595: Ron Gilbert, Graeme Boyd and more

Larry Hryb: Welcome back, everybody. This is show number 595. My name is Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. We're in the studio. We took a little bit of time off. Well, we took a week off. Hi, Laura.
Laura Massey: Hello.
Larry Hryb: Laura Massey there. Hello, Laura. Sitting next to you is Jeff Rubenstein. Hello, Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi, reporting in from the kid's table.
Larry Hryb: And, and joining us, he puts the brrr in Brexit ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: And every time he opens his mouth, he gets a plus 15 bonus on charisma, Mr. Graeme Boyd.
Graeme Boyd: What a ... you've been working on that. [crosstalk 00:01:11]
Larry Hryb: I have. I wrote that this morning in the shower.
Jeff Rubenstein: Topical.
Graeme Boyd: You wrote in the shower?
Larry Hryb: Well I, yeah. Sometimes, when you do your best writing.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, I see. I thought you meant, like, actually, physically wrote it.
Larry Hryb: No, no. I-I-I actually spend time on the show. It's nice to see you.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, it's a pleasure to be back again.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you were ...
Graeme Boyd: [crosstalk 00:01:23] that long ago.
Larry Hryb: I was checking, you were actually over here, looking ... looks like you were here February 2nd.
Graeme Boyd: Oh. (laughs) Thank, thank you for tracking my schedule so closely.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: Very specific.
Larry Hryb: I'm tracking ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Welcome to America. (laughs)
Larry Hryb: (laughs) Exactly. How long will you be staying, Mr. Boyd?
Graeme Boyd: I leave today.
Larry Hryb: Again, you're doing that whole British Airways ...
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: ... out at 5 or 6 o'clock.
Graeme Boyd: This always feels like it's kind of the highest point of the week for me ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... cause I get to see you guys.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Aww.
Graeme Boyd: And then I'm basically, like, I'm straight out the door.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Well, it's not going to get any better than that. [crosstalk 00:01:53]
Larry Hryb: And then you're home, and then ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Plus 20 charisma.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: And you're back tomorrow ... you land tomorrow afternoon ...
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: ... at home?
Graeme Boyd: So, it's like, Friday lunchtime.
Larry Hryb: Friday lunchtime.
Graeme Boyd: UK time, which'll be the middle of the night ...
Larry Hryb: How are things going over there?
Graeme Boyd: They're good.
Larry Hryb: Yeah?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. Um, you know, been an interesting week. You mentioned the B-word ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... upfront.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Article 50, is that it?
Jeff Rubenstein: But number one in our hearts.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs) And then, as you may have heard, Scotland are now, or at least the Scottish government is agitating for another independence referendum, so, you know.
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: It's lots of exciting politics over on the world [crosstalk 00:02:25].
Larry Hryb: We-we tend, we don't really go, get too deep on politics around here, because you-you'll instantly piss off 50 percent of your audience.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs) Yeah.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: So, um, but with Scottish, it's okay, cause you're the only Scot that listens.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: Awww.
Larry Hryb: No, I'm sure, I-I think we actually do have quite a, quite a bit of audience.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, you must have a lot of listeners in Scotland [crosstalk 00:02:40].
Larry Hryb: Well, we have, we have even more now that you're on.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: I want the whole Aberdeen football team listening in.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, I'll do my best.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: I actually, um ... Aberdeen, uh, FC started selling, you know, like, decals for Xbox Ones and Xbox One controllers.
Larry Hryb: Oh, really?
Laura Massey: Really?
Graeme Boyd: Two weeks ago or something.
Laura Massey: Hmm.
Graeme Boyd: So, I bought a pack.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. And, um ...
Larry Hryb: Did you bring any with you?
Graeme Boyd: I didn't bring them with me, no. [crosstalk 00:03:02]
Larry Hryb: Jeff would love, Jeff would love some.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. Do you, um, do you leave stickers on your, do you leave that sticker on your Xboxes?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I'm team no sticker.
Graeme Boyd: Excellent.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, same. Laura?
Graeme Boyd: Totally.
Laura Massey: Team, yeah, no sticker.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: No stickers.
Laura Massey: Clean.
Graeme Boyd: Is that consensus in the room, then?
Larry Hryb: Oh, absolutely.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, yeah, okay.
Larry Hryb: We-we, there's no reason to have the sticker on there.
Graeme Boyd: No, I agree.
Larry Hryb: I know, I know it's been approved by the HDMI authority. You don't need to put a sticker on to tell me.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: It's got a port in the back. I can figure the rest out.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: So, I don't usually condone of stickers on-on Xbox Ones, but ...
Larry Hryb: But this, that's a different sticker.
Graeme Boyd: These are, like, branded.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. This is, this is ...
Graeme Boyd: Aberdeen FC. Anyway, so I tweeted a ...
Jeff Rubenstein: It's more of a skin, right?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: It's a skin.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's the different, different thing.
Graeme Boyd: I tweeted a picture of my, um, of the controller that I put the controller skin onto, and Aberdeen FC, like, picked it up and retweeted and stuff ...
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Graeme Boyd: ... which was great, cool.
Larry Hryb: Wow.
Graeme Boyd: And then, it made, it got into this Scottish Sun, which is, like, you know, a big newspaper in Scotland on Sunday.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: On their video games page is, there's a little box out, and [crosstalk 00:03:55].
Larry Hryb: Wait a minute. There's a video game page?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Wow, that's cool. So did they attribute you?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, that guy that does it is great. He's a, he's a massive [inaudible 00:04:00] fan, and he's, he really likes [crosstalk 00:04:02].
Larry Hryb: So you know this gentleman.
Graeme Boyd: Uh, through Twitter.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, yeah. Um, but, uh, yeah, no, he featured my actual ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... my controller.
Larry Hryb: Did you family see it?
Graeme Boyd: No.
Larry Hryb: No.
Laura Massey: Huh.
Graeme Boyd: I don't have any family in Scotland anymore.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Graeme Boyd: We're all down south now.
Larry Hryb: Oh, okay.
Graeme Boyd: All Southerners. Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent, wasn't it?
Laura Massey: That's cool you were in the paper.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs) Yeah.
Laura Massey: You tweet [crosstalk 00:04:20].
Graeme Boyd: Still get excited about that, though.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: That's the thing about the digital world, right?
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: Is when you actually make the pages of a printed paper ...
Larry Hryb: That-that means ...
Graeme Boyd: ... you're like, "Oh, my God," [crosstalk 00:04:25]
Larry Hryb: That means somebody, that means somebody put it in, you know, into, they-they did it, they did the-the digital version of typesetting.
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Somebody approved it.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: It went into a printing press.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Somebody pulled that paper off, they put it into a newspaper, they bound it up. Somebody bought it.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: I mean, it's, you're right. It's a whole life cycle.
Graeme Boyd: Yes.
Larry Hryb: So, well done. Send that photo over, if you have it.
Graeme Boyd: I will, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Did you, did you tweet the ...
Graeme Boyd: [crosstalk 00:04:46]
Larry Hryb: What you should have done is tweeted a photo of you, your tweet.
Laura Massey: (laughs) Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: From the paper. That would have been meta.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, you're right.
Larry Hryb: Right?
Graeme Boyd: Okay, I'll have to try and get a back issue.
Laura Massey: Yeah, see ...
Larry Hryb: Right?
Graeme Boyd: [crosstalk 00:04:55]
Laura Massey: ... see a printed version of ...
Larry Hryb: Tweet.
Laura Massey: ... of a tweet.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Now, you need to get back into the paper, and then do it. No one wants to, you know ...
Graeme Boyd: What, a picture of me in the paper holding a picture of the paper?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, this has gone too far over.
Larry Hryb: This has gone, yeah. We were where ... Anyway, we usually talk about what we're playing. Have you had a chance to play anything? I know you, again, when you travel, you don't really have a chance to ...
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: ... play.
Graeme Boyd: I've been quite bad. Last week was really busy as well, so ... So, unfortunately, the only thing I've really been able to play, um, was, while I've been traveling, is-is Zelda on the Switch.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Graeme Boyd: So, which was ... I was actually really looking forward to it, cause I knew I'd be on the plane for 10 hours, and it's really the first time I've actually had, uh, really a chance I've had to play Zelda at all, but then, also, knowing I was going to be able to do it on the move like that was ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: ... was quite exciting. And yeah, it was, it was ...
Larry Hryb: How far are you, cause, don't, no spoilers.
Graeme Boyd: I may be five or six hours in now, so I'm past all the initial, um, shrines.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: The world's just opened up to me.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Which, like, I kind of, I knew it was coming, and I've heard everyone talking about how an amazing an open world game it is ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: ... but when it actually happened, I was, like, "Oh, my god. This is ..."
Larry Hryb: Well, and I know ...
Graeme Boyd: "This feels huge." [crosstalk 00:05:54]
Larry Hryb: I don't know if you listened to the last show, but the last show we did a couple weeks ago was when we were after packs, and Jeff was sitting next to me on our way over to ...
Graeme Boyd: Right, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: ... to packs, and I was playing it. I-I-I'm probably about 60 hours in now.
Graeme Boyd: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, my gosh.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I'm-I'm playing the heck out of this game. Well, I just, it's-it's fun, and, you know, playing that, and-and ... we'll get to what I'm playing later, but go ahead.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. It's pretty special. I did get started on Mass Effect: Andromeda as well.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Graeme Boyd: But again, like, maybe an hour or two hours in.
Larry Hryb: But then you had to bolt.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. (laughs) Exactly.
Larry Hryb: You've been, you've been on the road for quite some time. Like, all week, right?
Graeme Boyd: Oh, well, just since Sunday, so not too long.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, it's a little bit longer than normal, but it's fine. But yeah, I'm really, I'm really intrigued by Mass Effect: Andromeda. I love the, I love the sort of set up and the setting and, you know, this idea, colonization and stuff. So, I really want to get more into that when I get home.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm about 10 hours in, and-and, also, this is a game that feels much bigger than previous Mass Effects have. Like, just even in some of the initial battle sequences, it was like, "Oh, I guess I can go kind of in any direction here."
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: "Uh, I guess I'll go over here." So it's, it's, uh, I think, in terms of, like, scope and stuff, they've done a lot more. And that, I like the-the combat field. It feels pretty good.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: The fact that ...
Graeme Boyd: [crosstalk 00:06:58]
Jeff Rubenstein: ... just adding a jump, uh, a jet pack ...
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... and, like, a dash, just adds so much.
Larry Hryb: Jeff, when I ... did you do the multi-player? Jeff and I did the multi-player.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, we did.
Graeme Boyd: No, I haven't tried it.
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah, it's fun. We should try that.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. Yeah, send me an invite.
Larry Hryb: Well, it's-it's the time zone thing.
Graeme Boyd: Let's coordinate our schedules.
Larry Hryb: The time zone thing.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: How do you feel about staying up till six in the morning?
Graeme Boyd: Uh, not so good. I get up at six o'clock in the morning, so, you know.
Jeff Rubenstein: There you go.
Graeme Boyd: [crosstalk 00:07:17]
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:07:18]
Larry Hryb: Get a little espresso ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... and grab your controller and join us.
Graeme Boyd: Yes. Yeah, just, um ...
Larry Hryb: Flat white for you.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, that sounds nice.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: All right. So, we'll do that.
Larry Hryb: What else you playing? That's it.
Graeme Boyd: I'm a bit, I'm kind of striking out after that ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... to be honest, yeah. It's been, I've been late on games recently, which is a shame, but hopefully, things will calm down a little bit once I'm back home. I've had lots of planning meetings and lots going on.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: But, yeah.
Laura Massey: There is a lot going on, isn't there?
Graeme Boyd: Get back into things when I get home.
Larry Hryb: We have E3 coming up soon, must be lots to do.
Graeme Boyd: Well, that's it.
Larry Hryb: Planning.
Graeme Boyd: Yes.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Yeah, I-I ...
Graeme Boyd: It is really exciting, but it's, uh, it's that, it's that interesting time of year where there's, there's lots of things forming.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: So it's quite, it takes up a lot of head space, right? You know, kind of keeping track of all these ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: ... these thoughts and ideas and plans are forming.
Larry Hryb: And-and that's, well, that's why I'm writing your intro in the shower in the morning. That's the only ...
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... spare time I have.
Jeff Rubenstein: You have a whiteboard in there, Larry?
Larry Hryb: Maybe.
Laura Massey: Do you take your scuba whiteboard and pen ...
Larry Hryb: No-no, I actually ...
Laura Massey: ... into the shower?
Larry Hryb: It's funny, my-my wife actually found ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... something that writes, I guess children have, and they write on, like, the side of-of-of bathtubs and things.
Graeme Boyd: Oh yeah, yeah, like [crosstalk 00:08:19].
Larry Hryb: So, we have, we have a shower stall, and I write things on the side of that glass as I'm thinking.
Laura Massey: Are you serious?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Wow.
Laura Massey: You're, you really write in the shower?
Larry Hryb: You want a photo of it?
Jeff Rubenstein: There's where you get a good ...
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Of the shower.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: What kind of things do you write in there?
Larry Hryb: Well, I just, like, hey, I've got ... you know, I've got, like, the personal side and the work side. "Hey, this is a great idea, let's do this."
Graeme Boyd: Oh, nice.
Larry Hryb: "This great idea ... Oh, I got to make sure I do this." So, it's just things I tend to forget, you know? It's just, I want to ... Sometimes, you just, you have these great thoughts, like, "Oh, that would be really cool."
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: You know, things like that, so ...
Graeme Boyd: I like that.
Laura Massey: It's very interesting.
Graeme Boyd: Always ready to write it down, eh?
Laura Massey: Take it from the expert.
Larry Hryb: Well, you know, I used, I used to do this when I was in college, um, when I, or university, for those of you on the other side of the table. Uh, I-I would always, I had a book much like the book you have there, Graeme ...
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: ... and I, I had labeled it. This is a true story. When I was a freshman, I labeled it "Larry's Life." And in it, I kept track of every single semester, every, every class I had, all the professors I had, the things I learned, and so, and so you can go back, and I look at it, and-and not only that, but then I would say, "Okay, so I know this is second year, this is what I need to do for next year," and so I have all my goals and everything in this, in this book.
Graeme Boyd: Wow.
Larry Hryb: So, that was ...
Laura Massey: That is incredibly organized.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I don't know what happened to me.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: And now it's on your shower.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, now it's in my shower.
Jeff Rubenstein: I-I think you should pull out excerpts from time to time.
Larry Hryb: Would you like to see?
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah. Larry's life.
Larry Hryb: I've got, I've got it somewhere.
Jeff Rubenstein: 1978 ...
Larry Hryb: Hey, hey, hey ...
Jeff Rubenstein: ACDC rules.
Graeme Boyd: That's a podcast on its own.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Stop it.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: We could have a serialized podcast of Larry's life.
Larry Hryb: Well, you know, well, if you go look at the ... I hate doing this again, but if you go look at the, uh, the packs, uh, keynote I did, I brought, I brought a lot of that into this. Like, one of the ... and I'm sorry, I'm boring you all with this.
Laura Massey: No, no.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: No, yeah.
Larry Hryb: One of the things that I-I taught, or that I-I spoke about, that I came up with, was when I was a freshman, I said, "You know what? I don't know anybody here," when I was at Syracuse University. "I don't know anybody. I'm here by myself. I got to figure this out. I am going to meet a new person every single day." And so through my freshman year, I don't, whether I was standing in line at the coffee stand, whether I was at the cafeteria, whether I was in books, whatever, "Hi, my name's Larry. How are you? I'm a freshman, what are you ..." You know, I mean, now, it would be probably kind of creepy.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, I was going to ... Did the police get involved at any point?
Larry Hryb: Not-not to my knowledge.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: But let's not talk about this ...
Jeff Rubenstein: That's a different story, right?
Larry Hryb: Then there's some, there are some restraining orders, but that's unrelated to this activity. Anyway, so that was, that was my tip, is ... I've got a lot of those.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Seven habits of highly effective showerers.
Larry Hryb: Yes, exactly. (laughs) I don't think I can top that.
Graeme Boyd: I will never think of you in the shower in the same way again.
Larry Hryb: I, why ... now-now you've got your-your little book there, I see you ...
Graeme Boyd: I'm taking some notes.
Larry Hryb: You're taking some notes, "take note in shower."
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: What do you do to take your notes, Laura? What do you do to-to remind you, just write something, just, do you text yourself?
Laura Massey: I email myself.
Larry Hryb: Okay, you're one of those.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:10:52]
Graeme Boyd: I do that sometimes, yeah.
Laura Massey: And then I triage my email by, if it's unread, I have to respond to it or read it ...
Larry Hryb: But you're responding to yourself. (laughs)
Laura Massey: So, I email myself, and it stays unread ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: ... until I've actioned it.
Larry Hryb: Oh, I see. So, you don't do ...
Laura Massey: Usually, I remind myself, you know, "Email this person," or, you know, "Do this, do that."
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: And then I keep it unread ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: ... until I do it.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: That's kind of my-my ...
Larry Hryb: That's-that's-that's fine, there's ...
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:11:15] me.
Larry Hryb: I'm not, I'm not judging your workflow.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Used to, you know, it's, it's, back in my day, it was more analog, before, before email.
Laura Massey: I do have a to-do list at work in general.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: I'm still very much an analog person that way, where I have this huge pad next to my desk that has everything I need to do ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: ... written, written down and I ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: ... absolutely love the feeling of crossing it off.
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah, that's the life.
Laura Massey: Done, I do it just for that feeling, and then ...
Larry Hryb: Well, that-that's the one thing you don't get in the digital era.
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: You don't get that when you check the box in One Note or whatever, whatever to-do list.
Laura Massey: It does not feel as good.
Larry Hryb: It's like, you just check the list, it's ...
Graeme Boyd: You know which one my favorite is, is when you've forgotten to write something on your to-do list ...
Larry Hryb: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: ... and then you do it, so then you're like, you get to write it on your to-do list ...
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: ... and immediately score it out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Graeme Boyd: That's the best.
Jeff Rubenstein: Productivity.
Larry Hryb: That's, that's cheap.
Graeme Boyd: No, it's ...
Jeff Rubenstein: No, it's good.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: You're rewarding yourself.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, okay.
Laura Massey: It's a good feeling.
Larry Hryb: Whatever. Laura, what are you playing?
Laura Massey: (laughs) So I, similar situation, where it's been a very, very busy couple of weeks ...
Larry Hryb: Mmm.
Laura Massey: ... at work. So many things, so many exciting things coming up that we can't talk about just yet.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: Um, planning and doing those things, and, and then personal stuff at home has gotten a bit busy, too.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Laura Massey: So, the few things I've been able to play are here and there. Spotty, spotty play this week. I haven't had a chance to play Mass Effect 3 yet.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Is there a problem?
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:12:27]
Larry Hryb: What's the problem, you just have a time issue?
Laura Massey: I know.
Larry Hryb: Time management.
Laura Massey: I know that I'm going to have to set aside a good amount of time to really get into this game. (laughs) And, and play it, cause I just love the Mass Effect series. Um, but I've been playing VR games here and there.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: So, playing [inaudible 00:12:41], which is ...
Jeff Rubenstein: So good.
Laura Massey: ... so fun.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: And dipping into WoW here and there.
Larry Hryb: What?
Laura Massey: I know. I-I told you I was still playing WoW.
Larry Hryb: I know, we talked about this.
Laura Massey: Still here and there.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: Yeah, every 30 minutes or so.
Larry Hryb: Laura partying like it's 2007.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Laura Massey: Yeah. It's still a really good game. They still update it all the time.
Larry Hryb: They do, they do.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was a good year, though.
Larry Hryb: That was. They did a lot, they do, they still do. And we have a lot of friends that work there ...
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: ... at Blizzard, so ... And there's another Blizzard game that we're playing called Overwatch. You might want to try that.
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Laura Massey: I have tried that. It's really good.
Larry Hryb: You haven't tried it with us, so you haven't tried it.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Laura Massey: I'm really, I'm really intimidated by you guys now. I watch your tweets, and you guys talk about how awesome you are.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a lot of that.
Larry Hryb: No, no, no, no, no, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: Larry, Larry's daily, like, play of the game tweet.
Larry Hryb: I, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I actually have a bunch I haven't even tweeted.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: What level are you now?
Larry Hryb: Uh, 129, I think?
Jeff Rubenstein: Woah.
Larry Hryb: 129.
Laura Massey: See? Intimidation.
Larry Hryb: No, but ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm level, like, 50.
Larry Hryb: Look, so, the reality is, I think I've said this on the previous shows, is I tend to play Mercy ...
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Larry Hryb: ... the healer, which is your class. So I will say this. If you come join us, I will, I will let you play the healing class.
Laura Massey: That is super kind ...
Larry Hryb: Okay?
Laura Massey: ... considering you're 129 in Mercy.
Larry Hryb: No, no, it's 129 all over. That's not just that character.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's not like you rank, get extra moves or anything.
Larry Hryb: Right. Yeah. She's, anyway, so, go ahead, sorry.
Jeff Rubenstein: So you're welcome to join us, and I, you know what?
Laura Massey: Very kind.
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's the deal.
Larry Hryb: Here's the deal.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: If you, if you come play with us, I will play under my alternate gamer tag, which has no ranking.
Laura Massey: (gasps) Will you?
Larry Hryb: Yes. (laughs) Okay? You know what that alternate gamer tag is.
Laura Massey: I do.
Larry Hryb: Okay? We-we'll play that, and we can, we'll play that. I don't know if that will help or not, but, there we go.
Graeme Boyd: It's really worth playing.
Laura Massey: Oh, yes. And I ...
Graeme Boyd: Have you tried Orisa yet?
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: I-I haven't had the chance.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I played her, played her quite a bit.
Graeme Boyd: How is she?
Larry Hryb: Uh, she takes a lot of getting used to. You know, she's got the-the, between the shield and the buffs and whatnot, it, um, it's, I still haven't warmed up to her yet.
Graeme Boyd: Okay.
Larry Hryb: I just, I just haven't played her enough and, it, as with anything with Overwatch, it's about team comp, and if you don't have the right team comp, then she just tumbles over, like any of the characters. They just tumble over.
Graeme Boyd: Right. Cause her ultimate is support-focused, isn't it?
Larry Hryb: Yeah. What it does is it throws down, like, this-this thing that looks like a drum, and it basically provides a-a buffing bonus to all the characters in the, in the area.
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Larry Hryb: You see this, like, tendril that comes out and connects and vrrr, you're getting, you're getting buffed and shielded and whatnot.
Graeme Boyd: Okay, cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: Little, little back rub.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, little back rub.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Little breakfast in bed.
Jeff Rubenstein: "Let me work that out for you."
Laura Massey: Yeah. Is that the VO from the commercial, or the trailer, for her?
Larry Hryb: The-the one that I did last week?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Yes, couple weeks ago.
Laura Massey: Is, is that ...
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs) [inaudible 00:15:05] voice actress of the character, or is it just unrelated?
Larry Hryb: Uh, unrelated.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Unrelated. So, you should go ...
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:15:12] So the creepy girl voice is not part of the ...
Larry Hryb: No, she's actually, she's the actual person that invented it.
Laura Massey: I see.
Larry Hryb: So she ... Yeah, she's the ... the actual, the-the ... she may be the voice, cause it's more robotic.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: "Please stand behind the barrier." She's got a very robotic voice. Anyway.
Laura Massey: I see. Maybe it's a recording of her, but ...
Larry Hryb: It could be. Right.
Laura Massey: ... played back through a robot voice, yeah.
Larry Hryb: But processed, as we say in the industry.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Go on. So, that's what you're playing.
Laura Massey: Yeah. I'm playing with work, life, and WoW games.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Well, I don't, from everything that I know about people that play Wow, they can't either have the previous two if you're playing that third one.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Right? When you play WoW ...
Laura Massey: That's fair.
Larry Hryb: ... you have no work and you have no life. (laughs)
Laura Massey: Fair. (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Was that, would that be accurate?
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah, you're looking at the wrong guy.
Larry Hryb: So, Jeff, what are you ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so ...
Larry Hryb: Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Jeff Rubenstein: What? What?
Larry Hryb: That's a fancy shirt you have on.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, you like that?
Larry Hryb: You normally don't wear a collared shirt like that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, well, thanks for noticing.
Larry Hryb: What happened today?
Jeff Rubenstein: This is the, a very back handed compliment, right?
Larry Hryb: No, no.
Laura Massey: It is, isn't it?
Larry Hryb: It doesn't even have ketchup stains on it.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Give me some time.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: I, it's funny, cause I was, like, first time I've worn this shirt, and thanks for noticing, and I was driving in, and I had coffee in my hand, and I'm like, "I'm going to spill coffee on this shirt," cause it's white.
Larry Hryb: No, I like it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, all right.
Larry Hryb: It's very nice. I don't see any coffee stains, so you succeeded.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. And I-I'm sure if it was on camera, it would have, like, a horrible effect on the camera.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: The-the people, that, we'd have to, if you were on camera, we'd have to have the epilepsy warning before ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:16:30]
Graeme Boyd: Where were you when you first spotted it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, my wife bought it for me.
Larry Hryb: Ahhh.
Laura Massey: Ahhh. (laughs)
Larry Hryb: See, that's-that's, that's a ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's the thing. If I buy something that I like and I get home and she doesn't like it, it's just, it goes in the back of the closet.
Laura Massey: Oh, no.
Larry Hryb: Do you have ... and Laura, I don't know if this applies to you, but do-do you have, and-and Graeme and-and Jeff, do you guys have a particular color you always buy when you go out and, a shirt ... like, like, with guys, I know when, like, we shop by ourselves, Laura, I'm not judging or saying, but ...
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Like, I always go to this one particular color that my wife gets so angry, cause I always buy the same color, and she never lets me wear it, and I don't know if that was the same with you guys.
Laura Massey: So you always buy the same color.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Bring home the same color.
Larry Hryb: Right, of different types of shirts.
Laura Massey: But don't you have tons of that color in your closet?
Larry Hryb: Well, they've mysteriously gone, they've disappeared.
Laura Massey: Oh no. (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Oh, really?
Larry Hryb: So ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm at the point where 90 percent of my clothes is video game swag.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: So, a lot of black t-shirts.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Lot of black Hanes beefy tees.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, left to my own devices, it's going to be teal or purple.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: Ahh.
Jeff Rubenstein: More often than not.
Graeme Boyd: Really? Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Okay. That's good.
Graeme Boyd: Wow. Top to bottom?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, yeah. That's why I loved, like, the Sunset Overdrive swag.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Like, I hoarded that.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I got a lot of that. Matching shoes, too.
Larry Hryb: I do, I'm okay with the ... teal and purple? That's-that's ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Not together. I wouldn't wear them together.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: It would [crosstalk 00:17:34].
Larry Hryb: Would about you, Graeme?
Graeme Boyd: I've noticed, as I've got older, I'm going more to blacks and grays.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: As a, as you can see. (laughs)
Larry Hryb: As I, as I can see.
Graeme Boyd: As a standard, I don't know what that says about me.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Maybe that I think it makes, it's slimming or something.
Larry Hryb: Ah. Anyway.
Graeme Boyd: And, but, yeah.
Larry Hryb: I digress.
Laura Massey: What's your color? Is it purple?
Larry Hryb: Uh, the color that I'm not allowed to wear that I always buy?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Uh, it's this weird rust.
Graeme Boyd: Oh.
Laura Massey: Huh.
Larry Hryb: It's like this weird mahogany rust dark red, and my wife hates it.
Graeme Boyd: Ox blood.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's any of that, and so I just, apparently, I don't look good in it. But I always, I-I, I think I've, there's this part of me that's color blind-esque in this area. They all kind of look the same to me. I'm like, "Oh, that looks good. I don't have anything ..." I guess it's cause I realize, "I don't have anything like this color." My wife's like, "It's cause you look terrible in that color."
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:18:19]
Larry Hryb: That's how it goes. (laughs) Anyway, I digress. Jeffrey, what are you playing?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, you're good. So, um, I've been helping my brother move, and he's, like, sort of been on the countdown to moving, uh, out of state, and so, um, I have been letting him monopolize Zelda. And so I need another. I've been traveling a ton ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: ... so my travel game has been ... on my Surface, I've been playing Stardew Valley.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, yeah.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Crazy. And it is so good ...
Larry Hryb: Love it.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... and I don't understand why a game ... I don't understand why it has its hooks in it, me, the way it does. I, like, every day, I wake up, and I water plants ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... and then I milk cows and ...
Laura Massey: Yeah. What are you growing in your farm?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, man. I'm growing amaranth. I don't even know what that is, but ...
Laura Massey: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... somebody asked for it. Uh, hops, and I'm brewing, uh, pale ale right now.
Laura Massey: Oh, my goodness.
Larry Hryb: Uh, you know, if you wanted to, you could move out to, like, Duvall ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Look.
Larry Hryb: ... which is a rural part of Seattle.
Jeff Rubenstein: If ... I'll tell you what.
Laura Massey: With their love of farms involved.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's made me think about, like, what's my post-apocalyptic plan?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: I think about this a lot, and, too much.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And I feel like if I get a bunch of chickens and some mayonnaise machines, you just need to throw the eggs in there, couple hours later, you have mayo, and you can sell that for a lot.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: I-I ... (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Mayo's going to be very in demand ...
Larry Hryb: I don't know ...
Graeme Boyd: Post apocalypse.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... cause, after the apocalypse.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: When the bomb drops or whatever happens ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: ... really, mayonnaise is what's going to be the economy?
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: No, actually what I think ...
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: [crosstalk 00:19:32] I can follow. Sorry.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe, maybe for then, for DLC. But, I think, actually ... so, I've tried to think of, like, what would my role be ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: ... in post-apocalyptic society?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And I have, like, a ton of coffee, and I feel like coffee will be, like, a luxury ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: ... that whatever local warlord would love. And I have a lot ... all of my coffee stuff is manual, doesn't need any electricity. So as long as I have hot water, I can grind the stuff, and I was like, oh, I could put this all into, like, a backpack ...
Graeme Boyd: Hmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... and I could be, like, a traveling barista ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: ... that-that could offer up a taste of the old world in exchange for, like, a roof over my head and not killing me on sight. So, I think that's, that's the niche I'm going to carve out for myself, uh, you know, when ...
Laura Massey: Mobile barista.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, when we get into, like, Mad Max era.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, but until then, mayo machines in Stardew Valley, that's, it's really working out for me.
Graeme Boyd: Okay, good.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. So, uh ...
Laura Massey: Before you move on, though, I must ask. Have you played Farming Simulator?
Jeff Rubenstein: I have never played Farming Simulator.
Laura Massey: Okay. This is your next game.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: Talking about training yourself ...
Graeme Boyd: That's true.
Laura Massey: ... for post-apocalyptic ... (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: That's-that's what my role will be. (laughs) I will be a farmer, because I've played Farming Simulator and I know all about the different things you have to do. (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe if you can, like, grow ...
Laura Massey: I can grow some things, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... the hops, then I can brew the pale ale, and ...
Laura Massey: Together.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... let's just ... how about this.
Laura Massey: We could ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Let's have, like, an agreed-upon place.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: If there's a mushroom cloud someday, God forbid, of course. But, you know, first, I'll pick up my kid from school.
Larry Hryb: I-I don't know what's going on here.
Jeff Rubenstein: And then we'll meet. Let's meet somewhere.
Larry Hryb: I really have no idea what's going on.
Jeff Rubenstein: And let's sort it out.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: I'm enjoying it, though.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: To see this all coming together.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I mean, cause we have to ...
Larry Hryb: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm sorry. I-I just, not to poke holes in your, your cute little plan here, guy, okay? (laughs)
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: So you're going to make coffee.
Laura Massey: Debbie Downer.
Larry Hryb: You're going to make coffee.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Well, I-I, yeah.
Larry Hryb: And Laura, Laura, you can't really grow coffee in this area, so what are you going to be growing?
Laura Massey: Corn.
Larry Hryb: Okay. So, we got a little bit of a disconnect, cause I don't really want a corn drink.
Laura Massey: Hops. Hops would work.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, but we're in, look, we're in Seattle. I'm not going to be growing the coffee. I'm just going to hoard ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... while everybody else is hoarding Costco or whatever they're going to be doing, I'm going to be going into ... We have, like, 8,000 Starbucks.
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going to be grabbing all the beans, seal them away, and get enough to last for a long time, you know? And I, and then ...
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... again, travel around and see what I can [crosstalk 00:21:45].
Larry Hryb: If you just, uh, if you just, uh, trying to figure out what's going on here ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... and you're ... and you're looking at your device going, "I thought this was a gaming podcast."
Jeff Rubenstein: This is the prepper's podcast, right?
Larry Hryb: Yes, yes it is.
Graeme Boyd: In all seriousness, though, the-the ... um, post-apocalyptic DLC or whatever for Stardew Valley or for Farming Simulator ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: ... would be ... There's a game there.
Jeff Rubenstein: That would be pretty interesting, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: That'd be really good.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're walking ...
Larry Hryb: I'm going, I'm going to pay you money to download content that's going to blow up my farm, and then I have ... Okay. Sure, why not?
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you, did you ever play Sim City?
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, come on.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yes, of course.
Graeme Boyd: I like that idea.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Post-apocalyptic farmer.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: All right. Any, I mean, look. That's the way it's-it's going to need to happen, and I hope you're, I hope, I hope you find a-a niche after, after ...
Graeme Boyd: I need to give it some more thought ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... but I didn't realize people were planning out so much.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: But until then, while-while ...
Graeme Boyd: They know something I don't, apparently.
Larry Hryb: Well, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, while electricity's still working, another game I've been playing ...
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... um ... So, I've, my in-laws are in town, which means I haven't been able to, my game room's taken up. I haven't been able to play Overwatch.
Larry Hryb: They-they set up, they set up shop.
Jeff Rubenstein: My God, yeah.
Larry Hryb: They took no time to move in.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know when they're leaving, by the way, which is not great.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey, Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: The guest room is open in my house for you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Man, I'll have to come by.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, so, I've been playing, uh, games of my, on my laptop, and I've been playing a lot of, um, Xbox play anywhere titles ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... and a new one that came out this week is called Snake Pass.
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, uh, this game looks, I mean, it looks stunning. It looks like, uh, like a-a rare game from, like, maybe ten years ago. It has a very, aesthetic that's similar to, um, Banjo-Kazooie ...
Larry Hryb: Viva Pinata?
Jeff Rubenstein: ... or Viva Pinata, like ...
Laura Massey: Ooh.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... very colorful, but, like, with modern graphics. It looks very nice, and it's very interesting. It's like a ... I would call it a platformer, but you're controlling a snake, which I've never done in any game that I can ever think of. You cannot jump.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: So, you, you are sort of, it's kind of like you're driving, but you, a lot of the mechanics involve climbing, so it's, it's kind of like playing QWOP, but with no limbs, like, cause you're a snake. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's a very interesting mechanic. I've been having a lot of fun with it.
Laura Massey: Is the game a puzzle, puzzle platformer?
Jeff Rubenstein: It is, yeah. And most of it is figuring out, how do I get to this place?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And there's sort of like a delicate balance of, like, coiling. Being a snake is hard.
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: I didn't know this, but now I have a whole new respect for snakes. Um, and this one's very cute, so ...
Larry Hryb: Are you playing as a boa? Are you going to, like, wrap around somebody?
Jeff Rubenstein: You look like, you look like a coral snake. You know, like, one of those ones that will kill you in one bite.
Laura Massey: Are you, like, poisonous?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I, we haven't gotten to that point yet. You don't actually attack, at least not where I'm at in the game. I'm maybe about 20 percent of the way through. But anyway, for 20 dollars, it's-it's one of the best looking [inaudible 00:24:11] Xbox games I've seen.
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: And again, it's Xbox play anywhere, so you buy it once, uh, for Xbox or for Windows 10. You can just jump back and forth. Your saves go back and forth.
Larry Hryb: Hurray.
Graeme Boyd: Nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, yeah. Uh, Snake Pass. Check it out.
Larry Hryb: You going to put a link to that? You going to put the show notes ...?
Jeff Rubenstein: I can do that. I already put a link to-to the Aberdeen controller, Graeme.
Graeme Boyd: Did you? Did you find it, did you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, of course.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, nice.
Larry Hryb: Uh, I'm playing, just to bring things up, uh, I'm playing Mass Effect. We talked about that, of course. We've mentioned Overwatch, my Overwatch, mad Overwatch skills, what's, apparently Laura ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: ... but you're overinflating them. I'm a, I must admit.
Laura Massey: Intimidating [inaudible 00:24:43].
Larry Hryb: Uh, playing that. Um, I am playing Zelda.
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: I find Beedle incredibly creepy. I'll just say that.
Laura Massey: I saw your tweets.
Graeme Boyd: I don't think I've ... Oh, I have met Beedle. The merchant.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, Beedle's the merchant. He-he, we keep running into this particular mobile merchant. It's like, "Oh hey, it's you again! I think we were married in a previous life!" Yeah, okay, dude.
Laura Massey: Woah. (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Settle down, okay?
Laura Massey: Coming on strong.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, right?
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: So, anyway. But, yeah. I'm having fun with that, of course. Um, I'll give you some of my patented tips off the air if you'd like, Graeme.
Graeme Boyd: Fine.
Laura Massey: I-I heard that you were giving them to Shannon [inaudible 00:25:17].
Larry Hryb: That's right, yeah. Shannon, Shannon and I, uh, who runs our portfolio, we, she and I had a meeting, and we were waiting for the meeting to start, and she had her, she had her Switch, and I'm like, "So, what do you," you know, I was giving her some, we were finding out where we are in the game, and ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: ... whatnot, and, uh, I-I gave her a few tips.
Graeme Boyd: Nice.
Larry Hryb: Just a ... okay, so ...
Graeme Boyd: On that last podcast ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... when-when Jeff was watching you play and it didn't sound like I wanted to take any of your tips.
Larry Hryb: Well, that was ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... that was when ... That's, so ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Like, 1000 ways to die [inaudible 00:25:40].
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Wait a minute, Graeme. Now, you know when you, when you start a video game and it's usually an open world, you're trying to experiment.
Graeme Boyd: Right.
Larry Hryb: Like, can I do this? Can I do that? What's going on here? And here's what I, here's, here's, here's, the, what I've learned about this game with Zelda. You played enough of it, now, you're an hour or two in, a few hours in.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Jeff, you played it. Laura, you haven't had a chance to play.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah.
Larry Hryb: It's the game that says yes.
Graeme Boyd: Hmm.
Larry Hryb: Can I chop down that tree? Yes, you can.
Laura Massey: Huh, really?
Larry Hryb: Can I get on that raft? Yes, you can. Can I go to that mountain? Yes, you can. Can I die this way? Yes, you can.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Can I, can I fish with dynamite, literally?
Larry Hryb: Yes, yes, you can. So, there's, it's-it's the game, like I say, that just says yes.
Graeme Boyd: I like that.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: That's the way I describe it. Anyway, uh, so that's kind of what I'm playing. Uh, big game, I've also had a chance to play a little bit of Thimbleweed Park ...
Graeme Boyd: Oh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: ... which is now available. It's an Xbox play anywhere title. It's available on Xbox, uh, One right now. It's coming to PC soon.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Um, but, uh, we've got Ron Gilbert, legendary Ron Gilbert. So, uh, I had a chance to catch up with him. So you guys want to hear, listen to that?
Laura Massey: Absolutely.
Larry Hryb: Thimbleweed Park is out this week, and joining me on the line is, uh, legendary Mr. Ron Gilbert. Ron, good to have you on the show.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Larry Hryb: Well, we have, we haven't chatted for a while. Last time I had you on was for The Cave, and it's so good to have you back. I know a lot of people have been, uh, excited for Thimbleweed Park. I fired it up on my Xbox One and some people saw that I was playing it a little bit early. Um, but, uh, lot of excitement around this game. Why don't you jump right in and tell us about it?
Ron Gilbert: Yeah. No, there has been a lot of excitement. I'm really, really happy about that. You know, we did a Kickstarter for it, uh, a couple of years ago, and it's ... you know, it's kind of, uh, it's a, you know, a point a click adventure, and, you know, Gary Winnick and I, we both, uh, created Maniac Mansion. We were talking a couple years ago about just the charm that those old LucasFilm adventure games had, and, you know, while a lot of modern adventure games, you know, I think are really good and I enjoy them, they-they really seem to lack whatever that charm was that those old games had. So, you know, we did a Kickstarter to kind of build this game, to see if we could figure out what that charm really was. And so, it was really kind of that, you know, impetus for doing the whole thing.
Larry Hryb: What ... so, I mean, I don't want to spoil, I mean, not, we're not going to give away game spoilers, but tell us about what, if you're able to encapsule, what is the charm? What did you find out at the end of your journey?
Ron Gilbert: I don't know that I really found out anything, to be honest.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: Um, you know, we've had a lot of people play the game. We had a lot of play testers come in ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: ... and we've, you know, had press that have played the game, and everybody says, you know, "Oh, yeah, this is exactly like those LucasArts games." So, I-I feel like we, we did recapture that charm, but I don't know that I could actually quantify what it is. I think some of it, you know, I've always looked at building adventure games as almost improv game design.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ron Gilbert: You know? That you, you design stuff and then you play it, and then you think of weird funny ideas, and you put them in the game, and you play them, and you think of more funny ideas, and you put those in the game, and it's just very kind of evolving, you know, improv design. And, you know, we certainly have done that with Thimbleweed Park, and I do think that as a little bit of the charm of that stuff.
Larry Hryb: When-when, you know, it's interesting you talk about that-that process, cause a lot of the, you know, for a lot of the, you know, these ... the big triple A games developers and designers I talk to, they talk about how there's so much pre-production and there's a point in the production where you can't really change anything, and so you're-you're saying yours is a little bit more fluid, but when, you know, with all of the-the iteration, and you're like, "Oh, this is funny, let's add this," when do you draw the line, and go, "Okay, we-we can't add any more. We got to ship it."
Ron Gilbert: Well, I think, I think you draw that line, you know ... we have, we have a process where we go through what we call content lock, right? And we do that ... for Thimbleweed Park, we did that about two months before.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: So, you know, two-two months from now, and content lock is really the point that we go, "Okay, you know what? We're totally done."
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: Um, we're only fixing bugs at this point, and we're only fixing, like, serious bugs at this point, because we really need to get a very stable version of the game, you know, through tests. So, content lock is the point where we say, "You know what? We're kind of done, and we're, and we're not going to add any more content, uh, to the game."
Larry Hryb: You know, I want to talk, you talked about Maniac Mansion, which you were, you were the writer or the art director. You did, you pretty much did everything on that thing, you know, from ...
Ron Gilbert: I didn't art direct. Gary, Gary did all the art for Maniac Mansion.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Sorry about that. So, so, that was, you know, a few years ago. Um, 30 years ago.
Ron Gilbert: (laughs) A few.
Larry Hryb: What, you know, you talk, with this, with Thimbleweed Park, you did a Kickstarter.
Ron Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Which I, according to what I was able to research, started in, like, 2014, and you started development of the game in 2015. What was the timeline like for Maniac Mansion versus Thimbleweed Park, in terms of ... you know, Maniac Mansion probably was the-the-the target platforms, as there were fewer, maybe the development tools were a little simpler back then. So, what-what are the differences, uh, from a technical perspective, from back then to now? They must be pretty, pretty epic.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah. They're quite a bit different. You know, Maniac Mansion, when we first started working on it, was only for the Commodore 64.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Ron Gilbert: So, we only had one platform. You know, it was obviously ported afterwards, but during the core development, it was only for that, for that platform. So, we only had to worry about one platform.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: Um, but tools, you know, we had no tools. I mean, we had to build all our own tools, right? If we wanted to do graphics for the Commodore 64, we had to build the graphics editor, right? You couldn't just go buy that stuff like you can now.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: Um, you know, we had to write our own assemblers and compilers and all that stuff. So, we were, you know, doing a lot of this very core tool development for the Commodore 64 version of the game. And it took about a year and a half to build Maniac Mansion. And, you know, that was the first game that we'd ever built, you know.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: So there was a lot of ...
Larry Hryb: Lot of learning.
Ron Gilbert: ... you know, kind of ... Yeah, a lot of learning. A lot of, you know, we have no idea what we're doing, let's just kind of do this. Um, you know, Thimbleweed Park took about two years, but Thimbleweed Park is a much, much bigger game than Maniac Mansion was. You know, Maniac Mansion, I think you had 46 different rooms that you could go to, and Thimbleweed Park, there's, um, over 90 different locations that you could go to, and it's just, it's a much more complicated game than, than Maniac Mansion was. So, it's really kind of hard to compare, you know, the development times ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: ... uh, that stuff.
Larry Hryb: Now, it's interesting you say that, because the games, you-you mentioned that the games, on the surface, they feel very similar, but you're saying once you kind of get down below and you peel it back, there's actually a lot of differences and-and, and Thimbleweed Park's much more complex.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah. There's a lot of differences, you know, if you look at it. Because, you know, if you first look at it, you know, it-it kind of looks a little bit like Maniac Mansion, right?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: It has the kind of big bobble-headed characters and, you know, the way the rooms are laid out. But the, the art is actually quite different. You know, we're using a lot of very modern technology. You know, we use shaders and real time dynamic lighting. So you're, you know, you're walking around these, you know, eight bit rooms, but, you know, light is being cast on everything dynamically, and ... The way we've really always thought about the game was, you know, we-we wanted to build the game you way you remember ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: ... you know, Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island being. Not-not the way they actually were, but the way, the way you-you remember them being. So, we've, we've applied a lot of very modern technology to the game to kind of, you know, be able to simulate your memory of those games.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, cause, it's interesting you talk about all the dynamic lighting, and when people look at eight bit, they really don't think of things like that. But you're able to kind of use some of the modern tools to do things, back in the Commodore 64 days, that would have required, you know, those old digital sleight of hands, right?
Ron Gilbert: Yeah, yeah. I mean, things like lighting. I mean, we never could have done anything like lighting. Um, you know, we're also using really nice, you know, digital music for the game, uh, which, you know, we couldn't have done back then, and-and just the amount of memory that we have, you know?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: I mean, modern computers, you know, essentially, have unlimited memory ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: ... you know, for the type of art that we're doing, and, you know, building Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, we were always just completely constrained by the amount of memory we had or the amount of discs that we needed to ship on. And we just don't have those concerns today, so we can do as, you know, as much animation as we want and as much sound effects as we want, and music, and all of these things, which, which really helps quite a bit.
Larry Hryb: Uh, talk, you talked about the music for a second. I was, I was looking, you've got Steve Kirk, who some people may know from another classic, Voodoo Vince.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so Steve, Steve added the music here. That-that must have been a lot of fun, to work with him.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah, Steve is great. I-I, I love Steve a lot, and, you know, I like, I really like working with musicians that, you know, I trust enough to just go, "Go make me some music."
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: You know, and they, and they, they can go off, and they can do stuff, and I just have complete trust in Steve ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: ... to do that, you know. It's like we just, we talked about these very general ideas of kind of mood and feel and style, and then he just went off and did this music, and it's, it's wonderful music. I really like the music in that game a lot.
Larry Hryb: Now, I-I pointed this out when I was, before I did the interview, I, I, uh, called out to Twitter for some questions. You're on Twitter @grumpygamer. I'll put a, I'll put a link in the, in the, uh, show notes for, to your Twitter profile. But, uh, Ryan Brown wanted to know, have you played any free indie point and click games, and what do you think of those?
Ron Gilbert: Uh, yeah, I have, I have played some. I actually don't play a whole lot of point and click adventure games. I-I find that when I play point and click adventure games, I spend all my time deconstructing them ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ron Gilbert: ... and not, and not actually enjoying them. So ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: ... I don't, I don't actually play a whole lot of those for entertainment value.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Ron Gilbert: Um, the-the last one I played that I actually enjoyed quite a bit, um, was, it was called the, the Mermaid of the Milky Way, I believe, it was called.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Ron Gilbert: I'm going to mess that name up, but that, but that one, that's kind of a, you know, a small indie eight bit game that I really kind of enjoyed quite a bit.
Larry Hryb: Just Brian from Twitter wanted to know, am I going to bang my head against my desk figuring out puzzles like I did 30 years ago in Maniac Mansion?
Ron Gilbert: (laughs) Well, you know, I hope, I hope you do, but in a good way, right?
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Ron Gilbert: Because, you know, there's-there's puzzles that are kind of frustrating, and then there's puzzles that are just challenging and interesting, right? And, and, you know, the goal, as an adventure game designer, is to create puzzles that are-are really challenging and you spend a lot of time and, you know, when you complete the puzzle, you know, you're like, "Oh, I should have thought of that," right? "Oh, that was a great puzzle." Um, you know, it's kind of like the-the player should be kind of in this competition with the game and not this competition with the game designer.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: Right? As soon, as soon as, as soon as the player feels like they're battling me, then I-I feel like I've kind of lost them, right? They should be battling the game in the fiction of the game and the world and the characters and the narrative, and all of those things. So, so, I think puzzles can be hard and be challenging, but they shouldn't be frustrating, right? That's the kind of line that we try to keep.
Larry Hryb: What, you know, talking about Thimbleweed Park, what ... let's talk a little bit about the story and the narrative. What, what, where does it take place in-in-in the timeline, and what-what can folks expect?
Ron Gilbert: Well, the game takes place in 1987.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ron Gilbert: Which was the year we released Maniac Mansion, which was the kind of the reason we set the game in 1987. And, it's about these two agents, uh, that come to town because this body was discovered in the river just outside of town. So they've come to town to investigate, you know, who, who killed this person. But that's really kind of the tip of the iceberg, cause you-you really quickly realize when you're playing the game that it's really not about the body, right? That the agents are kind of here for very different reasons, and this, this town is really kind of this very screwy little town, and, actually, nobody really cares about this body, right? It-it-it sits in the river out by the bridge ...
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Ron Gilbert: ... the entire game. And it's like, nobody really cares about it, and that's kind of, you know, what you discover as you're playing it is-is that that body is just, like, the tip of this kind of iceberg of oddness that is Thimbleweed Park.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, cause I-I-I've been playing it a little bit, and it's exactly right. I was like, "Wait a minute, but-but what about the body?" And, it's ...
Ron Gilbert: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... you're right. It's just, the-the story just kind of continues on past that. That's just this ... I don't want to call it a MacGuffin, but it's kind of just this thing to get you started. You-you know, and I don't, I don't want to spoil anything more about it. Um, but it-it's, you know, it is a lot of fun, because you talk about it being the spiritual successor to Maniac Mansion, and-and Monkey Island. Does it, does it exist in those universe, other than the time? Are we going to, are, I haven't gotten that far in the game. Are we going to see any crossovers?
Ron Gilbert: Well, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of stuff that we do that, you know, pokes fun at that stuff, and there's, you know, some, some weird little cameos that happen. Um, you know, since we made all those games, you know, it's really, it's interesting for us to, to put that stuff in. Um, they, they don't exist in the same universe per se, but-but we do a lot of, you know, little homages, you know, to our past work.
Larry Hryb: Are you, you know, are you surprised at how the point, some of the point and click games and these story-based games, um, like The Walking Dead and so forth, have really continued to, to go on and, you know, with, with the, versus, you know, these big triple A first person shooters and these massive open world games, that there's something, there's something kind of refreshing and simplistic to go back to these types of games?
Ron Gilbert: Yeah, there is, and-and I think that's, is, has a lot to do with the narrative-ness of it. You know, I mean, obviously, people love stories, right? We go to movies, we read books, we watch television. We just love stories. And, you know, the old adventure games did a really good job of telling stories. You know, I think that was one of the things that they did really well, and, you know, if you look at, you know, kind of, you know, what I call modern adventure games, you know, things like maybe Firewatch or, uh, you know, The Walking Dead stuff, right? They, they really have taken that narrative thing and-and really focused on it, right? They, they've, they've kind of lost the puzzle solving part of adventure games, but they've really kept the narrative. And-and I think a lot of that also has to do with, um, how diverse the audience is today.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ron Gilbert: You know, it was a very small audience, you know, back in the 90s for games. But, you know, thanks to a lot of the mobile platforms and stuff, everybody plays games these days.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: You know? So it's-it's not this weird little niche, and when you have a very diverse audience of people, you can have a very diverse, you know, styles of games, and I think that's where, you know, things like The Walking Dead and these more narrative-focused games have really started to shine, because they've really brought in a lot of different people into gaming.
Larry Hryb: You know, you mentioned back in the day, cause I played, you know, I played Monkey Island and-and, um, and, um, Maniac Mansion back in the day, and it was very different back in the 80s and-and early 90s, as you said, not-not just because of what you just mentioned, cause it was smaller, but because we really didn't have the Internet to go to and watch a YouTube walkthrough video. We had to go down to our corner computer store, uh, or maybe find somebody at school that was into that. Are you, are you, does that impact the way you develop the puzzles? Cause I remember hitting my head against the keyboard, "Gah, I don't know what's going on!" I didn't have anybody to talk to.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah. The, the Internet is interesting, right? It's-it's this kind of, you know, always on hint system that you can, you can go to, and I don't think it really impacts how we design puzzles, because I think it's the kind of thing that you can never really defeat, right?
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: You can't, you-you can't design a puzzle that is Internet-proof, right?
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Ron Gilbert: Unless there's, unless there's a whole bunch of randomness to it, and I, and I, and I think when you start adding a lot of randomness to puzzles, I think they become just more irritating ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: ... than anything. So when we're designing the games, we don't really think about that. You know, there are people who are going to enjoy the game as they walk through the game with a browser window open, right?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: You know, just following the thing, and they'll still enjoy the game, and that's fine.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: And there are other people that will enjoy the game, you know, by not looking at any hints. Um, YouTube stuff, you know, the walkthroughs and everything, that's, you know, or the let's plays and stuff, that, that's really interesting for narrative games, and ... you know, whether, you know, if somebody can sit down and they can watch, like, a four hour play through of, you know, The Walking Dead game or something, and go, "Well, I don't need to play it now, because I really saw the whole game."
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: That's kind of an interesting question. You know, Thimbleweed Park is a large game, right? You're not going to be able to get through the game in four hours, so, you know, it's-it's not going to be the kind of thing you can just watch a quick video. But I think when you're designing games, you know, to kind of, you know, let's, let's play-proof them, in a way, I think you just need a lot of depth to it ...
Larry Hryb: Mmm.
Ron Gilbert: ... because what you want, is you want somebody to be watching a let's play video, and go, "Oh, I-I wish he would have done that," or, "I wish he would have gone here."
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: And-and then that's the thing that makes them want to buy it, right?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: If they see all the things that the person doing the video didn't do that they wanted to do, uh, then they, then they'll go purchase it. So, I think that's, that's kind of a depth issue that you want in the games.
Larry Hryb: You talked about, you know, Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island, um, and-and Thimbleweed Park having some callbacks and the similarity, and it's very familiar. What are some of the things you were able to do in Thimbleweed Park in terms of play style or some features? You know, you talked about the lighting, and obviously some of those things, but maybe some things that you're able to kind of bring it up to-to spec with and modernize it. What were some of the thing you were able to do in Thimbleweed Park that you, that you weren't able to do in Maniac Mansion or The Secret of Monkey Island?
Ron Gilbert: Well, there's, you know, there's some small things, you know. In-in Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, you know, we had scrolling, right? So-so you'd walk left and right, and the screen would scroll left and right. But we never had vertical scrolling, right? You could never walk up, right?
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: You could only walk left and right, and, I mean, it seems like a stupid small thing, but, you know, there's vertical scrolling in Thimbleweed Park, right?
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: And it's like, wow! We-we can do rooms that are really tall now ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: ... and you have to walk up staircases and, you know, that's, that's a silly thing, because it's so easy and everybody does it today, but, you know, for us, it was, it was kind of an exciting, uh, you know, type of thing to do. I think the other thing is just voice.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ron Gilbert: You know, there was, there was no voice in-in, uh, Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion, and-and being able to do fully voiced games where we get actors that, you know, help, kind of, you know, bring the characters to life, in a way. I think that's really cool. You know, I-I love, I love, I love audio. Uh, I love voice, uh, in games.
Larry Hryb: Well, it's interesting you say about the horizontal and the vertical, cause I remember, you know, playing some of those games back in the day, and I was, I was really into game development back then, and, you know, I-I wasn't a game developer, just a, just a-a game player, and I just remember, "Wow, this is amazing," and, you know, back in 87, I remember reading about all the sprites and all the different technology you guys had to use, uh, to really do what was, you know, essentially, now, looks like very simplistic, you know, just scrolling left and right, but that actually was a pretty big feature.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah, it was. I mean, scrolling back in Maniac Mansion, you know, I spent months working on that code.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Ron Gilbert: You know, to try, try to get that thing to just, you know, scroll left and right, and ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: ... and, you know, like the, [inaudible 00:45:19] online games, they were our main competitor, and they didn't scroll.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: They didn't scroll at all, right, so we kind of felt that it was our big selling point, you know.
Larry Hryb: Right. That's a big feature.
Ron Gilbert: We-we-we scroll, you know.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Ron Gilbert: It was a bullet point on the back of the box, you know, scrolling rooms. Um, you know, so, that-that kind of stuff ... I think, you know, you're always trying to, trying to kind of push the technology, you know?
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ron Gilbert: It's like back in Maniac Mansion days, we were pushing the technology by having rooms that scroll, uh, and, you know, now, we push the technology by having dynamic lighting and all these other things. So, I think you're always just trying to, trying to push the technology to make the games a little more visceral.
Larry Hryb: So, Thimbleweed Park, the back of the box is, uh, rooms that scroll left and right and up and down.
Ron Gilbert: Vertical scrolling.
Larry Hryb: Vertical scrolling.
Ron Gilbert: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: We have voice acting. Are there any other bullets on the back of the Thimbleweed Park box that we should look at? (laughs)
Ron Gilbert: (laughs) Well, we-we have a swearing clown.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Ron Gilbert: I suppose he probably deserves a bullet point.
Larry Hryb: Well, you know, that's interesting, cause-cause clowns are one of the big things I'm scared of, so I don't know if I'm going to ...
Ron Gilbert: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... and I, and I saw the, can we, can we talk about the clown's name?
Ron Gilbert: Sure.
Larry Hryb: Cause I thought it was brilliant.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Go ahead and tell us.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah, Ransom the clown.
Larry Hryb: I don't even want to know ...
Ron Gilbert: Ransom the insolent clown, yeah.
Larry Hryb: (laughs) That lives on the 13th floor of a hotel.
Ron Gilbert: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: I mean, that's just great stuff right there. Well, again, I don't want to talk too much about the game because I want people to experience it themselves, but it's, it's available now, uh, or it's available on March 30th on, uh, for Linux, Windows, uh, Mac, iOS, and Xbox One and Android, and it's coming to other consoles later this year. Is that accurate?
Ron Gilbert: Uh, it's not on, uh, the mobile platforms yet.
Larry Hryb: Okay. So ...
Ron Gilbert: We'll have it on the mobile platforms in a couple of months, but it is on the Xbox and, uh, Windows and Mac and Linux, yeah.
Larry Hryb: And-and the thing to point out is, this is actually, it's a play anywhere title. So when I buy it on ...
Ron Gilbert: It is, yeah.
Larry Hryb: ... Xbox One or Windows 10, I get the other platform. How-how do you feel about, I mean, how do you think about that? That's actually kind of cool.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah, I like that stuff. You know, things like cloud saves, right? Being able to play the game on one computer and pick it up on another computer is-is-is really neat, right? Because people are, people are so mobile, you know? They're kind of moving around, they're playing here, they go to a friend's house to play, and being able to have all your save games and all that stuff is, you know, is really nice to, to have. I really like that.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I know I'm going to be excited where I can, like, start it on my, I've already started it on my console, but then I can go to an office and while I'm waiting for a meeting to open up, open up my Surface and pop open Thimbleweed Park and work through a few things.
Ron Gilbert: Yep.
Larry Hryb: So, I'm really excited about that. So, thanks for being a part of that program. So, listen, Ron, I'll let you go. I'll make sure I link off to you on-on-on Twitter, as well, cause I know a lot of folks are going to want to, uh, hit you up there, so hit up @grumpygamer on Twitter for that. Thimbleweed Park is, uh, coming out, uh, it basically, by the time you listen to this, it will be out, so I want to make sure everyone picks it up and, uh, Ron, thanks so much for your time today.
Ron Gilbert: Yeah, thank you. This is great fun.
Laura Massey: Thanks to Ron Gilbert for that lovely interview.
Larry Hryb: He's great.
Laura Massey: He is, isn't he?
Larry Hryb: I mean, we couldn't really talk that much about the game because I don't want to give away the spoilers, but it was just great to talk about what it was like compiling games back in the day ...
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:48:10]
Larry Hryb: ... versus now, and ... Anyway, lot of fun there. Thank you, Ron. Uh, his-his game is available right now, Thimbleweed Park. Um, check it out.
Laura Massey: Absolutely.
Larry Hryb: Check it out. Jeff, you've got some of the news and headlines over the ... Now, to the news desk.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, hey, thanks a lot, Larry.
Larry Hryb: Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun ...
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Very busy day on the freeways. Uh, first of all, have you downloaded this new Xbox One update?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's a big update.
Jeff Rubenstein: Huge update. Yeah, you'll know it if you have it.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: How do I know it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, because, cause you'll have it. First of all, your home screen is going to look a little bit different, right?
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: And things will load much faster.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Speed.
Jeff Rubenstein: You've been asking for performance. Uh, you will receive it in this update. Uh, my favorite immediate change is one button, uh, to home.
Graeme Boyd: Agreed.
Jeff Rubenstein: Or one button to guide. So, uh, back in the day, as in yesterday and every day before that ...
Larry Hryb: Last week.
Jeff Rubenstein: You had to double, double tap the guide button or the Xbox button, you may call it, uh, in order to-to snap and bring up other things or-or go back home. Um, now, if you hit it once, you'll notice, it will just jump right out there. You can easily, uh, start beam streaming. You can access your pins. You can, uh, check out your achievements. Uh, and you can form parties. There's a ton you can do. You can even form parties now, uh, and do a lot of things with parties through Cortana. So, um, if you're, you're in a party and you want to invite people to a game, you can actually say, "Cortana, invite party to game," without pausing the game, without taking your hand off the controller ...
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... um, and you can do that now.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a-a ton of features [crosstalk 00:49:34].
Larry Hryb: There's also a little, if-if you're a gold member, we just, we, cause people forget, cause they don't follow me on Twitter or whatever, that we remind you ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Perish the thought.
Larry Hryb: ... to get your, uh, to get your games with gold.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, yeah.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: So, a little note there, just, hey, just these are the games you can get this month. So, we're always trying to make sure you don't miss out on any cool freebies.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: So, I mentioned beam integration. You can now get, uh, get up and streaming, like, very, very, very quickly.
Graeme Boyd: So fast.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, you'll see, like ...
Graeme Boyd: It's brilliant, thanks for that.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... a little satellite dish ... Yeah. You hit the-the, uh, the nexus button, the Xbox button, and you will see, like, a little satellite dish, uh, down on the left. You hit that, uh, there's, like, two or three settings, and, um, you're up and going. And so, it-it's, what's cool is, uh, and I think it's the first time we've done this, when you take the update, uh, the first time you reboot, there's an option to watch a little video about all the new features there, and I highly recommend you do watch it, cause it really walks you through how to do all these-these new things. There's, uh, an amazing variety of things in-in terms of co-pilot mode, uh, which is, enables two people to work on something together. Might be good if you're playing with, uh, a small child and you want them to have certain controls over a game. Um, there's, uh, screen time limits for kids. Um, there's, for the more technical-savvy, there's a Bluray, uh, player bitstream passthrough.
Larry Hryb: We have some Atmos stuff coming soon.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. So there, there really is a ton of stuff. I'll link out to, uh, post that, really, details, everything.
Graeme Boyd: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: But-but there is an-an awful lot there. One of my favorite things, uh ... actually, you know, we had Ray Cox, stallion 83, on campus yesterday.
Larry Hryb: He was here in the house, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, uh, he was doing stuff for beam and, uh, and for this new update, and he was, of course, taking, uh, advantage of the new achievement tracker. So, you can actually, essentially, pin an achievement so that, uh, it stays up, uh, on your screen, sort of in the [crosstalk 00:51:16].
Larry Hryb: There's a translucent window, and it tells you how you're doing.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, if you're trying to get to a certain thing, and you ... instead of jumping back and forth to see ..
Graeme Boyd: Oh, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... how, how much your, progress you're making, it'll just stay up there for a selected achievement.
Graeme Boyd: Nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, so, if you're trying to grind something out, that's a good way to do it.
Larry Hryb: You know what I need, is, Laura, I think, and-and Graeme, I think you'll agree with me, do we need a Stardew Valley stream? I think we do, don't we?
Laura Massey: I think we do.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey, we need to see ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I would love to watch you through this.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:51:41]
Graeme Boyd: [crosstalk 00:51:41]
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: We need to see, uh ...
Laura Massey: We can see your farm.
Larry Hryb: I'm only going to ask that you do it if you're wearing overalls.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, let's see. What am I wearing?
Laura Massey: A straw hat.
Jeff Rubenstein: Actually, I-I'm ...
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... I, I, I need a backwards hat. I-I dress like ...
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... sort of like hipster farmer.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's going to be, it's going to be very ...
Larry Hryb: Backwards hat.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I hear that's a ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, local ...
Larry Hryb: ... quite the thing.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... locavore.
Larry Hryb: I think you're a little older for that, though.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, definitely a little too old for that.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Backwards hat thing.
Graeme Boyd: Backwards hat.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh, another piece of news. Have you messed with the, uh, elytra, uh, in Minecraft, which is the gilder?
Larry Hryb: No.
Laura Massey: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right. It, I highly recommend it. I've talked about it on the show before. Uh, you can, when you're playing in creative mode, you can sort of hover and float wherever, but there's actually, if you get these elytra wings, and I'm probably saying it wrong, you actually can fly very quickly, and it really is like a-a tremendous feeling of freedom, and saying that in Minecraft is saying something.
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: Cause it's, like, as free as a game you could ever have. Um, so, one of the things that I was doing, that was popular in my house, is sort of setting up a little obstacle course and try to fly through the rings. Well, now, there's a-a free update that has hit, uh, Minecraft, which actually, um ... it's called glide, and it, it's a free mini-game that lets you test your skills with elytra. So, I definitely recommend you trying that out.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, big news.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Destiny fans.
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, so earlier this week, Destiny 2, uh, was first, uh, announced, and there was more of a reveal trailer that came out.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, that was actually, um, depending on when you're hearing this, just, uh, maybe yesterday. So, uh, you get to see some looks, and we have a, uh, a blog post up on, uh, Xbox wire, and I, uh, you can also pre-order and pre-download.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: You can find that on majornelson.com. So, if you're interested in Destiny 2, I know I am, uh, this will be your first look at it, and no doubt, we'll be learning more pretty soon. It's coming out September 8th, which I feel like was the same day that the first one came out three years ago.
Larry Hryb: Sounds about right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Sounds ...
Graeme Boyd: Was it three years ago?
Larry Hryb: Seems like just yesterday we were over there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, 2014.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: In fact, we did a stream.
Laura Massey: We did?
Jeff Rubenstein: From the Bellevue Microsoft store.
Laura Massey: From the store.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was fun. That was the first time I had ever done a ...
Larry Hryb: Was I there?
Jeff Rubenstein: You couldn't make it. So, it was you, me, and Will Tuttle.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Did a stream from the Bellevue store.
Larry Hryb: Where was I?
Jeff Rubenstein: It was pretty fun.
Laura Massey: I don't know. I think you might have been at another launch event.
Larry Hryb: Who knows?
Jeff Rubenstein: We made the front page of, uh, Twitch that day.
Laura Massey: We did?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura Massey: Oh, no way.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is when beam was just a-a glimmer and a ...
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:54:00]
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:54:00]
Jeff Rubenstein: ... that's all some [crosstalk 00:54:01].
Graeme Boyd: Have you ever been in the Scottish Sun, though?
Jeff Rubenstein: I've never been in the Scottish Sun.
Graeme Boyd: Wow, okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: The-the Fort Lauderdale Sunset, maybe.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, another Xbox play anywhere title, I know we were talking about Snake Pass and Thimbleweed Park. Uh, another one's coming next week called Enter the Gungeon. Um, so I'll, I can link to that. That's something that, um, I had heard about on PC for awhile, so it looks like it's very fast-paced and fun, and will be on Xbox One and Windows 10.
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And, uh, another game I just wanted to call out, uh, a lot of [inaudible 00:54:30] Xbox games coming out, um, this time of year. I mean, almost every day. Uh, a rogue-like strategy game called Has-Been Heroes. It has a really, uh, cool look and it, it almost looks a little, it's sort of like a washed-up sort of hero tropes in, like, an RPG. Uh, and just, when you look at it, uh, the way things are lined up, it-it kind of looks a little bit like a, uh, an old-school 16 bit Final Fantasy, uh, sort of layout, where you're on one side and the enemies are on the other, but obviously, very modernized. It's not a ...
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: ... it's not pixel art. So, uh, might be worth taking a look at it.
Larry Hryb: Lots of stuff going on. Head over to majornelson.com or news.xbox.com. You can find out what's going on, when, where, how, and why, but what you won't see there because I didn't post it was, I tweeted it ... sorry, watching the new Game of Thrones trailer.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs) Why are you doing that right now?
Larry Hryb: As we, look at this.
Graeme Boyd: He doesn't have enough time.
Laura Massey: What?
Larry Hryb: Look, I'll flip it over. See? It's right there.
Laura Massey: Oh, my goodness.
Graeme Boyd: Look at that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Can we, like, pause the show, and then ...
Larry Hryb: Should we?
Jeff Rubenstein: ... watch it? And then talk about it.
Larry Hryb: All right, we're going to pause the show. We'll come back, hold on.
Jeff Rubenstein: We put a link to that in the, uh ...?
Larry Hryb: We just watched it. You ready?
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Winter's coming, et cetera, et cetera.
Laura Massey: Winter is, is there, it seems.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. It's there.
Laura Massey: Man, that gave me chills.
Larry Hryb: Speaking of that ...
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:55:34]
Larry Hryb: ... speaking of that, we need summer here in Seattle.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: So have you, have you ...
Laura Massey: I am done with winter.
Larry Hryb: ... been reading about this, apparently, we, this is the most, this is one of the top rainiest seasons in Seattle we've had in, like ...
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: ... forever?
Jeff Rubenstein: Which, when you're talking about Seattle, that really means something.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know?
Laura Massey: I read a depressing tweet, which I didn't really want to read, but I saw it, and it said that since, um, October 1st, we've had five percent sunny days.
Larry Hryb: Uh, I can ...
Jeff Rubenstein: That's one out of 20. That's, like, less than two a month.
Larry Hryb: I-I can confirm.
Jeff Rubenstein: I can do math.
Larry Hryb: I can confirm that. My wife reminds me every morning when we wake up. "I can't deal with this anymore."
Laura Massey: Aww.
Larry Hryb: So ...
Graeme Boyd: I always thought I was a bit of a lucky chum, cause whenever I came to Seattle, the weather was usually pretty good.
Laura Massey: (gasps)
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: But lately it's been ...
Larry Hryb: It's, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: And last time I was there [crosstalk 00:56:20].
Larry Hryb: Your luck has worn off, my friend.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, it has, hasn't it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Same thing happened to me. Like, when I lived in the Bay area, every time I'd come up here ... cause it was usually for packs or something in the summer, and I was like, "What are they talking about?"
Laura Massey: "Why is everyone moaning about this?"
Jeff Rubenstein: "It's just a urban legend ..."
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: "... cause they don't want people moving here." And then I moved here in November, and I didn't see the sun for, like, three or four ...
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: Months.
Larry Hryb: Months.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I realize, no, that's-that's not [crosstalk 00:56:42].
Larry Hryb: All right, so that's your weather, Game of Thrones, and game news for the week.
Graeme Boyd: I've got one other bit of game news that I noticed this morning that-that ...
Larry Hryb: Go ahead.
Graeme Boyd: ... I quite liked is that Far Cry 3 is now ...
Larry Hryb: Back in pat.
Graeme Boyd: Back in pat, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that back in pat list keeps growing.
Graeme Boyd: It does.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:56:53]
Graeme Boyd: And I thought ...
Larry Hryb: Way over 300 titles.
Graeme Boyd: I always loved that, um, speaking of farming, the mission in Far Cry 3 where you had to, you know, burn up the farm.
Larry Hryb: You had to burn up a farm, that's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah.
Larry Hryb: I forgot about that.
Graeme Boyd: The specialist farm.
Larry Hryb: The specialist.
Jeff Rubenstein: What was the song that they played? I felt like they ...
Graeme Boyd: It's called "Make it Bun Dem." It's a Skrillex song.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, okay, yeah. I remember they matched the song really well.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, it's like, when dubstep was-was the thing.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: It was quality though, yeah. It was a great mission.
Larry Hryb: Jeff and I played a lot of Far Cry 4.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: We did the whole game co-op, didn't we?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Well, all the, all the missions you could ...
Larry Hryb: In the, in the gyrocopter. We had a [crosstalk 00:57:25].
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I don't think you can play the main missions co-op ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... but you could do all the the, the forts or whatever.
Larry Hryb: Speaking of that, we got to get into Ghost Recon.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know how we haven't, but let's make a note of that. Is that something you'd play at six o'clock in the morning, Graeme?
Graeme Boyd: Eh, I'll play anything at six o'clock in the morning.
Larry Hryb: That's true.
Graeme Boyd: If I'm up.
Larry Hryb: That's true.
Graeme Boyd: Although it's usually Minecraft or-or Lego World.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: How is that?
Graeme Boyd: Uh, we've been enjoying it, actually, yeah. Finn really took to it well, yeah. So it's, um, I guess it doesn't have the same ... you know, Minecraft, everything, like, performs exactly as you expect it to.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: It's got that amazing sort of structure running through the game. Uh, I guess Lego World is a little bit looser than that, so you can be more intricate if you want to, but it's kind of more difficult to create really, uh, like, impactful things straightaway, but it's got a lot of depth. And the gameplay itself is more, I guess, is more objective based.
Larry Hryb: Mmm.
Graeme Boyd: You're going around, helping people and collecting gold bricks and stuff, but ...
Larry Hryb: Mmm.
Graeme Boyd: ... you know, visually and everything, it looks fantastic. We just love Lego, as well, so ...
Larry Hryb: We did, uh, we did do game news, your, uh, your TV news, your weather news ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Your post-apocalyptic planning news.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: We have one more bit of news, movie news.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah?
Larry Hryb: Rogue One, now available digitally.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, is it?
Larry Hryb: I've already seen it three times. I've already ...
Laura Massey: Oh, my goodness.
Larry Hryb: ... on my Xbox, three times.
Laura Massey: That's great.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, I need to do that.
Larry Hryb: Go watch, go watch the bonuses.
Laura Massey: They were good?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, they're-they're always good. I mean ...
Laura Massey: Is it, is it good the second and third time around?
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: This is, this could be one of the most beautifully shot Star Wars films. It's just the-the-the frame and whatnot.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm on the, I'm on the hunt for a 4K TV.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm-I'm about ready to pull the trigger, and I want that to be my first 4K Bluray, and play it on Xbox One.
Larry Hryb: Why, so I have ... actually, should be, should be in the house today, uh, I ordered by 4K Blurays for Planet Earth 2.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, nice.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: So, I'll let you borrow those.
Graeme Boyd: I didn't know they were out yet.
Larry Hryb: They just came out, like, this week.
Graeme Boyd: Did they?
Larry Hryb: I-I don't know, I'm, they usually come out in Europe, probably before then. Maybe they, maybe it's worldwide with-with the DVD.
Graeme Boyd: That's going to look ridiculous.
Larry Hryb: Right? So I'm looking forward to that, popping that ye olde Xbox One S and taking a look at it.
Graeme Boyd: I actually met a cameraman from Planet Earth 2 at an event we were doing for Dead Rising 4.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: I guess in December.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: And he had, like, his, what he does is he builds these remote control rigs ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: ... with Steadicams on them.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Graeme Boyd: And-and he can, he's basically built this modular system where you can fix any different type of ...
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Graeme Boyd: ... camera onto it. [crosstalk 00:59:42]
Larry Hryb: It's basically like Legos.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, yeah. It was really cool, and then he remote controls it all. But he was in, he was in the one where they had all the locusts.
Larry Hryb: I haven't seen anything yet.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, it's so good.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Graeme Boyd: Anyway, so-so he's actually in the show, cause they do these really nice, like, making of bits ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... at the end of each episode.
Larry Hryb: Well, everyone wants to know, how did you get that shot?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: So you can see him in there, but he was saying that he had seen it in 4K, you know, as part of the production process.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: Like, back in October, November of last year, and he said it's just, it just blows your mind.
Larry Hryb: So did he go out, like, spend, like, two years in the ...
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: ... in the, out back or out in the wilderness to get that one 15 second shot?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I mean, there's amazing stories that come out of this.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's what they were saying, it's just like, you know, so much travel and so much time ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: ... just to get those moments.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: That must have been amazing to work on that.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Graeme Boyd: I mean, what an achievement that-that ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... series is.
Larry Hryb: Precisely.
Graeme Boyd: Incredible.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, make, put a link off to those as well. All right. So, that's what we have. We've got name the game, Laura.
Laura Massey: Yeah, before we close here.
Larry Hryb: Before we close here, I mean, we're kind of bringing up the rear. We've got to get, Graeme's got to get on his airplane.
Laura Massey: That's right. Can't let Graeme be late.
Graeme Boyd: I have a story for you before we go, though.
Larry Hryb: Do you want to tell it now, before we ...
Graeme Boyd: Well, it up to you guys.
Jeff Rubenstein: Go for it.
Larry Hryb: Okay, sure, let's ...
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: We can't ...
Graeme Boyd: I guess it sort of fits in news, but I don't know if you saw this, but we had our first Xbox design lab controller ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh.
Graeme Boyd: ... proposal.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was not the first.
Graeme Boyd: Was it not?
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: Do you know the first, the first that I know of ...
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... took place on Christmas, and it was stallion 83.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's right.
Graeme Boyd: Was it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I sent him the controller. Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, my goodness.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe it was the first in ...
Graeme Boyd: First in Europe.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... on the east side, yes.
Graeme Boyd: On the east side?
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Is that what you call Europe?
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: On the east side? I like that. Ah, oh, well. Okay. Well, that takes the wind out of my sails a little bit.
Laura Massey: Aw.
Graeme Boyd: So thank you for that, but congratulations to stallion 83 and his ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, they're getting married in June. Sorry, I really ruined that.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Well, no, no. It's all ... No, we had some, we met a guy called Erwin from the Netherlands maybe two years ago at Gamescom, two or three years ago. Um, and he's a massive Xbox fan, and he's-he's stayed in contact with-with a lot of people at Xbox on Twitter, especially, uh, over that time, and he got in touch with Adam Greenburg ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: ... and said that he wanted to propose to his girlfriend, and the way he wanted to do it was with a, with an Xbox design lab controller.
Jeff Rubenstein: How about, we'll put both of those proposals in the show notes?
Graeme Boyd: We totally should, yeah.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I'll find those.
Larry Hryb: What I'm looking for right now, since you've dropped that one, is I just got an email, somebody sent it to majorxbox.com. Laura, I don't know if you saw this. And it was, uh, the first, we have the first one million, uh, gamer score person over in Asia.
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Graeme Boyd: Oh, really? Wow.
Larry Hryb: I'll see if I can pull that up here. I'm trying to, desperately searching.
Graeme Boyd: Well, while you're doing that, I just want to say, congratulations to Erwin and to Mandy, his lovely fiancee. Uh, cause they're going, they're getting married, and she got a really cool Xbox design lab controller out of it, as well. So that's better than a ring, probably, isn't it?
Laura Massey: Yeah, maybe, maybe. What color did he choose?
Graeme Boyd: It was, uh, sort of pink and a kind of powdery blue.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep, powdery blue is popular. This was stallion's. Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: It's almost like the reverse of that one.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: That looks a lot like ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: ... my custom controller.
Jeff Rubenstein: She won't use it, either. She's just, you know, she sort of has it up on the mantle.
Laura Massey: Aww.
Graeme Boyd: Ah, good on them. That's good.
Laura Massey: That's really sweet. Really sweet.
Larry Hryb: All right. Thank you for that. I can't seem to find that email, see if I can dig it up while Laura works on her name the game.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Laura, you got your name the game?
Laura Massey: I am ready now, let's name the game.
Larry Hryb: All right. You've got, you've got the recording. You press that little green play button right in front of you so we can play back last week's name the game, all right?
Laura Massey: Let's roll that tape.
So, that was name the game from last week.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Actually, two weeks ago.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And the game was Trove.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: Pretty easy one. Anyway, the winner we have is Carl from Texas, and his gamer tag is CarlonXbox. Congratulations, Carl.
Larry Hryb: Do you know him?
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: You're from Texas.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: I am from Texas.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Laura Massey: So are a lot of other people.
Jeff Rubenstein: Do you ever get the thing, like, "Oh, my, I have a friend of a friend who works at Microsoft, and ..."
Laura Massey: I get that all the time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: "Do you know this friend?" I'm like, "Mmm, no."
Jeff Rubenstein: There's 115,000 people that work here. Yeah.
Laura Massey: There's a lot of people that work here.
Graeme Boyd: My mum and dad have been doing that lately with me. They met someone in the UK who knew someone who worked at Microsoft, and they keep asking me every time I'm home, "Have you looked up that guy yet?" And I'm like, "Chill out. I'm not going to know him."
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: But maybe you do.
Graeme Boyd: No, I don't think I do.
Larry Hryb: Oh, okay.
Graeme Boyd: Cause he's got like a, he, he sounds like he's super intelligent. Yeah. Not to say that I don't know lots of super intelligent people at Microsoft ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Hey, hey, hey ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: ... we, we take offense to that remark.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: On behalf on Laura, I take offense to that remark. (laughs)
Laura Massey: Thanks, thanks, Larry. All right, let's tell Carl what he's won. Carl, you've won a bunch of awesome stuff here. You've won a copy of Trove: The Essentials pack, a copy of Goat Simulator with the new waste of space DLC, which is a really fun game. I should get that DLC, it should be super fun. You also get a copy of Dark Souls 3 and the new Ringed City DLC.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ooh.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: I need to get on that.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey.
Laura Massey: Looking at you, Jeffrey, on that one.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm so out of practice.
Laura Massey: You also get a copy of This is the Police ...
Larry Hryb: "Step out of the car. This is the police."
Laura Massey: ... and a copy of Thumbleweed, excuse me, Thimbleweed Park, which we talked about earlier.
Larry Hryb: Talked about earlier today.
Laura Massey: Exactly. And that's not all. You also ...
Larry Hryb: What?
Laura Massey: ... get a copy of mass Effect: Andromeda, and the 2150 Mass Effect: Andromeda points, or, no, sorry. You get 2150 Mass Effect ...
Larry Hryb: Okay, not 2000, not 2200. 2150.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: While is a really odd number.
Larry Hryb: Apparently, it's right under the-the tax limit where we have to tax you if it's more than that. I know I have no idea what that means.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, congratulations, uh, [inaudible 01:05:29] Carl. Um, Laura will hand-deliver your prize, cause you know Carl, like we discussed.
Laura Massey: Of course, cause ...
Larry Hryb: Texas.
Laura Massey: I know everybody who lives in Texas.
Larry Hryb: Yes, you do. Um, anyway.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: So, does that mean you have another one?
Laura Massey: I do. Let's do a name the game for this week.
So, that was name the game for this week. If you, too, would like to win awesome prizes, it's super easy. All you have to do is send me an email and include what game you think those sounds are from. My email is [email protected] [inaudible 01:06:29] [email protected].
Larry Hryb: Nice.
Laura Massey: Yep. And ...
Larry Hryb: You can also reach out to us for anything else.
Laura Massey: That's true. We like to know, you know, where all of our listeners are from ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: ... or how you're doing.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: Just pop us an email.
Larry Hryb: If you happen to see that, um, if you have that issue of the, um, Scottish Sun. Is that what it is?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. Scottish Sun, yeah.
Larry Hryb: The Scottish Sun.
Graeme Boyd: I think it was the Sunday edition.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you just try a Scottish accent there ...
Laura Massey: He did. He did.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... for a second?
Larry Hryb: Stop it, I know what you're going to ...
Jeff Rubenstein: You know exactly what I'm going to stay.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Do they have any no calorie soda up in, uh, Scotland?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah?
Graeme Boyd: Where is this going?
Jeff Rubenstein: What is it called? What's it called? Just curious.
Graeme Boyd: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: Is it, uh ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Diet.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... a Coke-a light?
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: What? I don't know the, I don't know the reference.
Graeme Boyd: No, it's called Diet Coke.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, Diet Coke, okay.
Larry Hryb: Diet Coke.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Graeme Boyd: Or, actually ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, in-in-in ... (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: ... Irn Bru is more of the ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I, yeah, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... sort of the stuff you drink in Scotland.
Jeff Rubenstein: Now, uh, well, I've traveled around. I've been fortunate enough to travel, uh, all over the world with Larry, and what I've noticed is, is he's a diet Coke drinker, especially when you've traveled nine or ten hours, uh ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: ... to Germany, for instance, and you need some caffeine.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And where-where they call it Coke light.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And-and, but whenever he orders it, he just affects this sort of, like, uh, a comical mustached plumber Italian accent.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Coke-a light.
Jeff Rubenstein: Coke-a light.
Larry Hryb: I can't help, I don't know why.
Graeme Boyd: Even in Germany?
Larry Hryb: Everywhere.
Jeff Rubenstein: Especially in Germany.
Graeme Boyd: It's consistent to the, it's consistent ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... bad Italian accent.
Larry Hryb: Apparently, I've been consistent.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. I-I wouldn't really call it an Italian accent. It's just the ...
Larry Hryb: I don't know what it is.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Okay, now that you've thoroughly embarrassed me ...
Laura Massey: Aw.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: I'm going to look out for that.
Jeff Rubenstein: I can't get, I-I can't get you to blush very often, but that was worth it.
Larry Hryb: (sighs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Thank you for that. Thank you, Laura. Good luck on name the game, and, uh, if you, don't, don't bring me a Coke-a light, please.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: All right. Uh, hey, I found that gamer tag. It's, uh, his, or her name, I don't know. It doesn't say. The gamer tag is sangrias, and they are from Seoul, Korea, and they are one of the first people in Asia to hit, uh, one million gamer score.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Graeme Boyd: Wow, congratulations.
Larry Hryb: So they got their gamer score achievement was, uh, you're too easy on you're a millionaire, or who wants to be a millionaire, so pretty, pretty ...
Graeme Boyd: Oh, that's, uh, clever.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: I appreciate that.
Larry Hryb: So, anyway, I wanted to say, uh, Sang was your name. I wanted to say congratulations. Uh, we got your email, and giving a little shout out to you.
Laura Massey: Yeah. That's quite an achievement.
Larry Hryb: All our-our fans in Asia, especially ... I've never been to South Korea. Do you have diet Coke in South Korea>? (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: I want to go. We should go there.
Larry Hryb: We should go.
Graeme Boyd: I want to go there.
Larry Hryb: We should, do you want to go?
Graeme Boyd: I've never been further than Germany in that direction, on the east side.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Oh, okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: You've come, you've come to Tokyo Game Show with us, haven't you?
Graeme Boyd: No, none of, I've never been.
Larry Hryb: Oh, boy.
Laura Massey: Never been to Tokyo?
Jeff Rubenstein: We need to make this happen.
Larry Hryb: Wow. That's, that's, Jeff and I have stories to tell about that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, do you?
Larry Hryb: Independent of ...
Jeff Rubenstein: It's amazing. It's ...
Graeme Boyd: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Are they off air stories?
Larry Hryb: Uh ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah ... a couple of them.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Some of them.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, uh, so anyway, congratulations, Sang. I want to thank you. You're a big fan of the show. Sent you this, sent you this email as well at [email protected].
Laura Massey: Okay. Great.
Larry Hryb: So, I want to thank you, Sang ...
Laura Massey: Thank you.
Larry Hryb: ... for listening and your support of Xbox.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: What else we got there, Graeme? Did you check into your flight yet?
Graeme Boyd: I have checked into my flight, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Did you pack your bags? You're all set to go?
Graeme Boyd: I'm all set, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Did you or anybody else come in contact with your bags when you packed them?
Graeme Boyd: Um ...
Larry Hryb: I'm sorry.
Graeme Boyd: No.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: He's sending us all to TSA.
Larry Hryb: Getting all TSA for some reason. I don't know what's happening.
Graeme Boyd: No, I'm all set. Just need to drop the hire car and get on the plane. Get the Switch fired up again.
Larry Hryb: Did you charge it up?
Graeme Boyd: I have. It's what I've been doing this whole [crosstalk 01:09:49].
Larry Hryb: I have a, I have a USBC battery that I use on the airplane.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, that's a good idea.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that really, cause some of my devices are [crosstalk 01:09:54].
Graeme Boyd: I think I've got access to a plug on the plane.
Larry Hryb: I think you do, too.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: That BA flight, you have, you have [inaudible 01:09:59].
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. You [inaudible 01:10:00] in BA, British Airways, eh?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't mind it, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: That's good.
Larry Hryb: I miss the old days of BA when they used to fly the Concord.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, right, yeah.
Larry Hryb: I remember that.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Did you do that?
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you ever get on it?
Larry Hryb: I never got on the Concord. I saw it land and take off a couple times from JFK ...
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Larry Hryb: ... but never ... cause it would come out over ... You remember the Concord, of course.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: It would come out and would go up over, sometimes it would go up over Connecticut, and we would hear the sonic boom ...
Laura Massey: Really?
Graeme Boyd: Wow.
Larry Hryb: ... um, in the morning when it was coming out of hyperspace. (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Is that ...? (laughs) We're going into hyperspace.
Graeme Boyd: Wow, it's different than how I remember it.
Laura Massey: Pretty much hyperspace.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, exactly, so I-I just remember that, and it was, oh, God. Such a, such a .... There's actually one of those in Seattle, did you know that?
Graeme Boyd: No.
Larry Hryb: Down at the Museum of Flight, they have one of the, one of the ... So if you ever get to Seattle and you want to go to the Museum of Flight, they have one of the Concord, Concords there, Concord, Concord, however you want to say it. It's not grape, so it's not Concord.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Uh, and they also have one of the old Airforce One aircraft.
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, wow.
Larry Hryb: There's a lot of really good stuff down there at the Museum of Flight. I, you want to hit that on your way out?
Graeme Boyd: Maybe I will, yeah. Do a flying visit.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: You have nothing, you have nothing ... God. That's why I unfollowed you on, uh, Twitter.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, yeah.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Cause of the puns.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, come on. You never followed me.
Larry Hryb: Not true. I was, for, like, 15 minutes, then ...
Laura Massey: Oh, no.
Larry Hryb: ... I don't ...
Graeme Boyd: (laughs) And then he was out. [inaudible 01:11:09]
Larry Hryb: Uh, so yeah, I don't know. Usually we talk about gadgets and cool electronic stuff. We've, uh, have been around. I don't know if we have, do you have anything, Laura? Nothing you want to talk about?
Laura Massey: Nothing I want to talk about, no.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Jeff Rubenstein: I would love to hear your ... and-and not just the folks in the room, but anyone who's listening, like, any good 4K TV recommendations.
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Kind of looking at the Samsung KS ...
Larry Hryb: Well, it's Samsung or the LG, are really the two.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, those seem to be the two ...
Larry Hryb: Is that, is that what you have over in ...
Graeme Boyd: I went Panasonic.
Larry Hryb: You have Panasonic?
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. I actually, I mean, I'll be honest and say that the one I got, it's-it's pretty entry-level.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: But it's kind of, like, it's entry-level but it has all the specs that I wanted, you know. I mean, I didn't really compromise on anything.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: I don't want to keep the price [crosstalk 01:11:47].
Larry Hryb: What is it missing?
Graeme Boyd: I love it.
Larry Hryb: What is it missing?
Graeme Boyd: It's, so, the, I don't think the HDR is, like ... so, I only found out afterwards that, you know, there's, there's various ...
Larry Hryb: Multiple flavors of HDR.
Graeme Boyd: ... [crosstalk 01:11:57] of HDR, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: So, I hadn't really done enough research there. But it, honestly, it didn't really bother me, cause I wanted to use it more for ... It's-it's-it's our main family TV.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Graeme Boyd: Right? So it's doing a lot of different things, so, um ... I'm absolutely delighted with it, though. Like, I honestly think it's some of the best money I've ever spent on, like, literally anything in my life.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: Cause everything just looks so much better on it, and then when you do stick in a, you know, an ultra HD Bluray on your Xbox One S ...
Larry Hryb: I want to see what Planet Earth looks like.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: That's, that's what I'm looking for.
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Larry Hryb: I'll do that tonight when I get home.
Graeme Boyd: We watched, um, uh, Revenant on it. Like, I've watched it, like, three times.
Larry Hryb: Really?
Graeme Boyd: But I never watch a film multiple times, but it just looks so incredible.
Larry Hryb: Did you watch The Martian?
Graeme Boyd: No.
Larry Hryb: Oh, you got to watch The Martian.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah?
Larry Hryb: That in 4K is delightful, right, Laura?
Laura Massey: I have not seen it.
Larry Hryb: You haven't seen it in 4K?
Laura Massey: Not in 4K.
Larry Hryb: Ooh.
Laura Massey: I've never actually seen a movie in 4K.
Larry Hryb: Oh. It's, I'll tell you this.
Laura Massey: All you guys have them, so ...
Larry Hryb: I'll tell you this.
Laura Massey: ... invite me for ...
Larry Hryb: It's tough to, um ... because we were so used to watch things on Netflix and Amazon and Hulu, things are streaming and they say they're 1080p. Um, they're highly compressed.
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And when, even when you see a Bluray disc, it looks so amazing cause it's not compressed, so ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: ... it's like, "Wow, it looks ..." And then you get to 4K, and it's just, it's just that much sharper. You know, if you have HDR, the colors pop a little more. It's just, it's-it's-it's a ... and I can't even imagine what Planet Earth is going to look like, cause those images are stunning anyway.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: This is just completely ... And then what's great about Planet Earth is I know it's none of these, you know, these crazy visual effects and, you know, it's not digital. This is the real deal.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: This is, this is Planet Earth, the way it's meant to be seen.
Graeme Boyd: Absolutely. That's the one. That, that is going to shift 4K TVs.
Larry Hryb: You know, if you want, we can probably, we can probably order it and have it delivered to the, to the, to the gate before you check in.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Oh, really?
Larry Hryb: Amazon could probably do that.
Graeme Boyd: Ooh. I'll wait until I get home.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it must be a little ...
Graeme Boyd: And it's Rogue One, is that going to be available in ultra HD?
Larry Hryb: Well, it's, I got to tell you something. Um, you know, Rogue One, this is, I got to call my friends at Disney, cause I'm horribly confused. They did, Disney is known for marketing their films, and you can't swing a dead cat without knowing a movie's coming out, like the Beauty and the Beast. They kind of stealth-released this digitally.
Graeme Boyd: Mmm.
Larry Hryb: And I can't find out when the Bluray's coming out. I certainly don't know if it's coming out in 4K.
Graeme Boyd: It's next week.
Larry Hryb: Is it next week?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, cause I saw it, I was in Walmart or whatever, and I saw it in there.
Larry Hryb: Cause I-I ...
Graeme Boyd: It's, like, next Tuesday.
Larry Hryb: I was looking over on Amazon, and I-I couldn't find it, and I don't know what's going on. So, that's, I got to order that, as well. So I-I, the answer is ...
Graeme Boyd: I want to see that in 4K. That would be nice.
Larry Hryb: It's, has Finn seen it yet?
Graeme Boyd: No.
Larry Hryb: Uh oh.
Graeme Boyd: That's okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: How old is Finn?
Graeme Boyd: Uh, he is six, going on seven.
Jeff Rubenstein: Might be ... I don't know if this movie's, like, necessarily ... it's a little darker.
Graeme Boyd: I gave him the option, and I was ...
Larry Hryb: Well, you've seen it.
Graeme Boyd: ... always going to see it first. I saw it, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: I was going to see it first and then kind of give him the ... But he's at sort of an age now where he's self ... he sort of says, "I'm not sure I want to see it in the cinema, let's wait for, you know, Bluray or whatever," cause he wants to, you know, control the experience a little bit more.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative), mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: Which I think is very mature of him, you know?
Laura Massey: It is.
Graeme Boyd: He knows his limitations.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: He was the same with Power Rangers. I was like, "Come on, let's go and see Power Rangers. Looks really good," and he was like, "I think it might be a bit scary."
Jeff Rubenstein: Hmm.
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Graeme Boyd: "So let's wait for DVD."
Larry Hryb: He's self-policing.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, he is.
Larry Hryb: Interesting.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, he's a good lad.
Larry Hryb: I-I can't, I'm sorry, I'm looking, I'm over on Amazon. It's-it's unclear to me.
Graeme Boyd: Hmm.
Larry Hryb: It's completely unclear to me.
Laura Massey: It's very strange.
Larry Hryb: Like, I'm going to, here, I'm going to put this up on the screen. You guys, let's ...
Laura Massey: Usually, they're very on top of it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I don't, I don't know what's, I don't know. Maybe I, maybe I just don't know how to run the web anymore. That's entirely possible.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Like, there's a theatrical version. So, this is buy the movie in HD. You know, I click on Rogue One, right?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And where is it?
Jeff Rubenstein: More purchase options, maybe?
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Anyway.
Laura Massey: Internetting is hard.
Larry Hryb: Internetting is hard. Anyway. All right, gang. We'll let you guys go. Um, we will, uh ... Graeme, I want to thank you again for coming over.
Graeme Boyd: Thank you for the invite, as always. It's a total pleasure.
Jeff Rubenstein: I can't believe you flew over here.
Graeme Boyd: I mean, this generally is one of the highlights of my week every time I come over here.
Laura Massey: Aww.
Larry Hryb: Oh, you're so kind.
Jeff Rubenstein: You flew here just for this.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm touched.
Graeme Boyd: Well, I was in, I was in conferences, so, you know, this is a nice, a nice, uh, gearshift, let's say.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. We-we, that, we're a little more, I'm-I'm pretty sure you didn't talk about some of the things we talked about here on, in your conferences.
Graeme Boyd: No, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: None of, none of this. No, it was good fun.
Larry Hryb: That's good.
Graeme Boyd: I moderated a panel for the very first time.
Laura Massey: Cool.
Larry Hryb: Good for you.
Graeme Boyd: Which I really enjoyed, actually.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: It was ...
Jeff Rubenstein: You're very moderate.
Graeme Boyd: Uh ... Thank you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Uh, I'll take that as a compliment.
Larry Hryb: I have nothing to add to part of the ...
Laura Massey: So many puns.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Laura Massey: This is the punniest ...
Larry Hryb: Laura, just, all we can do is shut up.
Laura Massey: I know.
Larry Hryb: Just-just keep our mouths shut and not contribute to the ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... nonsense. All right, guys. Uh, you can find Graeme on Twitter at ...
Graeme Boyd: AceyBongos.
Larry Hryb: You know him, you love him. If you want to, if you want the pun of the day ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Graeme Boyd: Yep.
Larry Hryb: ... you go to AceyBongos.
Graeme Boyd: I do my best.
Larry Hryb: Nothing but highbrow humor there. You can find Jeffrey at ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, Coke-a light. Oh, I'm sorry, uh ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: JeffRubenstein. That's-a Mario.
Larry Hryb: Laura, you can find Laura at ...
Laura Massey: You can find me @lauralollipop.
Larry Hryb: And you guys know where to find me, Major Nelson. You'll see me on your Xbox every Friday, uh, with this week on Xbox. What else can ... they can find me on Facebook, too, right, Graeme?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, Facebook and ...
Larry Hryb: Twitter.
Graeme Boyd: ... Twitter.
Larry Hryb: Twitter.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, and you've got a majornelson.com.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we do. We-we got a, the show is amazing. There's, everybody gives us great feedback. Here's, you know the secret is we try to keep the show under 10 minutes every week.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, right.
Larry Hryb: Cause we know the average, the average, uh, you know, the average, uh, attention span is pretty low.
Graeme Boyd: Check you out with the data.
Larry Hryb: Well, we just know. You-you don't, you want to, you don't want to know how scary the data is, in terms of, in terms of when people tune out. It's, what is it, seven seconds, Jeff?
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's about how much you get on Facebook, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. So, there you go.
Graeme Boyd: Got to grab them.
Larry Hryb: Got to grab them. All right, gang. Graeme, we'll have you on again when you're back over here. Hopefully, you'll be over before E3, right?
Graeme Boyd: Hopefully.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, I'll let you know.
Larry Hryb: Right on.
Graeme Boyd: That would be nice.
Larry Hryb: All right. Safe travels, my friend.
Graeme Boyd: Thank you.
Larry Hryb: Laura and Jeff, we'll see you guys next time, and you, dear listener, thank you for your time. We'll talk to you next time. Bye-bye, everybody.
Laura Massey: Bye-bye.
Jeff Rubenstein: Bye.