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0:00:07 Intro
0:00:57 Shuei Yoshida Saved Gran Turismo
0:03:56 GTA6 Delay and Implications
0:14:32 XB Price Hikes
0:19:09 Clair Obscure: Expedition 33
0:49:57 Case of the Golden Idol Final Impressions
0:54:36 Spoilers for Golden Idol
0:58:30 Spoiler End
0:58:51 Mice Maze Impressions
1:02:14 Early Access - Good or Bad?
1:03:42 E-mail
In this episode we discuss the latest video game news including the Xbox price hikes, delayed launch of GTA6 and the implications and an interesting story about how former Sony Head of Global Studio jokingly stated that he "saved" Gran Turismo. We then give impressions of the hottest game of the moment Clair Obscure: Expedition 33. Phil gives impressions of Mice Maze a new bullet heaven roguelite as well as closing his impressions on Case of the Golde Idol Finally we answer a listener's question about boats. It's fascinating.
Thanks for listening.
Transcript
Tom: Hello and welcome to Episode of The Game Under Podcast.
Tom: I'm Tom Towers, and today I'm joined by Craig.
Phil: No, it's Phil, Phil Fogg.
Phil: Thank you everyone for coming.
Phil: You sound a little bit different though.
Tom: You sound like a Craig.
Phil: No, no, nothing's different.
Phil: I can assure you that there's been no change in equipment or in my health status.
Phil: This is a normal show with normal equipment, and I am in my normal body.
Tom: Okay.
Phil: That's my position.
Phil: But what you haven't misheard is some news.
Phil: We'll get straight into it because we got a lot to talk about this episode.
Phil: The story, obviously, everyone's been talking about it.
Phil: I know there's probably very few details that haven't been examined in this story.
Phil: But we'll go over it anyway because it's a pretty big one.
Phil: And that is Shuei Yoshida saved Gran Turismo.
Phil: And credit to this one comes from PlayStation France.
Phil: Now, regular listeners, including yourself, will remember who Shuei Yoshida was.
Phil: He was the head of Global Studios for Sony for a long time.
Phil: And then they pushed him out of that job.
Phil: And basically, I think they put him in charge of indie development for a while.
Phil: And then finally he got sick of it and left.
Tom: So does that mean this is the end of Gran Turismo if he's no longer there?
Phil: Well, let's find out the story.
Phil: It was in the early days of the first PlayStation.
Phil: And Kazunori Yamauchi was working on the very first Gran Turismo.
Phil: You know him.
Phil: You remember that on the cover, it said that the game was a real driving simulator.
Phil: And this is Shuei Yoshida talking.
Phil: And you know, I'm not a game designer.
Phil: I'm a producer first and foremost.
Phil: During development, Yamauchi showed me a prototype of Gran Turismo.
Phil: And I was among the first to play it.
Phil: And to tell you the truth, he was really serious when he talked about it being a simulation.
Phil: It was extremely advanced, perhaps too much too much too so.
Phil: But at first, Cas didn't take my feedback at face value.
Phil: So he gathered about consumers to test the game.
Phil: And as I expected, they all crashed without exception at the first turn because the game was so difficult.
Phil: I was at the back of the room with Cas, at which point he turned to me and said, you're right.
Phil: And that's when he rounded things off and toned down the pure simulation aspect a little to put out the Gran Turismo you know and love today on PlayStation
Phil: In a way, I like to think I was partly, I partly saved Gran Turismo's fate and that I played a small part in its success.
Tom: Did he save it or ruin it?
Tom: Maybe the pure sim version was a lot better.
Phil: Well, well, the consumers and Shuei said no.
Tom: The consumers didn't say it was bad.
Tom: They merely crashed at the first corner.
Phil: Yeah, maybe they like that.
Tom: I'm starting to think perhaps the fix was the famous bumper car physics, where if you drive into a corner, it doesn't really matter.
Tom: So maybe that was the change that occurred.
Phil: Well, it did dumb down Gran Turismo to a degree because I mean, I know that I used other cars as basically buffers to keep me from going into walls.
Phil: You know what I'm saying?
Phil: But I don't know, is that a part of racing?
Phil: It's certainly not.
Phil: I don't think that's a main part of racing.
Phil: I don't think you go out there deciding you're going to use other cars to stop you from going into walls.
Tom: Not in the way you do in Gran Turismo anyway.
Phil: Has it changed much over the years?
Tom: I think that's still an element of it.
Tom: But in the online multiplayer, you get penalized if you hit people.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: I guess there were soft penalties for it if you were worried about...
Phil: Well, there was definitely penalties for it in the game.
Phil: I mean, in terms of where you place and stuff like that.
Phil: But I did lean on that a fair bit.
Phil: Anyway, we'll go on to story number two.
Phil: That is, Grand Theft Auto has been delayed into
Tom: Did anyone really think it was coming out this year?
Phil: Well, they would have good reason to think it was coming out this year.
Phil: In November, GTA's publisher insisted the game would arrive in autumn insisted despite whispers of a delay.
Phil: And it doubled down upon that just a few months back in February.
Phil: Just a month ago, and then a month ago, Take-Two boss Strauss Selnick said the publisher was keeping the GTAdate close to its chest to maintain the anticipation and the excitement.
Phil: So they weren't backing off.
Phil: And I think at the time he was talking about that, it was in a shareholder type meeting type things, where they can't really lie or stretch the truth.
Phil: So a lot of people thought it was coming out.
Phil: Reporting since this has happened, indicate from people on the inside at Rockstar that no one at Rockstar in the development group had any expectation that it would be coming out this year.
Tom: I'm pretty sure you can lie at a shareholder meeting even if it's illegal.
Phil: Yeah, you probably can.
Tom: I don't think that's in enforced regulation in any way, shape or form.
Phil: Well, I know for sure that you can't mislead shareholders in those formal communications.
Phil: You can't say, oh, I think we're going to make a lot of money next quarter when you have no basis for it, you know.
Tom: But you can believe that something you're making is going to be finished before it's made, I think.
Tom: There's plausible liability here.
Tom: Is there not?
Phil: Possibly.
Phil: But in discovery, they'd go through emails and all of that sort of thing as well.
Phil: But anyway, I don't think any shareholder is going to be wanting to hand in their take to stock before the release of Grand Theft Auto
Phil: In conjunction with this announcement, they released the second trailer.
Phil: Up until now, they'd only released one trailer back in December
Phil: This was the first good look at the game.
Phil: I, for one, I was impressed with it.
Phil: It looks fantastic.
Phil: It looks Grand Theft Auto.
Phil: It looks like a dumb video game, which I was concerned that they were going to take it in a different direction.
Phil: Perhaps they have, but for right now, it just looks like a video game as video game.
Tom: I think like with Grand Theft Auto they're definitely leading into a more HBO style of storytelling than in previous Grand Theft Autos.
Tom: That part of it, I think, is a little bit more than just a video game as video game.
Tom: But it's in line with what the series has already done.
Phil: What do you think of the trailer?
Tom: I think it looked good.
Tom: It at least has its own atmosphere, so it's clearly not going to be just like Grand Theft Auto in Miami.
Tom: So it's good to see that the setting will hopefully be interesting and a new experience even if it is a return to Vice City.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: I thought the action looked good.
Phil: I thought that there was flashes of some gameplay elements in there, and I think the driving components of it looked insane.
Tom: I think the characters also seem like they may be, but there's not much to go on, but just the brief glimpse of them we had, they seem like that might be more interesting than the characters in Gran Turismo with the exception of Trevor.
Phil: That's exactly what I thought you were going to say, and I agree.
Phil: They do look more interesting than just some rumors, that it may not all be as this story rumors about it, or people are putting forward their theories as to there might be more than meets the eye that is going to be than what you see in that trailer, which is obvious.
Phil: I mean, that's drama, right?
Phil: They want to make you think one way and then they go the other way.
Phil: I thought it was fun.
Phil: One of the theories out there is that dude is actually an undercover cop.
Phil: As opposed to just getting the old gang back together and breaking some laws, that he might be either a double agent or just an undercover cop.
Phil: That would be a nice twist in the story.
Phil: But yeah, it's got me excited about it.
Phil: One thing I'm not excited about is it's not coming to PC in the immediate future.
Phil: Also, it will obviously launch on Xbox.
Phil: But PlayStation Pro would be the optimal way to play this game at launch.
Tom: Wouldn't PlayStation be, or the Xbox, whichever the better one is, be the optimal way to play it?
Tom: Isn't it a PlayStation game, surely?
Phil: I'm sorry.
Phil: If I said PlayStation I meant PlayStation
Phil: PlayStation Pro would be the optimal way to play.
Phil: Yeah, the PlayStation Pro is significantly better than the Xbox X.
Tom: So can we say that this is the first killer app of this generation?
Phil: Nintendo's had some killer apps this generation.
Phil: But I guess if you look to it, yeah, but they're the-
Tom: Nintendo's on their own generation, schedule vote.
Phil: Yeah, you just said exactly.
Phil: All they do is killer apps.
Phil: That's of course, exaggeration.
Phil: But yeah, this is definitely the first killer app of the PlayStation era.
Tom: I was about to say it's taken five years to get a killer app for this generation, but it's going to be six years, actually.
Phil: It'll be six years, and people are now saying, well, maybe this is a sign towards a -year console cycle for these guys this time around, which is interesting.
Phil: So good news, bad news.
Phil: I mean, this is great news for publishers, other publishers.
Phil: EA boss Andrew Wilson previously said that the company was willing to delay its next Battlefield game to steer clear of GTA
Phil: So obviously, there's going to be some games that are finished or about to be finished that were going to be held that can now come out.
Phil: It's obviously very disruptive.
Phil: I mean, people have plans in place.
Phil: So it's not like they can rush them ahead.
Phil: But a whole months now of a free space to bring it out.
Phil: It's very good news for the Nintendo, I'd say, is a winner out of this.
Phil: Because it makes Switch doesn't take anything away from the Switch
Phil: Certainly, if you're going out and buying Grand Theft Auto that's a lot of reasons to not be quick to get a Switch
Phil: Can you think of any other winners and losers out of this?
Tom: I think Rockstar is a winner out of it.
Tom: I think they actually need some time to build up hype.
Tom: Because within the GTA world, people are anxious to get it.
Tom: But I feel like within the broader world, it's been out of the headlines for too long, which is why I think they've delayed it.
Phil: A couple of ads during some NBA games fixes that.
Phil: But again, who's watching ads in NBA games too?
Tom: I think they've usually had a longer hype build up that hasn't been as intermittent as well, particularly when it's coming close to the launch.
Phil: Yeah, we did a very long show a long time ago on the GTA series going through the history of it.
Phil: And this was in preparation of the, of a, it was actually in response to a trailer release for Grand Theft Auto V, which tells you how long ago that was.
Phil: And so yeah, there definitely was a longer hype on this one.
Phil: But at the same time, this game has been in development since
Phil: And yeah, they haven't released a lot of information about it.
Phil: They've certainly kept it all under their hat.
Tom: And I don't have anything to say on rock textures in the trailer, but I do on forearm textures.
Tom: The skin textures in the game with the hairs just look pretty incredible.
Phil: Yeah, I think it all looks amazing.
Phil: I mean, would I buy a PlayStation Pro just for this game?
Phil: I think it'd be pretty stupid to do it.
Phil: But if there's other reasons to do it, like if Blu-ray is still around, I'll probably need another Blu-ray player by that time.
Phil: Who knows?
Tom: Are there any other reasons that a PSPro, can you think of any?
Phil: The Astro game, the Astro platformer, which is another reason to own a PlayStation
Phil: Gran Turismo stuff, definitely would be interesting, but it's not really my bag anymore.
Tom: So you only really got two games for a $console.
Phil: Off the top of my head.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: So it would make my purchase of a Neo Geo cartridge AES look sensible.
Phil: So, but yeah, I think another loser out of this is obviously Sony.
Phil: I mean, they would have loved to have had these sales in this year, as opposed to next year.
Phil: But yeah, I think that's pretty much all of it.
Phil: I'm looking, I'm excited by it.
Phil: It's definitely going to have some FOMO if I don't have a PlayStation when that comes out.
Phil: Because the PC is not going to be like a year later.
Phil: It's because they're still raking in the money with GTAonline.
Phil: So they get to basically take their time with the PC side of things because they're still going to be making money off of that.
Phil: They can have GTAout there, have it in the sun doing whatever it's going to do, and they've got five online in the back pocket.
Phil: So yeah, they're in a great position.
Phil: Who's not in a great position is consumers as we go on to our third and final story.
Phil: Microsoft raises the price of all Xbox Series consoles.
Phil: Xbox games are confirmed to hit $USD this holiday.
Tom: Were they $or $?
Phil: $
Tom: So they've already gone up?
Phil: Yeah, they've already gone up.
Phil: They've been on $for about two years now, at least.
Phil: So the story says, the company said it will be raising prices on Xbox consoles, controllers, headsets, and some games.
Phil: The price hike for consoles and accessory kicks in immediately, while game prices will stay the same for now.
Phil: We should expect to see Xbox charging $for new first party games around the holiday season.
Phil: Price increases are taking effect globally, with the exception of headset prices, which are only going up in the US and Canada.
Phil: So some people are saying this is all because of the Trump tariffs.
Phil: Well, no, because it's going up in Australia as well.
Phil: So for example, in Australia right now, the new price for a terabyte Black Galaxy special edition will be $
Phil: That's currently at $
Phil: So that's only going up by $
Phil: However, the Xbox Sis going to be $and it's currently $
Phil: So that's an increase of $basically.
Tom: So I wonder if what actually has caused this is the ridiculous price of the Switch
Phil: Well, I think that that's certainly to blame for the $prices.
Phil: Basically, Nintendo has stuck its neck out, and Microsoft is going, well, if people complain, we can always put it Game Pass and go, well, hey, Game Pass right there for you.
Phil: If you don't like the price of our $games, you know, they might think it even will promote Game Pass some more because they can say, look at the tremendous value you're getting from Game Pass.
Phil: On the hardware side of things, I'm not going to blame tariffs on it because the whole damn country, the whole world is getting hit with these increases.
Phil: Some people are saying that they are so far behind Sony in the hardware race, that they've basically said, well, screw it.
Phil: We're not going to lose money on these consoles anymore.
Phil: We're going to sell them at cost.
Phil: And the hardcore people that want to buy a console can do so because, you know, they've also done their Everything is an Xbox campaign.
Phil: Their quote said, we understand that these changes are challenging.
Phil: They were made with very careful consideration given market conditions and the rising cost of development.
Phil: Something we were talking about last episode.
Phil: Looking ahead, we continue to focus on offering more ways to play more games across any screen and ensuring value for Xbox players.
Phil: So we continue to focus on offering more ways to play more games across any screen.
Phil: So they're basically saying what I just said there, which was, if you don't like this, go out and get whatever else we've told you is an Xbox.
Phil: Get a Samsung TV or whatever, you know?
Phil: But yeah, people are saying that this hobby is getting more and more expensive and more and more exclusive.
Phil: Could you argue with that?
Tom: Yes and no.
Tom: It's getting more expensive than it was before, but I do remember around the year that a new game here in Australia cost $
Tom: So when you take into account inflation means games were way, way, way more expensive back then.
Phil: Oh, for sure.
Phil: Absolutely.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: And we've been giving a soft touch here in Australia, really.
Phil: I mean, people would hear us saying, oh, yeah, we pay $$for games, but I don't think very many people actually do pay that.
Phil: I think people who just barge into a JB Hi-Fi or a Harvey Norman and want to buy a new PlayStation they might buy three or four games for $but gamers won't pay that.
Phil: We just wait until they drop in price.
Tom: Probably the only people doing that are people buying games as presents for people who don't know about game prices.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: Yep.
Phil: And Microsoft is right to claim that Game Pass is a great value for consumers.
Phil: In fact, you've been using it recently, as many people are enjoying great games like South of Midnight and Clair Obscure Expedition
Phil: Is that right?
Tom: That's correct.
Tom: So I've mainly been playing Clair Obscure Expedition though.
Tom: I started South of Midnight, but I think I should get a little bit more into it before I give impressions as Clair Obscure Expedition took my attention away from it.
Phil: Well, it's blowing up.
Phil: I mean, fans of the genre are saying that it's their favorite game of the year and one of their favorite RPGs in a long time.
Phil: It's developed by a company called Sandfall Interactive and published by a developer I had not heard of, which is something I say a lot these days, Kepler Interactive.
Phil: And this is a turn-based RPG, is that right?
Tom: It's a turn-based RPG in theory.
Tom: I think it ends up playing more like an action RPG.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Well, why don't you just tell us about the gameplay, the setting, tell us everything.
Phil: It's getting a lot of heat.
Phil: A lot of people are saying game of the year.
Tom: Well, the main hook of the gameplay is that they essentially add QTEs to the combat in terms of you being able to dodge or parry every attack by an enemy and also increase the power of your attacks by timing a small QTE where you just have to press one button at the right time, which is reminiscent of Legend of Dragoon, which was a JRPG for the PlayStation that also, I don't think it had a dodge or parry mechanic, but when you attacked, if you succeeded in performing a short QTE, your attack power was boosted.
Tom: I think there was also a less advanced version of that in Final Fantasy as well.
Tom: It's something that has been done before, but this is definitely building on it compared to previous games, and the timing for the attacks is pretty simple and easy, but the timing for the dodges and parries, particularly the parries, is very precise.
Tom: So if you are performing a parry and you time it perfectly, then your characters will perform a counterattack.
Tom: If it's a single attack, the enemy does.
Tom: If it's multiple attacks at once, the enemy does, you have to parry every single attack.
Tom: When you're dodging, if you time it as well as you do, as well as you would have to parry, then you perform what is called a perfect dodge.
Tom: If you have a pick toss, which is a buffing item, or a Lumina, which is another way to buff your character, that allows you to gain AP, which is action points, which is basically the points you spend on performing skills in your turn, then you'll gain an extra action point.
Tom: It's usually better to try and get parries, but if you're learning the attack pattern and timing for an attack of an enemy, then you might want to do dodges while you're learning that before you get the exact point to be able to get a perfect dodge or parry.
Phil: Do you dig it?
Phil: I mean, I typically don't like parrying in a game.
Tom: I enjoy parrying in games.
Tom: I love Bayonetta and other beat-em-ups, so I think parrying works well in games when done well.
Tom: Certainly, dodging does.
Phil: Is it done well here?
Tom: It's done extremely well.
Tom: Like I said, it feels more like an action RPG, not because of the combat is turn-based, not because of the dodging and so on, but because of the amount of combat in the game.
Tom: It's structurally more in line with an action RPG.
Tom: You do explore an overworld and go to visit towns, not just dungeons, but for example, the first town you visit after the opening of the game, the main thing you do in this town is compete in a tournament.
Tom: So it is extremely combat-heavy, I would say more than most JRPGs.
Tom: There's a lot of optional combat you can do as well, which is very challenging if you're playing on hard or even normal.
Tom: So it's, I think, more like an action RPG than it is a JRPG, which is what it's inspired by, that is, JRPG in the sense of a turn-based RPG.
Tom: Even though there are structurally in terms of the overworld and dungeons and towns, many similarities to that, you are engaged in combat more than you are in most JRPGs.
Phil: Well, I'm a bit confused because, like what you're describing, like the quick time event-heavy combat, which is similar to, say, Bayonetta.
Tom: Well, it's similar to Bayonetta dodging.
Tom: It's not really similar in any other way because you're not moving around in it and you're only input in terms of attacks.
Tom: You're not performing combos or anything like that.
Tom: You're selecting what your character is meant to do and then just pressing a button at the correct time.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Well, yeah, okay.
Phil: So, yeah, I've seen that in a few games before, but the point is it's done well.
Tom: Yes.
Tom: And when I'm saying it's like an action RPG, it's like an action RPG just in the amount of combat there is and the focus on it.
Tom: Not in terms of the actual combat.
Phil: I was confused by that.
Phil: You say the amount of combat, but a turn-based RPG, when I think about old school Final Fantasies, like where you can't walk three feet before each battle.
Tom: But they will have extensive town scenarios where you're just going around talking to people, and not engaging in combat.
Tom: Whereas there are town scenarios here, but they are much briefer than they are in a traditional JRPG.
Phil: You said there's an overworld.
Phil: Is it like in the old school Final Fantasies one through?
Tom: Very much so.
Tom: You're basically a giant running around a natural environment from area to area.
Tom: There are also enemies to fight in these areas as well.
Tom: You got to unlock certain things to be able to explore further than you're able to at the beginning.
Phil: That sounds cool.
Tom: Definitely.
Tom: Before I move on from the combat, I mentioned pictos and luminers.
Tom: I've got to talk a little bit more about them because I think the best thing about the combat isn't the dodging and QTEs for attacks, although that does make things very satisfying.
Tom: The best thing about the combat is the ridiculous ways you can build the characters.
Tom: You've got standard stats like your speed, which determines when you take your turn and how often you can have a turn, attack power, health, defense, all of those things.
Tom: But weapons and luck, which affects your crit chance, but weapons scale based on random base stats.
Tom: You might have a weapon where the attack power is determined by vitality, which is your health and luck, for example.
Tom: You can build a character using that weapon who has a ridiculous amount of health, yet has a incredibly high crit chance and does a huge amount of damage despite having a very low attack level.
Tom: There's a lot of freedom to come up with really interesting character builds.
Tom: In addition to that, the way skills work with characters is hugely different between the characters.
Tom: Characters have totally different play styles to each other and require a unique way of playing, which once again makes the combat really interesting and interesting in different ways as you're developing the characters and learning how to combine their skills.
Tom: You can also combine different character skills to go with other characters.
Tom: So for example, one of the characters, a lot of her skills, you can build around catching enemies on fire.
Tom: And rather than using her skill points in the battle on catching enemies on fire, you can have another character who catches enemies on fire.
Tom: So the damage she does is multiplied by characters being on fire and things like that.
Tom: So you can come up with great combinations between using different characters.
Tom: In addition to that, which is absolutely hilarious, there are pictos which give you bonuses for playing only with a single character.
Tom: So what I'm doing is one of the characters, her special skills, which are unlike other characters, is she has different stances in combat, which are enabled by different skills she performs and different status effects.
Tom: One of them gives her plus percent damage.
Tom: I found a weapon that enables that stance at the beginning of a battle.
Tom: I have her by herself and with several pictos that massively buff her damage if she is by herself.
Tom: She essentially is capable of doing percent damage of her normal attack power at the beginning of every battle if she's by herself.
Tom: So if she does not manage to kill the enemy in one or a few turns, depending on the number of enemies or somehow even dies, then when your party gets killed, you then get to substitute in whatever other characters you have.
Tom: So at the moment, I got four characters and the maximum amount you can have is three in a party.
Tom: So my default party is just her and when she dies, then what would be the normal party gets substituted in, which is hilarious and goes to show the ridiculous amount of options you have in how you want to approach the combat in the game, which is, I think, to a greater degree of depth than many, many turn-based RPGs.
Tom: That certainly allows for a lot more creative expression.
Phil: So if I'm listening to this and I'm thinking, wow, this sounds really complicated and difficult to get my head around, what would you say?
Tom: I don't think it's that complicated.
Tom: It will take a little bit of time to learn what you're doing, but it won't matter that you're learning early on because the difficulty gradually increases after a tough opening.
Tom: If you're playing on hard anyway, it plateaus a little bit once the characters have leveled up, and then the difficulty gradually increases.
Tom: The main thing you've got to be learning at that point is how to combine the pictos and lumenas so that your characters have enough action points or buffs to be able to do a lot of damage.
Tom: The other advantage is again, the fact that you can theoretically dodge or parry every single attack.
Tom: If you get good at parrying and dodging, then there's a reasonable amount of leeway in the combat, because you can avoid taking a lot of damage.
Phil: You talked about the character creation component being so important or being an integral part of how you engage in combat.
Phil: Can you re-spec or once you've created that character at the start of the game, is that it?
Tom: No, you can re-spec.
Tom: You can get, I think, they're called recoat items and you use them and you can redo all of your skills and all of your stats as well.
Phil: Is it permadeath?
Tom: Permadeath, as in for the characters?
Phil: Yeah.
Tom: There's permadeath related to the story, but not in terms of dying in battle.
Phil: Because I was thinking about Suikoden, where you've got characters and you develop all these characters, but then they all have permadeath, which makes it such an emotional type of game.
Phil: Because once you lose a character, you lose a character and you talked about a character dying and then someone else comes in.
Phil: That's where I was curious.
Phil: Is that when you say that character dies, does that mean that's it for them?
Tom: No, they end up with one health after the battle, if your other characters end up beating that enemy.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: It's not like you're recreating new people throughout the game.
Phil: No.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: All right.
Phil: Well, it sounds complicated, but it also seems to me that from the amount of praise it's getting for what you've said, it's sort of intuitive and you sort of learn it as you go sort of thing, and there's low stakes at the beginning while you're still learning.
Tom: Yeah, definitely.
Tom: The last thing on the combat is the creativity applies to the enemies as well.
Tom: There was one element of combat I forgot to include, which was there's also all of the characters have a projectile attack that uses up one skill point if you use it, and certain enemies have a weak point, where if you shoot it will do a lot of damage to them or even cause something to explode, damaging other enemies.
Tom: And enemies will also buff themselves, including giving themselves shields.
Tom: And a shield, they can give themselves multiple shields, so they might give themselves five shield points to, and every single attack you do while they have a shield does zero damage.
Tom: So it's a good idea then to have at least one character who has buffed up attacks, who can use the projectile attack to hit the enemy who's shielded themselves, hopefully catching them on fire or debuffing them or something along those lines.
Tom: So there's yet another wrinkle to the combat, which makes it interesting.
Tom: And as you can tell from enemies being able to shield themselves, and some enemies having weak points or orbs or something that's protecting them that can explode, the creativity also applies to the enemies you're fighting, not just your own characters.
Phil: Any more about the combat system?
Tom: I think that probably covers the combat system.
Tom: But the other thing that stands out about the game is definitely the setting and the conceit of the narrative, which I am sure I have come across in another game, but I can't put my finger on what game it is.
Tom: So the game opens with you taking part in a festival known as the Gommage, I think.
Tom: And there's this number that you can see on an island in the distance, which I think is
Tom: And every year, the Panteles paints a new number, which is one less, so it's about to change from
Tom: And when it changes from to everyone who is age disintegrates and dies.
Tom: And you're setting out on an expedition to go to the island, to try and stop the Panteles from painting any new numbers and decreasing the age at which everyone dies even further.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: So, I mean, you could be talking about Persona
Phil: Persona had like a mysterious phenomenon called the Dark Hour, where the team was working towards an impending disaster before time ran out.
Phil: Or is it more specific, like a countdown type thing?
Phil: Like Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask.
Tom: Was there something similar to this in Nier?
Phil: I'm not sure.
Phil: I know Dead Rising had a time, you know, it was a time limit.
Phil: And Danganronpa did.
Phil: Crazy Taxi had a time limit.
Tom: Probably Crazy Taxi, I'm thinking of.
Phil: That's probably what you're thinking of.
Phil: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Phil: This does have a soundtrack by Green Day, right?
Tom: Crazy Taxi or Nier Automata?
Tom: Sorry, Clair Obscure.
Phil: Clair Obscure, yeah.
Tom: Don't think so, unfortunately.
Tom: No offspring either.
Phil: We won't talk about the music yet.
Phil: Usually, you're all over poo-pooing story in video games.
Phil: You sound like this is good?
Tom: I think it's a great concept and it's a very French narrative and French sense of humor.
Tom: It reminds me a lot, which isn't surprising given it's inspired by JRPGs.
Tom: It reminds me a lot of the French or Franco-Belgian.
Tom: It's not just French comics, but Belgian ones as well, heavily inspired by manga.
Tom: Just as an example of the French humor, the second town you visit after the first one is, of course, full of savages but highly stylized, so that you wouldn't think that's what they are and get offended.
Tom: But it's very clearly inspired by discovering an island of savages, essentially, who are a little bit stupid.
Phil: Okay, so now I'm starting to believe the hype because you're telling me the combat, the unique combat system actually works well.
Phil: And obviously this game has to be developed by someone who's worked on this stuff before.
Phil: This cannot be like their first effort in this field.
Phil: And you're telling me that the story is good as well.
Tom: I think they're former Ubisoft devs, aren't they?
Phil: Yeah, I would assume so.
Phil: I mean, I really don't know.
Phil: But like with the story telling, are the characters as good as the compelling story?
Tom: Well, I think the conceit is definitely the best part of the story without any question.
Tom: But the characters are sincerely and earnestly written enough that the story continues to be engaging after the opening, which the rest of the game was probably never going to be able to live up to.
Tom: The other thing I would add related to the narrative is the setting is consistently engrossing, and without needing to do much in terms of developing the story is aesthetically interesting enough throughout and interesting to explore.
Tom: All the dungeons have optional enemies you can fight, hidden items, and things like that, and they're all thus far anyway beautifully designed.
Tom: But the setting really carries it and remains as interesting as the opening conceit is.
Tom: This is definitely something that I think is a defining characteristic of French games.
Tom: If I think of most French indie games anyway, I don't know about Ubisoft games, but it would apply to large ones as well though, because that's certainly true of Beyond Good and Evil as well.
Tom: Beyond Good and Evil, for example, the story just taken as a story isn't particularly interesting, but the characters are interesting and entertaining throughout, and the setting is really rich and engaging.
Tom: That's definitely the case here.
Tom: Other games have come to mind, Remember Me, Life is Strange, and A Plague Tale.
Tom: I think it's something the French do very, very well, which again, I think comes from their tradition of more serious comic books.
Phil: That's Plague Tale.
Phil: Wow.
Phil: That's putting it into a pretty good category.
Phil: Let's putting it up on a high shelf there.
Tom: Well, the gameplay is a lot better than a Plague Tale, I would say.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: You paid $for this game.
Tom: So far, I pay $a month, right?
Phil: Yeah, exactly.
Tom: So we'll see how many months I take to finish it.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: It's $if you want to buy it on Steam in Australian dollars.
Phil: So I think it's a $game elsewhere.
Phil: I couldn't be sure about that, but it sounds-
Tom: $if you want to buy it on the Xbox app.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: In Australia.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: So visually, how does it look?
Tom: It looks excellent.
Phil: Like what style?
Phil: For a listener that hasn't seen a screenshot of this or anything like that, what style does it look like a modern Final Fantasy game, for example?
Phil: Does it have a distinctive art style or is it just-
Tom: It's got a very distinctive art style.
Tom: So it starts off in basically a French Belle Epoque style, sorry, a Belle Epoque rendering of a place like Paris.
Tom: And once you leave that, you end up in a variety of different fantasy worlds.
Tom: So far, there's been various different forest style dungeons, a cave-based dungeon, an underwater dungeon.
Tom: And the outfits of characters range from style clothing to Edwardian to futuristic, retro-futuristic style clothing as well.
Phil: When is the game set?
Phil: Is it set like in year or something like that?
Tom: I would say it's in, I don't know what year it's set in, but the aesthetic of it is definitely inspired by the late s and early s, which is aesthetically rich time for France without any question.
Tom: And the dungeons, which is a great contrast to the opening era area, are also very surreal.
Tom: You come across gigantic enemies that you can often see in the distance before you get to them and things like that.
Tom: So it's a very surreal experience.
Tom: Another thing that I think is great about it, but I've seen it be criticized for, which I think would massively take away from the atmosphere of the game, is when you're exploring the dungeons in the world, you're not given many directions.
Tom: They do have a way of directing you towards the main story parts of dungeons.
Tom: But due to the surrealness, they managed to work it into the esthetics, so it isn't annoying like the ridiculously painted jumping points in Uncharted or shit like that.
Tom: As in Mirror's Edge, they find a way to aesthetically make work, which is if you're going the correct direction to just do the main stuff in a dungeon, you'll be coming across lamps.
Tom: But outside of that, you're not really given much direction.
Tom: You don't even have a journal, which gives you reminders on what your objectives are.
Tom: And I think that adds to the exploration in the game, and exploring it and going in the wrong direction and finding random stuff is very much one of the most enjoyable things about the game.
Tom: So huge credit to them for having the conviction to not be constantly holding your hand and constantly directing you in the quote correct end quote direction in an intrusive manner.
Phil: Let's get some famous people in it, like Andy Serkis.
Phil: Did you hear him?
Phil: Did you find him?
Tom: It does, but you cannot play this game in English.
Tom: You have got to put it in French.
Tom: One, the atmosphere of the game is incredibly French, but two, the sense of humor is very French.
Tom: I think it doesn't come across as well with the English cast, which is the originally recorded audio when they do the motion capturing as well.
Tom: The correct way in that sense is to play it in English, but the atmosphere demands that you play the dub instead.
Phil: Sorry.
Phil: When you were talking about the costume design, it brought to mind an original Xbox game called Phantom Dust.
Phil: I'm not sure if you're familiar with it.
Phil: It was a real-time strategy action game developed by, I forget who is famous, who was involved with that.
Phil: I thought someone famous was involved with that, but it's very distinctive, almost a punk aesthetic, futuristic but also of the s as well.
Phil: Obviously, this game has a distinctive art style, stunning visuals.
Phil: Definitely.
Phil: Is there anything bad about the game?
Tom: So far, I would say, I don't know about anything bad.
Tom: There isn't really anything that bothered me about it so far.
Tom: So far, I have nothing to complain about on any meaningful level.
Phil: I've never heard you say that before in my life about a video game.
Tom: I think that there are games that are s that I've somehow denoted as s, so I think there must be previous instances of this.
Tom: I would not say this is so far as good as the best games I've ever played.
Phil: It sounds like a rarity to me.
Phil: I'm sorry that it's $but I should probably take the plunge and get it for PC.
Phil: I haven't checked if it's Steam Deck compatible or what level of Steam Deck compatibility it is, but because of the visual stuff, I probably want to play it on a big screen anyway.
Tom: I think you can play it on Steam Deck.
Tom: I think people have managed to get to FPS on Steam Deck.
Tom: So by your standards, it should be playable.
Phil: Yeah, by my standards, exactly.
Phil: Anything else to say about this game?
Phil: You're not going to give it a score because how far into it do you think you are?
Phil: Because this is like a -hour game, I think.
Tom: I think I'm about halfway.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Are you playing it daily?
Tom: There's one thing I can complain about it actually, which is the optimization.
Tom: One of the dungeons so far, there I've experienced a little bit of slow down and I can't come up with any reason as to why that should be based on what is visually occurring.
Tom: My one criticism would be, maybe it could be optimized slightly better.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: Maybe it's your old video card that you talked about last episode.
Tom: I don't think so.
Tom: It's still a very powerful video card.
Tom: The thing you have to remember is, we're up to the or something, and the low tier version of that card, of the series, is at best, if you're lucky, only or percent more powerful than mine.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: Did you take the Steam hardware survey recently?
Tom: I think so.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: Basically, you log in and says, do you want to be part of the hardware survey, where they basically take your stats and put it up and shows you where you are, and what most people want.
Phil: Most people want some pretty old tech.
Phil: I think your video card is going to do you well for quite some time, because developers obviously look at the Steam hardware survey and go, okay, well, where do we need to spec for?
Phil: Where are most people at?
Phil: Which brings into question the marketability of these new video cards that are $or whatever.
Phil: Why would you do that if no one's making games for you up there?
Tom: So you can run your AI generation.
Phil: Yeah, probably.
Phil: Is that it for Clair Obscure Expedition ?
Tom: The last thing I would add is you unlock various amusing costumes for the characters.
Tom: Thankfully, they are rendered in the story cutscenes, making some great moments.
Phil: Cool.
Phil: Just do some quickies here before we go into anything else.
Phil: I finished off the Case of the Golden Idol.
Phil: It was fun.
Phil: I did have to use my mobile phone a fair bit, not to search for solutions, but to take photos of the screen at the end of each chapter so I could remember who was who.
Phil: Yeah, it went places for sure.
Phil: They sure did a twist on the whole thing in the last two chapters and the epilogue.
Phil: Prologue?
Phil: Epilogue, yep.
Phil: Boy, that thing went places and it was interesting.
Phil: It was interesting to the end.
Phil: So much so that I immediately downloaded Rise of the Golden Idol.
Phil: My wife quite enjoyed playing it.
Phil: This is something that doesn't happen very often.
Phil: She likes playing.
Phil: She does not often play video games.
Phil: So she was like, yeah, sure, go get it.
Phil: And I was saddened to have to get a refund for it almost immediately from Steam because the only way that I would play it is on the Steam deck.
Phil: And unfortunately, the text was too small to read.
Phil: It hasn't been optimized for the Steam deck at all, which was really unfortunate because I was looking forward to dipping into that.
Tom: That's a pity.
Tom: Would you consider trying the Switch version?
Tom: I'm pretty sure it's on Switch as well.
Phil: I can't imagine it would be much different.
Tom: You would presume it would have been optimized for the Switch though.
Phil: Yeah, I will, I will research that.
Tom: They would have to have made the text legible for the Switch version.
Phil: I'll investigate that.
Phil: And if they have, then yeah, I certainly will pick it up for the Switch.
Phil: I don't particularly care which handheld I play it on, but just playing it on a big screen is not practical, especially when it's going to be like shared gaming type thing.
Phil: And it was interesting because some of the cases, or some of the optional puzzles or whatever, I just look at and immediately get.
Phil: And my wife was like, I looked at this for like an hour and I couldn't get it.
Phil: And then other stuff she'd pick up on immediately.
Phil: And I guess that's the beauty of these types of games, is different people have different perspectives.
Phil: And yeah, it's still, I thoroughly recommend it.
Phil: And the case of the Golden Idol.
Tom: With your previous impressions?
Phil: I believe I didn't give it a score.
Phil: I was going to hold off and wait.
Phil: But you've raised a good issue.
Phil: Oh, the other problem was the other two chapters.
Phil: I immediately bought those as well.
Phil: Like the two other DLCs that they've done since then.
Phil: And I purchased them.
Phil: But the Steam Deck didn't acknowledge them.
Phil: So I purchased them and downloaded them on the PC.
Phil: But it just would not transfer to the Steam Deck.
Phil: So there's something else going on there.
Tom: That's bizarre.
Phil: It was a real bummer.
Phil: It was a real bummer.
Phil: I bet if I had bought the full package that included all the DLC, that it would have worked.
Phil: But buying the add-on DLC, for whatever reason, the Steam Deck didn't see it as part of the game.
Phil: And you need the game as the shell, basically, to house the DLC in order to play it.
Phil: So yeah, it was a total bummer because I thought I had my whole video game lineup sorted for the next month, playing those two and then playing the new one, which is set in the s.
Phil: So then I turned to Obra Dinn and it didn't take again.
Phil: It's not as effective as the Case of the Golden Idol.
Phil: The D nature of it is a visual gimmick, but it doesn't add to the game play at all.
Phil: So yeah, sadly, Lucas Pope, who created one of my favorite games of all time, it just didn't take and it made me really appreciate the Case of the Golden Idol that much more.
Phil: So with that, I will give Case of the Idol a out of
Phil: Though, well, I almost give it a out of
Phil: In fact, if it was on a five-star system, I'd definitely give it five out of five stars.
Phil: There's really nothing to fault about the game other than the technical proficiency to accommodate a Steam Deck user.
Phil: Hopefully, there will be some future updates that remedy that.
Tom: Before we move on, we've got to do a small spoiler section of the Case of the Golden Idol.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: What did you think of the way the story ended?
Phil: Look, it's a rich story.
Phil: I thought that we're talking about Edmund Cloudsley and the time, the ability of the Golden Idol to age him and not age him, and the use of the Golden Idol to age other people as a punishment for the society that they established.
Phil: Is that what you're talking about?
Tom: No.
Tom: The storytelling of the final chapter, where essentially most of the events that occurred previously are all depicted very directly.
Tom: Whereas in the final chapter, the demise of Edmund Cloudsley is depicted almost second-hand through other events around it occurring, and you have to figure out and piece together.
Phil: All that, the actual mechanics of it.
Phil: In terms of storytelling.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: I thought that was fantastic.
Phil: I thought it was really great.
Phil: I love jumping back into those old cases to solve the new case.
Phil: I thought it was really creative.
Phil: Why wouldn't it be?
Phil: If you're sitting there making this game and that's your life for three years or whatever, why wouldn't this have occurred to you to do that?
Phil: It would have occurred to me, but as the game player who's barely invested in the whole thing, I thought, oh, this is cool.
Phil: It was really cool.
Phil: I loved it.
Phil: I thought it was a great way to something that games don't get a chance to do very often, is to reminisce and go back and touch the favorite parts of the game again.
Phil: I thought it was a great mechanic.
Tom: It's rare that you have a game that has a deliberately anticlimactic ending as well.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: Well, it ended with the epilogue, which is basically you had already played the game, but then you had to figure it out and solve all of those little sub-mysteries type thing.
Tom: That was the case in...
Tom: What was the adventure game I played recently, which was also heavy on detective style puzzle solving?
Tom: That ended with a quiz.
Phil: Oh, sorry, I can't help you.
Phil: You got to give me more than that.
Tom: It featured a female protagonist and it was developed by one person.
Phil: Well, it sounds like we're playing video game questions.
Phil: I'm not going to get to the answer.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: No, you got to give me something more than that.
Phil: Sorry.
Phil: But anyway, it doesn't really matter.
Phil: I thought it was great.
Phil: I've given it a score.
Phil: Is there another game that you want to talk about?
Phil: Because this is a short episode tonight.
Tom: I just think I'll add one more thing on the ending.
Tom: Like I said, it's red, have an anticlimactic ending, and how it transpired with the incompetent, drunkard, successfully murdering the mastermind of all the events of the story up until that point, due to his hubris, I thought was a great touch of black humor.
Tom: It was a perfect ending.
Phil: Yes, indeed it was.
Phil: Indeed it was.
Phil: And that's why I was so interested to see where the expansions went with the game.
Phil: Have you played the expansions?
Tom: No, I have not.
Phil: Oh, that's a bummer.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: All right.
Phil: Well, I might have to reward this development by buying the whole hog again and seeing if that works on the Steam Deck or even buying it and just making sure I spend the time on the PC itself.
Phil: What other game that I've been playing, that came out last week before we go, there's a game called Mice Maze.
Phil: Have you heard about this game?
Tom: No, I haven't.
Phil: It's early access on Steam right now.
Phil: You can buy it for $though there is a free demo, which is what I played.
Phil: Mice Maze is, imagine big picture.
Phil: First of all, imagine Pac-Man, imagine Pac-Man CE more precisely.
Phil: It's a bullet heavy, a bullet heaven roguelite where time only moves when you do.
Phil: Unless you move forward, the enemies can't come towards you.
Phil: Imagine yourself walking around a maze as you would in Pac-Man, and you're collecting dots, and you're collecting buffs.
Phil: So you'll come along across a buff, and you get to pick between three different buffs, which one you want.
Phil: You pick those, and eventually just keep working your way around the maze, while these ghosts or these cats actually follow you.
Phil: The aesthetic is that of a GBA game, Game Boy Advance game.
Phil: So it's sort of a retro pixel art aesthetic.
Phil: And you're playing as a mouse that's going through this maze, collecting these dots and buffs and avoiding cats.
Phil: Eventually, there's this grim reaper cat that can walk through walls that comes for you.
Phil: And you can fend him off for a while, but then another grim reaper cat will come for you.
Phil: And eventually, they'll get you a score, and then you'll start again.
Phil: Because it says it is a rogue light, but you'll keep your buffs.
Phil: And so the game is creative.
Phil: It's enjoyable, but it's a bit too frenetic for me as a rogue light.
Phil: I mean, it's an action-oriented rogue like.
Phil: And like I said, time only moves when you do, so it's got that super hot type element to it.
Phil: So I can see how it would be engaging and addictive in a way.
Phil: But it's not the sort of game I feel like I'd put a lot of time into.
Phil: Though this is only a demo, and it is only an early access.
Phil: So I think it's about $in the States.
Phil: It's $down here in Australia.
Tom: So it sounds a little bit disappointing.
Phil: Well, I wouldn't say that.
Phil: I'd say it's got a lot of complex systems in it.
Phil: The hook is there, but it isn't as engaging to me.
Phil: Like I said, they've described it as a Bullet Heaven game, which I'm not quite sure what the difference is between Bullet Heaven and Bullet Hell.
Phil: I don't find it to be a Bullet Hell game at all.
Phil: Yeah, so yeah, it just doesn't hit the mark, but it is creative and basically we'll just wait and see how it develops, I guess.
Tom: So it's still Early Access.
Phil: Yes.
Tom: Yeah.
Phil: What's your opinion on Early Access games?
Tom: I think it depends entirely on the game.
Tom: It can be an excuse to release something with never completing it, which for some, that doesn't even matter.
Tom: For others, it can be you end up with a game that is essentially unplayable.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: I think in this case, the game is complete.
Phil: It's just a way for them possibly to introduce themselves at a lower price point and have some excuses for things that don't work.
Phil: I'm not a fan of Early Access at all, and how this has been ruined for me is a game that I think I'd otherwise enjoy called Prison Architect.
Phil: I like the concept so much.
Phil: It's a SimCity type thing where you build your own jail.
Phil: So it had a dark theme, but the fun of a building game and a resource management game.
Phil: And I got the Early Access to it about two years before it came out, and I played enough of it where I sort of had my fill of it, so that by the time that the game actually came out, I wasn't interested in playing it at all.
Phil: And the game apparently went in a completely different direction, but because I'd already had my taste of it, I just never went back to it.
Phil: And that sort of soured me on Early Access.
Phil: It's like, no, when you're done with your game, I'll buy it.
Phil: Thanks, you know?
Tom: Yeah.
Tom: That's understandable.
Phil: OK, so with that, we'll go into a listener email for you.
Phil: This is where I read you questions from other people's podcasts, because I didn't like the way they answered it, and I'm thinking that perhaps you can give it a better answer.
Phil: You ready?
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: I do remember the name of the game that you're talking about to the adventure game.
Tom: What is it?
Phil: Crimson Diamond.
Tom: Of course it is.
Phil: Yes, Crimson Diamond.
Tom: Why did I bring it up?
Phil: You're talking about, I was talking about Case of the Golden Idol.
Tom: I remember we were talking about the Case of the Golden Idol.
Phil: Yes.
Phil: Well, keen listeners perhaps can tell us what we were talking about the next time we talk.
Tom: We remember the game, but not why it was relevant.
Phil: No.
Phil: Danny from an undisclosed location writes, when was the last time?
Tom: Oh, I remember now.
Tom: Both games had an epilogue related to reliving moments of the rest of the game.
Phil: That's cool.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: That's good.
Tom: As we just did, we just relived the end of the podcast.
Phil: We did.
Phil: We can do it again.
Phil: Danny from an undisclosed location writes, when was the last time you were on a boat?
Tom: The last time was on a boat.
Tom: A month or two ago, I was sailing.
Phil: Really?
Phil: La-di-da.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: A yacht or a catamaran or?
Tom: It was a very tiny little boat that you can sail by yourself.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: I forget what those are called.
Phil: I think those are called a catamaran, a little baby catamaran.
Phil: So you were boating by yourself?
Tom: Correct.
Phil: Was this in this country?
Phil: Yep.
Tom: This was at Albert Park Lake, and I previously sailed at Docklands as well, and I recommend sailing at Docklands because there were no reeds.
Phil: This is news to us.
Phil: Do you tow this around behind your purple Honda?
Tom: No, I don't.
Tom: I hire it.
Phil: You just hire it.
Phil: Okay.
Tom: Yeah.
Tom: A tip is, if you want to go sailing, go to any yacht or sailing club.
Tom: Apparently, these rich people are desperate for people to sail with.
Tom: Very desperate.
Phil: Okay, okay.
Tom: As you can tell, money cannot buy you friendship, and it also cannot buy you people who will go sailing either.
Phil: Excellent.
Tom: Probably, it cannot buy you friendship, but it cannot buy you shipmates.
Phil: No.
Phil: Last time I was in a boat, I actually went to a yacht club nearby, and I rented a boat for the day.
Phil: He actually rented two boats for the day.
Phil: It cost me no more than $
Phil: It was basically like a small six-foot type aluminum tinny, as they're called here in Queensland.
Phil: Yeah, I cruised around the bay and did a spot of fishing, and it was a fun time, really fun time.
Tom: Was this with a sail or a motor?
Phil: No, no, with an outboard engine on the back, a very anemic one, because this is the original.
Tom: Do you need a license for that in Queensland?
Tom: You do in Victoria.
Phil: For the, let's see, for the horsepower of the engine.
Phil: So if the horsepower of the engine is under a certain limit, you don't need a license for it.
Phil: It's like those little Peewee mini bikes.
Tom: So that's why the engine was so anemic.
Phil: Anemic, exactly.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: And with cell phones these days, who cares if it breaks down?
Phil: You just call them up and say, here's my exact location and move on.
Phil: I have a great thing about using your cell phone when you're on a boat, is you can see exactly where you are at all times, and you can look for shallow water and the whole thing.
Phil: It's, yeah.
Phil: Okay.
Phil: Well, that was a good question, Danny.
Phil: Unexpected answers probably from both of us.
Tom: Probably better answers than from the podcast that came from, because most likely their answer was, I've not been on a boat.
Phil: No.
Phil: It was things like, I went on a ferry to France and, yeah.
Tom: That's even worse than not being on a boat.
Phil: No.
Phil: Get over to gameunder.net, check out our articles, check out our reviews.
Phil: We've been doing this for a long time since
Phil: So there's a lot of resources covering games from that time to now on our website.
Phil: If you'd like to submit a question.
Tom: I recommend the article, Did Stephen Hicks Redeem Himself?
Tom: Which you can find by searching Reagan.
Phil: Reagan, not Hicks?
Tom: No.
Tom: You can probably find it by searching Hicks as well, but I found it by searching Reagan.
Phil: Yeah.
Phil: We are now publishing our transcripts on the website as well.
Phil: So now when you search for stuff, I think I've done about episodes out of
Phil: So now you'll find more of our back catalog as well, if there's a game or a topic that you're interested in.
Phil: I think you said you put in Nixon, and we've mentioned Nixon three times in the games that I mentioned.
Tom: I think you were searching Nixon.
Tom: That's why I searched Reagan, and to my horror, we've not mentioned Reagan on the podcast before, apparently.
Phil: Well, we have now.
Phil: Thanks for listening to Episode of The Game Under Podcast.
Phil: I'm Phil Fogg.
Tom: I'm Ronald Reagan.
Phil: We'll see you next time.