Larry Hryb: Hi, it's Larry Hryb here, Xbox Live's Major Nelson, welcome to the show here with Jeffrey, hi Jeff.

Jeff Rubenstein: Hey, how you doing?

Larry Hryb: This is the pre-three show. Pre-E3 show.

Jeff Rubenstein: Pre-three.

Larry Hryb: Pre-three show.

Jeff Rubenstein: Stop trying to make pre-three happen.

Larry Hryb: That's what had happened ... I've been trying for years.

Jeff Rubenstein: No.

Larry Hryb: No. Anyway, we're in the studio. We wanted to bang out a quick show because next week, well we actually just got off a whole one of many, many, many, many, many conference calls about E3, didn't we?

Jeff Rubenstein: Pretty mucah, E3, the conference call. That's pre-three. Right there.

Larry Hryb: And I don't know about you Jeff, when we're listening on these conference calls where there's all these different elements that are being discussed. Certainly the briefing and all this operational stuff, who goes where, what door we're going in.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's amazing how complex it is.

Larry Hryb: This is incredible. But it's always fun when we're listening to the call and you and I will lock eyes and, wait a minute, if we're doing that. Wow. You know you get excited.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: So we get excited just like everybody else does.

Jeff Rubenstein: You know, as much work as it is, and this will be my 13th E3, I know you're at least 16?

Larry Hryb: 16 or 18.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's always fun.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Like when we get to the point where the lights go down, we're just like you, we're sitting there and just soaking in-

Larry Hryb: Let's see how it goes. It's exciting. So looking forward to that. That's coming up. Just mark your calendars, that is coming up Sunday, June 9th at 1 o'clock Pacific, that's 4 o'clock Eastern, will be our briefing and it'll be streamed on wherever the heck-

Jeff Rubenstein: 9 pm British summer time.

Larry Hryb: That's right, 9 pm British summer time. DST. So we got that going on. It's going to be fun, it's going to be exciting, so we're looking forward to that. But we want to get in the studio, we want to bang out some news, talk about a few things that went out over the past couple weeks. You were-

Jeff Rubenstein: This is not a quiet zone.

Larry Hryb: You were on the road [crosstalk 00:02:15].

Jeff Rubenstein: As were you, right?

Larry Hryb: Where did I go?

Jeff Rubenstein: Weren't you at EDC? I thought I saw you, you had sort of the shinguard situation that everyone wears at EDC. That wasn't you?

Larry Hryb: That wasn't me.

Jeff Rubenstein: I thought it was you.

Larry Hryb: No.

Jeff Rubenstein: I was on the east coast for most of the last two weeks. It's weird working on the west coast, but being on the east you have nice quite mornings.

Larry Hryb: You weren't taking a vacation, you had some stuff-

Jeff Rubenstein: No. Taking care of some family stuff. Of course I travel ... Thank you very much, Larry, for lending me an Xbox OneX, an extra one. I didn't want to take apart my home theater and all that stuff. You know we run the TV through it. That does not go [crosstalk 00:02:54].

Larry Hryb: -you told me you didn't ... Look, I got an extra one for you.

Jeff Rubenstein: And a games case, and I sat down there and you know what?

Larry Hryb: A game screen.

Jeff Rubenstein: Game screen, yeah I guess it was the second gen one that they had. And you know what, it was perfect. [inaudible 00:03:07].

Larry Hryb: Not only that ... Wait a minute.

Jeff Rubenstein: What?

Larry Hryb: Is that when we got our Apex Legend?

Jeff Rubenstein: We did. I thought that-

Larry Hryb: You were down there?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I got two of them down there.

Larry Hryb: The one with your daughter though?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Okay. So we got it.

Jeff Rubenstein: We went to three different places.

Larry Hryb: Three different places and it actually works.

Jeff Rubenstein: And we had a heck of a game.

Larry Hryb: That was a heck of a game. You got the final kill.

Jeff Rubenstein: I did. [crosstalk 00:03:26]

Larry Hryb: Everyone was ... There were people like giving us some on Twitter because you weren't strafing or you didn't have proper form. Doesn't matter, got the job done.

Jeff Rubenstein: [inaudible 00:03:36]

Larry Hryb: It got the job done.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I did it with Gibraltar.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: He's a thick boy. There's a lot of surface area and I was an R99 at range.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: And finished off just unloading a clip. I ... That's a proud moment.

Larry Hryb: It is.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's as good as it's gonna get for me.

Larry Hryb: It absolutely is. Anyway, we're cooking along here, we've got a lot to do. Figured we'd go over some of the news and we want to jump-

Jeff Rubenstein: We did that, we did that. What're you playing?

Larry Hryb: Well-

Jeff Rubenstein: I haven't seen you.

Larry Hryb: Talked about Apex. Rage 2, you and I are playing Rage 2.

Jeff Rubenstein: What do you think about that?

Larry Hryb: Well, it's fun. It's just a fun ... We have so many of these intense multiplayer games like, we've been playing Division and what have you, and this is nice to just have a single player experience where you just kinda go in and pick up, play for a half hour, put it down, come back 20 minutes later, whatever, just kind of dip in and out of it.

Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, we both love the Far Cry series.

Larry Hryb: Right!

Jeff Rubenstein: We love our open world, FPSs.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: And this is just like that 60 frames per second, silky smooth-

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Sort of gun play is just phenomenal.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: It really just feels good. It's just fun at a core level at all times. And I don't recall getting into the original Rage all that much-

Larry Hryb: Nor do I.

Jeff Rubenstein: I got a couple questions just from some friends as I was sort of saying, "Oh, you know I'm really getting into this!" And they were like "Do I have to have played the first one?" I'm gonna tell you, no.

Larry Hryb: No.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I wouldn't say Rage 2 is a game you're necessarily playing for the story, cause a lot of time it just boils down to, and even your character admits this, "Lemme guess. I gotta go in there and blow a bunch of stuff up."

Larry Hryb: Right, right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, yep. That's what you're gonna be doing. It has one of the best shotguns in gaming history.

Larry Hryb: Oh, it's [crosstalk 00:05:17] kind of OP.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. It's phenomenal. When you aim down the sight-

Larry Hryb: And it blows them back.

Jeff Rubenstein: It has like a shock wave blast.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Like a sort of a slug. When you shoot something down, you can ... It's got some range, especially when you boost it up. And one of the things I was wondering, cause I played, I don't know, 10 hours of the first Rage, and one of the things that I wanted to see in Rage 2 was if you had any sort of progression or ability unlocks and how.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah, you do.

Jeff Rubenstein: There's so many. There's so many different facets of what you do well. It doesn't have XP, you're constantly earning different currencies, different minerals, different coins that allow you to do all these different things. And it encourages to just slide in there and do this little side mission that you happen to see as you're driving by. "Oh, I gotta blow up this gas station?"

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: "Well, I've got a pocket full of grenades and a rocket launcher."

Larry Hryb: "We could take care of that, yeah."

Jeff Rubenstein: "I'd be more than happy to do this."

Larry Hryb: "Keep the engine running, I'll be right back."

Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. And it just does a lot of things really right at that fundamental feel level. That I'm pretty close to beating it and I'll definitely finish it before E3, but yeah. Great job to Bethesda and, I think it's Avalanche.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Put that together. These are the folks that, I believe they do Just Cause, right?

Larry Hryb: Yeah, they do.

Jeff Rubenstein: Which has some updates, which we'll get to actually in a minute, but that was exactly the game I needed, I think, while I was away from my family and just had these nights where I didn't really have a lot to do.

Larry Hryb: What do you mean? I kept your nights busy. We were playing-

Jeff Rubenstein: Well between Apex and ... Yeah, yeah. Until you got online.

Larry Hryb: Well, that's true cause you were ahead of me.

Jeff Rubenstein: You know, I was ahead of you, it was a lot of Rage.

Larry Hryb: So yeah, I've been playing that, Rage 2, Apex of course, Overwatch jumped back into with the new season.

Jeff Rubenstein: So did I, yeah.

Larry Hryb: I checked that out last night in fact. Sea of Thieves with their latest update, which is fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I'm quite the fisherman, quite the fisherman.

Larry Hryb: You are.

Jeff Rubenstein: I like it. Once you figure out the knack on there, every time we're sailing anywhere, you just cast a line off-

Larry Hryb: Zzzzzz.

Jeff Rubenstein: And it's fun and then you cook them and then you sell them.

Larry Hryb: Borderlands. Playing that, also talking about the Game-

Jeff Rubenstein: Wait, which one?

Larry Hryb: The Game of the Year edition.

Jeff Rubenstein: The Game of the Year edition.

Larry Hryb: Yeah. [crosstalk 00:07:23]

Jeff Rubenstein: Yup.

Larry Hryb: So yeah, I've been busy, you've been busy, lot's been busy.

Jeff Rubenstein: Sure enough.

Larry Hryb: But it's gonna become ... We have to, unfortunately, taper off our gameplay because we're-

Jeff Rubenstein: We got work to do.

Larry Hryb: We're gonna be busy with games.

Jeff Rubenstein: I know.

Larry Hryb: With game news.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. This is ... I feel like, this time of year, oftentimes it can get a little bit quiet. Can get quiet in terms of game releases-

Larry Hryb: Sure.

Jeff Rubenstein: It can get quiet in terms of news, that's not the case this year.

Larry Hryb: No.

Jeff Rubenstein: There's been so much coming out, so much to talk about, so much to play. It's just ... We're always on. And, I mean, I'm not complaining about it.

Larry Hryb: No, no. It's gonna be a fun time. We've got a busy summer ahead of us. Got a lot of stuff we're working on that we can't talk about yet.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, and some that we can talk about. Like Halo Outpost, that will be going to a couple different places.

Larry Hryb: Orlando.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Jeffrey's former hometown.

Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like it's almost I pick where we're going.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, where we're going.

Jeff Rubenstein: Cause the city ... So Orlando, where I used to live in Orlando. And then I'm from Philly, we're going to Philly.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: So I've been telling all my relatives. I'm like, "Hey, why don't you come on out to Halo Outpost Discovery. You see me, you see-"

Larry Hryb: Master Chief, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: "Master Chief, presumably-"

Larry Hryb: And a lot of fans!

Jeff Rubenstein: "And Warthog and all these other things." So it's ... Pretty much looking forward to that. My sister now, she spends half her year in Chicago, we're going to Chicago.

Larry Hryb: Oh.

Jeff Rubenstein: So.

Larry Hryb: That's right. So the whole ... We can put a link, and we'll put a link to where you can [crosstalk 00:08:46]

Jeff Rubenstein: I will do that. Tickets are on sale now. I believe some of the VIP, three day stuff is starting to sell out, so probably want to get on it. And they also announced that if you do, and I want to get the story right, so I'm just bringing it up real quick. That you get, I believe it's six months of Xbox Game Pass, yeah. "All VIP tickets now include six months of Xbox Game Pass." So, I mean-

Larry Hryb: Why not?

Jeff Rubenstein: It's a good value there-

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Of $9.99 a month and times six.

Larry Hryb: Times six.

Jeff Rubenstein: And you get into Outpost Discovery, so.

Larry Hryb: And you may be able to get to meet some of Jeff's relatives.

Jeff Rubenstein: They're gonna be floating around there.

Larry Hryb: You've been warned.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Is your mom coming?

Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know what to say.

Larry Hryb: Is your mom coming out?

Jeff Rubenstein: She actually, she said "Hey, maybe I'll ..." The reason I was down there, my mom had major surgery-

Larry Hryb: Surgery, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: So I was down there literally in between conference calls, I'm like chopping garlic and then going on mute and cooking and keeping the house together, feeding the dog-

Larry Hryb: You were fixing things.

Jeff Rubenstein: Fixing. Fixing all the ... I feel like she saves all the.

Larry Hryb: Well, that's what they do.

Jeff Rubenstein: All of the "this door isn't closing right, and this drawer is falling apart."

Larry Hryb: "Could you take a look at this?"

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. "Could you help me?" There was a lot of moving of heavy objects.

Larry Hryb: There's all these bars in my browser, Jeffrey, could you remove them?

Jeff Rubenstein: That's funny. I did have to update the ... She had like a Surface RT-

Larry Hryb: Oh wow, old school.

Jeff Rubenstein: From, that I'd given her back in 2013-

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And she was like, "Can you help me with?" And I was like "Yes, I can help you with this."

Larry Hryb: Good.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Still using it, still likes it.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, she was like "Maybe I'll come up to Orlando." And I was like "You know, you just had major surgery-"

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: "There's gonna be a lot of walking, maybe-"

Larry Hryb: It's the middle of the summer.

Jeff Rubenstein: "Maybe I come to you."

Larry Hryb: Yeah. Can we?

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, actually. She would love to meet you.

Larry Hryb: I've never met her.

Jeff Rubenstein: She's a huge fan of yours.

Larry Hryb: She and I chatted, but I've never met her.

Jeff Rubenstein: I know. So she no longer calls you Captain Morgan-

Larry Hryb: That's okay.

Jeff Rubenstein: Which I think I think is a big step forward.

Larry Hryb: We're getting forward.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Anyway, we got a big thing with Halo Outpost Discovery, it's gonna be great.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so you're gonna come with me?

Larry Hryb: I would love to.

Jeff Rubenstein: All right.

Larry Hryb: I'd love that.

Jeff Rubenstein: We'll talk more about that, I think, after E3.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, when we get closer.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's right around July 4th.

Larry Hryb: Right now, [crosstalk 00:10:57] there's people listening right now saying "Don't talk about that, talk about E3!" Well, look, we're not gonna give you up any news. We don't know what the news is.

Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe, eh.

Larry Hryb: Just a couple of things. But you have [inaudible 00:11:05] for that?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Look, it's gonna be fun to just sit down there, lights go down, enjoy it, watch it, stream it.

Larry Hryb: Where do you watch it from? I can't remember. Do you watch it down-

Jeff Rubenstein: Where do I watch E3?

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: So it's ... Part of my job is getting creators, streamers, YouTubers, all that stuff into the building, that's the reason I'm there.

Larry Hryb: Which, by the way, sounds like "Why would he need help getting people?" You'd be surprised. With all the security and-

Jeff Rubenstein: We have like ten minutes-

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, maybe slightly more but not by much-

Larry Hryb: There's a window.

Jeff Rubenstein: To get people through security-

Larry Hryb: Yup.

Jeff Rubenstein: In their seats-

Larry Hryb: In the right seats in the right section.

Jeff Rubenstein: And that thing needs to start ... In the right seats, exactly.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And it needs to start on time.

Larry Hryb: Phil's not waiting.

Jeff Rubenstein: No. And so all of that. And usually, what ends up happening, is then I'm like, "It's dark," the lights go down, I get the last person in the door, and then where can I sit?

Larry Hryb: Yeah. You're seat filling at that point.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. And last year, which was our first year in the Microsoft Theater, I had to go into the upper deck, so I actually missed the first-

Larry Hryb: That's right, I remember that, you were way up on top.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so it was the first ... I missed the first minute of the Halo Infinite trailer.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I had never seen it.

Larry Hryb: Sure.

Jeff Rubenstein: So it was ... But I was sitting in my seat for the point where people realized what it was

Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was the helmet shot.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I still get chills thinking about it.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: That was amazing. So that's where I'll be. Where do you watch it from?

Larry Hryb: I'm usually in the ... If you're looking down to the stage, I'm watching it from the right hand side. There's a ... We have a workspace up there, you know where those boxes are?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah.

Larry Hryb: That aren't filled.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: So it's just kind of this empty space and I usually just find a stool and sit down.

Jeff Rubenstein: You know what?

Larry Hryb: And just watch.

Jeff Rubenstein: Save me a seat.

Larry Hryb: Let's do it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Let's do that.

Larry Hryb: So if you are able to attend or if you've got tickets to Fan Fest and you're joining us, look up to the right-

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, there's tons of fans-

Larry Hryb: Jeff and I will be sitting there-

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I know.

Larry Hryb: Like the two old guys from the Muppet Show. Da, da, da. Cause that's exactly where we're gonna be, up in that area.

Jeff Rubenstein: Ripping off zingers and one liners.

Larry Hryb: So there you go.

Jeff Rubenstein: All right.

Larry Hryb: What else? You got some news!

Jeff Rubenstein: There is news.

Larry Hryb: Wanna go through some news?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. So, we introduced the new Xbox Game Bar this week.

Larry Hryb: Yes. On Windows 10.

Jeff Rubenstein: On Windows 10. So if you are gaming on Windows 10, as we are, whether it's Xbox Play Anywhere titles, of which there are many, or you're just doing other gaming, there are lot of features for gamers. If you previously hit Windows G before this week, you would have a little strip of things there where you could start to record or you could do whatever, but now-

Larry Hryb: It was a bar.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. There was a tremendous, customizable experience, that includes the features from that, but really in depth audio sliders, Spotify if you wanna do that, Larry just brought it up.

Larry Hryb: Just brought it up, Windows G. Got your friends list.

Jeff Rubenstein: Friends list.

Larry Hryb: Chat.

Jeff Rubenstein: The chat window. If you're broadcasting on Mixer, you can see that. LFG, Looking for Group. You put up there what you want up there in terms of overlays and you hit Windows G, it pops up and you have access to all that. Previously, if you wanted to party up, you would launch the Xbox app and you would toggle back and forth from the game, and it worked. But this is a much more seamless-

Larry Hryb: Try it out.

Jeff Rubenstein: Expression of that.

Larry Hryb: There are some requirements though.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: You need to do certain things. Can we put a link in?

Jeff Rubenstein: I'm gonna do that, yeah, just so none of that stuff is lost. But the insiders, all you guys really helped us develop this and hone this and refine this, and so we thank you and-

Larry Hryb: That is fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: We think you'll enjoy this.

Larry Hryb: And just look at the animation the design team did.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah. And there's a really cool animated GIF. Gif, jif, I'm doing this again. We were talking about this, that would make a really good shirt.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: And so we'll link out to that. And you should try it out. It's literally just a key stroke away.

Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Links below.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, putting it in now.

Larry Hryb: Well, if you're listening on SoundCloud or wherever on YouTube, head over to my blog at majornelson.com, that's where the link is.

Jeff Rubenstein: You'll see it, you'll see it. Another update-

Larry Hryb: What you got?

Jeff Rubenstein: That ended up ... We actually just, slightly before recording, Kareem Choudhry, who is the Corporate Vice President of Gaming Cloud-

Larry Hryb: Love talking to him, I love talking to him.

Jeff Rubenstein: Hey, you've gotten to interview him on Inside Xbox in the past?

Larry Hryb: Yeah, I actually was just talking to him last week about some stuff. It's fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: So he is in charge of Project XCloud and now he's talking turkey. We've talked ... You've seen some demos-

Larry Hryb: Yup.

Jeff Rubenstein: We've had and we've talked sort of theoretically ... We're showing off actually what the servers look like and the fact that there's these, what do you call them, blades?

Larry Hryb: Yup.

Jeff Rubenstein: That serve up the games.

Larry Hryb: I've held one.

Jeff Rubenstein: Really?

Larry Hryb: Yeah, I've seen one. I was down there. I have pictures-

Jeff Rubenstein: Cradle it?

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Cause you have to put on, well, the gloves I'm sure, cause you have to put on the full hazmat suit?

Larry Hryb: No, no, they had a sample one out, I was playing ... I can't really talk about it, but it was really cool. I'll tell you off, off.

Jeff Rubenstein: All right, all right.

Larry Hryb: I'll tell you off mic.

Jeff Rubenstein: Well, what you held is now across 13 Azure Regions in North America, Asia, and Europe. Capcom, we're working with Capcom, we're working with Paradox Interactive, those are a couple of our development teams that have been mentioned. I'll link out to this, but it's interesting, it's exciting to see, probably not a ton of game developers listening to the show, but then again-

Larry Hryb: You never know.

Jeff Rubenstein: You never know.

Larry Hryb: I bet you there are.

Jeff Rubenstein: But, we're basically talking about how game developers don't really have to make changes or modifications in order to empower their games for XCloud.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, optimizing.

Jeff Rubenstein: So what does that ultimately mean?

Larry Hryb: What does it mean?

Jeff Rubenstein: That means it's gonna be a lot of games.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: And so just reading here, it means Project XCloud has the technical capability to stream more than 3500 games without changes or modifications. Well, that sounds pretty good. And they also mention another 1900 games are in development for Xbox One, all of which could run on Project XCloud.

Larry Hryb: Woo!

Jeff Rubenstein: So, right now, we're testing internally. Yeah, you and I have the ability to fire it up if we need to.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah. I've ... Yes. That's all I'll say.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's all we can say. But that's ... It's just really cool. So I'm gonna link out to that-

Larry Hryb: Please do.

Jeff Rubenstein: If you're interested in Project XCloud.

Larry Hryb: Everybody else is.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's not a long read. Yes, it's well worth your time to take a look at that.

Larry Hryb: Fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: And we'll link over to that on, of course, majornelson.com.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Let's talk about games, Larry.

Larry Hryb: Well, we just did. Oh, games coming up ... Games out?

Jeff Rubenstein: Games that have come out, that are coming out.

Larry Hryb: Yes. Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: That are included-

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: With Xbox Game Pass.

Larry Hryb: Best deal in gaming.

Jeff Rubenstein: They're really outdoing themselves. So May and into June ... So we announced a few weeks ago a bunch of games coming in May.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Now it's like, "We weren't done. You didn't think we were done?"

Larry Hryb: What? No.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, just a couple days ago we talked about more games coming so I'll just rattle them off. Metal Gear Survive, Banner Saga and Banner Saga 2. These are-

Larry Hryb: I remember you playing those.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I beat the first Banner Saga and I'm about halfway through Banner Saga 2. It's a strategy RPG where you make a lot of decisions.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And let me just tell you, the decisions you make ... This isn't like they're fake decisions and it doesn't really matter. They make a huge difference-

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: In how the game ends up and then it carries over. And at the end of Banner Saga 1, I made a decision that I still regret to this day because I ended up resulting in the death of a character-

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And as soon as you pick up in Banner Saga 2-

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: You have the ability to ... You can either have the quote unquote canon ending or you can pull in all your decisions. And I had to live with what I had done in a previous game and it was just devastating-

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I still feel that way. Has a cool animated look and this is some tough strategy stuff. So if you like a NSRPG, this is definitely one for you. And yet at the same time-

Larry Hryb: And who doesn't?

Jeff Rubenstein: They do make the achievements rain. So highly recommend, these are not 80 hour games, these are narrative driven and you can play through it, I'm not gonna throw a number out there, but-

Larry Hryb: They're manageable.

Jeff Rubenstein: They're manageable. This isn't something where you need to set aside-

Larry Hryb: It isn't a massive time ... Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: Three months. And really good writing, really good animation, really enjoyable. It's a game that I was fortunate enough to get to be the first to utter publicly, Void Bastards.

Larry Hryb: I remember that. You did [XO 00:19:20].

Jeff Rubenstein: That was at XO.

Larry Hryb: XO in Mexico City.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. And I got to play the game at GDC and the game is coming out next week.

Larry Hryb: Woo!

Jeff Rubenstein: And it's coming out directly into Xbox Game Pass. So this is a, again, really cool animated ... Reminded me a little bit of Futurama a bit, but it's a FPS Rogue Like and there's just a lot of interesting stuff happening here. And if you have Game Pass, and of course you do-

Larry Hryb: You do.

Jeff Rubenstein: You'll get to try it out on day one for free.

Jeff Rubenstein: Dead by Daylight, that is coming out. Super Hot. Remember Super Hot?

Larry Hryb: Yeah, I like that game.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's a really good game.

Larry Hryb: Where you have to make your shots-

Jeff Rubenstein: Nothing moves until you move.

Larry Hryb: Right, nothing moves until you move.

Jeff Rubenstein: So it's as much a puzzle-

Larry Hryb: It's a weird, 3D puzzle, FPS.

Jeff Rubenstein: Puzzle shooter. There's a multiplayer RPG for Metal Furies that's coming. And then, another game that's coming out, brand new, debuting directly into Xbox Game Pass, literally the day after Void Bastards-

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: May 30th, is Outer Wilds. And this game looks really cool. You're journeying through an entire solar system, but you're on land, you can go up into space, it's like a space exploration, story drive puzzle. You have a jet pack, you have to have jet packs.

Larry Hryb: Jet packs, yeah-

Jeff Rubenstein: You want a jet pack.

Larry Hryb: Jet packs make everything better.

Jeff Rubenstein: So this just looks really good, there's a great trailer. I'm gonna link to the trailer.

Larry Hryb: Please.

Jeff Rubenstein: Cause there was a really good one that they released earlier this week and I'm really excited to be playing this. And the fact that I already own it because-

Larry Hryb: What's wrong with that?

Jeff Rubenstein: Because I have Xbox Game Pass, it's coming to me. And so-

Larry Hryb: You already own it.

Jeff Rubenstein: You know, we don't have time!

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: I'm gonna have to make the time. Because both Void Bastards and Outer Wilds are definitely worth your time, as well as Dead By Daylight, which a lot of people like. And I need to finish Banner Saga 2. There's just so much to play Larry.

Larry Hryb: There always is.

Jeff Rubenstein: So much to play.

Larry Hryb: There always is. Especially when you have Game Pass.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Endless plays.

Jeff Rubenstein: Endless amount of play. Another game, came out this week, it's free, by Epic Games-

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: You may have heard of them.

Larry Hryb: Our friends at Epic.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. May have heard of the old Fortnite.

Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jeff Rubenstein: What they did with the Jordans, by the way, those Air Jordan 1s, did you see this? Did I talk to you about-?

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: But it ... Not just the Jordans in the game.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: So there's a couple of Jordan 1s-

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: That are dropping-

Larry Hryb: Are these the 1997 ones?

Jeff Rubenstein: These are, no, go 1985-

Larry Hryb: You know those. You know those.

Jeff Rubenstein: These are the Jordan 1s-

Larry Hryb: I had a pair of those.

Jeff Rubenstein: You had the Jordan 97s?

Larry Hryb: Who wouldn't?

Jeff Rubenstein: Which ones were those? Well, anyway, we'll come back to it-

Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:21:50] I misread you. Apologies.

Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway. Air Max 97, those were pretty hot.

Larry Hryb: Those were the ones.

Jeff Rubenstein: That seems like more your style, low top. So they're in the game, but then in real life, there's some really cool ones coming out where they scuff ... They come out tomorrow, Saturday, as we're recording this-

Larry Hryb: The drop is-

Jeff Rubenstein: The drop, you got to cop the drop.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Or take an L. Anyway. If they scuff, they reveal another layer of color. So you actually, normally you want to keep your shoes pristine. You scuff them, you might as well throw them out.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: These, you actually want to wear them. And, anyway, you can buy the ... You are able to, if you had played the Air Jordan mode, the Jump Man mode in Fortnite, you would reveal a spray which then you can scan using your sneakers app and it would do an AR thing and that would unlock the shoe and you could get it ahead of time. Isn't that ... I mean, that just blows my mind.

Larry Hryb: It's advertising.

Jeff Rubenstein: It is. But it hits ... It doesn't feel like advertising when it's all a bunch of stuff I like.

Larry Hryb: Yup. Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, anyway, really cool. Anyway, Epic Games. They have a game, an MMO, called Dauntless.

Larry Hryb: Uh-huh.

Jeff Rubenstein: That just came out on Xbox One, for free, this week. Hearing some good things. You slay these giant monsters so, obviously, it's Epic Games. This is gonna be a very well-developed-

Larry Hryb: Quality.

Jeff Rubenstein: Game. So I'm definitely ... Where I'm gonna find time to work another, an MMO into my life, I don't know, but this is one that I think is ... I at least wanna try. I hear it feels really good.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: Here's another one. Team Sonic Racing.

Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Sonic Team Racing. This is newer.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, we had it on this week on Xbox this week.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. So that is coming out. Sonic is also trending worldwide for some reason right now. So, well, anyway. That is out now and that is-

Larry Hryb: Sonic? Just Sonic?

Jeff Rubenstein: Well, it's Team Sonic.

Larry Hryb: Cause it could be a hamburger.

Jeff Rubenstein: It could. Or they do really interesting soft drinks as well.

Larry Hryb: Yes, they do.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's a really [crosstalk 00:23:49] I have not had lunch-

Larry Hryb: It's a place here in the United States.

Jeff Rubenstein: Don't derail me.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, sorry.

Jeff Rubenstein: Don't derail me. So here's a game I think you were trying out. The Dragon's Lair trilogy.

Larry Hryb: That's right, that's right, that's right, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Tell me.

Larry Hryb: I haven't tried it out yet.

Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.

Larry Hryb: I was like, "I have to try this out" to see how it's gonna compare, because we all remember the old Dragon's Lair, which is one of the original. It's a Don Bluth animation-

Jeff Rubenstein: Yup.

Larry Hryb: Don Bluth used to work at Disney, and remember that, and he did-

Jeff Rubenstein: He did Secret of Nimh-

Larry Hryb: And American Tale.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah.

Larry Hryb: And it was one of the original disc-

Jeff Rubenstein: Laser discs.

Larry Hryb: Laser disc games, right, video disc games.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's from the 90s, right?

Larry Hryb: Oh God, late 80s, early 90s. It's definitely something I wanna check out.

Jeff Rubenstein: I just remember it was really expensive-

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: To play in the arcade.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And now you can just own it, all three of them, for 20 bucks.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, I think we might've had it before, in previous generations. If there's a generation, there's a Dragon's Lair.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, and just another game I just want to point out real quickly. This is more of a indie game and priced according from Curve Digital, American Fugitive. It reminds me of ... You remember the ... When people think of Grand Theft Auto-

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: They think of ... They really mean Grand Theft Auto 3 and beyond.

Larry Hryb: And beyond, right.

Jeff Rubenstein: When it fully went 3D. But the first two Grand Theft Autos were top down affairs.

Larry Hryb: Right, right.

Jeff Rubenstein: But it was still open world. And I remember playing it and it was still revelatory at that time cause there wasn't a game like it.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: But then when GTA 3 came out, it ... I mean, we were not ready. Well, anyway, American Fugitive seems like if you were to remake one of GTA 1 and 2 in the modern era, what would that look like. So it's still mostly top down, isometric-

Larry Hryb: I'll tell you what it would look like!

Jeff Rubenstein: It would look a lot like American Fugitive.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, looks interesting, looks worth your ... worth a shot. I haven't played it yet, but it definitely caught my eye, so I wanted to pass that on to you.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Check it out, take a look. And a couple other games coming out next week. Layers of Fear 2, this looks really scary. You're playing as a Hollywood actor who heeds the call of an enigmatic director to take the lead of a film shoot aboard an ocean liner. They're alone.

Larry Hryb: My heart will go on. That's Titanic, it could be.

Jeff Rubenstein: It could be.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein: It could be. The goal is to find the heart of the ocean. Cricket 19, I know you're a big cricket fan.

Larry Hryb: I don't actually know that game. I want to, but I just don't understand it.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's like baseball, but-

Larry Hryb: But not.

Jeff Rubenstein: But an inning lasts forever.

Larry Hryb: But it takes two weeks to play.

Jeff Rubenstein: And ever and ever and they bounce the ball. Anyway. And you can hit it in any direction. That's out next week, it is Xbox One XEnhanced. Outer Wilds, like we had mentioned. War Hammer Chaos Bane, this one is Xbox One XEnhanced and you can play it solo or up to four people in local or online co-op. And Hick's Ark, another Xbox One XEnhanced game, which is ... There's a purple dragon, so I immediately think of Spyro. So except it's more pixel-y.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And then another RPG. Actually, an RPG, action strategy, card battler, also Xbox One XEnhanced, thank you very much. Gollum Gates, and that will be out on May 31st. And then one game that became available for pre-order, this weekend, which I'm very much looking forward to-

Larry Hryb: Which one?

Jeff Rubenstein: Bloodstained Ritual of the Night.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: So this Igarashi, Igarashi-san, who is the creator of Castlevania. And actually I think there was a Castlevania ... The original three games have been remastered recently and been re-released.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: I love me some Castlevania 2 and 3. So this is sort of the spiritual successor. These guys released an amazing trailer, cause we've been hearing about this game for a while. And it was first revealed, I don't remember exactly when, but people had a lot of feedback, let's say, on the game, and they took that feedback and they enhanced it and made it look ... They've owned up to not meeting the expectations of certain fans in a very hilarious way in the trailer, which I will link out to. And, anyway, now it's looking better than ever, and it's out on June 17th, so really, shortly after we get back from E3, this is what I'll be jumping into. And it's coming out and you can pre-order it now.

Larry Hryb: Yay!

Jeff Rubenstein: Last thing, we mentioned Avalanche-

Larry Hryb: We did mention it.

Jeff Rubenstein: We mentioned Just Cause. Just Cause 4 actually just released a big spring update that improved everything from the world's lighting, add more things to do, improve the combat AI, there's new mobile chaos objects, destructible metal train bridges, you're gonna be able to blow more stuff up than ever.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And you like to do that.

Larry Hryb: Well, who doesn't? That's what Just Cause is all about.

Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, you've got tornadoes. Anyway, it's always good to see a developer continue to support their game and make it better-

Larry Hryb: Post launch.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, yes, that's what the developers of Just Cause 4 have done for you, the gamer.

Larry Hryb: All right, you ready?

Jeff Rubenstein: For?

Larry Hryb: The big ... Well, it's on now, it ends Tuesday. The big [Back Compat 00:28:57] sale.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yes.

Larry Hryb: All the games.

Jeff Rubenstein: The biggest ever.

Larry Hryb: Like ... It's just ... Go look at this, it's ... Go to my blog, majornelson.com, and pinned at the top is the blog post that has all of the details on it, all the sales, but just go check it out for yourself. But if you wanna go revisit some classics, and own them digitally, now is the time, my friend, now is the time.

Jeff Rubenstein: And there's stuff in there that's been enhanced for Xbox One X.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: They're better than ever.

Larry Hryb: Yup.

Jeff Rubenstein: You're gonna want to get on that.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: There's now, I think I was reading, something near to 560-

Larry Hryb: There is, there is.

Jeff Rubenstein: 360 games, more than 360 games-

Larry Hryb: Way more.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's just amazing.

Larry Hryb: It's extraordinary.

Jeff Rubenstein: The team has done-

Larry Hryb: They're still churning them out. I mean, I love those guys and girls, they are some smart cookies down there.

Jeff Rubenstein: Well, thank you.

Larry Hryb: Thank you. Oh- [crosstalk 00:29:46]

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Yes, that's all the news I've got. Isn't that enough for you?

Larry Hryb: Well, it is. I mean, we're headed into E3, we talked about-

Jeff Rubenstein: Which is two weeks away.

Larry Hryb: Two weeks away. We got a lot going on. You can join us virtually or in person, for those of you that are going to Fan Festival, we'll look forward to seeing you.

Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry Hryb: We have a lot in store. So we're not gonna do a show next week. We're able to do one this week, Jeff was traveling, so we couldn't get in. But he and I-

Jeff Rubenstein: Just put it on me.

Larry Hryb: He and-

Jeff Rubenstein: What we wanted to get in the studio-

Larry Hryb: I know.

Jeff Rubenstein: And at least talk a little bit because we hadn't been in so long.

Larry Hryb: So there you go.

Jeff Rubenstein: Here we are.

Larry Hryb: All right.

Jeff Rubenstein: Anything else? Look, it was mostly me talking-

Larry Hryb: No, but you-

Jeff Rubenstein: And this is Major Nelson radio.

Larry Hryb: No, it is, but it's more of a ... It's a royal Major Nelson ... It's we, it's we. Now if you have any questions, feel free to hit us up on Twitter, at majornelson, you have any complaints you hit it up, at jeffrubenstein.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, always.

Larry Hryb: Always.

Jeff Rubenstein: I love your complaints.

Larry Hryb: You know what I'm working on?

Jeff Rubenstein: No.

Larry Hryb: I got this ... This is in the quasi-gadgets section, I have a new washlet for my house.

Jeff Rubenstein: Go on.

Larry Hryb: For those of you who don't know, Jeff and I-

Jeff Rubenstein: We love our fancy toilets.

Larry Hryb: Independently, we have fallen in love with the plumbing in Japan.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's a wonderful country and that's the piece you can bring home with you.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, it sure is. So I have [Kohler 00:31:03], which is an American company, I believe they're an American company, they have sent me one of their washlets and I have been testing that. I'll post some photos.

Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.

Larry Hryb: It's quite, quite fancy as you would imagine.

Jeff Rubenstein: Can I come over and try it?

Larry Hryb: Yeah, absolutely!

Jeff Rubenstein: I would love to do that.

Larry Hryb: You can go bounce between the three different toilets.

Jeff Rubenstein: Look, I just wanna see it.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's one of those things where I invite people over and I'm like "Please, here's a magazine-"

Larry Hryb: "Here's the instructions."

Jeff Rubenstein: "Here's some nice music-"

Larry Hryb: "Here's the instructions."

Jeff Rubenstein: "I'm gonna leave you alone. See you later, have fun."

Larry Hryb: Yeah. Highly recommend it, it's-

Jeff Rubenstein: It should be part of the Kohler-Toto influencer program.

Larry Hryb: We absolutely are, for Pete's sakes!

Jeff Rubenstein: That's our ... This is an unpaid endorsement.

Larry Hryb: We have to ... You have to understand how important this is.

Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like your life improves.

Larry Hryb: Significantly.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I want you-

Larry Hryb: I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to, and this is a little bit inside baseball, can I tell you?

Jeff Rubenstein: How very inside?

Larry Hryb: Can I tell you?

Jeff Rubenstein: Go.

Larry Hryb: Cause you went through this, you have walked this path. I'm looking forward to teaching my daughter how to use it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

Larry Hryb: So, she's not quite there yet, but she will be.

Jeff Rubenstein: No, it's our duty as fathers-

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: To make sure our daughters have a better life-

Larry Hryb: Right, right.

Jeff Rubenstein: Than we had growing up.

Larry Hryb: And they can carry on this mantle that we have decided to take up. All right, I think let's end it on that note.

Jeff Rubenstein: A note we ... I guess if you've been listening to the show this long, you expect it.

Larry Hryb: Now, just a quick programming note. We talked about it, we talked about the briefing, which is Sunday.

Jeff Rubenstein: Sunday, June 9th.

Larry Hryb: Sunday, June 9th. We will be doing Inside Xbox. Should we tell folks when we're doing that?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. We're doing it on Monday.

Larry Hryb: Monday. I don't know what the time is.

Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know either.

Larry Hryb: I should be ... Let me just double check. Do you have it in front of you?

Jeff Rubenstein: Looks like other people have been searching for it because it auto-filled on the search engine. I don't think we have issued the time.

Larry Hryb: All I know is it's Monday.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yup.

Larry Hryb: So it's Monday, the day after our briefing. We'll have an Inside Xbox, which is I'll be on the show, Jeff will be on the show, the rest of the cast of characters will be on the show. We'll talk about-

Jeff Rubenstein: I can't wait to get out there.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: I haven't been on in a while, so it'll be fun.

Larry Hryb: And, and, I think later, Wednesday, two days later? We're doing our show, this show, Major Nelson Radio on Mixer.

Jeff Rubenstein: So they know what we get to do?

Larry Hryb: What?

Jeff Rubenstein: Is we gotta play a bunch of games so we can talk about it.

Larry Hryb: Well I'm gonna see who we can get on for guests. I think I got one of those guests we talked about earlier, I think I'll try to get that person.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh.

Larry Hryb: Right?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, that would be great.

Larry Hryb: I'll try to get that person.

Jeff Rubenstein: That would be great.

Larry Hryb: So, we'll see.

Jeff Rubenstein: I can't wait. I'm so excited.

Larry Hryb: We're excited, you know what, we are just-

Jeff Rubenstein: Next two weeks are just gonna fly by.

Larry Hryb: Yup. So, we're gonna wrap it up cause we gotta get ready. Thank you for listening, downloading the show and listening to it. Again, hit me on Twitter at majornelson. You can hit the blog at majornelson.com to find out more details, a lot of what Jeff talked about. And then Jeff they can find you on social where?

Jeff Rubenstein: At jeffrubenstein.

Larry Hryb: Now what about your ... Do you have an Instagram for your shoe collection?

Jeff Rubenstein: It's the same thing.

Larry Hryb: Oh, it is.

Jeff Rubenstein: At ... [inaudible 00:33:58]

Larry Hryb: If you really like Asian food and shoes-

Jeff Rubenstein: Coffee, coffee, coffee.

Larry Hryb: Jeff's the man. Coffee?

Jeff Rubenstein: Please say coffee.

Larry Hryb: And coffee.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so there you go. I love me some coffee.

Larry Hryb: All right gang, we'll see you in a few weeks at E3. Thank you and get ready. Bye-bye everybody!

Jeff Rubenstein: Bye!