Game Under Podcast 161

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0:00:25 Intro

0:03:53 Halo Bungie and 343 Industry

0:23:19 Tom Plays Open Roads

0:26:29 Open Road is Pretty much Star Wars

0:39:45 Spoilers (but you really don't care)

0:41:49 Both Hosts play You Suck at Parking

0:58:48 Tom's Exhausting Story

1:14:33 Tom Plays Still Wakes the Deep

1:34:33 Nintendo's Alarmo

1:39:11 E-mails - What genre would you kill?

Transcript
WEBVTT

Phil: And in absent for a while.

Phil: So I'm sure it'll be a great podcast.

Phil: I'll bring that big energy I'm famous for.

Phil: Episode

Phil: Okay, I'll do the intro this time.

Tom: I thought that was the intro, that was your high-energy intro.

Phil: Hey everybody, it's episode of The Game Under Podcast, Australia's longest running video game podcast.

Phil: I am Phil Fogg, and I am joined by my inimitable co-host, Mr.

Phil: Tom Towers.

Phil: Tom Towers.

Phil: Are we both co-hosts, or are we both hosts?

Phil: I think we're just both hosts.

Tom: I'm not sure.

Tom: I think, if I do the intro, I'm the host, and you're the co-host.

Tom: And if you do the intro, you're the host, and I'm the co-host.

Phil: No, I think we're just equally hosts, because you know what?

Phil: In a plane, there's two pilots, but one of them is the co-pilot.

Phil: And I don't think we have a co-pilot.

Tom: I don't think this is a plane either.

Phil: No, that's true.

Phil: It's a good thing it isn't, given...

Tom: That's why the podcast is still going and it hasn't crashed.

Phil: That's it.

Phil: Anything to talk about before we get into the news?

Tom: I don't think so.

Tom: I think we should go straight into the news.

Tom: I think we've had some very big and important news this week, haven't we?

Phil: Well, we have, but we've got so many games to talk about.

Phil: This week, we're going to be talking about a game that you have finished called Open Roads.

Phil: Who made that?

Tom: I think that was made by the Open Roads team, formerly known as Fullbright Entertainment.

Phil: Right.

Phil: They're famous for?

Tom: For Gone Home.

Phil: That's it.

Phil: A new game from them.

Phil: We're also going to play a game that both of us have been playing, which are You Suck at Parking.

Phil: We've got another game that we touched on last time, Still Wakes the Deep from the people who made Dear Esther.

Phil: That's correct.

Phil: Finally, we've both been playing You've Beaten, Disco Elysium, an oldie, but certainly a unique game.

Phil: I think the only game that studio has ever developed or ever will develop given how they've broken up.

Phil: We've got a lot of games to go through today.

Phil: We also, the last episode, we posted a bonus episode last week.

Phil: It was your review of A Plague Tale Innocence.

Phil: Did you get in the time machine, go back and listen to that?

Tom: I did not, unfortunately.

Phil: Yeah.

Tom: Did you listen to it?

Phil: I did.

Phil: It was funny how many things that we said exactly the same way four years ago and with some slight variation.

Phil: And your review was incredibly cogent and far better than mine.

Phil: For example, in my review from the episode I identified the person who was hunting with the female protagonist at the start of the game as one of her workers or one of her servants.

Phil: You correctly identified him as her father.

Phil: And many other details that you were like dead on, absolutely dead on, that I got wrong.

Phil: It was quite...

Tom: It takes a fine level of skill to be able to dive into such fine details like that.

Phil: Well, the fact that the serpent was then killed, and then that didn't have any sort of impact on me, even though I do remember in the game, it came up quite a bit about her father being dead.

Phil: So, yeah, go back and listen to that.

Phil: Of course, our website is gameunder.net, if you'd like to catch up on that, and let's jump into the news.

Phil: Now, this first article is from a couple of weeks ago now, but it's still interesting.

Phil: Bungie, of course, the developer of Destiny and Halo, their former general counsel, so their former attorney, dished the dirt in a quite public way.

Phil: And as usual, we like it when you get some truth into the public arena.

Phil: Bungie's former chief in-house, oh, the story credit for this one goes to Eurogamer.

Phil: Bungie's former chief in-house lawyer, Don McGowan, reckons it's a good thing that Sony is quote, inflicting some discipline on the Destiny studio, and helping management quote, run the game like a business.

Phil: Quote, to be clear, I'm not talking about the layoffs, I'm talking about forcing them to get their heads out of their asses and focus on things like implementing a method of new player acquisition, not just doing fan service for the fans in the bungee C-suite and running the game like a business.

Phil: This is the quote, this is the future I thought the company should embrace after the Sony acquisition, a studio, not an independent company.

Phil: That's pretty frank and frank talking.

Tom: I think it's coming from an interesting source here.

Tom: Oh, definitely.

Tom: Acting merely as their legal counsel.

Phil: Yeah, absolutely.

Phil: He was the chief legal officer.

Phil: He was the general counsel at Bungee, which is basically the top lawyer.

Phil: And then he was the chief legal officer at Pokemon.

Phil: And before that, he spent four years at Microsoft's legal team.

Phil: So why would you think that that's unusual given his position?

Tom: I just wonder how hands-on he would have been with the development team.

Phil: Well, I don't think he's criticizing the developers.

Phil: I think he's criticizing...

Phil: And he would have nothing to do with the developers.

Phil: He would have only been talking to the people at the top.

Tom: I think you'd need to see how it's being expressed down below too, though, wouldn't you?

Phil: Not necessarily.

Phil: I don't think that people who are general counsels typically want to have any interaction with anyone in the company other than the people at the very top, just for reasons of discretion.

Phil: So, yeah, I mean, if you look at Bungie, I mean, the history was obviously they were independent.

Phil: Microsoft bought them.

Phil: Then somehow, Microsoft and them split ways, and then Activision bought them.

Phil: And now Sony owns them.

Phil: When they came into Sony, they were giving advice, because at the time, as we discussed in the last episode, the leading executive of Sony at that time wanted Sony to lean into live service games.

Phil: And they said that they had of them in development at one time.

Phil: And I know that Bungie was the ones that knocked the Naughty Dog live action, live action, live service game on the head.

Phil: So when they first came in, I think they were coming in so that they could sort of drive that part of the company and give them some expertise that they lacked elsewhere.

Phil: And then since then, they've had layoffs and all the rest of it.

Phil: Again, like we speculated last time, since that executive left, now live service games are no longer as important.

Tom: And I think, didn't Bungie develop Destiny, not Studios?

Phil: Oh yeah, absolutely.

Phil: Bungie developed Halo, and then they developed Destiny when they went over to Activision.

Phil: Activision bought them on the premise that they were going to make Destiny and it was a year plan and now it has been years.

Tom: So these statements relate only to slash Halo Studios, right?

Phil: No, no, this is Bungie's former, this is Bungie, so Bungie that left Microsoft and then developed.

Tom: I think Bungie is still known as Bungie, not Halo Studios.

Phil: That's correct.

Phil: Yeah, Bungie is still Bungie.

Phil: That's a separate story.

Phil: this week changed their name to Halo Studios.

Tom: But these comments are about Bungie.

Phil: These comments are about Bungie.

Tom: Okay.

Phil: Not the Microsoft company that has developed the last three Halo games.

Tom: Okay.

Phil: Make sense?

Tom: Yeah, now it makes sense.

Phil: Yeah, yeah.

Phil: And it does make sense because the company obviously was still being run by the founders, and still is being run by the people who were there at the start.

Phil: And so they obviously have a great amount of ego, and well-earned ego, I'd say, given the success of their only two games.

Phil: But yeah, obviously, this lawyer had a different opinion as to how they should be running the business.

Tom: I think it's interesting coming from a lawyer, that's all.

Phil: Oh yeah, because attorney-client privilege and discretion, like you'd never hear a lawyer say that.

Phil: They're supposed to take this stuff to their grave.

Phil: You know, who knows?

Phil: He may have left them in a bad way.

Tom: I think he must have left in bad circumstances.

Phil: Yeah, exactly.

Phil: But still, even if you are as an attorney, you'd think that there'd be a level of discretion there.

Phil: You might tell people personally, but certainly not on a LinkedIn post, which the whole world can see.

Tom: I think that's the part I'm most intrigued about, is what elicited these statements.

Phil: Yep.

Phil: Just another Halo News, and then we'll get into what we've been playing.

Phil: As I said, Team the division within, I'm sorry, Industries, the developer within Microsoft, that's responsible for the Halo franchise.

Phil: A couple of things, really notable things happened.

Phil: The least notable thing that happened is that they announced they're introducing a third-person mode into Halo Infinite.

Phil: One would imagine this could have no meaning at all, or it could be that it is them trying to broaden the appeal to players of Fortnite and other games where it's played in third-person.

Phil: Yeah, exactly.

Phil: The second most notable thing is that they have changed their name from Industries to Halo Studios.

Phil: Obviously, they feel there's a need there to turn the page.

Phil: What is your opinion of Industries?

Tom: Well, they've only ever made Halo games, I believe.

Phil: Yes, that's right.

Tom: So the name makes some degree of sense.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: And I forget how the name came about.

Phil: But they're typically mostly been disparaged as a studio, which is what you can imagine being the people that went on to continue making Halo after the original company left the IP.

Phil: Even if they did just as good of a job, they're obviously going to get criticism because anything that people don't like, they can say, well, this is because Bungie's not doing it anymore.

Tom: Was it Halo Reach that I played on Game Start and thought was absolutely abysmal?

Phil: Halo Reach was the last game, I believe, developed by Bungie before they left.

Phil: So Bungie was responsible for Halo ODST and Reach.

Tom: Because there was one Halo PC game I played, which I was not a fan of, and I'm not sure whether it was developed by or Bungie.

Phil: Right.

Phil: So Team sorry, Industries has only ever developed numbered series entries.

Phil: So if that helps you remember which it is, if the game that you played had a jazz, soft jazz soundtrack that played while you were playing the game, and required you looking for colored pass keys to get around a city, that's Halo ODST.

Tom: It might have been ODST.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: ODST is, in my opinion, the worst Halo game and just not a good game in general.

Phil: Halo, a lot of people love it, by the way, because they were doing something different with it, which a lot of people liked.

Tom: I think Gargan enjoyed it.

Phil: Halo Reach is, to me, the absolute best Halo game out of all of them.

Phil: You spend a lot of the game not playing as Master Chief, and maybe you don't play, anyhow, I can't imagine that'd be right.

Phil: Halo Reach is a really good story, and it was their last game.

Phil: It was absolutely fantastic.

Phil: And that is not an uncommon opinion either.

Phil: So, yeah, I think they changed the name.

Phil: That could just be because a lot of people have moved on.

Phil: The name hasn't really helped them out, and probably just cementing that, hey, we are only gonna be focused on Halo related games.

Phil: They did announce-

Tom: As if they hadn't already been.

Tom: Yeah.

Phil: They did announce-

Phil: As if, yeah.

Phil: They did announce that they are switching to the Unreal Engine

Phil: So they were using a bespoke engine that, parts of it were over years old.

Phil: This was actually providing them with difficulty in signing on new developers because you basically had to come into the job and leaving your expertise and tools behind, and then learning a whole new engine.

Phil: So this should help them out.

Phil: And just to show off what they've been doing, they released a trailer.

Phil: And it's not for a game or anything else, but they basically took a whole bunch of Halo assets and read to them in UEand released it on a very impressive trailer.

Phil: So hopefully, that means a smoother development, cycle for them as well.

Tom: And potentially less interesting game.

Phil: Yeah, potentially.

Phil: But I mean, I think if you allow people to use the engine that they're most familiar with, it enables them to spend more time on creativity and less time on just figuring out how to get this old engine to run.

Tom: I think arbitrary limitations can also encourage creativity too.

Phil: Absolutely.

Phil: Absolutely.

Phil: So yeah, that's basically all your Halo news.

Phil: But the question comes up is to what could they do?

Phil: What could they do differently?

Phil: How could they make Halo more relevant?

Phil: They're obviously rebooting, restarting.

Phil: So to me, I was trying to think of what was different about Halo?

Phil: What was good about Halo?

Phil: And how do they get back to that?

Tom: I think Halo still is pretty relevant.

Tom: I mean, when Infinite was announced, it was one of the biggest trailers going around and had a lot of hype until it was released.

Tom: So I wouldn't say that Halo is lacking any relevance these days.

Phil: I think its relevance is lessened because, I mean, it's obviously going to be very important to people who were playing the original series.

Phil: That's years ago at this point.

Phil: So players are more interested in online shooters now than they are single player games.

Phil: Now, obviously, from Halo forward, Halo was an online shooter.

Phil: But it just doesn't really compare with the popularity of Destiny and Team Fortress.

Phil: No, Team Fortress, Fortnite.

Phil: They need to do something.

Phil: And I think that to me, the best element of Halo, the original best thing about Halo was the artificial intelligence in the old sense of the enemies in the game.

Phil: Like when you're playing those early levels on Halo, you know, just the AI of the grunts and all the different characters and how they changed what they were doing.

Phil: It was more human-like than, you know, a lot of most games at that time.

Phil: You know, it looked good and all that sort of thing, and it functioned well and the weapons were fun.

Phil: But to me, like, the really compelling part of it was that you really had to think about what you were doing because the people that you're playing in single mode or the characters in single mode were just as smart as in appearance to people you would be playing online in when you're playing, you know, Unreal Championship.

Tom: So as to the relevance of Halo versus Destiny for example, I was looking up sales and apparently Halo full stop has only sold million copies and Destiny has sold million copies.

Phil: How many has Halo Infinite sold?

Tom: The Halo series has supposedly sold million copies, and Destiny has sold million.

Tom: So it's sold nearly half of the entirety of the Halo series.

Tom: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Phil: And I bet those first three games plus Reach and ODSD were where most of that million came from.

Tom: But I question if Halo can be a vehicle for that sort of success, because I think all of the appeal around Halo is, as one aspect of it, as you were saying, was the AI.

Tom: And I think in terms of it being an online game, the appeal is around the simplicity of the gameplay and the maps.

Tom: And it's a very classic team-based or single-player against every one first-person shooter, whereas Destiny is all about building a character as Fortnite and so on and so forth.

Tom: They're all about either building your own character or picking a character that has their unique play style and so on and so forth, as opposed to giving you a basic way of playing, with which you can express yourself through how you actually play, as opposed to choosing a template that you then follow.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: I think if you think about games like Halo and Uncharted and Gears of War, those are all games that are made.

Phil: We spend a whole bunch of money to put all of this on a plastic disc and you buy it and you play it.

Phil: And that's how we get our money and that's how we enjoy things.

Phil: But the model now is you make money with, by keeping people playing your game generationally.

Phil: And I don't mean, I mean console generationally, right?

Phil: So Fortnite has traversed two platforms.

Phil: GTA is now, I think, years old or approaching it.

Phil: And obviously when it first launched, it didn't have any online.

Phil: And now that's the only thing that people play with GTA.

Phil: Will GTA the single player game, sell a bazillion copies?

Phil: Absolutely, but it's the tail of the live service game that is what publishers are interested in, in terms of getting that money.

Phil: The reason why Fortnite hasn't fallen off the way that other games have.

Phil: What was the Battle Royale game that...

Phil: Player One's...

Tom: Player Unknown's Battle Royale.

Phil: Yeah, PUBG, right?

Phil: So PUBG's people, it's still a popular game, but nowhere near on the scale of Fortnite.

Phil: And the reason is, is because Fortnite is constantly changing.

Phil: They're changing...

Phil: Well, first of all, they're introducing a whole bunch of new content all the time.

Phil: And number two is that they actually make changes to the game play all the time, but have a diversity in there enough so that if you don't like it, you can still play it the old way.

Phil: And they've got the benefit of having a massive people, that they can sort of split those servers sort of thing down to people who want to play in build mode versus people who want to play in other modes.

Phil: So yeah, I think Epic has done an amazing job at what they're doing.

Phil: And I think that's what I was trying to talk to about in terms of its relevance.

Phil: I think it's going to be very difficult for the team, regardless of what they're called or what engine they use, to make Halo something that has appeal, and continues to have appeal.

Phil: Because Halo Infinite, as you said, when it first came out, sold a bunch, got good reviews.

Phil: But the problem was they couldn't keep up with the cadence of new content to hold people's interest.

Tom: Do they need to?

Phil: It certainly would be better for Microsoft to have a popular live service game than not.

Phil: Is it wise for them to be focusing on an IP that already exists?

Phil: You know, probably not.

Phil: That's the thing.

Tom: I think it makes more sense to try it with something else rather than convert what is still a very successful series in its own right into something that I think is more likely to fail than succeed.

Phil: Yeah, I mean, to really dumb it down.

Phil: Let's just say that, you know, cartoons like anime become very, very popular, right?

Phil: To the point where that's the only thing that young people want to watch is anime.

Phil: If you're a publisher, do you take an established live action, you know, movie franchise like Die Hard and go, well, people love Die Hard, so let's just make a Die Hard anime.

Phil: You know, it may work, it may not, but you can't just adopt the platform and the pastiche of this thing that's popular and apply it to your old media and think it's going to work.

Phil: Yeah, it's going to be interesting what all these old studios do, like Naughty Dog, you know.

Phil: It's just going to be interesting because as people like myself age out, the people that like single player games that are static and not dynamic, these older studios that are focused on building really expensive single player games on pieces of plastic, they're going to have to change or die.

Phil: We spent way more time on that than I thought.

Phil: Sorry, everyone.

Phil: Let's get into what we've been playing.

Phil: Tom, I'll let you take it.

Tom: I've been playing and finished Open Roads, which was developed by the Open Roads team, formerly known as Fulbright, who developed Gone Home.

Tom: And it's very much in the vein of Gone Home.

Tom: You're playing as a teenage girl who is at the opening, going through their grandmother's house, which has just been sold and the majority of her stuff has been sold.

Tom: And at an estate sale, and you're going through the remaining refuse, and your mother is there.

Tom: And as you pick up and look at, look at items and rotate them in the vein of Gone Home, you will often have an option to call your mother over, who will then come and talk to you in semi-animated style, fully voice acted, but the animations are semi-animated in a, what's the term, rotoscope sort of style.

Phil: Okay, so this is a walking simulator then?

Tom: Yes, essentially.

Phil: And it just came out?

Tom: It came out earlier this year.

Phil: Okay, and I know, I looked it up earlier, it is available for everything.

Phil: So the name of the game is Open Roads, and it's available on everything.

Phil: It has been getting mixed or average reviews from critics, but yeah, it sounds, what you've described so far, sounds pretty much identical to Gone Home.

Tom: It is, but it's a lot less detailed and developed.

Tom: I think the strife behind its development potentially shows a little bit.

Tom: In Gone Home, there was a myriad of items that you could pick up and interact with, and they all generally had some degree of purpose in building the world.

Tom: That's less so the case here.

Tom: There's a lot less you can interact with, and the things you can interact with, the things that don't prompt a call your mother over to discuss that item, don't really add to the setting or story to the same degree that they did in Gone Home.

Tom: So it's a much, I think, less engrossing experience in that sense.

Tom: But I think it's in other ways more interesting.

Tom: I think the plot and story is a lot more engaging.

Tom: Conversely, I think the themes are less devout.

Tom: Let's just say the conceit of the game is you discover a mysterious letter, I think it is, in the leftover things from the estate sale, that might indicate that the grandmother was in fact having an affair, which leaves you off on a chase to discover the truth, and given the interaction back and forth with the mother, it's, I think, more interesting than the text that you were just going through in Gone Home.

Phil: So it's kind of like Star Wars.

Tom: It is very much like Star Wars in the sense that it is a narrative.

Phil: Okay, so to the question...

Phil: No, I meant that it may turn out, this is the grandmother stuff you're going through, and your mom is there, right?

Phil: And she's had an affair.

Phil: It may turn out that your father might not be who you think he is, or your mother might not be who you think she is.

Phil: Like her, you could turn out that your mom was fathered by someone other than dear old granddad.

Tom: Yeah.

Phil: Which means genetically...

Tom: That is one of the possibilities.

Phil: It is certainly one of the possibilities.

Phil: Now, these questions you're asking and all this sort of thing, has it got like a dialogue wheel or multiple choice?

Tom: Yes, it does.

Tom: You can choose between, I think, three different dialogue options during the conversations with your mother.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: Well, that annoys me, which we'll talk about when we get to Disco Elysium.

Phil: Not for anything Disco does, but, you know...

Phil: The thing I don't like...

Phil: I'll say it now.

Phil: The thing I don't like about these picking options is that there's most often not an option that I would pick myself.

Phil: But that's neither here nor there.

Phil: It's what the character would say.

Phil: And when I was playing Sue's Reign, S-U-Z-E-R-A-I-N, a game that we haven't discussed on this podcast, where you're playing the leader of another country, and he has to go through all these political decisions and decisions of war and this, that, and the other.

Phil: And I would go, okay, well, it's not really what I want to say, but I'm going to pick this option.

Phil: And in the case of that game, the words that he was saying was taken literally.

Phil: And finally, and it's like, no, I was saying that to get a reaction so that we could further negotiate, right?

Tom: I thought this was going to go in a different direction.

Tom: I thought you were going to say that.

Tom: Suzerain, I think you're playing as a dictator, right?

Phil: No, no, you're, you're, you're, you have been elected to what has been for the last many decades, a informal dictatorship, and you're trying to reform it.

Tom: Okay.

Tom: So I thought, I thought it was about a dictator, and you're going to say this was a game that actually gave you the dialogue choices you would have chosen.

Phil: But basically, like, you're in a negotiation, so okay, I'm going to take the hard line, so I can come back from it, and then we can continue to negotiate.

Phil: And so you pick the hard line one, and then you're like, oh, well, that's it, then.

Phil: We're going to war.

Phil: Bye.

Phil: It's like, wait, wait, wait.

Phil: That's no, you know.

Phil: So I find these dialogue trees and these, these text games where you're talking as a character, because I really get into who I was in that game, you know.

Phil: Like, and also too with Disco Elysium even in these early stages.

Phil: And then there's just stuff where I want to speak, but I think the character would speak, but they don't give me that option.

Phil: So the question about the dialogue tree, though, is does this, does this game have branching paths?

Phil: Does that, does it change how, what happens in the game significantly or not?

Phil: Do you know?

Tom: I don't think it changes things significantly.

Tom: I think it changes things to a minor degree.

Tom: Just in terms of dialogue, you might see or not see.

Tom: An example of this is, in one scene, you have a fight with your mother in a car ride, and you can attempt to talk to her after that and get some more dialogue options, or you can just sit there stewing and miss out on that scene.

Phil: No, okay.

Phil: So it doesn't change the plot though.

Tom: I don't think so.

Tom: Okay.

Tom: Yep.

Tom: So as I was saying, I think it's more engaging, a narrative experience and Gone Home, but I think it's thematically, I was going to say less interesting than Gone Home, but then I remembered, I didn't think that the theme in Gone Home was particularly well-handled either.

Tom: But suffice it to say, in this game, the grandmother has potentially or potentially not done a very questionable thing, which is neither of the two protagonists in the story seem to give a shit about or think, have any thoughts on whatsoever, or other angles of the thing she has done on the other people who are involved are considered by the protagonists.

Tom: But this particular thing, which I think would in many people's minds be the most questionable action by any of the characters involved in the narrative is completely ignored by any character in the game, which just creates a weirdly unfulfilling and unsatisfying feeling to the story.

Phil: What is the theme of the story?

Tom: Well, I think we'd have to go into spoilers to get to that.

Phil: Okay.

Tom: To analyze it more deeply.

Tom: The game is about three hours, two and a half to three hours.

Phil: It's like a $game?

Tom: I will check how much it is.

Tom: I played it on Game Pass.

Phil: I think $is a fair deal for a...

Tom: I believe the full price is $

Phil: Okay.

Phil: Well, they're giving it away for free for now.

Phil: So they're trying to get as much.

Tom: So $per hour.

Phil: That's not too bad.

Phil: It's not too bad.

Phil: That's what we used to spend in the arcades back in the day, as long as it's a good experience.

Phil: So the story in Gone Home, as I remember, was very two-dimensional.

Phil: It was basically like you're a young lesbian that goes home and looks through your family's stuff and your stuff, and then just realizes that you've changed, and the world's changed, and you can never go home.

Phil: I'm not a fan of Gone Home.

Phil: Does that sound like right?

Tom: Something wrong with those lines, and I think joining the military was involved somehow.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: Well, like I said, she became a lesbian.

Tom: So of course the military is involved.

Phil: No, no, no, no, I'm not saying anything more.

Tom: And you probably shouldn't either.

Phil: Not saying anything to denigrate the fine people of any gender who serve in our military forces.

Phil: Absolutely not.

Phil: The fine people who are doing a tremendous thing.

Phil: But is the story in this one as two-dimensional?

Tom: I think so.

Tom: I think the themes are as two-dimensional, but I think the way the narrative told is, in the one sense, worse than Gone Home, because at least Gone Home did make good use of the environment.

Tom: But I think it's more enjoyable here, just because of the back and forth between characters, because the thing is to make the story of Gone Home interesting.

Tom: I think you need the characters themselves to have some depth to them and have something interesting going on.

Tom: Whereas here, I think because it's voice acted, you don't need the characters to be as good to make them engaging, because you've got actors to do that for you.

Phil: How old is the character that you're playing, Tess?

Tom: I think

Phil: Okay.

Phil: Well, she's still young.

Phil: And then her mother, Opal, is presumably at least then.

Tom: So I think she's many thousands of years old, judging by some of the dialogue.

Phil: Her mother?

Tom: Yeah.

Phil: Opal.

Phil: Yeah.

Tom: Yes.

Phil: It's a very old type of name.

Phil: All right.

Phil: You haven't made a very compelling reason for any interest in this game, other than it's free and on Game Pass.

Phil: So I'm going to ask you this question.

Phil: This game is, we went on a large discourse a couple of episodes ago about walking simulators.

Phil: Well, what could walking simulators be like today?

Phil: Why would you revisit the genre?

Phil: What innovations does this game bring?

Phil: What is it, this team that obviously had something to do with making walking simulators popular, what have they, what have they done differently or brought new to this?

Tom: Given they've pretty much done everything here in Gone Home already, I'm not sure there's anything new about it.

Phil: Okay.

Tom: I think despite my criticisms of it, I enjoyed it and I think the characters were entertaining enough from the beginning to the end.

Tom: And the environments were generally enjoyable to explore.

Tom: And the puzzles though, very, very simple, often just consisting of needing to find where a key was, that sort of thing.

Tom: I think it still gave you enough of a sense of progression that it was enjoyable.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: Well, while you reach for the Dye of Destiny, I have one other question and that is, you mentioned that this team had some disruption or whatever.

Phil: What, I mean, first of all, how much of this team was with the original Gone Home team?

Phil: And what were the problems that the developer faced while developing this game, Open Roads?

Tom: I think Stephen Gaynor, who was the founder of Fulbright, was being a dickhead in some way or other.

Tom: I think they've ever gone in too much detail about it.

Tom: So he left under suspicious circumstances following this, but kept the name of the company.

Tom: But I think everyone else continued to develop the game, just without him.

Phil: I think I currently remember that I made maybe a Me Too allegation.

Phil: This was a couple of years ago at this point.

Tom: So you personally made the Me Too allegation that led to the downfall of Stephen Gaynor?

Phil: I don't think that I made any such thing.

Phil: I may have recounted some reports that were in the open source.

Phil: You know, I probably would not have come up with an original thought myself, certainly not one that would have defamed any individuals involved.

Phil: So, with that, get that diadestiny, get that elbow, that...

Phil: What do you call your top ankles?

Tom: What do you call your top ankles?

Tom: Your wrists.

Phil: Okay, get your wrists ready, and give us a score for Open Roads.

Tom: Two out of ten.

Phil: Sounds about right.

Phil: It doesn't quite sound about right, but it sounds about...

Tom: It also does, though.

Phil: It sounds about the percentage chance I have of ever downloading and installing and playing this game, or even looking at the visuals of it.

Phil: Hey, that brings to mind, what is the art like?

Phil: What's the visual art like?

Phil: What does it most look like?

Tom: I think that's, that's, I think, another strength of the game, except that the lighting changes from light to dark areas are a little weird, and they make the dark areas so bright that there isn't really much of a contrast between the two.

Phil: So they don't go full bright?

Tom: They do go full bright.

Tom: That's the problem.

Phil: Okay.

Tom: That's the problem.

Tom: But everything's got a nostalgic filter to it.

Tom: It's set in the early s, which I think they could have done more with the setting as well.

Tom: There are some allusions to September I think, but they're not really followed through much at all.

Tom: But maybe that's deliberate given the warmongering of Gone Home.

Phil: Briefly, the sound design.

Tom: The sound design, I think the voice acting is very good.

Tom: Yep, the two main characters both give very good performances.

Tom: I think there have been some criticism that the main character doesn't sound like she's years old or something, but I thought the performance was suitably teenager-y.

Tom: I think before we move on, though, we've got to go into spoilers briefly, because I think it's hilarious.

Tom: The way the mystery of the game is handled is thematically absolutely hilarious.

Phil: Okay, so for people who don't already know, we do put chapter markers in, so if you're not particularly interested in a subject that we're talking about, you can always skip to the next chapter easily on your podcast playing device.

Phil: So spoilers start now.

Tom: So essentially, as you said, there's suspicions that perhaps the grandmother had an affair, and the father of the mother and her sister is not the father they grew up with.

Tom: That's the suspicions.

Phil: Yeah, that's my suspicion.

Phil: That's the easiest one.

Tom: Yeah.

Tom: And so obviously, the characters want to find out the truth, but neither of them seem to think this, like neither of them really seem to care or be potentially hurt by this revelation.

Tom: Not only do they seem to be not potentially hurt by this revelation, they don't really have any sort of moral commentary on what may have occurred, yet they do have moral commentary on other things, including, as it turns out, the fact that it was their father who was their father, but their father got involved in some illegal activities causing him to fake his death, and the person the grandmother was potentially having an affair with was actually their own real father after he'd faked his death, which they're shocked and horrified by and outraged by, but had no potential questioning or outrage over their mother slash grandmother have been potentially lying in a similar way to them over the same number of years.

Phil: That's not good.

Phil: That's not good.

Phil: That's not good.

Tom: It's weird though, isn't it?

Phil: It's weird.

Phil: It is weird.

Tom: It's weird.

Phil: It's always weird.

Phil: And as you were describing it initially, I was like, you know, how stupid of me just to assume that she was having an affair with a male.

Phil: Like, you know, in typical gone home style.

Tom: It should have been a woman, a lesbian.

Tom: That's the weirdest part of it.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: Oh, it just like me.

Phil: And you could come up with a better story in minutes easily.

Phil: We came up with two alternatives right now.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: All right.

Phil: Well, that's fantastic.

Phil: So that game again, OpenRoad, it's available on everything for bucks or free.

Phil: If you have Game Pass subscription that you paid for.

Phil: The next game.

Tom: $a month.

Phil: I'm going to take the steering wheel now because I'm going to be discussing a game called You Suck at Parking, which I've got to just say as an aside, just so people can see behind the counter, behind the curtain rather.

Phil: Don't go behind the counter, please.

Phil: That's for staff only.

Phil: I was driving.

Phil: I got to my destination.

Phil: I pulled out my phone and for whatever reason, I see an email from you with the subject, You Suck at Parking.

Phil: I looked at my parking spot.

Phil: Look, I just parked the car.

Phil: I have still not yet even closed the door to my car and locked it.

Phil: I'm looking at the phone and it says, You Suck at Parking.

Phil: And I comedically, as if there was a camera on me, I looked up, look around.

Phil: I'm like, how does he know?

Phil: How does he know?

Phil: And then I read that you're actually saying, this might be worth a look.

Phil: So I did go down and download this game.

Phil: This You Suck at Parking is the name of the game.

Phil: I think it's a great name.

Phil: It is indeed.

Phil: It's developed by a company you've never heard of and published by one you haven't heard of either.

Phil: So the developer is Happy Volcano.

Phil: Publisher is Curve Games.

Phil: It is released in

Phil: So it's not a new game, but it is available on everything.

Phil: PC, PlayStation Switch, Xbox and got generally good reception.

Phil: But before I go into what genre it is, this might be a bit contentious.

Phil: What would you call this game?

Phil: What genre?

Tom: I would call it a racing game of sorts.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: I would call it a puzzle game.

Tom: Well, apparently the previous game was a puzzle game.

Phil: Yeah, I would call this a puzzle game because basically, if you can imagine this game, you're looking down at the screen on isometric view and you're driving this tiny little car.

Phil: So you're controlling the car, not by steering with the camera position behind the car, or the camera positioned in the car.

Phil: It's like a RC Pro-Am.

Tom: It's an isometric perspective.

Phil: Isometric perspective, bird in the sky, and you're in charge of this blocky little car.

Phil: And you're not really racing against it.

Phil: Let's just talk about single player.

Phil: You're not really racing against anyone.

Phil: Basically, you're given a short level at the start with three parking spaces and you've got to park your car in these three parking spaces.

Phil: Seems straightforward.

Phil: There are other cars that are controlled by bots that get in the way and all the rest of it.

Phil: So what makes it difficult to park?

Phil: Well, number one, the physics on these cars is quite loose.

Phil: And I'll basically describe it as, so the inertia factor is basically tripled as to what it would normally would be.

Phil: So actually stopping is difficult, especially because you can't really break.

Phil: That is to say, you can break, but if you come to a full stop, your car will stop and the game will designate that as where you parked.

Phil: So if you slow down enough or press the brakes long enough, the car will actually park and you won't make it into the spot you're trying to get into.

Tom: And you cannot reverse.

Phil: You cannot reverse.

Phil: So there are other restraints as well.

Phil: So number one, no reversing.

Phil: So if you overshoot the parking spot, you can't just reverse and then break.

Phil: You've got to land in that parking spot.

Phil: Other restraints are you have a certain amount of fuel for each level.

Phil: I'm sorry, you have a certain amount of fuel for each parking space you're attempting to get into.

Phil: So if you take too long or drive too fast, or waggle around, you won't have enough petrol to make it to the parking space.

Phil: What other constraints are there, Tom?

Tom: Well, there are various obstacles you have to avoid, such as jumps, fiery boulders, flame throwers, guided missiles.

Phil: So each track has its own theme, so they might do one with magnets.

Phil: So if you drive your car too close to the super magnet, it will pull you into the magnet and away from where you need to go, which means you then have to restart.

Phil: So you also, another restriction is you have, you don't have a finite amount of cars.

Phil: So once you park, you'll go back to the starting spot and you'll go and try and park in the next parking spot.

Phil: If, because the inertia is turned way up, you're careening off of a cliff time and time and time again, at a certain point, the game will tell you, okay, well, this is your last car.

Phil: And finally, the each level is timed.

Phil: You've got an amount of time before you can, before the clock runs out.

Phil: So yeah, and then basically at the end of it, these levels can last a very short amount of time.

Phil: You can get through all three parking spaces in some cases in, well, I think when I'm doing my best, well, it varies widely, okay?

Phil: But then at the end, they show you on a leaderboard, either against the global community or your friends, what your time was and where you rank globally, and also against your friends.

Phil: So usually when I'm doing well, I am ranking around

Phil: If I'm just getting through, it's usually around to, you know, higher.

Phil: There's some pretty high numbers at one end of it.

Tom: I think I'm around

Phil: Yeah, okay, so, but what I found, Tom, was when I looked at my friends, you were not appearing anywhere on any of the levels whatsoever.

Phil: So have you not been playing the single player mode?

Tom: Pretty much.

Tom: I've mainly just been playing it online with a friend of mine, who I forced to purchase the game through peer pressure.

Phil: And other than myself.

Tom: That's right.

Tom: I think we've played a few times.

Phil: Yeah, we've played a few times.

Phil: And that was evident by my lack of skill, because when you go online, obviously it's a different format.

Phil: There's usually a lot more parking spaces at different obstacles.

Phil: And yeah, so the online is very different.

Phil: Maybe you can speak about that since I've only played it a couple of times with you.

Tom: Well, the online format is you go through four levels, four matches, sorry, which each consists of a litany of parking spots you have to take within two minutes.

Tom: And whoever wins the most parking spaces, selected match through that wins.

Tom: So because it's four levels, if you've got a tie, it's then based on the number of parking spots you manage to take.

Tom: But I think the structure is pretty similar to the campaign.

Tom: It's just that it's probably based on the more advanced single player levels.

Phil: And with the online play, it's often much more frenetic.

Phil: You can imagine all these stupid little cars bouncing around with no inertia.

Phil: You can easily, when there's not guard rails on the tracks, you can easily just nudge another player and they'll go flying for meters off of a cliff.

Phil: And so it has room for a lot of fun.

Phil: I think this game is, I can see why this game would be popular.

Phil: I don't know if it is popular or not.

Tom: I've tried to get into a public multiplayer game on a couple of occasions and I've yet to be able to find anyone else playing it.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: So there's two things there, right?

Phil: So number one is if I can, if you're getting into and I'm getting into like or in terms of the global ranking, that doesn't speak well for how many players there are and that's no knock on mine or your ability.

Phil: But also too, yeah, I tried the very first thing I tried to do because I'm unlocking achievements and stuff.

Phil: I'm playing this on PC, by the way, as are you, I believe.

Tom: Correct.

Phil: And this is available on everything, PlayStation Switch, Xbox, everything.

Tom: And it does have cross-platform online play.

Phil: And the name of the game again is You Suck at Parking.

Phil: Now, of course, when you do achieve the goal, they actually replace that with You Rock at Parking, which is great.

Phil: And it has a lot of fun.

Phil: It has a good sense of humor.

Phil: It has billboards around the thing.

Phil: And one of the puns is a movie called Breaking Bad.

Tom: I think the You Suck at Parking theme song is a different highlight.

Phil: Oh, you know, I haven't even really focused on the audio design of this game.

Phil: Can you talk about that?

Tom: Make sure you look up the sound, the, sorry, the theme music for it.

Tom: It's hilarious.

Phil: I think so it's, to me, this is a physics-based puzzle, especially when you're playing in single player.

Phil: It's not like a driving game.

Phil: It has nothing to do with driving, really.

Tom: I think it's a driving game.

Tom: I think it's all about the driving.

Phil: You're controlling a car, but they could just as easily be marbles.

Tom: I think the way the thing you're controlling functions is a car though, or a vehicle.

Phil: No reverse?

Tom: Not all cars have reverse.

Tom: Your reverse gear could well be broken.

Phil: I guess Formula One cars probably don't have reverse, do they?

Tom: I don't think so.

Phil: Yeah, that's probably strip out a lot of that stuff.

Phil: I wonder if those touring cars, the ones they strip everything out of, I wonder if they can go in reverse.

Tom: I think they usually have reverse.

Phil: It'd be too hard to take that element out of a stock engine, I would think.

Phil: But anyway, the stock transmission.

Phil: Yeah, so I don't know how popular it is.

Phil: I think it should be really popular because it's imminently streamable.

Phil: Like, whenever I'm playing it, my family wants to crowd around and laugh at me failing at you, or to you, rather.

Phil: It's a fun game to watch.

Phil: My daughter just laughs the whole time.

Phil: And she gets frustrated when she tries it, because obviously, it could be frustrating if you expect to win all the time.

Phil: And then my wife, who is not much of a video gamer at all, it's such a crazy kind of game that even she was like, oh, let me give it a go, and had some fun with it.

Phil: It's certainly a good party game, I'd describe it as.

Phil: And yeah, I can definitely see the appeal of it.

Tom: I think it definitely works very well as a multiplayer game, either in person or online.

Phil: Yeah, I prefer, I think it would be great for couch co-op.

Phil: I think it'd be hilarious.

Phil: And I would, unfortunately, the only online experiences I've had was playing with you and your friend.

Phil: I would love to see this with eight people.

Phil: I think that would be a complete crack up.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: So yeah, I give it a, if you've got, have you got anything else to say about the game or if I've forgotten anything?

Tom: I think that pretty much covers it.

Tom: But my friend was very, very reluctant to play it originally.

Tom: But I think he's enjoying it as much as we both have now.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: I'd love to continue playing as well.

Phil: It's a shame because I, is there a way for you to host a game, but leave it open to the public as well?

Phil: So should anyone?

Tom: That's what I've been looking for, but I don't think there is.

Phil: Because that'd be the best way to do it.

Phil: And you know, guys, another thing we've got to explain is because we're in Australia, we're playing when we're playing, you know, the rest of the world usually is asleep.

Phil: So it is, you know, in big games, obviously, you can always get someone online.

Phil: But in something niche like this, it's not even playing Mario Kart at in Australia at a certain time of day, unless Japan's awake, it is difficult to get, you know, a lot of people.

Phil: So which sounds crazy, but that's just the way that it is.

Phil: I'm going to give this game a score.

Phil: Are you going to or now I should say, so how many levels are there?

Phil: There's like, I think I've done out of either or

Tom: There are a lot of levels.

Tom: I've been playing for about hours now, and I'm still encountering new levels.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: And they're really, I think the level design is fantastic because they get progressively more difficult, but this not difficult enough that you want to give up.

Phil: And the penalty for failure is very light.

Phil: So when you get sent back to the starting point, you just go again.

Phil: You know what I'm saying?

Tom: The one criticism of the level design I would have is on some of the levels.

Tom: As you said, you just get sent back to the beginning.

Tom: Some of the levels have quite a long introductory section of track, and it's a little bit annoying when you are driving or seconds just to get to the branching pathway where you need to go to go and get the next parking spot.

Phil: I'm not a game developer, but just an idea, maybe a different button you could press that would sacrifice one of your cars to pick up basically where you were, but not within like meters of the parking space.

Phil: So you see what I'm saying?

Phil: Like if you press the left button or something like that.

Tom: Or just maybe design the level slightly differently, because that's not the case with a lot of the levels.

Tom: Most of the levels don't really have that issue.

Tom: The one other thing I would add that would actually be a useful addition would be a self-destruct button, because sometimes you'll end up falling off the map or stuck somewhere without being able to fully come to a stop and hence be reset, which wastes valuable time.

Phil: If you press up or down on the direction pad, if you're playing with a game pad, that does reset you immediately.

Tom: Okay.

Phil: If you were in a fail state.

Phil: So if as soon as you have not made it into the parking spot, you can just press up or down on directional.

Tom: Okay.

Tom: So there already is a self-destruct button.

Phil: Yeah, of sorts, but you can't just self-destruct for no reason.

Phil: Like you've got to enter the fail state.

Phil: So the second that you go off the track, you can press up or down on the directional.

Phil: And when I say up or down, I'm saying that because I'm not sure if it's up or down.

Phil: But on your cross pad, if you press one of those, it will take you back.

Phil: The one thing I didn't like about this game was the hub world.

Phil: So basically to go from one themed land to another.

Phil: So in each land, there's like four tracks and each track will have...

Phil: No, that's about right, yeah.

Phil: So in each land, there's about four tracks.

Phil: And so the thing I don't like about that was...

Phil: I found it completely unnecessary because you're just driving around in this hub world, which isn't fun or entertaining.

Phil: Just give me a menu, right?

Phil: Just give me a menu of the levels I've beaten and the levels I haven't.

Phil: And if I'm not yet ready for the ones that I haven't and have it locked, you know, I'd find that really a time waster for a game that respects your time in every other way.

Phil: I'm going to give it a score.

Tom: What's your score?

Phil: My score is out of

Tom: I'm going to give it a score too, from the die of destiny.

Tom: One out of

Phil: One out of

Phil: Wow.

Tom: That's unfortunate.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: Because I think that you would give it a out of or possibly even a out of because that's how math works.

Tom: Could even be a out of potentially.

Tom: Really?

Phil: So you're, yeah.

Tom: I think if you had enough people in it, I think it will be easily out of experience.

Phil: All right.

Phil: You've heard the man.

Phil: I think I have, my Steam ID I think is Phil Fogg.

Phil: So I'm pretty easy to find, or Game Under Phil, or something like that.

Phil: But if you're interested in the front page of gameunder.net on this week's episode notes, just put in a comment.

Phil: Say, hey, what's your username?

Phil: And I'll let you know what it is.

Tom: Before we move on from the topic of cars, we were talking about open roads, then you suck at parking.

Phil: Well, there's two road related games, really, when you think about it.

Tom: Exactly.

Tom: I recently I've got, I don't know if we've ever talked about it on the podcast, but I've got a Honda Integra GSI, which is the base model of the Honda Integra.

Phil: It's come up from time to time.

Phil: I believe it's white.

Tom: It's not white.

Tom: It's purple.

Phil: Oh, did you paint it?

Tom: No, it's an original purple.

Tom: I think it's called Blackberry, something along those lines.

Tom: I've got the paint code somewhere.

Phil: No, it doesn't matter.

Tom: It's an extremely rare, original color.

Tom: And if you look up Honda Integra colors, you will not find this.

Tom: The only way I could find it on Honda paint anywhere was on Accords, but it is actually an original Honda Integra color.

Phil: Okay, so I appreciate the humble brag.

Phil: Thanks for telling us about your purple Integra.

Phil: So on to what we've been playing.

Tom: We can't end there.

Tom: We can't end there.

Phil: Oh, I thought that was the point of the story.

Tom: No, that wasn't the point of the story yet.

Tom: We're going to a bigger humble brag.

Phil: We're all very impressed with you.

Tom: So when I got the car, my original testing for -speed that I could get, was I think an abysmal seconds.

Tom: Stock, it should be high nines to

Tom: Now, after owning it for about two years, the battery died.

Tom: And I think the battery must have been completely fucked from when I first got the car, even though it was supposedly a new battery in the car, because one issue that I had since I first got it was the headlights were very dull.

Tom: And I just assumed that it's because the plastic was pretty faded.

Tom: But in replacing the battery, the headlights gained the brightness of a new car's headlights, essentially, not the new ridiculously blinding headlights, but reasonable headlights.

Tom: And the to speed went from to seconds to about seconds flash to a high

Phil: Because you change your lights?

Tom: Because I changed the battery.

Phil: Oh, OK.

Tom: Which I found a little bizarre, because in theory, it shouldn't affect the car's performance that much.

Phil: I obviously know a lot about cars.

Phil: You travel at the speed of light, and that's why they're on the front of your car.

Phil: They tow your car along.

Phil: So if you change them to a driver's light.

Tom: And that's why the brake lights are there, to break the car.

Tom: That's why they light up behind you.

Phil: And they're dull and red.

Phil: That's why they pull.

Phil: Yeah, this makes total sense.

Phil: So, OK, so you've changed the battery in your car.

Tom: They're red because they're giving off more energy, which is why you can stop faster than you can accelerate.

Phil: Just like a bird reentering the atmosphere of the world.

Phil: Or some sort of space device.

Phil: OK, so you've replaced the battery, and that's improved the speed.

Tom: That's right.

Phil: Is it lighter?

Phil: Is it way less?

Phil: Could that possibly be the reason?

Tom: It's the same weight battery.

Tom: I can only assume that the poor quality or dying battery was affecting the fuel injectors or something of that nature.

Phil: Because what if it was actually a lighter battery, which is why it's going faster, because there's less mass in the car?

Tom: I think that the batteries were the same weight, though.

Phil: Yeah, you're getting older.

Phil: So maybe you're getting weaker.

Phil: So things that are less heavy seem heavy.

Tom: But I had to take the old battery out to put the new one in.

Tom: They weight the same.

Phil: Okay.

Tom: They're the same capacity battery, the same weight.

Phil: So thank you for sharing that with us.

Phil: So we'll go on to talk about this.

Tom: We're not finished yet.

Tom: We're not finished yet.

Phil: Oh, I'm sorry.

Phil: I thought that was a story.

Tom: So the car comes from an era where a lot of people modified their cars, right?

Tom: Now, I think modifying cars is less fashionable than it was back then.

Tom: And if you read on the Internet, people will say, if you're modifying your exhaust and your head is a new catalytic converter, unless you're doing other things to the engine or tuning it, it's not going to make much of a difference.

Tom: And it's really probably just for show, right?

Phil: Well, you should have the right to it.

Tom: That's the general attitude now.

Tom: Whereas in the past, the attitude was, do this, your car is going to be exponentially faster.

Tom: Which is the case in Gran Turismo as well.

Tom: That's why this is video game related.

Phil: So in Gran Turismo nowadays, if you mod your car, you can't really get the kind of advantages that you did back in the old days, where you saw a noticeable difference.

Tom: You still get advantages.

Phil: Okay.

Tom: I mean, in Gran Turismo, it's the case that these things affect the performance.

Tom: Whereas in people's minds today, the general attitude of the car enthusiast today is less pro-modification.

Phil: I think other than when it comes to body types and gender, people in general are less prone to modification.

Tom: It's more about modifying yourself now rather than your machines.

Phil: Well, that's what I'm saying because people now have been brought up with phones that you can't open to even change the battery in, or tablets, or computers that you don't open.

Phil: Whereas in my day and in your day as well, if you didn't know what every part in the computer did, you're an idiot and if you couldn't switch them out, you know what I'm saying, is that basically the newer generations are more accepting of whatever they've been given is the way it's supposed to be, and it's the best and don't mess with it.

Phil: Whereas that's why car culture has taken a dip, I think.

Phil: And I think some of these video games, because this is a video game podcast, have also taken a dip because car culture just isn't what it was in the s through till whenever.

Phil: Yeah, okay.

Phil: So, okay, sorry, keep going.

Phil: Yep.

Tom: So, I wanted to modify it anyway, though, despite this change in generally accepted attitudes.

Tom: So, I did a lot of scouring and found what was meant to be a very high quality cat-back exhaust, a high flow catalytic converter, and the car came with very big headers slash extractors, whatever you want to call them.

Tom: But I had to take them off to get the roadworthy for the car, because I believe they're technically illegal.

Phil: Is that because of environmental type things or because of noise type?

Tom: I think because the theory is that you will be making the emissions of the car worse, which is not necessarily the case because if you are changing the exhaust system to a more efficient exhaust system, you will potentially be emitting more CObut you will also be using less fuel.

Tom: So which ends up being worse, you would have to actually test.

Tom: So after a long time, I was originally intending to put both of these things, all three of these things on the car with my cousin, but unfortunately it was impossible to find a catalytic converter that you could attach to the system without welding.

Tom: So I had to cave in to paying $for what was potentially a useless modification according to the internet.

Phil: Was it a weld?

Phil: You don't have a welder?

Tom: I think my cousin has a welder, but he was not confident in doing the quality of welding that would be required for an exhaust.

Phil: Yeah, I've got an arc welder for steel, but a lot of these things are often cast iron, so you need special rods and all this.

Tom: This was all stainless steel because I made sure to get good parts when I found them on Facebook Marketplace.

Phil: Yeah, look, if you asked me to do it for you, I'd probably be a bit reluctant as well because you can screw stuff up.

Phil: It's okay if I'm doing something for myself, but if I was doing something like that.

Tom: You don't want the exhaust falling off while you're driving?

Phil: No, no, actually an exhaust weld should be pretty easy.

Phil: Okay, but still I get it.

Tom: In any case, they did a good job.

Phil: You haven't done the job.

Phil: They haven't put it all together.

Tom: No, I didn't do it myself.

Tom: I had to get an exhaust shop to do it.

Tom: And they rang me just when they'd finished because they couldn't work out how to start the car because the immobilizer had come on.

Tom: Then they couldn't work out where the immobilizer button was.

Phil: Did you tell them?

Tom: I did tell them.

Phil: Kind of defeats the purpose, but okay.

Phil: Yep.

Tom: But it allowed me to hear the first time the car was started, and it sounds incredible.

Tom: It is ascenely loud, probably loud enough to cause hearing damage if you are in the car.

Tom: On the outside of the car, it is not as bad.

Tom: So when I went to pick it up, I was very pleased that it sounded incredible.

Tom: It doesn't just sound loud, it sounds very nice too.

Tom: I think Honda engines, a lot of people do not like the sound of.

Tom: A lot of people love the sound of them, and I think they sound great.

Phil: Yeah, me too.

Tom: And it sounds even better with a exhaust system that does not restrict the engine very much.

Tom: But as I was driving home with the stock exhaust system sitting on the seat, the top of the seat headrest next to me, threatening to decapitate me if I got into a crash.

Tom: So I was driving very carefully and slowly.

Tom: I couldn't help but think the car felt potentially a lot more powerful.

Tom: So as soon as I could, I did another -test.

Tom: But this was on a stretch of road, obviously not in Australia where this would be illegal.

Tom: A stretch of road I had done it on before that had better grip than on the road I had usually done it on before.

Tom: And such was the power that I was getting wheel spin from to above

Tom: So I sort of glanced at the time I had on to when I think I hit and I think I saw a or a there.

Tom: By the time the car was no longer wheel spinning, I was quite well above and it was at I think or seconds.

Tom: I got to a different lot of road that I was more used to, and that had the previous tests on, so it was a fair comparison.

Phil: That's the one near the children's school and the old person's home.

Tom: Yes.

Phil: Yeah, that one is a great racing stretch.

Tom: Actually, no, I did another one before then, actually, and that was a

Tom: So by that time, I'd already...

Tom: But it wasn't the same road as the other roads, the other tests, sorry.

Tom: So I got a potential or and a definite

Phil: Wow, okay.

Tom: So I went to the other road that I'd done the other tests on for a fair comparison.

Phil: Old Faithful, yeah.

Tom: Yep.

Tom: And I got another there.

Tom: So from...

Phil: Now, is this on the die of destiny or is this your...

Tom: No, this is on the...

Tom: This is on the phone stopwatch.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: So you're using your phone while you're doing this.

Phil: Excellent.

Tom: In my lap, I'm holding it.

Phil: Yeah.

Tom: But it's in my lap.

Tom: It's a manual.

Tom: I can't hold the phone.

Tom: So I put it in my lap, held between my legs, and I'm looking down at my phone.

Tom: See the nubs.

Phil: And you can be reached at Tom Towers.

Tom: And here's my car's registration.

Tom: Then you can report to Vic Royce.

Phil: That's...

Phil: I think we all...

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: So this sounds like a great...

Phil: Isn't it great when you make a change to something and it actually works fine and you didn't...

Phil: You don't...

Phil: First of all, you don't break it.

Phil: Because, you know, when you're fixing a PC or something, usually you break something a few times.

Phil: Hopefully, you don't break it to the point where you have to get new parts.

Tom: Well, we went from zero to seconds to potentially five or six, but definitely seven.

Tom: So that's a % increase, not in power, but in speed.

Tom: Yeah.

Tom: From what, including all the parts and the labor, was a $modification.

Phil: Just from the exhaust.

Tom: Yep.

Tom: On a, what is now probably an $car.

Tom: When I bought it, it was a $car.

Tom: So you've taken a $car you've spent.

Tom: I should probably include the tires actually as well.

Tom: So the tires were, I think, I got them at a good price, I think maybe about $

Tom: So let's say we spent $on the car and it's now as fast or faster than the fast version, the non-base model of my car, which if you want to buy that will be about at least $

Tom: Now maybe $

Tom: So it's still about half the price of that car.

Phil: And it's good for the environment too.

Phil: It's a

Tom: It uses a lot less fuel.

Tom: Before on a tank of petrol with a large amount of aggressive driving in it and non-freeway driving, I would get about kilometers per fuel tank.

Tom: This time I got kilometers.

Phil: And it's good for the environment too, because you're still using a device that was invented, what, in ?

Phil: That's when the car model for a year.

Phil: So that's, you know, other people...

Tom: And built in

Phil: Okay, yeah, this one's from

Phil: Okay, well, you can say that's a -year-old car, man.

Tom: Yep.

Phil: That's like a vintage car at this point.

Tom: It is.

Phil: Yeah, no, that's fantastic.

Phil: That's fantastic.

Phil: Now, are we ready to talk about a game?

Tom: Yes, we are.

Tom: Well, no, the one thing I'll add is the reactions of people to the car is hilarious now, because before, it was a car that a lot of people liked and would always get a lot of looks.

Tom: Now, it gets even more good looks.

Tom: It gets a lot of bad looks as well now, which I think are hilarious, particularly from women.

Phil: If you can get an accurate recording of the exhaust, I'd like to include it in the show either now or at a later date.

Tom: I'll try and get one.

Phil: Now, the game we're talking about next is Still Wakes the Deep.

Phil: This is developed by the Chinese room, the people who made Dear Esther and published by Secret Mode.

Phil: It's a psych horror game released this year, available on PC for bucks, PlayStation, Xbox, and is on Game Pass as well.

Phil: Has been getting pretty good reviews, eights and sevens and threes out of fives and things like that.

Phil: You play it in the first person perspective.

Phil: And the game is set in December which is kind of cool, kind of like Aliens, I guess, which was also set back then in the s or s.

Phil: A similar type setting too, because you're isolated, you know.

Phil: And it's on an oil rig, I should have said that, in the North Sea of England.

Phil: And in the game, you are playing as a Glaswegian, that's someone from Glasgow for you that don't know, an electrician.

Phil: So sort of got some dead space elements there as well, where you start the game just as a regular schmo.

Phil: And, you know, presumably, encounter all sorts of weirdness, otherwise it wouldn't be a video game.

Phil: So a horror bent after having done Dear Esther, which was a straight up psychological game, but in a very different way.

Tom: They did also previously develop amnesia, a machine for pigs, which was horror.

Tom: And the first mod they made, Corsacova, I think, I'm not sure if you would necessarily call it horror, but it had, I think, more, certainly more disturbing themes than Dear Esther.

Phil: Was that based, I think I really enjoyed that.

Phil: That was based on the tennis player Anna Corsacova, which I really enjoyed quite a bit.

Phil: At least, I enjoyed the tennis player.

Phil: But if this game is based on her, I should check that out.

Phil: Now, I've made the same mistake again.

Phil: Last time we talked about the Chinese Room, I forgot all of their games and we spent minutes talking about all their other games.

Phil: So I assume that you have now finished Still Wakes the Deep?

Tom: Yes, I have.

Tom: I think I gave first impressions on the first, on the previous episode, non-bonus episode.

Tom: I think it is probably about maybe six hours or so.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: No, I don't want to repeat any of the questions that I asked last time because I've forgotten what they are.

Phil: So I may ask some of them again.

Phil: Sorry, listener.

Phil: But if you could just basically, if you just want to give us your description of the game, that'd be fantastic.

Tom: Well, I remember mentioning in my previous impressions that there was an interesting mechanic where if you press the middle mouse button, you look behind yourself.

Tom: But at that point, the interaction with the monsters in the games had not really made any use of it.

Tom: I'm happy to say that as the game does develop, you are confronted with more and more stealth sections, and you do get the opportunity to actually make use of that button and it is well utilized.

Tom: As we said, it is a horror game, but I think unlike Amnesia and Mean for Pigs, it is very linear.

Tom: The stealth sections, they have basically an open area and on the sides of it, there'll be little sections to hide in, and you can pick up objects and throw them to distract the monsters in the game.

Tom: And it's really as simple as that, and it funnels you all the time in certain directions, which I think is to the detriment, both in terms of building tension in the game play, I think also in terms of making the setting feel more alive and real.

Tom: Because the setting aesthetically is great.

Tom: It's, as you said, set on an oil rig, but not just any oil rig.

Tom: As you said, the s oil rig, it's in the North Shore and is populated by Scotsman.

Tom: So it's a great setting in terms of narrative and aesthetic.

Tom: But in terms of your interaction with it, I think it is underutilized to a degree.

Tom: It's got the classic yellow for, here's where you can jump and that sort of thing, which I think takes you out of the immersion and I don't think is really necessary.

Tom: Because particularly with how linear it is, it's pretty obvious usually where you can and cannot jump.

Phil: I agree, but focus testing will have introduced all that.

Phil: I think it is a game we both played recently.

Phil: Oh, Plague Tale, like everywhere that was accessible or interactive with the player, they had like bird guano.

Phil: And it's like, how much bird guano?

Phil: Really?

Phil: Seriously?

Phil: Like, there's got to be another way.

Phil: And obviously people would have developed other ways, but I know they're trying to de-gamify it in terms of you know, they don't want stuff glowing or when you pointed it, you know, for it to change in any way.

Phil: But there's got to be a better way than just the old splashing up the yellow paint, which I think Uncharted started that.

Phil: Yeah, there's definitely got to be a better way, especially as you said, in a setting that's so limited, you should have to figure stuff out for yourself a little bit.

Phil: Mirror's Edge, did they do that in Mirror's Edge?

Tom: They did, but in Mirror's Edge, it had a very minimalist aesthetic, so I think it actually worked there.

Phil: Yeah, but there's also a lot of places with the splashes of red, but they also had spaces where you were just presumed that you could climb there because you could climb pretty much anywhere.

Phil: But what a great game that was.

Phil: Speaking of Alien Isolation, it's coming up on its -year anniversary.

Phil: Did you hear that Sega has announced that Creative Arts or whoever makes it, they're doing a sequel to it.

Phil: Did you hear that?

Tom: No, I do not.

Phil: Did you play the original?

Tom: No, I do not.

Phil: I have it on Steam if you want to give it a go.

Tom: I think I also have it on Steam.

Phil: Yeah, I've tried it.

Phil: I've tried to start it once or twice and just it hasn't taken.

Phil: But for no reason of the games, it's just that I think sometimes with this content like Alien Isolation, the content is so dense that sometimes I have at this point in my life a limited amount of time to play games.

Phil: So I'm not really looking for a dense, ponderous experience usually when I'm playing.

Phil: I can take it in small elements, but not in a or -hour game.

Phil: Sorry to interrupt you there.

Phil: I just wanted to know that.

Tom: No problem.

Tom: I think the other thing that is a little disappointing is the narrative is mixed compared to, I would say, Dear Esther, the Scotchman is a great way to create and unique characters for the story and the way they interweave the main character's backstory, both into how the horror unfolds and also the general narrative, I think is engrossing and enjoyable.

Tom: But the lovecrafty and horror taking over the oil rig, I think, could have been done in a more interesting way than it was.

Tom: I think the main issue is the translation to a different medium where, and also I think the other issue is not just a translation to another medium, but also I think not engaging with the themes that make a lovecrafty and horror interesting, which is it's all about either a fear of the unknown or a fear of the other.

Tom: That's what makes it interesting and horrifying as opposed to comical and absurd.

Tom: Really, it's a combination of both.

Tom: But here, it's not comical and absurd in that the stuff is depicted openly, so you don't get any sort of unknown element occurring.

Tom: You get abstraction that's very clearly referencing A Space Odyssey, with colors and non-animal, yet clearly sentient entities taking over the oil rig, and develops and develops, as would in Lovecraft, into a final confrontation at the end.

Tom: But again, it's not really too much of a point.

Tom: It sort of doesn't really help develop any of the characters' stories either.

Tom: It sort of gets in the way of the characters' story developing towards the end, due to how the conflict with this entity taking over the oil rig needs to be solved.

Phil: By blowing up the rig, obviously.

Tom: Yes, exactly.

Phil: Is that a spoiler?

Tom: It is and it isn't, because I think that was pretty obviously the required conclusion to the events of the game.

Tom: But in Lovecraft, that might occur in some stories.

Tom: In other stories, it wouldn't necessarily occur.

Tom: It could be that actually it doesn't develop anywhere, because who knows what was even going on.

Tom: Or it just continued to spread indefinitely throughout the world.

Phil: So does this game conclude with your Glaswegian electrician Kaz being seen to be walking away and then dropping a flame and in a ball of explosion behind him as he walks slowly?

Tom: Correct.

Phil: Yes.

Phil: Okay, good.

Phil: Then the good has a good story with a good conclusion.

Tom: I think yes and no.

Tom: If it wasn't so directly inspired by Lovecraft, I wouldn't be complaining.

Tom: But because it is, I think you need to step it up a notch and you need to engage with what actually makes those things interesting.

Tom: Because you've got what is a Ken Loach style slice of life drama about the main character who is escaping, I think, the law because he assaulted someone.

Phil: Okay.

Tom: And his family is at home and his wife tells him, if he doesn't come home and face whatever consequences occur, she's going to leave him and take his two daughters with her, which is in not surprisingly for the Chinese room.

Tom: Interesting and engrossing plot line.

Tom: You've also got a father figure on the rig with you.

Tom: If you got this position there through his connections, and because he knows you well.

Tom: And so there's a whole subplot as the horror is unfolding with him, which I think is a highlight, but it doesn't use much more interesting inspiration with the same ambitions as the things it's taking inspiration from, which I think leaves it and makes it end up being slightly disappointing when it otherwise wouldn't have been disappointing.

Phil: So does the fact that this game was available on Game Pass, which is presumably how you played it, did that did not paying for the game change how you valued the game or viewed the game?

Phil: Like if you'd paid for it, you're certainly making an investment into it.

Phil: Would you then have had a different?

Phil: And you're going to say no, but I would ask you just to consider with that.

Tom: I would say no, because I'm still paying for Game Pass.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: You still want to get your value out of it.

Phil: And you've got to download it.

Tom: Exactly.

Phil: Megs and gigs and all.

Tom: It's using the time on Game Pass.

Phil: Yeah.

Tom: That's what I would otherwise be devoted to something else.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: And that's again, the name of the game is still wakes the deep.

Phil: Now, is this developer still together?

Phil: Unlike, I mean, like the other team has obviously had some trouble.

Phil: Is the Chinese room still together making games?

Tom: I believe so.

Tom: And despite my criticisms, it was still overall well worth playing because it is a very unique setting with a unique cast and a unique story.

Tom: I think the slice of life element of the story is very enjoyable.

Tom: And aesthetically, the way this unknown entity is taking over the oil rig is very satisfying.

Phil: Oh, I bet that it has great potential for really good audio design too, with creaking and things getting crushed and all that sort of thing happening at sea.

Tom: That's actually another thing that I think is disappointing about the linearity of the design because with the nature of the monsters, if they notice you, they're extremely fast.

Tom: And when you're hiding, you can't necessarily see them, but you can hear where they are very clearly.

Tom: So there's a great tension there that is not as strong as it would be if you were not in a tiny confined space where just through a quick glance at it, you know where all the hiding places and things like that are.

Phil: I'm going to ask you a question about the dialogue actually, because this is set in s and you're playing with a bunch of Scotsmen.

Phil: I think earlier you said Scotchmen.

Phil: Scotchmen is someone who likes scotch, who likes drinking scotch.

Phil: The actual preferred term in Scotsmen was Scottish.

Phil: But it's set in s with a bunch of Scottish people.

Phil: So obviously the script was very authentic, and it included some politically incorrect dialogue about various races and sexual preferences that would have been said during the times by working class people in a blue collar setting.

Tom: Unfortunately, it didn't, even though there were some people on the oil rig of a non-white Scottish background, there was no dialogue that might have arisen in such a situation, if it were more realistic.

Phil: The reason why I say that is not because I welcome that sort of dialogue or language, but again, if you're writing an authentic thing that's set in a time and place with authentic characters, I think for some authenticity, you don't have to lean on it.

Phil: It doesn't have to be something regular.

Tom: But that's the thing.

Tom: I think it should be there for a number of reasons, because the slice of life stuff, I said Ken Loach-like.

Tom: It's very clearly inspired by Ken Loach.

Tom: It's not just Ken Loach-like.

Tom: It's clearly inspired by Ken Loach, just as it is inspired by Lovecraft and Stanley Kubrick.

Phil: And I think if you did something...

Tom: So if you're going to be inspired by those sorts of people, and you are as good a writer as you are Dan Pinchbeck, you've got to do better.

Tom: You've got to lean into that and follow through on it, I think anyway.

Tom: Otherwise, it's window dressing, essentially.

Phil: I agree with you percent.

Phil: The second thing I would say is that by using that, it would startle the modern ear.

Phil: And then that is good for your storytelling as well, because you're reminding them, hey, no, this isn't in the Western world sort of thing.

Phil: This is like a different setting.

Phil: And I think it would add to the credibility of the character and the story.

Phil: And yes, I would use it as a gimmick.

Phil: But is it a gimmick or is it an effect for better storytelling to tell the person who's listening?

Phil: You know what I'm saying?

Phil: Like, in a joke, for example, you will often say things that are completely not correct to say or could be abusive or hurtful in any other setting if you weren't joking.

Phil: But in using that language, it has that power that connects synapses faster for the person who's listening.

Phil: And that's what gives it the effect, either comedic or dramatic.

Tom: I think we could even use it to subvert Lovecraft.

Phil: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Phil: So given that the thoughtfulness of Dear Esther, I think it's sad that if that didn't occur to the writers, then I think it speaks to the level of their capability and competence.

Phil: So it most certainly must have come on their mind, and the fact that it isn't included because controversy, and how that would be misinterpreted and all the rest of it, I think is unfortunate that the art form is not mature enough, the commercial art form is not mature enough, that you can't make what would be a logical and very creative choice.

Tom: I think that must be the reason.

Phil: One would think, but maybe we're all completely wrong, and it never even occurred to us, you know?

Phil: And it's not that kind of game, end quote.

Phil: And quite so, like if this was, if New Circuit Parking was set in s Scotland, I would not expect, if there were dialogue in the game, I would not expect to hear, you know, people denigrating other people on the basis of their race or sexual preference.

Phil: But if you're telling an immersive story where you're trying to, you know, make this world as real as possible, which is what's making the supernatural thing that's happening in this world so amazing, then you're doing your game a disservice.

Tom: I think if you're inspired by Lovecraft and you're not totally illiterate, it's a conscious choice to know whether you're including themes like that in your game one way or another.

Phil: I agree.

Phil: Do you have anything else to say about this game critically before you break out that die of destiny and get your top ankles loosened up?

Tom: I think that probably covers it.

Tom: I think overall, despite being disappointed that the references don't go beyond being merely references, it's still, I think, a unique and enjoyable experience.

Tom: So I certainly don't regret spending six hours of my game past time in playing it.

Phil: Excellent.

Phil: Okay, well, if you just want to get that Diadestiny ready.

Tom: Here it goes.

Phil: Oh, in a, what the heck?

Phil: What was that in a glass?

Tom: That's in a bowl, a glass bowl.

Phil: Well, come on, man, that's got to have an effect on the score.

Tom: Gets a six out of ten.

Phil: Yeah, I thought so.

Phil: Yeah, see, you play games, you play games.

Phil: That Diadestiny is a tool.

Tom: The previous two rolls were in the same bowl.

Phil: Oh, okay.

Phil: All right.

Phil: Well, that goes that theory.

Phil: So six out of ten from the Diadestiny?

Tom: That's correct.

Phil: Excellent.

Phil: Thank you very much for that summary.

Phil: So now we're just going to go to a new story that broke just today.

Phil: I think it's notable enough.

Phil: It certainly got my attention when I woke up at four o'clock.

Phil: I saw the headline, Nintendo Makes Formal Hardware Announcement, and I immediately downloaded the podcast that had that there as its story.

Phil: It said that it was alarming.

Phil: And this certainly got my attention.

Phil: I was like, well, I've got to listen to this podcast now.

Phil: So I immediately downloaded it.

Phil: Forgot about all the other downloads I usually listen to in the morning and went straight to the story.

Phil: And after they spent about minutes where you couldn't skip chapters talking about this, that, and the other, they revealed Nintendo's new hardware, which everyone listening to this podcast already knows what it is.

Phil: It's an alarm clock.

Phil: It's $USD alarm clock called Alarmo.

Phil: And it makes noises whenever you move, okay?

Phil: So it's got a motion sensor in it.

Phil: It's an alarm clock you put beside your bed.

Phil: And basically, it can play sounds effects from Super Mario Odyssey, Splatoon or Breath of the Wild.

Phil: Tell me if I'm wrong.

Phil: This sounds like a nightmare.

Phil: Something that makes noise every time.

Phil: Something you put near your bed that makes noise every time you move.

Tom: Did you mention the price?

Phil: $USDs.

Tom: Or Australian, $.

Phil: Yeah.

Phil: And on the picture of it, which looks like Mickey Mouse's outfit, basically it's a red sort of cylinder with a white dot on top of it.

Phil: It's got a Wi-Fi indicator and also an email indicator or notification indicator.

Phil: So I'm thinking this is something you can sync to your phone and download an app for blah, blah, blah.

Phil: And your phone is the interface for it.

Phil: Look, hey, Nintendo, release whatever you want.

Phil: First of all, bad on that podcast, I deleted the episode immediately and unsubscribed from them, for that sort of deceptive clickbait, which I never engage in clickbait, as you know, from how many headlines in our community at thevgpress.com.

Phil: Okay, I'm going to tell you some more details and then get your reaction.

Phil: Quote, Alarmo can't detect a specific person.

Phil: So if two or more people are sleeping in the same bed within range of the sensor, the alarm is, what are they, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, like this seven people in a bed.

Phil: So basically, it's not like seeing you, it's seeing whoever's in the bed.

Phil: So if two or more people or a dog or a cat or an iguana are sleeping in the, I'm not saying that I sleep with iguanas, are sleeping in the same bed within range of the sensor, the alarm may stop when one person gets out of the bed, but restart once it detects that there's still someone in the bed.

Phil: The alarm will stop completely once everyone is out of the bed.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: And it basically makes like coin noises or I'll play some of the sound effects from the video here.

Phil: It does come with a sleepy sound setting, which is nice.

Phil: It might be soothing to you.

Phil: But this sounds like a bloody nightmare.

Tom: I don't understand why.

Phil: You don't understand why it exists or why it sounds like it's a nightmare.

Tom: Why it exists.

Phil: Why would it make sounds if you move your body?

Tom: Doesn't make the sounds if you don't move your body.

Phil: What if you're having sex?

Phil: You know, it makes the mushroom sound at a certain point.

Phil: You know, what is it detecting?

Phil: How much of it is it sensing what's going on?

Phil: And how responsive is the sound effects according to what it's picking up?

Phil: And is it reporting it back to the Chinese secretly?

Phil: Because no doubt that's where this thing is made.

Phil: But, you know, I say good for Nintendo.

Phil: You know, they got their start making physical toys and stupid little gimmick things.

Phil: So if they want to go back to it, that's fine.

Phil: You can play Splatoon lyrics too.

Phil: So, you know, maybe, you know, the sound of a gun spurting might, you know, that sound effect might come up if it detects a certain activity.

Phil: You know, who can say?

Phil: Who can say?

Phil: Yeah, so anyway, that's news from today.

Phil: I thought it was relevant because it is about Nintendo hardware.

Phil: The final thing, I guess, well, this is a deep question from a listener of another podcast.

Phil: In a segment, we creatively call Phil's questions for Tom from other people's podcasts.

Phil: Frank from an undisclosed location writes, what gaming genre would you eliminate?

Phil: So if you could roll the die of destiny and select any gaming genre you wanted to get rid of forever, it doesn't exist, it never existed.

Phil: First of all, would you?

Tom: Yes.

Phil: But remember, there was a time where we easily would have said, I'll get rid of walking simulators.

Phil: So be careful.

Tom: I'm very careful.

Tom: I've got an easy answer.

Tom: Character action games.

Phil: Character action games like Bayonetta.

Phil: Really?

Tom: If we have to call them character action games, they're not worth having around.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: Now, are you talking about getting rid of a genre description or getting rid of a genre?

Phil: Because you don't like that genre.

Tom: Well, everyone's calling it that.

Tom: So the only way to get rid of the description is to get rid of the genre.

Phil: Okay.

Phil: I guess we didn't give you the option of getting rid of a class of people.

Phil: Otherwise, we would have solved it.

Phil: What would I pick?

Phil: I don't know.

Phil: I don't know that I hate any genre of game.

Phil: Would I get rid of clickers?

Phil: I can't say that I've ever played one knowingly, so I can't say that I get rid of it.

Phil: Because if you told me that I don't like deck-based rogue likes, I would have said, yeah, get rid of that.

Phil: And then I wouldn't have gotten to play Slay the Spire, which is one of my probably, well, it's most definitely one of my top games of all time now.

Phil: So I don't want to be a real-time strategy games.

Phil: I really don't like them because they make me really super-stressful, but I've had some of the best experiences gaming-wise, playing real-time strategies like Brutal Legend and Halo Wars, for example.

Phil: So yeah, I'm going to do the usual Phil Fogg thing and not eliminate any genre of video game.

Tom: I thought you have to.

Phil: Well, okay, but then I will.

Phil: I'll eliminate what has happened to racing games and sport games with these loot boxes.

Phil: It's so stupid.

Phil: You can't play a proper sports game anymore without it constantly pressuring you to try and buy stuff.

Phil: And even like Forza Horizon, a game from a reputable company like Microsoft, is almost impossible to play because they're constant like, hey, now that you put the $game, % of it isn't accessible to you.

Phil: You've got to pay human money to get to it.

Phil: So I would eliminate pay for play basically, because it's a scourge on gaming.

Phil: Now people might say, well, Phil Fogg, if you eliminate pay for play, then there goes all your precious little arcade games from your dumb childhood.

Phil: But that's not what I'm talking about.

Phil: I'm not saying games should be free, but...

Tom: I think you've got to include them, because what you're describing isn't so much a genre as a mechanism.

Phil: Or exploitative.

Tom: You've got to make sacrifices for this.

Phil: Yep, that's it.

Phil: Hey, with that, we're going to close out the show.

Phil: Thanks for listening to Game Under Podcast.

Phil: We've been doing this since

Phil: Can you believe that, Tom?

Tom: It's been a long time, more than years.

Phil: Yeah, I don't even know where I was or what I was doing at that time.

Phil: I guess I could go back and listen.

Tom: Game Under Podcast.

Phil: That's apparently what I was doing.

Phil: We've got a lot of resources, a lot of reviews covering games from that time at our website, gameunder.net.

Phil: If you'd like to submit a question, use our comment section from the front page.

Phil: You don't have to register.

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Phil: Well, it does, but just put in a fake one.

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Phil: Just leave us a note, a comment.

Phil: It's always great to hear from listeners.

Phil: We really appreciate it and we really appreciate you listening to episode of The Game Under Podcast.

Phil: I'm Phil Fogg.

Tom: I'm Tom Towers.

Phil: Thanks for listening.