0:07

What's up everybody. Welcome

0:10

to the kind of funny games cast for

0:12

Wednesday, May 15th, 2024.

0:14

I'm going to be your host, Greg

0:17

Miller, alongside the best voice in the

0:19

business wearing a great looking shirt. If

0:21

I do say so myself, Paris Lilly,

0:24

are you doing Greg? I'm great. We're wearing the X cast. We're

0:26

finding the X cast colors. You know how it is around here.

0:29

It's always good to hang out with you, Paris. And I've

0:31

been able to do it so much more now with these

0:33

daily games casts. It makes me happy. It

0:35

makes me happy too. I mean, you know,

0:38

change is always difficult, but

0:40

now that we're in the change, I

0:42

get it. I totally get it. I love

0:44

it. And I'm on a lot more so

0:46

I can't complain. And today, of course, a

0:48

very special episode of the games cast. We

0:51

are joined by none other than Dom Matthews,

0:53

the studio head at Ninja theory. Hello, Dom.

0:56

Hey, hi. I didn't get the memo about the T shirt

0:58

by the way. So now, well, you

1:00

know, this is a collector's items. Now you can't even

1:02

buy the X cast shirt anymore. We got them right

1:04

off the store. Dom, how are you doing? Yeah,

1:07

I'm really good. Thank you. Really good. Thank you. Shout

1:09

out to you for having, it

1:11

looks like we're watching the X box developer direct

1:13

like this is the same camera and shot and

1:15

everything we've seen you talk every time you've talked

1:17

from Ninja theory dynamite setup. Yeah,

1:20

I do. I do all of my calls like this anyway.

1:23

I do it. It's people on these zooms. Everybody

1:26

else got their air pods in there. You're just sitting there like in

1:28

the most professional set up of all time. I love

1:30

it. Dom. I want to get right into

1:32

it with you because we only have you now for like

1:34

25 minutes. So let me real quick just say thank you

1:36

to our patreon producers, Delaney twining, Karen, Hova, Sapien and Carl

1:39

Jacobs. Of course, we're brought to you by the kind of

1:41

funny membership, but I'll tell you about that later. Dom

1:44

congratulations. I mean, for two reasons,

1:47

I think obviously we are less

1:49

than a week from

1:51

the next installment of hell blade

1:53

when we get a Senua saga

1:55

hell blade too, but also congratulations

1:57

on nearly 14 years at

1:59

Ninja. That that is in

2:01

dog years like that's no that doesn't

2:03

happen anymore in video games. So congratulations

2:06

twofold Yeah,

2:08

thank you. There's actually a lot of people here that have been here

2:10

longer than me actually I think our longest serving member of the team

2:12

is 22 years,

2:14

so I'm kind of one of the more junior I was

2:16

gonna say that it's hold it over your head all the time

2:18

I'm like, you might be studio head, but I

2:21

know really what it's like here. Uh Dom

2:24

talk to me in Paris. You are less

2:26

than one week Just mere days

2:28

from Hellblade to being released on the world. What

2:30

is the feeling right now in did you theory?

2:34

I really good actually like we're super proud of the

2:36

game that we've made There's

2:38

a good buzz in the team You know It's a

2:40

lot of hard work that goes into making a game

2:42

and there's a real push into the end to get

2:45

things finished and in the world

2:47

of digital distribution now You

2:49

know work goes right up until quite close to

2:51

when you launch but people are that done with

2:53

the game now Feeling really proud.

2:55

So there's a good buzz around the place And

2:57

we'll just kind of anticipating next Tuesday when we

2:59

when we launch and we can enjoy that game

3:01

that day together When you say, you

3:04

know digital distribution on this is like is it actually done

3:06

or is are we already working on a 1.0 patch? Are

3:08

we doing like day one things? Are you actually taking

3:10

a breath and enjoying that you cross the finish line?

3:13

We are done done. Like you know, there might be

3:15

things that we might want to look at Once

3:19

the game is released But we are

3:21

we are done done and we're really proud of

3:23

it. Like we're we're super happy with

3:25

it You know, we spent a long time working

3:27

on this game Yeah rating making it as great

3:30

as possible for the fans and yeah Really pleased

3:32

with how it turned out if you're not paying

3:34

close enough attention Ladies and gentlemen, Hellblade send you

3:36

a sacrifice released August 8th Seven

3:40

years that's been a long time to work

3:43

on this game Was it right in to

3:45

Hellblade 2 was there did you do I

3:47

kick around other ideas and then come back

3:49

to it eventually? Let alone let's not gloss

3:51

over game comes out in 2017 You're

3:54

bought by Xbox in 2018 and then

3:56

of course reveal in 2019 at the

3:58

game awards alongside the Xbox Like

4:00

it's been seven years, but you haven't

4:02

been quiet now Yeah,

4:05

and we haven't been working on the game. You

4:07

know fully for seven years. We released bleeding

4:09

edge in Of course,

4:12

so we didn't get straight back Straight

4:14

into into hellblade 2 after hellblade center was

4:16

sacrificed. There was a lot of stuff going

4:18

on. So Yeah, it's been

4:20

seven years since the last game But we've been

4:23

working on this for the less less time than

4:25

that for sure and when we announced it in

4:27

2019 We had

4:29

that trailer but you know, that was really there's

4:31

that we had if the game So

4:36

no pressure Yeah, it's funny

4:38

that you bring up the 2019 reveal

4:41

for for a cinema saga What saga because

4:43

that was I never played hellblade before that

4:46

and that was my oh wait the coming

4:48

out with a sequel Maybe

4:50

I should go check this out and then you

4:52

know shortly after that there was this thing called

4:54

a global pandemic So I had plenty of time

4:56

on my hands, but I remember

4:58

saying hey I'm going to start playing

5:00

hellblade and everybody was reaching out you

5:03

gotta wear headphones You need to wear

5:05

headphones to experience this I was like,

5:07

okay And I was just treated to

5:09

this audio showcase that I was simply

5:12

not expecting So as we go into

5:14

center with saga saga, I always screwed

5:16

up and keep saying sacrifice with saga,

5:18

but saga What

5:21

can we expect from the audio? Is it more

5:23

of the same question made some some some Improvements

5:26

as we go into saga. I'm very curious

5:29

Yeah, it's definitely an experience you

5:31

want to have wearing headphones again.

5:33

Like that's a my

5:37

number one tip Today

5:40

is where headphones for hellblade to yeah we've really

5:42

lent into the things that we did in in

5:45

hellblade center was sacrifice that Special

5:48

audio experience that we developed through

5:51

the use of binaural audio So

5:54

we record all of the voices that sent away his

5:56

through this special microphone that shaped like an

5:58

actual head so that it hears

6:00

the sound like we as humans hear it, so that

6:03

when you listen back to it on headphones, you

6:05

hear those voices in the world around you. And

6:08

we've done a lot with spatial audio, with

6:11

new technology that allows us

6:13

to have those sounds function

6:15

in the world around you

6:19

in the way that they do in real life.

6:21

So bouncing around and being absorbed by different materials,

6:24

those kind of things. And there's a lot more detail

6:26

there. We have tens

6:29

of thousands of audio assets in the game

6:32

from huge

6:35

amounts of Foley in there, hundreds

6:37

of different types of things. So audio

6:39

is a big part of the journey, big part of the

6:41

experience. And I think if you enjoyed the audio

6:43

in Hellblade 1, then Hellblade 2 will be a

6:46

treat for you for sure. Yeah,

6:48

I absolutely just, the

6:50

voices, everything you did with the audio

6:52

was fantastic. That actually, excuse

6:54

me, leads me into my next question,

6:57

because Greg and I kind of did a

6:59

re-review of Sacrifice last week. And

7:01

the one thing that we pretty much

7:03

agreed on was the combat, that I

7:05

thought it was, okay,

7:09

it was good enough in

7:11

Sacrifice. But as we go

7:13

into Saga, what can

7:15

we expect from a combat standpoint?

7:17

Are we going to see vast

7:19

improvements there? Because over the past

7:22

few years, people have been

7:24

wanting to see more information about the game, and combat

7:26

has been the number one question. So what can we

7:28

expect from combat? The

7:30

big thing with combat in Hellblade 2 is

7:33

that right at the beginning of the project, we

7:36

wanted to focus on how can

7:38

we make each of the combat encounters,

7:40

each of the battles, feel

7:43

like part of the overall story and part

7:45

of the narrative. Every time

7:47

you face an enemy, it's part

7:49

of her journey, part of the

7:52

narrative. The other big change, I

7:54

think, is the, in

7:56

pursuit of making it feel as immersive and as

7:58

visceral as it can be. are all as

8:01

brutal as possible. Every

8:04

movement in the game is based in performance capture.

8:06

So on Hellblade 1, our

8:09

combat in that game, we took

8:11

two days to shoot all of the performance

8:14

capture for that combat. In Hellblade

8:16

2, we spent 69 days

8:18

capturing all of the combat movements and

8:20

animation of the game. So

8:23

really what we've changed, and we've built the combat

8:25

from the ground up for Hellblade 2,

8:28

is that everything in the game, the combat

8:30

and really everything in terms of what we're

8:32

doing with gameplay and audio and visuals is

8:35

in service of Senua's story. Is

8:37

that the same for puzzles? Obviously that

8:40

was a big part of the first game, walking around matching

8:42

glyphs, trying to figure out how to get from one point

8:44

to the other, figure out where the other thing is. Is

8:47

it the same idea that you took that because it worked

8:49

and you guys liked it and have expanded upon it? Yeah,

8:53

again, it's how can

8:55

we use interesting gameplay mechanics to

8:57

move the story forward, to

9:00

give the player a particular feeling? So yeah,

9:02

we have combat, obviously I've talked about, we

9:04

have our puzzles in the game as well,

9:07

but all of those puzzles really

9:09

start in Senua's

9:11

experiences of psychosis and how

9:13

he experiences the world differently.

9:16

So we've spent time talking to people

9:18

with lived experience of psychosis, experts

9:20

with neuroscience, understand what it

9:22

can be like to live day to day with

9:24

psychosis and that's really helped to feed

9:27

into things like the

9:29

puzzles in the game and engaging,

9:33

compelling in their own right, that they're part

9:35

of that journey that Senua was on that's

9:37

led by her experiences of

9:39

mental health. Paris,

9:42

I know you wanted to talk about this in

9:44

the psychosis and stuff and obviously Dom, that

9:47

was what I think was such the breakout

9:49

narrative in 2017 when

9:52

this game dropped is that you and the

9:54

team were tackling this in such a serious

9:56

way. I assume you've

9:58

only doubled down on that coming in. Hellblade 2,

10:00

correct? I know there's this panel but it just went

10:02

up not too long ago on YouTube with you and

10:04

Cambridge talking about it, right? Yeah,

10:07

we've got some incredible partners on

10:09

the mental health side, Professor Paul

10:11

Fletcher from the University of Cambridge

10:13

who I first reached out to 10

10:16

years ago now, the Hellblade 1, and a

10:20

group from a local recovery college who

10:22

have lived experience of psychosis and you

10:24

know we're certainly not complacent about what we

10:27

learned on Hellblade 1 in terms of representing

10:29

these types of experiences and like you say,

10:32

we've doubled down, we've worked with them very

10:34

closely, met with them throughout development, tried things

10:36

out, had them listen to the voices, see

10:38

the visual representations of visions.

10:42

It's been really great to go throughout the journey. Next

10:44

Tuesday when we get together as

10:46

a team on our launch day in our studio here it's

10:48

going to be really cool to have Paul

10:50

and other people come together and celebrate that with us

10:52

because I think they feel just as proud of the

10:54

project as we do. You

10:57

know I want to jump a little bit into the technical

10:59

side of the game. You

11:02

briefly touched on some of the performance capture

11:04

that you've done which has looked phenomenal and

11:06

I think we've thought since 2019

11:08

that Hellblade 2 is just going to be

11:11

a visual showcase. What has

11:13

it been like working with Unreal 5 because

11:15

you are one of the early games that

11:17

are coming out here on Unreal 5? So

11:19

what has that process been like over the

11:21

past few years? Yeah, really

11:23

great. Unreal 5's a great engine. We've worked with

11:25

Unreal for a long time and with

11:29

our friends at Epic. It's been really good.

11:32

What Unreal does is allows creative people to

11:34

be creative and that's to call this thing.

11:36

So when we're using technology like Nanite now

11:38

in our environment, it just

11:40

allows our artists to do so much

11:43

more. And our focus on Hellblade 2

11:45

has been on

11:47

how can we take ground truth reference

11:49

from the real world and

11:51

translate that into the game. So Unreal Engine

11:53

allows us to do things like take real

11:56

world locations in Iceland, take

11:58

satellite data and photograph it. data

12:01

and to bring that into the game world

12:03

so that our world feels very believable,

12:05

same with characters, same with costumes. So we've

12:07

built actual real world costumes

12:09

for our characters by

12:12

costume designers and then being able

12:14

to scan those and translate those into

12:16

the game as well. So what

12:19

Unreal Engine 5 can do now is really fantastic, but

12:21

it gives our team, it's quite a small team really,

12:23

we have about 80 people working on the

12:25

game. It allows them

12:27

to do so much more. And

12:29

like you say, our aim is to

12:32

make an immersive experience and

12:35

it's a game that looks great and

12:37

sounds great, but really all of that

12:39

is in service of the immersion and

12:42

Unreal Engine is definitely a huge part of that. Let

12:44

me talk on that thread for a second. You talk about being a

12:46

small studio, 80 people. What

12:49

is it like when Xbox,

12:52

your new boss for

12:54

a year is like, hey, guess

12:56

what? We're going to debut the

12:59

Series X at Game Awards and

13:01

you and Senua are going to

13:03

be the centerpiece of it. Is

13:05

that like, is there a moment of oh shit?

13:07

Or are you super excited and you're just on the

13:09

ride? Yeah, like

13:12

we really wanted to do that actually. We kind

13:14

of pushed to

13:16

do that because we were excited about the

13:19

creative idea that we had around that.

13:21

So it's great. The

13:25

thing I think about every day when I wake up in the morning

13:27

is like, how can we make a great game and

13:29

how can I help the really

13:32

wonderful people here get their game played by

13:34

as many people as

13:36

possible? So moments like that, yeah,

13:38

they're scary, but it's kind of

13:40

like a mini game in itself in terms of the

13:42

development of those things. So

13:44

yeah, scary, but you have to take

13:46

those opportunities, right? Because it's a platform

13:48

on a stage that other people don't

13:51

have the luxury of having their game

13:53

on. For sure. Yeah.

13:56

A thousand percent. I remember if you're watching live right now,

13:58

ladies and gentlemen, you can super chat to be part of

14:00

the show. Ask your own questions to Dom just like Nigel

14:02

Martin 35 did who says

14:04

the bass heavy scare atmospheric music

14:06

period is it returning? Yeah,

14:10

I mean we've done a lot with the atmosphere in

14:12

the game, you know What

14:15

we do with music our audio director

14:17

is Davie gazare. Garcia is Incredible.

14:19

So I think it's a

14:22

really fantastic soundtrack and yeah, Pro-Tiff

14:24

wear headphones. It sounds even better Push

14:27

these headphones. I love it You

14:30

know, I always am interested to hear about The

14:33

idea and the formation of all right. This

14:35

is going to be the next project for

14:37

any studio For a ninja

14:39

theory coming off the success of hell blade and like you said

14:41

working on bleeding edge in there and everything else Was

14:44

it a foregone conclusion that there would be a help

14:46

late to was it you all getting together? I'm like

14:49

we have more stories to tell like obviously hell blade

14:51

one ends in such a dynamite fashion Right of looking

14:53

at the camera and be like follow her. She has

14:55

more to say like that's awesome. But like was the

14:58

plan? Yeah, we're gonna go straight off to this or

15:00

was there like maybe we should leave that and that's

15:02

just what it is It's

15:05

yeah, we we we knew then that if

15:07

we had the opportunity to Continue

15:10

Santa was story then we would we would love

15:12

to but I think whenever you

15:14

make a game like like hell blade center was sacrificed

15:18

You're so focused on that first game. You

15:20

want to leave the opportunity open to do more

15:22

but You know, we didn't

15:24

know whether we would get that chance, you know, we were

15:26

independent studio We didn't know

15:28

if that opportunity would come along and you know, luckily it did

15:30

and we could we could continue our journey Understand

15:33

okay Paris

15:37

so I have to jump back. I'm gonna say I

15:39

see you your lips are moving. What do you gotta say

15:41

Paris? I guess I'm the technical

15:43

guy in this this interview. So You

15:46

know over the past few weeks you've started to release

15:48

some of the details We've seen some

15:50

of the specs that are going to be on

15:52

the console and with your locking it down to

15:54

30 frames per second There's gonna be a letterbox

15:56

mode things like that, but I am more interested

15:58

in on the PC You've talked about

16:01

photo mode. We've seen some of the

16:03

specs but is there anything in particular?

16:06

Yeah. Thank you, Greg On

16:11

PC that they should be expecting for for

16:13

help late too because obviously You're

16:15

not gonna be you know, you're gonna be able

16:18

to go beyond 30 frames per second I'm assuming

16:20

there's ultra wide mode things of that nature. Is

16:22

there anything specific on the PC side that players

16:24

should know? No,

16:27

I don't think so. I think it's a visual

16:29

showcase like I feel really proud

16:31

of that and And

16:35

I think photo mode is really interesting like the photo mode

16:37

we have in the game is is really

16:39

cool It's fully fully featured.

16:42

I was taking some screenshots at the weekend and

16:44

it's so easy to sink hours

16:47

and hours Into

16:49

that thing. So yeah, like we we I

16:51

help made one was we had a lot

16:54

of fans on PC so,

16:56

you know, we've worked hard again to make sure that the PC

16:58

version of the game gives people

17:01

a really great experience across in a range

17:03

of different a range of different setups and

17:05

You mentioned ultra wide as well. I've been looking at

17:07

that in the studio and it looks Looks

17:10

like so good on an ultra wide monitor.

17:13

I got another super chat here This one comes from

17:15

Cooper who's asking for somebody who asked it in a

17:17

regular chat. Does this support Dolby

17:19

Atmos? We're talking a lot about headphones. We're talking

17:21

a lot about sound. Is that something you guys double

17:23

down on? Yes, yes,

17:25

both suppose Dolby Atmos. Yeah, perfect. There

17:27

you go Cooper. That's how easy. Yeah Dom

17:30

we are already running out of time with you

17:33

So I want to ask two questions not specifically

17:35

help blade related but kind of help later related

17:37

and then also Xbox related and I'm sure you

17:39

can guess where some of them are going the

17:42

first and foremost being I've seen you go through the chat

17:44

a couple of different times and it's something we've talked about on

17:46

these Shows because we are proponents of games.

17:48

We are proponent of hell blade We you talked about

17:50

it yourself of what a big deal it was to

17:52

get that opportunity on the game awards stage Get

17:55

that in front of as many people and it's something

17:57

you think about it. How can you get so many

17:59

people to play this? game. What

18:01

has your response been to us on these

18:03

shows, the audience out there saying where's the

18:05

marketing for Hellblade 2? I

18:09

mean my response to that is that I'm

18:12

just super focused on Tuesday

18:14

like the last couple of weeks I

18:17

mean I've been just a push into

18:19

getting the game done get

18:21

the game completed make sure that it's going to be

18:23

as good as it can be make

18:26

sure the team are feeling feeling good about that and

18:28

then we go into Tuesday so honestly like my

18:31

focus has just been heads down let's get this

18:33

done and you know I've

18:36

always believed that games

18:40

can be art and you can take

18:42

creative risks and if you make something

18:44

that's compelling people are going

18:46

to want to play it and people are going to want

18:48

to enjoy it so you know I maintain that belief. For

18:51

sure and I think that's been one of the

18:53

conversations we've had as we've tried to Monday morning

18:56

quarterback the situation of well why aren't there more

18:58

commercials why isn't it during an NBA game it

19:00

is the belief of hopefully it's that the game

19:02

speaks for itself like again the original Hellblade this

19:04

breakout success was led by the fact not of

19:06

commercials and trailers right Paris it was by the

19:08

fact this is going to be special. If

19:12

I could jump in because I before I forget this

19:14

and I know we're running out of time because game

19:16

length you

19:19

come out and talked about the game length

19:21

is going to be similar to the first

19:23

Hellblade was there any consideration at all as

19:25

you were crafting this game like hey we

19:27

need to make it longer do we need

19:29

to extend it give more of

19:31

this story or like let's just tell the story

19:34

that we're trying to tell wherever we land as

19:36

far as length is just where we land. Yeah

19:39

and that that's really like I don't I don't really remember

19:41

sitting down and saying we need to make this longer

19:44

you know the way we approach it is what's the

19:46

story that we want to tell what journey we want

19:48

to take players on and then the length of that

19:50

is the length that it should be and I

19:53

think that's one of the really cool things about games now

19:55

is that you've got games that are amazing

19:58

games that are two hours long you've got a amazing games

20:00

are a thousand hours long, right? And so

20:03

I think games can be all different shapes

20:05

and sizes. And that's really awesome for the

20:07

industry. And our game happens to be the

20:09

length it is. And we focus on making

20:11

a really compelling journey. And the length that

20:13

that is is the length it is. And

20:17

then my second unfun question that I'm

20:19

sure you're expecting is the elephant in

20:21

the room that it's been a rough

20:23

week for Xbox, right? Three studio closures,

20:25

one studio absorbed into another. When

20:27

this happened and people were talking about

20:29

Tango, talking about Hi-Fi Rush, a lot

20:31

of conversation, us included, then turned to

20:34

Ninja Theory and Hellblade 2. What

20:37

was your reaction to the

20:39

closure? Is Ninja Theory, is

20:41

that a conversation happening around? Is there

20:43

a concern with the developers? Hi,

20:48

our team are feeling really good about the game. I

20:51

feel super proud of it. Making games

20:53

is really, really hard. And it

20:56

takes a lot. Out of people. It's

20:59

a really hard thing. And I think it's a really brave thing as well, to

21:02

just like you guys, right? You're putting yourselves

21:04

out there and you're putting your art

21:06

and your creative out there. And we're doing

21:08

the same thing. And my job,

21:10

like I say, is to make the very, very

21:13

best games that we can. We

21:15

have a pretty small team here. We're a close team. And

21:18

we're just excited about getting our work

21:20

out there to fans. Fans of Hellblade,

21:22

fans of games like Hellblade. So that's

21:25

really the focus. So the vibe

21:27

here is good. We feel confident

21:30

and proud of the game that we've made. Well,

21:32

of course, we won't have to wait long. May 21st

21:34

is next week. We can't wait

21:37

to dig in. Nico has a super

21:39

chat and says, how has Xbox helped Ninja Theory

21:41

on the journey to Hellblade 2 and taking it

21:43

to the next level? Has that

21:45

been something you've thought about and noticed?

21:47

You mentioned earlier, right? Hellblade 1, independent

21:49

studio trying to make it work. Not

21:51

even sure you'd get another shot at

21:53

it. Hellblade 2, the centerpiece debut of

21:55

the Xbox Series X. Like there's a

21:57

little bit more gusto there. Yeah,

22:01

the team at Xbox have

22:03

been great and Phil and

22:05

Matt, when we joined Xbox

22:08

Game Studios, they said to us, we want

22:10

to power you to go and do

22:12

the things that you want to do. They've

22:14

been really great on that promise. We get the

22:16

support from a number of

22:19

really great teams at Xbox to

22:21

go and do our thing. So

22:23

I'm super grateful of that and

22:25

it's really helped us to focus

22:27

on the things that we really care about

22:29

and that's what I really

22:32

hope is going to come through and help A2 next week. I

22:35

can't wait. Paris, any final questions? No

22:39

final questions other than to say I am

22:41

also highly anticipating this game to come out

22:43

next week and it was such a pleasant

22:45

surprise for me. Like I told you, I

22:48

didn't play it right away to jump into

22:50

it back in 2020 and

22:52

just realize that you created something special with it

22:54

and then to now see where at this point

22:56

that we're getting the sequel to this. Because the

22:59

one thing I did say to Greg when we

23:01

were doing the re-review, I am

23:03

fascinated to see where the story goes

23:05

next. That's probably the biggest thing for

23:07

me to see again, Senua's saga.

23:09

Where is the saga taking us next

23:11

with Senua and her journey, just diving

23:14

through all the aspects of psychosis, mental

23:16

health, everything that the story has provided

23:18

us so far. So really looking forward to it. Thanks.

23:22

I really appreciate it. I really appreciate the

23:24

support and we've made this game really

23:27

thinking very much about the Hellblade,

23:29

Senua, and Sacrifice. And this

23:31

is a responsibility for us. People made

23:33

a connection with Hellblade and with Senua

23:35

in particular. We feel that

23:37

responsibility to make a

23:39

sequel to that game that's worthy to

23:41

Hellblade, Senua, and Sacrifice. The

23:44

forefront of our minds has been those

23:47

people really loved that first game. How do we make

23:49

them really love Hellblade 2 as well? So hopefully when

23:51

you get to play it, and it sounds like

23:53

that's going to be soon, then you'll

23:56

enjoy as much as you did the first game. Well,

23:58

Don, thank you so much. Congratulations. May

24:00

21st everybody you can get your hands

24:03

on Senua saga Hellblade 2 Your

24:05

final super chat question came from Patrick who said

24:07

so what needs to happen to get an enslaved

24:10

Odyssey of the West sequel? That

24:14

is not on us, okay, okay You

24:18

will focus on a blade to of course like

24:20

we get out next week Dom. Thank you for

24:22

your time Thank

24:24

you. Thanks for this for appreciate it. No problem.

24:26

Thank you Now I'm gonna pay some bills real

24:28

quick. Remember the show isn't over Dom is gonna

24:30

take off Ladies and gentlemen Paris and I are

24:33

gonna hang out But before then let me remind

24:35

you that this is the kind of funny games

24:37

cast each and every weekday we get together to

24:39

Talk about the biggest reviews previews interviews and every

24:41

other topic in video games live on YouTube Twitch

24:43

and podcast services around The globe

24:45

if you like that support us with the kind of funny

24:47

membership, of course kind of funny membership would get you You

24:50

know what? I don't need to tell you you're about to

24:52

find out about the ad free viewing about the Greg ways

24:54

about watching the podcast live In the afternoon

24:57

housekeeping for you. Of course is that we

24:59

are an 11 person business. That's all about

25:01

live talk shows You've already gotten kind of

25:03

funny games daily talking about the Assassin's Creed

25:05

shadows trailer live reacting to it It's already

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up Of course YouTube twitch podcast services up

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next myself and Mike are gonna jump into

25:11

star fields update I can't wait to return

25:14

to Becky Lynch and take her through her

25:16

next playthrough And of course if you're

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a kind of funny member today's Greg way is up It's

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for now, I digress your my

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But since you're not using it, here's a word from

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25:31

I'm Greg Miller with a kind of funny programming

25:33

update for you From now on

25:35

the game's cast is gonna be on Friday and

25:37

Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and

25:40

Thursday That's right. We're making

25:42

the kind of funny games cast live and

25:44

daily Why well as you

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already know 2024 is

25:48

about doubling down on what we do best

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our core content So we've discovered that there

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are more than enough previews Reviews in big

25:55

topics that we're leaving on the table and

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that means making the game cast daily makes

26:00

a better product for you and us. So

26:02

from now on, Monday through Friday, you're getting

26:04

Kinda Funny Games Daily at 10am, the Kinda

26:07

Funny Gamescast at 11am, and

26:09

the Kinda Funny Games Stream Live at noon

26:11

on Twitch and YouTube. That's 10 hours of

26:13

game talk shows coming straight to you every

26:16

single week, and that's not including game showdown

26:18

every Friday. What does that mean for PSI

26:20

Love You, XOXO, and Xcast? It means

26:22

we're gonna be sunsetting them, but know

26:24

that those conversations are carrying over to

26:27

Gamecast. Bless and I are still gonna

26:29

talk about PlayStation. Mike and Paris are

26:31

still gonna talk about Xbox. The cast

26:33

of these daily shows are dictated by

26:35

who's the best fit for the topic

26:37

at hand. But we've known it, and

26:39

we've seen you say it. PSI Love

26:41

You, XOXO, and the Xcast have kind

26:43

of felt like Gamecast, just a different

26:46

podcast theme. So, we're focusing on the

26:48

conversations that are relevant and interesting, and

26:50

ditching, being tied to a specific ecosystem,

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so we can make a consistently better

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we'll be streamlining our YouTube channels. Kinda

27:01

Funny is moving all of its future

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jumping between both channels for screencast, Kinda

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27:09

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27:11

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27:13

making a Kinda Funny highlight. Daily breakouts

27:15

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27:17

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27:19

you know more than anyone how many

27:22

great discussions we have in an episode

27:24

that become buried in an hour-long podcast.

27:26

So this allows us to give those

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27:33

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a streamlined YouTube channel, and a highlight

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and help us set Kinda Funny up

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experience Greg way by daily vlog series

28:09

Thank you and as always it's been

28:11

my pleasure to serve you Good

28:15

PC chip we're

28:17

back We're

28:20

back from it, sorry. Oh, hey,

28:22

we're back everybody. Hey, sorry I was dealing

28:24

with some tech stuff on my end OBS

28:26

was kind of bid crashing So

28:28

I hope they heard me. I hope people heard what I just

28:30

said Big great. You've but

28:32

x-ray your bitch about how you're logged in on

28:34

too many Xboxes On

28:40

top of that I'm just dealing with well I got

28:42

an email alert of like hey Someone's trying

28:44

to spoof your email address to get blessing to do something

28:46

and then I'm checking in on that So I'm just warning

28:49

everybody Whatever

28:52

that's fine. We're done. Hi

28:54

Paris. Hi. Great job with the interview. Great.

28:56

They did hear me That was awesome. I'm glad you

28:58

heard that. It was someone clips it. Yeah. Yeah, of

29:00

course I mean, I didn't have it on PlayStation. I

29:02

mean, here's the thing I'm gonna have it on PlayStation

29:05

all they heard Greg and this is a great clip

29:07

out is just pair saying stupid PC shit I

29:15

fucking love it. You had to admit it. You

29:17

had to admit it to Paris. How are you?

29:20

I'm good. I'm good I'm still getting over this cold

29:22

that yeah, I was like the only thing like I

29:24

love talking to Dom That was great

29:26

interview be able to talk to him It's like

29:28

I'm like half choking to try not to cough

29:30

as I'm talking at the same time But

29:34

yeah, I'm good good excited excited

29:36

for What's coming up in

29:38

the next few weeks? Can

29:40

you believe we're so close to sgf? Yeah,

29:43

it's insane. I am Completely

29:45

booked like booked to the point where

29:48

I'm telling people I don't have enough time to

29:50

come see your game Which is insane kind of

29:52

infuriating and kind of insulting that so many people

29:55

like yesterday and today are like hey We want

29:57

to book you for sgf and I'm like, hey,

29:59

where are you? Four weeks ago because it's slammed

30:01

right now like the schedule is locked in like I

30:03

don't know why I've been I'm doing the thing Where

30:05

I'm emailing other people being like I'm sorry, but I

30:07

gotta see if I can move this to there to

30:09

do Yeah, I feel like an asshole. Yep.

30:12

That's the game. That's the game Speaking

30:14

of the game Paris Lily

30:17

What you've been playing? I? Have

30:20

been playing a combination of Hades to

30:22

just for you in that course That

30:25

that third boss is a mf

30:28

er. Oh my god But

30:30

I did start fallout 4 so I

30:34

Never because I never got into fallout 4 when it

30:37

first came out. It just never grabbed me I talked

30:39

about it before next guys so when they did the

30:41

I was like I'm gonna wait to the update then

30:43

I heard the Update was having problems. So I was

30:45

like alright. I'll wait till they fix the problems and

30:47

they just fixed it So I did

30:49

the update last night and I jumped in I played

30:52

for just a couple hours. I'm super early in Are

30:54

you out you're out of the vault then you're out?

30:57

I'm running around Boston the whole thing.

30:59

I mean, it's fine It's

31:01

still hasn't grabbed me yet. I know Barrett said

31:03

I need to get to a certain point I'm

31:08

have you played for before is this your first time? You

31:13

might as well say this is my first time I Originally

31:17

came out, okay Had

31:19

what why is because it didn't grab you at the time

31:21

but like were you a fallout person before then had you

31:23

done three? I love

31:25

three. I love New Vegas for just you

31:27

know what it was coming off of New

31:30

Vegas I and and I know this is

31:32

scuttle button on the internet, but I just

31:34

felt that New Vegas was Superior

31:36

to what board was trying to

31:39

was trying to do like I wasn't into all

31:41

the Building stuff and all that

31:43

stuff So

31:46

I just kind of put it down and moved on and

31:48

started playing other things Ironically

31:50

enough it clearly just shows what

31:52

got everybody back into playing recently,

31:55

but I'm really digging

31:57

76 My

32:00

fucking man. That is my story as

32:02

well. Of course, we're about to finish

32:04

this game's cast and I will go

32:06

play the new Starfield update with Mike.

32:09

You know how much I love Starfield as

32:11

a base level game. I

32:14

am in a way kind

32:16

of bummed out that this update is

32:18

dropping right now because I have found

32:20

myself obsessed with Fallout 76. I

32:23

think like so many people, of course, came out of the show,

32:26

wanted some Fallout, and I downloaded new Vegas to

32:28

my Steam Deck because I've never actually finished it.

32:31

Then, of course, the Fallout 4 patch drop,

32:33

I downloaded, I jumped back into that, started

32:35

playing with that, and then it was that

32:38

I liked 4 fine. That was always my

32:40

thing with 4, it was fine. And so starting

32:42

it up, I didn't like the character I made.

32:45

I get back out and I'm like, eh, I don't know. And

32:47

so it was, I want to play on

32:50

PlayStation as something more modern. I was like, I've

32:53

heard 76 has come a long way, right?

32:56

If the 76, my history goes that I had done

32:59

the beta back in the day with it, that then

33:01

launched into the real progress. I forget

33:03

how many hours I played. Double

33:05

digits, but we'll just say 10,

33:07

maybe less. Then

33:10

went away like everybody else. When they dropped

33:12

the NPC update, me and Bless came back for one

33:14

weekend. We had fun with it, but it wasn't enough

33:16

to keep us in there, and we went off on

33:18

our own again. And then coming back to this, this

33:21

time around, jumping back in, I've

33:24

been shocked that

33:26

76 is finally

33:28

a Fallout game. And I don't mean that

33:30

to sound insulting. We've already beaten 76 in

33:33

the street enough that

33:35

everybody knows its problems. But for

33:38

me to start it back up, and I've been going, I

33:40

think for two weeks now, a week and a half

33:42

with it, where I started it back up,

33:44

jumped into the Greg Miller character I had made, who

33:46

I think was level 15, maybe 12. I

33:49

put some time into. And it was dropping back in

33:51

and being like, all right, well, what's going on? And

33:54

wandering around, meeting characters. Oh, wait, this is a

33:56

cool quest. Oh, wait, this is a cool quest.

33:58

Oh, blah, blah, blah. And then these

34:01

past couple nights with it have been the Fuck,

34:04

this is Fallout Where it is, I started it

34:06

up with the intention of I'm gonna do the

34:08

main quest I'm gonna go after this vault full

34:10

of gold I'm gonna do this thing And then

34:12

what happens? It's the fucking quote from the show

34:14

Side tracked by bullshit I see something cool Oh,

34:16

that's cool Oh, this robot wants me to join

34:18

the tadpoles and become a possum Like this Boy

34:20

Scouts thing, I'm like Yeah That sounds like a

34:22

lot of fun, sure Oh, okay I've

34:25

made the power armor And I have all this

34:27

stuff But I just need Screws

34:29

and what is it? The black

34:31

titanium Defiant, it'll increase my carrying

34:34

capacity So I'm running around killing mole And

34:36

it's like Fuck And

34:38

there's NPCs There's interesting conversations There's

34:40

all this stuff I'm currently level

34:42

35 My PlayStation clock says

34:44

55 hours in Of course

34:46

that does include what I've played before or whatever But

34:48

I would still say that's At 40

34:51

plus hours I've put in in the past week and a

34:53

half, two weeks or whatever Yeah So

34:55

a couple things on that I'm

34:58

level 40-ish, whatever I am right

35:00

now I've been playing

35:02

And I've been playing specifically

35:04

on Xbox Which kind of

35:07

brings me to everything that you said I think

35:09

is very spot on Like, ironically enough, I didn't

35:11

play 76 when it first came out So me

35:13

jumping in now is like I can't even imagine

35:15

what this game was like without NPCs or any

35:18

of this stuff Like all the improvements Yeah, for

35:20

sure That you've made over the years But

35:22

my sticking point with it Is

35:25

the fact that you're on PS5 I'm

35:27

on Xbox We can't play together I know I

35:29

know And I know Pete Heinz said stuff in

35:31

the past And I haven't heard anything recently Oh,

35:33

he should've watched my interview with Todd Howard Where

35:35

he brought it up himself Of just like Wait,

35:37

we didn't say Because now we're in the room

35:39

He's like, basically it's not happening He basically, it's

35:41

like that's the technical hurdle that we just didn't

35:43

build this game for That's like pretty much I'm

35:46

paraphrasing Never say never But it is If I'm

35:48

with you of like Mike saw me playing into

35:50

the office And he's like, oh, let's jump in together, Slappy

35:52

And of course he played on Xbox And so it was

35:54

just like, oh, well, no But it's also a weird one

35:56

of like I play this

35:58

game And I'm just not are on to play

36:00

with other people I still play this and I'm like

36:02

why did this have to be multiplayer like I get

36:04

it and I know that I've done a couple events

36:06

which we're fine but I haven't gotten to something where

36:09

I'm like I should be running with it yeah it'd

36:11

be fun I joined the groups when I get in

36:13

there so that I get the share but I'm like

36:15

like I'm not running those missions with people

36:17

thought so is that even though we're all you know

36:19

vault 76 people who are

36:22

out there trying to repopulate West Virginia I'm

36:24

still not like oh I need to play

36:26

with other people yeah

36:30

I'm I'm 50-50 on that I agree with you like I

36:33

never purpose like hey let me get a group

36:35

together tonight we're all gonna jump into 76 I

36:38

go in by myself and

36:40

I'll just randomly meet people yeah I'm

36:42

in there like I had one

36:44

side mission I was doing and it was early

36:46

on when I first got power arm and I ran

36:49

across this thing like everybody would have power armor were

36:51

taken down all these things I was like yeah this

36:53

is that's dope right you know we're doing three

36:56

demonstration that one time and you know

37:00

I already told the story on X-cast but

37:02

I had somebody that had jumped in and

37:04

all of a sudden I'm hearing over to

37:06

Mike help help and I'm like

37:08

where's this noise coming from and it was someone

37:10

that genuinely had no idea how to play the

37:13

game and he tagged along with me for like

37:15

a good hour or so I'm like look I

37:17

don't know what the hell I'm doing either but here

37:20

here's what I'm doing I'm trying to do kind of

37:22

thing and almost every time

37:24

that I jump in someone is

37:27

giving me something like people

37:29

are very generous in that

37:31

76 community which I think

37:33

is awesome that is there

37:35

but man I just wish everybody could

37:38

play together because when I understand the PC

37:40

community like that's probably the biggest

37:46

population of people that are still playing right

37:48

now and they've done some just crazy stuff

37:50

with the camps and all these things over

37:52

the years but even just playing on Xbox

37:55

I've seen some very impressive things I guess

37:57

hell what Phil Spencer got nuked on

38:00

Last week or something right yeah, yeah in

38:03

the mission so he can retaliate It's like

38:05

little fun stuff like that, then I'm glad

38:07

there is a co-op aspect in the game

38:09

Yeah, there's a lot of cool stuff happening in there, and

38:12

I've been Shocked isn't the right

38:14

word But I'm surprised I like it as much as I like

38:16

it because it is that thing where I did a Greg way

38:18

last week About it where it was like last

38:20

night I had a thing and it was very much

38:22

the seams were showing of like okay It's you know

38:24

fetch quest rinse and repeat getting it yada But

38:27

then it was like the next day I had

38:29

and I also was tired and maybe cranky that night

38:31

the next day. I had a character I liked a

38:33

lot you know I have an ally in my camp

38:35

Who's an astronaut who was in cryogenic freeze like this

38:37

is fucking awesome like I love you What do you

38:40

want me to go do and you know you run

38:42

into a robot you run into a person that has

38:44

an actual cool Questline an actual cool thing going on.

38:46

I still you know it's funny Yeah,

38:49

when I get obsessed with a game. I go and then look

38:51

for Content and podcasts and tie found

38:54

like the Diablo podcast which I encourage you to

38:56

listen to from pure Diablo calm But

38:58

it's the idea that like I was like

39:00

oh It's weird to be back in this game

39:03

And then kind of what did I think of

39:05

it and I went and listened to the games

39:07

cast where it's me Jared petty and Tim Talking

39:09

about my first hours with the beta and the

39:11

there I'm talking about like I'm very early, but

39:13

there's not a lot of people But like you

39:15

know the overseer logs are so well acted and

39:17

the voice acting is written I'm like damn that

39:19

still resonates now like I'm stoked when I go

39:21

off and I find an overseer log and I

39:23

get to hear Her going through what she's going

39:25

through or doing what or anybody's log for that

39:27

matter and like piecing it together Why

39:29

this robot is named after this guy's love

39:31

what happened to their love and their relationship?

39:34

And I'm like playing it so many times.

39:36

You're like damn. This is Bethesda like When

39:39

it launched that was the big problem. This doesn't feel

39:41

like fallout This doesn't feel like a Bethesda game and

39:43

here We are so many years later, and it's like

39:46

damn this feels like a never-ending fallout game Like even

39:48

when I'm I start doing quests. I'm like oh, this

39:50

is a cool quest, and it's like completed

39:52

the daily I'm like damn. This is a daily quest

39:55

like this isn't even a main mission side mission or

39:57

whatever This is something that was just rad to do

40:00

Yeah, I'm

40:02

happy that this game exists I mean like I said

40:04

it obviously took them a lot of years to get

40:07

it to this point But I do feel the game

40:09

right now is in a really good place like because

40:11

it was funny Over the past

40:13

few years at various Xbox showcases or whatever.

40:15

They would always Talk

40:17

about the next thing that was coming to

40:19

76. I'm like, why did he? Play

40:23

this like why are they you know talking about

40:25

this now? I get it, but that leads

40:27

me to a question I've always wanted to ask you directly Oh and

40:29

I want to answer that question But I also want people to write

40:31

it with their super chats if they have opinions on Fallout 76 tips

40:34

for new players Why people should get involved why they

40:36

shouldn't super chat in YouTube Harris back to you Yes,

40:39

so the question I have for you is

40:41

so obviously the show came out phenomena I

40:43

was what 80 they said 80 million people

40:46

have watched a show something clearly reignited

40:49

interest in the game Do

40:52

you think it was

40:54

a mistake to not have a

40:56

new fallout something? Ready

40:58

to go along with this Yes,

41:02

and no Where I

41:04

think yes Obviously

41:06

a fallout brand new yada

41:08

yada yada $70

41:10

game game pass, you know of all would have been

41:13

awesome and moved a million units and blah blah blah I

41:16

also think that as much as the bottom line

41:18

would want that as much as it'd be cool

41:20

to have a new fallout and blah blah blah

41:23

It's the idea that this plan actually worked

41:25

whether they fell into it ass backwards or

41:27

not the numbers went fucking

41:29

insane and they sold a lot of fallout

41:31

for a lot of fallout in New Vegas

41:33

and a lot I mean in it a Measuring

41:36

a lot of people will not immeasurable you can actually measure it But

41:38

so many people have come back to fall at 76 and

41:41

are now saying this game is great. This game

41:43

is good I'm having fun like in such

41:47

an interesting way They've

41:49

had there for 76 or

41:52

are having their no man's sky

41:54

moment or their cyberpunk moment But

41:57

I would say for both cyberpunk and new man's sky

42:00

People were paying attention on the journey to that

42:02

moment. Whereas with fall 76 it's been Nobody

42:05

plays that oh they put NPCs in great. It still sucks

42:07

And it's just been quiet you get a

42:10

alongside Elder Scrolls online in a Bethesda showcase you

42:12

get some stuff about it But you don't really

42:14

pay attention. You're not really thinking. It's cool Yada

42:16

yada yada now the fact that these numbers have

42:18

exploded and The fact that

42:20

I've seen them I just saw through my Twitter feed

42:22

or Instagram feed the other day them promoting the new

42:25

update that's coming in the summer Right like they

42:27

have this momentum for this game And I think

42:29

with people like me and people like you saying

42:32

on shows and talking about it like hey

42:34

No This is actually a lot of fun and it is cool

42:36

and doesn't on there you get in there and there are micro

42:38

Transactions and there are things to go by if you want to

42:40

go by the cool armor and that's that like I

42:43

think Flat out black

42:46

and white. Yeah, it would have been awesome to

42:48

have a fallout game for it now Yeah flat

42:50

out black and white will be awesome for season

42:52

2 to have a fall game Would be awesome for season

42:54

3 to have a fallout game like thought

42:56

is also fucking fallout Like I'm not really worried

42:58

about that moving the needle and leaving needing a

43:01

TV show bump I don't know

43:03

how much of the plan was here. I know obviously the

43:05

next gen update got delayed I think When

43:08

you look at the circumstances and how they got to

43:10

where they are They played it the best they could

43:13

and I have to imagine that it's way

43:15

more successful than they thought it would be and

43:17

again The goodwill for fallout 76 right now is

43:19

kind of insane Yeah, yeah,

43:21

it definitely is now going back to that Todd

43:24

in I feel like I'm interviewing you But going

43:26

back to the Todd Howard interview. He

43:28

did hint at there were a couple things,

43:30

right? Yeah He had in the oven that

43:33

was a breakout headline everywhere of the two

43:35

fallout projects. He did not name What's

43:37

your speculation on that? I have mine. I

43:40

think it's fallout 5 for sure, right? And

43:42

then I would think it's probably thought three

43:44

remastered remake. Whatever is whatever that actually is

43:46

going to be you I'm

43:50

with you on the fallout 3 remake. I

43:53

don't think it's fallout 5. I think it's

43:55

another New Vegas Really? Yeah

43:57

from Bethesda or from like obsidian or something

44:00

somebody else or whatever. I guess we'll see.

44:02

Yeah. I don't know. But

44:04

I think I do think Fallout 5 is

44:06

a little bit a ways away, but I

44:08

think they probably have something in the interim

44:11

which could build off of what they did with New

44:13

Vegas. That's my guess. Okay.

44:16

I see. I think Bethesda will do a

44:18

Fallout 5. I think they'll keep that. My hope is

44:20

that with Xbox being at the helm

44:23

now, being like, all right, cool. We

44:25

need to do a New Vegas 2. We

44:27

need to do a Fallout colon, whatever. You

44:29

know what I mean? I

44:32

think Bethesda Game Studios,

44:34

for as few

44:36

and far between, they get to make Fallout games. They'll

44:39

keep the numbers. And I do think that they will open

44:41

it up to other people can go do

44:43

whatever they want to do. My

44:45

hope, though, with the rumors of a Fallout

44:47

3 remaster remake, I forget what it was. Fallout

44:50

3 is such a great game. You know what I

44:52

mean? And again, there's this argument of maybe your first

44:54

Fallout's always going to be the best Fallout 2 or

44:56

whatever. But I would be so

44:58

stoked to replay Fallout 3 with modern

45:01

graphics, quality of life improvements, et cetera,

45:03

et cetera. Because again, for the pedestal

45:05

I put that game on, it

45:08

is the hours and hours of

45:10

roaming the fucking DC wasteland

45:12

that I think about, not the story beats.

45:14

I would be surprised with most of those

45:16

quests again rather than that. And again, that's

45:18

what I'm finding so interesting about 76 and

45:21

warming up to it and finding myself wanting

45:24

to play over and over more and more is just

45:26

the idea that it is that I'm

45:29

still shooting a lot more than I ever shot

45:31

in Fallout. I'm using

45:33

an automatic shotgun and I have something like 1,400 rounds.

45:36

You know what I mean?

45:38

So it's just, this

45:40

is a different style of Fallout than what a traditional

45:42

Fallout is, for me at least. But

45:45

I'm still getting that, what is that over there? And

45:47

okay, I go up and I look

45:49

out off of the

45:52

watch towers, the fire watch towers and it lights up

45:54

my map for new things. I'm like, oh, that looks

45:56

interesting. Let's go there. And I

45:58

find fucking Halloween. over here and

46:01

this guy wants his pumpkins and then hours

46:03

later I you know I randomly joined some

46:05

kids group to get the XP

46:07

they're like level the the levels I'm

46:09

seeing on people we talked about

46:11

the world forgetting about I played with somebody last

46:14

night who was level I shit you not for

46:16

1456 like these people never

46:20

stop playing Fallout God bless you but I go

46:22

to that guy's shop right in his game and

46:24

he's got like the David S pumpkins suit

46:27

the Halloween suit that like being blessed war

46:29

during I fucking gave them all my

46:31

caps I'm like yes please I'll take that you know

46:33

I'm running around that in my pink armor doing all

46:35

the stuff like this is so

46:38

much fun and it is the fact that it's

46:40

the Bethesda stuff mixed in with survival

46:42

stuff but again even the survival stuff that annoyed

46:44

me so much at the beginning of the game

46:46

right of like oh well when you run out

46:48

of water when you when you are hungry like

46:50

this was not like they got rid of that

46:52

similar to what they're doing the starfield today right

46:54

where it's like no you can

46:57

be hungry and you can be thirsty doesn't matter

46:59

won't actually affect anything but there's a benefit to

47:01

not being like thank you like I'm not annoyed

47:03

by that actually feel like it's enhancing

47:05

the experience like positive

47:07

things has come so far and I'm so

47:10

all in on it right now I really don't want

47:12

to switch to starfield even though I do like I

47:14

love starfield but I do feel like I'm gonna do

47:16

you know you and I are gonna talk about the

47:18

starfield update tomorrow we're playing basically 24 hours from here

47:21

on out and then talking about it tomorrow it's like

47:23

I'm totally down and dedicated to giving it today and

47:25

tonight but it's like I

47:27

am gonna be sitting there like oh man I can't wait to

47:29

get back to running the wasteland of doing all this different stuff

47:32

no I definitely hear you on that now again

47:34

since as you and I talk and we don't

47:36

always get to do this a lot I have

47:38

to steer this and stay in Xbox land with

47:42

obviously the studio closures and everything that happened

47:44

last week and although all the chatter do

47:48

you think again with a fallout

47:50

the popularity of a fallout is

47:52

this the reprioritization of

47:54

Bethesda like let's lean into a

47:57

known IP like we have what

47:59

fallout start getting more of these games

48:01

out. Do you think that was part of that decision? You

48:04

mean getting rid of cutting? It's a

48:06

lack of a better term. But in what I think

48:09

you're saying, cutting the fat off of Bethesda

48:11

and Zenimax and just yes, 1000%. 1000% I think

48:15

it was I'm just like, yes, these are

48:17

great games. And these are great developers. But it's

48:19

not something for lack of a better

48:21

term and Activision that we can annualize that

48:23

we can make into bigger IP that we

48:25

can do this like, you know, high five

48:27

rush stood out so much from Xbox, right?

48:29

Because it seemed like a traditional

48:31

game that you would get from an independent studio that

48:33

doesn't added to Game Pass. And so I think it

48:35

is one of those well, why have that studio that

48:38

kind of game on the payroll, when on the other

48:40

side, we can just get it on the back half,

48:42

put it on Game Pass and be fine, right? Like

48:44

little kitty big city, right? Is this phenomenon

48:46

right now? 100,000 units and however many hours

48:50

and it's like that is also on Game Pass like that

48:52

clearly people feel like that's an Xbox game because you can

48:54

go get it there and play that way. And so I

48:56

think that's the idea. Yeah, I think it is that like

48:58

cool. Now that we paid all this money

49:00

for Bethesda, we're going to double down on the

49:02

Bethesda IP people really care about, which obviously, of

49:05

course, are going to be that start will start with

49:07

Yeah, but I mean, Elder Scrolls

49:09

God, I knew there was an S in it

49:11

that was throwing me off fallout. And then you

49:13

assume Indiana Jones will be the first of many

49:15

Indiana Jones that you if it takes off and

49:17

does what it wants and becomes the Xbox uncharted.

49:20

But then you look at Indiana Jones and

49:22

the cool circle, Indiana Jones and the silly

49:25

circle. Shut up, get out of here. Let us enjoy it.

49:28

It's not a great name, but it'll crawl on you. But

49:31

then yeah, what does that mean for doom? You know, do you

49:34

ever get another wolf in sign? Or is that something they are

49:36

sunsetting and putting away? Like, there's a lot

49:38

of that going on right now. I hope not. I hope not. You

49:41

know, it has been interesting now that we've had

49:43

about a good week or so to kind of

49:46

marinate on the news and trying to understand

49:49

the business aspects of it. I provide

49:51

zero excuses. I'm not for this at

49:53

all. I want to be crystal clear

49:55

on closing the studios, but like I

49:58

truly appreciated you asking Dom. question

50:00

that you did about Ninja Theory because

50:03

we need these games. And

50:05

you would hope that even the big

50:07

publishers like a Microsoft or a PlayStation

50:09

continue to support the small... Because what

50:11

do you say? 80 people made Hellblade

50:13

II support these smaller studios that are

50:15

making these type of games. These aren't

50:17

going to be the games that are

50:19

making you hundreds of millions or billions

50:21

of dollars. They're not called the duties.

50:24

We get that. But I would hate

50:26

that we get to a point where now

50:28

Xbox Game Studios, sure, we're

50:30

going to make the big budget IP games because they make

50:32

us a ton of money and we'll

50:35

just... We'll import,

50:37

for lack of a better term, the smaller

50:39

games to supplement game paths instead of doing

50:41

them in-house with the studios that you have

50:43

now with the Double Fine, with the Ninja

50:45

Theory, etc. Sounds

50:48

about right. It's going to be very interesting to

50:50

see. I mean,

50:52

the video game industry is always interesting to watch,

50:54

but as you're talking about this Xbox, we're talking

50:56

about the Shadow, we're talking about what just happened, we're talking

50:58

about... Like, what is the reaction

51:00

to Hellblade next week? I cannot wait to see,

51:02

right? Both critically and then from the audience. Is

51:04

it going to be something that moves

51:07

a million units, game paths, all that jazz?

51:09

Is it going to be something that doesn't

51:11

live up to expectations? Is it going to

51:13

crush expectations? Then, of course, you're two

51:15

weeks, three and a half,

51:17

maybe two and a half weeks away from the

51:19

Xbox presentation. How do you do an SGF E3

51:22

quote presentation, right? That

51:25

doesn't glance past this or does, but doesn't, but how do

51:27

you put Phil out in front? Where is that going

51:29

to be? Like, is Phil at SGF? Is he on these

51:31

shows as usual? Is he on the giant bomb couch?

51:33

And if so, what's that? Then you go all the way

51:35

out from that to keep going of what does it look

51:37

like? What does the rest of the year go? Are

51:39

the dominoes finally falling? What is it? Can't

51:42

wait. It's exciting and

51:44

terrifying, but we're all on the ride

51:46

together. And ladies and gentlemen, we'll be

51:48

covering it here on that Kinda Funny

51:50

Gamescast each and every weekday. That's right.

51:53

The Kinda Funny Gamescast is, of course, daily now, ladies and

51:55

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52:21

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52:59

and of course Paris I'm so excited to work

53:01

with you more just like we will tomorrow when

53:03

you come back to the games cast to join

53:05

me and The master of hype snow bike mic

53:07

to talk about this star field update, which just

53:10

so happens I'm gonna go stream with Mike right now a

53:13

Paris. I assume you're gonna go get to work on it right away

53:15

as well Yeah, I actually

53:17

was playing before we started this so I've already

53:19

started guys in it. Very excited about it tomorrow

53:22

Well Paris, it's been a pleasure to see you as always

53:24

and ladies and gentlemen It of course has been a pleasure

53:26

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