoy it. I actually legitimately like it and I know a lot of people playing it Personally and then obviously people that I follow and stuff like that. A lot of people are playing it. And then it got suggested yesterday. Hey, make that the community game. Pretty much anybody can access it. If you got either PlayStation, pc, xbox, you can play it free to play. So I mean that's a great idea. We streamed it twice and it was a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun both times.

Mark Trobough: 45:57

I'll say this To be fair, especially with the game industry 2024 was a bad year for AAA. I think Ubisoft specifically, but there's a lot of bad AAA games that came out.

Brandon Hurles: 46:06

Oh, there's a lot.

Mark Trobough: 46:06

Yeah, I mean, there's a ton the industry's earned the crap that they get which is a lot of speculation and you have to prove otherwise why I should buy your game.

Brandon Hurles: 46:16

Yeah, and I agree that you do need to prove, but I think that what I need to do is not be so judgmental before, because until that, thing is out.

Mark Trobough: 46:26

That's what the fun is in the podcast. No before.

Brandon Hurles: 46:28

Because until that thing is out, that's what the fun is in the podcast. It is, but I don't need to completely crap on something that I don't know. We don't know anything about other than this is essentially an Overwatch clone, but the. Thing is.

Brandon Hurles: 46:39

It does Overwatch way better than Overwatch 2. That's the problem. It's not Overwatch. That's the problem. That's the thing, and Blizzard is really screwed. I mean to be honest, they just like kind of screwed up with everything Diablo 4, freaking Overwatch 2, like they are just making the wrong. I mean, I mean to be fair.

Mark Trobough: 46:56

You look back at the day with Blizzard and find so many things they've done wrong.

Brandon Hurles: 47:00

Yeah, it's stupid, it sucks, because they used to be a really good company. I really liked, liked them back in the day, but now it's just like yeah, they just make a lot of stupid moves.

Mark Trobough: 47:07

Yeah, when are we getting the next Warcraft game?

Brandon Hurles: 47:11

I have no idea. Probably got another new World of Warcraft expansion coming first.

Mark Trobough: 47:16

That's their money maker. Why do anything else? Really, I guess yeah. I guess, and again, what about Steam and stuff like that? It's not epic, but when are we getting Half-Life 3, like, come on?

Brandon Hurles: 47:30

Actually funny enough. I'll see if I can pull it up.

Mark Trobough: 47:34

Come on, gabe, let's go. What? Gabe? The owner of Steam, or whatever the actual name is? Oh yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 47:42

Okay, so I'll go ahead and read this news story, since you brought it up. So Half-Life 3 speculation surges once more following cryptic tweets, and so the tweet was. Let me see if I can send it to you, because it's a video. Just type in Half-Life 3 and you'll see it. There's a bunch of news articles for it, so you can see the video. It'll be a little bit easier.

Mark Trobough: 48:07

It's been back in. There's a bunch of news articles for it so you can see the video. It'll be a little bit easier. It's been back in.

Brandon Hurles: 48:11

It's been a long time 20-year anniversary of Half-Life 2. Yeah, and then we did get Half-Life Alyx, so I mean it kind of broke up, which was a very good game people loved. But people have been asking for Half-Life 3 for so long.

Mark Trobough: 48:23

It's like Valve was the company I was thinking of. They're just content with just making money off Steam.

Brandon Hurles: 48:30

Yeah, pretty much. I mean they got the Steam Deck. It's doing very, very well. So they're in the hardware game and we know we got a Steam Deck 2 coming. I mean the Steam Deck OLED white sold out. I couldn't even get into the queue, it sold out immediately. I couldn't even get into the queue, it sold out immediately. I couldn't even get in the queue. I tried queuing on my computer, a tablet and my phone. I couldn't even get in the queue to try to get it.

Brandon Hurles: 48:56

I'm kind of glad that I didn't, because I would rather just get the Steam Deck 2 when it comes out, because we're so close to it that I expect it next year. I expect it this year or next year?

Mark Trobough: 49:09

The. I expect it next year. I expect it this year or next year, so I'm good with waiting. The video they posted on X talk about the most cryptic teaser I've ever seen.

Brandon Hurles: 49:14

That's what I'm saying.

Mark Trobough: 49:16

It doesn't make any sense at all.

Brandon Hurles: 49:20

Makes no sense at all. Another year already.

Mark Trobough: 49:24

Another year already.

Brandon Hurles: 49:25

Oh, you can hear that. Oh, my bad, yeah, I heard that. Sorry about that, guys, but yeah, no, very cryptic. So I thought that was kind of funny that you brought that up because it's been making the news around. So interesting stuff. I would love to see it, but you've never even played a Half-Life game, right?

Mark Trobough: 49:42

I was too young to play this kind of games. Growing up, my parents wouldn't have let me play those games.

Brandon Hurles: 49:46

You're an adult now.

Mark Trobough: 49:47

Always get back. They're all 20-year-old games.

Brandon Hurles: 49:49

What's wrong with that? Oh, they're on Steam.

Mark Trobough: 49:54

Of course they're on Steam. They're like dirt cheap.

Brandon Hurles: 49:56

That's what I'm saying, no very cryptic squeeze. So I'd be interested to see if we actually if anything comes of it. I mean that'll break the internet for sure. People have been asking for that for so long. Holy crap, it's been a long time. I just want to let everybody know that we've got a level 1 snow emergency currently. May or may not die during the podcast.

Mark Trobough: 50:24

Oh yeah, y'all are supposed to get dumped on.

Brandon Hurles: 50:26

Yeah, we're getting dumped on now.

Mark Trobough: 50:29

I was about to say what's a level one snowmerge? I haven't heard that in forever.

Brandon Hurles: 50:33

Well, you guys don't have level ones and stuff like that there.

Mark Trobough: 50:36

Nope, they don't even plow the roads half the time. They'll just close the roads, that's it. We don't have snow emergencies. You know, back in right before, the only major snow that we got was right before Thanksgiving. We got, like what's it? About four inches. We didn't even have an advisor. That's how big you are. They didn't plow the snow, they didn't salt it. You just drove on the road for a few days until it melted. Naturally, they'll plow I-80. They don't dump salt on it, but they'll plow I-80. That's about it. But they'll plow I-80. That's about it. Anything in town? Nah, yeah, but again, there's a lot of mountain passes out here where the moment it starts to snow, they just shut it down, just shut it down.

Mark Trobough: 51:17

But to be fair, a lot of those mountain passes get so much snow it'd be impossible for the five cars a day to drive on. It's not worth the money.

Brandon Hurles: 51:33

Mr Coffee said, you aren't that far off. We had so many shooters come out, we just got concord and then marvel rivals right after it, so kind of just got a ribbing just because of concord, which is true. I mean, that was the problem, right. Like you saw, concord just completely flopped right away. So we just thought, yeah, marvel rivals is going to flop, but my god, that game, the concurrent viewers and stuff just on Steam is crazy. It's crazy numbers for that game. Like I was looking at trending games on Twitch and it was number two trending game on Twitch right now. So, and I was even playing, I played a match right before you jumped on it. Yeah right, I'm always playing a squirrel girl and I just shoot from far away. Fun game, man. It's a really fun game, free to play. There's no reason not at least try it. You know it's not for everybody, I'm not even an arena shooter guy, but I think it's very fun. I like the characters, I like the design, the aesthetic and the way that it plays. It feels good.

Mark Trobough: 52:19

So yeah, I got to bring up, though aren Snow is supposed to come Sunday night.

Brandon Hurles: 52:24

I have no idea. I'll have to click on this Breaking news three hours ago. Pickwick County is now under a level one snow emergency. Roadways are hazardous with blowing and drifting snow. Recent reports of cars sliding off roadways have occurred in the last hour in Pickwick, none with major injuries. Yeah, so it's going on now.

Mark Trobough: 52:44

For us. They'll close down the road, which means they lower a bar in front of it and it's closed.

Brandon Hurles: 52:48

And if you go around for real they don't close any roads here. But, like, if it's a level, is it level two that you're legally not allowed to drive, Right? I thought it was level three. It might be level three, I can't remember.

Mark Trobough: 53:04

Out. Here I mean technically, when the barrier's down. You're not supposed to. But if you drive there and then get stuck, they may or may not send search and rescue, but if they do, you're paying that bill, and that's a separate amount.

Brandon Hurles: 53:14

Oh yeah, it's like paying the ambulance, I'll drive myself. Well, the problem is like you drive.

Mark Trobough: 53:20

It's like 50 miles between towns and there's no one between there. So it's not it's. It's impossible to keep the roads clean, so they just close it.

Brandon Hurles: 53:27

Mr Cox says he's in PA, so expect to get snow Sunday through Monday. Yeah, I don't like snow just because it's a driving thing. I don't have a good car and I don't have a four-wheel drive or anything like that.

Mark Trobough: 53:41

So that's my main thing about it. Driving in the snow is fun, especially if you've got a manual car. Yeah, Mark, until you die and it'll show up on the podcast. Then it's fun. I'll just wreck my car to one in town. You just drive in town, you'll be fine, You're not going to kill yourself in town, alright, what?

Mark Trobough: 53:56

do we got next? You put in there some. Mr Beast hit 341 million YouTube subscribers. I saw a clip of one of his new game shows that he did. I don't know if you saw that or not. It looked kind of creepy. He was like a. He had that evil villain aura where he's just like Squid Games but the evil masterminds won't host.

Brandon Hurles: 54:21

I know about his Beast Games. I don't know anything about him. The reason I put that in there, I just thought it was a new record for YouTube so I was like might as well mention it. Light week on news and stuff like that. But I mean, that's a pretty big deal. I can't remember what his subscriber count is. I'll have to see if it says but he's had a lot of controversy the past, like probably year, there's been all kinds of stuff with him, so I'm kind of surprised he's still continuing to grow.

Mark Trobough: 54:53

One of his guys that worked with him I think he said Donaldson who was there's like a lawsuit with mistreatment, sexual harassment, yeah, yeah, yeah, unpaid, like a whole mess of stuff that when it came out you're like, oh, this is going to be the end, like this is going to be the end. He's going to be drowning in lawsuits and stuff like that and he still might.

Brandon Hurles: 55:12

Who knows. Oh hey, yeah, you're pretty close to me there. If you're in Orient, that's crazy. Yeah, I'm 20 minutes away, but yeah, anyway, it looks like 400 million 341. I personally don't like the guy. I don't like his content. It's just not for me. There seems to be a lot of weird stuff surrounding his team and him and stuff like that. I was kind of surprised to see that he's still growing at the rate that he is. I mean, like People watch him. A lot of people don't care for the other stuff. You also gotta keep in mind there's a lot of kids that are watching. It's more content for a younger audience.

Mark Trobough: 55:55

For a younger audience and it just gives a lot of money away for free, so people try to get on that stuff.

Brandon Hurles: 56:02

I cannot confirm or deny that, but anyway, what do we got next here?

Mark Trobough: 56:11

Some Call of Duty news. You got Black Ops 6 and Warzone release New update for January this month actually.

Brandon Hurles: 56:17

Yeah, this is why I brought the Squid Game stuff up was mostly because that's why I was asking if you had watched it.

Mark Trobough: 56:23

Which is not a surprise all across, because is it Season 2 of the Korean one, or is it Season 1 of the American one, or maybe it's season two of the American one, I don't know. I didn't know there was more than one.

Brandon Hurles: 56:33

I thought there was another one A season. I don't know. I just know it's season two of whatever the big one during COVID that blew up with that last guy. I heard it's pretty. I know I know a couple people watching it heard it's pretty depressing.

Mark Trobough: 56:47

Yeah, so apparently Netflix Korea said season 3 is coming sometime in 2025. I didn't know there was a season 2. Interesting.

Brandon Hurles: 56:55

Yeah, I mean it makes sense to do the crossover right with Call of Duty. I mean sell skins makes sense.

Mark Trobough: 57:01

It's just a skin. It makes money. Call of Duty is a really popular game. If you're just trying to do a crossover that's going to make you money, this makes sense. Yeah, for sure I just got to wait for the Squid Game Fortnite crossover.

Brandon Hurles: 57:13

Oh, it's going to happen.

Mark Trobough: 57:15

I think it's already happening. Maybe it already is happening, I don't know.

Brandon Hurles: 57:18

Fortnite freaking collabs with everything, dudes. It's crazy. I mean Snoop Dogg was in.

Mark Trobough: 57:26

Fortnite has the skin, m&m has the skin Like crazy stuff. But again, this is the same Call of Duty that had. Was it like Nicki Minaj in it and stuff like that In Call of Duty? Yeah, I swore it was.

Brandon Hurles: 57:40

God, not a fan, I don't know. M&m did a whole concert in Fortnite. It was just crazy.

Mark Trobough: 57:48

Yeah, there was a Warzone. Modern Warfare 2, and Modern Warfare 3, nicki Minaj, operator bundle. That's stupid. He wanted a bunch of pink skins.

Brandon Hurles: 57:57

Who likes Nicki Minaj? Come on Good question Teenage girls. Yeah apparently what teenage girls are playing. Never mind, I'm sure there's some.

Mark Trobough: 58:11

And I know you brought something else up, but there's a rumor out recently that the Star Fox Adventures could be getting a remake in development. Yeah, this is not. I know we've had our opinions on this and the community's had its opinions on this. What do you feel about this game? Because if I think Star Fox is going to move forward and be a relevant IP again, this type of game is where it's going to have to go.

Brandon Hurles: 58:36

Yeah, I feel like it's. I feel like we can't do the formula of just being in the spacecraft anymore, because I just don't think it was so and it flopped terrible on the Wii.

Mark Trobough: 58:48

Yeah, Star Fox Zero. Regardless of how good or bad the actual game was. They've tried to do that and nobody's been receptive.

Brandon Hurles: 58:54

Don't get me wrong. I love that. I think it's fun. I've played every Star Fox game. Star Fox DS is my what's it. I think it's called Star Fox. Yes, it's my favorite Star Fox game, but Star Fox Adventures really good game. I mean, I think it's a really good game. Obviously it was not intended to be a Star Fox game, but regardless it was cool. It introduced Crystal, which is a cool character.

Mark Trobough: 59:20

I feel like it's a fun game. I think so too. I played it at a friend's house way back in the day.

Game Junction: 59:29

This is the route they need to go because I just don't think the aircraft only Star.

Brandon Hurles: 59:31

Fox is going to sell. Yeah, it's just not going to sell, and they need to bring in that younger audience as well.

Mark Trobough: 59:37

They need new audiences is what they really need to, because, let's be fair, star Fox really peaked with one game on the 64, and that really was it, I don't know, it did very well on the Super Nintendo.

Brandon Hurles: 59:49

Huh Star Fox on the Super Nintendo did very well. It was a big game, it was a big deal.

Mark Trobough: 59:54

Yeah, but let's be fair. It peaked on the 64. That's the game most people recognize.

Brandon Hurles: 59:58

I would say yeah, I think you're probably right. It probably did peak there, but we still got like Do you remember Star Fox Command Mission.

Mark Trobough: 1:00:11

On the.

Brandon Hurles: 1:00:11

DS no on the.

Mark Trobough: 1:00:11

GameCube Hold on. I only ever know of Star Fox Adventure. I know there were other games, like one on the DS, but this was like the last major release that we got that I ever knew of growing up, it's called Star Fox Assault on the GameCube Also really really good game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:00:28

And then I think Star Fox completely missed out on the GameCube Also really really good game. And then I think Star Fox completely missed out on the 3DS. No, it got Star Fox 3D right. Let me look.

Mark Trobough: 1:00:36

Did it? I don't know. I mean it had the Wii U game, yeah it was Star Fox 64 3D, Sorry.

Brandon Hurles: 1:00:43

So it just got a remaster in 3D, which, by the way, if you haven't played that I know you have a new 3DS XL with 3D Actually, really good 3D and a really good remaster of the game. Even if you want to turn the 3D off For sure, just like Ocarina of Time is officially the best way to play that game and there's additional content in it which is really cool, Isn't?

Mark Trobough: 1:01:06

Star Fox 64 on NSO or is it automated?

Brandon Hurles: 1:01:09

It is, but I mean it's the 64 version, so you're not getting all the enhancements from it. But yeah, it's still a good game regardless. But what I was bringing up was the Star Fox PC port. So Star Fox 64 got a PC port. Obviously it's fan-made, but I played it on my ultrawide monitor. Really cool man, really nostalgic. I'll read a little bit of this real quick from.

Mark Trobough: 1:01:36

Engadget Go ahead. This leak came from Samus Hunter 2, and the rumor was that this game could possibly release in 2025. It could possibly be a first-year title for the.

Brandon Hurles: 1:01:49

Switch 2.

Mark Trobough: 1:01:50

Makes sense Gotta fill out that year.

Brandon Hurles: 1:01:53

Gotta fill out that year Makes sense.

Mark Trobough: 1:01:56

But uh, whenever we get the next Direct, I guess you'll find out.

Brandon Hurles: 1:02:00

A group of talented fans made a native PC port of Star Fox 64, which they are calling Starship. Even better, it's technically legal. Harbormaster is. The team behind the project uses a tool that converts the original game ROM into PC executable code, so it doesn't actually use any proprietary Nintendo code. This is the same method used to create the native PC port of Legend of Zelda, ocarina of Time, and that one's still available for download. So, yeah, you can download this Mark. You should definitely check this out if you like 64. It's gorgeous, looks really good.

Brandon Hurles: 1:02:33

I saw somebody playing it on a. So I have a Galaxy. What's it called? Galaxy G8? Monitor? Hold on, let me look which is my main monitor that I'm using now. It is called the Odyssey OLED G8. So I saw somebody playing it on the G9, and the G9, I'm sure you've seen pictures of it is the huge, gigantic monitor that curves and basically it's two monitors in one. You can use this like split screen monitor. I got the one right before that, the oled monitor, the uh, odyssey oled g8, but the g9 I saw somebody playing it on it. I was like blown away. I I could, I could never have room. It would take up my entire desk. It's so big. I don't you've seen that monitor before. Right, it's just huge, I think. So, yeah, the G9, yeah, it's just massive, but yeah, it's a really cool PC port. So I definitely recommend anybody watching, listening, check it out. It's cool stuff.

Mark Trobough: 1:03:40

Yeah, we got rumors that Atari or it's not a rumor. Atari essentially came out and is teasing a what they called a re-reveal of their new handheld console at CES 2025 next week.

Brandon Hurles: 1:03:53

Yeah, I found this interesting because CES is not going on yet.

Mark Trobough: 1:03:59

It's usually more of the IT computer industry, but not necessarily gaming-focused.

Brandon Hurles: 1:04:04

Yeah, there's still a lot of gaming stuff there, though, there's still show-ups and a lot of product, but it's not like the primary thing.

Mark Trobough: 1:04:09

You usually get more just general hardware stuff and software releases there than actual game related stuff.

Brandon Hurles: 1:04:16

But the Game Station Go comes complete with the D-pad, face buttons, shoulder buttons. You'd expect to go on a retro handheld. What makes it stand out is the inclusion of a trackball and paddle on the left of the device and a keypad on the right, so it's got essentially everything you need to play any of those atari games that require those specific controllers.

Mark Trobough: 1:04:38

So I I know you don't care about atari or anything, but I mean I think it's probably kind of interesting as in the fact that it still requires some level of of adaptation to those game controls to be more handheld there's some real engineering going on some of those controllers were like the size of this, of this handheld. Yeah, yeah, I this.

Brandon Hurles: 1:04:56

I'll pick this up. I'll probably do a review on this because this is really cool. It's got, like I said, it has every form of controller for all the games that require that. You know there's games that specifically required the trackball games that specific, uh, you know required the keypad that you had. There's games that specifically require the trackball games that, specifically, you know, require the keypad that you had to have stuff like that. So it's got all of those built into one little device and I definitely would like to check it out. It's just unique. There's definitely some engineering that was involved in this, so definitely want to check it out. My arcade products are hit or miss for me. I've got a few I've got you can't see it back there, but I've got a couple of my Arcade products and they're okay. Some are hit or miss.

Brandon Hurles: 1:05:40

But definitely cool stuff, for sure.

Mark Trobough: 1:05:43

I'm sure cool once next week hits Next podcast is going to be interesting.

Brandon Hurles: 1:05:47

A lot of stuff, yeah we're going to have a lot of talk about it, I'm sure A lot of stuff for sure.

Mark Trobough: 1:05:52

I know you were talking about this, I know we were talking before the podcast. I didn't care as much. But for the secret level, apparently, master Chief and Doom Slayer, they were told no from Microsoft about those being in the secret level series. Yeah, I don Microsoft about those being in the secret level series. Yeah, I don't mean they're, they're really well known IPs. It makes sense they don't need the advertising. That's, that's how I thought about it. No, you, you disagree a little bit.

Brandon Hurles: 1:06:16

Yeah, to me it's free advertising, so why not? It doesn't matter how big your property is. Halo is not big Like it was and Doom is not. I love Doom, one of my favorite series, but it's not on a massive level where people are talking about it like they are a cult. Nobody talks about Halo like they do Call of Duty anymore.

Mark Trobough: 1:06:41

Halo is never going to be at that level. When you get a new Halo game or a new Doom game, everyone's talking about them. They're really popular, but they hit their short-term popular games. They're not like Call of Duty where they're constantly in the cultures like they used to be. Yeah, At least for Halo it's multiplayer isn't the peak of multiplayer anymore. That peaked back on the 360.

Brandon Hurles: 1:07:06

Mr Coffee said, doom is bigger than Halo. I would agree with that. Actually, I think Doom has become bigger than Halo. Well, because Halo's kind of. That's why I'm saying to disregard that out of a show that millions of people are watching and did very successful is stupid to me.

Mark Trobough: 1:07:22

Well, I mean to be fair, like Halo is a very popular IP and Microsoft necessarily doesn't need it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:07:31

The thing about Microsoft is usually they play well with others, so it's weird that they denied that it's normally PlayStation who doesn't play well with others, but PlayStation was involved because there's a whole Concord episode.

Mark Trobough: 1:07:41

I mean to be fair. There could have been stuff that happened behind the scenes that Microsoft didn't agree with, or there were certain stipulations they wanted, and there was no proper agreement. You're dealing with legality crossovers and if you don't do what Microsoft wants you to do with the IP, they're going to tell you no.

Brandon Hurles: 1:07:59

Yeah, I don't know. To me it's a little odd. It seems like why would you not want to? That would be a really cool crossover too. It would seem Doom Slayer and Master Chief meet each other. It just sounds cool. As a fan, I would want to see that. It just sounds like a cool concept. They're both owned by Microsoft. Why not? It's a one-off little episode. Some of those episodes are seven minutes long, other ones are 30 minutes long. Some of them are very, very short. They could have did something really cool with it.

Mark Trobough: 1:08:31

Microsoft just had no interest and they said no. I guess that's kind of what happened.

Brandon Hurles: 1:08:35

I can no longer support Microsoft.

Mark Trobough: 1:08:39

Oh, okay, I'll believe it when I see it. Oh man, we also got a second trailer for the Captain America Brave New World that comes out on Valentine's Day, february 14th. I don't know what to feel about the movie. To be honest, I don't know either. It's not a day one watch, but that's like most things Marvel or really anything Disney related.

Brandon Hurles: 1:09:04

Yeah, I'm watching back the trailer now because I actually didn't get to watch it before. So I'll do a little live reaction here. Harrison Ford's in it.

Mark Trobough: 1:09:15

The fact that Harrison Ford's still acting is it's wild.

Brandon Hurles: 1:09:19

It's pretty wild.

Mark Trobough: 1:09:22

I wonder how old he is.

Brandon Hurles: 1:09:23

He's gotta be what late 70s.

Mark Trobough: 1:09:27

Maybe we can probably find out.

Brandon Hurles: 1:09:29

Oh, red Hulk's in this. Okay, yeah, harrison.

Mark Trobough: 1:09:32

Ford's 82. And he looks every bit 82.

Brandon Hurles: 1:09:38

Shatner is still out doing stuff. He was on the Steve-O podcast and he sounded crystal clear like he was 20 years old.

Mark Trobough: 1:09:47

Some people. Obviously people age differently, let's just be fair. But you look at that and you're like I don't know, unless he just really enjoys acting. You look at that and either you really love doing this job or you mismanaged all those millions of dollars that you made through all those box office hits you had in the 80s and 90s.

Brandon Hurles: 1:10:05

I don't know, the trailer doesn't look bad per se. I like the Red Hulk and it looks really, really cool. Always like Red Hulk. I still don't know how I feel about him being Captain America now. I mean it happened in the comics so it is, you know, legit.

Mark Trobough: 1:10:25

But Then again, iron did. Iron man became what the other dude is? Doctor Doom, doctor Doom, yeah.

Brandon Hurles: 1:10:35

Which I am very interested in. That.

Mark Trobough: 1:10:37

I will say I'm curious do we, Because obviously it's the same actor. Is that just the same actor playing a different role? Or is that going to actually the actual end lore character going to become Doctor Doom? Is there going to be something they're going to do with that? That's a good question. I don't know if that ties into the comics at all, but oh yeah, it does for sure it does, in one of the mini-earths of the multiverse that he becomes.

Mark Trobough: 1:11:03

Doctor Doom. I mean, that's the only reason you would bring him back, like Robert Downey Jr back specifically.

Brandon Hurles: 1:11:11

The thing was is that Doctor Doom is Iron Man's biggest nemesis, so it's like a big surprise, right? So that's what they're doing there. They're trying to bring people back in that were watching during Endgame, but I guess the idea is, though does the actor have anything to do?

Mark Trobough: 1:11:28

with it. That's what they're doing there. They're, you know they're trying to bring people back in, that we're watching during end game, and yeah, but I guess the idea is, though, is does the, does the, the actor, have anything to do with it? Cause, ideally, you'd want a new actor for a new, new character. It'd be fair. This is just bringing it back, robert down, unless you're. I mean, the multiverse is involved, so it's hard to.

Mark Trobough: 1:11:51

How many movies have actually really? How many Marvel movies that weren't? Oh, my god, I just blanked on the name of the movie now what, sorry. How many movies that weren't Deadpool have actually really played around with the multiverse itself in Marvel? How many movies that weren't Deadpool have actually really played around with the multiverse itself in Marvel?

Brandon Hurles: 1:12:12

How many movies, obviously the Doctor Strange and the multiverse movie.

Mark Trobough: 1:12:19

How much did it really play with it? Obviously, Deadpool did it too.

Brandon Hurles: 1:12:23

The Ant-Man and Wasp, I think, played into that as well, because they went into the multiverse. I think I don't know what else. Yeah, I'm not sure. I think that that show, what was that show called? The one with Scarlet Witch and what's the guy's? Name that had to do with the multiverse as well, which was a TV show, not a movie, but whatever, the Scarlet Witch and WandaVision played into it and then I haven't seen that season two.

Brandon Hurles: 1:13:01

But Mr Coffee said Doom in the comics was always Victor Von Doom. But in what if Reed Richard became a Doom? So yeah, I don't know. The thing is about all comics is they're very convoluted, so there's so much going on, They've been reset a bajillion times.

Mark Trobough: 1:13:23

Which storyline are you reading? And stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:13:24

They've been reset a bajillion times. Then they introduced the multiverse and it was just all hands on deck with everything. Man, like you know it's, it's hard, it's a massive mess. Yeah, that's why they reset it all the time, like DC does the same thing. They reset it and start from ground zero and it's like how many times are you going to reset these comics you? You screwed up by going too far with the multiverse. Too much was happening that you just it's a whole reset. We're starting from ground zero.

Mark Trobough: 1:13:53

Everybody's regular again spider-man's normal, you know I think the I think the problem is there. They're stuck with only so many ip, so many characters, and they just or too many characters.

Brandon Hurles: 1:14:05

There's too many. Here I have a whole encyclopedia for marvel and d DC that my grandma got me back in the day this came out. I mean I must have got them in like 2003. So obviously way outdated. But going through and seeing all these weird characters that were, like you know, in one comic or whatever, and it would go through everything that was out up to that point for DC and Marvel, and like there's too many characters, and that was in probably like 2003. And so like since then I mean there's been obviously way more characters. So I feel like the problem is there's too there's too many characters and it's hard to know what's going on. Even with the movies, once they opened up the multiverse, which I was kind of excited about, but then I was like this is going to get weird Because too much is happening. So they could keep this going forever. I mean legitimately, they could keep the MCU just going for a very long time they're going to do it.

Mark Trobough: 1:15:06

As long as it makes money really, at the end of the day, as long as it pumps money for them, they're going to keep going back to the same. Well, until they tell it they're going to milk that cow dry.

Brandon Hurles: 1:15:16

Mr Coffee said very true, but you have to ask yourself how is manga able to keep pumping up new original characters and stories? I mean, the difference with manga is that it's one set story, like sure there is. It can get convoluted to when you have different novels and you've got.

Mark Trobough: 1:15:34

I mean there's a lot of. There's a lot of overlay in how there's a lot of like same stories that are very similar to each other, like a lot of isekai are very similar, but you have different people. Just they start doing doujins, which is a more independent version of it, and they eventually get picked up and they just make stories. There's no set IP. Once One Piece is done, that IP is probably never going to get as far as the manga goes outside of doujin. It's probably not going to ever get touched again. I don't know about that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:01

I thought the same thing about Naruto.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:04

Look what happened there. Yeah, but it's the same author who then moved on to Boruto.

Game Junction: 1:16:07

I mean they could do the same thing for one piece to continue on to a new character.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:12

You know what I mean. I feel like that's too big of an IP. That one piece just ends like I can't see that happening once Capriccio Oda is the dude that writes it.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:22

Once he's done writing it, more or less, that story is going to be done. You can bring in other authors to write it, but I that story's going to be done. You can bring in other authors to write it, but I highly doubt it's going to have the same impact, knowing it's a different person behind it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:32

It's a whole different medium. Manga just works different than American comics do.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:37

There's a handful of IPs that have a 50-year run span when it comes to anime and manga.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:41

I mean you look at Gundam you can say Gundam's pretty convoluted With all the series.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:48

You do have different people doing different iterations of Gundam, to be fair.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:51

Yeah, there's a lot of hands.

Mark Trobough: 1:16:53

Gundam isn't the moneymaker. Gundam is the poster child for the Gunpla, which is what they sell, and they make a lot of money off of it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:16:59

I don't think it was. It didn't start that way, though it started.

Mark Trobough: 1:17:04

Well, you go back in the day, the whole it started. You go back in the day the whole reason it was made was to then sell toys.

Brandon Hurles: 1:17:11

When it started with the manga, there were no gunplugs it started as a television series and started as a manga I'm sorry.

Mark Trobough: 1:17:21

The problem was that they and it was a whole mess with the original gun. But the premise for a lot of these shows is is you can make this story, but the show needs to sell toys and needs to sell merchandise.

Brandon Hurles: 1:17:34

Like merchandise is where all cartoons and pretty much everything is to sell.

Mark Trobough: 1:17:38

But that's why the Gundams have to be designed certain ways and why they're always the standout character, because you need to sell the merchandise of the mobile suit, which usually is in the form of a type of gumpluff. That's where the actual money is made. Yeah, so a lot of these shows, and not all of them, but a lot of anime. They're written from the ground up with merchandise in mind, knowing it has to sell something else to actually make money and continue to get funded from these big publishers. These big publishers, studios and stuff like that Makes sense.

Brandon Hurles: 1:18:11

Makes sense. I just had my entire thing crash on me so I don't have any of the notes pulled up. Trying to get it back up, I don't know what we had next yeah, I, yeah, I saw mr copies.

Mark Trobough: 1:18:27

I'd have to dig back into it because it's, it's, it's a. I mean you talk about a show that that's like 50 years old. That's a whole convoluted mess. Yeah, even back then I'm pretty sure there were still stipulations that needed to sell, sell some merchandise. Even back then, all right.

Brandon Hurles: 1:18:42

So we've got uh, the steam awards 2024 winners revealed. Looks like we got Game of the Year Black Myth Wukong, vr. Game of the Year, metro Awakening, which I really want to play, that Best Game you Suck At. Black Myth Wukong, outstanding Story. Rich Game. Black Myth Wukong. Labor of these are weird categories Labor of Love, elden Ring. Best Game on Steam Deck God of War, ragnarok that's kind of surprising. I would have thought like Blatro or something better with friends. Helldivers 2 outstanding visual style. Silent Hill 2 most innovative gameplay. Liar's Bar I almost bought that because it's like three bucks on Steam. It looked kind of interesting. Might have to. I might have to end up grabbing that. Best soundtrack. Red Dead Redemption 1? Yeah, that's crazy. What the why would that be in there?

Mark Trobough: 1:19:36

It's an old game. These are all community voted on Steam, so this is a wholesale people that have a. You have an account, you go in and you make votes and stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:19:45

That's how they 100% voted on by the Steam community. You have an account, you go in and you make votes and stuff like that that's how they.

Mark Trobough: 1:19:48

That's weird that you include a game so old. These are 100% voted on by the Steam community. And then, what the nominations are, I don't know.

Brandon Hurles: 1:19:54

Sit Back and Relax was Farming Simulator 25. Farm Simulators are really popular. I know they are. I had it on the Vita. I actually liked it. I thought it was pretty fun. I liked it. That was pretty fun.

Mark Trobough: 1:20:05

I thought it was interesting because obviously some of these titles are unique but just the fact that this is a wholesale fan vote I don't know how they do the nominations for some of these games, for some of this stuff but the fact that you can do a wholesale fan vote, that's. You know, I'm sure December wage, you could probably bought it, but it's not the easiest thing to do, yeah, or most people aren't going to do it because who cares? Right, right, alright, so we got. And the fact that I somehow missed this. I didn't realize it was going on and I missed it, so I wasn't able to vote.

Brandon Hurles: 1:20:34

This one. You have to watch the trailer, Mark, and let me know what you think while we're talking about it here. But they announced Marvel Animation announced your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. So this is a new take and I've heard really positive things. Art style is pretty neat. It's like a comic book-y art style for the show. It goes back to kind of the beginning of Spider-Man. So this is basing off of the comic book series your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which is one of the offshoots of Spider-Man. There was a bunch of mainline Spider-Man comics that were not related at all, but this is based off of that particular comic book series. So it looks cool.

Brandon Hurles: 1:21:19

I actually like the animation style where it kind of looks like a comic book. You know, it definitely looks interesting. It's got a lot of modern day elements into it. You've got people with cell phones recording and stuff like that. Spider-man's got that early Spider-Man suit. It just says it's celebrating the roots of Spider-Man, from the classic Spider-Man TV theme to the comic book shop intro. It's a show having a comic style look and slew of transitions. This is set during modern times and we will get to see a young Peter Parker slash Spider-Man deal with such things as social media live streams when he's saving people and managing school, so I think it looks pretty good. It's something. It's something I would check out for sure, Cause I'm a big Spider-Man guy Actually.

Brandon Hurles: 1:22:08

good, it's something something I would check out for sure, because I'm a big spider-man guy.

Mark Trobough: 1:22:10

Um, actually, um, I did hear about this, but not from that, and I didn't realize it was a new tv show. I just saw it on social media. It's the. Uh, it's norman osborne, which is where all the internet discussion's going on what? And a lot of people are doing that with the. Uh, I think it's the norman osborne from the og spider-man movies. Yeah, I was like that with some. I think it's the Norman Osborn from the OG Spider-Man movies. Yeah, stuff like that with some of the memes. Uh-huh, I don't know how he was in the comics, because people just jump into the idea that I don't know if it was changed in the comics or when, but they just race-swapped Norman Osborn out In this. I don't know how accurate that actually is. Oh, I have no idea. It's not in the trailer, so I'm not sure. No, I think it was revealed after the fact. Well, it was revealed back on the 29th, so Huh, I can.

Brandon Hurles: 1:22:56

I'm looking through the images to see. If I see anything, I put it in the notes for you. I hope not. They need to stop doing all that. Just leave characters the way they were created. I don't know, they gave him some dope. Oh, doing all that.

Mark Trobough: 1:23:08

Just leave characters the way they were created. I don't know, they gave him some dope.

Brandon Hurles: 1:23:12

I think you're right, because I see there's one image that looks like it might be.

Mark Trobough: 1:23:16

Yeah, I posted a note for you. Right there at the bottom it's a link from X. Okay, yeah, let me check this out. Yeah, they did that's like the I heard about that like a lot this week. That's like the immediate thing people jumped on and then the memes are just.

Brandon Hurles: 1:23:37

I know I just saw the meme, but people just jumped on it oh, that's kind of funny. I'm not sure why they did that, man, I don't. I'm not sure.

Mark Trobough: 1:23:48

I don't know anything, man. I don't know anything about the manga, I don't know anything about the comic but this is based off. I don't know the history with some of that stuff, but obviously people just think it's the one thing and you jump to a conclusion because, well, you've been trained to do that, I'll see if I can. I mean it'll have no impact on how good the show actually is, but it's definitely. You're not going to get a show that's drama-free or a game. There's going to be drama somewhere.

Brandon Hurles: 1:24:13

Trying to see what he looked like in the your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man comics. He could have been. Could have been black in that? Yeah, because it came out.

Mark Trobough: 1:24:27

Norman Osborn's going to be voiced by Coleman Domingo.

Brandon Hurles: 1:24:31

I don't know. I can't find exactly where, but he could have been in the comics. He could have been, because between the different Spider-Man comics that were all running at the same time some characters were different and stuff like that. So I don't know. It's hard to tell, but I'll definitely check out the show. I think it looks pretty cool.

Mark Trobough: 1:24:50

I like the art style. It might still be good, it's just. That's the one obvious thing people could latch onto, and then social media does its thing.

Brandon Hurles: 1:24:59

Yeah, for sure.

Mark Trobough: 1:25:01

Other than that, it looks like a. Hopefully it's good. Who knows it looks?

Brandon Hurles: 1:25:06

good the animation's. You know it's not MCU related so maybe you know might be good. We got, let's see restream. Mr Coffee said, gundam lost its way. Oh, I'm sorry. No, sorry, what were you going to say? Mr Coffee said Gundam lost its way when it veered off its core story about being anti-war. The merch came later and helped them produce more shows. Yeah, see, that's what I thought. My understanding. Gunpla didn't come out until years after Gundam was already out.

Mark Trobough: 1:25:40

I'm still sure that I have to go back and double check, but I'm pretty sure the merchandise was always an issue with that show. But he is right about the anti-war check. But I'm pretty sure the merchandise was always an issue with that show. But he is right about the anti-war. The problem with that is every new show you get, it's a, it's a new, a alternate universe story. Yeah, it's not the og like, because it's the problem with the. The thing with universal century is it's so well developed because they've stuck it and make so many series. A lot of these alternate universe, even if they have a good, they just do one season and they move on.

Game Junction: 1:26:08

They don't ever develop an actual world, which is why I think most people who get into Gundam realize how good Universal Century is.

Mark Trobough: 1:26:14

All the best Gundam is in Universal Century, some of the worst, well, but it's peak.

Brandon Hurles: 1:26:20

I still stand behind saying that SD Gundam is probably one of the best Gundams coming out.

Mark Trobough: 1:26:26

A lot of SD Gundam deals with Universal Century Timeline.

Brandon Hurles: 1:26:29

Yeah, it does man. Why do people overlook that SD Gundam is so good?

Mark Trobough: 1:26:35

It's not. I hated it. I never liked it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:26:38

I loved it as a kid. Mr Coffee said Farming Simulator is huge in Germany. It also said they also gender swapped the son, that now it's a girl, osborn apparently. And Palmer Froggy Guy said hey, mark.

Mark Trobough: 1:26:58

Yeah. And then because there's a weird thing Technically all Gundam is canon. If you take the lore of Turn 8 Gundam seriously, yeah, it's more of a hearsay from my peer-to-peer talk about it because I never actually watched the series. I don't think I even have it yet. I still need to buy that series on Blu-ray. But you know, if you're into the lore, that technically every Gundam is canon in the same timeline because of that Gundam. Make that make sense to me.

Mark Trobough: 1:27:29

That's a whole other discussion we can have later. Yeah, for sure we have the OG Gundam on the dock to talk about at the end of the month on the Anime Junction podcast.

Brandon Hurles: 1:27:37

I thought that was cancelled.

Mark Trobough: 1:27:39

No, it's moving to the right. Oh okay, I thought we cancelled it. That's such a good.

Brandon Hurles: 1:27:46

I'm just joking, obviously I want to talk about that.

Mark Trobough: 1:27:50

We could talk a whole hour just on that alone, to be fair. Yeah, we could, for sure. I guess the last thing before we move on. The Final Fantasy XVI director, Hiroshi Taki, has indeed teased that he's working on a new unannounced game project that's supposed to come out, or was rumored to come out, sometime in 2025. Okay. So it's pretty interesting.

Brandon Hurles: 1:28:16

Yeah, no, that definitely Definitely.

Mark Trobough: 1:28:19

Don't know if it's going to be another Final Fantasy game, but the same director that worked on 16 is supposed to have another game that kind of comes out later on. So you know, possibly something, at least an announcement, to look forward to.

Brandon Hurles: 1:28:30

Yeah, no, for sure, I mean, I'm always for that we also got.

Mark Trobough: 1:28:35

Oh yeah, gamerfreak, just saw you over there on the Twitch. We do have Godzilla on the docket because there was some news to talk about.

Brandon Hurles: 1:28:40

Oh yeah, there is news on that, isn't there. So we got oh yeah, there is news on that, isn't there, so we got. Were these questions that you wanted to go through Most of those were stuff that I pulled up minus the last one that I pulled from.

Mark Trobough: 1:28:59

I think it was the YouTube chat.

Brandon Hurles: 1:29:01

Alright so top five Pokemon games. Alright, you go first.

Mark Trobough: 1:29:08

I guess I say top five.

Brandon Hurles: 1:29:09

I don first, because I know my top.

Mark Trobough: 1:29:11

I say top five, I don't know if I would put these in order and these are the games that I played. So the only gen I haven't played is gen five, which probably arguably has, from what I've seen, the best games. But I haven't played black and white, and black and white too, so I can't put them in my top five. Alright, hold on, I can go ahead and do mine real quick.

Brandon Hurles: 1:29:28

Okay, black 2, pokemon Crystal, omega, ruby Pokemon, battle Revolution, which is a spinoff game, and then probably probably X Pokemon X.

Mark Trobough: 1:29:51

And my five is no particular order. These are just the five games that I enjoy playing the most. The Gen 3, the ORAS remakes of Gen 3 is the best, I would say, not only the best remakes, but probably the best Pokemon games out there. Whichever one you want to take doesn't really matter to me, then you probably have, because I haven't made the Gen 2 remakes, but I also like the Gen 2 games, so I'd take the Crystal. Yeah, I wish I should.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:16

The remaster of the two, that would be six for me.

Mark Trobough: 1:30:21

Gen 1 has its flaws, but I do like Pokemon Yellow. I'm going to do the accumulation. It's a very unique game that took a while before they came back to what they did with the following Pokemon, and they haven't done a whole lot since and it's the only anime-based Pokemon game- yeah, it's the only one that went back and redid it based off the show.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:41

Yeah, I wish they would have done more of that, because it would have been interesting.

Mark Trobough: 1:30:47

I believe it's. Was it Platinum, the Gen 4? Yeah, platinum's good too. I mean, it's the only good game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:30:55

Look, I'll be real with you. There isn't any mainline Pokemon game I dislike. Even Scarlet and Violet I still love. There's none of them I dislike.

Mark Trobough: 1:31:04

I hate good childless games, but it's such an unenjoyable playthrough for me. None of them I dislike. It's good childless games, but it's such an unenjoyable playthrough for me.

Brandon Hurles: 1:31:08

It wasn't for me. Once you got past all the issues. Once you got past the issues, I think the core game was fun and it was a new attempt at Pokemon. An open world Pokemon game. That's what I always wanted.

Mark Trobough: 1:31:24

I guess that one would be the Legends I think it does the open world ten times better. It understands. And I guess that one would be the Legends, arceus, which I think does the open world 10 times better it understands the limitation of the hardware.

Mark Trobough: 1:31:32

You still have to go between their piss poor optimization and programming and realize that you need to section off the world if you're going to do that open world, because even that game that the pop in is kind of bad with how close you have to get to Pokemon yeah, legend Arceus is up there for me too.

Brandon Hurles: 1:31:46

Actually, to be honest, I probably swap that with Pokemon Battle Revolution. I love that game too, which is one that nobody talks about that game ever?

Mark Trobough: 1:31:57

Yeah, because I mean and this is my personal opinion everything after Gen 5 is just a steady decline in how good the games are. Really. That's a personal.

Brandon Hurles: 1:32:06

Did you like Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl? I did not care for the Sun and Moon. Did you like Sword and Shield?

Mark Trobough: 1:32:14

I liked it better than Sun and Moon and the Silver, the two games we just got. Ultra.

Brandon Hurles: 1:32:24

Sun and Ultra Moon.

Mark Trobough: 1:32:26

The Gen 7 as a whole.

Brandon Hurles: 1:32:27

Essentially, I like dude.

Mark Trobough: 1:32:30

I also like the different take on if you're going to play that gen I think it's gen 7 just play ultra. Don't even bother with sun and moon, just play the ultra because it's the same game, same story, just the extra content, which.

Brandon Hurles: 1:32:40

I think was a terrible decision on Nintendo's part to do it that way one thing that I always look back at is why did they never do another direct sequel, like they did with Black 2 and White 2? I mean it makes Because it works so well.

Mark Trobough: 1:32:57

Those are beloved games on most people's lists of the number one games. With the amount of complexity the game started to get, especially when they moved into 3D, and probably it just financially wasn't making them as much money as it used to be, to be fair.

Brandon Hurles: 1:33:09

Well, there was no decline in sales until Scarlet Violet. No, as far I mean.

Mark Trobough: 1:33:17

I meant that third game specifically wasn't hitting whatever they wanted to hit financially, or they just decided not to who really knows at the end of the day, or they just didn't want to.

Brandon Hurles: 1:33:26

Who really knows at the end of the day? Yeah, I'm not. It's hard to tell, or they?

Mark Trobough: 1:33:28

just didn't want to throw the development cost into it, Because all the way through the Ultra Sun and Moon are kind of that, but it's.

Brandon Hurles: 1:33:36

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They're kind of Direct Seals, but they're basically the same game. It's like just play those, although if you are doing the complete decks, if I remember correctly, there are Pokemon that you can only get in the base.

Mark Trobough: 1:33:50

Sun and Moon correct that aren't in Ultra. I thought it was the. There's certain Pokemon stuck in the. There are certain legendaries or mythicals I can't remember which one, that are stuck only in the Ultra versions.

Brandon Hurles: 1:33:59

But is there a Pokemon stuck in the base games too?

Mark Trobough: 1:34:03

I don't think so. I think all the same base Pokemon were in all of them. I don't do the national decks.

Brandon Hurles: 1:34:07

But I just, for some reason I thought that if you wanted to complete it you still had to play those games. But I guess to add on to that just to kind of add on to that. What would be your top five Pokemon spinoff games?

Mark Trobough: 1:34:23

The problem is I haven't played a whole five. I can do it easy. The. The problem is I haven't played a whole, I can do it easy, so I'll just go ahead and throw the pinball. You've got the. What's the adventures games. Adventures games Not the adventures games, but the Ranger, no, I didn't play the Ranger. I guess Arceus is the only other spin-off game that I've played.

Brandon Hurles: 1:34:43

So for me, pokemon Battle Revolution I'll just throw that one in there. Pokemon Ranger you can take any of the Pokemon Ranger games, they're all good. Pokemon Stadium 2. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, blue Rescue Team and then, I guess, pokemon Snap. Yeah, probably be my top ones, but I mean, there's a lot of honorable mentions too. There's so many Pokemon games, it's just a lot to go through. Alright, so what are your top gaming anticipations for 2025?

Mark Trobough: 1:35:31

I think there's only four of the announcements that we know. That I think will be on my docket. So obviously it's the Monster Hunter Wilds we're expecting, obviously Prime 4, and then the Legend ZA, and then I guess it's kind of hard to make a list and not have GTA 6 on there as well. It's probably going to win a bunch of awards, and then the Legend ZA, and then I guess it's kind of hard to make a list and not have GTA 6 on there as well. It's probably going to win a bunch of awards and be the biggest game launcher this year.

Brandon Hurles: 1:35:54

Yeah. So I think for me, gta 6, metroid Prime 4, ghost of Yotai, doom of the Dark Ages what else? Let me think? Death Stranding 2? Nah, absolutely not. Walking Simulator 2.0 absolutely not. Those are my tops. I'm really excited for Doom of the Dark Ages. Ghost of Yotai. I loved Ghost of Tsushima, so I'm sure I'm going to like that one too. Monster Hunter Wilds for me as well. I actually didn't know you were even a Monster Hunter fan, to be honest with you.

Mark Trobough: 1:36:31

I've not really played in the game, so this would be the real first proper one I'd get into. I have got the worlds, but I play an hour of it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:36:40

This one's hard because I'm like I don't know if it's going to be good, but I want Borderlands 4 to be good, but Pokemon Legends. Ea is at the top for me because I love Dark Ages so much, at the very tip top, along with Doom Dark Ages. I'm so hyped for Pokemon, legends, ea, I mean, but Ghost of Yotai definitely. Are you excited for Ghost of Yotai?

Mark Trobough: 1:37:06

I'm cautiously optimistic.

Brandon Hurles: 1:37:08

Yeah, I'm. I can't see it going wrong as far as the gameplay goes. Hopefully the DEI stays far away from it. Ghost of Tsushima is just an absolute masterpiece. I've played it twice. Played it on PS4 and PS5. Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic as well, but Pokemon. Legends.

Brandon Hurles: 1:37:34

EA. We've seen so little of it and Arceus was just so good that I have really high hopes for this game, being that it's on the Switch 2 and can handle that, because Legends Arceus wasn't open world, it was open world esque, but you went between areas they could Switch 2 could handle. I mean, obviously Switch 1 could handle it because we got Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Mark Trobough: 1:37:59

Which, if you look at it, it's poorly coded or poorly optimized.

Brandon Hurles: 1:38:03

Something happened along the way.

Mark Trobough: 1:38:04

Gameplay just did not care to fix the problem. They were just like, eh, good enough.

Brandon Hurles: 1:38:07

Yeah, because Scarlet and Violet. There's no reason that that should have happened. When you have Tears of the Kingdom and stuff like that, there's no reason. But Pokemon Legends, ea, take that format of Arceus, make it full open world, and then obviously you've got DLSS involved to upscale everything and look good. That game to upscale everything and look good that game could very well be up there with Game of the Year contender for next year. I think it has a chance.

Mark Trobough: 1:38:35

I think we already know what's GTA 6 is winning Game of the Year.

Brandon Hurles: 1:38:38

Yeah, I know, but I'm just saying it can be a contender. I think that it has the possibility.

Mark Trobough: 1:38:42

It should be, but you can. Already the moment you knew GTA 6 was coming out, you're like if's going to be a big award. If it doesn't get delayed, which is why Nintendo doesn't need any games coming out anywhere near that game.

Brandon Hurles: 1:38:54

Oh, here's another one. I'm an idiot. I completely forgot. Metal Gear Solid, delta, snake Eater, the remake. I forgot about that. I'm excited for that too. Oh yeah, I forgot about that too. Yeah, that's going to be a good one, I'm sure. Death Stranding 2, man, like I, just you can't. I just don't care.

Game Junction: 1:39:14

Oh, another one that I think is going to be a sleeper hit.

Brandon Hurles: 1:39:16

that looked really good. We both thought it looked pretty good. Split Fiction that's one that we're going to have to stream, play together for sure.

Mark Trobough: 1:39:29

Because that looks like a really good game and it's obviously two people. I think we're going to get a bunch more announcements for games coming out, yeah for sure. In the first quarter of 2025 and stuff like that, so there could be better games to come. That's just what we know right now for sure.

Brandon Hurles: 1:39:39

Let me ask you are you going to stream at Metroid Prime 4?

Mark Trobough: 1:39:44

I mean, I probably should.

Brandon Hurles: 1:39:46

I think you should. As much as I love Metroid, I always see you as the Metroid guy, so I'd watch all your streams those games I grew up playing yeah, for sure what's it?

Mark Trobough: 1:39:58

Metroid Prime 1, 2 and then Metroid Fusion. Those were like the three games I played the crap to when I was growing up, didn't? You have Zero Mission too yeah, but I didn't play nearly as much. I don't think I ever properly have Zero Mission too. Yeah, but I didn't play nearly as much Gotcha. I don't think I ever properly beat Zero Mission until like years later.

Brandon Hurles: 1:40:13

Okay, alright, so we got some Godzilla news. What's going on here with Godzilla?

Mark Trobough: 1:40:18

Yeah, so this dropped on the first because it was announced on the first. But as of like two days ago, the official 24-7 Godzilla channel on Pluto TV has gone offline. I don't know if we know why. They just said hey, we're not, it's not a thing anymore. It didn't affect me because I don't have Pluto TV, but obviously, if you did and you're like a huge Godzilla, huge Kaiju fan, this is like a big thing. Yeah, we can just go there and watch a Godzilla movie.

Brandon Hurles: 1:40:45

Pluto TV is free on everything. It's on every smart TV. I would throw it on at night as like my thing to go to sleep, which is really the only way that I was watching it and stuff. It's kind of a bummer. It must mean the viewership dropped down because you can only. They went through the entire catalog pretty much and it just started to repeat over and over and over again. So my assumption is that viewership through the entire catalog pretty much and it just started to repeat over and over and over again. So my assumption is that viewership just dropped down and just canceled. It Just wasn't there. Yeah, because I mean you're repeating the same movies over and over, like you can only do that so much. So yeah, I mean, I guess to be expected, but yeah, we're going to be going through all the Godzilla movies here soon. So we got to figure out like, when are we thinking to record those?

Mark Trobough: 1:41:36

first two episodes We'll have to get on the docket here soon, next week or two.

Brandon Hurles: 1:41:41

Yeah, soon. Yeah, I would say soon. I'd like to drop the first episode this month, I guess, just planning to go ahead and watch the first movie and then we'll make that the first episode back for the first Godzilla movie. So just plan that out. But yeah, that's coming soon, so stay tuned for Culture Junkies. I saw some comments. Where were they at? I've got so many, I've got like 50 tabs up. Where was it? There were some comments about something with oh goodness, I don't know. I saw something about Godzilla.

Mark Trobough: 1:42:19

Yeah, RIP.

Brandon Hurles: 1:42:23

RIP.

Mark Trobough: 1:42:26

Is Godzilla still around?

Brandon Hurles: 1:42:28

Let's see. We got Mr Coffee said rest in peace, godzilla channel on Pluto TV and asked is Dragon Quest a Pokemon game? Well, it was technically Pokemon before Pokemon. So yeah, I mean yeah, pokemon stole the designs. You know, dragon quest monsters basically Said Borderlands. I'm a bit worried about it. Last couple, even the collections were poorly developed and said well, remember, nintendo can release only one or two Zelda games for a console and fans are happy Pokemon. Fans want a new game every year and that doesn't give enough dev time to polish it. What's crazy is that Scarlet, violet and Legends Arceus came out in the same year.

Mark Trobough: 1:43:15

One obviously had far more polish and work put into it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:43:19

Also, I would have to rebuttal on the one or two Zelda games for console, because we got a bunch of Zelda games for the Switch. We got Link's.

Mark Trobough: 1:43:26

Awakening Echo's Wis for console, because we got a bunch of Zelda games. For the Switch, we got mainstream mainline Zelda games. You get a bunch of spin-off games that probably isn't developed directly for Nintendo, not spin-off games, though those are mainline let's be fair. Think of every handheld game. Every game falls into the timeline, but like I didn't know there, was a spinoff Zelda game really. A lot of games. Like any handheld Zelda game, you probably would consider a spinoff game, not a mainline game, to be fair.

Brandon Hurles: 1:43:56

I guess, I don't know.

Mark Trobough: 1:43:58

We have a timeline but a lot of those games don't necessarily. There's like a few hundred years between some of these games.

Brandon Hurles: 1:44:07

Yeah, I guess I kind of get the point there. Okay, so what is? What game are you most embarrassed to like?

Mark Trobough: 1:44:19

This one was actually pretty easy Because I played it on the GameCube and I thought it was still a fun game, even back in the day, because we would have been in middle school At some point that I still played this game. But it's Rugrats. Royal. Ransom on the game. I love the Rugrats video games. It was actually a decently fun quasi open world game. Yeah, I like the Rugrats games.

Brandon Hurles: 1:44:44

I played the new one, played and beat the new one that came out a couple months ago. That was really fun. The 2D side-scroller yeah, but no. Yeah, I had Rugrats on the PS1. We rented it, loved it. Then there was another Rugrats game on the PS1 that we also rented. That I didn't care for, but I liked the one. I think it was just called Rugrats. I called Rugrats, I think. What game? Am I embarrassed? Maybe, I don't know, I guess, maybe.

Mark Trobough: 1:45:20

It's Hello Kitty Island Adventure. I knew it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:45:23

But it is similar to that. I'm trying to remember the exact title it's called like. Disney's. Magical Dang it. I've got the second one on the Switch and the first one on the 3DS. It's like Animal Crossing but it's Disney Magical Adventure. I had to look it up on a Magical Castle Switch. Oh, it's called Disney's Magical Magical Castle Switch. It's called Disney's Magical World, that's what it's called. It's basically an Animal Crossing game with Disney characters. I think it's pretty fun.

Mark Trobough: 1:45:59

You gotta watch out. Mickey Mouse is a psychopath Pretty much, they hide it really well. It's got that game coming out where he kills a bunch of people is a psychopath Pretty much, they hide it really well.

Brandon Hurles: 1:46:07

Yeah, I mean he's got that game coming out where he kills a bunch of people.

Mark Trobough: 1:46:10

I was talking about the South Park iterations of him.

Brandon Hurles: 1:46:17

Do you want to get and jump into the new news? I got to walk away for just a quick second, sorry.

Mark Trobough: 1:46:22

Yeah, we can All right. Oh, it's like the worst time to walk away, I know.

Brandon Hurles: 1:46:26

I'll be hold on.

Mark Trobough: 1:46:29

I guess we're gonna move. Yeah, we're gonna hold off a little bit because we obviously the main thing is we more until we get a proper announcement from Nintendo. Hey, what's your next direct gonna be better, hurry up. There's more, more leaks for the switch to are definitely ramping up all the way around. So the most recent Switch 2 leak has to do with some patent and suggests some AI upscaling technologies potentially being used, which, to be fair, isn't really that much of a jump.

Mark Trobough: 1:47:07

So there was a post over on Reddit about an actual picture of the alleged picture of the actual motherboard from the factory, of what it looks like and stuff like that. I'm not a tech expert. Just looking at it doesn't tell me a whole lot. It's not a uniquely designed motherboard, that's the very least. But obviously certain inputs. You've got the NVIDIA card that they're using. That's in there as well, but it's just one of those.

Mark Trobough: 1:47:31

The more this thing is in development, longer certain more people continue to have access to it and Nintendo waits to announce it, the more you're going to start getting some of these leaks that ideally, nintendo would like to stay ahead of, but because they've taken too long to announce it, you're just going to get more rumors left and right. They're just going to start coming out all over the place, so some of the rumors and stuff like that were. Some of the specs that were mentioned in this rumor were what's it? 12 gigabytes of RAM, up from the four on the original Switch, the 256 gigabytes of internal storage, which is significantly much needed 32 gigs is just not enough as well as a C button on the right Joy-Con. I don't know how much of the leaked stuff that you knew about or you wanted to talk about specifically.

Brandon Hurles: 1:48:19

No, I mean just the motherboard image being there. Yeah, we get kind of a close look at it scanning through. I don't know exactly what I'm looking at. There's some good breakdowns out there about it. They know the physical hardware better, but it does seem to be accurate. It makes sense. The timing is right. It's just around the corner. We expect to see these leaks, like with the PS5 Pro. We knew like six months in advance. It was coming out because of leaks.

Mark Trobough: 1:48:57

Well, the longer Nintendo waits and the more this thing is in production, the more likely there are leaks to come out where people are going to have access to it, which makes me think why are you waiting?

Brandon Hurles: 1:49:10

No seriously. What are they waiting on for more leaks? Like it's almost come to the point. It's like are you leaking these yourself?

Mark Trobough: 1:49:19

Like the Switch. At this point, the Switch is going to get leaked itself properly before you actually come out and say anything about it.

Brandon Hurles: 1:49:25

You had like I mean, the leaks are everywhere, like Mario and Luigi Brothership leaked out like eight weeks early. The game was online. You can play it and download it. Like it's crazy that these leaks are happening so much.

Mark Trobough: 1:49:41

The only thing I think of while they're waiting is they're trying to figure out. They want to figure out where the leaks are coming through. Plug that hole before they move forward with a lot of stuff.

Brandon Hurles: 1:49:49

I mean, if this leak is accurate, it's coming from an assembly line, it's coming from somewhere in some factory warehouse where this is being worked on.

Mark Trobough: 1:50:01

It makes a lot more sense. But it's just one of those things where the longer you wait, the more this stuff is going to start running rampant. Eventually, something big is going to get leaked, You're going to know for sure.

Brandon Hurles: 1:50:10

We pretty much know what the Switch 2 looks like Based on those renders.

Mark Trobough: 1:50:15

Pretty much all the specs what to expect from certain hardware, which happened with the PS5.

Brandon Hurles: 1:50:19

Pro 2. We knew the entire specs of that console way before it came out, and all of them were accurate. I think we're going to know everything about the Switch 2 before it even comes out and Nintendo reveals it, which is crazy. You'd think they would want to jump on top of it and actually reveal it themselves.

Mark Trobough: 1:50:38

Well, jumping on top of it would be not waiting forever to talk about it, that's what I'm saying. Especially when you start having these leaks and stuff come out left and right.

Brandon Hurles: 1:50:46

Why are we still waiting?

Game Junction: 1:50:47

saying like leaks and stuff come out left and right, why, why, why are we still waiting?

Mark Trobough: 1:50:49

like you, you would think that they'd want to be on top of it, because I mean the other problem is you're gonna know three days before nintendo announces because that's how they announce their, their directs it'll be like a sunday and they're gonna like oh hey, this tuesday we're gonna have this direct. Yeah, it's gonna be like some some time where it's just like hey, in two days, good luck, we don't care if you want to try to stream it, or something like that.

Mark Trobough: 1:51:11

My players are going to announce it on a Wednesday at 10 am my time, and I'll be like I can't stream this because I'm going to be at work.

Brandon Hurles: 1:51:20

Yeah, I actually joined the Nintendo Switch to Reddit just to try to stay on top of what's coming out, because there's just so much every week that we got stuff to talk about. But somebody commented below this post said how the F is literally every aspect of this console getting leaked before an announcement for the thing actually happens.

Mark Trobough: 1:51:37

Which I mean is this thing is if the rumors are right, this was in production back in the fall, like it's been in production for months at this point, which means them just waiting forever to announce it is you know, they're digging their own grave with these leaks.

Brandon Hurles: 1:51:52

Essentially, yeah, and these are very detailed pictures. The thing about this, about faking this? Yeah, for sure. The thing about faking this is this costs money. You can't just one-off a motherboard like this. No, but unlike the other one where it was very big blurry far away.

Mark Trobough: 1:52:11

This one's up close and actually getting actual pictures on it. I mean, if somebody faked this, all the more power you take. You put a lot of money into this fake. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Brandon Hurles: 1:52:20

You've got an actual NVIDIA chip on there. You've got money into faking this. So to me, this one. I don't know about you, but this does seem accurate. To me this does seem legitimate and you've got an actual. The crazy thing is, if you look at the third picture and zoom in on it, like zoom in on the actual picture, there's a Switch cartridge in a cartridge slot so it fits the Switch cartridge, so you know that this is an actual thing.

Mark Trobough: 1:52:47

Also, looking at where they've got certain like the ports and stuff like that, or obviously your charging port and stuff like that, the way it's designed looks somewhat realistic than what you'd expect.

Brandon Hurles: 1:52:56

It's got the double USB-C ports, like that was rumored. You've got the one on top one on bottom.

Mark Trobough: 1:53:02

That makes sense. The Switch 1, the OG Switch has USB-C. It's very obvious they're going to stick with that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:53:07

Well, no, I mean the two ports. You got two USB-C ports.

Mark Trobough: 1:53:09

Oh yeah, I mean to be fair. They needed extra ports on the actual console itself, especially if you're trying to play it in, not docked, but you want it standing without a third-party plug-in at the bottom. Yeah, because the only problem with that is, if you want to play it with the stand, you can't charge it at the same time. Right, you can't without having some third-party stand that allows you to plug in from the side.

Brandon Hurles: 1:53:32

Having that additional USB-C port opens up a whole world of possibilities for like accessories and stuff. Yeah, just add-ons in general. So yeah, I mean you've got that actual NVIDIA chip there and so, like I I don't see this. I am noticing, actually, looking in, zooming in real close, there's actually somebody blurred some stuff on the NVIDIA chip If you zoom in on it. There's actually somebody intentionally blurred some stuff on the NVIDIA chip. I'm not sure what they blurred, but you can see it there. There's two spots that are blurred.

Mark Trobough: 1:54:07

That looks like it's like a, that could be like a serial number or something like that. That could be something that could be used to trace it why it was blurred. Because, a lot of stuff is properly numbered and they know what stuff was ran through what assembly line or something like that. If that is what was blurred out, that's why it was blurred out, to make it harder to trace back to who it was. Some numbers on some hardware. It's the same across the board. It's just a.

Brandon Hurles: 1:54:32

Well, that's what I would think. It would be the same on every chip.

Mark Trobough: 1:54:37

If it's a serial number that's unique to that specific chip. Each chip is going to have its own serial number and stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:54:42

What I want to know is how. I mean, if it's in the factory, then obviously it's. It's easily accessible. Somebody just got to walk away and take pictures real quick and then put it back.

Mark Trobough: 1:54:52

That's all it takes not the easiest, but it's possible yeah it's very possible because happened with the ps5 pro happened.

Brandon Hurles: 1:54:59

I don't know if you remember, but the the there are a bunch of accurate uh weeks for the ps5 when it came out and like yeah, a bunch of leaks came out about all the specs. They were accurate. The specs were accurate for the PS5 Pro. This stuff is just coming out early. People know that they can get some clout or whatever by posting this stuff. I always wonder what are you getting out of leaking this out? But I guess it's just clout Fake internet cl cloud points. Yeah, apparently I don't know.

Mark Trobough: 1:55:31

Or they're like oh well, nintendo won't announce it, I will myself, I mean you forget about the person one week later.

Brandon Hurles: 1:55:37

So I don't get the point. But it is interesting and gives us something to talk about. But one thing I noticed if you look at the picture with the Nintendo Switch cart in, if you zoom in on it, you can see where there's a little notch to the left where potentially the Switch 2 cart might do what the 3DS cart did where it had a tab on it, so it doesn't fit into a DS. They might be doing the same sort of thing for the Switch 2.

Mark Trobough: 1:56:10

To prevent the backwards. That would make sense.

Brandon Hurles: 1:56:14

There's a little space there where that cart could be.

Mark Trobough: 1:56:19

I think you'd need to for games. That would only be for the Switch 2. You don't want people to plug it into a Switch, it just not works.

Mark Trobough: 1:56:26

My guess is they're going to do the little tab thing where it prevents it from going into the switch it's a pretty simple, simple thing to do, yeah, yeah, I mean, it's just a little piece of plastic, that's all it is there's nothing like the let's the switch cartridge in, but it but the switch to only goes into this one specifically, just the way that the cart is designed right yeah, which makes sense, makes total sense there uh, they like that. They have plenty of practice with that with their handhelds.

Brandon Hurles: 1:56:50

Yeah, for sure. So it looks like the last thing that we got is a rumor.

Mark Trobough: 1:56:56

Yeah, so this is a rumor that specifically, breath of the Wild may potentially get a Switch 2 upgrade. So this game specifically will get like what they're doing with the PS5 Pro. Certain games are getting upgrades for the actual hardware. There's rumors that Breath of the Wild will specifically have a Switch 2 upgrade and since it'll look better and play better on the Switch 2.

Brandon Hurles: 1:57:19

Man, I really hope they do this for Tears of the Kingdom, because I haven't beat it yet and I would love to have an upgrade for that. It seems weird to only do it for Breath of the Wild.

Mark Trobough: 1:57:30

It also could be. It's easier for an older like this could be like potentially a tech demo they were doing, whether it actually gets released or not. But if, like, if this is an actual, true thing, I imagine a lot of first-party Nintendo games you know, zelda games, mario games and stuff like that will get the same treatment for the Switch too. Yeah, and if they're going to do this, it would make more sense that it's the same cartridge but when you plug it in you get some kind of download that then upgrades it for the Switch 2. Yeah, that would make the most sense for me and be the most financially viable than just reprinting cartridges with a slight upgrade on them. Yeah, this could also just be a rumor they were just using they could have just been using breath of wild as like a tech demo for the new hardware because there was rumors about that.

Brandon Hurles: 1:58:13

There was a 4k breath of the wild out there where they were showcasing it on the the switch switch to the show what it was capable of doing. Um, so yeah, I mean, I, I could see that. Do you think it's possible that we get that games get upscaled like Switch 1, games get upscaled on the Switch 2, or do you think they're just going to play like they normally would on Switch 1?

Mark Trobough: 1:58:38

If they do, or could it be like?

Brandon Hurles: 1:58:40

sporadic, if it gets patches or something like that.

Mark Trobough: 1:58:44

I think it's up to the game developer. I mean, obviously all the games would look and play better just having better hardware. As far as actual proper upgrades, that's going to be up to what Nintendo wants to do and what studios they want to do it with. To be fair, yeah, it obviously requires the developer going back and doing extra work with the game and stuff like that. Right, I'm sure some games might get it Like first-party Nintendo work with the game and stuff like that. I'm sure some games might get it. First party Nintendo games would be the first, like a Zelda or a Mario would make the most sense to get it first. But I mean, at the end of the day, you hope to see it but it's kind of hard to know I'm trying to pull some stuff up.

Brandon Hurles: 1:59:21

Are you able to check some of the comments, see if we got any comments? I'm trying to pull this up here real quick, yeah.

Mark Trobough: 1:59:29

What's the other one? Mr Goff said Nintendo Ahab scaling over PSSR. Joshua over on the Facebook said what's up? Y'all, mr Goff, or if you're getting all the leaks when Nintendo was gearing up to announce the Switch and all the leaks were wrong every time? I don't know. I have to talk to you.

Mark Trobough: 1:59:50

I wasn't paying attention to the Switch announcement so I do not know for sure. I'd have to double check with Brad on that one, unless someone has an actual board on hand. But it's easy to generate and create anything through Unreal. It could be fake for all we know. But yeah, I mean take it with a grain of salt, because it's not like every single leak that you get is always wrong. Some of them are accurate, so it's always a possibility.

Mark Trobough: 2:00:15

Oh gosh, would I miss the Pokemon stuff? Yeah, it was like right before we got into the Switch stuff, we were talking about Pokemon for a little bit. So, yeah, I guess it comes down to. I mean, you have, it's a leak, so you always take it with a grain of salt, but it's it's kind of hard to tell, obviously once the actual announcement comes out. Some of these leaks are going to be wrong and some are going to be right, yeah, it's just you'd have to go back and double check and see for sure yeah, for sure I mean until the actual switch is announced, you're going to have people.

Mark Trobough: 2:00:43

You have good and bad leaks all over the place, people you know making rumors on stuff left and right. It's just kind of hard to avoid, especially when there's so much anticipation. At this point, everyone's just like why is it not announced yet? At this point I mean to be fair, based off their original timeline, you have until March to announce it. In the next three months they're going to announce it by you in the next three months. They're gonna announce it by March. When are they gonna announce it? Are they really gonna wait till March to announce this thing and they announce it in March? You just feel like a fall release is a August-September release. Windows are realistic at that point. That's how I look at it.

Brandon Hurles: 2:01:19

Yeah, I wonder one thing I was wondering do you think that they'll do any bring over, Because they could essentially sell? I've heard a couple of things. I've heard that one Breath of the Wild will get a patched version that's free for Switch 2, but then I've also heard that they'll bring it over as a new game in 4K, Like release it as its own thing.

Mark Trobough: 2:01:52

I think they could probably do it both ways. I would believe, the more the free update making a lot more sense than rebuying a game just to have it look better, yeah, and then be easier to sell For sure. Especially like if you're trying to get people to buy the switch to, why force them to buy a new game when it's just like, oh well, you know, here's a free upgrade. If you buy the switch to, essentially as a way to incentivize sales, for the switch to essentially did you say Joshua was in here?

Mark Trobough: 2:02:25

yeah, restream was bringing him his comments over from via facebook. Oh gotcha, okay cool, all right.

Brandon Hurles: 2:02:32

Um, let's see. Did we miss any comments? Oh, we got a super chat. Uh, palmer froggy guy said will you buy switch one day, one to cover on the? I think they meant switch to to cover on channel.

Game Junction: 2:02:47

I mean I, I know, I am for sure, I think you're.

Mark Trobough: 2:02:50

I'm assuming you can get your hands on it. Yeah, we can get our hands on it, that's a no-brainer.

Brandon Hurles: 2:02:53

Yeah, we can get our hands on it. We'll have to see. I mean, that's a whole video in and of itself.

Brandon Hurles: 2:02:58

Yeah, it really is. I mean, supposedly, you know the delay may be that they're ramping up production so that that doesn't happen. But yeah, I guess you know we'll, we'll have to see what, what happens, but I'll definitely be trying. I know you'll be trying, so we'll, we'll see whoever. I guess whoever gets a first can do a video, even just, you know, an unboxing video, and then do an impressions video or something like that I mean.

Mark Trobough: 2:03:23

I definitely appreciate the super chat. For sure, yeah, for sure. And then we got Joshua said Sorry, I just wanted to shout it out. It was the official. The very first super chat on Game Junction over on the YouTube.

Brandon Hurles: 2:03:36

Oh, we got a super chat yesterday, I think. When it says one, that means it's their first super chat.

Mark Trobough: 2:03:43

Oh sorry, at the very least that was Palmer's first super chat.

Brandon Hurles: 2:03:49

Well, it's the first one that I've seen, so it was the first of me. We got Joshua saying over there on Facebook he said and try to join podcast lives more had some stuff happening that had me different and holidays had me also busy. Hours-long video on it. And Mr Coffee said I can't wait to snatch an OLED Switch for $100. Yeah, hopefully I'm sure prices will drop on those and stuff like that, even for like a lightly used one.

Mark Trobough: 2:04:13

At the very least, you'll probably find one pretty cheap once the Switch 2 comes out.

Brandon Hurles: 2:04:16

The Switch OLED is awesome. I mean OLED screens. I don't know what your experience is with OLED, but I've got two OLED monitors Now because of the Switch OLED, I fell in love with OLED so much that I got two OLED monitors. I mean just, it's like a night and day difference from LCD. So I'm a big fan. But did you have anything else you wanted to bring up?

Mark Trobough: 2:04:40

No, I think that we pretty much hit most everything else, and we're right around. We're just over two hours, so Alright, well, we've got. I guess that half hour of the 20 minute tangent we went on worked out perfectly. What were we talking about?

Brandon Hurles: 2:04:55

Nothing military stuff.

Mark Trobough: 2:04:57

Oh man yeah for sure I don't remember how we went down that rabbit hole. It was a thing I don't remember either but hey, that's what happens.

Brandon Hurles: 2:05:04

That's the good stuff with the podcast. Yeah, it is good stuff we have got got for people watching live. Sorry, audio listeners. We are live every Saturday at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time streaming a different game every week, so this week we are streaming Warhammer right.

Mark Trobough: 2:05:24

Or did we just Okay, we are streaming Warhammer yeah pretty sure you can wait for it before you get the game.

Brandon Hurles: 2:05:28

Okay, cool. So we're streaming Warhammer Space Marine 2. And then I think next week we're going to try to do the community stream. I think we'll probably just roll for the first one with Marvel Rivals, just because it was brought up yesterday. It was brought up before when you were streaming, it was brought up before when you were streaming and it's free to play, so it's just easily accessible. So I think we'll do that first. But I think we have in the books that we're going to do Smash Bros, mario Kart, call of Duty.

Brandon Hurles: 2:05:58

You're reluctant on Fortnite, but I'm just trying to think of games that everybody can play. That's easy for everybody. So if you got any suggestions, let us know. We're definitely open to suggestions for community streams. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff that we don't know about, so definitely let us know on that. And then Sunday we've got the Anime Junction cast dropping, which will be recording tomorrow. We've got to get ahead on that again, by the way, because I was worried last week with what happened. I didn't know if I was going to make it in time. I was like we were ahead on that and then we quickly got not ahead. What was it again? Sorry, no, we need to get ahead on recording those again, like be a few episodes ahead in case emergencies like that happen, because I almost didn't think I was going to make it in time to record and we were like three episodes ahead and now we're not ahead at all.

Mark Trobough: 2:06:50

We were never more than one episode ahead.

Brandon Hurles: 2:06:52

Yes, we were.

Mark Trobough: 2:06:53

I mean, I intentionally brought us back to the same week.

Brandon Hurles: 2:06:54

No, we started when we started, we were ahead.

Mark Trobough: 2:06:58

But I mean, the nature of what we're trying to do is kind of hard to get ahead and stuff like that.

Brandon Hurles: 2:07:03

Not really, because we watch. How long is it going to take you to watch Gundam? It's going to take a little bit.

Mark Trobough: 2:07:12

I'm just saying the amount of time it takes to watch some of these shows the way we've been doing it. I'm content with the way it's going right now.

Brandon Hurles: 2:07:18

Yeah, as long as stuff doesn't come up, things happen. But yeah, we got that dropping sometime on Sunday. And then, of course, for our audio listeners, we are live on YouTube and Twitch every Friday at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time with the podcast. Definitely, come hang out with us live. It's a lot of fun. Go on random tangents, you can hang out with us in the comments and then anything else to add. Mark.

Mark Trobough: 2:07:48

No, I think that's everything.

Brandon Hurles: 2:07:49

Alright. Well, we appreciate everybody watching. Thanks again, and we'll be back live again tomorrow. We'll see you all later. Peace out, everybody. See you tomorrow.