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This week, Tom and Phil discuss the latest news and give impressions of Sky: Children of Light before God shuts down the show prematurely.
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Transcript
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Tom: Hello and welcome to episode of The Game Under Podcast.
Tom: I am Tom Towers, and as always, I am joined by Phil Fogg.
Phil: And it's my job to tell you that this is Australia's longest running video game podcast, and today is the th of March, ?
Tom: I think so.
Phil: Yeah, excellent.
Phil: Thanks for joining me, Tom.
Tom: It's good to hear from you, Phil.
Phil: Yeah, I thought we had a good show last time, not to pat ourselves too much on the back.
Tom: All thanks to Vader.
Phil: We've got a lot to talk about.
Phil: We've been playing Roblox, so we're going to touch on Roblox for the first time.
Phil: And also Sky Children of Eternity.
Tom: I think Sky Children of the Light.
Phil: Children of the Light, PC betas available.
Phil: I'm going to be talking about a game that I've been playing that's a cult favorite that you probably haven't heard of.
Phil: And of course, there'll be plenty of time for trademark banter as well.
Phil: So starting with the news this week, and again, we like to give you news that you're probably not hearing from on other podcasts.
Phil: We'll start with this, I was going to say salacious headline.
Phil: It's more clickbait headline.
Phil: Sega blames Mario for poor sales of Sonic Superstars not selling.
Tom: So that's the direct verbatim quote of the headline.
Phil: Well, I can say that it's clickbait headline because it's one that I wrote.
Tom: Because I was wondering about the poor sales and then going on of not selling.
Phil: Yeah, well, okay, so Sega blames...
Tom: I was wondering whether I should blame you for that or someone else.
Phil: You should blame me because I wrote the headline.
Phil: It should be Sega blames Mario for poor sales of Sonic Superstars.
Tom: That's better.
Phil: All right, now my subhead for that was I blame...
Tom: That I assume is the clickbait part of it.
Phil: That is?
Tom: The programmer.
Phil: Yes, Sega blames Mario for poor sales of Sonic Superstars.
Phil: People wanting to click on that just to see if the guy can form an actual sentence.
Phil: And my subhead was Michael Jordan makes me look bad at basketball.
Phil: Because if it wasn't for that asshole, I think people will be pretty impressive my game.
Tom: You are tall after all.
Phil: I am, I don't think I'm tall by...
Phil: By basketball standards.
Tom: You're not Michael Jordan tall, but that's the whole point.
Phil: No, I will...
Tom: If not for Michael Jordan, you'd be very tall.
Phil: It's funny because when I found out that one of my favorite players was my height, I was like, but that guy is short, because he's 'which is in the NBA.
Phil: He's like a midget, you know?
Phil: And I'm like, oh man, wow.
Phil: Anyway, the story behind the headline is that Sega has stated that Sonic Superstars has sold fewer copies than had been forecast.
Phil: And Nubiaka Yoshi asked how they evaluated the game's performance.
Phil: He said, although Sonic Superstars has generally been well received by those who have played it, which is kind of a backhand compliment, the timing of the launch coincided with competing titles in the same genre, and it has been short of the initial forecast.
Phil: So basically, they released this game three days before Super Mario Brothers Wonder.
Phil: Yep.
Phil: And I can sort of see the director, the game director sort of saying, for the people who played it, which were not a lot, they liked the game, and from all accounts, that's true.
Phil: But the timing of the launch coincided with competing titles in the same genre, which is basically like saying, you guys, you business guys are the ones that may just release this, like three days before a Nintendo platforming Mario event.
Phil: Yep.
Tom: So I can see why you included the grammar mistake in the headline, because I don't think that would be clickbait at all.
Tom: That's, I think, a reasonable position to take.
Phil: I guess so.
Phil: He didn't, it's not like it's a quote, though.
Phil: Like, Mario's so good, so that's why our game sucked.
Phil: Because, you know, the Metacritic on this is, well, for Xbox and for Nintendo Switch, which is kind of a sign of the times, too.
Phil: Like, if Nintendo Switch should be optimized to be able to play D platformers of this level.
Tom: Maybe Switch users have higher standards.
Phil: Well, that's the critical scores, vs.
Phil:
Phil: User scores are or out of if you want.
Phil: Anyway, not a lot more to say there.
Phil: When was the last time you played a Sonic game of any form?
Tom: I think I tried emulating some of the D ones maybe between five, somewhere between five to ten years ago.
Phil: Ouch.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: I've, as long time listeners of the show would know, I occasionally placed Sonic Generations on various PlayStation s that I own.
Phil: And I get, you know, a little bit further every couple of years.
Phil: I'll play it for about an hour or two.
Phil: Sonic Generations is a fantastic game.
Phil: And basically, they take D elements from the Sonic Adventure series and tie it to the D old Sonic games.
Phil: And you go, you play as either one in a time travel type thing.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: And it's a lot of fun.
Phil: It is legitimately a well-made game and a lot of fun.
Phil: And this is one of the games that Sega is re-releasing as part of their most recent re-release where they're doing Jet Set Radio and some other things as well.
Tom: Anyway, I would add, I did recently watch Sonic which I believe was a big success, and perhaps not coincidentally, it was released one year before the Super Mario film, so lending further credence to the argument being made by that particular director.
Phil: Possibly, yes.
Phil: I don't know that I've seen that second movie.
Phil: I watched the first one like three or four times because of my kid, and because it was legitimately okay for what it is.
Tom: Legitimately okay for what it is?
Tom: High praise indeed.
Phil: Have you seen the Super Mario movie?
Tom: Yes, I have.
Phil: What are your thoughts on it?
Tom: The live performance by Jack Black of The Song, I think ruined the film a little bit because it made you want the entirety of Bowser's performance to be live instead of animated.
Phil: It was just without any sort of calories whatsoever.
Phil: If you didn't...
Phil: It was basically for me, the only things I enjoyed about it was the callbacks, which occurred every...
Phil: probably about three every second.
Phil: So, but other than that, there was not a lot of there there.
Tom: I think the original Sonic film was a lot better than the Super Mario's film.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: Other than its references to zillow.com and the Olive Garden, which...
Phil: without those two references, that movie is like a completely fine movie, again, for what it is.
Phil: Onto story number two.
Tom: That is high praise.
Tom: You're saying Sonic is fine for what it is, but Mario is only okay for what it is.
Phil: Yeah, yeah.
Phil: For sure.
Phil: Oh, yeah, definitely.
Phil: Story number two.
Phil: EA has cancelled Respawn's Star Wars first-person shooter.
Phil: Thank you, vgc.com, for this story.
Phil: Announced in the first-person game was being helmed by LucasArts veteran and Medal of Honor co-creator Peter Hirschman, who worked on the Battlefront games and The Force Unleashed.
Phil: In a statement, blah, blah, blah, they've got people that they're laying off, and basically that Respawn should focus on the Jedi and Apex Legends series.
Phil: Knowing this, we've decided to pivot away from early development on a Star Wars first-person action game to focus our efforts on new projects based on our own brands while providing support for existing games.
Phil: His announcement came only shortly before Stig Asmason, the director of both Star Wars Jedi games, announced he was leaving Respawn Entertainment.
Phil: Now, you'll remember Stig for his work on the God of War series.
Phil: He was the art director of two, and then the creative director...
Tom: Probably he was more famous for his work on Top Gear.
Phil: And his creative director on three.
Phil: No, he wasn't.
Phil: Okay, yes.
Phil: And his work on Top Gear as the anonymous race driver.
Phil: So basically, Stig, who is the game director of God of War and he's been working on Respawn's...
Phil: He's the game director for Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, which is EA's biggest critical success and commercial success in years, when you set aside the sports stuff.
Phil: He basically quit over this.
Phil: Sounds like it.
Phil: Yeah, and this is the thing that no one's even talking about.
Phil: It is a big enough story that Respawn is EA's credible link to gamers because of what they've done over the last few years.
Phil: And for someone of Stig's stature to quit, just minutes before this announcement's made that they're cancelling this first-person shooter, that's huge news.
Phil: That's huge drama.
Phil: I don't know if it's news, but it's drama.
Tom: I think the game itself being cancelled is reasonably big news.
Phil: Oh, yeah, for sure.
Phil: And that's how I allocated it at thevgpress.com because the fact that EA would cancel anything that Respawn wants to do is news in and of itself.
Phil: This game has been in development for a couple of years now.
Tom: And it was hyped up as going to be the big Star Wars game and a killer app from what I can recall of its announcement and early hype.
Phil: Yeah, very much so.
Phil: And yet this story has been completely buried.
Phil: Like you had to actually read the story to get that fact, not just the headline.
Phil: And the headline should have been, Stig Asmussen, the director of the Star Wars Jedi games, is leaving Respawn Entertainment in the wake of the FPS being cancelled.
Phil: So, like, that's perfect clickbait.
Phil: In the current media environment, there's no way that they're there to protect EA or would even have that desire.
Phil: I just, who knows?
Phil: I just don't know why someone who's writing that story wouldn't be like, this is the headline.
Tom: You think so?
Phil: I think so.
Phil: I mean, or am I just giving them too much credit?
Tom: I don't think so.
Tom: From Top Gear to God of War III, he's got a pretty, he's had some pretty important roles.
Tom: So, I think it's big news.
Phil: He'll be able to get a job over at Hello Games on their Joe Danger sequel after they're done with doing, what's their game, not the big Lebowski.
Phil: No Mansky.
Phil: No Mansky, that's it.
Phil: Okay, story number three.
Phil: Brothers, a tale of two sons, has received a full remake.
Phil: Credit goes to the Six Axes.
Tom: Maybe that's why that other story has not been hyped up.
Tom: It may have been lost in the shuffle of years.
Tom: More important news like this.
Phil: Yeah, Brothers, a two-tail has been re-released.
Phil: It's available on Steam.
Phil: And it's not just a re-release or an upscaling.
Phil: This is a full remake.
Phil: They've re-made the game.
Phil: It's from the director that went on to make It Takes Two and the other game I can't remember.
Phil: Now, I went back and listened to our original review of Brothers.
Phil: In episode you compared it to hurdy-gurdy.
Phil: Do you even know what hurdy-gurdy is?
Tom: I believe it's an instrument.
Phil: No, yes, it is an instrument that monkeys dance to.
Phil: Wasn't it made by your fellow that did the thingy?
Phil: You know, the guy.
Phil: Didn't he make hurdy-gurdy?
Tom: Omkinen?
Phil: No, no, the Nordic fellow.
Tom: Who's the Nordic fellow?
Phil: Oh, he is, okay.
Tom: Who is the Nordic fellow?
Phil: The fellow that did the game.
Tom: Stig Asmussen?
Phil: No, it'll come to you soon.
Tom: How can we forget Stig Asmussen's greatest achievement?
Tom: Hurdy-gurdy.
Phil: I just love what he did with that Civic, you know, in terms of his lap time.
Phil: Just, you know, it was fantastic just before.
Phil: But anyway, this is what you said about the original.
Phil: The puzzle's rudimentary is an overstatement.
Phil: I said, I found the puzzle's insultingly obvious.
Phil: You said, it's a good gimmick, but they do nothing with it.
Phil: And it got a Metacritic of the new game, the original got a Metacritic of
Phil: And it sort of raised, I'd love to hear anything you have to say about this game, brothers, because it's been a long time since it came out.
Phil: We talked about it something shows ago.
Phil: But it rose the question with me, when should games be remade?
Phil: When do they deserve a remaking?
Phil: Like, this game got a remake, that's, you know, starting from scratch.
Tom: And I have no idea why.
Phil: Yeah, yeah, it's weird.
Tom: The screenshots of it, I need to compare them.
Tom: Do they actually look that significantly different?
Phil: Well, the whole thing is, this is not a first-person online shooter.
Phil: Like, the graphics are important to the game, but they're not a central part of the game.
Phil: So...
Tom: What else have they changed in the remake?
Tom: Have they changed the gameplay?
Phil: No, it's the same thing.
Phil: It's the same game, exactly.
Phil: And for those of you who don't know, it's...
Phil: I'll make a reference to a game that's even more obscure.
Phil: It's like The Lost Vikings.
Phil: So it's a co-op game where you're playing by yourself, where you switch between two brothers.
Phil: One of them's smaller, one of them's larger, one can swim, one can't swim, one can climb bigger, one can't.
Phil: And so basically, you're going through these levels, I think, to try and save your dying mom or something, and then something tragic happens, and, you know, all sorts of things there that go on.
Phil: But, yeah, look, I can only think that I have been a part of some creative endeavors in my earlier years.
Phil: And as soon as you finish something, you kind of want to go back to it, like, five years later, and go, God, that was so much fun, but, like, the technology then wasn't what it was.
Phil: What if we reshot it?
Phil: We can improve the story.
Phil: We can cut down the time in it, you know.
Phil: There's always a thing.
Phil: Well, in short, just to, you know, cut all that off.
Phil: Basically, what I'm saying is, I can see why you'd want to go back and revisit something.
Phil: He's had success or some sort of success with two other games, so I can see why the game director would want to go back to the thing that brought him fame and try and make it a tighter, you know, better experience.
Tom: I can't.
Tom: I think a large part of the motivation surely has to be this nostalgic era we're in, because I think it creatively makes a lot more sense to try and express the thing you were trying to express better in an entirely new endeavour, unless you completely fuck up the original work.
Phil: Yeah, okay.
Phil: You know, maybe it's a lack of imagination.
Phil: Hey, maybe it's funding.
Phil: Maybe the guy just wants more money to fund the next great thing he's going to do and remind people why he is where he is in terms of his standing.
Tom: Or alternatively, he could only get funding to a remake.
Phil: Yeah, I think it's probably a fusion of a few different things.
Phil: And you never know.
Phil: Someone could have come along to him and go, hey, I'll remake this.
Phil: You don't have to do anything.
Phil: It's just a check.
Phil: It'll fund whatever you want to do next.
Phil: You know, we just don't know.
Phil: But I would say it's ultimately a good thing, because it's putting a better-than-average game back into the milieu, and people are going to be able to be exposed to it that they weren't otherwise exposed to.
Tom: I'm not sure I would call it better-than-average, but it's the sort of game that, despite not being overly enthused by it at the time, it has nevertheless stuck in my memory, so I will say that for it.
Phil: That's for sure.
Phil: It's probably because we talked about it.
Tom: Probably.
Tom: And I would like to draw your attention to Brothers on Steam, which I linked you to, because I think judging by this, our memories were very wrong, and it turns out the remake looks totally different.
Phil: I don't think that's the same Brothers.
Phil: It doesn't look...
Phil: That is not the game.
Phil: That's completely different.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: Speaking of...
Phil: Anyway, on to the next story.
Phil: Rockstar plans full return to office for GTA developers.
Phil: So basically, they're telling their workers, you guys have got to come back to the office.
Phil: No more working from home.
Phil: We got security problems.
Phil: The game's been getting leaked.
Phil: And also, you know, productivity.
Phil: We got to go back to working five days a week if we're going to get this game out.
Phil: According to reporting from Bloomberg, Rockstar head of publishing, Gen Colby, has told staff that ending hybrid working will bring tangible benefits.
Phil: So, you know, initially I thought, okay, well, I'm pretty connected to what's going on in most people's work lives.
Phil: This is normal.
Phil: Like, you know, everyone stayed at home, then had a hybrid approach, but these days now it's more like, you know, turn up for work, people.
Phil: And then basically a day later, GTA developers criticized Rockstar's reckless decision to force staff back to work.
Phil: And this is mostly driven through a union in the UK.
Phil: They're talking about broken promises, that there's going to be concern about health and caring responsibilities, living arrangements, and a heightened risk of overwork.
Phil: Rockstar management has so far refused to engage with workers on the issue, and will, quote, pull the plug, that's a quote, on remote access on April th.
Phil: So they're basically saying, if you're working at home, we are just, you will no longer be able to connect to our servers on April th.
Phil: You've got to come in to actually work.
Phil: An anonymous Rockstar worker is quoted as saying, working from home has been a lifeline for many of us, allowing us to balance care responsibilities, manage disabilities, and relocate where we need.
Phil: Now Rockstar is snatching away that lifeline without a second thought for the workers who will be impacted most.
Phil: After so many broken promises, we now fear that management may even be paving the way for a return to toxic crunch practices.
Phil: So yeah, what do you think of this story and the backlash from the workers?
Tom: I think I'm surprised that so many companies are eager to return to having people in the office, and over this time period have not made moves to perhaps stop renting the buildings where workers were working, unless of course they owned the property.
Phil: I think if you look at IGN, for example, which is a media company in our space, they completely decentralized.
Phil: They stopped renting expensive offices in London and San Francisco, and all of their workers are now decentralized.
Phil: Yeah, I think from a development point of view, I just think that the interaction between all the creative people that work on a game is ultimately beneficial.
Phil: And things that happen in a break room or in a hallway, or you just turn around in your chair and ask a two-second question that wouldn't happen online, I think all of these things add value to a better product and a better company.
Tom: I think the terms of creativity, doing things indirectly presents you with a different set of challenges and a different sort of interaction that I think creates a different, different moments of spontaneous creativity.
Tom: So I think both ways work equally well.
Phil: Equally well.
Tom: Depends on what they're going for.
Phil: It depends on what they're going for.
Phil: I think for smaller independent games.
Phil: I mean, there are games like Larian's Baldur's Gate you know, that have been developed completely from home.
Phil: There are other great examples in independent video gaming where the people have never even met each other and have worked on fantastic products.
Tom: And I will say, I think the likelihood of Baldur's Gate being significantly more creative than Grand Theft Auto is pretty high.
Phil: Very much so.
Phil: Yep.
Phil: However, I think that for Rockstar, this is a product.
Phil: And I think for them, they are more in the Activision, EA, Ubisoft kind of space where they need to be in control of their workers.
Phil: I do think that people who work from home can, depending on their personality types, actually be more prone to crunch because it just becomes a part of their life.
Phil: So they just find themselves working hours a day where ordinarily...
Tom: There's no one there to kick them out of the office.
Phil: Yeah, kick them out of the office or go, hey, go for lunch or this, that or the other.
Phil: So I don't think it's a simple thing.
Phil: Rockstar has earned a fair amount of good credit for worker relations based on some negative stories a couple of years ago about, you know, crunch and things like that, and have responded positively to that and provided better working environments.
Phil: So I do think that the UK Union is overreacting.
Phil: However, at the same point, you know, Rockstar is basically saying, we're going to disconnect servers, and you all got to come to work five days a week.
Phil: Now, coming to work five days a week is not an onerous request for an employer.
Phil: That's what most people would expect to be doing.
Phil: But, you know, based on...
Tom: The way it is presented, the communication sounds like it could have been handled better.
Phil: Yeah, absolutely.
Phil: And here in Australia, a key component of workplace health and safety is consultation.
Phil: It's not just a nice thing to do.
Phil: It's the law.
Phil: Like you have to consult with your workers if you're going to be creating a change in their work environment.
Phil: So, you know, I think on this part, I can see both sides.
Phil: I'm not going to come down on one side or the other.
Phil: I think it's tough.
Phil: It's tough for the people that have gotten used to working from home.
Phil: But similarly, you know, Rockstar is a company trying to create a product, and it's tough for them also not to have people.
Phil: I think on a more granular level, they could probably look at, okay, who cannot work, like, who has actually moved to Portugal and cannot come to work in Edinburgh to work on this product, you know, and look at these things more carefully.
Phil: But, you know, from the likes of the other workers who didn't move to Majorca, they'd be like, well, what the F?
Phil: I mean, why are they allowed to work from home?
Phil: And, you know, just because I never moved, I've got to come in.
Phil: So, yeah, it's a complicated issue.
Tom: I think, ultimately, the impact of a social structure in a workplace is highly overrated.
Tom: You can have people working together who are more alienated from one another than people who are working apart from one another.
Tom: I think what this really comes down to is, for the past number of years during the whole COVID thing, Rockstar wasn't really working on developing anything, so it makes sense that they would, now that they are actually working on making a game, rather than just exploiting a -year-old piece of crap, that they would want to return to the way they've developed games previously.
Tom: I think that's probably the simple matter.
Phil: Yeah, I agree entirely.
Phil: Well, that wraps up the news.
Phil: Now, we are going to talk about next, before my power goes out again, a game that you've been playing for quite a while now, and that's a sky killer of children, I believe it's called.
Tom: I think it's called Children of the Light, although the Nvidia screenshot folder for it is entitled The Moonlight Blade.
Phil: Nvidia folder for it?
Tom: Yep, because it has now been released on PC.
Tom: If you search PSI on Steam, it's not among any of the first results for some reason.
Tom: You need to look up its full name.
Phil: Okay, so some backstory.
Phil: This is developed by that game company that released Journey and Flow and Flower.
Phil: The fellow's name is...
Tom: Jenova Chen.
Phil: Jenova Chen.
Phil: We're one of Jenova's witnesses.
Phil: And this game was initially released for mobile, and then for Switch, and then I'm assuming the other consoles.
Phil: Are you telling me it's now only coming to PC?
Phil: It's been like, what, six, seven years?
Tom: I think it's around five years, and it is only now finally coming to PC.
Phil: But obviously, this is a moneymaker enough for them that they are able to only just now bring this to the most logical platform.
Phil: Other than mobile...
Tom: It's the GTA V of the indie space.
Phil: Is it?
Phil: Well, I imagine it would be.
Phil: It's got to be so weird for them, you know?
Tom: After their experience with Journey...
Phil: I mean, just basically like, we're just going to release this without a, you know, a safety net.
Phil: And then to have it so slowly, but quickly, and just continue to have support and development.
Phil: It's just incredible to me.
Phil: Like, it's just got to be such a weird feeling that like, wow, this is really working.
Phil: This really is something we could probably do for another years.
Tom: I think it's surprising for me as well, from when I was first playing it, I did not expect that it would be still around and still with an active and sizeable user base five years later.
Tom: Or that I would still be playing it five years later, for that matter.
Phil: Yeah, because it's...
Phil: Well, I'm not going to say it appears to be fairly simple.
Phil: I mean, what are the major hooks of it?
Phil: And maybe for people who haven't heard us talk about this game for a long time, just give us the baseline as to what a minute-to-minute play experience is for Sky.
Tom: Well, I think originally there were two major hooks.
Tom: I think originally it was maybe thematically a little bit simpler and less abstruse than Journey, but nevertheless had that degree of engagingness on a thematic level.
Tom: But it was also a much more interactive experience than Journey was, where you could speak to players you befriended if you unlocked the ability chat, and you could go exploring with them in a way where you weren't just randomly thrown into a game with someone else, and they happened to be there.
Tom: And it's also a less linear environment as well.
Tom: So I think that was the original appeal of it.
Tom: I think as five years later, the content they keep adding is thematically less interesting than it was originally and less engaging.
Tom: But over time, they have had some experiences that have definitely stood out, like the Aurora concert, for example, and the crossover Little Prince crossover was I think one of their most interesting seasons and a surprisingly good fit.
Tom: So they do have over the years managed to keep coming up with interesting things, even if it's moved away from the original journey-inspired direction in many ways, which I think is also probably one of the reasons that it manages to keep going five years later is that it has been willing to evolve over the years, at least in terms of presentation.
Tom: In terms of gameplay, it's still very similar to how it was originally.
Tom: They have added certain elements over the years, and they did alter the flying mechanics and made them a little bit more accessible and simplified than they originally were, but it remains engaging enough that it's still enjoyable to still fly around in it.
Tom: I can't imagine what it would be like starting the game now compared to when it was first released, because when it was first released, it was overwhelming enough in terms of the amount of content in it, and that's before all of the extra areas they've added now and the numerous spirits they've added as well.
Tom: So it's interesting that it still does get new players, given if you're joining it now, it seems like it will be, in terms of gameplay anyway, just a completely overwhelming experience with the thought of unlocking everything seeming nigh on impossible.
Phil: So have they added ATVs or quads?
Tom: They haven't added ATVs or quads, but they have added snowboards.
Phil: Okay, well, that was predictable.
Phil: I just thought maybe they had added ATVs and shotguns by this point, but we'll keep hope alive for season
Tom: Not yet.
Tom: There are fireworks, though.
Phil: How do the fireworks work into the game?
Tom: They're purely an aesthetic thing.
Tom: So you can set off fireworks as you're flying around or standing around.
Phil: Can you buy them for real currency?
Tom: No, you have an unlimited amount of them.
Phil: Okay, so how does real currency work into this game?
Tom: But disappointingly, when they were first released in the game, you could just spam them endlessly and completely break a server for everyone in your vicinity.
Tom: And very disappointingly, they nerfed that so that there was a cool down on the fireworks so you can no longer destroy the game for people.
Phil: I think nerfing it is an inferior option than just basically figuring out how you can enable everyone to just do that all the time if they wanted to.
Tom: Exactly, they needed to beef up their servers somehow.
Phil: Servers as opposed to nerfing your ability to push their servers.
Tom: Exactly.
Phil: So now it's being released on the PC.
Phil: What impact have you seen so far in terms of the culture and the online environment?
Phil: Or if you haven't seen that yet, like has it been just a couple of days since they've done this?
Tom: Been, I think, a few weeks now.
Tom: And I don't think for the PC release, they have any special items for players to wear.
Tom: So for the Nintendo release, the Switch release, they had some Zelda-related outfits.
Tom: So it was apparent that you were getting Switch players joining the game because you were starting to notice people with these items and running into people who took minutes to write a simple sentence due to the difficulty of writing out chat on the Switch.
Phil: So in terms of the aesthetic of Journey, I can imagine that they've got the PC players wearing clan hoods, because that would fit in with the aesthetic, and that way you can easily identify the people who are playing on PC.
Tom: And it would fit in with the PC audience.
Phil: Demographic, yeah.
Tom: The PC anti-PC audience.
Tom: But unfortunately...
Phil: Yes.
Tom: Unfortunately, as yet, and it's still in early access, so it's not the full release of the game, which is maybe why you can't easily find it on Steam.
Tom: Thus far, I don't think they've provided PC players with any special items or anything like that.
Tom: So other than potentially coming across people who can type quicker than normal...
Phil: Really fast, yes.
Tom: I'm yet to notice any impact.
Phil: That's fantastic.
Phil: So how is this going to change the way that you play the game?
Tom: Well, I think it will make it easier.
Tom: The main way I play now is I am essentially a parasite.
Tom: I play the game when I'm doing something else, and follow around a friend, and let them do literally all of the work.
Tom: If I don't manage to catch a friend for them to do that, I will be forced to actually play the game myself and complete the daily quest if there is a season on so I can get the seasonal candles.
Tom: This will provide me with another opportunity to do that, so I will be able to do that while I'm eating breakfast, and additionally, my iPad's battery has died, so I'm stuck playing it on the phone, which makes my standard strategy of parasitism a little bit more difficult because I might need to be messaging someone on my phone, and it's just more awkward to be propping up my phone somewhere while I'm eating as opposed to using the iPad for that purpose.
Tom: So the PC offers another avenue where I might be able to be doing something else while taking advantage of a friend in the game.
Phil: It's good to know that you're evolving hobo gaming throughout the st century from one step to another, and your ability to be a parasite on people who actually give a shit sounds like % of people who play Sea of Thieves, from what I can tell.
Phil: So, well, that's good.
Phil: I mean, you know, there's going to be rolling in money.
Phil: It's so crazy that just got basically taken journey, you know, from Sony's, you know, sponsorship, patronage, or whatever that's called, and then just basically gone, yeah, we're just going to roll this like % in a different direction, and then it's just going to be money forever for Jenova Chen and his clan.
Phil: I mean, you know, good on them.
Phil: So is there anything else you want to say about this, anything revolutionary?
Tom: Well, I think it looks even better than the iPad on the high settings, and unlike the iPad version of the game on the high settings, you can have this on the maximum graphic settings and play at FPS rather than
Tom: So that is very much appreciated.
Tom: On the iPad, you can only play it on medium at FPS.
Tom: So that's a big step up, and I was surprised, but of course, thinking about it, it makes perfect sense.
Tom: I wasn't sure how well it would translate to mouse and keyboard controls, but I have to say, I think this is probably my most preferred way to play the game, which makes perfect sense, given the gameplay is predominantly flying around, so classic mouse look is a natural fit for all flying games.
Tom: The only thing that is a little bit awkward compared to playing on mobile or iPad is of course operating the most interactions in the game.
Tom: It is not as streamlined, but of course, it is a lot easier to type and faster to type with a keyboard, so it's a bit of half a dozen of one and twelve of the other.
Phil: Yes, you're right.
Phil: So I would think, does it have Xbox controller support for the PC?
Phil: It would have to.
Tom: Yes, it does.
Phil: Yeah, so I'd be using that plus the keyboard as opposed to the mouse.
Tom: Have you tried that?
Phil: Yeah, yeah.
Phil: So that's how I do it, or PlayStation controller, controller.
Tom: I wonder if you're playing on a PC with a touch screen, it would also have touch screen controls.
Phil: Yeah, no one really does that.
Phil: I mean, on a laptop maybe, but you wouldn't think so.
Phil: What I'd like to see is like gesture support for people who have cameras.
Phil: That would be interesting and fit with their, you know, philosophy, I think.
Tom: It would?
Phil: Yeah, totally, man.
Phil: If you could be like doing like, you know, some sort of, you know, gesture thing, I think that would be fantastic and totally fit.
Phil: Now, what impact will this have on the international audience?
Phil: Because obviously, you know, the mobile platform is the great equalizer.
Phil: Is bringing this to PC going to make this more of a Western type game, do you think?
Tom: I'm not sure.
Tom: It depends on how many people pick up on it.
Tom: But I think other audiences are so established.
Tom: I don't think it will have such an influx of players that it will make a huge difference.
Phil: So with the audience being so established, are they going to shit on the PC users?
Phil: Like, is this going to be like, oh, this is when Sky died.
Phil: This is when Sky sucked, you know, because all these PC people started coming in.
Phil: Because community is the most important part of this game from what I can tell.
Tom: So that hasn't really been the case with the console versions.
Tom: Pretty much all iterations of the game have been welcomed thus far, because there are a lot of people playing it who don't just play on play mobile games.
Tom: They also have a Switch or a PlayStation.
Tom: So usually the feeling for an upcoming release for Sky is usually one of excitement, and that has generally been the case with the PC releases.
Tom: While I know a few people have been looking forward to finally being able to play it on PC as well.
Phil: Increasing the size of the audience, which makes the game more successful, more popular, and all the rest of it.
Phil: But for somehow, culturally, I just think that console games that are added to this sort of MMO come cap in hand, and, you know, I'm on a Switch.
Phil: Hey, guys, you know, go easy on me.
Phil: I'm just sort of coming in.
Phil: Whereas I think with PC users, it's a bit more like......conflict-laden.
Phil: And people hacking the game, you know...
Phil: I just think that there's just a higher level of hostility coming, and maybe that's why they've waited until this point of the game's maturity for this challenge.
Phil: Maybe not.
Phil: But I wouldn't think that technologically, it would be more challenging to add this to the PC platform as opposed to PlayStation and or the Switch or something like that.
Phil: So maybe this is just the last cash-in.
Phil: Maybe this is just the last...
Phil: Once we expose this to the PC world, that's where we are most at risk of disrupting our culture.
Phil: But at the same time, I would think that disruptive PC users coming in are going to come and go.
Phil: They're just going to come in, do whatever they can to destroy it, and then leave or get bored and move on to the next thing.
Phil: Anything else?
Tom: Certainly, there have been conflicts between different audiences in the game based on where they are from and politics.
Tom: They may have been bearing that sort of thing in mind.
Phil: Like Palestine-Israel type politics?
Tom: Usually Chinese-related politics.
Phil: Taiwan politics, yeah.
Tom: Exactly, those sorts of things.
Tom: And Korea and Japan.
Phil: But we all know where The Game Under Podcast stands on those issues.
Phil: Firmly in one......amp, and not the other.
Tom: I, for one, am looking forward to the culmination of the Axis and Allied conflict in Sky.
Phil: Yeah, well, I can't support nor not support what you're saying.
Tom: In any case...
Tom: We're taking a neutral and balanced stance on the components of World War II.
Phil: Mmm, maybe you are.
Phil: Now, with that, we're going to just draw up the curtain here for our listeners.
Phil: We have had to stop this recording a couple of times because of some extreme weather events where I live that has caused the power to cut out.
Phil: So we are not going to risk any more further outages, so we're going to push all of our programming to a later date, which may be in a couple of days.
Phil: It might be in a couple of weeks.
Phil: Who knows?
Phil: But with that, we're going to close out episode of The Game Under Podcast.
Phil: If you enjoyed this content, you can go to gameunder.net and go back and look at our old shows, look at our old reviews and articles.
Phil: We've done quite a few game reviews, features and hardware reviews at gameunder.net.
Phil: And as Australia's longest running video game podcast, we've got a fair amount of content there for you to go back and look at.
Phil: So with that, I am Phil Fogg.
Tom: I'm Tom Towers.
Phil: And thank you for listening to The Game Under Podcast.
Tom: That was actually a strong outro.
Phil: Thank you.