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0:00:11 Intro
0:00:22 Balatro
0:02:33 Solitaire and Magic the Gathering
0:03:40 RMIT VEGA Games and Animation Expo
0:07:22 But First - Off Topic Starts Here
0:09:36 Back to the RMIT for a Second
0:10:15 Chickpea by Loomi
0:10:52 Who Taught These Police to Drive by Feltlike
0:11:20 Off Topic Starts Here
0:17:48 RMIT VEGA Games and Animation Expo
0:19:23 Reflection of Atheria by Nyanko Nekomi
0:22:55 Burnout Bakery by KeonDC
0:23:41 Enjoy a Treat by Bo-Rui Lin
0:26:56 A Highly Sensitive Experience by Hin Long (Daniel) Yiu & Quest 3 Impressions
0:32:39 Blood Legacy by Josephine Putri
0:34:05 The History and Current State of Australian Game Development
0:43:50 Dance Dance Deception by Lou Fourie
0:47:00 Coffin Room by Kay Kwan and Lam Le
0:50:08 Sea Blind by Peng Yu Jeong
0:52:35 Game of the Show
0:54:45 Scores
0:57:50 News - STALKER 2 Launch Problems
1:06:52 News - Microsoft Flight Simulator Crash Lands
1:13:35 News - Microsoft's It's an Xbox Campaign
1:19:52 News - Steamdeck, Episode 3 and Family Sharing
1:28:18 Outro
Transcript
Phil: Hello, and welcome to episode of The Game Under Podcast, Australia's longest running video game podcast.
Phil: I'm one of your hosts.
Phil: My name is Phil Fogg, and this week I am joined by Tom Towers.
Phil: Hey, Tom, how are you doing?
Tom: I'm not bad.
Tom: How are you?
Phil: I'm doing all right.
Phil: I've been thinking about, as the end of the year comes up, you know, you're listening to podcasts, talking about Game of the Years, and, you know, there's only been quite a few games I've played this year that came out this year.
Phil: You've played considerably more than me.
Phil: So, you know, I'm thinking of, like, Indica, and thank goodness you're here, and things like that.
Phil: Indy garbage, you know.
Phil: But Boulantro has been coming up quite a bit, and me and Veda talked about it on episode when you were visiting the Golden Isle of Ceylon, or Lak Diva, as I call it, with my friends.
Phil: And he was very high on it.
Phil: It was made by one dude in Canada.
Phil: Are you familiar with Boulantro at all?
Tom: I am, unfortunately.
Phil: It's actually just Boulantro.
Tom: Anyone's spoken about.
Phil: So have you played it?
Tom: No, I haven't.
Tom: It's a poker game.
Tom: My religion is against poker games.
Phil: Yeah, I know, as is mine.
Phil: But the thing is, they all say, and Vader said this as well, that, oh, you don't have to know anything about poker about it.
Phil: It's actually just a deck builder.
Tom: That makes it even worse.
Tom: When have you ever heard, for instance, someone's listening to a band and they say, I normally hate this sort of music, but this I really like, and that that being a good thing.
Phil: Yeah, I know, but the thing like I love Slay the Spire, right?
Phil: Which is a deck building rogue-like game.
Phil: When automatically you'd go, well, why that's like death.
Phil: Like, why would you play a play that?
Phil: But I love it.
Phil: I absolutely love it.
Phil: And so the thing is that everyone says, hey, but don't worry.
Phil: If you don't know how to play poker, you don't have to know anything about poker to play this game.
Phil: You'll still love it.
Phil: And then they immediately start talking about a whole bunch of poker terms that I have no idea what they mean.
Phil: So I've been put off by it.
Phil: I was almost tempted to get it when it went on sale last week.
Phil: But then by the time I got onto Steam, that had passed.
Phil: So I just wanted to actually know if you'd played that or not.
Tom: I have not.
Tom: On the topic of card games though, I think Solitaire should be in the discussion of Tetris as best game ever.
Tom: I think that's the card game that sticks in my mind that I probably enjoyed playing the most in a virtual form.
Phil: You've never got into Magic the Gathering, have you?
Tom: I played it a little bit with my cousins and also some friends, but that was pretty much it.
Phil: Like the physical card game, right?
Phil: Yeah, yeah.
Phil: So I was deep into it.
Phil: I was playing like twice a week in group settings when it launched and for about years thereafter.
Tom: Well, a childhood friend, I think he won the state competition.
Phil: Oh, really?
Tom: At some point.
Tom: Yeah.
Phil: Wow.
Phil: So he's actually a bigger nerd than you?
Tom: Yes.
Phil: Wow.
Phil: All right.
Phil: Well, that must have been a boost to your ego at the time.
Phil: But enough about cards.
Phil: What else have you been up to?
Tom: Well, I went to the RMIT End of Year Graduate Animation and Games Expo.
Tom: As a friend of my sister had an animation on there.
Phil: Oh, yeah.
Phil: I've heard about this.
Phil: It's called, for whatever reason, it's called the Vega RMIT.
Phil: Is that Victoria Education Gaming Animation?
Phil: Victorian Expo of Gaming and Animation, maybe?
Phil: Oh, yeah.
Phil: That makes sense.
Phil: Vega.
Tom: Unless it's sponsored by AMD.
Phil: Yeah, could be.
Phil: Now, I've heard a fair bit about this.
Phil: So you actually got to go.
Tom: Yes.
Tom: Well, I think anyone can go.
Tom: You can just walk in and they've got security guards wandering through the masses while you're there.
Tom: So it's walk in as you please, unlike the games exposition, which I think you have to buy a ticket for that they have at the convention center in the city.
Phil: So the games thing was at the convention center, but you went to the animation thing, but you also saw the game thing?
Tom: No, it was not at the convention center.
Tom: It was at RMIT itself.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: There's a games expo that they have at the convention center.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: Not the university, but it's a commercial games exhibition.
Phil: So how was the animation part?
Phil: Does your sister's friend thing was good?
Tom: I think hers was among the best animations there.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: And she won an award, I think, for the best character animation.
Phil: Wow.
Phil: What's the name of it?
Phil: Let's give it a plug.
Tom: I can't recall the name of it.
Phil: It was at Memorable.
Tom: Excellent.
Tom: I can give you a summary of the film.
Tom: The film was at Memorable.
Tom: I can give you a verbal description of the film from beginning to end, if you'd like.
Phil: No, I wouldn't.
Phil: But we will look it up at the end of the show, and we'll put it in the show notes.
Phil: So all you need to do is look at your phone and we'll mention it there.
Phil: So what about the actual games?
Tom: So the games, before we move on to the games, I just want to say you're always telling me to market the show more.
Tom: So every booth, except for one, because the person who made the game was not there but his brother, I made sure to advertise the show.
Phil: You were wearing your Game Under T-shirt, I hope.
Tom: Oh, obviously, and Game Under hat, all of our merchandise which you can buy from our website, gameunder.net.
Phil: They probably couldn't appreciate the fact that you're wearing our branded Game Under condoms either.
Tom: Well, not all of them saw them, only some.
Phil: Yeah, I imagine there was some groupies.
Tom: Of course.
Phil: You should have told me about this.
Phil: I would have gone down.
Phil: They probably would have given us a keynote.
Tom: As soon as you heard they were groupies, you would have been on the plane.
Phil: I would have been, yes.
Phil: I mean, just to ward them off of you and protect the poor lasses.
Phil: You know, I am always the perennial white knight.
Phil: Okay, so you told one of them about the show, and that's your marketing done for the year?
Tom: Yeah, exactly.
Tom: I told each one of them.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Well, I expect.
Tom: Except for one.
Phil: I expect I'll be receiving a receipt for the petrol money that was spent as a marketing expense any day now.
Phil: Well, that's cool.
Tom: But considering we might have some new listeners, I was thinking, you know, should we begin the show on a controversial trademark banter note or not?
Phil: Oh, well.
Tom: And I think you answered the question just then yourself.
Phil: I'd prefer to hear more about the games at RMIT.
Tom: No, I think given the direction this has gone in, before we get to the games at RMIT, we've got to confront long-running character of the show, Elon Musk.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Well, now, if this enters a certain territory, of course, it won't make it to the final show.
Tom: Well, I think it's guaranteed to enter some of that territory, just as we allege he may or may not have himself.
Phil: Well, you allege.
Phil: That's Tom Towers, Tom Towers speaking for the record.
Tom: I think I posted on thevgpress.com a while ago.
Tom: I don't know if it was you or someone else posted, an Elon Musk interview, or I came across it myself.
Tom: And I was just absolutely floored by the fact that he, I think he was on Joe Rogan, perhaps.
Tom: And he came across as the less intelligent person in the room between the two.
Phil: So you were flabbergasted by this, huh?
Tom: I was floored by it because all I knew about Elon Musk previously was that he was a ******.
Phil: Alleged.
Phil: That's not what you said is what people have alleged.
Tom: But it's what I've been told.
Tom: It's what I've been told by our sources.
Phil: Yeah.
Tom: Well actually, who are anonymous for their own protection.
Phil: Now, don't get me wrong.
Phil: I'm not here to defend the guy.
Phil: I mean, he's a defense department shill, you know.
Phil: But you've got the story exactly opposite.
Phil: It was he who was sued for calling the dude that rescued the kids in the cave a ****.
Phil: And he lost.
Phil: I don't think there was ever any allegation that he-
Tom: No, Elon Musk won.
Tom: He won the defamation case.
Phil: No, no, no.
Tom: Even though-
Phil: You've got it exactly wrong.
Phil: The dude won against Elon Musk.
Tom: I think you're incorrect here.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Are you going to do some fact checking, real-time fact checking?
Tom: Yeah, I'm doing real-time fact checking.
Tom: Okay.
Phil: So I'm here just so you know, to promote the RMIT and the students who have gone through.
Phil: There's a couple of different things that they had game development, different things that they had to do.
Phil: So some of them, at the very start, they had to remake games like Flappy Bird and do top-down games.
Phil: I noticed that.
Phil: Then they went on to do mini platform games, and then like Capstone games.
Phil: I went on to itch, where they're all listed, and most of them are playable, if not all of them are playable, through the browser.
Phil: You were promoting some games, I noticed, that you'll tell us about.
Phil: But I noticed there was a game called Chickpea, that I was attracted to, which is about, made by someone called Loomi, L-O-O-M-I.
Phil: And I noticed that, you know, days ago, he or she had just posted a sad face.
Phil: There was no other comment.
Phil: So I said, well, I got to play this game.
Phil: I'll play the game.
Phil: It was a top-down maze game, where you've got to try and retrieve five of your baby chickens.
Phil: And it had really cool music.
Phil: I really loved the music.
Phil: And I liked the animation of the sprites and the sprites themselves.
Phil: So another game I played was Who Taught These Police How to Drive?
Phil: And I've got to tell you, you know, part of playing these games took me back to our roadblocks experience.
Phil: I mean, because it's all about the name.
Phil: Who Taught These Police How to Drive is a great name.
Phil: And that's why I was drawn to it.
Phil: So I played that.
Phil: It wasn't super great, but it was a good concept anyway.
Phil: So have you now fact checked yourself?
Phil: And who's right, me or you?
Tom: I, as usual, I'm correct and you're right.
Phil: Really?
Phil: So who won?
Tom: BBC, th of December,
Tom: Elon Musk wins defamation case over pedo guy tweet about Kaver.
Phil: Wow.
Phil: How?
Phil: How did he win?
Tom: Let's read the article live on air.
Tom: This is how we're going to raise our popularity.
Tom: We're marketing.
Tom: And now we're going the classic streamer route of just reading articles live on air or watching YouTube videos.
Tom: Elon Musk did not defame a British Kaver who helped in last year's rescue of trapped Thai schoolboys by calling him a, quote, pedo guy, end quote, a US jury has found.
Phil: They don't even like as a journalist, you love using words that you never get to use.
Phil: I'm disappointed in the BBC that they haven't used the word Spelunker.
Tom: Unfortunately.
Phil: One who explores caves.
Tom: But it appears reading the rest of the article that his defense essentially came down to him claiming that pedo guy was a common term in South Africa where he grew up.
Phil: What did it mean in South Africa?
Tom: I would assume that it meant a male pedophile.
Phil: But it actually means really cool dude.
Phil: So if you reread the tweet from the top and substitute the words really cool dude, can you please reread it?
Tom: I think we could say Elon Musk.
Tom: We just need to use the correct terminology.
Tom: So you no longer need to censor my claims about Elon Musk as long as I call him a pedo guy.
Phil: That's exactly right.
Phil: You can call him that if you're from South Africa.
Tom: Well, I'm not from South Africa, but...
Phil: Which fortunately, you're not.
Tom: Australia is, there have been various times where we clearly relate a lot to at least some South Africans because we have various immigration pledges to save one portion of the South African populace to which Elon Musk belongs from another.
Tom: So I think clearly the Australian culture is very similar to at least part of South African culture from which Elon Musk comes.
Phil: Your link is tenuous.
Tom: But I think legally defensible.
Phil: That doesn't make him one.
Phil: Him winning a lawsuit for calling someone a pedo guy doesn't make him an actual pedo guy.
Tom: No, but it allows me to call him one.
Phil: To say that, all right, but you can't say the other word.
Phil: Which fortunately, I have the ability to bleep the show because no one else wants to edit it.
Tom: You'll be happy to find that what we're getting to is, given that he has now become a part of Donald Trump's entourage and been given a fake governmental position.
Phil: Yes, fake government position.
Tom: Yeah, I've always claimed his appears to be a complete moron as well as a f***ing d***.
Tom: But given these, the recent way in which he's managed to ingratiate himself in the American political elite, it's made me question one of those two claims.
Tom: I think we can be % certain that he is a pedo guy.
Tom: But the fact that he has now got a fake governmental position is a part of mainstream politics in America.
Tom: Makes me question whether he's actually an idiot or not.
Phil: Okay, so tell me about RMIT.
Tom: But the reason is, and I want a second answer from you because I was never satisfied with your first answer a while ago.
Tom: So I think it's plain to see that if you are capable of winning an election in America, it's very important that you come across as having some degree of dementia, right?
Phil: In recent years, certainly.
Tom: Yeah, since at least Obama.
Tom: Obama is basically the exception to the rule.
Tom: He's the only person to have won an election, I would say in my lifetime, who has not presented as or actually had some form of dementia.
Phil: There's been some lucid precedents, certainly.
Tom: In my lifetime?
Tom: Bear in mind, you're a lot older than I am.
Phil: Yeah, that's true.
Phil: Yeah, because I was thinking about Theodore Roosevelt.
Tom: So what's the reason for this, was my question.
Phil: Look, I think it's an undesirable position and that only crazy narcissists, including Obama, go for it.
Tom: No, no, no.
Tom: Why do the voters go for the person who presents as having the most degree of brain damage or difficulty thinking?
Phil: Well, unlike Australia, where voting is compulsory, which has its own problems, only about a third of Americans actually vote.
Phil: So you're getting people who have limited choices because it's a two-party system and people who want to innovate in areas of thought are maligned and sidelined and not given the mantle of rising to the top.
Phil: And so the people that do have the stamina to actually want to lead one of those two parties and do whatever it takes to win, because they, for whatever reason, feel that they're the only person capable of leading the free world, end quote.
Phil: Yeah, it's just a matter of a limited choice.
Phil: And so basically, it comes down to a sports battle.
Phil: Do you root for the red team?
Phil: Do you root for the blue team?
Tom: Yes, but I want to, I'm just trying to work out what the appeal is.
Phil: It's not an appeal.
Phil: It's just people who care vote and people who care.
Tom: But it must be, it must be either the marketing team in the parties say, we believe that if you present yourself as having some sort of degenerative brain disease, that is what's going to get you the most votes.
Tom: Or that's how they naturally are and that's why they're chosen because that's what the American marketing team behind the parties believe will win.
Tom: And it does win.
Phil: I think the marketing teams work with what they've got.
Phil: And basically they work with the candidate they've got.
Tom: I think there's very clearly, I think it's more than that.
Tom: I really do.
Tom: So we'll leave it to listeners to think about why Phil's answer has changed from because the voter is old to not giving a reason.
Tom: And move on to finally talking about the games because we assume that any of the people I advertise the podcast to have now been totally put off.
Phil: At this point I would like to, I probably should have done this earlier, remind the listeners that we do have chapter markers.
Phil: So you can skip any section of the podcast that you wish quite easily by pressing one button.
Tom: So you can listen to the meat of the show that we were just talking about.
Phil: On compatible podcasts.
Phil: You can actually go back and listen to it again if you want.
Phil: So yeah, and since, while you were talking, I actually played another game from RMIT.
Phil: But I'll save that for when you talk about some of the games that you were able to play.
Phil: Were you able to play games at the show?
Tom: Yes, I played actually quite a few games.
Phil: Did you play any of the games that I've mentioned so far?
Phil: Chick Pea and Who Taught These Police How to Drive?
Tom: No, I didn't.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Unfortunately.
Phil: All right.
Phil: Our coverage isn't overlapping.
Tom: So I went there on two days.
Tom: The first day, I did not have time to play any games.
Tom: I could only see the animation showcase.
Tom: I do now have the name of the film by my sister's friend, and I even have her name as well, which I did actually remember.
Tom: But the film was My Monthly Struggle, and the filmmaker was Crystal Tie, and I highly recommend it.
Phil: Excellent.
Tom: As for the games, I'll go through them in the order that I believe I played them.
Tom: The first game was Reflection of Etherea by Sammy, and it's basically a D co-op platformer inspired by Kirby and Shovel Knight.
Tom: I'm not actually sure that I've ever played a D Kirby, not Shovel Knight, sorry, Hollow Knight.
Tom: And I'm not sure I've ever actually played a D Kirby game.
Phil: Oh, really?
Tom: But I immediately recognized the aesthetic.
Tom: And Hollow Knight, though I own it, I have never played that either.
Tom: But I think Hollow Knight is actually another Melburnian game.
Phil: Well, I would imagine so.
Phil: All these students are studying in Melbourne, correct?
Tom: Yep.
Tom: So the gameplay is interesting because one player is on the top of the screen and the other player is on the bottom of the screen.
Tom: And the player on the bottom of the screen is upside down.
Tom: So as you are walking along, if you're playing on the bottom of the screen, instead of jumping upwards, you'll be jumping downwards.
Tom: And that, I play, we started off, I was playing Crystal and she played down the bottom and then we swapped.
Tom: And it certainly takes your brain a few seconds to adjust to playing it in the different orientation.
Tom: I think it adds a pretty unique and interesting twist on co-op.
Phil: And was this developed in the Unity engine?
Phil: All of the games I played were in Unity.
Phil: So I assume so.
Tom: It looked like it could have been.
Tom: I did not ask, though.
Phil: Yep.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: But I think the only issue was the wireless controller for the bottom half of the screen was apparently very old and therefore was in the process of dying.
Tom: So one's inputs were often not registered at all or there was a delay.
Tom: I assume that was not a programming issue but was indeed due to the controller.
Tom: Because if you're playing on the top half of the screen with a different controller, there were no such issues.
Tom: And mechanically, on the working controller, the jumping was responsive and satisfying.
Tom: There was a minor shooting mechanic and enemies you had to avoid or kill as well as a little boss battle at the end.
Tom: So it was, I think, a surprisingly full demo.
Tom: And certainly if I'd come across that game and played it, I would have been interested in the co-op twist and found the gameplay mechanics engaging enough to continue with it.
Tom: So it was surprisingly, I say surprisingly, but I was expecting the games to be reasonably good given the quality of indie games that Melbourne and Australia, but particularly Melbourne, has produced over the last few years.
Tom: So I was expecting the games to actually be of a pretty good standard and the first game I played there certainly was.
Phil: And the name of that game again?
Tom: Reflection of Etherea.
Phil: Reflection of Etherea.
Phil: Now I've noticed on Twitch.
Tom: Do you mean itch.io?
Phil: itch.io, yeah.
Phil: I think it is.
Phil: Because most of them are available there.
Phil: If you just search RMIT, you will find a link to their website and then from there, you can go, click on it and go on to itch.io and then play these games.
Phil: As I said earlier, most of them are browser compatible.
Phil: A third game that I played from itch.io is called Burnout Bakery.
Phil: Did you get to play this one?
Tom: No, I didn't, unfortunately.
Phil: It's made by someone called KeonDC and it's basically Wasdy and Mouse.
Phil: It's a hotline Miami game where you play as a piece of bread that's trying to break out of a bakery before you get toasted.
Phil: I think toasted would have been a good name as well, but Burnout Bakery gets it across.
Phil: It's a very capable game.
Phil: Again, I don't know how you would turn that into something that would be a full length game, but I guess that's not really the point.
Phil: What were some of the other games that you played?
Tom: I think the next game we played was another co-op game called Enjoy A Treat.
Tom: This was definitely one of the most creative games at the Expo.
Tom: One player with the mouse and keyboard controls movement from a first-person perspective.
Tom: It's basically a first-person platformer.
Tom: But the other player through facing a webcam controls the mouth of the character you're playing and also the jumping mechanic.
Tom: So you jump by blinking and to be able to see, the camera is within the moving protagonist's mouth.
Tom: So you have to hold your mouth open for the player moving to be able to see.
Tom: And sometimes you need to chew things in the game, at which point you will need to chew instead of holding your mouth open.
Tom: So it's interesting having the combined movement of one player controlling jumping and the other moving around.
Tom: It's also interesting that you're doing that through blinking.
Tom: And the mouth mechanic is also a very interesting little gimmick.
Tom: I use gimmick in a good sense, not in a negative sense.
Tom: It's certainly surprisingly difficult, as you often find with motion controlled games.
Tom: They'll have you do a simple movement that you would think wouldn't require much physical ability, but it's surprisingly difficult.
Tom: Holding your mouth open the entire time, the majority of the time, it certainly gives your jaw a workout you might not be used to.
Phil: Well, maybe for you, but...
Tom: It certainly depends on some other activities you might be performing.
Phil: So who made that game, do you know?
Tom: Yep, that was by Bo-Rui Lin.
Phil: Bo-Rui Lin, and what was the name of it?
Tom: Enjoy a Treat.
Phil: Enjoy a Treat, okay.
Tom: And you were also given a chocolate or other sweet before playing as well.
Tom: So I don't know if that class is bribery or not.
Tom: So you'll have to take all of our impressions with a game, a grain of salt on that game, unfortunately, because we were bribed by the developer.
Phil: I think just being in front of the developer, I mean, that's got to be a great experience.
Phil: And obviously, you're going to tolerate some things that in front of the person.
Tom: Well, in this case, the developer was not there because apparently he had to fly back home for a family emergency.
Tom: So his brother was attending the booth in his place.
Tom: And apparently his brother looks a lot like him.
Tom: So many of his students, his co-students there, were mistaking him for the real deal.
Phil: Did he look like a terrorist?
Tom: Maybe a terrorist from s China or modern Taiwan.
Phil: Okay, so just like a normal person.
Phil: Any other games that were...
Phil: You went there for two days.
Phil: I mean, you had to have played several games.
Tom: Well, the first day was only the animation.
Tom: Then the second day I was there playing the games.
Phil: Any other games you want to mention?
Tom: Yes, we're not finished yet.
Tom: The next game I played was called A Highly Sensitive Experience.
Tom: It was a VR game in the Quest
Tom: So I can also give some Quest impressions.
Phil: That's what I, yeah.
Phil: Have you been using your Quest lately?
Phil: Or is it more of a passing phase?
Tom: I would be using it, but I'm yet to work out a solution to the issue of the strap plastic.
Tom: So the plastic that you attach either the stock straps that comes with or an aftermarket solution to.
Phil: Right.
Phil: Well, you bought the quote, I think you said it was the most expensive, but most affordable or best value thing that you've ever bought.
Phil: Because it was $for a stupid little strap, but it totally changed your experience with the Quest
Phil: What happened with that strap?
Tom: Well, that broke at some point.
Tom: Okay.
Tom: Which was one thing, because it's a $strap, but then the plastic on the Quest itself, that you attach any strap to has since broken.
Phil: That's no good.
Tom: Which is an engineering issue that I'm yet to work out a solution to.
Phil: Did they work out an engineering solution with the Quest ?
Tom: Well, their Quest was new, so it is not yet a year old and falling apart.
Phil: Did you see any changes though?
Phil: Did they change that plastic part with like a steel rod or something?
Tom: Well, it felt a lot lighter than the Quest did, but I don't know whether that is due to an increase in strength over the period of time since I last used the Quest and the Quest or not.
Phil: An increase in your strength or processing strength?
Tom: In my strength.
Phil: Oh, okay.
Tom: And it required a lot less adjustment to become comfortable and stayed on requiring less strap pressure as well.
Tom: So I think ergonomically, it seems to be a much better design than it was previously.
Tom: Additionally, I think the screen resolution was potentially higher as well than the Quest because without any adjustments to the lens positioning or anything like that, it produced a pretty good image as well.
Tom: So it seems to be generally better designed.
Tom: But I do wonder, given the questionable build quality of the Quest whether the potentially lighter materials might also result in even worse durability.
Phil: Well, it's probably lighter because all the materials inside are smaller.
Phil: You know, I was about to say go out and buy Quest and I'll buy your Quest
Phil: But now that I know it's broken, I'm not so sure.
Phil: So the screen though, I mean, does it look significantly better or couldn't you tell because of the game you're playing?
Tom: I thought based on the game, it was...
Tom: We'll get to that in a minute.
Tom: But I think, like I said, I thought the definitely came across that was a high resolution screen.
Phil: Excellent.
Tom: That was my impression of it.
Phil: Yeah.
Tom: But so the game itself, I think with a great use of VR, it's essentially simulating the experience of a highly sensitive person.
Tom: And I think it also doubles as a sensory overload simulator as well.
Tom: As someone who has experienced sensory overload, I think it also demonstrates that experience quite well.
Tom: It starts off, if I remember correctly, as you essentially crossing the road.
Tom: And it's a very abstract experience.
Tom: So it begins on a mainly black screen and there are traffic lights.
Tom: And you can hear the signature male-burning road crossing signal for blind people, which was interesting to hear in a game.
Tom: And you then have to cross the road.
Tom: And it moves on to some other experiences culminating in a very big keyboard and typing noises, which I thought was a great use of exaggeration to get across both the tactical feeling of typing and also the noise as a potentially annoying experience.
Tom: So I thought it was a great use of the medium and it was definitely an interesting experience as well.
Phil: Yeah, I'd agree from what you've described.
Phil: So what was the name of that one again?
Tom: That was a highly sensitive experience and it was by Hin Long Yiu, who I think also went by Daniel.
Phil: Okay, so I hate to say this, but is it kind of cheating using VR because it's so easy to...
Phil: Yeah, but not really because it's going to be more complicated.
Phil: It sounds to me like a really good experience and a good concept and I've got to say by looking at all these games on itch.io...
Tom: I think rather than cheating by using VR, it's a great use of the medium of VR.
Phil: Yeah, and I switched my response to it midway there because, you know, you have to have a good idea and I've got to say, looking at all these games, the best things about them are the great ideas, which was the great things about going into Roblox, though there's a lot of garbage on Roblox.
Phil: These are inspired people and this is the best idea they have and that's what they've put into the game.
Phil: So that's what's really exciting about reviewing these kinds of games.
Tom: Absolutely.
Tom: The next game was also not a co-op experience, was Blood Legacy and this was I think one of the more traditional games.
Tom: It was sort of like a Castlevania style side-scrolling beat-em-up.
Tom: It had very striking presentation.
Tom: It was basically a semi-animated manga style storyboard cut scene leading straight into a fight and the voice acting, which I believe some of was by the developer, was exceptionally well done.
Tom: It was better than a lot of voice acting in many professional games without any question.
Tom: The narration, I think, was AI, but the character voice acting was by her.
Tom: The music was also exceptionally good.
Tom: The only thing I think that it was lacking was in the combat sequences.
Tom: It probably could have done with maybe more powerful sound effects to add a little bit more tactility to the combat.
Tom: But other than that, as brief as it was, it was a very striking experience.
Tom: It was developed by Josephine Putri, who I probably mispronounced.
Phil: The name of the game is Blood Legacy.
Tom: Correct.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: I'll give you a break here, and then I'll just continue with your impressions.
Phil: But these guys are making games.
Phil: They've got great ideas.
Phil: They've got creativity.
Phil: They're going to have the technical skills.
Phil: But my question, and you won't have an answer for this, possibly, what are they going to do in Australia?
Phil: We have had some games released in Australia recently, but it's been nothing like, you know, in through where we actually had a game industry here in Australia.
Phil: So, you know, do you have an answer for that?
Phil: I mean, where do they go?
Phil: What do they do?
Tom: Well, they definitely can't work in a games industry in terms of working for a mainstream developer.
Tom: I don't think there's really many of them left around.
Tom: But I think they can work nevertheless in games as indie developers.
Phil: Yeah, if you look at games like, what was the goose game, for example?
Tom: Untitled Goose Game.
Phil: Untitled Goose Game.
Phil: I mean, like, it was funded by the Victorian government, you know, like, it's kind of like the Australian movie industry.
Phil: Every time you see a movie that's made in Australia, it's always, you know, gotten sponsorship by the state government, the federal government and the tourist board for whatever states they...
Tom: which was also the case with the, when there was something of a game industry here.
Phil: Yeah, but...
Tom: So even with LA.
Tom: Noire, for example.
Phil: No.
Phil: Yeah, but look at Bioshock for example.
Phil: Like, by Take that was a completely commercial adventure with no government funds whatsoever.
Tom: I think only Bioshock
Tom: In the case of LA.
Tom: Noire, that was also received state funding.
Phil: Right.
Phil: What was the name of the studio that did the...
Phil: What was the game, the Aliens game that, you know, that they shot up a bunch of people?
Phil: It was basically a third-person shooter set in the s alien scene.
Phil: Like, that was completely...
Tom: Destroy All Humans.
Phil: Yeah, Destroy All Humans.
Phil: That was a game developed in Brisbane, and that was completely commercial as well.
Phil: So, you know, there was a time where Australian studios were engaged because while America slept, Australia was awake, and there was enough overlap, and obviously we speak English like Americans do, highly educated, have a good accessibility to the traditional education system, I'll say, as opposed to highly educated.
Phil: And, you know, there was a time where Australian development was really flourishing with Ubisoft, Take-Two, but now, like, it seems to be in the same sad state as film.
Phil: Like, there was absolutely no way, as much as I loved film when I was in high school and made movies and directing and all that sort of stuff, there's absolutely no foreseeable future, vocationally, for someone who wants to make movies in Australia, or, yeah, at this point, someone who wants to make video games in Australia.
Phil: I'd love to hear that someone come on and disagree with us and tell me what the path is.
Phil: Is it working remotely for a studio, or do you have to move to get a job?
Tom: I'm not sure you're right about destroy all humans, if we can be pedantic for a moment.
Tom: I think that may also have received some degree of funding.
Tom: But in any case, certainly, when there was something of a games industry here...
Phil: It did, yeah, it was, yeah.
Phil: There was a reason for it.
Phil: The government was heavily subsidising it from a tax perspective, yeah.
Tom: The industry existed solely because of the existence of subsidisation.
Phil: Yes, I agree.
Tom: Essentially.
Tom: It was so small that I think the majority of people, if in that time period, there was a games course you could study and games were mainstream enough, that a large number of people wanted to make games, there certainly would not have been enough room for them to do so even back then.
Tom: Because certainly, in that era, the number of people who would have been interested in developing games was miniscule.
Tom: The number of people who were interested openly in playing games in Australia was relatively small.
Tom: Certainly, I would argue compared to a lot of other countries.
Tom: It's a totally different thing now where playing games is a mainstream thing.
Tom: So a lot of people are going to be interested in studying games because they love games.
Tom: It's their hobby and passion or even vocation potentially, whereas that would have been a very small subset of nerds in the past in Australia.
Tom: So I think even if there was something of the industry that was there in the past, there would still not have been anywhere near enough support for people to be able to work in that field through working for a mainstream developer.
Tom: So I think this would have been an issue back then as well.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: And there are independent studios now where if you know the right people, you can get a job with an independent studio, stay in Australia and work.
Phil: But when I was a kid coming out of high school, I wanted to be in movies, I wanted to direct, which is a lofty thing.
Phil: Only someone coming out of high school would think.
Phil: So I moved to LA because there was no logical place to quote, move to in Australia, like where do you move to in Australia to become a director?
Phil: There's not an ecosystem there.
Phil: I wanted to write scripts and direct movies, so you went to Hollywood.
Phil: I just don't know where these students are going to go.
Phil: But I, as you said, maybe I'm thinking, my thinking is old, and maybe there's pathways there that are accessible to them to work remotely.
Phil: And honestly, yeah, for as an in-game developer, I'm not sure where I'd move to.
Phil: I mean, there's plenty of development in California, but yeah, it's a tough one.
Phil: Because you go to uni, you pick up these skills, ostensibly it's to get a job.
Tom: In theory, I think if you're going to uni to study anything creative, you shouldn't be looking at skills to get a job.
Phil: Yeah, I agree.
Phil: You're learning to pick up.
Tom: That's your trait.
Tom: I think no matter what you're studying at university, you shouldn't be going to it to pick up skills to get a job.
Tom: You should be solely going there to get work experience and networking.
Tom: Because even if you go to uni and you're studying something within the hard sciences, the reality is if you're not there either to demonstrate to scientists working in the university who are doing paid science elsewhere, that they will want to hire you as you go out of university, you're there to get work experience and other jobs.
Tom: Because even if you're in a field of the hard sciences, the first thing that people hiring are going to look at is not what your academic success was other than whatever arbitrary number for you to be considered is.
Tom: They're going to be looking at what work you did there, how you got on working with people and all that sort of thing.
Phil: Yeah, I was going to disagree with you and bring up the hard sciences, but you're absolutely right.
Phil: It ultimately is about learning the skills so you can do the job and networking, especially in a small country like this one.
Phil: So with that, I will shut up and let you talk about some more games.
Tom: But I think the good thing about what they're doing here is, they're producing work that is enjoyable and playable.
Tom: If they're capable of and they're doing it with support of the universities, and they're getting access to other students who might be able to do music for them or whatever else.
Tom: So they're making games that they can sell potentially as Indie games.
Tom: Because the standard of the work that was being produced is certainly, I think, buyable and better than a lot of random slop that is released.
Tom: So I think even if you want it, I don't think it's a good idea to go to university solely on the basis that you are expecting it to make a career for you.
Tom: I think you should be going to university if you are truly taking university in the spirit that university should be, even if you're studying a harder science as opposed to something creative.
Tom: That shouldn't be your only goal.
Tom: But I think with that in mind, it's a reasonable start to producing Indie games, I would think.
Phil: Yeah, I stand corrected and you are absolutely right.
Phil: Being able to interact with students from other, you know, like meeting someone who's good with audio, meeting someone who's good with art, you know, there's probably at least one, there's probably at least the possibility of one indie studio a year being born through that networking at a university where you've got an idea, someone else has an idea, hey, this guy's great at coding, this person's great at music, this person's great at art, you know, the four of us surely together can come up with something that can break through.
Phil: We get funding and hey, if we get funding from the government, who cares where the money comes from, let's get exposure.
Phil: And you know, Untitled Goose Game went on to great commercial and critical success.
Phil: So yeah, you've convinced me otherwise.
Tom: And the next game that I played was called Dance Dance Deception.
Tom: And I think this was creatively, I mean, all of the games certainly had, I wouldn't say any of the games I played was, didn't have a very creative aspect to it, that set them apart from a lot of games that are published and released.
Tom: But this, I think, in terms of taking a crazy concept, to its full completion, really stood out.
Tom: It's called Dance Dance Deception, as I said, and as you can probably guess from that, it is dance themed.
Tom: You're playing as a character who is getting ready to go out to a rave with four friends.
Tom: And the gameplay consists of two things.
Tom: One, there is a dance demon who was possessed one of the dancers, and you've got to try and figure out who it is based on the, based on watching them dance.
Tom: And the other aspect of the gameplay is you are creating your own choreography, and you do this by controlling each section of your dancers body through the thumbsticks and the shoulder buttons.
Tom: And you break the dance into four different elements, and they get put together in the dance animation segment where you can see yourself dance and the others dance, which is what you've got to figure out who the dance team is based on.
Tom: And it is just absolutely hilarious.
Tom: The dancers you create are ridiculous in the best possible way.
Tom: The dialogue between the characters as you're trying to figure out who the possessed dancers is also very funny.
Tom: And the art style fits the sense of humor perfectly as well.
Phil: That sounds very commercial, like in a good way.
Phil: It sounds creative and commercial.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: So that's the one that so far you've talked about where it's like, oh yeah, that's not just like a small concept.
Phil: That sounds like a great concept.
Tom: I think that definitely has potentially the easiest to market style to it.
Tom: And it stands out a lot as well.
Tom: I think Blood Legacy as well is something that you could probably go, probably put yourself behind in a similar manner to, just to a completely different audience.
Tom: I think Dance Dance Deception might be on itch, and I recommend anyone goes out and plays it.
Tom: It was also, I think, other than maybe a highly sensitive experience and another game we're going to get to in a minute.
Tom: I think that also felt like the most complete as well.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Excellent.
Phil: I will give that one a go.
Phil: And who made that one again?
Tom: That was Lou Fourie.
Tom: So after a brief break in playing game so that we could watch the mature slash horror compilation of animations as they were separated from the other animations, I went back and played the last game I played on the day, but not the last game I will talk about, which was Coffin Room by Kay Kwan and Lam Le.
Tom: And this was another VR game.
Tom: And I say game, but it ended up, I believe the original concept was to make it into a game.
Tom: But neither of the two people making it knew enough about game development to develop it into a game.
Tom: So I suggest that they should have got, should get at some point in the future, some people they know to develop it into a game.
Tom: But as a D virtual reality animation it was nonetheless another fascinating experience.
Tom: So it's called Coffin Room and it's based on the tiny coffin apartments in Kowloon City in Hong Kong.
Tom: So Kowloon is where I believe the Kowloon walled city was.
Tom: So this might be the descendant of the demolished wall city.
Tom: Instead of having a walled city of apartments all squashed together, you've now got separate apartments blocks, but the apartments within them are incredibly small.
Tom: So the animation is from the perspective of a late middle-aged man who is sick and his experience living in this tiny apartment with his wife, and their son and I think possibly his father or his wife's father.
Tom: And it also has flashbacks to when they were living in a larger apartment.
Tom: So it's an interesting story and an even more interesting setting.
Tom: Like I think the sensory, highly sensitive person game, it is a great use of VR putting you in a different world and allowing you to experience something different.
Phil: In this post-COVID world, so when you're using a VR headset in a public place, like what do they do?
Phil: What theater do they go through to make you feel like you're not going to get sick from the last person that put it on your head?
Tom: None.
Phil: Oh, none.
Phil: So no bacterial wipes or anything like that?
Tom: Nothing like that.
Phil: Oh, cool.
Phil: So they're really not thinking in a corporate way.
Tom: Not until they get the state funding.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: So that was Coffin Room.
Tom: Yep.
Tom: And I think that was another definite highlight for me.
Tom: The last game we're going to talk about, I didn't play on the day, but it was a part of the exhibition, and I came across it on Stitch, on, sorry.
Phil: itch.io.
Tom: Itch, itch, itch, yes, itch.
Tom: itch.io is Sea Blindness.
Tom: And this was, according to itch.io, it's got the developer name, but we'll keep it in line with the student name, as we previously used.
Tom: It's by Peng Yu Jeong.
Tom: And it is, it starts off a little bit weirdly, because it's a combination of, it's a D adventure game from a side sort of platforming perspective.
Tom: And the controls are both the keyboard and the mouse.
Tom: So you move with the keyboard, but then you're clicking on things with the mouse.
Tom: So it's at first somewhat confusing to come to grips with, or it was for me anyway.
Tom: And it's basically set on a ship.
Tom: And you walk around the ship talking to people, and they're apparently diving, looking for something.
Tom: And it all seems, you know, pretty rudimentary and basic.
Tom: The art style is interesting enough.
Tom: But then, as you're continuing to play, the fourth wall is broken, and you start to think maybe you're in a game, which narratively makes it more interesting than it was to begin with.
Tom: But then, gameplay-wise, they take this interesting but somewhat cliched opening in a very clever direction.
Tom: So at some point, you're trying to avoid your diving in a submarine, and you're being chased by a giant fish, and there's nothing you can do to avoid it.
Tom: So you've got to figure out, well, what do I do to get rid of this fish, bearing in mind that you're in a game, right?
Tom: So what is the potential solution to this problem?
Phil: Your fish, go hide in a coral?
Tom: No, you go into the game's files, and you delete the fish file.
Phil: Oh, wow.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: And then, yep.
Tom: So it's a very clever use of the fourth wall breaking concept.
Phil: What's the name of this one?
Tom: Endless Sea, was it?
Tom: Sea Blindness, sorry.
Phil: Sea Blindness, yeah.
Phil: So is that it?
Tom: That completes our RMIT segment.
Phil: Okay, Game of the Show, if you had to pick any of those.
Tom: That is difficult.
Tom: I think Game of the Show, I'm going to make a tie between Dance Dance, Deception and Coffin Run.
Phil: They both sound fantastic.
Phil: Of the games that I played, I'm going to go with Burnout Bakery by KeonDC.
Phil: But you're not going to commit to Dance Dance, Deception as being better than Coffin Run?
Tom: No, I'm going to make it a tie.
Phil: Come on, roll the die of Destiny at least.
Tom: I should have been raiding them.
Tom: No, we're going to go back to the beginning.
Phil: No, we are not.
Tom: Whatever is the highest score.
Tom: Yes, we are.
Phil: Oh my god.
Phil: Here we go.
Phil: So for new listeners, the die of Destiny, Tom gives his impressions of a game, but his actual score is because we've determined that the arbitrary come from a roll of a ten-sided die, which he uses for his various real life role playing games.
Phil: He's a dungeon master as well.
Tom: Not my real life role playing games.
Tom: This is how I make every decision of my life.
Phil: Yeah, this explains a lot.
Tom: That's why it's the die of Destiny.
Phil: Yeah, righto.
Phil: Okay, die of Destiny.
Tom: It's entirely responsible for my destiny.
Phil: And I've got the mindful mini-fig, mini-fog ready as well to balance out your score.
Tom: So before we roll the dice, I just want to again reiterate that I was surprised, even though I was expecting reasonable quality, given the games that Melbourne has produced recently, I was surprised by the quality of the games being made.
Tom: All of them were both playable.
Tom: And I think, we're not only playable, sorry, but both playable and purchasable.
Tom: If I was buying any of these games in a Steam sale, I buy all my games in Steam sales, I would not be disappointed or feel that I'd wasted my money.
Phil: I feel that the games that I played, I would be happy if I brought them in an itch.io bundle.
Phil: But I did enjoy them nonetheless.
Phil: So I'm going to score Chick Pea a out of
Phil: I'm going to give Who Taught These Police How To Live a out of
Phil: I'm sorry, didn't quite work technically, and Burnout Bakery, I'm going to give a out of
Phil: So you're going to score your games.
Tom: I think that's still a pretty good return.
Phil: I think so.
Tom: The games I played were curated by my sister's friends, so she may have picked out the best ones.
Phil: So you played Blood Legacy.
Tom: Yep.
Phil: Score it.
Tom: We'll start from the beginning.
Tom: The Reflection of Atheria, here's the score.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: It gets a out of
Phil: Okay, that's unfortunate.
Phil: I'm going to roll the Mindful Mini Fogg, and I think you actually gave it a out of
Tom: Okay.
Tom: We're going to move on to Enjoy a Treat.
Tom: That gets a out of
Phil: I'm going to roll the Mindful Mini Fogg, and it also got a out of
Tom: I think the Mindful Mini Fogg is very off there, I have to say.
Phil: You think it was higher than that?
Tom: I think so.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: But we'll move on.
Phil: We can't appeal.
Phil: There's not a third appeal.
Tom: I only go by the Dive Destin.
Phil: And I've only got the Mini Fogg's, you know.
Phil: I roll the Mini Fogg's, you know.
Tom: We need a third person.
Phil: Yeah, we need a third.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: The third person is the listener who should be listening to the Threshins and not needing an arbitrary score.
Phil: That's right.
Tom: Moving on to Blood Legacy.
Tom: That gets a zero out of unfortunately.
Tom: No, no, the zero is a sorry.
Tom: Gets a out of
Phil: Oh,
Tom: Yep, a out of
Phil: Okay.
Phil: So there's no need for the Mini Fogg's because that's what I thought actually would.
Phil: I'll roll them.
Phil: .
Tom: Okay.
Tom: It's a out of
Tom: So, that's probably going to be the game of the show.
Phil: Dance Dance Deception.
Tom: Dance Dance Deception gets a out of unfortunately.
Phil: Oh, goodness.
Phil: It got an .
Tom: And Coffin Room, it gets a out of
Phil: It got an .
Tom: Okay.
Tom: And last but not least, Sea Blindness gets a out of
Phil: Oh, it unfortunately got a .
Tom: Well, the Dive Destiny, I think it was a low scoring day if not for that out of
Tom: I think that might be the first out of that we have got.
Tom: So congratulations to Josephine Putri for getting the first ever Tom Towers out of on The Game Under Podcast.
Phil: That's true.
Phil: For her game.
Tom: Blood Legacy.
Phil: Blood Legacy, yeah.
Phil: All right.
Phil: Excellent.
Phil: Well, with that, we're going to go on to the news.
Phil: And story number one is Stalker is a janky mess, like Zelensky, but no one wants to admit it because it was made in Ukraine.
Phil: Stalker Heart of Chernobyl, the long-awaited sequel to the cult classic Stalker, has been released, but it's a mixed bag of highs and lows.
Phil: On the one hand, the game captures the eerie atmosphere of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, just like the first game, and offers an open world survival shooter experience that fans have been craving for years.
Phil: They've added an open world element to the game, which sounds terrible.
Phil: However, it's plagued by bugs, performance issues and rough edges that detract from the overall experience.
Phil: I think there was bugs that prevented you from actually finishing the game if you encountered them.
Phil: Despite these flaws, it has already sold million copies in just two short days, proving its popularity amongst gamers, or naivety amongst gamers.
Phil: GSC, the developer, has acknowledged the rough edges, end quote, and released a, quote, day one patch.
Phil: The thing about that patch though, Tom, it's gigabytes, which is the same size of the game itself.
Phil: So basically, it's not a patch, it's not a, hey, here's a few things we want to fix.
Phil: They're basically making you download the whole game again, which is, to me, crazy.
Phil: Now, the game is available on Game Pass, and if your game is good, that can be a good thing, because you get tremendous word of mouth.
Phil: But if it's bad, it means a lot of people who aren't particularly committed to the game, because they didn't have to pay for it, have some opinions about it.
Phil: Microsoft was hoping that this Xbox Windows exclusive would coincide well with the new ad campaign, but it's actually turned out not to be so great.
Phil: Now, you are a huge fan of Stalker, right?
Tom: Yes, I am.
Phil: And you've not yet been able to give it a go.
Phil: I know you're a Game Pass subscriber, so surely you're at least thinking about it.
Tom: Now, I know that it's on Games Pass, I will be playing it.
Phil: Excellent.
Phil: We've reviewed this in, just if people want to go back and listen to your impressions of Stalker, there was actually, it's hard to say, years ago in Game Under Episode
Phil: So you can download that from our website or just subscribe and get it that way.
Phil: So what are your thoughts about Stalker ?
Phil: They released that great documentary on YouTube.
Phil: They got a lot of support because they're a Ukraine developer.
Phil: The thing about the YouTube documentary I thought was weird, was GSC is the initials of the founder.
Phil: But they explained that in the documentary because his brother is now running the studio.
Phil: But they never mentioned where the founder is, or what happened to him, or the circumstances under which he left the studio.
Phil: So that part was a bit weird to me.
Phil: But that's just the gossip side of things.
Phil: What's your thinking about Stalker becoming an open world shooter?
Tom: Well, it always was an open world shooter.
Tom: Really?
Tom: Yep.
Tom: It was not open world only in the sense that there were loading screens between certain areas.
Tom: So depending on how you define open world, it didn't necessarily qualify.
Tom: And it also had, of course, a narrative that directed you through things in a certain order.
Tom: But no, once you got past the opening section, you could basically wander around as you pleased.
Phil: My impression when I was playing it though, was that it was directed like throughout the whole game.
Phil: It was more of a directed experience rather than...
Tom: It is and it isn't.
Tom: That's why I say it depends on how you define open world.
Tom: So putting it into a more traditional definition of it, I don't think is that huge of a step away from what the game was like.
Tom: So that part, that part I don't think is too much of a change.
Tom: But here's the thing though, that I'm honestly confused about.
Tom: That it is news that the game is a janky and potentially unplayable mess.
Tom: Because for anyone who has played the original game, or was a fan of the original game, or followed what was happening with it.
Tom: One, I assume no one should have been surprised it has taken this long to be released.
Tom: If anything, it came out faster than one might have expected.
Tom: But two, the game originally, when it was released, had a litany of issues and was unplayable for a large proportion of people.
Tom: And only through a really long period of patches, and not only patches but mods that fix things as well, became anything like a polished experience.
Tom: So this should really not be a surprise to anyone.
Phil: It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who remembers what happened years ago.
Phil: And you've reminded me, and you're right.
Phil: And the other thing to consider is what everyone's saying and the people who don't want to say bad things about this game because it's being made by people who are in a war zone, effectively, is that, yeah, I mean, like this does have a history of being released being a bit janky, or being janky.
Phil: And I don't think it'd be getting the criticism it is had it not been a game past game.
Phil: I think most, it would have been released.
Phil: People would have said, oh, Stalker is out.
Phil: You know, this is a great second chance game like Cyberpunk.
Phil: You know, get it in a year from now and it'll be fine.
Phil: Or get it in eight months from now and it'll be fine.
Phil: And honestly, I know for sure if I download this game in eight months, it'll be fine.
Phil: But it's just the way that some of these games are, that they just need to be exposed to people.
Phil: You know, at a certain point, the game was delayed several, several times.
Phil: It has been years since the last game.
Phil: So, you know, I don't know that my expectations had I thought about them, would be any different than the outcome that we're witnessing.
Phil: Given that it's on Game Pass right now, and you know that it is, are you going to go and download it tonight?
Phil: Or are you going to be more like, I'll just wait till they patch it.
Phil: I'll check it out in, you know, six months from now.
Tom: Given that it's on Game Pass, I'm definitely going to play it.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Yeah.
Tom: But there's a reason I had not bought it yet.
Phil: Well, I didn't know if you knew it had been released.
Phil: Because I figured-
Tom: I knew it was released.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: I would have thought-
Tom: But it's not a game I will consider, and buying on release at all.
Tom: Even if I could find it a key for a good price, I was not considering buying it early on in its release cycle, for the fact that it was going to be a broken mess on release.
Phil: Even though Stalker, if I'm not wrong, it's like in your top five best games of all time, isn't it?
Tom: Definitely.
Tom: It's a contender for best game ever.
Phil: I would have thought that just to add a support for the developer, being that it's one of your top five games, that you would have gotten it.
Phil: But I've fallen off Yakuza in the last few years as well, because of various changes to the platform and all the rest of it.
Phil: I see my job as being done with Yakuza.
Phil: I was out there proselytizing for over a decade, for people to pay attention to it.
Phil: Now that it's actually popular, it's like, yeah, all right.
Phil: You know, I don't really need to pay that anymore, you know.
Tom: Well, apparently it's sold a million copies already, so maybe my work is done as well.
Phil: Well, it's sold, your work is done as well.
Phil: It's sold a million copies.
Phil: Are you on the bandwagon?
Phil: And by bandwagon, I mean the single person scooter that I ride that Killzone needs to come back?
Phil: Like, or is it?
Tom: I don't think it needs to come back.
Phil: It'd be nice if it came back.
Tom: You think so?
Phil: I don't think it'd be successful.
Tom: I like that it hasn't come back.
Tom: Because again, Guerrilla Games, you have to give a lot of credit.
Tom: They stopped making it when they got sick of making it.
Phil: Yeah, well actually I'd argue that they got sick of making it and then they made Skyfall.
Tom: Shadowfall.
Phil: Shadowfall, yeah.
Tom: Well, they claim that was the last one they were interested in, but I certainly can see that.
Phil: The second story, not to pile on, but Microsoft Flight Sim came out and it appears to be a crash landing.
Phil: Credit for this goes to multiple sources as was the case for the last story.
Phil: Asobo, the maker of Plague Tale, Innocence and Disneyland Adventures, received great credit for their reboot of Microsoft Flight Simulator after about a year lapse in the series.
Phil: This week, the sequel, Microsoft Flight Simulator has encountered a turbulent launch.
Phil: Players have reported technical and server issues preventing them from playing the game at all after paying between and USD, leading to a sea of negative reviews on Steam.
Phil: Despite efforts to address the problems, access and bandwidth issues persist as more users are obviously buying it and coming on, it's getting worse.
Phil: They basically have admitted, and I'm a huge fan of Asobo for their work.
Phil: It's a relatively small studio, I guess, in the scheme of things.
Phil: But basically, they said that they've been overwhelmed by the number of people playing it.
Phil: The lead developer, Newman, said that at the beginning, when players start, they're basically requesting data from a server and that server retrieves it from a database.
Phil: This database has a cache and was tested with simulated users, but the high number of players is still overwhelming it.
Phil: Basically, just to fill everyone in, when they came out with Microsoft Flight Simulator after doing nothing but license games for years and then going on to make the tremendous games in the Plague Tale series, they said the second time around, what they're going to want to deliver has to use the Cloud.
Phil: So basically, they're going to stream the content in.
Phil: They're not going to make you download a two terabyte game so that you can just fly anywhere in the world at any time.
Phil: Once they know that you're going to fly from Los Angeles to Paris, or Los Angeles to Alice Springs, then they're going to stream that data in.
Phil: So obviously, with a majority of the content streaming in, on day one, they tested it with people.
Phil: They got way more than that and it just didn't work and it crashed.
Phil: That makes sense, right?
Phil: This is another game available on Game Pass.
Phil: Microsoft was hoping this Xbox Windows exclusive would coincide well with the new ad campaign.
Phil: Two games in the same week, these things that were supposed to highlight Game Pass have drawn negative.
Tom: I think, so the fundamental issue here is that you have to essentially stream the game and they don't have enough service for the number of people who are playing.
Phil: Right.
Phil: Basically, the company that's name is in the game, Microsoft, runs Azure, which is a cloud storage, a cloud streaming service.
Phil: They've got the Xbox streaming service.
Phil: But for whatever reason, Sobo is saying, we tested with people.
Phil: No.
Phil: Test it with a million people.
Phil: Microsoft Flight Sim, they had to have, well, maybe they did know.
Phil: Maybe they looked at their history.
Phil: They would have had to have looked at their history and gone, oh, how many people have been online with this game before in the past?
Phil: And they would have said, oh, about at one time.
Phil: Oh, okay.
Phil: Well, you know what?
Phil: Let's test it with
Phil: Hey, went well.
Phil: But then they obviously got more than that because the game was available on Game Pass.
Phil: So they've probably got like a million people, you know?
Phil: And, you know, back to the story.
Phil: Stalker sold a million copies, even though it's available for free on Game Pass.
Phil: That's incredible.
Tom: And so I'm awaiting my marketing fees, royalties, any day now.
Phil: So like in both of these cases, these are studios that I'm sympathetic of.
Phil: And I'm sorry that this happened because obviously the game is fine.
Phil: It's just that the infrastructure that Microsoft has, the if anyone is positioned to have the infrastructure available for streaming services, it's Microsoft.
Tom: You would think so.
Phil: But I think in this case, I have to throw a sober under the bus because had they told Microsoft, yeah, we're going to need two million users.
Phil: We need to have two million users streaming from day one.
Phil: Microsoft would have went, yeah, that's fine.
Phil: We've got million people streaming Word and Excel all day long.
Phil: Go ahead.
Phil: And so I think in this case, it was probably a sober not understanding the appeal of their product and how important it was, that has undercut the issue.
Phil: So that's my synopsis of it.
Phil: I've been obviously thinking about it a lot more than you would, but do you have any further thoughts on that?
Tom: I think it's ridiculous.
Tom: You would think that it is as bad as it seemingly is.
Tom: If they're going to go down the route of their ridiculous solution to how massive their game is, you would think that they would need to have enough servers in place for the amount of people who are going to play it.
Tom: I don't think there's no excuse for it.
Phil: I think you're right.
Phil: If you're streaming, someone at Microsoft should have said, hey guys, look, I know you're thinking in a Plague Tale, Disneyland Adventures type thing, is not going to be anywhere near enough.
Phil: We're giving this shit away for free.
Phil: If you look at other games that we're giving away for free that rely on streaming data, you guys should be thinking more of million, not
Phil: But none of that happened.
Phil: I've got to hang that on Microsoft, I think, because they're the experts with Azure in providing server data, serving infrastructure.
Tom: Yes, I think they should have enough data to know that this was going to happen.
Phil: Yes, absolutely.
Tom: With how bad it is.
Phil: Yes, it shouldn't be a discredit to them.
Phil: So final pylon, it's not really a pylon, because I think it's all right, but Microsoft has a new ad campaign called, This is an Xbox.
Phil: Have you heard of this?
Tom: Yes, I've seen it on the vgpress.com.
Phil: Yes, and it highlights the versatility of the Xbox, basically saying that you can experience Xbox without buying a traditional console.
Phil: This is appealing to people who don't want to buy a console.
Phil: It means that you can play Xbox games on Samsung TVs, Amazon Firesticks, mobile phones, MetaQuest that sort of thing.
Phil: And so they have a picture of these various things saying, this is an Xbox and it will show a Steam Deck or a laptop or Quest or a TV remote or a Samsung TV.
Phil: And then they'll say, this is not an Xbox and then show a Bento box or a Cat box or whatever.
Phil: And you know, you can get stickers from them for free that says, this is an Xbox, this is not an Xbox.
Phil: And basically, Phil Spencer, they had him putting a, this is not an Xbox on a Petrol browser, which no doubt was removed immediately after that video was made because they don't want to get in legal trouble because they're Microsoft.
Phil: Yeah, it's a decent campaign in that it's communicating.
Phil: They've got billboards, the whole thing, that Xbox is a broad gaming experience, not just a console.
Phil: And they're trying to push that whole Netflix, you know, you don't need to commit to buying some $thing or several hundred dollar thing to play our games.
Phil: You can play them anywhere.
Phil: Now, Forbes gets the credit for this story.
Phil: And they say, quote, it just exemplifies problems with the overall Xbox brand right now, which feels like nothing.
Phil: Increasingly, Xbox feels more and more like a third party publisher that for some reason still makes hardware.
Phil: There are jokes with this campaign that you could also show a PlayStation and say this is an Xbox due to what would normally be exclusives coming to the console, though you can't cloud stream Game Pass games there yet.
Phil: End quote.
Phil: And I think that's a, it's a valuable point.
Phil: Like, so what are you doing?
Phil: Because the only people that subscribe to Game Pass are hardcore gamers.
Phil: Um, and so, but at the same time, you're saying to the hardcore gamers, well, you don't really need to buy an Xbox.
Phil: You can just play it on PC.
Phil: I'm not, I'm not kidding.
Phil: I don't see someone with a Samsung TV going, oh, this is great.
Phil: I didn't know that.
Phil: I can, I can just stream Xbox games.
Phil: I'll just pay X dollars a month and start streaming games.
Phil: Yeah, anyway, you can obviously hear I'm full clumped about this.
Phil: Can you give us any insights?
Tom: I think that criticism is very accurate.
Tom: It's not so much this isn't Xboxes.
Tom: You can play games pass on this.
Phil: Right, right.
Phil: But again, what role does a console play?
Phil: Because you've got game pass on PC.
Phil: So you can play pretty much any Xbox game on your PC without having to pay for a console, right?
Phil: Yep.
Phil: So okay, well, that's all right.
Phil: But you know, so what's the argument for buying a PlayStation ?
Phil: Astro Bot?
Phil: The next God of War game, if and when it ever comes out?
Phil: The next Naughty Dog game, if and when it comes out, like?
Tom: Well, there's a reason I don't have a PS
Phil: Well, that's just it.
Phil: That's just it.
Phil: So it's kind of saying-
Tom: There's more of an argument for PSthan Xbox.
Phil: How so?
Tom: Oh, yeah.
Tom: At least there are some exclusives on the PS
Phil: Exactly right.
Phil: There's still exclusives on the PlayStation
Phil: There's just not enough of them, in my view, to justify the purchase of an additional thing.
Phil: Yeah, so it's getting a lot of criticism.
Phil: I think it's something that they should have done four years ago.
Phil: They've got to commit to what they're doing.
Phil: They've already committed to saying Xbox is everywhere.
Phil: You can play it on all these other platforms.
Phil: They're now letting you stream games that you haven't bought on the Xbox, on the Xbox, for certain platforms.
Phil: So, yeah, I don't know.
Phil: I mean, it's a good brand message, but it's not a good way to sell consoles.
Phil: But maybe that's where Microsoft has been for the last few years anyway.
Phil: I just don't see the point in them releasing another console.
Phil: But apparently, they are.
Tom: I don't know how good of a brand message it is either.
Phil: Well, if you're selling the subscription...
Tom: Is the subscription app on your phone called Xbox, or is it called Xbox Games Pass or Games Pass?
Phil: It would be Xbox Games Pass.
Tom: Okay.
Tom: If I search Xbox on iPhone, the result is Xbox app.
Tom: So that would be why.
Tom: Yeah.
Phil: Well, the Xbox app is just...
Tom: I don't know if you can actually play it.
Phil: No, you can't.
Phil: It's just basically a way to link to your friends and see other stuff.
Phil: I've got to download it as well.
Phil: But Game Pass is available on Android.
Phil: I'm not sure it's available on Apple.
Tom: Well, let's go to the Play Store.
Phil: He's dual wielding, Tom Towers, Apple Phone and Samsung.
Tom: There is an Xbox app on the Play Store as well.
Phil: Well, we knew that.
Tom: And there's no Game Pass.
Tom: So if they're re-branding what is essentially Game Pass as Xbox, which I think they've done on PC as well, that's why.
Tom: So essentially Xbox is no longer the console.
Phil: Right.
Tom: It is essentially Game Pass.
Phil: Exactly right.
Tom: But we were talking about the Steam Link.
Phil: Oh yeah.
Phil: Well, yeah, this is our final...
Tom: The Xbox is now just Game Pass as Steam Link.
Tom: Yeah.
Phil: That's what they're saying.
Phil: Final news story is some Steam news.
Phil: A couple of things happened with Steam.
Phil: First was, I think it's the th anniversary of Half-Life
Phil: So that happened and they have a documentary on YouTube about why Episode didn't come out and why it was left for dead.
Phil: Huh?
Phil: Huh?
Tom: Huh?
Phil: Actually, Episode never came out because everyone jumped over to develop Left for Dead.
Phil: And then by the time they came back to do Episode of Half-Life the third entry in the episode of content for that game, they were like, well, we need a generational link.
Phil: We need a reason to play this game or launch this game.
Phil: They thought that at that point the engine was dated and that they shouldn't release a substandard game.
Phil: So whatever, but importantly, to our Australian audience, Steam Deck is now launched in Australia.
Phil: You can get the base model hard drive GB LCD for $
Phil: You can get the OLED GB for $
Phil: Or the TB OLED for $
Phil: I think this is fantastic because my lifestyle basically lends itself to being able to access my Steam library remotely on a regular basis.
Phil: So I'm excited by this.
Phil: Yeah, I'm looking forward to paying $Australian dollars for Steam Deck, even though in probably a year, they're going to come out with Steam Deck
Phil: Any interest on your part?
Tom: I think it's very, very appealing, but I don't know if I would actually use it very much in reality.
Phil: I tell you, I had to look at a lot of reviews because this thing looks bigger than the Atari Lynx.
Phil: It looks heavier than the Atari Lynx, most definitely will be.
Phil: The button controls look a little too close to the edge of the console, including the cross pad, but everyone says it's good.
Phil: So, I've looked at a thousand, more than a thousand, I've looked at three YouTube reviews of this and everyone says it's great.
Phil: I don't think I'm going to tinker with it.
Phil: I'm not going to turn it into an emulation toy.
Phil: I just want it straight out of the box to live my stream games.
Phil: That'd be fine.
Phil: In other stream news, steam news, I think this is more of a story that you wanted to champion.
Tom: Yes.
Tom: In its current form, apparently, they're going to be retiring the steam family sharing option.
Phil: So the family sharing basically allows you to share your library with another member of your family.
Phil: So I buy a game and I want my daughter to be able to play it, so I share it with her profile kind of thing, right?
Tom: Where the game under family here?
Phil: Yes.
Phil: We are a family.
Phil: I think we are related in some sense of the word.
Phil: I've certainly talked to you more than I've talked to anyone else in my family in the last whatever years.
Tom: So we may also dabble in it.
Tom: But the requirement now is that you have to be in the same house to set it up.
Phil: What are they like GPSing you or something?
Phil: Are they geolocating you?
Tom: I assume it's done by IP maybe.
Phil: Oh, Jesus.
Tom: Are you right?
Phil: For serious?
Tom: Yes.
Tom: Really?
Tom: Yes.
Phil: Well, what if my brother lives in Melbourne?
Tom: Too bad.
Phil: Wow.
Tom: He's got to move to Queensland.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: All right.
Tom: But there may be a way around.
Tom: VPN.
Tom: No, not VPN.
Phil: Yeah, but if I have a VPN and I say I'm in Melbourne.
Tom: Well, we attempted to do it via VPN and it didn't work.
Tom: But a different solution I've heard of is mobile phone.
Tom: So if you log in to the Steam account of your distant family member, distant in terms of physical space.
Phil: Not intimacy.
Tom: On your mobile phone, on the same Wi-Fi network, I think you can potentially set it up that way.
Phil: Well, that's a big reach.
Tom: But if you can't do that, here's the logic I assume behind this decision is, that people who would otherwise buy two copies of this one game, will not buy two copies of it and just buy one and play it between them, right?
Phil: Right.
Tom: This is the standard line of thinking I would assume.
Tom: Now, I don't have the data on this, of course, but anecdotally, among the people I share games with, the polar opposite of that is true.
Tom: The result of this will be rather than us buying more games, so that we can play, each of us get our own copy of the one game that we would have otherwise shared.
Tom: We may not buy a single copy of it.
Tom: We certainly would be encouraged to buy it on Gog over Steam, for example, or we might not buy the game at all, because there are a lot of games that we've all purchased for in my closest Steam family, three people, for us to each play and have a look at together, that we would not have been interested in buying if only one of us was to play it.
Tom: And we certainly would not have been interested in buying each individually a copy of the game to play.
Tom: So the corporate thinking is definitely that it will reduce sales, but I think the reality is, in our case anyway, that it will, sorry, that it would increase sales, but in our experience, it would likely reduce them.
Phil: Yeah, but this is exactly right.
Phil: This is like the piracy thing, where they say, oh, well, people downloaded our game.
Phil: That means we missed out on sales.
Phil: Yeah, but if you got people who downloaded it and bought it because they were exposed to the game, the other were never gonna buy your game anyway.
Tom: Exactly.
Phil: Yeah, and in most cases where a game's been shared with me, I've been like, the reason why someone's sharing it with you is because they're passionate about how great this game is.
Phil: And uniformly, when I've been shared a game, I go, you're absolutely right.
Phil: I'm gonna download and buy this game.
Phil: Because I'm not gonna go through the hassle of going through the shared library thing and all the rest of it.
Phil: It's like, hey, thanks for exposing this game for me.
Phil: And it should be called game sharing.
Phil: And if they want, cap it at a certain number of hours or something like that, or cap it to a certain number of games per month.
Phil: But really, this is the best marketing available for them.
Phil: It's word of mouth guerrilla marketing.
Phil: Go out and tell your friends, this is a great game and I want you to play it with me.
Tom: I think the only limitation should be that one person can play it at the same time.
Tom: Just as with a physical copy of a game.
Phil: Yeah, absolutely, because it's just...
Phil: Yeah, you're right, because if we were neighbors, I'd say, hey man, here's this disc, take it for a week.
Phil: Take it for a week, play it, it's fantastic.
Phil: And then I'll come back in a week and I go, hey man, can I have that game back?
Phil: And you go, I haven't really finished it, I love this game.
Phil: And you'd go out and buy a copy of it.
Phil: If you didn't like it, you go, sure man, here have it back.
Phil: I'm never gonna play it again.
Phil: You never would have bought the game anyway.
Phil: It's just a way of people to demo a game.
Tom: Or play it to completion.
Phil: In a hasty fashion, yes.
Tom: Or slowly and meticulously, savoring every moment.
Phil: I think that you're right, they should keep the sharing limited so that if someone else wants to play it.
Phil: And this was true on some platform, I forget what platform it was, but at some point I was sharing games with someone and I'd go in and I'd want to play it.
Phil: And I was like, this guy's in there.
Phil: It's like, I have to text him and go, hey man, can you get out because I want to play it?
Phil: Because I'm the one actually paid for it.
Tom: Was that person me?
Phil: Probably.
Phil: Well, that's a shame.
Phil: It's a shame.
Phil: So yeah, good news, bad news for Steam and apparently all bad news for Microsoft this week.
Phil: And with that, I want to thank you for listening to The Game Under Podcast.
Phil: We've been doing this since
Phil: So there's a lot of resources covering games from that time to now on our website, gameunder.net.
Phil: If you'd like to submit a question or comment, please go to the home page of gameunder.net for the show that you're currently listening to, episode
Phil: We're not going to...
Phil: We've run out of time to talk about many of the games that we want to talk about, including Call of Duty Black Ops which you'll be able to give some impressions of in the next episode.
Tom: Also, First Center Laksa, which I won't be able to give impressions of.
Phil: No, and we've also...
Phil: You've been playing Soma, which I'm going to probably go and try and play tonight, actually.
Phil: So we can have some joint impressions of that.
Tom: We might also have impressions of the Crimson Diamond.
Phil: Oh, that'd be good.
Phil: You almost finished that one, right?
Tom: That's correct.
Phil: Okay, so with that, thank you again for listening to episode of The Game Under Podcast.
Phil: I'm Phil Fogg.
Tom: I'm Tom Towers.
Phil: Thanks for listening.