734: Outriders Demo and more

Larry Hryb:
Hi, it's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. Welcome to the Xbox podcast. Here we are in February, it's been a heck of a February. It's been a little chilly out here in the northwest. We've had snow, we've had sleet, we've had rain, we've had sun, we've had the whole thing. And now we have ... Jeffrey.

Jeff Rubenstein:
The mailman will deliver, even in case of Jeff. It's part of the [crosstalk 00:00:22].

Larry Hryb:
You never know how I'm going to bring you into the show.

Jeff Rubenstein:
No, and I it's disconcerting sometimes. I'm like, "Where is he going with this?"

Larry Hryb:
Here we are. It's good to see you again. It's been a heck of a week. We've got some more interviews this week, more shows, more games, more GamePass games, more news. That's why people are here.

Jeff Rubenstein:
It's what they do. It's what we do.

Larry Hryb:
It's what we do.

Jeff Rubenstein:
It's literally what we do, yes.

Larry Hryb:
How's your week been?

Jeff Rubenstein:
I don't know how it is going by this quickly. We're just like somehow ... just, you're always busy. Always a lot going on. So, here we are.

Larry Hryb:
I look at the clock sometimes and I'm like, "It's five o'clock. I haven't even left my office yet." My wife is like, "Oh, there you are." I'm like, " [inaudible 00:01:02]." It's just crazy busy with everything that's going on and the game releases ... What am I playing by the way? I got the what I'm playing here-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Let's talk about it.

Larry Hryb:
I got Little Nightmares 2.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Little Nightmares?

Larry Hryb:
Little Nightmares 2. Can I tell them what happened with you and I?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, yeah. Please, please do.

Larry Hryb:
This may be a spoiler, this may not be a spoiler.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Hm, I don't think so.

Larry Hryb:
If you're going to play Little Nightmares 2, or The Medium just ... here we go. So, about three or four weeks ago, when The Medium came out, I've been playing it, and I'm not as far along ... You finished the game, right?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. Yeah, a very good game.

Larry Hryb:
And I remember you texted me, you said, "How far are you?" and I told you how far I was, and you asked did I get the wheelchair yet. So I said, "No, I haven't gotten the wheelchair." He says, "Okay. Well, the game picks up there," and I know you said this on the previous show and some folks on Twitter actually said that that was the case. But what's interesting is ... So, I'm playing Little Nightmares, I'm going to try to see if I can find the photo here ... Where is it? I don't think I have it here. Oh, here it is.

Larry Hryb:
So, I'm playing Little Nightmares and I get to this point in the game ... I feel like such an idiot. I get to the point in the game where there's a wheelchair, so I'm like, "Oh, this must be the part that Jeff has talked about." So, I text you, I text you an image, I don't know if you can see it there but there's a wheelchair.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, yeah. [crosstalk 00:02:28].

Larry Hryb:
[crosstalk 00:02:28]. Because you haven't played the game, have you?

Jeff Rubenstein:
I have not played Little Nightmares 2.

Larry Hryb:
Okay. So you're like, "Scary." I'm like, "That's an interesting response. Okay, but yeah." And then, basically long story short was, I had forgotten that you said wheelchair in The Medium, [inaudible 00:02:43] wheelchair in Little Nightmares. So I was like, "I forget, did he tell me ... " and then I was like, after this, I'm waiting for the game to pick up and something to happen, and it's still a great game, but it just ... I was like, "Oh, okay." And then I realized ...

Jeff Rubenstein:
It was not a turning point in the entire game the way it is in The Medium.

Larry Hryb:
So yeah, I confuse my horror games. I apologize and I have come clean now.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And now you have to play The Medium and you have to compare the different scenes.

Larry Hryb:
Exactly. Anyway, so yeah I'm playing that. I'm playing ... We played a little bit of Apex, because we interviewed them last week.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry Hryb:
I'm playing Sea of Thieves. Why am I playing with Dolby game. I don't know, I think I'm getting [crosstalk 00:03:16].

Jeff Rubenstein:
Why are you playing the Dolby game? Were you just tweaking your settings?

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. I was in there, getting my atmos, because I've got my headphones on, and I'm working on that. So, I was doing my atmos settings. But yeah, that ... I haven't had a lot of time to play this week because, like you said at the top of the show, we've been so busy.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, yeah.

Larry Hryb:
It's been quite busy.

Jeff Rubenstein:
But you've got a family. You can't ... You're just going to through your whole library here?

Larry Hryb:
I'm just going to see what's last updated. Let's look at the end of the day. Tell me what you're playing, for Pete's sakes. Tell me what you're playing.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Well, notice anything different in the scene here? I'm not Phil, where everyone has to pick the background apart. [crosstalk 00:03:53].

Larry Hryb:
I see an interesting shirt there, so I want to talk about that later.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh, we could start with that if you want. That's not what I was playing but, yes [crosstalk 00:04:00].

Larry Hryb:
Hold on, let's go to full-screen so everyone can get it in all its glory.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Okay. Yeah, good.

Larry Hryb:
There we go. So, we got to find out what's different in Jeff's [crosstalk 00:04:07].

Jeff Rubenstein:
[crosstalk 00:04:07]. Tilt the camera down here.

Larry Hryb:
Okay, be careful with that.

Jeff Rubenstein:
So, yeah maybe this part.

Larry Hryb:
This isn't Only Fans, okay? Knock it off.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh my ... So, the State of Decay team, Undead Labs, great folks, really dedicated to inclusion and diversity. If you've played State of Decay 2, huge variety of types of people that you can choose as playable characters, people you run into, and so it's something that they take to heart. And so, they commissioned this shirt to be made ... Well, first of all, it's in the game. So, if you play State of Decay 2, in your inventory or you go back to your base and you can change your outfit, is this shirt that was designed by artists Ty Ferrell.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And so, that's in the game in honor of Black History month, but they also have a very limited run of the shirt itself, and you can buy the shirt at the Official Xbox [crosstalk 00:04:59] shop.

Larry Hryb:
The real shop, in IRL.

Jeff Rubenstein:
The real .... The one I'm wearing right now. Yeah, I am not a character in State of Decay 2. Although they did cap me, my face. So, maybe I am. But not here, not right now. And anyway, no profits are taken by Undead Labs or Microsoft. All of that, which is like 5.50 per shirt, goes directly to the NAACP and there will be no reprint so you have to get this shirt by March 1st-

Larry Hryb:
One and done, [crosstalk 00:05:28], one and done.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And so, depending on when you're listening to this show, you should still have a couple of days to go over to gear.xbox.com, you'll see it right on the front, and pick this beauty up. And then, of course, you can go ahead and support that shirt in game. And it's nice to see some ways to sort of show off, whether it's your ally-ship or just your-

Larry Hryb:
[crosstalk 00:05:54].

Jeff Rubenstein:
... respect for Black history month or support different games like Apex as well, in one of your badges. So, I'm just adjusting this camera. And anyway, so you can check that out, gear.xbox.com and of course, within State of Decay 2.

Larry Hryb:
Thank you. Be sure to check that out. Of course, we were talking about what we where playing and we got completely sidetracked because, over your left shoulder, that appears to be a Rock Band guitar.

Jeff Rubenstein:
[crosstalk 00:06:18]. You did notice it.

Larry Hryb:
Shall we [crosstalk 00:06:21]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
[crosstalk 00:06:21].

Larry Hryb:
... two of them, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein:
So, last week-

Larry Hryb:
Tell me the story because this is-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Well ... sure.

Larry Hryb:
Here we are.

Jeff Rubenstein:
So, last week there was a story, I forget what website it was on, but essentially the history of Guitar Hero and by extension Rock Band, Harmonics of course worked on both, and it was a really interesting story of how those games came together. If you go back 2008, '09, '10-

Larry Hryb:
I remember [crosstalk 00:06:44].

Jeff Rubenstein:
... that dominated. You'd go to a bar and they were having Rock Band Night. I played, back when I was living in Orlando before I was even working in the industry, and there was something called Otronicon, which was sort of like a game science sort of-

Larry Hryb:
Otronicon?

Jeff Rubenstein:
... festival. It was like Orlando-

Larry Hryb:
It wasn't a nightclub?

Jeff Rubenstein:
... Electronics Convention. Yeah, no. In Winter Park, in lovely Winter Park, which I know you're a fan.

Larry Hryb:
Oh, I love Winter Park.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And so anyway, there was like ... and I remember playing Guitar Hero 2 on stage, they had a stage setup with proper audio, it was awesome. [crosstalk 00:07:20].

Larry Hryb:
Well, hold on. You can't tell that story without telling us what song it was.

Jeff Rubenstein:
So, like an idiot, I got up there and I was like, "Of course I'm going to play Free Bird," like the longest song in Guitar Hero 2. And then, for whatever reason, I was like, "Well, I'm going to play it on Hard. I guess at home I played it on Hard. Playing at home is one thing. Playing on a stage with lights and a band around you-

Larry Hryb:
And people.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Actually, [inaudible 00:07:49] people there? I did not rock that. I think I got on three stars-

Larry Hryb:
You got stage fright?

Jeff Rubenstein:
... and barely made it through.

Larry Hryb:
Did you get booed off?

Jeff Rubenstein:
I didn't get booed off, because that would have been ... I was like skating. I had to use the bonus in order to survive, not ending the song early.

Larry Hryb:
Right.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I haven't really talked about that in quite some time, so I appreciate you bringing that up.

Larry Hryb:
Well, this is the therapy part of the show.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I've made a great breakthrough again today. Just stay within your boundaries. I mean, push yourself is good but know your limitations, that could be good, especially before you get up on stage and try to expose yourself to ridicule. Anyway, that happened. Anyway, put all those things together and then, also, last week, one of the Free Play Day games for Xbox Live Gold was Fuser, which is made by Harmonics and I had heard good things, so I was playing that, I enjoyed that. And I was like, "You know what?" on Friday and then, on Saturday, I was like, "I'm going to try and track down some Rock Band-

Larry Hryb:
Do it.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... stuff," because I never played Rock Band 4, which came out on Xbox One.

Larry Hryb:
So where did you get it?

Jeff Rubenstein:
I drove all over kingdom come. If you go on to auction sites, both reputable and not, trying to get one of those guitars? Hundreds of dollars. I mean, like absolute ... And I drove all around. Okay, this place had the 360 guitar, but it didn't have the adapter, which also goes for hundreds of dollars. This place had this game but not that, and I was about to give up, and I come home and I was talking to my neighbor who works on Project xCloud and cloud streaming and all this stuff and he's a big gamer, he's like, "I've got the guitars in my house and I have the disc, if you want to just play it."

Larry Hryb:
A hundred feet away.

Jeff Rubenstein:
A hundred feet? Not even. And I was like, "Oh, can I borrow it?" He's like, "Yeah, I'll be right over." So, hooked it up, start playing, got my daughter into it, I wanted her to try it out. Immediately had to play Reptilia which was ... that was my jam, back then, in Rock Band 1 or 2, from The Strokes, and I played it on hard and I got like 90-something percent. Like, I still got it.

Larry Hryb:
I want to see you do that on stage, with lights, and-

Jeff Rubenstein:
That I would not do.

Larry Hryb:
... in front of [crosstalk 00:10:06]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
I would play it [crosstalk 00:10:07] stage. So, I'm playing through it-

Larry Hryb:
... in front of a drunk crowd in Winter Park.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yes, exactly. I don't think anyone was necessarily intoxicated. It was a science ... It was just a science museum.

Larry Hryb:
Oh, that's right, a science event. Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Okay? Come on, Larry, some credit here.

Larry Hryb:
For science.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Do not be besmirch the name of Otronicon. So, anyway, we're playing this and, because my daughter, she actually plays real instruments, which I don't have that ability, and so anyway it was just a fun time reliving it. I was like, "No, we all used to do this all the time, we played this every night."

Larry Hryb:
Did she get it? Did she understand the attraction?

Jeff Rubenstein:
I think she did. And then she went back to playing Minecraft. So, maybe it is what it is, but she did like it, because they keep adding new songs. There's songs from just last year and there's certain songs that ... while her music style is somewhat different than ... Yeah, she's not into David Bowie or something like that, which was one of the first tracks I bought. Yeah, she'll get there. I wasn't when I was 10 or 11 either. But there was still stuff in there that she ... My wife is like, "Buy that track." "Demi Lovato?" "Yes, buy that track."

Larry Hryb:
Wow.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And there's a lot of pop music and a lot of interesting stuff there. Anyway, still going! They're keeping it going. If you can get a hold of Rock Band 4-

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, they are.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... still a great time. It's acquired ...

Larry Hryb:
Just come over to Jeff's neighbor [crosstalk 00:11:26].

Jeff Rubenstein:
He might have more for all I know.

Larry Hryb:
I know who he is, I'll send him an email. "So, I heard you got ... "

Jeff Rubenstein:
"I hear you're the local used game store." Yeah, I was going to retro game stores, I was over in your part of town you-

Larry Hryb:
Did you text E? Because he would have probably told you where ... I think he's got one in his garage.

Jeff Rubenstein:
He probably does and I didn't. And if I did, who knows if I could've ... We're not in an era where you can just drop in on people right now. Maybe after everyone's been vaccinated.

Larry Hryb:
I mean, if I had them and you called me, I would have left them at the end of the driveway.

Jeff Rubenstein:
That would have been nice. That would have been nice. Anyway.

Larry Hryb:
All right. So, Rock Band-

Jeff Rubenstein:
We got ... Dude, we got news, we got interviews. Where do you want to go here?

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, we definitely have some interviews, we have some news, we've got ... Let's talk about the news first and then we'll kind of roll into the interviews because we've got really ... I mean, as always, we've got some solid interviews. But this week, we've got a couple of real humdingers as they say.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Why don't we talk about who, at least, we have on the show so people know whether or not they should stick around, which they should?

Larry Hryb:
Why don't you talk about who you interviewed?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Sure. So, there's actually a great demo ... we're call this a piece of news, it was just announced earlier today and it's available now, which is the Outriders demo. So, Outriders is a loot shooter. It's coming out April 1st by People Can Fly, published by Square Enix. And I will say this: play the demo. I played it before we did the interview, I got a hold of an early version, and I was taken in immediately. So, we'll be speaking with them. New Games with Gold, and that's for March.

Larry Hryb:
You've got some news?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yep. So, we've got ... at the beginning of the month, March 1st, we'll have Warface: Breakout - Cold Sun and as well as Metal Slug 3-

Larry Hryb:
I'm cranking up the ticker.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I know, I see it. I'll skip the Smite update because that's being covered right here. In the middle of the month, VALA, which I always like this acronym, Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse. I guess they were sick of you taking their fur or their wool. And last, Port Royale-

Larry Hryb:
There's nothing like an angry llama.

Jeff Rubenstein:
[crosstalk 00:13:30].

Larry Hryb:
Don't they spit? They spit, right?

Jeff Rubenstein:
According to Aladdin, they do. All I know about llamas, I learned from watching Aladdin.

Larry Hryb:
Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein:
So, what else is news? Oh, so I feel like we talk about Minecraft Dungeons quite frequently because they're just supporting it-

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. Well, people are playing it.

Jeff Rubenstein:
So, the Flames of the Nether DLC is out now and the way they've been handling DLC, you can get the season pass, I've got the season pass, you can get the new levels and areas as they roll out. This is, I want to say, the fourth map pack. But, also, with each sort of additional content, they put free updates out there. And the free updates, this time, are going to be focused on something called Apocalypse Plus, there's going to be some changes there, sort of the end game. And then, also, something called Ancient Hunts and how all that works.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Well, anyway, more on that. You can go over to Minecraft.net, or actually, as we speak, as we're recording this, I know that the folks from Mojang are meeting with our good friends over at Gamertag Radio, Parris and Danny, and they're over there talking about that. So, when we're done here, and that goes live, we'll want to listen to that. So, you should tune into Gamertag Radio [crosstalk 00:14:47]-

Larry Hryb:
I need to get Godfrey on, I haven't had him on in a long time, and he's a good friend of the show, has been a good friend of Xbox. He's a legend in the podcasting space, I need to get him on.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. Well over 1000 episodes. In fact, the 1000th episode, Phil was on there. And they just had ... oh my god, Reggie, Reggie Fils-Aimé was just on the show-

Larry Hryb:
Fils-Aimé?

Jeff Rubenstein:
... for I think their 16th anniversary which just happened.

Larry Hryb:
I found a picture of Reggie and I.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Really?

Larry Hryb:
Well-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Do you have it handy?

Larry Hryb:
I don't. It's before-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Can you get it while I'm reading the rest of the news?

Larry Hryb:
I bet you I can. It was before-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Okay.

Larry Hryb:
It was right when I started working in the industry. So, let me let me see if I can find-

Jeff Rubenstein:
So, your hair is dark, is what you're saying?

Larry Hryb:
I'm going to ignore you.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Okay.

Larry Hryb:
So go ahead and keep reading. Keep [crosstalk 00:15:31].

Jeff Rubenstein:
I'll keep going. Why don't you ... You can put me full while you're searching.

Larry Hryb:
Okay, [crosstalk 00:15:34]. Here we go.

Jeff Rubenstein:
There we go. Thank you. I need the spotlight here. So Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, people very excited about, very pleased I think with those sort of remaster redos that came out last year. Well, the game is going to get upgraded now. So it will on Xbox Series X or Series S on March 26th, you will be able to see native 4K support improved, spatial audio, high-fidelity atmospherics, and much more. So, stay tuned for that.

Jeff Rubenstein:
We typically record these before Friday and so sometimes if news comes out on Friday, we don't get to include that, and this was one piece of happy surprise news that came out last week, is that Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is going to be coming to Xbox Series S, Series X, Xbox One this summer. So, this was a breakout hit last summer and, essentially, a battle royale platformer, kind of, with some randomness, different events and things like that. It feels like a lot about battle royales are super based on how well you can aim and how fast you are and strategic, and this is more fun. You get these crowns and stuff like that. So, I feel like we will have a good time with this when it comes out this summer. And of course, when we have more details on that, like an official date or anything else, we'll of course be sure to let you know.

Larry Hryb:
Oh, you're going to love this. [crosstalk 00:16:59].

Jeff Rubenstein:
You found the picture?

Larry Hryb:
[inaudible 00:17:00].

Jeff Rubenstein:
All right, I'll keep going.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Another sort of surprise announcement last week, so during BlizzCon, which ... pretty entertaining. I'm a big Diablo fan, personally. Actually, I really like the Overwatch 2 stuff. I don't know when it's coming out but I do want to play it when it comes out. Diablo, our good friend Rod Fergusson is helming the ship now and I like what he's doing. So, one of the big, big surprises is that Diablo 2: Resurrected will be coming to Xbox. Now, we don't have a date for that, but it is essentially a full remastering of Diablo 2, which many would say the best RPG ever made. And so, there's ... If you hadn't played it, at this point you should wait for this remaster. But they will ... Let's see, we'll have more to share about Diablo 2: Resurrected later this year. So, keep it tuned here at Xbox Live.

Larry Hryb:
[crosstalk 00:17:54] to text Laura, because she's a huge Diablo fan. She's like, "How did I miss this?" because she [crosstalk 00:17:57].

Jeff Rubenstein:
She had to have seen it. Oh, she didn't see it?

Larry Hryb:
No, she didn't see it because she was too busy watching all the Mars Lander stuff.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I mean, that's understandable. There's also multiple channels going on for BlizzCon, there was just a ton of stuff. And also they had sort of like a surprise Available Now announcement, which is the Blizzard Arcade Collection, which is available now on Xbox, which includes The Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing, and Blackthorne, each faithfully reproduced for Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S. These are games from the Genesis and Super NES era. And if you have memories of those, you can now play them all on Xbox, and you can just get after it. So, it's available now.

Larry Hryb:
Get after it. I have the photograph-

Jeff Rubenstein:
[crosstalk 00:18:40].

Larry Hryb:
... if you're ready.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Let's see it.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh my ... What? Don't keep me in suspense. By the way-

Larry Hryb:
Okay, are you ready?

Jeff Rubenstein:
... most people watching this show are listening to the show on audio so I'll describe it.

Larry Hryb:
If you want to see it, you need to go over to our YouTube channel. Are you ready? I'm going to bring it in, here you go.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh, whoa! Larry ... First of all, your fashion has not changed significantly.

Larry Hryb:
Hey!

Jeff Rubenstein:
You're holding in your hand, it looks like a DS ... it's not even the ... No, it would have been the first DS, the original Nintendo DS.

Larry Hryb:
Look at what it is.

Jeff Rubenstein:
It is engraved ... Oh, he signed it for you. "Major, thanks for your support. Reggie." You really beat up that DS, it's got scratches on it.

Larry Hryb:
It's highly loved.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh, that's good. That shows you played a lot of it. The DS was quite a good device, by the end of it.

Larry Hryb:
I can't believe I found that photo.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, that's ... Let's go back. Reggie with the track jacket. I like that.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, this was this like [crosstalk 00:19:44]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh, it looks like a Zelda track jacket. It's got a Zelda logo.

Larry Hryb:
... 2005? I don't know when that was.

Jeff Rubenstein:
What game must that have been for? Like, the Four Swords or something? I'm trying to think what game was ... the Zelda game that would've been out back then. But wow-

Larry Hryb:
There you go, you haven't seen that one before have you?

Jeff Rubenstein:
... what a time machine. Actually, you've gone away from button-ups and you've moved to sweatshirts, or jumpers as they call it in the UK.

Larry Hryb:
Just call it sweater.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Sweater. They'd still call it a jumper though, I think. Granted-

Larry Hryb:
"They."

Jeff Rubenstein:
... I can't. The people in the UK.

Larry Hryb:
"They."

Jeff Rubenstein:
Just like all desert is pudding, but not all pudding is pudding.

Larry Hryb:
[crosstalk 00:20:18] pudding is dessert, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein:
You can't keep up. I can't keep up.

Larry Hryb:
Anyway, do we have any more news or should we [crosstalk 00:20:23].

Jeff Rubenstein:
A little bit more, a little more. So, just a couple of more stories. So, one is ... free-to-play game, we're always keeping an eye out for things that you can try without having to plunk some money down first, Heavy Metal Machines. It's funny, talking about Rock n' Roll Racing, this feels like if that game was remade today. It looks ... It's made by a Brazilian studio, which is pretty cool, named Hoplon Studio.

Larry Hryb:
Oh neat.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And it kind of ... Just watching the video, we have a story on Xbox Wire with a YouTube video, kind of looks like if R.C. Pro-Am, made by Rare all the way back in the day, sort of that top-down view, kind of zoomed out, was like a 4v4 battle arena car game. So, if any of those things sound interesting to you or, again, just free, so just go ahead and try it out, it's called Heavy Metal Machines. You can download it now.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Also, if you're a member of Xbox GamePass Ultimate, of course that includes EA Play, and EA Play constantly adding new games. And one of the new games just added, we just wrapped up the Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago, Madden NFL 21 now available with EA Play. So, if somehow the football season passed you buy or you're missing it, you hadn't played Madden 21, you can do that. You can download it and get it.

Larry Hryb:
All right.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Last thing, last thing.

Larry Hryb:
Finally, not but not least.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Our good friends at Cody's, Codemaster Dirt 5 came into Xbox GamePass last week-

Larry Hryb:
[crosstalk 00:21:47] back on, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein:
We should. Maybe he's on the engineering side. So, they have released their first content drop, the February DLC, and there's a lot of stuff there. There is both sort of paid extra things that you can get, DLC, new cars, new modes. There's 25 new career events to tackle, things like that. But then there's also, for free, a lot of items that go into the playground. The playground is an area that you can create and sort of make your own obstacle courses, and stuff like that. So, check out Dirt 5. Quite an excellent racing game, I really like the rally racing. Put that [crosstalk 00:22:30].

Larry Hryb:
Looks great on X and S.

Jeff Rubenstein:
It sure does. Then there's even more for you to do there.

Larry Hryb:
Excellent. All right, we talked about games. Now we're going to talk about some interviews, because Jeff had a chance to talk to the game director for Outriders. As he said earlier, the demo is available now, you can check that out. But let's learn a little bit more about what Outriders is all about.

Jeff Rubenstein:
We know People Can Fly, not that I can fly, but the studio People Can Fly for their work on Bulletstorm, their work on the Gears of War series. They have the pedigree when it comes to third-person shooters. That's why I'm very excited about Outriders. The demo is out now, some really exciting stuff going on with this one, and so we're bringing in all the way from Warsaw, Bartek Kmita, the creative director from People Can Fly to tell us all about Outriders. Thanks for joining us this evening.

Bartek Kmita:
Thanks for having me.

Jeff Rubenstein:
All right. So, you might have thought ... Look, I saw the pictures, the screenshots, maybe a couple of trailers for Outriders, and in my mind I was like, "Oh, I know what this is. I've seen games that kind of look like this." But there's a really extensive demo out now and I think that this game is very different than what I expected. So, when it comes to loot shooters, what sets Outriders apart?

Bartek Kmita:
In the beginning, when you look at Outriders, you think, "Okay, this is the game like the others. It's just a looter shooter. So, what can be different here?" But we think that we're in the different fields, just pushing the barrier further. And what we think that stands us apart from other games is, first, we added a lot more freedom for the player to choose how he wants to play. So, all the tools we are giving, all the loot which you will find in the game, is basically tools for you to build to your play style, to build what you want to play our game.

Bartek Kmita:
For some people, this will become a shooter game. For some people, they will not notice covers at all. So, we are not trying to even guide player to hands. We are giving you tools and we think that there's even a game inside the game, to play with the tools, and to finding the best optimal way how to play the Outriders and how to defeat the biggest [inaudible 00:24:42].

Bartek Kmita:
We think we're a little bit pushing the RPG limits, RPG mechanics, deeper for the shooter games. Maybe from other RPG but more fantasy games, you will be familiar with this kind of solutions, but these shooters there's definitely something here and we are really, really proud for those aspects. Second thing, I think [inaudible 00:24:57] really for the looter shooters not very common or the systemic games, is the story and worlds. We think this is very deep and we are building and put a lot of emphasis into it, and I think people will be surprised how we can merge in the multiplayer game with the story and world building.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. And I'm just going to caveat everything that you say here ... Look, you're the creative director. You're going to put the best foot forward for the game. I'm working at Xbox, I want to see every game succeed, but anything that we're talking about, you can try right now by downloading in a very extensive demo on Xbox. Go ahead. Actually, can you tell us a little bit about this demo and everything that's in it?

Bartek Kmita:
Yeah, people were struggling in the beginning. Okay, guys, we're showing two, three hours of content. It's huge. Sometimes, for games, it's just the half of the other games, what we are doing? But, really, we decide at first, we have a very huge game. So, there's two, three hours of gameplay here, is just the beginning of that adventure. Is really we are not even showing everything. We're not showing all the possibilities or all the systems in the game. So, it's really, really just the start of this adventure.

Bartek Kmita:
And other ... The decision why we're releasing this demo was basically, "Let's give it to the players. Maybe this demo will speak better than we are trying to advertise this game. Why not do this? We are not ashamed of this game, we're really proud of it. So, let's give it all-school way. Let's give it to the players, let's allow them to check it. If they will like it, they can buy it, and then smoothly progress further, so the progress they will do will be not lost." So, we basically decide it's fun for the players, let's show them and let's give them as much content as we can but without spoiling, without going too far. But then we realize, "Okay, if we want to show even the basics of the game, this really need to be huge content." But it's just the beginning of the adventure.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. That's kind of interesting in that, even some of the stuff we're seeing here, you think the game is going in one direction and it almost feels more like Mass Effect or something, and then something ends up happening shortly after the scene that makes things change quite a bit. And so, the story I think is very interesting, the world building is very interesting. And maybe more ... I would say more than I expected out of a looter shooter might actually be. It might be selling the game short to be referring to it as a looter shooter because, in all the time I played, there was only ... I mean, and I played two-and-a-half hours or so, and I didn't finish everything, I didn't hit the level cap, but I got only a couple pieces of loot. I was really mostly focused on the powers.

Jeff Rubenstein:
So, why don't we talk ... Actually, I just wanted to say one thing about the loot, because I wrote this down. There was one piece of loot that I picked up, it was the first weapon and it had a special shotgun, it had some sort of special ability, and it was called Bone Shrapnel. "Killing shots detonate the enemy's bones and turn them into shrapnel that deals 60 damage," and some other stuff. That's dark, man. That is some dark stuff.

Bartek Kmita:
The funny this is that a lot of people is saying, "Oh, you'll start with the dark things but then I realized, 'Oh my god, this is just the beginning, that this is just the demo. Later, it will be even more dark and more brutal sometimes.'"

Jeff Rubenstein:
[crosstalk 00:28:15].

Bartek Kmita:
So, something in our DNA is not only just making shooters, but you have to make them brutal and gory. Yeah, [crosstalk 00:28:23].

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, it's true. Yeah, you've got a history of that with Bulletstorm, I remember, it was like kill with skill, and here, you've got to kill to heal. You would think in a traditional cover-based shooter, you're hunkering down. If you get hurt, you stay behind covered to recharge your health, and maybe you'd take pot shots, and I found that was not necessarily the most successful way, "Maybe I can catch my breath to get the lay of the land," but you got to bring the fight to the enemies. Tell me about that mechanic, where you level up or you heal by being aggressive.

Bartek Kmita:
Yeah, I [inaudible 00:28:59] each class we choose has different healing mechanics. So, sometimes it's kill to heal, sometimes you have to be close to the enemies, sometimes regenerating health through dealing damage, sometimes [inaudible 00:29:10] having shield. So, each class has like a starting point. We wanted to help the players to understand the basic mechanics and the more they will play, the more they will understand about the game, the more loot they will find. They'll be able to alter it, to change it more into their play style.

Bartek Kmita:
Because at the beginning, overall, there is funny thing. At the beginning, our game was without classes at all. We wanted to give all the tools to the players in the same moment, but we realize that people are too lost. We are giving so much freedom with choices, and you can make bad choices sometimes. So we decided, "Okay, let's on the beginning, help to the players with the fantasy. So, if you are choosing the bigger looking guy from [inaudible 00:29:53], you like to be more tanky, you like to go in front of the combat. So then we are telling you, "Okay, you will kill the guy when you are in close proximity, you will regenerate health." So we are telling you just the basics on the beginning of the behaviors.

Bartek Kmita:
Later, when you are playing, you can change even this tanky huge guy into maybe more sneaky guy, but this will be your conscious choice and you have to know what you are doing to just start playing with all tools we are giving to you. It's just that help become for us to the player.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I'd like to dive a little deeper into the classes. They felt very distinct and it's not just like slightly different attack versus a slightly different ... I was using the Trickster, which I thought was a really interesting mechanic, we saw that a minute ago, where you control time. It has a really cool sort of slash ability and it's why I wasn't even focused on the loot at this early point in the game. So, if you want to just tell me a little bit about how differentiated some of these classes are and maybe even dive into the RPG elements. There's a tremendous skill tree that fills the entire screen, and I didn't even get to unlock any of those things yet.

Bartek Kmita:
Yes, you are right that our classes, each class we wanted to feel different. Each class is fulfilling a different role on the battlefield. Each class has its own fantasy. Sometimes, it's something that you can maybe, with common with the other games like Pyromancer, you more or less know what to expect, you can just throw a fire into your enemies. But some classes are quite, more unique, like Technomancer or the Trickster you played, that on the beginning maybe it's just harder than other classes, because of the extent of what you can do. But overall, we are very happy with the classes and right now, when you're looking at what class people are choosing, there is no one that is really, really with higher score than others. It's all evenly distributed. So, it means [inaudible 00:31:53] we did a good job with it.

Bartek Kmita:
But that's just at the beginning. Later, you will first start creating your build, creating your ... how you will play our game. So, you are doing this through choosing skills you will be using of course, then choosing the items you will find, because each item has modification usually for your skills, so you can build different combos, you can build your character differently through items.

Bartek Kmita:
And, of course, as you mentioned, the huge skill tree. It's as the passive bonuses which drastically can change your character from very squishy damage dealer to tanky, the close combat beasts. So, with all of this together, will create basically the way you are playing our game. And it will mean if you will succeed or you will just basically fail.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I mean, these things happen. But you have a world tier system and maybe that will help players of all levels. Can you tell me a little bit how that works?

Bartek Kmita:
Yeah, world tier is like a system for ... which is used for different purposes in the same moment, we really like this system. It's A., help us to define on which difficulty level player is. So, it automatically adjusts to your progress. So, we are measuring your progress, how you play, and if you are playing well, you will be promoted. You will have possibility to be promoted to the higher difficult. You don't have to do this, but for some people we understand that this can be the crucial element of our game. They really want to start the end game even on the beginning of the game. So, they will start climbing the ladder, as fast as possible. Because to climb in this world tiers, the level, the world will become harder not only because of some stats like health or damage, but the enemies will acquire new abilities, new statuses will be playing different roles.

Bartek Kmita:
So, overall it will be more challenging for even experienced players. But on the other hand, you will have more rewards, of course, with loots. Better items and more experience points. So, it's like our tool, on one hand, determine on which level difficulty you should be. On the other hand, it's like the incentive to start playing more aggressively, better to understand build from the beginning, to start climbing in our gaming difficulty not from the beginning and you don't have to wait to the end game. Because there is a lot of game when the player will want to rush through basically everything, just reach the highest level possible and start grinding in the end game. Our game, we have little bit different approach.

Jeff Rubenstein:
How does that work if you're playing in multiplayer and someone's on a low-world tier and they want to team up with someone on a high-world tier?

Bartek Kmita:
So, it depends on you. If you want to go and help your friend, so you will be playing on his lower level, or he will want to try playing with you, as you his bodyguard and you are trying to somehow outsmart the game. So, you will help him with the better items, but it'll be a lot harder for you and maybe you will be not able to alone carry this guy. So, it's basically your decision. But we are not playing with some tricky system that will balance game for the both of you, because we think that this kind of game is important that you spend time to develop a character. You are the guy who earns to be on this world tier. So, we just don't want for, just for free, just equalize everything to just one level, because, on the other hand, it just doesn't make sense in RPG game for us.

Jeff Rubenstein:
All right. So, if you want it to be on your world tier, you should be the host and you should invite someone to join you and they'll be helping you on your world tier.

Bartek Kmita:
Yeah, and they will be on your world tier, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Makes sense. All right, last question. So the game's out on Xbox One or be coming out on Xbox One, Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X. And about those latter two, I'm just curious how you're taking advantage of next gen architecture?

Bartek Kmita:
Oh, of course it gave us what, for me, was the most important. So, more power [inaudible 00:35:49] smoother frame rate, shorter loading times, and better resolution. I think that will be the most important people for the way they will feel the difference. We try to make the high-end PC and the quality of the game for the high-end PC and the next gen console, as close as possible. So, it gives us, finally, the more freedom as a [inaudible 00:36:11] developer to put more things, to basically release our creative freedom into the consoles and give players a smoother and as best experience we could deliver.

Jeff Rubenstein:
There's some nice polish to the game that I appreciated. The one that jumped out at me, and this seems like a strange thing, is sort of the waypoint system. You have ... Look, a lot of games have a waypoint system where there's some place you need to go, and just a dot will appear on the horizon, you go towards it. And this line comes from you and it's sort of just sketched out, it's like the hand of God comes down and sort of gently guides you to where you're going to want to go. And there's just like a style to it that, for some reason, I found very ... I don't know, very, very charming, as the line draws out in front of you.

Bartek Kmita:
Thank you. This is a very simple system of choosing the objective for the least what you can do and just basically the line, you can just highlight it for five seconds and it will guide you to the objective. We don't want to have it all the time on the screen. So, it's just up to you if you will need help, you can press the button [crosstalk 00:37:13].

Jeff Rubenstein:
Which makes sense. But I'm sure there was an art director, there was somebody on your team that's like, "Wait, I want the line to go like this and have it be like lazy curves," And I just want you to just tell that person, I really appreciate that. I just think that's just a really cool thing for some reason. So, anyway.

Bartek Kmita:
I will pass to the team. I think it was more than one person who was involved with this feature, so I will pass it to them. So, thank you.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Well, it just really stood out. It's just like a nice ... just a symbol of the level of polish here. And, again, you don't need to take my word for it, you don't need to take Bartek's word for it. Go play the game. Go play the demo. It is extensive, it is out now on Xbox, and all of your progress will carry over if you pick up the game. And when does Outriders come out?

Bartek Kmita:
It's 1st of April. 1st of April.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And that is not an April Fool's joke. It's April 1st, that's when we begin to play it.

Bartek Kmita:
[crosstalk 00:38:11].

Jeff Rubenstein:
I'm not the first to say it, I'm not the last to say it. It's no joke. Try it out, let us know what you think. And I'm personally looking forward to diving into this world and playing well beyond what I played in the demo in just over a month. So, thank you so much for joining us in your evening, Bartek-

Bartek Kmita:
Thank you very much.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... and good luck on launch, next month.

Bartek Kmita:
Thank you very much, it was a pleasure.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Check out that Outriders demo. I'm super into it, I'm really ... I think that could be my next jam when it comes out April 1st. I think I'll be spending a lot of time with that.

Larry Hryb:
I'm going to call you out, man. I need you to-

Jeff Rubenstein:
[crosstalk 00:38:45].

Larry Hryb:
... stream you playing Free Bird in Rock Band. I need to see this.

Jeff Rubenstein:
But I don't think Free Bird is in Rock Band. It was at Guitar Hero [crosstalk 00:38:52].

Larry Hryb:
Oh, it's Guitar Hero, right. Oh, so you don't ... All right.

Jeff Rubenstein:
No, sorry. I don't have ... I don't think ... Does anyone want to see me stream Rock Band in sweatpants? I just don't ... Could there be any more of a wash dad move than that? While my kid just looks at me horrified and I'm like, "No, it's fun, you should try it," and she's going to be like ... Yeah.

Larry Hryb:
Picks up her phone again, just scrolling.

Jeff Rubenstein:
She doesn't have a phone yet, so at least I have a little bit of time until-

Larry Hryb:
You've got that over her.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Exactly.

Larry Hryb:
Well, that's good. I just keep going back to that and having those things. So, are those on permanent loan at your house, the Rock Band instruments?

Jeff Rubenstein:
He knows where I live. He can come back and get them.

Larry Hryb:
That's true. That's [crosstalk 00:39:36]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Because I already bought like 25 dollars worth of additional songs. There's so many. There's thousands, thousands of songs in there. And so there was stuff that I was buying from like Rock Band 2 that I missed, like ... quite a few tracks, actually. But then there's also stuff I'm like, "Wait, that's in there now? I got to get that, I got to get that." So now he can't take it back, because of those DLC [crosstalk 00:40:00].

Larry Hryb:
I need my 80s synthpop.

Jeff Rubenstein:
They have Duran Duran. They've added a number of Duran Duran tracks.

Larry Hryb:
I did a show with them once. Yeah, I was a concert promoter-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Did you open for them?

Larry Hryb:
No, I didn't. I wasn't on stage, I was-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Did you come on and join them for a Hungry Like the Wolf?

Larry Hryb:
I ...

Jeff Rubenstein:
You did the wolf sound, the ... ? That was more of a sad Basset Hound than it was a howling.

Larry Hryb:
[inaudible 00:40:27]. I don't know what that is.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I guess I'm more of a cat guy.

Larry Hryb:
Anyway.

Jeff Rubenstein:
All right. Larry?

Larry Hryb:
Jeff?

Jeff Rubenstein:
What?

Larry Hryb:
I don't even know where we're going. Next week ... I got to tell you something.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Go on.

Larry Hryb:
We're going to talk a little car next week. I'm very excited about this.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, we haven't talked gadgets that much.

Larry Hryb:
We haven't [crosstalk 00:40:46]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
That used to be a part of the show.

Larry Hryb:
I've got a couple of gadgets. Well, one big gadget is sitting out in the driveway right now, that I'm going to come to your house and we're going to talk about it together, which is Ford let me borrow one of their brand new electric vehicles for the week, it's just a loaner, which is the Mustang, the Mach E.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I'm very good into this.

Larry Hryb:
[crosstalk 00:41:06]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, I had a Mustang and this is very different.

Larry Hryb:
You did?

Jeff Rubenstein:
This isn't your father's Mustang, or even the Mustang you might have had.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, I had one for a few weeks. [crosstalk 00:41:16]-

Larry Hryb:
Oh, I remember that story. You can tell that story.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, I won't get into that.

Larry Hryb:
Anyway, this thing is a ... it's a fully electric car and it's got an amazing operating system and whatnot. So, I'm going to spend some time with it. We'll talk about that next week and I'm going to come over to your house so you can actually take a look at it as well, so we can-

Jeff Rubenstein:
I [crosstalk 00:41:31]-

Larry Hryb:
... you and I can both talk about it. Yeah, [crosstalk 00:41:34]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
That would be great.

Larry Hryb:
... I haven't had a chance to look at the gadget side. I haven't really had a chance to ... Actually, let see if it's in here. Hold on a minute. I want to show this to you. I haven't really had a chance to look at any ... get into gadgets basically, because it's just I haven't really needed anything. But where we are now is that ... Come on. There you go. So yeah, there's the vehicle right there, you can kind of see it.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, I'm hearing really good things. The Verge had a great write-up on it and they seemed really impressed with it. I love electric cars, I think they're really cool and-

Larry Hryb:
Well, this [crosstalk 00:42:10], because I've owned electric cars, gosh, for like eight years now. I had the BMW, I had the Tesla. Yeah, I consider myself a quasi-expert in this space. And I converted you, actually.

Jeff Rubenstein:
You did, yeah. I had a Chevy Bolt ... Bolt, rather, and now I don't have [crosstalk 00:42:28].

Larry Hryb:
Have you seen the re-design of that thing?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, they actually did a really good job with it. And that was a really good car, well-built car, and I had never had a single problem with it during my three years. It's just like, I don't leave this room too often anymore, so I let the lease lapse and here am. But I, at some point, god willing, even this year, we'll be able to sort of resume some normality and I will have need for a car again and I'll certainly give them a second look. They have a couple of different ... GM's got a couple of different electric vehicles and I have a whole new platform of different ... I can't remember the name of the platform, the Zeon platform or something like that, of ... Their batteries are advancing and they're doing some really interesting stuff to get more and more mileage out of them.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. Interesting, I have to check ... I haven't checked this on the Ford, if there's a browser, if we can play xCloud.

Jeff Rubenstein:
That will be cool.

Larry Hryb:
I haven't checked, that's why I was kind of like, "Gee, I don't know if there's browser." But, anyway. We'll talk about that next week, Jeff. I'm going to come over to your house and we'll wear the proper PPE to make sure that we're not going to get [crosstalk 00:43:33]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, don't bring anything in.

Larry Hryb:
No, no. [crosstalk 00:43:35].

Jeff Rubenstein:
[crosstalk 00:43:35].

Larry Hryb:
Me? [crosstalk 00:43:37].

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh, you think I'd be the one to get you sick?

Larry Hryb:
Yes!

Jeff Rubenstein:
You think that's how it would work? That's probably correct. That's probably right. I can't get offended.

Larry Hryb:
Just look at your frequent flyer miles versus mine, okay?

Jeff Rubenstein:
I haven't ... Okay. Okay, [inaudible 00:43:51].

Larry Hryb:
All right, gang, we'll be back next week. Thank you for our guest coming on the show this week, thank you for tuning in. Check out that Outriders demo, it's ... Jeff, you played it.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Let us know what you think, let us know in the comments. We do read the comments. In fact, I would like to give a special shout out to the person who called me out for drinking coffee too close to the mic-

Larry Hryb:
I saw that.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... last week. Which, you know what? That is gross. And so, I have not taken a sip during the entirety of the ... I am parched but-

Larry Hryb:
You have it right there, but you just haven't picked it up.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh, I'm ... It's right here and I will not sip that because that's a gross sound, I get it. And so, I wouldn't have known if you hadn't left that comment. So, thank you. That's constructive criticism, we'll take it. We're getting better.

Larry Hryb:
And we'll [crosstalk 00:44:33]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Dehydrated, but better.

Larry Hryb:
We'll take it and we'll act on it-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yes.

Larry Hryb:
... by not doing anything.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Well, in this case.

Larry Hryb:
Looking forward to it, because you know what? We're getting close to March. We're three [crosstalk 00:44:45]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Lousy March weather.

Larry Hryb:
... months into 2021 already.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I know.

Larry Hryb:
How did we do that?

Jeff Rubenstein:
No Leap Day this year, which is good.

Larry Hryb:
Which is good. All right, Jeffrey, we'll see you next week. Let's arrange a time when you and I can get together and look at this Ford Mustang Mach E. We can talk about that, we'll do some videos, the Instagram. Follow me on Instagram because maybe I'll do an IG Live thing. Should we do that?

Jeff Rubenstein:
What's your Instagram, Larry?

Larry Hryb:
@majornelson.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh, I should have known that.

Larry Hryb:
How do you ... ? How do you ... ?

Jeff Rubenstein:
I know that. This is me calling it out for the crowd who might not know that it's that, and that's my Instagram as well.

Larry Hryb:
And that your Instagram over there.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yes.

Larry Hryb:
Overt there. So-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Part of me wishes I could go back in time and make it @rubes but it's too late. Someone else has it.

Larry Hryb:
They do it?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Of course.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, that's true.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I mean, not too many five-digit accounts left.

Larry Hryb:
The pinnacle of style right here.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Look at that. Look at the eyes, is that Blue Steel, Larry?

Larry Hryb:
You know, the big question is I don't know who took the photo. I don't know.

Jeff Rubenstein:
The real big question is, at you at a Friendly's? Look at the picture of the two kids with ice cream cones behind.

Larry Hryb:
[crosstalk 00:45:48].

Jeff Rubenstein:
Where are you?

Larry Hryb:
I can tell you exactly where this was, this was at the Bellevue Square Mall and there was an ice cream shop across from the GameStop.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Did you run into him randomly at the mall and you were carrying [crosstalk 00:45:58]?

Larry Hryb:
No, [crosstalk 00:45:58] doing an event, and I was like, "I'm going to go meet him."

Jeff Rubenstein:
You know what, I recall you doing that when I worked at Sony and we would come up here and do events and you would show up. I remember we did like a PlayStation Move event in Capitol Hill, like-

Larry Hryb:
That's right.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I mean, we're talking like 2011, 2010, something like that. And you're like, "Dude, man if I come by?" and we went and got coffee.

Larry Hryb:
That's right, we did.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Who knows, maybe ... ? At Cafe Vitta, great coffee, which I will not sip-

Larry Hryb:
And I said-

Jeff Rubenstein:
... during this podcast.

Larry Hryb:
And I said-

Jeff Rubenstein:
And who knows-

Larry Hryb:
I said, "Jeff, do you want to come work on the Xbox team?" That's what I said.

Jeff Rubenstein:
You didn't, you didn't. That would be tampering. I'm kidding, that only applies to like soccer [inaudible 00:46:33] athletes. But who knows, if we hadn't had that conversation, maybe you were-

Larry Hryb:
And that was the second time we met after Orlando-

Jeff Rubenstein:
... sizing me up.

Larry Hryb:
... after you screwed up the the Free Bird thing.

Jeff Rubenstein:
We had met other times. We had met at E3. You had taken me around the Xbox booth at a couple of E3s, I had done the same thing for you.

Larry Hryb:
Gentleman's agreement.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, just cordial.

Larry Hryb:
Cordial. We're all cordial in the games industry.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And now we're hanging out and driving around in your Mustang next week.

Larry Hryb:
I would od the same thing for Sid over at PlayStation, if he were to[crosstalk 00:47:00]-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh, he would be happy to do that. I talk to Sid all the time.

Larry Hryb:
I know you do, he's a great guy. [crosstalk 00:47:05].

Jeff Rubenstein:
[crosstalk 00:47:05].

Larry Hryb:
Jeff, thanks for taking the time this week to talk to us and the fans. Like, subscribe-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Happy to do it.

Larry Hryb:
... do all that stuff that you know how to do. If you're on Spotify, leave a review. If you're on Apple iTunes, leave a ... Apple Podcast, leave a review. Google or wherever you listen to this, let us know. If you're discovering this, or if you're watching this on YouTube or some of the other places and you have recommendations of where you'd like to see the show, let me know and I'll submit it. I think I'm on most of the platforms now, but I know they're popping up all the time, all over the place.

Jeff Rubenstein:
You know, after every time you get retweeted a bunch, you should say, "Actually, I do have a SoundCloud. Here it is."

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, I do. Here it is, SoundCloud at Xbox. SoundCloud.com [inaudible 00:47:41] Xbox. All right, Jeff, any final words before we go?

Jeff Rubenstein:
No. Don't forget time is ticking, so if you want to get this shirt gear.xbox.com.

Larry Hryb:
Oh, let me go to full-screen. Let me full-screen. There you go. Show it off again.

Jeff Rubenstein:
There we go.

Larry Hryb:
Thank you very much. All right, gang, we'll talk to you guys next week. Bye-bye, everybody.