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Welcome to Ready Player 2!
No, not that one.
Four friends, too many opinions, and absolutely no idea what a panini is. Ready Player 2 is the gaming podcast where the important stuff gets discussed: Titles they've played, rants, and the chaos that usually ensues. Ready Player 2 is a gaming podcast held together by banter, bad takes, and a deep love of the medium. Swears included at no extra charge.
(Music)
Okay, that's gonna stay in.
(Laughing) Hello everybody.
Welcome to RP2.
Continue.
Now, Rich thought it was gonna be RP2 continue,
but that sounds like, you
know, you're talking like a twat.
So we're gonna call it RP2
continue as in, is that Tekken?
It's Tekken, isn't it?
Continue.
Continue.
I that's on brand.
So Rich isn't here today because we've sacked
him or eaten him or something like that, but
we're gonna take the reins.
We're gonna give this podcast in Larka go.
We've all done this before.
We've done this for years.
Well, we haven't done it for
years, but we used to do it for years.
And now we're gonna do it for some more years.
There's been a break, but we're back.
So hello, I'm Lee.
And over there is Ross.
Hello, Ross.
Hello, I'm in full mode today.
Look, I can move without juttering.
I can talk and everyone can see me properly.
Ross has upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows
Vista and he has now got some frame rate.
(Laughing) So we can actually see
what he looks like in real life.
He doesn't look like a series of oil paintings.
Terrifying, yeah.
That's the old one.
Speaking of oil paintings, we have Elle.
Thanks, hi.
Elle's surrounded by Murloc as well.
Is this the one from EGX?
It is, yeah.
Oh, no.
Oh, we went to-- Was that 2015?
Oh, yeah, it was a hot day ago.
I saw the picture on my Instagram
this week and we all look so young.
Oh, don't.
What happens in years, everyone?
You four.
So this is gonna be a bit
different to what we normally do.
As in normally we have just done an episode
once and that's apparently normal.
But this week, we're gonna do
something a bit different in that.
We're just gonna have a bit of a chat and find
out, I don't know, what we have been doing and
what we've been playing.
I'm gonna go first because
what I've been playing is nothing.
So mine's gonna be a little bit shorter and
sweeter and I'm gonna kind of
lean on you two for a bit of filler.
But I have got a couple of things I wanna show.
I've got, I wanted to know what your thoughts
were on things like this.
I'm holding up for podcast listeners.
This is a Turbo Everdrive.
I'm gonna hold it close to
my eyes so it's in focus.
Focus to your nose.
This is for a PC Engine.
It's an SD card loader for a PC Engine.
I've got another one
here that I bought recently.
This one is for, again, with the eyes.
This is for a Nintendo DS.
A game loader for a DS.
So do you, I have any, well,
let's start at the beginning.
What systems would you
consider retro that you own right now?
L first.
Oh my goodness.
In my attic.
I guess you, can we
consider a PlayStation retro now?
Yes, definitely.
An original Nintendo Game Boy.
Oh yeah.
The original.
Yeah.
Did you get the batteries out?
Well, yeah, because they were like
proper huge, like AA in the backs.
Yeah.
But the adventures who went on, man, so many
road trips, as they say,
in the back of the car.
I get carsick.
Do not care.
I suffered to play Pokemon.
The grip that had on kids in the 90s.
There were so many good handheld gaming
consoles, obviously back then.
Retro, I fear that the majority of my early
gaming years were on a PC.
So there is that.
I didn't get into consoles until a little bit
later, obviously Game Boy and PlayStation,
Xbox, and then iteratively through those.
I did get a Nintendo Wii.
I don't know whether we also consider that
retro, but it does have some classics on it.
Straddling the line, I think.
I fear that technology goes too quickly these
days, but I think my first proper, proper,
proper game was Metcoureas 3 on
the PC, other than Final Fantasy 7.
Not quite sure which one came out first, but
those ones are the two biggies.
So wind back to your Game Boy.
Did you customize it?
Was this, or is it
stopped in pristine condition?
God, no, I was a kid, dragging that around,
scraping it off things, dropping it.
No, that's not in pristine
condition, absolutely not.
Now you can reshell them now.
So would you consider playing something like
that again and getting a multi-cartridge that
you could plug into that and
play your old favorites again?
Don't tell Nintendo, but there
are people who have made emulators.
Yeah, but the original
hardware, the real things.
I know, there's something
tactile about it, isn't there?
I definitely would.
I love the clunkiness of it.
I think there's something to be said about the
endearing nature of clunky tech.
Chunky.
Chunky boys.
So I've got, what's this one called?
This is the Game Boy, same, small color.
No, I don't know if it is a color.
Color, yeah.
Oh, it is a color, yeah.
That's the earliest Game Boy I've got.
I've got various other handhelds but, and
various other Game Boys, but I haven't got one
of the, I think it's the DMG is the original,
but I would quite like one of those.
The green screen, big
white thing, red buttons, yeah.
Yeah, get that down.
Get the screen replaced with an IPS.
Well, yeah, it's gonna be difficult to get the
screen out probably because I wasn't too
careful when I was younger and I hated
admitting that something had gone
wrong, but the screen did pop up.
At one point, we superglued
that baby back in there, like new.
So the glue's retro,
that's okay, it's still retro.
What about you, Ross?
What's in your attic that you don't wanna get
down and put nice things in?
It's probably a Super Nintendo up there, but
sort of within playable reach, there's a 360 in
my daughter's bedroom, which came out in 2005,
so 21 years, that's pretty old at this point.
And I'm pretty sure I've got a PSP somewhere.
There's the PSP before the Vita.
Yes, that was the original
handheld from Turner, yeah.
That's the one I've got somewhere.
With the little UMD discs.
Yeah, the little discs.
Yeah, my hands are too
big to play those consoles.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I had exactly the same problem.
I got big old mitts as well.
That's why I've got one of the week.
This was one of the best
Christmas presents I ever had.
She bought me a white PSP in the release year.
It was just, it turned up, I had no idea that
she was buying it and I
opened it on Christmas morning.
Oh my God, look at this thing.
This looks amazing, turned it on.
I had, there was a
puzzle game on it with balls.
Oh, the Lumiere or Lumineau.
Is it the one with the?
Lumines, that's it.
Yeah, such a good game.
Turned that on, it looks so impressive.
The screen was gorgeous, sound was brilliant.
And then after about 25 minutes or so, my hands
just turned into arthritic claws and I could
just never play it again.
It was a completely wasted present on me.
Yeah, I got the same problems.
Same with the Switch as well.
The game pads are just too small.
Oh, but you can, you get the,
you can take the joy card.
Yeah, the controller attachment, but it's just
the buttons are too close together.
I'm so used to now playing a free Xbox Series
X, whatever controller, but those
small tiny ones just can't do it.
Switch Pro controller is
pretty good for our hands.
I got through quite a lot of them.
Switch 2 is so expensive.
Also, why would I want to buy a console that
they can just brick at any time they want?
Right, right?
Oh, we don't like you.
You don't give us enough money.
My Switch isn't exactly
factory standard, let's say.
We won't tell them.
I took a soldering iron to it.
(Gasps) I did break it, to be fair, I did break
it, but then I fixed it,
which is kind of on brand.
So that's okay.
I've got one other thing to show off here, and
that is my creamy colon.
Ah, yes!
Content warning, any content warning?
No, it's all right, it's after three minutes.
Well, it does, I mean,
that's just a typo, I'm sure.
Yeah, of course, go.
This is from one of my very,
very kind patrons sent me a package.
I'm fixing his console,
so he sent me some stuff.
This is all from Japan, and we've got, I think
this is Elle's favorite,
the cheesy fish sticks.
Yeah, like, Mentai-ko is like a big flavor.
Yeah, and cod roe, you get them in the sacks.
It's nice, look.
Don't knock it till you try it.
But it's it, though.
Yeah, I like it.
You get really interesting instant meals.
I know, but you don't like cheesy.
It smells like a jockstrap.
Well.
Probably tastes similar.
But I can't stop smelling it
for some reason, I just can't.
I'm not eating any, I'm
definitely not eating any now.
Okay, so that's me done.
I'm short and sweet this week.
Well, you've released two videos as well on
your channel, so I've watched both of them.
I have.
I have no idea what was going
on, but I watched them regardless.
Well, one of them, I shared one with you, which
was me eating cheesy fish
sticks and penny colons.
Pardon?
And the whiskey jellies.
The whiskey jelly, which I found out
afterwards, is actually alcoholic.
No!
Yeah, 5% alcohol.
No wonder you love them.
I'm not supposed to drink alcohol.
(Laughing) So yeah, I
definitely didn't drive near ours.
It's all good.
No, that didn't happen.
What else have you released
this week, then, on your channel?
Because there's both channels.
What came out, oh, there was,
it's just my usual repair videos.
Saturdays is when I release a fixing video, I'm
more fun fixing it every
Saturday, almost every Saturday.
I think I missed maybe two weeks in the last
two years on the fixing channel, but I also
released something on Wednesday.
What did I release on Wednesday?
I've actually forgotten.
Keying content over there.
So much.
I can't remember it.
Released in too many videos.
Talk amongst yourselves.
(Laughing) Oh my goodness.
I'm looking at YouTube studio right now.
Right, anyway, seamlessly,
there will be a cut there and,
Nah, be there.
I released a bonus video, which was an unboxing
video, which is all the PC
Engine stuff that I've got to repair,
which actually, one of
them, can I show you that now?
This is incredibly cool.
So I'm going to have to audio
describe this for audio listeners.
This is a PC Engine briefcase.
It's got a broken clip on it, but I can just,
if I, all right, I'll take the
top off and show you what it's like.
Like millennial gray, which seemed to be the
gray of the time, haven't been in the 90s.
Oh, yellow with age.
Yeah, yes.
That's slightly urine yellowed, but this is a
PC Engine and a CD Rom Rom.
That is how you say it.
It's a CD Rom Rom, yeah.
Because it actually says CD Rom squared.
It's got the two next to it.
And that's how you pronounce it.
And it's in an interface
unit, this whole thing.
These just pop out and that's a console on its
own and that's a CD player on its own.
And then you plug them in together and they
become a, the first gaming
or console gaming CD system.
This was, so I've got to fix that.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
So yeah, that was in my video on Wednesday.
So, but my brain, so that was what I was
working on like seven days ago.
Now my brain's all invested in what I've been
editing today and what's coming up and I've got
some really cool stuff coming up actually.
So a little look behind the
curtain of your other channels.
Why not Rich is not there to stop us.
What, how far ahead are you recording content
and stuff for you weeks ahead?
Or do you record a sort of a week before and
then that comes out on the
Wednesday and Saturday or?
It depends.
There's been a lot going
on over the last few weeks.
So I've been recording videos in the week
before I released them.
But in a normal month, I will record say three,
four or five repair episodes.
So I've got stuff banked for the next month.
Then I'll work on main channel stuff which
hasn't really worked out so
well but it is getting better.
The scripted and produced and heavily produced
videos on the main channel
just takes so much longer to make.
On a fixing video, if I can fix something in
say a couple of hours,
takes me two hours to record it.
And then it takes me another two, three hours
to do the editing and get it all up on YouTube
and do the description,
the thumbnail and everything.
I can do it easily in half a day, one video.
So it's not so bad.
I guess when you're trying to hit something and
you have an idea in mind, you
might need to do a few takes to get it.
That's the problem.
On the scripted stuff.
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that gets cut out.
A lot of takes.
Yeah, it's difficult when you're recording
something, I'm generally making something on
the morph, I'm making it.
And I'll show you something that I made.
I made this.
Oh, that's cute.
So ZX81 with a mechanical keyboard.
A crunchy, pretty printed keyboard.
Yeah, that's a really nice.
I put in really, really nice
switches in this as well there.
I think they're great.
I had to change out my mechanical keyboard from
when we were podcasting last because people
didn't like me click clackin'.
(Laughing)
Yeah, so making stuff is fun, but recording it
is really, I mean, it's hours and hours and
hours, it's days and days
and days just to record it.
And then editing it is difficult.
And then you have to do the whole writing a
voice over, recording the voice
over and then splicing that into it.
And yeah, so it's a lot more
complicated, but yeah, it's good fun.
I really enjoy it.
It's good.
Yeah, it's good.
So you've got a hell of a
little community going on with that.
Yeah, you popped into
the Retro Hardware Discord.
That's fantastic actually.
I can't keep up with it.
For the first say, I don't know, just over a
thousand members, I would read every single
message in that Discord.
Everything, I would make
sure I kept up with everything.
Now it's just, I've got like a sea of white
channels where there are unread messages.
And every now and now I
just go, "Mmm, Margaret's red."
All of it.
(Laughing) You have to.
Yeah. I've got a lovely team of moderators that keep
an eye on things for me.
Just the best people as well.
They are brilliant, really helped me out.
I couldn't do it without them.
So, who's gonna go first?
El's got things to talk about.
El's got, oh, okay.
El's bursting at the seams.
So El, what have you been up to?
This is still just the last six days, or is
this something that
you've banked up to talk about?
Have you got stuff over the last, how, it's
like three years since we recorded, isn't it?
It's been 84 years.
(Laughing) I do have quite the back catalog of
games I could wax lyrical about.
In terms of games that I've played, potentially
we can talk about Still Wakes the Deep.
I don't think we've spoken about this.
Like the title.
It's an interesting one.
However, before I go into that, have either of
you watched any of the state of
plays or the summer fast of games,
any of the new release, like,
this is my guilty pleasure, right?
I love an advert.
I love a good advert.
The art of a good advert is, you know, they
don't make them like they used to.
Let's just say something.
So there are a lot of games to be excited about
that are coming down the track.
Now I was gonna bring this up when Rich is
around, but he's not here.
And I know that he won't listen to this.
So I can talk about it and
there'll still be a surprise to him.
He doesn't listen to podcasts, so it's fine.
Yeah, he doesn't.
It'll be fine until Dawn 2 is coming out.
So for people who enjoyed until Dawn, do be
excited a second entry
into the ideas coming along.
Big fan of that one.
It's, do you know what?
It was such an iconic of its moment game.
I think they've sometimes dropped the ball.
I think we were talking about it last time.
We're, or at least I've spoken to loads of
people about the dark pictures anthology that
they came out with, all of the games where they
do very well at the start.
And then they kind of
dropped the ball for me at the end
in terms of sticking with
a horror theme well enough.
Starting stories is easy, finishing them.
It's hard.
It is hard.
And I, you know, that is a hard task to do.
They've done really well with until Dawn.
They did really well with the
quarry, really loved the quarry.
However, like the man of
Madame just didn't do it for me.
Neither did like the house of Ash.
However, very excited for until Dawn 2.
That's something to look forward to.
For those of you who liked alien isolation.
Yes.
There is a second one coming our way.
Be prepared to be scared.
Did anyone play in VR?
Do you know what?
I saw someone go to sleep in it in VR.
Oh, in a locker.
Just like, no, just, I'm just gonna lay here
with alien VR isolation on my VR.
Alien isolation.
Yeah.
Okay.
That doesn't sound right at all.
That was one of the ones I just, noted out of
just seeing the alien come.
I was hiding in the locker looking through the,
through the grill in the door
and yeah, then the teeth appeared.
No, hate it.
That's a scary ass game.
The first half an hour
of that game is pure gold.
Pure gold in terms of like
theme and the atmosphere of it.
I absolutely love it.
So I'm very excited for a second.
If Rich was here, he would be telling us all
about how he played it.
I think it was at EGX.
I don't think it was in VR.
It might've been in VR, but he was just doing a
challenge that they had going on the floor
where with alien isolation and he just
barrelled through the whole level.
Like he usually does.
Every single game that he plays.
He does.
Until he hits the exit.
And then all of the bad guys are basically
like, well, we weren't programmed for this.
What's going on?
You aren't supposed to behave this way.
Speed running alien isolation.
Just go.
Yeah, he's, Parkour.
Running for it.
Parkour.
In the same franchise, I
really enjoyed Alien Fire Team.
Which is where you get three players.
So I had two friends that
would play Alien Fire Team with me.
And you play as these Marines who go into these
lovely situations and weapons free, right?
You love to kill some aliens.
I know I had a lot of them.
I think you can choose your view.
It's been a little while
since Fire Team came out.
I don't know whether I did
over the shoulder or first person.
I'm really weird sometimes.
Sometimes I'm better with like
over the shoulder with aiming.
Don't ask me why.
It'd be good to have a cover shooter.
A cover shooter would be
quite good in the Alien universe.
I think.
It was really enjoyable.
Working as a team with like limited resources
and doing resource management.
Cause I love a bit of resource management.
Did you spreadsheet?
No, no, I did not spreadsheet.
It's only in these like isolated levels.
There's, I bought like the DLC for it, which
gave you a couple of extra levels.
I do feel the content that they released in
Fire Team was a little bit
limited, but it was still a lot of fun.
Very limited like replayability, but it's
playing with your mates.
So it's like any of the like, shooting band
games that we've got recently.
Cause I know Helldivers and,
oh, the Starship Troopers one, I played both
Helldivers and Starship Troopers and they are
very fun, but a bit of the moment, right?
You get into the zone,
meme a bit, it's a good time.
So you could only play with two other people,
which was a little bit of an odd thing for me.
Like normally I'm used to multiplayer as being
like around four people.
So the trailer for Fire Team two dropped and
they did a very cool trailer.
Kudos to them.
I really enjoyed it because it introduces the
concept that, oh my gosh, you
can add an extra person now.
You can do four player co-op.
Oh, marvelous.
Really looking forward to that.
Do you know what?
There's so many good like
indie games that were teased
loads of bits and pieces.
There's a new solid hill, Town 4.
Town 4.
I did.
I don't know how I feel about
it, but I'm gonna wait to play it.
I'm gonna wait to play it.
It's Firewatch, isn't it?
That the?
Yeah.
The idea of-- I'm a hill walking simulator.
Do you know what?
That would relax me.
I'm like, oh yeah, I'm here with the fork and
the monsters, we're having a good time.
It's always touch and go because again, some of
these games can be a bit Marmite for people,
but the Silent Hill game that
was on the Wii, the Nintendo Wii,
is it Shattered Memories?
Can't remember off the top of my
head, but like really Marmite-y.
It really hit for some people,
it really didn't hit for others.
But I really enjoyed
these like segments of the game where you're
talking to like a therapist.
She's like, oh, you know, color in the picture
and do the perfect family and you're there
coloring away and making this nice house.
And you eventually get to the house and the
house is the color that you've drawn in the
session and the people are wearing clothes and
the colors that you've drawn on them.
And I'm like, oh my God,
you know, it's really cool.
If you sit in this therapist's office and you
don't pay attention to the therapist, you're
looking at the alcohol like behind them,
there's like alcoholic themes that get brought
into the game and like there's so many
interesting like things, Chochkes, Easter eggs
that are in this game, but it does fall down in
like, oh, the monsters just chase you and
there's only one kind of monster and it's far
more psychological in other ways.
So sometimes it hits, sometimes it misses.
I want to see what it's like before I pass
judgment because this is one of my, one of my
like ride or die
franchises and I adore it to pieces.
And I would love to see them do a good entry
again after Silent Hill F, because I really
enjoyed Silent Hill F, but I'm always there,
oh, I'm gonna temper myself.
I'm not gonna get on the hype train.
I've been hurt before.
You don't wanna judge in advance, but I'll do
it for you because I'm just not gonna play it.
Like I haven't played any of the other ones
because I'm a bit wet that way really.
Have you got any other, any other gems to tempt
us with that aren't gonna terrify me?
I mean, if a game has got its own therapy
session built in, it's just
not gonna be for me, is it?
There's actually some really
good classics that I saw pop up.
So when I was growing up, I
really loved playing Spyro.
Yes.
Little Pivlone, Pivlone, Pivlone.
My wife's still playing, isn't it?
Oh, nice.
Well, they've got like a new Spyro.
On the Switch?
No.
It's on the Xbox Game Pass.
All right, sorry.
Yeah.
Mine was in the early days,
but the early days of Spyro.
But they've got like a new
entry into their franchise.
Great, love it, love to see old classics.
There's the contentious
entry into the God of War series.
Oh, yeah.
Because of course, of course, I love to hear
the complaint, oh, it's
gonna be so gay to play this.
Maybe for me, maybe for me it will be, but I
don't think it will be gay for a middle-aged
man to be looking at a woman.
Call me crazy.
Yeah, definitely should not
get in that thing, doesn't it?
Yeah, I think that may be
the opposite, but you know.
Of all the markers, that's not one of them.
I'm so sad for the people who've obviously had
quite a knee-jerk reaction to it.
Like I can kind of understand on the one side,
because I got very upset
with Masters of the Universe.
And I'm like, where's my human?
Not the new film, I've not seen that.
Oh, that's another color fish.
But I can understand on one side, but maybe
given the last two games and Faye's been such
an integral part of the story and the
narrative, give it a chance, man.
You never know, you might really enjoy it.
And I don't want people to be denying
themselves the opportunity to have a really
involving and engaging game
just because of one thing.
It's like, yeah, she's a woman,
but have you seen her kick ass?
Yeah.
Like play the last two games and listen to the
story that Kratos lays down, right?
This woman is a bad-ass.
Like he married here, right?
And got busy.
But-- She's taken Kratos.
Yeah, he's like proper mad for Faye.
So I'm looking forward to it.
I'm probably gonna pre-order it.
I think the last couple of games in the God of
War series have been,
narratively, just spot on.
Like Game of the Year for
me when God of War came out.
And that's me saying it.
And I'm not necessarily someone who's like, I
need the testosterone in my games.
But yeah, they were so good.
So emotionally mature.
What a brilliant journey of Kratos getting to
navigate grief and parenthood and all these
kind of cool, complex things
in a really enjoyable game.
So I'm looking forward to the next entry and I
hope other people can push
things aside and enjoy it too.
I think it will do just fine.
There's gonna be that small minority that are
making a big noise about
things, but they are just a minority.
They're just to be ignored really.
Don't worry about them.
Enjoy your game and
that's all that really matters.
Do you have any more or
should we move on to Mr.
Rostfuh?
Well, Rost, do you wanna talk about something?
Cause I could go, I could keep going.
We can always come back.
Yeah, we'll have you.
Yeah, we'll come back to you in a minute.
I've played a game this week, but I've also
just on GameSpot and the main headline is the
new Lara Croft was hot.
And that's okay.
Well, she's always been a hottie.
Exactly.
Even when she only had like three polygons.
Even when she was like the proper, what is it?
Like the 70s, like go, go,
braf for the audio listeners.
I made a triangle shape with my hands.
Yeah, like she's always had it.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, the religion of the new Lara Croft game,
which is another remake of the original.
The second remake of the original.
Oh, is it just the second?
It feels like there's been four or five.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
It's a very important question.
Here's a very important question.
Can you lock a butler in a fridge?
Probably not these days.
Ah, that's the hallmark of
the best Lara Croft game.
It's been two pieces.
For me at least.
You can't lock a butler in a fridge then.
The world's gone mad.
The world's gone mad.
But yeah, I've almost had played, I haven't
really played, I've experienced a game called
Mixtape, which was on Xbox Game Pass.
Right.
New to it last week, week
before, I think, a little weeks ago.
You saw a set in the 90s, your three friends,
you're experiencing sort of your
last night before the main game.
With blur and elaces as well.
Well, the soundtrack, Devo, Smashing Pumpkins,
E-pop, Joy Division, The Cure, like.
Wow.
Now soundtrack.
It's based around, each sort of chapter is based around a song, and they
relive sort of memories of things they've done, like Night I'm
just playing this with Molly, Molly was
watching, she's like, what are you doing?
This is what we used to have.
(Molly Gasps) Can you
just skip back on Spotify?
You had to rewind.
Yeah.
That's a tape game, Lewis.
I've only played a little bit,
I'm sort of three chapters in.
Yeah, I'm really enjoying it so far.
I love games that have got a solid soundtrack,
and that is my music, like The Cure and
Smashing Pumpkins, I'm all over that.
So yeah, it's really good so far.
I hope it continues to be really good.
I'll see where it goes, I'll
keep you up to it next time.
But I don't think it's a massively big game,
it's sort of an indie type game, but it's
scored incredibly well, sort of nine out of
10s, five out of five, 10 out of 10s on IGN.
Wow.
Yeah, it's really, really highly rated.
So
Sorry, did you say this was Game Pass?
Yes, it's on Game Pass.
So it's probably on PC as well, I think.
Yeah, Windows, Xbox, it's available on
PlayStation and Nintendo as well.
Okay, so I need to get Game Pass again.
I haven't had Game Pass for a while, but
there's a new Forza that I need to play, so.
Yes, I've played a lot on that as well.
What, Forza 6?
A lot of Forza.
Yeah.
Oh, give me a little bit of
the skinny on Forza 6, please.
Well, we're in Japan now.
Japan is the scene for Forza 6.
Hang on, Japan is where
you buy your creamy colon.
And your whiskey jellies.
And your whiskey jellies.
Do we need like a sponsored content bit on this
when we release it on YouTube?
Product placement.
Sponsored by creamy colon.
That's our secret, Ross, we're never sponsored.
Yeah, naturally.
There's gotta be a podcast
title in there somewhere.
Never sponsored, yeah.
We will sell out, happily sell out, if anyone
wants to give us some money, we will take it.
We'll push your products as far as you want to.
There I am.
I'm like, the one thing
we have is our integrity.
They can never take it away.
Do you know where's the brand?
Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia, it's great
for holidays I've heard.
But yeah, so Forza 6, you're in Japan.
One of the sort of, you know, you do series of
races to get to events.
And one of the events is you race a Gundam.
As he's sort of skating through the level and
then flying around like he turns into a jet and
flies around and then yeah, you race him right
to the end as he sort of, not to spoil it, but
he crashes as you just get into the line.
It's so well done.
The set pieces are just amazing.
I've just made it up into the mountain.
So racing around Mount Fuji, proper drift, sort
of column the cray, S rally sort of racing.
It's yeah, it's really good.
You'll really enjoy it.
If you've got previous ones,
it's just more of the same.
Just one of my favorite series ever.
And I think it's one of the
best feeling games as well.
As long as it's got that, that
feel of speed and control as well.
I think it's just one of the best games that
you can play on a game pad
that allows you to feel the car.
It's just, I love it.
I know it's not realistic.
I know it's not, you know, Gran Turismo or
whatever, but it's just so
much fun and so visceral.
Yeah, fun.
Yeah, that's it.
That's what you want from a game.
Yeah, that's what game is.
You're not having fun, you're doing it wrong.
Yeah.
So yeah, that's sort of
what I've played recently.
Yeah, I'm enjoying it.
Mors is good.
Okay, Elle, I'm gonna come back to you because
I really haven't got anything.
I don't know.
I mean, I could just randomly pick something up
and start talking about it, but then I'm gonna
start losing content for my-- I've got so many
things that are collected.
Okay, go on then.
So speaking of gun, speaking of gun terms,
there's a gun game coming out that reminded me,
I do like games where you get
to play in a big mech again.
Hailing from the Mech Warriors 3 game.
So I will purchase this game.
If you bring me combat either with giant
monsters or in a big robot, sign me up.
I understand.
I will get in the robot, get out of my way.
This could be from my early years of just
absolutely main lining,
like Neon Genesis Evangelion.
I'm like, "Big robot, I love it."
So that'll be big, that'll be big.
So there's loads of games to be excited about.
If you haven't seen the announcements, do have
a quick cursory browse, particularly if you've
got games where you're like,
"Oh, I really like this developer."
If you've been traumatized by Spiritfarer, the
team that made Spiritfarer making a new game, I
think they're doing
something a little bit different.
Thank God, because I don't think I've
emotionally recovered from Spiritfarer.
But a game that I've played that I would like
to talk about still wakes the deep.
Oil rig, Scottish people, Eldritch horrors.
voice acting for this game I
will preface with is Immacula.
It's so well produced.
The writing is so good.
The way that this
scenario is introduced, top tier.
I feel like they have a really good nail on
atmosphere, building tension.
It's such a well crafted game.
I absolutely loved it.
Absolutely loved it.
There are watery bits that I
had to push myself through.
Not found a water.
Water is one of the last bastions of horror
that still make me uncomfortable.
But what a game, what a
cracking surprise of a game.
Because I never thought that something like
this would come out, a
little bit out of the blue.
There's some really interesting topics that are
explored in it, but they don't detract from the
Eldritch Horror element.
You play, like it's been a little while since
I've played it, but you
play as like an electrician.
Who's like on one of these rigs, who has gone
out there against the wishes of his partner.
His partner's like, oh,
you've got to stay home and fix it.
Someone's insulted her.
He smashed him over the head or something,
kicked his teeth in and he's
basically running from the police.
He's like, I'm dealing with this.
I'm going to my old rig.
I'm going to get paid.
Is it McCready?
McCready, get to my office.
Yeah, Kaz McCready.
And there is a really interesting, like layers
of character development
with this very everyday person.
And again, small stories.
We love small stories.
Is introduced into this very high stakes,
like non Euclidean scenario in which he has to
choose the most unselfish choice that one could
ever be forced to make.
And it is fascinating to see the lead up to
this person making the ultimate sacrifice in
order to keep the people that he
loves and the people at home safe.
What a wrong.
So I'm reading the synopsis now.
There's a monster.
Is it a monster that is sort of after you?
Well, so oil rig, drilling down
and it hits something.
Spoiler alert, it ain't oil.
And so this is not to say that it is the same
as, but it has similar vibes in terms of its
effect on people when
you think about dead space
and the like the artifact.
I can't remember the specific word for it, but
it tends to like warp people.
So it makes people turn into monsters.
So there's a really good part, which is quite
near the front of the game, where you see
someone go down in a diving bell to have a look
and see, oh, you know, the drill stopped
working, like why they send him down.
He does not come back the same man.
I'm sure this was an X-Files episode.
That's the thing.
So there's only so many
stories that we can tell.
However, the way that it's
packaged and told can be very different.
And I feel that it does borrow from classics.
There's always the thing like, oh, you know,
like the thing, can you
trust what you're seeing?
Can you trust who you know?
Have the people that you've
known been replaced by something?
What is a monster and what is a man?
And it's fascinating for me at least to think,
oh, have these people, like do these people
still exist within what
they've been turned into?
Or are they something completely new?
Is what you're doing a kindness?
Or are you becoming monstrous in your choices
in order to overcome the monsters?
Yeah, I think it's a fascinating ride.
I definitely think it is
worthwhile, especially if it's on sale.
It's such a cracker of a game.
Good.
In my view, there's two
different types of games.
There's games with amazing stories and a way
to, oh, still makes the deep.
And a way to touch your inner soul in ways that
you've never experienced before.
And then there's games with good mechanics
that are just fun to play.
I think we came from very different worlds.
I know.
I say that, I do like it.
I love a good story.
Yeah.
So I love stories for my sins.
My degree was in English
literature and creative writing.
So I love the art of
telling a tale, spinning the iron.
And I feel that video games is such an
interesting medium through which to play or at
least distribute stories.
Because what book have you read suddenly shuts
itself when you're reading Too Slow Man?
You can't get to this.
You can't get to this yet.
You're not ready for this.
Whereas video games can have such an
interesting way of feeding you a story or
feeding you a narrative.
And then especially with games like BioShock
where you have participatory story.
So you can choose to read
notes or listen to audio logs.
And you very much pick how
much, oh, BioShock's a classic.
BioShock has one of my favorite
creepy little gremlin weirdos.
It's like a plastic surgeon
has some of the best lines.
Honestly, great moment.
If you can just, you
don't even need to play it.
Like find the clip on YouTube.
Like plastic surgeon BioShock is so, so tense.
And you're just like, oh
God, what is this man doing?
Where has he gone?
He's in the water.
He's in the walls.
Great, love it.
I think the games, video games are
a great way to explore narratives.
I think for a lot of people, like God of War
has been like a very, very
touching narrative particularly recently.
Yeah, yeah.
There's another game that's come out where
there's like the guy and there's the robot
girl, the AI little girl.
I don't know what, I can't remember off the top
of the head what the game is called, but that
has like themes of like parenthood.
So a lot of people are feeling like, oh, you
know, I'm feeling emotions.
Like why do I care for
the tiny pixelated person?
That was also a film.
I was gonna say, yeah, same as well.
There are many films.
There's the recent one that's
come out with the kid that's AI.
And then there's the other older
film which is where the kid is AI.
Yeah, loads of stories.
But again, like I think it's really interesting
when people touch on like
humanity, what it is to be human.
And for me particularly the monstrous,
what is a monster?
Who are monsters?
Are they made or are they developed over time?
Who knows?
Well, if you want the complete opposite to that
Rayman legend retold is coming out on.
Rayman.
I bloody love the Rayman legends games.
The music is so catchy.
Bright colors, jumping
around, lots of chaos going on.
Just a bit of fun.
That was announced at the Nintendo Direct.
That's a video game for me then.
I do like a story.
I do like a story.
And I do like crafting stories myself.
That's something you do in, you know, all you
should do if you make YouTube videos is make a
story because that's a good
way to keep people engaged.
But in video games, I like, I don't know.
I'm trying to think of video games that I've
played with a story that even when I've played
like Fallout, you get all of the backstory you
find on the monitor
things going all around them.
I'm just like, do I have to read this?
Shoot nails into someone's face.
Skip in the dialogue like this.
Get out of the way.
I'm here to play the game.
I'm here to shoot things and influence people.
Podcast title right there.
All right, so I think we're gonna wrap this up
now and we'll move on to other things.
We're gonna try and play some
games between now and the next episode.
Actually, I don't think Ross or
El are gonna try and play games.
They just naturally do it.
I'm gonna try to play a game.
I have got a really good idea
of the game that I want to play.
But it's the second part.
It's the sequel that I need to play and I
haven't played the original.
So I've got to go and play the original and
then catch up with the brand new sequel, which
is, it's got a lovely sweet story, but I'm not
gonna spoil it anymore.
So where can people find Ross?
You can find me on Twitter.
I am still a resident of Twitter at Rossbell_
and then I'm on Blue Sky and I
think my name is therossbell.bluesky.
I don't know.
That's what we're gonna call you from now on.
The Rossbell.
Yeah, you can find on my other podcasts.
I tweet about them all the time, so yeah.
But just like and subscribe, all of the stuff
we do, because this is the
most fun one, I'll be honest.
Excellent.
El, are you still in cold media?
Well, I mean, you can message me.
It's indeterminate whether I'll answer.
You can find me at escapingIRL or escapinggirl
or if you shorten it, just El.
But yeah, the handle at
escapingIRL on various platforms.
Tis I.
She's back on Instagram
first trapping the boys again.
Was there pictures of her?
(Laughing)
That's on my private one, Ross.
That's not on my escapingIRL one.
Excellent, you can find me, I'm Lee, more fun
making it and more fun fixing it on YouTube.
You can also find me on Blue Sky as well, but
just look for more fun
making it or more fun fixing it.
And that will lead you to
all of the important stuff.
You can also find links to all of this and to
the Retro Hardware Discord.
Do you know there's also a retro software club
or it's called RSC, and it's like a sister
Discord to the Retro Hardware Discord.
For people that aren't that interested in
recapping 45 year old computers.
So you could also go and do that as well.
I'll leave a link to all of these different
places in the description
and you can find us there.
I don't think there's anything more to say.
I want to leave us all on a high note.
So El, the theme tune please.
Hit it.
(Singing)
It could always be that one.