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Trademark Banter
0:09:00 Game Under the Podcast
0:34:00 How We Schedule the Show & Bushfires
0:04:30 Tom's Feature gameunder.net/doesreadingmakeyousmarter
0:07:20 Wattum, XBOX Antiperspirant, SpyHunter
0:08:00 How we Decided out Top Ten of 2010's
First Impressions
0:16:05 Fortnite
The Last Trademark Banter
0:19:30 Vegan Yoghurt Review
First Impressions
0:22:30 Halo Reach for PC, Newly Released We also discussed on episodes 54 and 55
0:38:22 Gears 5 and it's History
0:59:58 Pokemon Sword / Shield
Transcript
Tom: Hello and welcome to episode of The Game Under the Podcast.
Tom: The episode...
Phil: No, no, no.
Tom: The Game Under the Podcast, that we've changed our name.
Phil: It's actually episode
Tom: Is it?
Phil: And it's not Game Under the Podcast, even though that's what our theme song says.
Tom: I originally entitled the document but then for some reason changed it to
Phil: No, no.
Phil: And I'm eager to get under episode
Phil: A lot of people have asked me, like you guys have a really flexible schedule.
Phil: How is it that you determine when you're going to record?
Phil: And well, I just figured we'd talk about that a little bit.
Phil: The deliberation process that we go through, the planning and all of that sort of thing.
Phil: We use Microsoft Project.
Phil: And then today, you got a flat tire on your bike.
Tom: Well, as I was going to say, this is the episode that God basically arranged for us to record because first of all, he started several bushfires resulting in Melbourne last night or the night before having the worst air quality in the world.
Phil: I think the God didn't start those fires, the prime minister did from what I can gather on social media, he single-handedly is arsoning his way around the country.
Tom: The greatest nickname for him that I've come across, for those who don't know, Australia likes to give things awful nicknames, for instance, for some reason, we're all of a sudden calling firefighters firies.
Phil: We've always called them firies.
Phil: We've always called them firies.
Tom: Maybe in Queensland, which is essentially the hillbilly area of Australia.
Phil: The deep north.
Tom: Yes.
Tom: But you see, being a southern hemisphere country, our backwaters are north rather than south.
Tom: The greatest, he's normally known as Scromo, I believe, short for Scott Morrison, but the greatest name for him I came across was Scromo.
Phil: What's Scromo?
Tom: Well, the sign featuring Scromo was his face superimposed over a pair of testicles.
Tom: So that might give you a clue.
Phil: That's not clever.
Tom: I think Smoko was another one.
Phil: Smoko, not bad.
Tom: Again, but not vulgar enough.
Phil: And not clever enough.
Phil: So basically Australia's on fire and God started the fires and then what happened?
Phil: Because this is how we plan when we're gonna record.
Tom: Yeah, so I was normally would be on a bike ride presently.
Tom: And that was potentially not going to be the case due to the quantity of smoke.
Tom: However, there was a convenient thunderstorm which blew away all the smoke.
Tom: But then I discovered that the rear inner tube of my bicycle had perished since the prior bike ride.
Phil: This is your silver BMX, the Phoenix, I believe we call it.
Phil: We do call it the Phoenix, right?
Tom: Perhaps we should now call it fiery.
Phil: Fiery, yep.
Phil: Oh yeah, right.
Phil: Rising from the ashes.
Tom: So it's still a Phoenix.
Tom: But will Scott Morrison rise from the ashes?
Phil: I think he probably will, but.
Tom: The fact that Australia re-elected the same party after its number of scandals would suggest that he probably will.
Phil: And because of the flat tire, you then called me up and said, hey, I've got a free minutes, do you wanna record a show?
Phil: Of course, I'm always.
Tom: I think you mean you had a vision from God informing you.
Phil: I'm always on standby, sitting here in the Stride studio.
Phil: I sold the naming rights again, sorry I didn't tell you about that, all the money.
Phil: But I'm sitting here in the Stride recording studio, just waiting for you.
Phil: And then about every month and a half, you say, hey, you know, this bad thing happened, so I got nothing better to do, let's record a podcast about video games.
Phil: So thank you for doing this for us.
Tom: Thank God, not me.
Phil: I was flipping through the site.
Phil: I really enjoyed, we've been putting up a lot of content lately at gameunder.net.
Phil: I really enjoyed your article about you reading half a book a day.
Phil: I thought it was really impressive.
Phil: You went a year and you read a half a book a day, and then you learnt about things out of it, out of the whole year and you wrote an article about it.
Tom: I think I managed to stretch it out to which is approximately one thing learnt per every books.
Phil: Yeah, which is pretty good.
Phil: I mean, I typically learn something out of every other book, so that's not a very good batting average for you.
Phil: What was the highlight for the book?
Tom: Perhaps when you read more books, the amount you'll learn will go down.
Phil: Yeah, that's possibly true.
Phil: Now, the name of the article will just direct people.
Phil: If you go to the site and search for, what's the best way to get to that article, Tom?
Tom: I believe it was entitled, Does Reading Make You Smarter?
Tom: question mark.
Phil: If you put in things, you'll get to that page.
Phil: So just go to Game Under Podcast, search for things.
Phil: The URL is Things Tom Towers Learned from Reading Books in
Phil: And you didn't pick up on my slam.
Phil: I said you read half a book every day.
Phil: You actually read a book every two days, which is quite impressive, really.
Tom: But reading half a book every day is the same as reading two books every day.
Phil: Yeah, okay.
Phil: So...
Tom: This is the sort of thing that you would know if you read so many books.
Phil: Yeah, well, I've read a lot of books.
Phil: I preloaded my book reading as a child, and now I'm kind of coasting, you know.
Tom: Well, I also read a lot of books as a child, though, so...
Phil: Yeah, well, obviously you didn't pay attention, otherwise you wouldn't be still reading these crap books.
Phil: Not a fan of Faulkner.
Phil: We're not gonna get into this in great depth.
Tom: I think that was a compliment to Faulkner.
Phil: Yeah, it was, actually.
Phil: And then, obviously, you kept the best to last, which we won't spoil here.
Tom: But if you look up incel, you will find it.
Phil: Yeah, and also a picture of myself.
Phil: No, that's a joke.
Tom: Which one?
Tom: Are you the dead person, the person with the giant brain, or God?
Phil: Yeah, well, we'll let the listeners find out.
Phil: So, things.
Phil: That was really good.
Phil: I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, so thank you for that.
Phil: We've put up a bunch of other game content as well.
Phil: You gave your first impressions of Wattum.
Phil: I've given my first impressions of the XBOX Antiperspirant, which is available here in Australia.
Phil: I gave it an eight out of
Tom: And disappointedly did not smell like Mountain Dew.
Phil: No.
Phil: I was told by someone that I stink.
Phil: I explained that I do not stink.
Phil: I think I smell like an electronic appliance.
Phil: So I put up my review of SpyHunter.
Phil: I don't know if we promoted that the last time.
Phil: You had a chance to read my review.
Tom: I think you were hyping up the fact that it was coming.
Phil: Yeah, well, it's there now.
Phil: So just that keyword is, or AOL keyword is just SpyHunter.
Phil: And then-
Tom: It sounds like it's potentially even better than the cent game.
Phil: It is.
Phil: Not in terms of its gameplay because of the glitches, but in terms of everything else, yeah, it is.
Tom: So the gameplay is even worse than cent.
Phil: Yep.
Tom: That's a shame.
Phil: Yeah, definitely.
Phil: Just because of the bugs, you know.
Phil: But probably most notably, and what's getting the most attention, is that we sat back, we waited, we rested on our laurels for every other site to put up their best games of the s.
Tom: I think it was more like biding our time.
Phil: Biding our time.
Phil: And then we decided to put up the ultimate list of the best games of the, or the top games, rather, of the s.
Phil: And we can, even though the last entries are not yet published, we can reveal now that we've got all top games on the website.
Tom: And they are probably published for the listener.
Phil: Yeah, if you go to the site, you'll see what those games are.
Phil: You wrote a masterful introduction.
Phil: And this was not something that we just slap-dashed out.
Phil: Some of these articles, the ones I wrote, are over words long.
Tom: Is that for all the articles put together?
Phil: Yeah, in the history of the site, yeah.
Phil: And I think there's a lot of surprises on there.
Phil: I'd be interested to know how many of those that you actually played or beat-ed, beat-ed.
Tom: I believe I have played two from the first segment and finished both of them.
Tom: I did not play Dark Souls, but I did play Dark Souls and some of Bloodborne, which are basically the same game.
Tom: I played Dear Esther and the Last of Us, and I also even played a little bit of Fortnite, and I have played FIFA games with Ultimate Team.
Tom: So the only two games that I have not played from the list at all is Tetris, Quest and Minecraft.
Phil: Yeah, I think I've played about eight of the games on the list, and the only ones I haven't played are Tetris Effect, the Depression Quest.
Tom: And you've even forgotten my impressions of it.
Phil: Yeah, yep, I have.
Phil: Just to make sure, oh, and I haven't played Pokemon Go.
Phil: But I have played-
Tom: Oh yes, Pokemon Go I haven't played either.
Tom: I forgot that one.
Phil: I thought you would have.
Phil: But I have played Pokemon Shield.
Tom: And I've seen people playing Pokemon Go, so I don't know if that counts.
Phil: Yeah, it doesn't, not really.
Phil: So this is not our personal top
Phil: I will be putting together, with a lot less effort, my personal top after this.
Phil: Because that seems to be what I've figured out what to do for my features part of the website.
Phil: And you know, we've almost didn't reveal every game on the top but still it's worth going to the site to see what order we put them in.
Phil: And you know, I don't think that either one of us were completely happy with any selection on the list, but I think that's what makes it a good list.
Tom: I think it ended up being, after much discussion and insisting that Mass Effect didn't make the list in any way possible, a rather representative list of what the decade was like.
Phil: Yeah, and that's what I liked about it, because you did challenge me a fair bit, not only in my writing, but also in some of the games that we were gonna put on there.
Phil: Skyrim got booted off, Mass Effect got booted off.
Phil: There were quite a few more that did get left off the list.
Phil: And I think also, I think we're gonna probably regret some of these entries later on as we play more.
Phil: You were quite passionate about including Dear Esther, but I'm wondering if when we both play What Remains of Edith Finch, if that doesn't take that spot.
Tom: Not at all, that won't happen.
Phil: Yeah, that won't happen.
Tom: Because Dear Esther is the quintessential experimental game.
Tom: There are none that come close to its influence and impact on gaming.
Tom: And...
Phil: Yep, yep, fair enough.
Tom: That would potentially, that would be one of the games lower down the list that if that was at number one, I would not bat an eyelid.
Tom: Essentially the top five, that applies to any of the top five, you could pretty much choose to be number one.
Tom: And that's borderline.
Tom: Whereas the rest of the top are definitely not in the same league as the top six.
Phil: I know that, you know, in a personal list, you certainly would have included Metro and I would have included Papers, Please, but this wasn't our personal list.
Phil: Am I right about that?
Phil: You would probably, you'd put Metro in your personal list?
Tom: It would be a contender, definitely.
Tom: And perhaps this War of Mine as well.
Phil: Yeah, that's the first game that I thought of the other day when I was thinking about this, that that would be on the list for you.
Phil: And then, you know, there was major compromise with Tetris Effect.
Phil: I think that if you had your druthers, that wouldn't be on the list at all, but I thought that it was a worthy, you know, we had to mention, I thought we had to have something in there of virtual reality, and I thought that Tetris Effect would, you know, fit that mold.
Tom: Definitely, and I'm not sure if I necessarily would replace it with something else, because VR and the evolution of motion controls is definitely part of the decade, and there isn't really another game that would be more representative of that.
Tom: The only potential replacement for it would be something like League of Legends, which we can at least come up with the excuse of pedantry for not including it, even though it would be a contender for number one.
Phil: Right, and I thought also because of the, you know, the synesthetic nature of the game that at least gets it in there for you, but also I put it in there because it was the fulmination of Mitsugishi's vision, really, you know, something that he dreamed of with the Dreamcast years and years and years ago, and now finally actually able to be able to do it.
Phil: I'd have to say probably my favorite game on the list, my favorite game on the list, I don't have a favorite.
Phil: Probably my favorite in concept would be the FIFA Ultimate Team entry, perhaps.
Phil: But Pokemon go, look, they're all good, and Tom's done so much tremendous.
Tom: Is that your favorite game or your favorite description?
Phil: No, the best article, I think, is the one for Depression Quest, which you wrote.
Phil: And this is really worthy of publishing, I think.
Phil: It's just really a great article in and of itself.
Phil: So we don't have to go on about this forever and ever.
Phil: Please do go to gameunder.net, and you'll see under the features section, top games of the s.
Phil: And if you like that kind of content, let us know.
Phil: You can comment on the front page of any of those articles.
Phil: You can comment on that page directly.
Phil: But you can always contact us directly as well, somehow.
Phil: So, we can move on.
Phil: And I thought that perhaps we should probably talk about some topical games, new games that we've been playing, unless you've got anything else you want to talk about.
Tom: Not really.
Tom: The one thing I will add is, actually for research, even though I did not write the article for Fortnite, played a single game of Fortnite, and it was surprisingly good.
Tom: I assumed the opponents it gave me were AI, given how tremendously easy it was, but I was surprised by how smoothly it put you in the game.
Tom: Essentially, I just started it, it loads, and the next thing, a rap song starts playing, and you are dropped out of an aeroplane, and a game begins of Fortnite, and it is mechanically very satisfying.
Tom: Opponents take enough to kill that if you're attacked, you have time to respond, and the weapons all feel nice and chunky, and the sound effects are great.
Tom: It was a lot better than I was expecting, given that it is somewhat of a joke for most quote hardcore end quote gamers, but it probably shouldn't be that surprising, given that it is an epic game.
Phil: I was gonna say, in epic, you mean a game from Epic Games.
Phil: The Pedigree is, well, it is almost flawless, and I've played it a couple of times.
Phil: I've gotta say, it's beyond me, but so would PUBG, you know?
Phil: If I started playing PUBG flippantly, without committing a lot of time to it the same way that I played Fortnite, I'd go away with the same result.
Tom: I wonder when the last time you played it was, because at some point this year, last year, towards the end, they introduced, or at least it's speculated that they introduced bots.
Tom: So I'm wondering if you went back to it now, you would find it significantly easier.
Phil: Yeah, I played it when it was first released on the Switch.
Phil: And it's just one of those things where I, if any of my nephews or nieces come over to my house and they see games sitting in a room, the first thing they're gonna say is, oh, can we play Fortnite?
Phil: And I'm gonna say, oh, I don't have Fortnite.
Phil: And they're gonna look at me like, well, what's the point?
Phil: So I at least downloaded it for the Switch and played it a few times.
Tom: They should point out that Fortnite is free, anyone can have Fortnite.
Phil: That's right.
Phil: So that's why I downloaded it for the Switch.
Phil: And, you know, if I don't, I have no hesitation that if I was gonna play it every night, the way you can with these things, that I'd fully enjoy it.
Phil: But yeah, didn't grab, didn't, you know, it wasn't like Unreal Tournament back in where you just couldn't stop playing it.
Phil: But there's again, very capable.
Phil: So, no, well, the one thing I was gonna ask you about, and this is compelling, today we're gonna be, or today we're gonna be talking about Halo Reach, which has recently come to the Master Chief Collection on Xbox One and PC.
Phil: We're gonna be talking about Pokemon Shield, and we're gonna be talking about Gears
Phil: But just one last trademark banter thing, I was shocked to see on the list, Vegan Yoghurt.
Tom: Yes, and with the list of games we've mentioned, we just have to add that this is the world's only Vegan Dude Bro podcast.
Phil: That's right, you heard it, from Australia.
Tom: Probably worldwide.
Phil: True, so what's this Vegan Yoghurt thing?
Tom: Well, I recently tried Vegan Yoghurt, which I believe rather than fermenting milk in this case, it is fermented coconut.
Phil: Oh, you're reading the wrong yoghurt, my friend.
Phil: They make a Vegan Yoghurt out of soybeans.
Phil: So it's basically for people who are lactose intolerant.
Phil: So it's a dairy-free yoghurt, but it still has yoghurt cultures in it.
Tom: This also has biotic cultures in it.
Phil: Yep, and they have peach, apricot, blueberry, and strawberry-flavoured.
Phil: And the brand that I buy is absolutely great.
Tom: What's the brand?
Phil: King, K-I-N-G, and they're sold in most major grocery stores here in Australia.
Tom: This, I believe, is pure-free, and it is neither pure, given that the coconut also contains probiotic cultures, and nor is it free.
Tom: I did have to pay for it.
Tom: Yeah, but I actually think that coconut is an excellent base for a yoghurt.
Tom: You are unlikely to get as neutral or accurate a simulation of yoghurt as you might be able to from soy.
Tom: But the advantage of coconut is if you have ever used coconut milk, it is tremendously versatile, but without being a very neutral flavor.
Tom: So this can be used in quite a few interesting ways.
Tom: I don't know if you're familiar with Malung.
Phil: Malung?
Tom: Malung.
Phil: Malong?
Phil: Mei Long?
Phil: Mei Long, I think, wasn't she in Street Fighter ?
Tom: It might be spelt M-E-L-L-U-N, but I'm not sure.
Tom: But it's essentially a curry salad using coconut.
Tom: And that's combined with a coconut-based yogurt is actually surprisingly effective.
Phil: Okay, all right, well, check this out.
Phil: It's called Pure Free.
Tom: I think so.
Phil: And they're not a sponsor.
Tom: Nor are they free.
Phil: But, you know, I mean, like, why would you do that instead of just eating normal yogurt?
Tom: Why not?
Phil: Yeah, why not, indeed?
Phil: If it's the same price or cheaper.
Phil: I'm just glad there's a lot of lactose-free people in the world because they're the ones driving this dairy-free, you know, craze.
Phil: And I just sit back and reap the rewards.
Tom: And while we're on the topic of the lactose intolerant, I, due to my subscription, I think it's still free to Xbox Games Pass for PC, recently downloaded the Master Chief Collection and on PC, for some ridiculous reason, they are releasing the games in the chronological order of the story, rather than releasing them all at once, meaning that the first game you could actually play on it was Halo Reach, whereas I'm up to three in the trilogy, so that was what I was most hoping to play, but I nevertheless downloaded Halo Reach and tried it.
Tom: Having not bought an Xbox console since the original Xbox, this was my first Halo game in a very long time, but I was a big fan of both the original and Halo
Tom: I think they don't really deserve any of the praise they get in terms of their campaigns or supposed innovation in the first-person shooter genre outside of online, but, and multiplayer in general, Halo 's multi-link multiplayer is one of the best console multiplayer games ever, and it's up there with things like Perfect Dark and GoldenEye, and is, in my mind anyway, better than them.
Tom: And Halo obviously essentially invented the model for online shooters on console and online games in general, on the console, and its influence on PC games online also hasn't been as egregious as Call of Duty, for instance.
Tom: So I am a big fan of the series, and I have only played the first level of Halo Reach, but it was a tremendous disappointment.
Phil: Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, you've only played the first level?
Tom: Yes.
Phil: Okay, so clarify for me, was this released as a part of the Master Chief Collection that they finally added it to, or was this released as a standalone release?
Tom: They've just released the Master Chief Collection for PC, and it is included in it, and on the PC, I think on consoles, you can play all of them, but on PC, they are staggering each Halo games released within the Master Chief Collection.
Phil: Okay, so just to frame this a little bit, this was released in after Halo and this was the last game that was developed by Bungie prior to them leaving and going over to reclaiming their company, going over to Activision and going to work on Destiny.
Phil: So after Halo the studio basically split into two different teams.
Phil: One worked on ODST, which is the worst Halo ever, a piece of complete crap, and the other team made the best Halo game that's ever been released, and that's Reach.
Phil: And that's basically the facts, as I understand it.
Phil: It was released on and then subsequently on Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.
Phil: And I think it's based on the writings of Eric Nyland, who did the Halo paperback novels, because he wrote the book, I think, for the Reach or something like that.
Tom: Well, that's not promising for the rest of the game.
Phil: Look, the game...
Tom: I would rather a story written by a bunch of random non-writers, such as The Intern and The Lunch Lady, as games are normally written, than someone who writes novelizations of games.
Phil: Well, he did the best novelization of a game ever, and I'm looking around me at the library here to go grab it, but his first Halo...
Tom: A very sensitive collection of game novelizations.
Phil: Yes.
Phil: Okay, now I...
Tom: Is that why you learn one thing per every two books is the number of game novelizations you read?
Phil: I can guarantee you I learn nothing from any of the novelizations of video game books, particularly the Banjo-Kazooie one.
Phil: I learned nothing from that.
Phil: But you know, and I've got to admit that of the collection of game novelization books I have, you know, about % of them I've written myself that I'm seeking a publisher for.
Phil: So if anyone's out there and wants to read the real story behind SimCity...
Tom: And I've got a correction on that.
Tom: Surely the best novelization of a game is Spec Ops The Line book.
Tom: What was it called again?
Tom: Zero something?
Phil: One of the zero?
Tom: Significant zero.
Phil: Significant zero.
Phil: Yeah, but that's not a novelization.
Phil: That was, you know, a tell-all.
Phil: Anyway, Reach is undeniably the best Halo game that's ever been made.
Phil: It was Bungie learning everything they had from their prior games.
Phil: Obviously, all the losers went over to make ODST, and then the good team went on to work for Reach.
Phil: It's really just the best Halo game possible.
Phil: It's a prequel to the first Halo game.
Tom: It takes what was, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, because I may be misremembering the Halo story.
Tom: What may have been a military fetishization story, nevertheless, it was, I do believe, humanity united to fight against an alien menace.
Phil: Right?
Phil: Yeah.
Tom: Whereas Halo Reach begins with some Rajad Kipling segment of American soldiers visiting some backwater against their will and having to deal with the dumbass natives who may be causing an uprising.
Phil: Doesn't it start in New Mombasa?
Phil: Or is that Halo or or ?
Phil: Anyway, you just play the first level.
Phil: Where does it start?
Tom: Well, there's the first disappointment, is the story itself, a complete change in tone.
Tom: And not just that, all of a sudden you have these teammates that are these whiny little babies all interacting rather than this stoic master chief ignoring everyone so that you don't have to deal with awful dialogue and annoying characters getting in the way.
Tom: So yet another negative.
Phil: No, it's a positive because those guys were all orphans who were adopted by, I don't even remember the plot at this point, but in any case, it's actually great.
Phil: I mean, the whole team thing and the theme and the mood that you're talking about, it does take on a more somber tone because you know how this is going to end.
Phil: In Halo they have the fall of the Reach, which is where that...
Tom: It may be attempting to build up with that, but it begins with this nonsense of them visiting a backwater and whining about a bunch of natives, essentially.
Phil: Yeah, we'll push on through and you'll find that this is the best Halo game ever, at least.
Tom: The next problem is the gameplay and the level design.
Tom: Now, I have never been someone who thinks that Halo's gunplay is particularly impressive.
Tom: It works wonderfully in multiplayer, but if you are doing, due to the way that the weapons affect the other players and the different amounts of damage they do and all that sort of thing, none of that really matters so much in the single player, where the fun and enjoyment isn't in working out the best weapon for certain situations and looking for the best weapons throughout the maps, the multiplayer maps, but is in using a variety of weapons that you're given and come across as you're playing.
Tom: But even on console, with more limited controls, there's not really much, you don't really have to deal with recoil that much.
Tom: With the vibration, it doesn't really add all that much.
Tom: When you're using a mouse, it's even worse and feels even less tactile and interesting.
Tom: There's very little difference between the weapons beyond the speed of the projectiles and how much damage they do, which again makes a difference in multiplayer, but basically very little difference in single player.
Tom: The design of the first level was absolutely awful.
Tom: Another thing that I have never thought was impressive about Halo is the AI for some reason that I simply cannot comprehend is held up to be some of the best ever.
Tom: I think it is just because the grunts do idiotic and comic things sometimes, which is entertaining, but just because you can design bad AI doesn't mean you can design good AI even if it makes the rest of your AI look good.
Tom: Essentially the AI even on Legendary is completely passive.
Tom: It doesn't try to come and kill you at any point.
Tom: It doesn't really try to flank you.
Tom: It just sits around in whatever it is and runs from side to side.
Tom: So maybe people think strafing is an example of good AI, but that's basically the only trick that the elites have, is simply to strafe.
Tom: Which again, strafing existed in Doom and the first ever first person shooters.
Tom: So I fail to be impressed by that.
Tom: But nevertheless, I did enjoy other Halo campaigns, including first levels in other Halo games, but in this one, what really makes it really uninteresting and boring is they just plonk the enemies in, there's basically several main fights throughout the levels.
Tom: And with the exception of the fight at the end, there are two battle designs that are repeated twice, one, they plonk the enemies around or one end of an obstacle in the middle, so that you basically have two sides to attack them from and they just walk around strafing on the other side of it.
Tom: The other is they stick them in the center of another sort of circular area, but this time they're in the middle of it and you kind of have to go through obstacles to get to them.
Tom: From what I can remember of other Halo games, the areas are usually slightly more open and the enemies are usually sort of spread over these areas that you go through rather than you walking or driving a car from one battle to the next, which is essentially how the first level of Halo Reach was structured.
Tom: And there was a lot of cinematic walking as well, which there was in the Halo games and maybe it was just because the story was so much more generic.
Tom: It was basically Call of Duty in space, but without the mind blowing insanity of Call of Duty, it seemed to drag on a lot more.
Tom: It was slightly better towards the end when you ended up inside a building and you had slightly more traditional corridor sections that were in the vein of a lot of the corridor sections in the first two Halo games, but the outdoor sections were not at all on the level of the outdoor sections in Halo and from what I can remember of them.
Phil: I think that you've got to really play some more of the game to really grasp it.
Phil: But I do think that the opening section of the game is quite impressive.
Phil: So if you're not enjoying it now, maybe you're not going to get there.
Phil: But I think over time, you'll probably get to enjoy it.
Phil: To me, this was the culmination of Bungie's development, because it was the last game that they made.
Phil: It was the best selling game that they made on day one.
Phil: They'd learnt all the lessons and it was the A-Team that really made it, as opposed to the schmucks that made ODST, which is the worst Halo game they've made.
Phil: You haven't played ODST, obviously.
Tom: Correct.
Phil: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Phil: It's worth it for the comedy value.
Phil: I'd probably just watch the YouTube video of it.
Phil: The other thing you've got to realise is this game is years old, and you're coming at it fresh, but at the time, this thing got universal praise from every quarter.
Tom: As did the likes of Uncharted, though.
Phil: Yeah, I'm not sure if Uncharted did, but Uncharted certainly did.
Tom: It absolutely did.
Tom: The opening level to me was a tremendous disappointment as a Halo fan.
Phil: I can't remember now, because it has been years since I played it, because I got it at launch.
Phil: I really should replay it.
Phil: Did they make the female character wear a pink outfit?
Tom: I don't think so.
Phil: Okay, well, see, their hair is very progressive.
Phil: There's a lot of to and fro, and I think probably I did enjoy it because I did read the novel that it was based on.
Phil: Eric Nylon didn't do the writing for it, but it's based on a lot of what he'd written about the kids who were taken away, and he created that whole sub-story that basically these kids were adopted and Halsey, who has the same voice and appearance as Cortana, was the female scientist who was in charge of them.
Tom: See, this is one of the problems, though.
Tom: The wonderful thing about the, quote, story, end quote, of Halo is not so much at all the story, but the narrative and the atmosphere of the place.
Tom: You don't need to be shoving in this backstory that is just going to be stupid and not live up to the tremendous atmosphere they create.
Phil: I think also, too, because it was the last Halo game from Bungie, you can read a lot of subtext in there as well, and there are some overt messages from them basically saying, well, this is the end of what we're doing.
Phil: They do a little bit of meta-textual content, much as Infinity Ward did, you know, with their closing songs for their version saying that, you know, this is the only real version, you know, whatever Treyarch's doing, that's not really Call of Duty and all that sort of thing.
Phil: So, with that, I'm sure you're looking forward to playing more of Halo Reach, based...
Tom: I'm certainly not looking forward to it, but at some point I may.
Phil: Give it another shot, at least, yeah.
Phil: I don't know if you want to talk about Gears next, or if you want me to talk about Pokemon Shield.
Tom: Well, given we are talking about masculine shooters, why don't we move straight into Gears ?
Phil: I thought for sure you were going to say Pokemon Shield.
Phil: What's your history with the Gears franchise?
Tom: I have never played another Gears game.
Tom: This is my first.
Phil: Okay, well, my history with Gears is that I totally loved Unreal Tournament, so I was looking forward to the next thing that Epic made.
Phil: And back on the they actually mandated that every game had to have a demo.
Phil: This is something that people forget, but something that Microsoft mandated, that if you're going to release a game on our platform, people have to demo it first, which I think you book.
Phil: That's amazing, right?
Phil: So I downloaded and played the demo, and it's amazing.
Phil: Like, Gears of War was basically Cliff Blazinski looking at Resident Evil and trying to turn that cover-based shooting into a video game.
Phil: So you've experienced all of the runoff of that with, you know, Cent Blood on the Sand and thousands of other games since then.
Tom: Basically every shooter.
Phil: Yeah, but this is where it all started and, well, except for that Japanese game that I've played that I can't remember the name of right now, that Cliff Blazinski says was his inspiration as well.
Tom: I believe that started it and he popularized it.
Phil: Yeah, exactly.
Phil: So it was first seen in that game, which you'll look up and let us know about.
Tom: Was it Kill Switch?
Phil: Yeah, that's it.
Phil: Kill Switch.
Phil: And I think who was the primary developer on that?
Phil: He's one of our favorites.
Tom: Was he?
Phil: So having been a big fan of Unreal Tournament, I was really excited to see what Epic Games and at that time, we didn't know who he was really, but Cliff Placinski and what he would do.
Phil: But Cliff Placinski was the key designer on the game.
Phil: And basically, he took the cover shoot mechanic from a game called Kill Switch, which was developed by Namco, which I thought was a Japanese game, but apparently was designed in the US.
Phil: And combined it with the behind-the-shoulder third-person view of Resident Evil which was a wildly popular and successful critically acclaimed game.
Phil: And so the cover-based component of the game that went on to be copied and copied and copied elsewhere was really revealed to most people through the first Gears of War.
Phil: It was gory, and then the setting was beautiful.
Phil: It used Unreal's own engine and popularized its own engine.
Tom: And whenever one plays a Unreal Engine game by Epic Games, it demonstrates how disappointing every other game using Unreal Engine is.
Tom: They manage to, most Unreal Engine games have a very smooth, boring look to them, and with less detail.
Tom: Not necessarily literally, but the general, due to the smoothness of the image, they often end up feeling like they have less detail than games that have their own image, engines.
Tom: Judging by Gears and also videos I've seen of other Gears games and obviously other Unreal Engine games that Epic have made, they actually manage to get the engine to look, to suit a variety of different aesthetics, so that you don't end up with just a generic look, and they also don't have the ridiculous smoothness of the image, and they also manage to have a huge amount of detail as well.
Tom: Basically, the way Unreal Engine is used by most games, using the Unreal Engine, you end up with something that looks like something halfway between Unity and halfway between an Epic Unreal Engine game.
Phil: And one of the keys to Gears of War in its initial design thought was destructive beauty, so they'd put you in all of these Victorian era type mansions and houses that have them be destroyed, and then they carried that through to the organic levels as well, and in cities that had been broken down, but you're quite right, through a variety of different environments, be they organic or urban or, you know, inside a house, there's a level of detail that you don't see anywhere else.
Phil: And they created the engine, so obviously they know all the ins and outs of it.
Phil: In fact, they were sued by Dennis Dyack for not really sharing all the details.
Tom: I was about to say, I wonder if they are in fact releasing to other developers inferior versions of the engine tools.
Phil: Yeah, yeah.
Phil: But again, on the plus side, they've been very generous with the engine over the last four or five years where they let game developers use it for free until they have, you know, game revenue of a certain amount, and then they have to start paying royalties.
Tom: Yep.
Phil: So, but back to the game itself, it's a third-person shooter.
Phil: It's a third-person cover-based shooter.
Phil: So you get to, you know, creep around and throw grenades and use some fairly satisfying guns, I would say.
Phil: Would you agree?
Tom: Yep, definitely.
Tom: And not just in terms of their sound effects and the recoil management and all that sort of thing.
Tom: They also have a variety of amusing grenade launchers and rotating saw launchers and things like that as well.
Phil: Yep.
Phil: And of course you've got Up Close Malay where you can use chainsaws on enemies as well.
Phil: And the game itself, I mean, Gears, I kept playing Gears and waiting for it to wear off or waiting for them to slip a gear, if you will.
Phil: And they haven't, they've been consistent.
Phil: And Gears was really an amazing game where they've gone on to the new generation, left the characters, almost left the characters in the past.
Phil: But you'll see Marcus and Baird in this new game, as you would in Gears where they're older, they're bolder, they're grumpier.
Phil: And it's not overplayed.
Phil: It's really a pleasure and...
Tom: It's very suspicious that all of these old game series where the original audience might now be your age and parents are suddenly having father and child relationships in them.
Phil: Right, as in Dad of War, right?
Tom: Yep, and Gears
Phil: And Gears and Gears as well.
Phil: So it's, you know, I think it's video games growing up and acknowledging that.
Phil: Or growing old, I should say.
Tom: Or video game audiences growing old and developers...
Phil: Capitalizing on it...
Tom: .
Tom: marketing it to them.
Phil: Yeah, but I do think there's some earnest experiences going on with developers as well as they age and they want to make different kinds of games as well.
Phil: So in Gears they did introduce elements of real time strategy and what do you call that genre where it's castle defense?
Tom: Tower defense.
Phil: Yeah, tower defense, which I tolerated and got through and didn't really enjoy.
Phil: So far they haven't done any tower defense elements in this game.
Phil: But so far I went into this going, I really liked
Phil: I hope this is good and so far it's been a complete joy to play and I've only stopped playing it because of other games that have come up, but I'll definitely be getting back to it.
Phil: How far did you get into it?
Tom: I played the first level.
Phil: Oh, you've got to play more than that.
Tom: I may indeed continue it unlike Halo Reach in the immediate future, but as a new play to the series, it certainly does absolutely nothing to help you understand what is going on.
Tom: There is a brief prologue that refers to events, but I think it's basically just a recap of Gears as far as I can tell.
Phil: Yeah, exactly.
Phil: They don't tell you anything up to that point.
Phil: If you can somehow through the whole Microsoft thing, and I believe there's probably a way you can play the first game.
Tom: I think the first, the remaster of the first game is on Games Pass.
Phil: Yeah, and believe it or not, I have a, the remaster I have on the same disk as Viva Pignada.
Phil: He asks, I'm looking around the Stride studio, like there's some producer to help me with that.
Phil: No, it was the...
Tom: I find that hard to believe.
Phil: It was the...
Phil: okay, I'm being told it was the Rare Replay compilation that came on the same disk as the Gears remaster.
Phil: That's pretty cool, right?
Tom: Yep.
Phil: Which is why I bought it, because you're like, Rare Replay master on the same disk as Gears ?
Phil: I would strongly encourage you to play the first Gears.
Phil: I think it is the affinity...
Tom: I think I'll finish, if I continue the fifth, I think I'll probably play the fifth first.
Phil: Play the fifth, and if that piques your interest, go back through them, because they are the epitome, they are the absolute best third person shooter experiences that you can have in video games.
Tom: I could not disagree more.
Tom: I think this is probably the third best, and the only other good third person experience you can have in games, but it is certainly...
Phil: No, third person shooter?
Tom: Yep, third best third person shooter experience in games.
Tom: It is certainly not so far at all on the level of binary domain or vanquish.
Phil: Well, there goes my opportunity to exploit the listener by teasing our upcoming three best third person shooters of the s.
Tom: Previously, the top two was literally the only two third person shooters ever made that were any good, but apparently Gears is another good one, but it's not really comparable to them.
Tom: It is a lot of fun, but it is like other third person shooters, so much more limited.
Tom: Vanquish gets around the basic problem of cover shooter, third person shooter design where you are by allowing you extreme mobility, yet also the advantages of cover, but you are able to move so extraordinarily between cover to cover that you can actually run around shooting enemies as well pretty freely, and the environments are nice and open.
Tom: Binary domain is much more limited in terms of movement and the design of the areas than Vanquish, but it has the different areas of enemies to shoot that is quite complicated and some excellent boss battles as well.
Tom: This is basically like your standard third-person shooter, where the areas are really limited.
Tom: It's simply better to just sit behind cover and sometimes move between cover if you can't shoot the enemies, but for the most part it's just best to sit around and snipe at them.
Tom: But it is fun, unlike other third-person shooters, one, because the enemies do actually sometimes have some aggression, though usually not so far, and two, the gunplay is so exceptionally good.
Phil: Exceptionally good, and I think the level design is also good.
Phil: I think the range of enemies is good.
Phil: You've got everything from robots.
Tom: That's another good thing about it, apparent even in the first level.
Tom: The enemy design reminds me a lot of the Doom reboot, so no doubt it was greatly influenced by Gears.
Phil: Well, obviously Gears vastly influenced Vanquish and Binary Domain, and both of those games have influenced Gears as well.
Phil: The robots were only introduced in Gears just so you know, and they start out with Gears because it's the first in the new, you know, it's the Millennials, it's no longer the old characters.
Phil: And so, oh well, it's okay to kill robots because they're just robots, you know.
Phil: And then the shit hits the fan, and it's like, fuck, we got to kill everything.
Phil: And it was a very slow burn at the start of Gears where it's like, oh shit, well, is this game just going to be about shooting robots now?
Phil: Because, you know, we can't shoot like two story high, you know, flesh monsters anymore.
Phil: And you know, the game develops on and on, the old guy comes in, are you going to really kill things?
Phil: Let me show you how to do it.
Phil: You know, and yeah, I like that.
Phil: I love the mix of AIs, I love the mix of the of the environments.
Phil: There's one environment that you'll get to later, that you come to this nice little quiet Tibetan town, Alaa, uncharted
Phil: And you're like, oh, this is all very peaceful.
Phil: And, you know, you pat the yak as you do, and you walk through it, and you're like, oh, yeah, I get it.
Phil: They're making me slow walk through this environment because I'm going to have to fight, you know, blood and tooth back through this environment to get out of it.
Phil: And that's and that is exactly what you have to do.
Phil: They do this Metroid thing where you have to go through the level.
Phil: You don't have the powers.
Phil: You don't have this or that.
Phil: And then then you have to go back through and blast your way through it.
Phil: And one thing I do like about the AI in this game is that it's tough.
Phil: I'm playing it on a level just above medium, I think.
Tom: Yep, I was playing on the hardest one.
Phil: Oh, good.
Phil: Good for you.
Tom: And it was it was nice and challenging without feeling cheap at all.
Phil: And that thing that happens at the end when you kill them all with the sound, yeah, it does that kind of thing.
Phil: Yep.
Phil: That's a that's a staple of the series.
Phil: And it is a pure dopamine endorphin rush or whatever you want to call it.
Phil: It's just so great to hear that sound that's been through the whole series the entire time.
Tom: What one thing I will add to one thing that it does well, which third person shooters for some reason do not do, I think because they seem to think that you can just take combat design from a first person shooter and stick it into a cover based third person shooter.
Tom: And that will be interesting, which it never is, is the reason that the one of the reasons in the first level anyway, that the combat was so enjoyable was basically, although you are it's really limited in how you move and the greatest advantage is hiding behind cover.
Tom: The way they dole out more powerful weapons makes it really satisfying when you get one of them.
Tom: And you are able to play more aggressively than when you have weaker weapons.
Tom: Although I have to say, the pistol, if you can get headshots, is bizarrely powerful.
Tom: It's like the Magnum in Halo pretty much.
Phil: I've always thought, actually in playing through Gears when I first got that gun, I was like, is this a tribute to Halo?
Phil: You know, the shotguns are always great, of course.
Phil: But yeah, there's a broad diversity of weapons.
Tom: Basically, as you're going through, it slows you down and gets you stuck behind cover, then allows you to get grenades or other more powerful weapons so that you can play more aggressively, so that it's holding you back, then giving the satisfaction of being able to play more aggressively, which third-person shooters don't do because they're just copying the weapon, the way you get weapons from first-person shooters, which are completely different.
Tom: The equivalent to this in first-person shooters is in the design of older first-person shooters or the Doom reboot with the special powers you pick up or rare super-powered weapons like certain rocket launchers and so forth, which first-person shooters don't do today because they're much slower.
Tom: But in something like a cover-based third-person shooter, you really need that, or all you're doing is basically just sitting around, popping out a cover and killing people, and it's completely one-note in terms of the pacing of the actual gameplay and is just a really uninteresting experience unless it is binary domain or vanquished.
Tom: So the way Gears so far manages to make cover-based shooting interesting is through the way it doles out weapons.
Tom: And so far, it's not as special as binary domain or vanquished, but it is tremendously enjoyable in and of itself.
Tom: And it also has, of course, a great sense of spectacle and pacing, although as someone who has been randomly dropped into the th page in a -page epic science fiction fantasy novel, I'm not sure that there is anything to be enjoyed about these cinematic walking sections so far where the characters are talking.
Phil: Yeah, that's about right.
Phil: I think the only other thing I need to bring up is that this is not from Epic Games.
Phil: Microsoft bought the rights to Gears of War, and basically a company called The Coalition is now developing the game.
Phil: And I think The Coalition used to be known as Turtle Rock, which is a developer out of Southern California, close to where I used to live.
Phil: But yeah, look, I give full credit to this game.
Phil: I think it's amazing.
Phil: Just like Reach, I think you need to play through the whole thing to really enjoy it.
Tom: They were the developers of Left Dead, I believe, the original.
Tom: Yeah, that's right.
Tom: And Counter-Strike as well, and the failed Evolve.
Phil: Yeah, I mean, Turtle Rock was a great developer.
Phil: And I might be wrong.
Phil: Coalition might be something completely different, you know.
Phil: In fact, Turtle Rock may have been the people that got bought out to do the Dead Rising games, for all I know.
Phil: But anyway, caveat, mTOR, double-check our facts.
Phil: If you're happy to move on to the next game.
Tom: I am indeed.
Tom: Oh, just one thing you were mentioning about the graphic style, because one thing the series has been maligned for is its brownness.
Tom: But there is certainly nothing brown about Gears in any case.
Tom: It is basically the second best, perhaps best, attempt at doing what Enslaved did.
Tom: A couple of other games have attempted, but none really come to mind that did it well other than Enslaved, of this basically tropical paradise future world where the technologically advanced world has failed and is now being overgrown by plant life of the tropical variety.
Tom: And it is super colorful and looks excellent and is one of the few games where the vegetation actually looks as good as the rest of the environment.
Phil: And Horizon Zero Dawn was the first game I thought of, which you played the Killzone game Skyfall I think.
Tom: I don't think it's called Skyfall.
Phil: It was one that was a prelude with the last Killzone game before Horizon and they both kind of played more in that organic white light, Nordic types, you know, light.
Tom: Killzone also had some very interesting alien vegetation sections as well and was an extremely colourful game even in the laboratories and levels like that, but it also had a lot of jungle sections.
Phil: Well, speaking of a game that doesn't have a lot of jungle sections, I recently have been playing Pokemon Shield, so Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield, obviously it's a Pokemon game, so they're released two of them at the same time.
Phil: I'm playing it, of course, on the only console that will play it, which is the Nintendo Switch.
Phil: I bought it because my nephew has Pokemon Shield and he asked me, oh, will you, I'm sorry, he has Pokemon Sword, he said, oh, will you buy Pokemon Shield so that we can trade Pokemon?
Tom: He finally gave up on trying to play Fortnite with you.
Phil: Well, his parents gave me a $gift voucher, so I took that as a hint and went and bought a copy of the game.
Tom: I thought you were saying went and bought $worth of Fortnite loot boxes.
Phil: And yeah, I've been playing it, you know, it's masterful, it is a really, really good game.
Phil: And so this is basically Game Freak's first foray into the console world where they're really trying to bring the game from the handheld versions into the console version.
Phil: Now the Switch is a handheld console and indeed with the Switch Lite, it is a purely handheld console.
Phil: But what I mean is they're bringing it into the D, you know, open world kind of scene.
Phil: So they have...
Tom: There have been a couple of Pokemon games that have done that before in the past, but they have not been as in-depth as RPGs, right?
Phil: That's right.
Phil: Well, they re-released Pokemon Blue for Switch, but they really babyfied it.
Phil: And it was kind of a training game for the Pokemon Sword Shield series, so because, you know, Pokemon Blue is pretty basic at this point.
Phil: And it was a way for them to work with D tools and things like that.
Phil: That Pokemon Sword Shield basically puts you in a world where Pokemon are a part of the real world and Pokemon Trainers are, you know, eSports kind of participants.
Phil: So basically, you know, you go to a stadium and you compete and all the rest of it.
Phil: But that's kind of an end boss type of thing.
Phil: You still have to go.
Phil: It still starts with you in a small village and your mom and, oh, don't go there.
Phil: It's too dangerous.
Phil: And your friend saying, yeah, let's go there.
Phil: Let's chase that Pokemon.
Phil: And, you know, you go around and, you know, level up.
Phil: It is a it is a pure interpretation of the Pokemon game put into a modern framework.
Phil: And it's absolutely delightful.
Tom: So it's what people have been asking for ever since the GameCube.
Phil: Ever since the Game Boy, you know, because Pokemon started as a Game Boy game.
Tom: But it was with the GameCube that people really wanted a proper console version of it.
Phil: I think even the Nbecause you saw games like Pokemon Snap and Pokemon...
Tom: I think less so precisely because you saw games like Pokemon Snap and Stadium.
Phil: Pokemon Stadium, yeah.
Tom: The Nactually had good Pokemon games on it that may not have been standard RPGs but were very much in the Pokemon universe and the Game Boy games themselves were still so massive then.
Tom: I think it's really the GameCube generation that people started wanting more out of them.
Phil: Right.
Phil: And with this game, it's not perfect.
Phil: I mean, there's no voice acting.
Phil: Pokemon is the most successful intellectual property or best selling intellectual property in human history.
Phil: And when that first scene dropped and there's no voice acting in its subtitles, I'm like, come on.
Phil: I mean, come on.
Phil: You guys can afford it and do it because your target audience is little kids.
Tom: I'm going to tell you why they don't because it isn't the greatest selling intellectual property in human history.
Tom: I would suggest that probably Islam and Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, even Judaism potentially would probably beat Pokemon.
Tom: And if you look at the creative output of the main series such as Christian films, for instance, they also usually rather half-arse the effort they put into things.
Tom: So I think if you have an intellectual property that sells just on the basis of the fact that it is essentially religion as Pokemon is, for the most part, people making stuff for that market are not going to really be too bothered about what they produce.
Phil: If the Shiites, Buddhists, Catholics or Evangelicals put out a video game, it would have been a voice acting game.
Phil: This game doesn't have voice acting.
Phil: The reason why that is especially egregious is...
Tom: I don't know if that's necessarily true.
Phil: It is true.
Tom: Does that Noah's Ark game have voice acting?
Phil: Noah's Ark?
Phil: There was one like the NES.
Tom: No, that was much later.
Tom: The shooter, the Noah's Ark shooter where you're shooting animals, they remade Doom or whatever.
Phil: That's SNES.
Tom: It wasn't released at Doom.
Phil: It's on a Super NES.
Tom: Yes, it wasn't released then.
Phil: Yes, it was released on the SNES in real time.
Tom: In one year.
Phil: I'll find out.
Phil: But these are contemporaneous releases where voice acting wasn't available.
Phil: All I'm saying is if the official Catholic Church put out a game like Pope Hunter, that it would have voice acting.
Phil: I'm just saying that it's not available.
Phil: I'm just saying that it's not available.
Phil: I'm not saying it's not available.
Phil: Let's get it done.
Phil: And the reason why this is especially egregious...
Tom: I again question that.
Tom: Let's use a more common example.
Phil: Now you're interrupting me for the third time on this poem.
Tom: Don't make me make it a fourth.
Tom: Don't make me make it a fourth.
Tom: Christian films do not feature acting.
Phil: Christian films aren't video games.
Tom: But they are.
Tom: But Pokemon films feature acting.
Tom: So check mate.
Phil: It's particularly egregious because there are children like my nephew who's only and, you know, his reading is not up to, you know, he's or something, you know, his reading is not up to the level of an adult and it would be very helpful for him to have voice acting.
Phil: And these people have more money than God.
Phil: There should be voice acting in this game.
Tom: I also question if they have more money than the Vatican.
Phil: I believe they definitely do.
Tom: I would question that.
Phil: Actually, yeah, you know, I take you on that and that's fodder for a future article.
Phil: Who has more money?
Tom: The Vatican or Game Freak.
Phil: So we'll look into that.
Phil: We'll get our crack team of investigative journalists on it.
Phil: We're running out of time here.
Phil: Basically, this game is amazing.
Phil: It's awesome.
Phil: If you have a Switch and you've played Pokemon in the past, you must buy it.
Phil: You must play it.
Phil: You will love it.
Phil: I always love that part of an RPG where you realize you've grinded too much.
Phil: I thought I was just playing the game normally and then, you know, I'm just grinding along, you know, building up experience and all the rest of it.
Phil: And then I get to the next town where I'm apparently up against this massive threat and he's like a level and I'm like a level
Phil: I love that about traditional JRPGs.
Phil: The fact that they'll let you do whatever you want.
Phil: And I, you know, for whatever reason, I always over level.
Phil: And honestly, this could be a whole psychotherapy issue by itself.
Phil: But it's just like, yeah, I just love it.
Phil: And it's fun.
Phil: It's got a lot of new elements.
Phil: It's got online elements that are enjoyable, that don't interfere with the with the true nature of the game.
Phil: It looks amazing.
Phil: It looks great, much like Ni No Kuni for the PlayStation
Phil: And it has all of the elements.
Phil: Now, it's gotten some criticism online for not having all of the prior Pokemon.
Phil: And I buy that.
Phil: You know, it's the same criticism I'm saying you guys have more money than God.
Phil: Why couldn't you include Squirtle?
Tom: You know, I think also you can't go into as many buildings as the Game Boy Game Boy handheld versions as well.
Phil: Yeah, that's true.
Phil: But, you know, those didn't cost anything.
Phil: Programming wise, and it's really not a major part of the game.
Phil: I mean, the major part of the game is going through the open fields.
Phil: The one thing that is jarring is that they have open world segments that are online where you can use the right analog stick to sweep around the camera the same way you would in any video game.
Phil: If you can follow that.
Phil: But then when you're in the towns, you can't do that.
Phil: You can't move the camera around.
Phil: It just switches back to a fixed camera.
Phil: And that is jarring.
Phil: So there are some elements of this game that are half ass, but I give them a pass on that, but only for this game.
Phil: I've played all the Pokemon games, and I didn't do it in the usual organic, nostalgic way like most people have.
Phil: I actually sat down at one point in my life and went, OK, I haven't played a Pokemon game.
Phil: People out there tell me what are the Pokemon games and remakes that I can play through them all.
Phil: And I played through them all, beat them all.
Phil: And grew an appreciation for it because I was a big JRPGer at the time.
Phil: And it is a fine series with its own distinct characteristics.
Phil: But it has been done on the cheap for decade on decade at this point, where they're recycling stuff and not putting in the money.
Phil: And I'd just love to know who's getting the money?
Phil: Who is getting the money?
Phil: I'd just love to know, is there a very rich guy, Japanese guy sitting in Peru that owns half of Peru?
Phil: Where is the money going?
Tom: Because maybe it's going to the Vatican.
Phil: Well, we'll check that out as well.
Phil: Because if you look at the most, the open that ever been was a Game Informer feature that was done about a few months ago, where they let the Westerners in for about a week.
Phil: And their studio is quite small.
Phil: There's not a lot of people actually working at Game Freak making these games.
Phil: So I do wonder where the money goes.
Phil: And may I posit it's the Yakuza, because we've seen that before in Sega's history, where they spent a massive amount of money on a game and you're like, where did they spend the money?
Phil: A la Shenmue and the first Yakuza game.
Tom: And now the Shenmue Kickstarter as well.
Phil: Yeah, well I think that all ended up with Yu Suzuki.
Phil: So do you have any questions before we end up on...
Tom: Just two, there has been, as well as entering buildings, generally the reaction seems to have been much more disappointed than you are.
Tom: And secondly, what are these un-intrusive online elements?
Tom: They sound quite interesting, potentially.
Phil: Well, basically in the on-world, or the open-world elements of the games, of the game rather, so you can imagine these controlled places and then you have these massive fields and that's where the online community is allowed to come on.
Phil: And because of the time I play, it happens to sync up with Japan.
Phil: I just have a lot of very nice people coming up to me giving me shit for free.
Phil: And I don't even know how to give them anything back.
Phil: You know, I've tried and tried.
Tom: Can you battle them and things like that?
Phil: You can battle them.
Phil: You can also team up with them Monster Hunter style.
Phil: So they have these points that are in the open world segment where you can team up with three or four other online players to go and attack a big boss.
Phil: If you're not connected online, you can take it on yourself.
Phil: But if you are connected, and most people who do connect online, you know, like the game, like other players, you go in there and you attack this big boss to get rewards.
Phil: So that's much like in Destiny or Monster Hunter.
Phil: So it's really enjoyable.
Tom: I think the other question was just there has been, generally speaking, not as positive a reaction to it as you have had.
Tom: Why do you think that is, if you're familiar with it?
Phil: I think predominantly it comes from the big story of the whole catchphrases of the game, is you got to catch them all.
Phil: And in this game, they didn't carry over the Pokemon from the entire series.
Phil: For whatever reason, Game Freak is not allowed the assets to convert.
Tom: Part of it would probably be the amount of time of animating for D.
Phil: I think if you had all the money in the world, you wouldn't have the time, because the models are rich.
Phil: Now, people would also say, well, you had all this time to introduce new characters.
Phil: Couldn't you have spent that time on the old ones?
Phil: But they didn't introduce as many new characters as the old characters that they didn't introduce.
Phil: And all the new characters are up to this point consistent with the quality that they've done in the past.
Phil: So I fully expect with the next Pokemon, they'll have all of those characters return.
Phil: I think this is just a big dummy spit to use an Australian term on the basis of the fact that they didn't include them all.
Phil: But you cannot fault the actual game play, level design, enemy design, story at all.
Phil: It is a complete package and thoroughly enjoyable.
Phil: And the best, you know, the best Pokemon game that's been made to date because it captures all the things they've done up till now and embellish them and put them in a rich, colorful D environment.
Phil: So I think the criticism really does come from sour grapes.
Tom: Or disappointment.
Tom: What would the fans have to be sour about?
Phil: Just the fact that they don't include, you know, all the Pokemon.
Tom: Well, that's disappointment rather than sour grapes.
Phil: Oh, well, that is sour grapes.
Phil: I mean, they're basically just, you know, you didn't do this one thing for me, so therefore this game's shit.
Tom: Let me just get the definition of sour grapes.
Phil: Yeah, you look that up.
Phil: I think also there was a, there had to have been millions of people that bought the Switch for the first time because this game was released.
Phil: And so, you know, they're not just investing as I did.
Phil: I got bucks, you know, that's my skin in the game because I got a $gift voucher, you know.
Phil: So, you know, my skin in the game is fairly low.
Phil: If you had bought a $$game console, whatever they cost, and then bought this game because you finally said, OK, yeah, they got Mario, they got Zelda, that's fine.
Phil: OK, Pokemon's come out.
Phil: Now I'll buy the console.
Phil: And I think it's just probably a little bit of buyer's remorse because, you know, they've got bucks invested in this game.
Phil: I got bucks invested in this game.
Phil: And I had very low expectations going into it.
Phil: And they obviously thought, well, this is the the fulmination of years or years or years or however long this thing's been going on.
Phil: Obviously, this is going to be Nirvana.
Phil: And I'm going in going, yeah, obviously, this isn't going to be Nirvana because this is their first time of doing it properly.
Phil: So, did you find that definition of sour grapes?
Tom: And I would still question your usage here.
Tom: Technically, you may be able to argue that you're right, but I would question it.
Tom: We're going to Cambridge for a reasonable source on the definition.
Tom: If you describe someone's behavior or opinion as sour grapes, you mean that that person is angry because they have not got or achieved something that they wanted.
Tom: Now, wait though.
Tom: Wait?
Tom: No though, because listen to the examples here.
Tom: Because it implies that there is some investment involved in the process.
Phil: I bought Pokemon Shield and it wasn't what I wanted.
Phil: Sour grapes.
Tom: No.
Tom: Here are some examples.
Tom: I don't think it's such a great job, and that's not just sour grapes because I didn't get it.
Tom: Are his criticisms justified, or is this a case of sour grapes from a less successful artist?
Tom: I would suggest that this is more merely a case of their expectations potentially being too high.
Tom: And them expecting a one-to-one translation of the handheld version to console.
Phil: I think we'll give this one in for AC Pro because this is his English lesson for the show.
Phil: I think sour grapes has to do with envy.
Tom: Exactly, as those examples contained.
Phil: Yeah, yeah.
Phil: So having you refresh my knowledge of sour grapes because I'm not an envious person.
Phil: I've got it all, and let's face it, I do.
Tom: You've even got Pokemon Shield.
Phil: I've even got Pokemon Shield for bucks.
Phil: Look, go out, buy a Switch for it and you won't be disappointed, especially if you buy Mario Odyssey for it.
Tom: You won't be disappointed in Pokemon Shield if you buy Mario Odyssey.
Phil: Yep, and with that, unless you've got anything else you want to bleat?
Tom: No, I don't.
Phil: Okay, well good luck with those fires down there.
Tom: That's what the thunderstorm was for.
Phil: Yep, and if anyone wants to send us money because we're in a country that has a lot of fires, just comment at gameunder.net, go into one of our stories and say, hey, I want to give you guys money, let me know how I can do it, and we'll do it.
Phil: Because this podcast and our website is advertising free, which is really refreshing in this day and age and quite uncommon.
Phil: And not at all because we can't possibly get advertisers because of the things that we say on this podcast.
Tom: Well, they won't advertise on the website, but they will sponsor our studio nevertheless.
Phil: Yeah, I've got to tell you though, I don't know if you've ever had this experience with your underwear bunching up.
Phil: And so recently I've been getting my underwear from MeUndies.
Phil: So MeUndies is a website where you can subscribe for a very low price, and each month they will send you...
Phil: I'm kidding, I'm kidding, it's a joke!
Phil: It's a joke!
Phil: It's not MeUndies.
Phil: Don't buy it, it's a shit product.
Tom: But the underwear has indeed been bunching up lately.
Phil: Actually it hasn't.
Phil: I don't think the underwear bunching up is a common problem.
Phil: Do you?
Tom: No, I wear boxer shorts.
Phil: Oh really?
Phil: Consistently?
Tom: Boxer shorts or tights, I believe, is the correct term, but they're no longer referred to as tights.
Tom: Or long-drons is another term for them.
Tom: I think they're now called leggings.
Phil: Leggings?
Phil: Oh, okay.
Phil: Yep.
Phil: Alright, yeah, because boxer shorts on a bike, that's not going to work.
Phil: In any case, don't buy...
Tom: It does work.
Tom: How would that not work?
Tom: You can wear shorts on a bike.
Phil: Yeah, you can wear shorts, but you need the support, you know?
Phil: You need the support.
Phil: And, you know, have you ever bought bike shorts?
Tom: No, I certainly have never bought bike shorts.
Phil: If you want, I can send you an old pair of bike shorts that I have.
Phil: But in any case, I think we can quantify...
Tom: Just make sure to wear them first, or it won't be a proper used underwear product.
Phil: Yeah, and the Japanese are really uptight about that.
Phil: But anyway, I just want to say that MeUndies is a horrible product and do not buy them.
Phil: And that's the freedom that we have for being advertiser free.
Phil: We can say that kind of thing.
Phil: Are there any other commercial products that you hate that you wish to throw under the bus at this juncture?
Tom: Your second hand underwear, because I've now received it and I can confirm that it is odorless.
Tom: So I would not recommend buying used underwear from Phil Fogg.
Tom: He is a scammer.
Phil: Thank you very much.
Phil: So with that we'll close out episode of The Game Under Podcast.
Phil: I am Phil Fogg and I've been joined by the supreme co-host and EIC of gameunder.net, Mr.
Phil: Tom Towers.