579: The latest Xbox news and we discuss spiders.

Larry: (Music) Welcome to the Show. My name is Larry Hyrb, Xbox live's Major Nelson. That is, uh, is right ... As we record this, it is Friday, September 16th. We are now halfway through the month of September and, uh, 2016. Joining me the studio is, uh, Mr. Jeff Rubenstein, Gamertag Rubes, hello Jeffery.

Jeff: That was an oddly specific timestamp. You went back into full radio DJ.

Larry: I did, I did. It's currently, uh, 11:26, 26 minutes after 11, out of the traffic with Jeff. Out of traffic with Jeff in the sky, Jeff how are things looking?

Jeff: Oh my god, the 405 is disaster.

Larry: It's dragging. This weather, this traffic report is brought to you by, insert local business here. Anyway, nice to see you, man.

Jeff: Yeah.

Larry: Laura, as you probably figured out is she is still my ... Boy she is so bus-

Jeff: She keeps us in line.

Larry: She is so busy. She's like, 'Oh, I can't do today,' and I feel bad because she ... she really loves doing the show with us and for all the listeners, but her schedule is just, it's unmanageable.

Jeff: She has a real job.

Larry: It's unmanageable. Yeah. We uh ... (laughing)

Jeff: We talk about the things people like her do.

Larry: Yeah, yeah. She's ... That's what ... You know, she's ... She's incredibly smart, and, you know, you, long time listeners of the show know the talent that she brings to both the software and the show.

Jeff: It's good there's more of hers, than people like us.

Larry: That's right. That's right. Uh, anyway!

Jeff: The right proportion.

Larry: Um, we're here, we're going to talk about what we're playing, things that are going on, lot of releases this week, some news ...

Jeff: I'm trying to coal down the list to just the highlights, and it's already at, like, 10 games.

Larry: Yeah. It's, it's kind of ridiculous, you know, I'm playing ... I finished Deus Ex, uh ...

Jeff: Congrats, man.

Larry: Thank you. Uh ...

Jeff: I'm way behind you.

Larry: I don't think you are, are you?

Jeff: Uh, yeah. I'm doing every side mission, and I love that game, I'm so into that game, I've built out Adam Jensen is a walking super soldier even though I'm playing non- lethal, if anyone crosses the line, you know, I feel like I will hulk out on them, and they will-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Just not know what happened.

Larry: Right. Okay.

Jeff: In the meantime I'm just sneaking around, hacking. Hacking computers.

Larry: Yeah. I'm hacking a lot of e-mails.

Jeff: Reading e-mails. Like, real life me. You know.

Larry: I'm uh, I'm having a good time with that, but, you know, like I say, finished it, it opened up the next, I guess I can play ... Go back and play the game and it's a different mode.

Jeff: Oh!

Larry: So-

Jeff: Yeah, there's a couple of other modes, there's like a, some other-

Larry: Plus mode.

Jeff: Breach mode. Something else like that.

Larry: Yeah, there's a couple things like that. So Deus Ex, a lot of fun, really, uh, you know ... Adam Jensen is waiting for your return, just in case.

Jeff: Yes he is.

Larry: So, there you go, yes he is. So, so that's kind of what I'm up to, um, what are you, what are you ... I mean, that's really the only one I'm playing other than a little bit of Overwatch here and there.

Jeff: Yeah, you're still playing the Overwatch, aren't you? We had an epic match.

Larry: We did, do you want to talk about that?

Jeff: In ranked. Well, I, the thing ... I think this was just, we had the most perfect matchmaking where, we were playing in, uh, Lijiang Tower, is I think It's called-

Larry: Yes. Yep.

Jeff: And we went down, you know, pretty harshly on the first 2 rounds in a competitive.

Larry: I think it was, we went down first ... harshly in the first round, came back in the second, got destroyed in the third one.

Jeff: No, we were down two, two down.

Larry: Were we down? Okay, two down.

Jeff: And I remembered, this is going to be, because we only had time for, I only had time for one match. And I, and, and then we came back and won, like, 100 percent to 98 percent in the final round. That just gave ... That game is so well balanced, and I ... Ahh. D.Va now, after the rebalance they had about a month ago, she's lethal. I love it.

Larry: Right. Yeah.

Jeff: I love it.

Larry: So we had a good time with that, um, playing the Forza Horizon 3 demo-

Jeff: Oh.

Larry: It's out, available now on Xbox One, go download.

Jeff: That is a beautiful game. The soundtrack on that is exceptional.

Larry: Yeah, the soundtrack, the soundtrack is exceptional, it looks, I mean it looks extraordinarily beautiful, the whole game is coming out next week!

Jeff: Yes it is. Um-

Larry: Are you excited about that?

Jeff: You know it. That's a game, I think, Forza Horizon 2 was my, I don't think, was my favorite racing game in the last decade.

Larry: Was it?

Jeff: Since uh, Burnout Paradise!

Larry: I thought you were a, I thought you were a Gran Turismo guy?

Jeff: Well, you know, I was.

Larry: (laughing)

Jeff: But, you know. Wow, cutting right to the quick here, Larry!

Larry: (laughing) What?

Jeff: Uh, I'll just avoid saying anything that I'll have to read about later.

Larry: There was a, there was a, there was a good, that was a good franchise.

Jeff: Oh yeah! It's the reason I bought a PS2, back in the day.

Larry: Right? That was a good franchise.

Jeff: And, uh, absolutely. But, uh, uh, I love what Playground Games does, I love the open world, I love just being able to tear around the Outback, and it's just really fun.

Larry: You know, it's funny, is this is ... I, I, I streamed this the other night on Beam, and, um, I was noticing, because I was, I was booting the game up, and it's ... You know what I love about Playground, I love the, their splash screen where it goes into the dashboard-

Jeff: It's really good!

Larry: It's just it's one of those things-

Jeff: It makes, like that 'Ding ding ding-'

Larry: Yeah, it makes you smile.

Jeff: Yeah.

Larry: It just, it just instantly captures what the game and what the studio is all about.

Jeff: Key thing I'm liking about the game that I'm playing so far:

Larry: Yes.

Jeff: Uh, you can customize your license plate.

Larry: You can! What is yours?

Jeff: Uh, it's 'Gooner,' which is like, a-

Larry: What?

Jeff: Term for an arsenal fan, they're the gunners, and then presumably, with it, if it's processed through, like, some sort of, um, cockney accent, it comes out to like, Gooner. I don't know, it, it's funny because it's in a very affluent part of London.

Larry: I see.

Jeff: No one talks like that, but-

Larry: I see.

Jeff: Uh, anyway, that's what it is, and then I have a kangaroo on either side, because Australia.

Larry: Because Australia. My, my, my, my, my license plate is just fairly simplistic, it's just 'HRYB.'

Jeff: Like you do.

Larry: Right. Because that's, that's the beauty of my, my last name being just four letters, is it fits in a Halo 5 service tag, it fits all the ... it fits in a clan tag.

Jeff: We don't have time for no stinking vowels, while we're here.

Larry: Right. Just, just, just collapse it all, so anyways, so I'm playing that. You know what? By the way, I forgot to point out, I'm playing the Turing Test. Have you, have you played that?

Jeff: Oh yeah! Uh, yeah, I ... I played it at GDC but I haven't played it since.

Larry: Yeah, so I'm playing a little bit of that, um, and then the for Honor closed alpha, I'm going to check that out, uh, this weekend, that's happening.

Jeff: Nice.

Larry: So, that's what we're doing.

Jeff: So I've been, uh, I've been playing, uh, so, it's all about story mode, in sports games now.

Larry: Yes.

Jeff: So FIFA just came out and FIFA has the journey-

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: FIFA 17, um, which I'm very much looking forward to, uh, you follow a, a, a young man's journey, uh, as he's recruited by Manchester United.

Larry: Mm-hmm. (affirmative)

Jeff: And them, the ups and downs that presumably happen when you're a fabulously rich football player in, in England. Um, Pry more ups than downs, just, spoiler alert. But, um, I'm all about NBA 2K17's career mode.

Larry: He's back, ladies and gentlemen, you may remember him from last year, the NBA's hottest, hottest player, Jeffery Dean Camillionaire.

Jeff: 6'7, of un ... 240 pounds of undrafted power.

Larry: Now that ...

Jeff: So there's-

Larry: Or undraftable. (laughing)

Jeff: I'm, um, I'm like, 'You're not going to check too deeply, into my history, are you?' Um ...

Larry: So just to give a little context, uh, to, for those that listen to the show frequently know that you played the game last year, 2K17.

Jeff: 16 at that point.

Larry: 16, sorry. And uh-

Jeff: I didn't really-

Larry: You, it randomly, it randomly creates names, and yours was ...

Jeff: No, it doesn't! That's the thing.

Larry: I thought it recommended that!

Jeff: Well, no. Uh, although there was something that really cool that happens in Forza where it does, Ana, the, talks to you now.

Larry: Right.

Jeff: And it uses your name.

Larry: Right.

Jeff: So cool. Anyway, but, with NBA 2K, Kevin Harlan-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Who had the most amazing play-call of all time, we'll get back to this in a second, um, they had him, and, and, all of the play by play and commentary folks record names.

Larry: Right.

Jeff: So, you can ... And a wide variety of names, so I wanted to, you know, take advantage of some of this stuff, my kid happened to be there while I was making my name, she was like, 'Use your name!' And so I go down to Jeff and Jeff is in there, presumably for, like, you know, Jeff Green or some actual Jeff Teague, some real NBA player, um, but then under it was Jeffery Dean. I'm assuming for Jefferey Dean- Morgan.

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Um, who has some time in the NBA, that I don't know. Um, but he was in there, so I picked Jeffery Dean, and then for last name, uh, Camillionaire. Of course. So, um, you know, out of 6'7 out of, out of Villanova.

Larry: Right. Villanova Owls.

Jeff: Jeffery Dean Camillionaire has now re-entered, uh, no. Temple Owls versus the Black Cats.

Larry: Temple Owls. darn it, I blew it.

Jeff: It's all right. Uh, yeah. There's five teams you fill in. Nassau-

Larry: (laughing)

Jeff: And we, we don't need to get Penn, we don't need ... Drexel would be the last one.

Larry: Drexel, that's right.

Jeff: Drexel Dragons. Had a couple friends that went there. Anyway, um, big fan. Kevin Harlan is the com, is the commentator for, for 2K, and is amazing, this is the best, I think it's the best commentary in, in the history of sports games, is, is how well they put that together.

Larry: Right.

Jeff: And, and his level of excitement. But he had the most amazing play-call that took place during the, I think it was the Sunday night game or the Monday night game between the Rams, the first Rams game-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: And the harland-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: And, and an inebriated gentleman ran out onto the field.

Larry: Mm-hmm. (affirmative)

Jeff: Which happens from time to time, and usually they'll just cut away, they don't want to give that person any extra attention, but, uh, Kevin Harlan does the radio calls on West wood 1.

Larry: Mm-hmm. (affirmative)

Jeff: And his call, his radio call, I have to play it for you, is-

Larry: Can you link to this?

Jeff: Oh, absolutely.

Larry: Okay.

Jeff: One of the most amaz-

Larry: Is it legendary?

Jeff: It is a legendary call, it is up there with, 'I can't believe what I just saw!' Or whatever, or 'Oh, the humanity!'

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Kevin Harlan's intoxicated guy on the field in Levi Stadium.

Larry: (laughing)

Jeff: We'll link to it. I, I was blown away.

Larry: You know, Don't say any more, just go listen to it, it'll be in the show- notes.

Jeff: Bringing it back, eventually, this is what happens.

Larry: Yeah. Laura's keeping us [crosstalk 00:08:59]

Jeff: This is, this is what happens when Laura is not here. Uh, so, 2K17, I love the, I love this, uh, you know, the create a player mode, the my player mode. If you want to try it out for free, you can do that. There is a, um, essentially it's not a demo, you actually get to play through the first couple of hours of my player where you, you go through college and, uh, I made it to the national semi- finals and lost, and create your player and all this stuff using an app, uh, on your phone. There's a thousand gamerscore up for grabs.

Larry: Yeah there is.

Jeff: And, so I recommend you go after it, and if you love it, like I do, then NBA 2K17 is actually out now.

Larry: Right.

Jeff: And then you can, you can, it leaves off at a great point where it's like, 'Oh, I can't wait to pick up the, the final game, which, uh, I guess I'll be doing this weekend.

Larry: Yes.

Jeff: But, um, highly recommend you play NBA 2K17 the prelude.

Larry: Yes.

Jeff: Um, so yeah. That and I've been playing a lot of Recore, which, uh, [crosstalk 00:09:48]

Larry: Oh, that's right! Recore, of course, Recore is the very first play anywhere ... Xbox play anywhere title out this week, if you bought it on your console, you have a Windows 10 version available at no additional cost or vice- versa, if you bought it on Windows, you get the Xbox version at no additional cost.

Jeff: Yes sir. Um, so yeah, I've been enjoying that, actually jumping back and forth between my ASUS Republic of Gamers laptop and on the Xbox depending on what's free, um, does look great.

Larry: Right.

Jeff: In, in, on the [crosstalk 00:10:12]

Larry: So check out, check out Recore, in fact I've given, I gave some Recores away on a free code Friday recently, I think it was today, yesterday, recording this.

Jeff: Very good. So that's what I'm playing. Get ... Man, this has been a good gamerscore month, like, I need to look at the scoreboard and see where I am, you know, next to Xbox Quick.

Larry: Yeah, he's still, I just looked at it, he's at the top. Uh, the other thing to point out is another release is, uh, is we have the Witness!

Jeff: Oh my God, yes!

Larry: So, yeah, if you want to go ahead and do releases, it's, it's been crazy.

Jeff: But the Witness, on Xbox One-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Jonathan Blow, he put together a good, uh, blog post on tips and, and the, the key thing that I took that ran on Xbox Wire, the key thing I would take away from that, is, if you're stumped, you don't, it's not a linear game where you have to do one goal-

Larry: Go away, yeah.

Jeff: And then the next one, next one, go somewhere else, wander off on an island, solve something else, and then come back. Um, it, you don't want to ruin, like, the, the um, that, that satisfaction you get when you, when you finally crack a hard puzzle and then like, all of a sudden it like, slips into place. Because it's one of those things that's like, looking at a, a 3D puzzle or something, where it doesn't work, it doesn't work-

Larry: Go away and come back.

Jeff: And when you see it, exactly.

Larry: Yeah just go away and come back.

Jeff: So here's a pro tip my neighbor uses.

Larry: Ah, yes.

Jeff: So he's got a service-

Larry: it's called the internet. (laughing)

Jeff: The pro tip of when, if you want to do it the right way, and figure it out, but here's a great tool. So a lot of the puzzles are based around sort of like, drawing the right way throughout kind of like a complicated maze and then it sort of levels up from there and just sliding these switches. Um, he will take a photo with his surface, with the rear camera, and then he will-

Larry: Use a pencil and sketch it?

Jeff: Then use a pen and sketch over it. And, and then, 'Oh, that doesn't work.' Erase, and try again and try again. So, like, he's, he's got-

Larry: Yeah, but you don't ... I mean that's cool, but you don't need ... it's not like you're getting points for finishing it quicker, right?

Jeff: No, well, it's just, it's, it makes it easier to figure out as opposed to ... Because this is a game where you really, you kind of need a pad and paper-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Sometimes to work out some of the complicated stuff. Because it's not like you can just sort of ... I mean, there's ... Here and there, you can guess, but really, a lot of times it's very complex and-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: It's easier to really, to just draw it, and so that's what he's been doing. You can do that on your phone as well, or whatever it is. Take a picture of that, that, the puzzle screen and then sort of sketch it out that way, and then you figure it out and then you do it.

Larry: Right.

Jeff: That's, that's my pro tip.

Larry: Well that's a, that's a good one, and so what else, you know, why don't you just, segway into the releases and since you said it is just ... We are release-tastic!

Jeff: It is, it is crazy. So we talked about Recore out this week, NBA 2K17 now out, um, Minecraft Story Mode, a journey's end, episode 8 is now available for Xbox and Windows 10.

Larry: You know what came out last week, since we didn't have a show last week?

Jeff: What?

Larry: Halo 5 Forge.

Jeff: Oh, that's right!

Larry: Right?

Jeff: Again, another thousand gamerscore ready for you for free!

Larry: No, listen to me. Listen to me, I'm telling you right now, Jeffery, we need to do that this weekend. We need to round up seven people. Apparently, there's an achievement-

Jeff: Yeah.

Larry: For playing with seven people on a custom game.

Jeff: And it's like a hundred gamerscore.

Larry: Yeah! It's like a hundred each! We should totally do that!

Jeff: Um, and, and I think the thing that-

Larry: Maybe I'll post in my Major Nelson group in the preview team, right?

Jeff: I think the thing to point out about Halo 5 Forge, it's not just the tool for creation, you can get in there with friends. If you're not interested in creating, and just sort of browsing the amazing creations, I saw, like a really cool, like, water park map that people have made, you can just get in there and play with folks. So if you've got a Windows 10, uh, a Windows 10 computer and you can run it, um, and you can just look in the store, it's a free download, get in there, and actually play some Halo on a computer.

Larry: Mm-hmm. (affirmative)

Jeff: That's kind of great.

Larry: What else we've got?

Jeff: Uh, so Just Sing, this is a good party game.

Larry: Yeah!

Jeff: It is out, the singing compatible, or singing companion to Just Dance, uh, I mentioned EA Sports FIFA 17, they also have a downloadable demo that includes the beginning of their career mode, the journey. Some-

Larry: And, and, and NHL came out last week.

Jeff: Yeah. NHL, is it, man, you're way ahead of me.

Larry: Sorry.

Jeff: The Witness, we talked about. Bioshock collection! On the Xbox One.

Larry: Oh, I streamed that the other night. Boy, did it look good.

Jeff: (sighs) I think-

Larry: You know-

Jeff: Go on.

Larry: Did I ... I don't know if I ever told you this story, the first time I saw that game. So the first time I ever saw that game, or the trailer for it, um, I was in Barcelona, we were doing an Xbox event,

Jeff: [inaudible 00:14:06] It's already a better story than anything I've got with bio, with Bioshock.

Larry: And I'm standing ... It gets even better. I'm standing backstage talking to Peter Moore. So I'm talking to Peter, and we are backstage getting ready for our event, you know, because this was unveiled at our event. And I'm getting backstage and we're talking to them, and they're doing a technical rehearsal, and so we're behind the screen. So we're talking, and my ... I'm facing the screen and Peter's facing me and it starts playing. And Peter's talking to me and I 'Shh shh shh.' I said, 'I have to watch this.' Because I love Art Deco and I'm a scuba diver, so I was like, my eyes were growing wider and wider and wider, and I could not believe what I had seen. And then I got the chance, if you remember correctly, the demo for the game came out, it dropped on a Sunday night. And I had, it's when I used to post the podcast on a Sunday, and I had done an interview with, with, with Ken. We had lined it up so the podcast would drop with an interview with Ken and the demo all at the same time, it was just magical. It was magical! And then the game came out, and it was unbelievable.

Jeff: I thought you were saying, 'On the way back from Barcelona, the plane had engine trouble, so we went down near a light ... this crazy lighthouse in the middle of the ocean!'

Larry: No, no. It wasn't like that.

Jeff: Um, but show me your, show me your wrist tattoos, you're always covering your wrist.

Larry: Yes, I [crosstalk 00:15:12]

Jeff: No?

Larry: No.

Jeff: Uh, yeah, I remember that, being sold on that game back in like, 0, I guess early 06, they released like a vidoc just on water, and like, the tech they were using and all that-

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: And it was like, this is the most elaborate thing I've ever seen.

Larry: Yeah. And it looks ... I mean, it just, it just looks so good and, you know, I played it, I was streaming it the other night and just playing and I just stopped and you're like, 'Wow, this really, is just a classic game, it's kickass.'

Jeff: I'll know how much you get into it, is if, like, a week from now, you get a text, and, and it says 'Welcome to the circus of value!'

Larry: You know who that is? That's Ken!

Jeff: Shut up, really?

Larry: Yeah, it was something we talked about in many ... I don't think it was the interview, but he was ... We were talking about the circus of values, and he actually sent me, I have clean versions of those somewhere, I should, I should share them ... I think I've got them here! I think I might have them on this computer. But yeah, that's, he's the, he's the circus of value guy, so. Anyway. Uh, all right, what else do we have, Jeffery, I've got to go look for that audio, while you're, while you're, while you're-

Jeff: Yeah, of course, so Pac-Man Championship edition 2. Did you ever play the original Pac-Man Championship Edition?

Larry: Of course I did.

Jeff: So, yeah. It's, it's, it has the same tenants of Pac-Man, eat, eat, eat dots and, you know, um, but it's sort of like, uh, kind of like an endless runner in that the map is always scrolling and you're just moving- (music starts playing) Ooh.

Larry: Uh oh. I have some of the music. They gave me a clean version of the music, I do. Sorry. Oh, look at all this music I have here from them. This is, this is-

Jeff: You have to put that out there. (music playing)

Larry: Welcome to rapture. This is when you're going down, that big reveal moment.

Jeff: Yeah! Yep. You pass through.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: You're descending-

Larry: And the whales are going by.

Jeff: That's right.

Larry: Anyways, so, we've, I've got to find that. Anyway, go ahead, I'm sorry.

Jeff: Yeah, so anyway, Pac-Man Championship Edition, great, it's, it's a, a multiplayer playing at the same time.

Larry: Yep.

Jeff: Uh, also very good, sort of like, you don't ... You can play with people of all skill levels and have a great time, so, uh-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Definitely recommend that, and then Pro Evolution Soccer 2017, uh, different take on soccer from FIFA, um, it's got its' proponents as well, so, uh, you have a choice, in the soccer world.

Larry: All right.

Jeff: Choose wisely.

Larry: Choose wisely, there's, there's a lot going on in Xbox, and then of course, if you're on the preview program, we've got uh, we've, we've uh, put out uh, clubs and looking for groups LFG you heard on our last podcast, Scott and Mike talking about those, well those features are somewhat available, they're in the process, that's what we use the preview, uh team for, the preview program, it's kind of to help us test it out, so it's not feature complete, but it's getting there, and a lot ... You should see the traffic. Right now, Major Nelson, the Major Nelson club is the number two club on Xbox right now.

Jeff: Number two with a bullet.

Larry: Number two with a bullet. By the way-

Jeff: So what are you going to do? Like, uh, hold a big meetup with the group, or?

Larry: Well I think we may, I think we may, I mean, are you an admin of the group, did I make you an admin of the group?

Jeff: No you didn't.

Larry: I need to fix that.

Jeff: I think so.

Larry: Um, I just really wanted to use it as a central point for people to share information about different clubs, and share tips about, 'Hey, here's how you do ...' Anyways, so it's kind of cool. Here, here's the pro tip, though. A lot of people who aren't a preview program, they're confused because their main feed, if you go to the community section, um, it's more or less, uh, you know, it can be overrun with the croft of your club.

Jeff: (laughing) I'm just going to stop you right there.

Larry: They can! So the, they, the paradigm that we use on Xbox is very similar, you know, with clubs is very similar to the same with people and gamehubs. You follow them or unfollow them.

Jeff: Yep.

Larry: It's as simple as that. So when you unfollow a club, it won't, you don't, it doesn't remove your membership, it just makes that feed not appear in your main feed. You can always go read the whole feed. Are you a member of a club ... You're a member of a private club, aren't you?

Jeff: Uh, I am, and I am a member

Larry: I'm not invited.

Jeff: of the Major Nelson Club. Well, no, no. The club that I'm part of, it's just, it's just an internal team club.

Larry: Oh, it's not, it's not, it's not that, it's not that we are gamers footwear club?

Jeff: That's on Facebook.

Larry: Okay. (laughing)

Jeff: And we don't speak about it. The first rule of sneaker fight club is you do not talk about sneaker fight club.

Larry: Woops. (clears throat) Anyway, anyway, so uh, preview thank you everybody that's helping us out make preview, or, we've already updated it, we've added the ability to delete a club and some other stuff, I've got an FAQ that I'm working on that I'll post on my blog with details around what, you know, as we, as we, as we update, add, and change features moving forward, so.

Jeff: I can't wait to show you this, this, Kevin Harlan call- out from this game.

Larry: Really? Is, is it in the show notes?

Jeff: It is, it is in the shownotes. Yes.

Larry: Okay, thank you. Uh, yeah. This week's show is fairly quick because, like I say, Laura's not here, I've got a great interview lined up for next week, you know what comes out next week?

Jeff: Uh, besides, besides Forza?

Larry: Firewatch.

Jeff: That's right! Yeah.

Larry: Yeah, so I'm going to, I've got an interview with one of the guys from Firewatch lined up, so I'll be doing that, we're going to learn more about, uh ...

Jeff: I just want to correct myself, we keep saying Forza comes out next week-

Larry: It's Forza Horizon 3.

Jeff: For ... Well, yes. But it comes out on the 27th, although there's early access. So it's like, it's, it's different tiered stuff.

Larry: In fact, speaking of that, there is an event happening next week that I'll be going down to, uh, I think it's in LA, so I'll give you details on that, just follow me on Twitter and I'll give you details-

Jeff: And I'll just put the Forza details down there, too.

Larry: Yeah. Would you please? I've got a lot of events planned, I'm doing that, I'll be doing there was that, we, the coalition kind of teased a little bit, about they're doing a launch event which I will be involved with, so I'll be doing that, I don't know where it is, or what it is, but you know we'll be doing something big.

Jeff: Look, if it's a, it's a, if it's a Gears event, you're going to be there, you don't even need to know what your role is, you're going to-

Larry: Can we just talk about that? Can we talk about that? Because we haven't done a show since then.

Jeff: Okay.

Larry: So, for those of you who want to know what Jeff is making reference to, after our last show, was PAX Prime, Pax west, you know, in here in Seattle. Huge wait, a wonderful time at that, and I was asked to participate in two Gears events. The first one was arms race which, how would you explain arms race, Jeffery?

Jeff: Arms race, um, is, a, we've seen, sort of, you've seen modes in some shooters where you start off with, like, a handgun, and then you move up and you move up and next everyone's firing around rocket launchers. And the way that ends up working is, whoever is the, you know, the most successful it actually gets easier for them. So arms race is the reverse of that. Everyone starts off with a boomshot.

Larry: Yeah. So powerful weapons-

Jeff: And they're just firing around, there's boomshots everywhere, and when you have a successful kill, it moves down and it moves down until everyone's running around with, I believe a Boltok, um, which is, you know, which is a great weapon, but it's a little harder to, to kill folks. So, and I think, at least the mode you were playing, you had to get through 13 weapons, and then once that's happened, whatever team has moved, and, and, it's funny, it's like, you have to get I think three kills per weapon as a team. So if, you know, you're firing boomshots and the third kill happens, you might be lining up a shot with a boomshot and all of a sudden you're, you're holding a lancer, or retro lancer, and it's like, 'Whoa, hey, that just changed really quickly.

So, um, it's, it's really, uh, it's kind of frantic, but then, it starts off crazy as everyone's firing rockets and heavy ordinance around the map, but then it gets more and more, uh, tense as it goes on as everyone's using smaller or more, uh, defenseless weapons where you, you know, you don't want to just run around.

Larry: Right. Right.

Jeff: So, you end up starting like, everyone's laughing, and 'Oh, look at that!' And then it gets real serious. And that's what happened in for the watch.

Larry: So we did that for the watch, and, you know, look Jeff, I like to be humble, but you know what? I did okay.

Jeff: You had a couple of good headshots on [inaudible 00:22:13], it worked out well.

Larry: Did okay, so, and then 24 hours later, we did the first to 50 event which was, we brought in two teams, right?

Jeff: Yeah, exactly, so they were captained by, uh, GoldGlove and Themstuff, two prominent YouTube and Twitch stars who are also huge gears of war fans.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: And so, we uh, we took them, they got to choose teams, and they both launched into horde on hardcore-

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: To see who could get to the 50th round first.

Larry: Yeah. So, and what happened there was, I was asked to shoutcast.

Jeff: Yes you were. Long time shoutcaster. (laughing) Here's what happened. As the teams were picked, a number of people that were on, on ... That were selected by the, like, like, GoldGlove ended up selecting Fallout who used to be a community manager over at the coalition, and he's, he's a great shoutcaster.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: In fact he shoutcasted uh, for the watch.

Larry: Right.

Jeff: But he was playing. So, all, a lot of the good shoutcasters were, were already taken [crosstalk 00:23:17]

Larry: So they brought in the not good shoutcaster and that would be me.

Jeff: Well, so here's the thing. You were pretty damn good, and that was a 6-hour broadcast with no commercials.

Larry: 6-hour broadcast and I want to point something out, uh, as I made no bones about uh, telling Jeffery. That was the first time ever I've done it. Certainly I've been around some of the best shoutcasting, uh, people in the business, and I've worked with many many many of them.

Jeff: I'm not going to lie, when I found out that that was your role, I was a little worried.

Larry: I was too!

Jeff: And yeah.

Larry: I'm not going to lie, I was like, 'You want me to what? Where? For When? How long? What?' I couldn't believe it, but, you know, I was up there with Rod Ferguson is the head of the, you know, coalition, and, you know, Rod is such a great guy anyway, and we, we, we did it. I've got to tell you we did it.

Jeff: It was very entertaining, because it's not just you speaking to the microphone which is what you're used to-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Everyone in the room hears you as well, so you're like, you know-

Larry: Wait a minute. Everybody heard, I didn't know that! I just thought it was out to the stream!

Jeff: No, are you serious? That's why it's called shoutcasting Larry, otherwise it's just commentary.

Larry: Yes, I, I, I had, but I had ... I had headphones on, I thought it was just going out to the stream!

Jeff: No, everybody could hear you in the entire room!

Larry: That, those 500 people sitting behind us heard me?

Jeff: Yes!

Larry: Oh, I didn't realize that!

Jeff: They ... You shouldn't have talked so much trash on the dude sitting behind you and his horrible shirt, with a slurpee on it.

Larry: Oh God, that was terrible.

Jeff: But yeah, uh, yeah, no, I'm glad I didn't say anything.

Larry: Wow, I was, that would have been even, I mean I get nervous, I mean ...

Jeff: Well it's, I guess because you had a headset, it helps, but, like, otherwise, doing that, like, when you're, if you've ever done any public speaking, which I knew you have-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Can, like, if there's a bit of a, if there's too much of a delay on it-

Larry: Reverbia.

Jeff: It's really hard to power through that.

Larry: Watch anybody trying to sing the national anthem at a game.

Jeff: Exactly.

Larry: Perfect example. So anyway, that was my first time shoutcasting, if you want to get a kick out of that, it's, I assume that's up, is it, Jeff, on the [crosstalk 00:24:56]

Jeff: Uh, I, um, I'm looking for it, actaully I think what we're doing is we're cutting together a-

Larry: Because it's 6-hours long!

Jeff: Yeah, we're cutting together, like a super cut of that-

Larry: A highlight reel.

Jeff: It's not ready yet, but we'll put it out there, very entertaining.

Larry: So that's uh, that was a lot of fun. Of course, PAX was great, Gears looked great, Gears was a lot of fun to play, it was, and horde looks like a ton of fun, so I'm really looking forward to that, so I'll be doing the Gears event, got a few other things, you know what, I'm also getting ready for, is my, uh, global trip to Australia. I will be keynoting, uh, doing story- time at PAX Australia, very excited to go to Melbourne.

Jeff: Very jealous.

Larry: I would love to have you with me.

Jeff: Could you, I, if anything just to kill the spiders that sneak into your room. Here's what I've been told. Look, I'm sure, I'm sure a lot of the fact that all the animals in Australia just can't wait to kill you-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: With murderous rage, uh, I imagine like when you, when you pull into the gate, like you're looking out the plane and there's just like a jump- jack spider or whatever the hell they're called-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Sort of like, beating, like, a bat in his hand-

Larry: Yeah. Bring it, buddy.

Jeff: Just like, yeah, exactly.

Larry: Like, let's go.

Jeff: Um, what do they call it? Jack jumpers. You don't want to mess with those, by the way. But, uh, I had a friend who stayed there for like a month, she did like, a semester, and she was like, 'Here's the one thing I'll recommend. Don't ... No matter how tempting it might be, and you're going there close to summer, don't sleep with the window open. Because you will wake up and there will be a, a spider the size of like, a, a manhole cover-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: Like, on your ceiling.

Larry: Feasting on you.

Jeff: Well, presumably.

Larry: Now, I must tell you this, I did have a spider incident.

Jeff: You did! Oh man, we are, this is unintentional segway.

Larry: This was the weirdest thing, ever. I was playing Overwatch with, was it with you Jeff? Was it with-

Jeff: No, no. No, you weren't playing Overwatch, you were beating-

Larry: Deus Ex! That's right! It was, it was in the endgame of Deus Ex and I'm getting into it, I'm sitting in my home office on my, I've got this leather chair that I sit in and it's ... I'm going at it, and I want ... I can feel like it's the endgame, and I'm going through, and the controller, and I'm just getting really into it, and I finish it, and I'm like, 'What's going on here?' And I go into the bathroom and I pull up my shirt. I've got 3 massive welts on the back of my back,-

Jeff: Mm-hmm. (affirmative)

Larry: That apparently a spider, because I had the window open in my office, because, it was a beautiful evening. And some spider came in and decided to, to, use me as a buffet.

Jeff: That was a warning from Australia.

Larry: It was! I ... Now that I think about it!

Jeff: They were like, 'We're ready for you, buddy!' That was the equivalent of waking up with a horse's head in your bed.

Larry: No, I ... Oh, that was a good scene. Now, that house is for sale, by the way.

Jeff: Is it?

Larry: In the Godfather, yeah, that, it, it's in,

Jeff: Wasn't, wasn't it in New York or something?

Larry: No, no, no, that was in LA, because it was, it was the head of the studio.

Jeff: Is that why they're making movies these days?

Larry: (laughing) I think that Hollywood thing may work out. Uh, so yeah, so the spider came in and just apparently, I assume it was a spider, it just gave these 3, 3 like down my back, and I was like, I was like, so this thing was actually actively crawling up attacking me while I was finishing Deus Ex. It was like-

Jeff: What did you do to him? You know? Or her, actually, usually the female spiders do the attacking.

Larry: Who knows? Who knows? I was minding my own business, and all of the sudden, this thing is ... So, [Aragog 00:27:40] sent me! It, it, it, it never, you know ... I saw, so I'm ripping ... Of course, I realize what happened I go into my office, I'm ripping out the cushions, I'm looking under and I've got the lights on, and nothing. It just-

Jeff: Yeah, yeah. I think people that don't live in the Pacific northwest don't really ... There's like a ... There's a lot of spiders.

Larry: There's a ... Well, it's spider season. Because apparently it's getting cooler out, so they go inside.

Jeff: And uh, my, the issue I tend to run into is car spiders. Like, a couple times a year, I will be driving to work-

Larry: I remember this happening.

Jeff: And a glint will catch my eye, as I'm like, driving over the bridge, I'm like, 'what's that?' And like, Oh, there's a giant, full on, like, like, circular spiral-

Larry: Arachnid. Coming at you.

Jeff: I, in the, like, well the, the web, like, on the passenger side.

Larry: Oh! Oh, it's actually made it home.

Jeff: Oh, yeah, and it happens all the time. So I'll know it's coming, because I'll start to see, like, little strings of webs on the inside of the dashboard-

Larry: And you'll get rid of that.

Jeff: But, like, I don't know where it goes, and then one day I'll come out and I won't be, it'll lull me into a false sense of security, that's what they do, they play mind games. And, and then there's a giant spider, but like, I'm on the freeway, driving, you know, the speed limit, and, um, and I'll look over, and I'm like, 'What do I do?'

Larry: What do you do?

Jeff: Uh, you just-

Larry: Well officer ... (laughing)

Jeff: After I'm done soiling myself, uh, I, I make it into work, and then I torch the car.

Larry: You know, at that point, why don't you just open the windows? Open the windows and there will be this, this vortex of wind.

Jeff: Doesn't matter. Well first of all the spider could blow onto me-

Larry: It could, it absolutely could.

Jeff: It would probably backfire pretty hard. Um, and, and, and secondly, they are like, wind resistant, these webs.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: Like, because I've tried.

Larry: They're designed. They've, they've, it's evolution, called evolution.

Jeff: Yeah, you should watch out for them. They're, they're the real menace.

Larry: Yeah the, uh-

Jeff: This has been a very anti- arachnid podcast.

Larry: I don't have that problem in my electric car, maybe they don't like electric cars.

Jeff: Maybe, maybe it's putting out some sort of, like, frequency that ... you ever see those things, like, as seen on TV, and you plug it into the wall, and it's supposed to, like, play a frequency that scares ... And like, the bugs are like, running for cover, they're covering their ears?

Larry: (laughing) That's exactly what my car is.

Jeff: That's a, that's a hidden, uh, a hidden-

Larry: That's a gem. That's a gem, there, anyway, wow. We-

Jeff: Where are we? What is happening?

Larry: So yeah, it'll be, I'll be in Australia.

Jeff: Yeah!

Larry: That's a long story.

Jeff: You've got to bring a bigger electric car.

Larry: I have a little, I have a little surprise, I can't tell you what it is.

Jeff: Does it, does it involve Paul Hogan?

Larry: Uh, I, I have a little surprise. I can't tell you what it is.

Jeff: You didn't say no!

Larry: I can't tell you what it is, but I'm very excited about the surprise, I'll tell you, I'll tell you that.

Jeff: I'm really upset I', not going to be able to go.

Larry: Yeah, well, you should be there. I'm also working on maybe doing an event at the Sydney Microsoft store, it's a, one of our flagship stores in Sydney.

Jeff: Yeah.

Larry: I love Sydney, been there many many times.

Jeff: Is that the first one outside of the US?

Larry: Well, there's some in Canada.

Jeff: Oh, I count that as the US.

Larry: You can find Jeffery Rubenstein on Twitter at ... You canadians.

Jeff: It's a compliment!

Larry: It's a ... Or is it?

Jeff: Um ...

Larry: As they look down at our election.

Jeff: Maybe at some point that was, yes.

Larry: But not now. Anyway, uh, so yeah, I've got a lot of things planned so, uh, I'm going to apologize right now as I usually do around this time of the year, in advance for the sporadic podcast posting because who knows if we're able to do it. You know what I was thinking?

Jeff: Go on.

Larry: With being low latency, we should do a bean cast where it's just I could bring you in and me and Laura and just put you guys on screen and, you know, I could basically stream you guys.

Jeff: That would be great.

Larry: Would you like that?

Jeff: Yeah. This way we can get the questions. Always fun doing it that way.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: Yeah.

Larry: Because we, it's more live and it's interactive, we're going to do it live!

Jeff: Yeah.

Larry: So.

Jeff: I think it's time we, we've moved those, those, those hangouts to beam.

Larry: Yeah, beacause hangouts are kind of being deprecated, aren't they?

Jeff: Uh, I don't know.

Larry: I thought they were, something's going on. Hey, In case you missed it, also, previously earlier in this week, we announced some new hardware.

Jeff: Oh, yes we did.

Larry: You know, we've got, we've got this beautiful Dawn Shadow pink controller.

Jeff: Yeah, and we also announced, uh, a couple, uh, uh, bundle, a bundles.

Larry: Yeah, so Battlefield bundles, why don't you pull those up and I'll talk about-

Jeff: Sure.

Larry: So the controller is Dawn Shadow, we've got another, we've got a blue one, we have a white headset.

Jeff: I was travelling this week, and I had no ... A white headset?

Larry: Yeah, it's a white ... To match the S, why wouldn't you?

Jeff: No, the, I-

Larry: You know what else I got? You know what else I got, to match the S, was a pair of shoes.

Jeff: Yes you did! All right, this is a lot of notes.

Larry: Check out my Instagram for that.

Jeff: Yes. Um-

Larry: You put pictures on Instagram, you share them, that's what that's for.

Jeff: And, the Dawn Shadow, it's really ... It's like an ombre.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: That's what they call it in the fashion industry.

Larry: It's got a fade.

Jeff: It's like they dipped it into, like, uh, you know, a pink lollipop. But it didn't ruin the controls.

Larry: Is this, um, is this from your failed early attempts as a designer for snap bracelets in the early 90s?

Jeff: I invented the piano type snap bracelet.

Larry: Is that you? Okay, that's ... Today you learned, Internet, now you know, where the, he's made all his money.

Jeff: Uh, yeah. It's um, and, and the matching slammers didn't work either-

Larry: Right. Yes.

Jeff: If the pog. The pog industry just really collapsed.

Larry: And he was about 6 months late on wheelies, so.

Jeff: Oh, heelys?

Larry: Heelys. The things on the-

Jeff: Here's the thing.

Larry: Yes.

Jeff: Back when I was like, too old to have, I've always been too old to have Heelys, since they existed, and now, they have adult Heelys, but I feel like I'm now even just too old for adult Heelys.

Larry: They do?

Jeff: Yeah. They're probably really ... Someone in the room has them.

Larry: Yeah. That's ... Of course they do. Someone in our-

Jeff: They probably have terrible arch support, I'll just guess. They, like, I'll be-

Larry: Now you sound, now you sound like an old man. 'What, they probably have horrible arch support, forget about it, I need my arch support!'

Jeff: I want orthopedic Heelys. Is that too much to ask?

Larry: (laughing) I bet you they sell them in Miami, go out to, go out to what is it, Worth Avenue?

Jeff: Uh, Worth Avenue is, is a place. Um, why don't we just say that?

Larry: (laughing)

Jeff: I'll, I'll, I'll skate down to Worthies.

Larry: Yes. All right. Well, we are way off. Let's go back to the hard rebuttals.

Jeff: Quick. We miss you, we miss you.

Larry: Help us Laura, help us, we're, we're hopeless. All right, Jeff, we have some uh, we have some Battlefield, uh Battlefield uh, bundles to talk about. 3! So what do we have Jeff?

Jeff: All right, so we have 3 bundles for all sorts.

Larry: Yes.

Jeff: And your, you, you can match your favorite hard drive size and color so-

Larry: These are Battlefield bundle, Battlefield bundles.

Jeff: These are Battlefield 1 bundles. Uh, so, Xbox One has the traditional robot white, like the one see, just bundled with Battlefield, so if you're looking to upgrade to an Xbox One S and you want Battlefield, 500 gigabytes, this is your starting point.

Larry: Yep.

Jeff: If you want to take advantage of the brand new, and I've never seen it before, Storm Grey special edition.

Larry: Oh, that grey one looks so good.

Jeff: It does look good. And so, if you want that under your, under your mantlepiece, that is also a 500 gigabyte, uh, but that is only available in the US.

Larry: Yes.

Jeff: And also, uh, $299, same price, so I would say if you see that one, you probably want to snag it.

Larry: All right, what do we, what else do we have?

Jeff: Um, but, if you want to go all out, there is a military green console with a 1 terabyte hard drive built in, and again, this military green ... Man we're doing a lot more colors a lot sooner.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: I love it.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeff: It's pretty great. So, and of course includes Battlefield 1 the full game download along with um, the early enlister deluxe edition, which has all manner of stuff in that one, uh, oh, and a month of EA access, and that one's $349 US, also available in Canada, New Zealand, Europe, and uh, the home of the spiders, Australia.

Larry: That's right, now you have to remember this, this is great. That's all the Xbox One S's can do HDR gaming and Battlefield 1 will be patched to do, to support HDR.

Jeff: HDR gaming and also, um, uh, 4K blu- ray.

Larry: Right, so if you, if you love getting, you know, watching your wonder ... I have been watching some movies-

Jeff: Are you watching the Martian, because-

Larry: Oh my God.

Jeff: That looks ... You played that a couple of weeks ago. It looks good.

Larry: I'm going to watch it probably this weekend, I may post that I'm watching it, because it looks so good. So the Xbox One S, you get that beautiful ultra high- definition 4K blu- ray drive as well as the HDR for video and gaming and there you go, and it's, you know, significantly smaller than an internal power supply. You guys know, you, look. If you're listening to this show, you know all about the Xbox One S in robot white.

Jeff: We were, we were on a shoot, uh, yesterday, with, uh, doing some cool stuff for, in celebration of FIFA down at the, where the sounders play at Center lane field, and uh, we had somebody buy, and we had the Xbox One S, in robot white, uh, there because we had, they were playing it, and it was a first time, this particular gentleman had seen it, and he was like, 'Oh my God, it's so small and it's so quiet.'

Larry: Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff: And, and, I, I would imagine now, 24 hours later, he probably already has one.

Larry: What do you have connected to your, in, for storage?

Jeff: For storage, so I'm using a, uh, 4 terabyte, um, uh, not Western Digital, what's uh-

Larry: Seagate.

Jeff: Seagate! Seagate drive, uh, USB, I just have it into the back-

Larry: The USB for it.

Jeff: And USB 3.0, and it's wonderful. And so, I have uh, 2 Xbox Ones, one in the living room, one in, um, where I tend to do most of my gaming, and then, also there's a third one that my, my brother plays, my brother's living with us. So, instead of, like, you know, if it's a, a big download-

Larry: Just unplug and walk into the other room.

Jeff: Plug in and just copy it over, and so that one, it's wonderful. I just take it with me and it uh, I, I, I can link to it, it's amazing.

Larry: Yeah, it, uh, so I've got, with my Xbox One, so I've got a 2 terabyte Xbox One S, with an 8 terabyte external hard drive, in one port, and a 4 terabyte in the other.

Jeff: That, you can, you could download all of the games.

Larry: I have 14 terabytes online, roughly 14 terabytes, because it's always a little bit less. But yeah, that's the beauty, of course with the Xbox's, you can expand with, uh, any of your external USB 3 hard drives, you just plug it in, format it, and-

Jeff: Could not be easier.

Larry: I remember-

Jeff: And the prices on those have come way down.

Larry: Yeah, and what's great is, like, you know, I, I, when, I travel out to the east coast with my family, I just unplug my games from, you know, at home here in Seattle, and I, you know, put the hard drive in my, in my luggage and throw it in the plane, and then when I get there, all my games are there. You don't have to redownload anything. There's none of that malarky, it's all right there.

Jeff: It is, and, and it is malarky.

Larry: Isn't it? Isn't it, Jeffery?

Jeff: But, but it was actually super easy for me that way, because when I upgraded from my, um, my old school, you know-

Larry: Right, original.

Jeff: Large, black, Xbox One, to the Xbox One S, I mean, like, it was, no downloading needed to happen-

Larry: Right.

Jeff: It was just you upgraded the system software.

Larry: Plug it in, done. Sign in.

Jeff: Plug it in, and you're done. Done done done.

Larry: So those are the hardware that's out, we have some good hardwares ...

Jeff: Oh yeah, the, the prices on these have come way down.

Larry: Yeah, put a link to that.

Jeff: Will do.

Larry: We've, we've got a great holiday ahead of us, so that's something fun. So anyway, all right, Jeff, I think we're going to wrap things up, because we've, we've rattled on-

Jeff: Prattled, we've prattled-

Larry: Endlessly about, so, hopefully next week Laura can come back in and get us back in line, because-

Jeff: She, she really does We're-

Larry: We're hopeless, we're hopeless.

Jeff: We missed the Diablo time.

Larry: We're like, we're like a, we're like a rutterless boat. We're just spinning around.

Jeff: Drifting.

Larry: Drifting from island to ...

Jeff: We don't know anything about vehicles.

Larry: Nonsense Island to nonsense.

Jeff: I think it's, it's never been more obvious.

Larry: Well, I do, I know a little bit, I can be nautical.

Jeff: Did you run a hotdog boat?

Larry: I ran a hotdog wagon.

Jeff: I know.

Larry: I ran a hotdog wagon, for those of you that must know.

Jeff: Actually I have seen the picture of you in the boat. Those are some 80 shorts.

Larry: Oh, hey now! Those are (laughing). Aw, where is that picture? Oh it's-

Jeff: Not on the internet, let's hope.

Larry: Please. I hope that's not on the internet, because those shorts, um, left a little bit to be desired.

Jeff: It was, just, think Larry Byrd.

Larry: Yeah. (laughing) I don't think I had the hightop socks though, did I? Uh, they weren't far off, I'll tell you that, so. All right King, we're going to wrap things up, so thank you for downloading the show and tuning in, we'll be back next time, hopefully next week in Laura's back and if my travel is participating and I'll be able to do that. Otherwise, I'll work on getting us to do a live show on Bean, if you're going to be up for that, Jeffery.

Jeff: Always.

Larry: All right gang, we'll talk to you next time, uh, you can hit us up on Twitter, you can find Jeffery at ...

Jeff: @JeffRubenstein.

Larry: Find me on Twitter at @MajorNelson, on Xbox Live as Major Nelson and we'll talk to you guys next time, buh- bye everybody!

Jeff: See you. (Music)