Larry Hryb: Hi, it's Larry Hryb, XBox's Live's Major Nelson. It's November 2017. We just launched the Xbox One X. We're back on the podcast, and we've got Jeff here.
Jeff Rubenstein: We have to upgrade. Are we gonna be enhancing this podcast?
Larry Hryb: Well, we actually are. We'll talk about that later. And we have a new member on the staff. No it's not, it's just Laura.
Laura: New member?
Larry Hryb: Well your voice sounds different.
Laura: It does.
Larry Hryb: Your people are probably listening going, “Who is that woman?”
Laura: "Who is this person?"
Larry Hryb: That's Laura.
Laura: That's me, it's Laura.
Larry Hryb: What happened?
Laura: I just am recovering from a cold.
Larry Hryb: Did you catch it from something or someone or somewhere?
Laura: There's a nasty bug.
Jeff Rubenstein: She invented it. She ginned it up in a lab. She caught it.
Laura: I did. Now it's in me. No, it's just a bug that's going around at work. A lot of other people have it. I caught it.
Larry Hryb: Well you know what we normally do when we record the show and there's a bug.
Laura: You should put me in the other end of the room.
Larry Hryb: Yeah exactly. That's why Jeffrey, you and I may be in trouble here.
Laura: I was gonna say, no I'm already sick. So Larry maybe if you were in the office more you would have it.
Larry Hryb: Well I've been on the road.
Laura: It's a sign of solidarity.
Larry Hryb: I've been on the road. We launched Xbox One X last week. Was it last week?
Jeff Rubenstein: It was last week.
Laura: That's right.
Larry Hryb: Wow.
Laura: Very exciting.
Larry Hryb: Jeff and I were in New York, Laura you unfortunately-
Laura: I was here.
Larry Hryb: -couldn't join us. We had-
Laura: [inaudible 00:01:28] germs.
Larry Hryb: We had- yeah, launching germs. We had quite the time in New York. It was a heck of a time on Fifth Avenue, wasn't it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. I talked to Method Man.
Laura: Who's Method Man?
Larry Hryb: Did you?
Jeff Rubenstein: “Who's Method Man?” Don't “Who's Method Man” me.
Larry Hryb: You didn't tell me this.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, we talked shoes for a good five minutes. I got a fist bump.
Laura: Who's Method Man?
Jeff Rubenstein: He is perhaps the most prominent member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Certainly the most prominent living member.
Larry Hryb: Did he have any comments about that album?
Jeff Rubenstein: Pour one out for ODB. We're lucky enough that when we're- in our line of work, it's very popular among not just us gamers, but among celebrities and musicians-
Larry Hryb: Everybody.
Jeff Rubenstein: And athletes and everybody, and from time to time when we're doing something huge, and this is the biggest thing we've done in years, launching the Xbox One X. You know what, there was some star power out there supporting us. I'm not just gonna go up to somebody and go “Hey, selfie.” In fact, we purposely don't do that, but if I have something to say to somebody, something where I feel like I can make their life a little bit better, then I'm gonna do that.
Larry Hryb: And what did you say? What was this pearl of wisdom you were ready to dish out?
Jeff Rubenstein: Excuse me.
Larry Hryb: Please.
Jeff Rubenstein: So we were in our venue and I saw someone go by and they had a pair of Nike's that I have. The top three pick, it was Air Jordan, one of my favorite pairs. And I don't see those two often, so that caught my attention. And it was a really tall guy and he looked over in my direction and then moved on, and I was like “Man, that kinda looked like Method Man.” But I don't know how tall Method Man is, I never been in a room with him before.
Larry Hryb: You don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Saw the Rizza live before but never Method Man, and so I had to then- I actually punched in my phone “How tall is Method Man?"
Larry Hryb: Why didn't you just ask somebody? You had the guest list.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, look, I was just- I was pretty confident, but I was like “That guy's really tall.” And it came out six three and I was like “Oh my God."
Larry Hryb: That's him.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's him. So a few minutes later I was by there and I just said “Hey, nice Kicks.” And I was wearing my Xbox-themed adidas-
Larry Hryb: That's right, I remember those. I love those.
Jeff Rubenstein: Rod Lavers, yes.
Larry Hryb: Yup, the Rod Lavers.
Jeff Rubenstein: And he was like “Oh, thank you.” And I was like “I don't know if you saw, but a recent upgraded version of those, or a new version of those, a new color way was announced at ComplexCon last week.” And he was like “No, I didn't.” And I'm nervously typing it up and bringing up a picture and I showed it to him and he's like “I have to talk to my guy at Flight Club”, which is this shoe store. And I got a fist bump, and he thanked me. I feel like there was more to it than that, but there probably wasn't. I think time slowed down, it was probably a 15 second interaction. But it was great.
Larry Hryb: We just milked it for a five minute bit.
Jeff Rubenstein: See? There you go. And this is probably the fiftieth time I've told it.
Laura: Sure. Did he comment on your shoes?
Larry Hryb: They're Rod Lavers.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, no he didn't. He might have glanced down, looked down and might not have realized what they were.
Larry Hryb: In disdain.
Laura: That they were the Xbox ones?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, they were not, but yeah.
Larry Hryb: While you were hanging out with Method Man, I was up on Fifth Avenue at the Microsoft store with our fans. With a bunch of other celebrities that came parading through there, and more importantly-
Jeff Rubenstein: Method Man is a fan.
Larry Hryb: He is. The Xbox One X launching last week. It's off to a gangbusters start. Enhanced titles everywhere. Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a pretty good series that's been running on Xbox Wire about not just saying “Hey, these games have been enhanced,” but actually going into what the team's attempted to do, and we've been hitting them pretty rapidly. This week, Mafia 3 released and there was a nice article from the Hangar 17 guys and I'm very excited actually to go back to New Bordeaux and try that one again. Hitman I hear looks fantastic.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, E was talking about that one.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, that's where I heard it. And ARK: Survival Evolved which remember we played like two years ago at that- it was I think the- Xbox game preview.
Laura: Right, I remember that story.
Larry Hryb: That was like a version point oh one or something.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know, and we were running around-
Larry Hryb: In underwear and poo.
Jeff Rubenstein: In loincloths, bashing fish with a stick, and then eating them raw. And now we can play in beautiful four K and it looks phenomenal and you can ride dinosaurs and you have guns and things like that. So we should play that again.
Larry Hryb: Look, we can't even get together to play any other games. I would love- don't get me wrong, I would love to, but the scheduling has been ridiculous. With the travel- we talked about I was in New York. I don't know if you listen- you definitely didn't hear this, Laura. The next day I went over to Sirius X-M, I have a lot of friends over there and I did an appearance on Shade 45.
Laura: What is Shade 45?
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, so it's a channel on X-M. I listen to 47 a lot, X-M fly, which is throwback hip-hop tracks, cause you can hear "This Is How We Do It" every day if you need to. Or actually it's probably twice an hour.
Larry Hryb: And apparently you need to?
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, certain tracks-
Laura: [inaudible 00:06:12]
Jeff Rubenstein: 45 is more-
Larry Hryb: It's Eminem's channel. Eminem's channel.
Laura: Oh, that's Shade 45?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, like Shady.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, Shade 45. I was on with Lord Sear, who there's afternoon guy, and went in there and we just talked Xbox. I was on for about a half hour, 45 minutes, I don't remember. We took calls and people- we just had a lot of fun.
Laura: Oh, wow, so you did live questions.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you know I love doing that. It's my old radio style going in. It was just fun being over there and being around, seeing people I know. I've never worked with Lord Sear before, but it was great to be in the studio with him, and I have an open invitation to go back next time. Jeffrey, you and I-
Jeff Rubenstein: I would love to come in.
Larry Hryb: I was trying to get you on your way to the airport.
Jeff Rubenstein: To the airport, I had to go home.
Larry Hryb: And I was like "Come on, come with me." And it's just as well, it's Midtown traffic. Midtown traffic was brutal. Yeah, I was sitting right in the lobby. I was sitting right in front of where Howard Stern has his studio, waiting to go on the air. But it was a lot of fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wait, who did you see? Didn't you say you saw someone in the lobby?
Larry Hryb: Oh, unrelated to Howard Stern and Shade 45 I'm sitting there and coming in and sitting down next to me with this very tall woman with this incredible entourage of people. "Oh, who's this?" I kind of scoot over a little bit. It was Carol Burnett, classic T-V star from the seventies, I guess she was-
Laura: What was she doing there?
Larry Hryb: She was doing an interview with- they got 150, 200 channels, everything under the Sun.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's an all soccer channel, Larry, I'm sure you listen to X-M 85, Sirius X-M F-C all the time?
Larry Hryb: All the time. It's my favorite number two, after my eighties channel. So anyways it was just fun being up there and I was trying to get Jeff to go up but he was headed out to the airport he didn't wanna stay in town with me. So I'll be back Sirius X-M, working on a couple things with them. That's all I can say about that.
Laura: Really?
Larry Hryb: Yes, that's all I can say about that. Well, I used to have a show on there. Do you remember that?
Laura: Used to have a Sirius X-M show?
Larry Hryb: We used to have a- what was it on? It was on one of their channels we had a video game show that I hosted for about a year and a half. Yeah, it was great. It was me and a couple guys-
Laura: What year?
Larry Hryb: This had to be 2007, 2008?
Laura: Okay, that was before I was on the podcast.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, what channel was it? I used to do it once a week. We hooked it up with Skype and the whole routine and it was fantastic.
Laura: That sounds awesome.
Larry Hryb: We had a great time. We took calls, it was just playing around, it was funny. Now it's serious over there, so.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sirius X-M.
Larry Hryb: Sirius X-M. All right, Laura, how you doing? You okay?
Laura: I'm making it through.
Larry Hryb: Did you miss us?
Laura: I did miss you guys.
Larry Hryb: No you didn't.
Laura: I did.
Larry Hryb: You didn't, you really- what were you playing? Oh we gotta talk about this.
Laura: What? What?
Larry Hryb: Was my feed filled up with you getting Slime Rancher achievements? What are you doing?
Laura: Yes.
Larry Hryb: What are you doing?
Laura: Oh, my goodness.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, my God.
Laura: That game is super fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's why you lost your voice.
Laura: I know, just being super excited about Slime Rancher. So I've been out sick, as you can probably ascertain from the quality of my voice. So I've been trying to just chill out and relax and recover from this cold, so I didn't wanna play anything that was really aggressive, that would get my adrenaline pumping, I just wanted something chill and fun.
Larry Hryb: Mini Metro.
Laura: Yeah, that's pretty chill. I think I'm at a stage now that I'm super advanced and I start getting stressed out.
Larry Hryb: Right. It's chill to a point.
Laura: How does the people stack up on their stations?
Larry Hryb: Get out of there, people.
Laura: “Oh, no.” Hit pause, and I saw that I had downloaded Slime Rancher, I think from one of the games on Gold a while ago.
Larry Hryb: So you were like "Oh, let me check it out."
Laura: "I'm gonna check out Slime Rancher." Oh, my gosh is it fun. It is right up my alley.
Larry Hryb: Really?
Laura: It's a farming game.
Larry Hryb: It is. Okay, did you turn around and jump off the back?
Laura: No.
Larry Hryb: Because I think there's an easy achievement when you come out of your little house you turn around and jump off the cliff. I think you get an achievement if I remember, it's a-
Laura: But do you remember what it is?
Larry Hryb: I don't.
Laura: No.
Larry Hryb: I don't.
Laura: But, it does give you lots of achievements, which is really, really nice. But yeah, it's a super fun farming game. Really, really chill, it's got some chill music in the background.
Larry Hryb: And it's just a bunch of little characters.
Laura: Yeah, cute little characters that you go and-
Larry Hryb: You're ranching slime.
Laura: Yeah, exactly.
Larry Hryb: Do you have a little slime cowboy hat?
Laura: You don't see yourself. Maybe.
Jeff Rubenstein: This reminds me of an episode of Futurama, I feel like.
Laura: Could be.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like they were slime ranchers.
Laura: Yes.
Larry Hryb: On Mars.
Laura: It could be, it could be. But yeah, you got a little vacuum gun and you run outside your farm and into the wilderness and you vacuum up slimes and food and chickens.
Larry Hryb: And put them in a pen. See, I made the mistake when I first started playing is I put them in a pen. I didn't realize you couldn't mix different types.
Laura: You can't.
Larry Hryb: And it was chaos.
Laura: It is chaos. If you put too many of the different types in the pen.
Larry Hryb: It was chaos in a pen.
Laura: It's just- everything goes nuts. Yes, but it's super fun.
Larry Hryb: Good, so you've just been chilling and relaxing.
Laura: I've been chilling and relaxing.
Larry Hryb: Have you had a chance to check out Diablo 3 in four K enhanced?
Laura: No.
Larry Hryb: What are you doing?
Laura: I don't have an Xbox One X. But I did play Diablo. I did download the update.
Larry Hryb: Really?
Laura: To start a new season, they started season 12. So now I'm playing a season 12 character. So I do have the new update but I don't have an Xbox.
Larry Hryb: How does she not have an Xbox One X, Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: What are you looking at me? Like I'm the font of the- oh, I'm actually sitting on one.
Larry Hryb: There's one right here.
Laura: Could I have that one? I wondered why you were sitting up taller.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, you've been busy with other things so we'll see if we can straighten that one out.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I can tell you where to buy them.
Jeff Rubenstein: You want the Amazon link? You want the Microsoft store link?
Larry Hryb: Make sure you use code Major Nelson. Tell them Larry sent you.
Laura: Exactly. Yup, I did, but during Xbox One X launch I did get a little nostalgic for another Xbox launch, which was Kinect for me. So I fired up my Xbox 360 and played some Dance Central.
Larry Hryb: Oh, you and Dance Central. You and Dance Central.
Laura: I went O-G and Dance Central 1 and played a few of those songs and then fired up Dance Central 2 and played a few of those songs. Yeah, it was good.
Larry Hryb: Have you ever seen Laura play Dance Central?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't believe I have.
Larry Hryb: Maybe we'll do that at Pax East again.
Laura: Can I battle you?
Larry Hryb: No, you did that once. I failed miserably. You can battle Jeff, you can battle Jeffrey.
Laura: Jeff, are you up for a battle?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I would do it. I just need to practice first. The only one I still remember the dance for was probably "Poker Face" or something.
Laura: Yes, that was the [inaudible 00:12:12]
Jeff Rubenstein: Lady Gaga. That was like the first song.
Laura: That was the first song.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was like playing Guitar Hero and "I Love Rock and Roll".
Larry Hryb: Is that sky frosting?
Laura: No, it has a move called select which mimics the action of selecting in the menu and there's a move called back which is mimicking the back gesture.
Larry Hryb: You know what we could do? This would be a heck of a co-stream.
Jeff Rubenstein: I suppose it could be.
Larry Hryb: Or something.
Jeff Rubenstein: The problem is people can capture- they capture things now. They didn't used to. Back when Dance Central first came out, those things didn't live forever.
Larry Hryb: Now they do.
Laura: Now they do, forever on the Internet.
Larry Hryb: So do you think you got sick from doing Dance Central?
Laura: No, surely not.
Jeff Rubenstein: She caught dance fever.
Larry Hryb: Did you put on your legwarmers and your headband?
Jeff Rubenstein: Is this a topical reference?
Larry Hryb: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: Is this Flashdance? 1984?
Laura: They don't have Footloose or anything like that on Dance Central. That's a big missed opportunity. But I did have to move the coffee table out of the way. Good old Kinect. It's really fun, I love my Dance Central days.
Larry Hryb: Yes you do, you- nobody was dancing like you. You missed an opportunity, you could have been a solid gold dancer in your day.
Laura: I could have been, yes. Perhaps.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey, you wanna-
Jeff Rubenstein: We're going further back. Flashdance, who knew? It's the seventies.
Larry Hryb: We're just gonna keep going.
Laura: Oh goodness. Shall we just continue in what I'm saying?
Larry Hryb: Yes, please.
Laura: You sort of lumbered in there with that reference to Slime Rancher, which is really fun. I have that theme music stuck in my head now because I've been playing so many hours of it. It's very relaxing. If you want anything chill, highly recommend it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Do you play Stardew Valley?
Laura: I did, but I didn't get into it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Who are you?
Laura: I know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Needed more slime? There are slimes in Stardew Valley.
Laura: It was too much waiting and it wasn't enough of a reward loop in Stardew Valley to get me hooked.
Jeff Rubenstein: Got it. I guess there's that. Maybe it's because you didn't win the heart of any of the villages.
Laura: Maybe.
Jeff Rubenstein: And neither did I.
Laura: I know, it was too much.
Larry Hryb: What else you playing Laura?
Laura: I tried out Fortnite, I played a demo of Fortnite in their Battle Royale mode, which is very similar to PUBG. I had never played an of that so I jumped into that and it's very really fun, it's very different type of gameplay [inaudible 00:14:20] at you. It's very similar to PUBG where you start and you all- 100 people fly into a map and you choose where you're going to land and then a storm comes and it shrinks the size of the map and forces you to run into the middle. It's also very timely cause I just finished reading all the Hunger Games books. It reminds me of Hunger Games.
Larry Hryb: That's an odd selection.
Laura: Have you guys read Hunger Games? Have you read it?
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think I read the first one and then I watched the movies and that was good enough.
Larry Hryb: Does that count?
Jeff Rubenstein: It has to count.
Laura: The movies, I think were very very similar to the books. The books are really good. They're a really fast read. I think I read it on a plane flight. I read an entire book over six hours. It's a fast read.
Jeff Rubenstein: It is a young adult.
Laura: It is young adult and it's one of those that you just can't put down.
Larry Hryb: Y-A.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura: But there is some adult stuff in there though.
Jeff Rubenstein: Young adult, young adult.
Laura: I don't know if I would want teens reading that. There's some adult-
Jeff Rubenstein: I've asked my sister the librarian how she handles that in her high school.
Laura: That'd be great to know because they are written more for a younger reading level but the content in there is pretty mature.
Larry Hryb: It's definitely not the low reading level.
Laura: It's pretty mature. Anyway, so back to Fortnite. It was really fun, I played three matches. The first match I was out within 10 minutes. Probably the number where you'd be out.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's good.
Laura: I take Larry's approach to these, I think, which is hide.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, run.
Laura: Hide.
Larry Hryb: Prone. Run, prone, run, prone, run, run, run, prone.
Laura: Be very, very careful. Go and run around slowly stocking up on all the guns and tools.
Larry Hryb: Stick to the edges, stick to the buildings.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's the right way to do it.
Larry Hryb: It got me number three.
Laura: It's very stealthy and my last match I got number two.
Larry Hryb: What?
Laura: I know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Nice.
Larry Hryb: Using that strategy?
Laura: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Nice work.
Laura: Just sneaking around, hiding in the houses as the storm came. Being very strategic about where I went, but the person who won had gotten to the center of the storm much faster than I did and gotten the higher ground.
Larry Hryb: They were hunkered down, yeah.
Laura: They had gotten the higher ground and I started shooting uphill and they were shooting downhill.
Larry Hryb: That's all we know from Star Wars, that doesn't work, does it?
Laura: I know, so I didn't win it, but I was able to get to number two which I was excited about.
Larry Hryb: Good for you. Good for you.
Laura: Yeah, so that was fun. So I had some fun time playing games while you guys were traveling.
Larry Hryb: Well, we were playing a different type of game traveling, Jeff and I were. I don't even think we grabbed a meal together in New York.
Jeff Rubenstein: We didn't.
Laura: Did you guys see each other?
Jeff Rubenstein: At a meeting.
Larry Hryb: No, we-
Jeff Rubenstein: At the store.
Larry Hryb: Oh, it's a funny story. We'll talk about it now. So we go to the Microsoft store and this is where the center of activity was for a lot of our activities. And the Microsoft store is the first floor is retail, the second floor's retail, third floor is something else, fourth floor is like the storage and the back room. And then the fifth floor is a bunch of meeting rooms and up on this fifth floor is an IMAX room.
Laura: Cool. Oh I saw your pictures, is this where the pictures are from?
Larry Hryb: Yes. A real IMAX. Apparently IMAX now, the company that puts this high-end stuff in museums and theaters to watch your movies, they have a home edition.
Laura: Wow, that is so cool.
Larry Hryb: And there's one of these, and what is it 9 people that were seated in that room?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, I wasn't allowed up there, I didn't have access.
Larry Hryb: Why didn't you tell me? I would have brought you in.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, we were busy.
Larry Hryb: So anyway, I wish Albert was here, cause this is a pretty funny story. So we go in, we watch the Sunday Night Football in there and it's massive and they've got real IMAX content. So I look on this- they've got a tablet there and you can browse it and we have the console playing. Anyways, so I bring Albert in and we're browsing the content and they have a Star Wars trailer.
Laura: Which one?
Larry Hryb: It was the- which one was it? It was Rogue One, but it was one of the early trailers where a lot of the stuff in the trailer wasn't in the movie. So anyway we watch- this was about two minutes- so we get in, we put the 3D glasses on and I'm like "Albert, watch this," and I jack the audio up and it has got full surround. It's the whole nine yards, and we're just like- our hair's blowing back and we're like "Oh my god." They come running in, somebody comes running in, the door flies open and goes "What are you guys doing?" We're like "We're watching the trailer." They're like "Turn it down, Phil Spencer's in meetings." Apparently the entire building was rumbling cause Albert and I were- we were in trouble.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it'll happen.
Larry Hryb: But it was a lot of fun. So I looked it up online, and apparently it's about a million dollars to get this installed in your house. Cause I was like "I could get one of these." No, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: Not yet. Your wife is out of town for like a month.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, but that would not go unnoticed on the credit card bill. I'll just say that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Think of the points, though.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's true.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're playing the long game.
Larry Hryb: But we had a lot of fun there. So anyway, real quickly I haven't had a lot of chance to play anything. I'm playing a little bit of Wolfenstein, Assassin's Creed: Origins. Wolfenstein is just so much fun. So much fun. Call of Duty, of course, there's just enhanced games. I'll tell you this. I started Wolfenstein before I left for New York, Laura, and I've been having fun with it cause it's just mindless shooting and shooting. That's a fun story too. And I got back, and between the time I went to New York and the time I got back, the enhanced update had come through and I forgot about it. The first time I booted it up and started playing the game when I got back, I actually went "Oh my God." It was that dramatic on Xbox One X, it just really kind of stunned me so that's kind of what I've been playing. Jeffrey, what about you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well since the last time we spoke I sunk 36 hours into Middle Earth: Shadow of War.
Laura: Oh, you did?
Larry Hryb: Laura, why aren't you playing that? Is that too stressful?
Laura: It was too stressful for me. I had to relax.
Larry Hryb: Poor Laura.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like the skills that we developed in the first game definitely do you well here, but I still died 17 times. It keeps track. I do love the Xbox app. And also killed 3,270 Uruk-hai, Olegs and spiders and stuff.
Larry Hryb: Did you avenge my death at all?
Jeff Rubenstein: You? Are you a- what are you talking about? Oh, I did avenge- cause it'll bring in-
Larry Hryb: Some people from your playlist.
Jeff Rubenstein: So one of- my favorite thing from the first game is if someone's who's on your list is killed by an Orc, sometimes they'll show up as a mission in yours and you can avenge them and I did. I forget who I avenged. It might have been you.
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I would have captured you if I did.
Larry Hryb: You would have captured it.
Laura: That's one of my favorite features in Diablo when they'll bring in the nemesis who's killed Major Nelson and he's so hard.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I got to the point- there's so many different Orcs and personalities in that game it's crazy. And I finally got the one that's voiced by Kumail Nanjiani literally in my last hour of gameplay and I accidentally killed him. I wanted to convert him. I wanted to recruit him so I could hear him some more and it didn't work out. I accidentally poisoned him and he just- that was it. He ran away and- oh well, I didn't get him.
Laura: That's too bad.
Jeff Rubenstein: But yeah, very cool and if haven't played the game and you were at E3 and you saw, I think the star. Maybe the star of our E3 presentation in terms of characters might have been Bruce the Chopper from that game. So there's a lot more of him in the game than just what they showed there. He's one of the few Orcs that you're guaranteed to meet. And there were some other nice fun characters in that.
Larry Hryb: I need to get back to that. There's just too many games. There are too many.
Jeff Rubenstein: There are. I haven't gotten a chance to play Wolfenstein yet and I want to. I have Assassin's Creed waiting for me.
Larry Hryb: Star Wars is out this week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, that was the other game I jumped into so as soon as I finished Middle Earth I was like "Let me play the campaign on E-A access, let me start." And I got really sucked into that campaign very quickly. I'm a big Janina Gavankar fan and-
Larry Hryb: I emailed her, I'm trying to get her on the show.
Laura: Cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, that would be awesome.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, totally, cause we chatted when I was down at the Star Wars [inaudible 00:22:04] at D23. So she's just wonderful.
Jeff Rubenstein: So she's great in that role. You look and it looks just like her, and I'm having a lot of fun with that. I think in a lot of the Star Wars games that we've played before it's like "Oh we're gonna do the Hoth battle again or we're gonna do a strafing run on the-"
Larry Hryb: How far are you? I'm two hours in.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, I think I'm three hours in.
Larry Hryb: So I'll just say this Laura, it's- of course we've all watched the Star Wars films. It's interesting cause some of the points that we're playing- like I did the Endor battle and in the Endor battle, we all remember Endor, right, from-
Jeff Rubenstein: Return of the Jedi.
Larry Hryb: Return of the- thank you.
Laura: Yes, with the trees.
Larry Hryb: And at one point the characters, there's a cut scene where they look up and they see the Death Star exploding. So this is actually taking place during that time and it's very interesting.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it fills in a lot of gaps like what happened after Return of the Jedi like what did the Empire do? It's like "Well, that's kind of interesting." And yeah, it was fun to be able to play battles that you haven't done before but then you still get to, at different times-
Larry Hryb: Things are familiar.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, you get to use characters that are familiar and I'm having a good time with it.
Laura: We only have one more month to wait until the next Star Wars movie.
Larry Hryb: Oh, that's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I got an invitation to go see the movie at Cinerama, which is the best theater maybe in the west coast.
Larry Hryb: I would agree with you, it is my preferred location. I have seen every Star Wars since 2001 there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wow.
Larry Hryb: And it's phenomenal.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I've seen the last two with you actually, both times and we saw Mad Max there together which was great. Anyway, and I got the invite and I'm like "Oh, that'll be great." And then I realize I'm gonna be out of town.
Laura: Oh, boo.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm gonna be in Japan, so maybe I'll go see it in Japan.
Laura: You should have scheduled your vacation-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, poor planning.
Laura: Around Star Wars.
Larry Hryb: Poor planning. I actually have two tickets. I had bought two for Cinerama and I don't wanna take this in a direction we weren't expecting, but one of the tickets actually was for Steptoe. He and I were gonna go see it together but he- anyway, so it's sad. All right, see? I made it sad, I'm sorry Laura. Jeffrey, get us up please.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Pull up, pull up, pull up, sorry.
Laura: [inaudible 00:24:14]
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I've been playing Super Lucky still, that's very cheerful.
Larry Hryb: Ooh, I forgot about that, I'm playing that too. You know what I played on the airplane? On the way back cause you and I were kibitzing on the way out.
Laura: That's right, you were supposed to sit next to each other again on the way out.
Jeff Rubenstein: We did.
Larry Hryb: We did.
Laura: Did you?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura: What happened? Did you get sick?
Larry Hryb: No, no, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I was well. It was flu season.
Larry Hryb: What was I watching?
Jeff Rubenstein: What were you watching? You very quickly get absorbed into a number of different things.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I move- when I'm on an airplane and I know that there's nothing else I can do, so I set my watch to count down the length of the flight and then I just dive right in. I think I was plowing through some- it wasn't Stranger Things 2, I was just consuming a bunch of other stuff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which I still haven't finished.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, but I've been playing a lot of Mario Odyssey.
Laura: You have?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura: And what do you think?
Larry Hryb: I'm having a great time with it. Fortunately, I had a really great time with it the other night playing on the airplane cause I got home and we had no power. Fortunately my Switch had power so I sat there for like six hours in the dark, freezing, playing Mario.
Laura: I imagine you have gotten to New Donk City and there's apparently a very special moment with the festival.
Larry Hryb: Yeah there is, it's in-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, I haven't gotten that far.
Larry Hryb: Oh, it is as awesome as you'd want it to be. I'll just say that.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think that's the next world I'm going to and I just stopped and I was like "Oh, I'll pick this up." I'm going to Asia twice in the next three weeks, once for work and once for fun.
Laura: Plenty of time to play.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I was like "That's what I'm gonna be doing." Might pick up the Rabbids game too, just to get that Xcom fix. Anyway, just saying. That's what we're playing.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I don't know what else- you've got some headlines in front of you, don't you?
Jeff Rubenstein: I do.
Larry Hryb: We talked about Xbox One X launching this massive list of enhanced titles. You can pick those up or check them out by going to my blog, majornelson.com, and at the very top is a link cause I know no one really likes to search or look around so I try to put everything I can at the top, and there's a link that says, Jeffrey? What does it say?
Jeff Rubenstein: Now I'm going back to your blog. I scrolled down.
Larry Hryb: It just says Xbox One X enhanced.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, it's along the top bar there, it used to be a bigger pin.
Larry Hryb: And you go through there and it'll show you all the titles that are listed and all the-
Jeff Rubenstein: A rapidly growing list.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, every time I get a note from our team they're like "Okay, let's add more titles."
Jeff Rubenstein: Really is a lot of games.
Larry Hryb: So it's pretty clear what you need to do there. Of course you can also, if you've got your console, go to my games and apps and there's a filter where you can show which games you already own that are ready to be enhanced once you get your Xbox One X.
Jeff Rubenstein: You have Wolfenstein 2 in there twice. Is it just cause you like it that much?
Larry Hryb: Well, it's two. The first one and the second one.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, someone just asked. Anyway, oh Injustice. Injustice updated and I really I think that'll be one of the games that I wasn't planning on picking up but just because I wanna support a game that- first of all, the new character. Did you see they unveiled- the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming into that game?
Larry Hryb: Yes, yes.
Laura: Are they?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, and it looks great.
Laura: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: It looks really good.
Laura: Cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: The game is a phenomenal game, I played it a few months ago at a friend's house and I was like "Oh, this is really cool. I think I may get it for Thanksgiving cause we'll have people over." We should talk about Thanksgiving.
Larry Hryb: Am I coming over?
Jeff Rubenstein: You're gonna be on the east coast.
Larry Hryb: Oh I won't be here. Yeah, I won't be here.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're always welcome.
Larry Hryb: Oh, you're very kind.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're always welcome. Yeah, but there's a number of us who are too cheap to go back to the east coast to visit our families, so I think this'll be my tenth Thanksgiving in a row.
Larry Hryb: To be honest with you, this is my first one in a long time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, going- oh, that's right, you were gonna come last year, and the neighbors cooked for you.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, my neighbors always come over and they do some cool stuff.
Laura: Oh, nice.
Larry Hryb: Are you going away for the holiday Laura?
Laura: No, I'm staying here.
Larry Hryb: This is the American Thanksgiving.
Laura: American Thanksgiving, that's right.
Larry Hryb: Not to be confused with the Canadian one.
Jeff Rubenstein: I always miss Canadian Thanksgiving.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was about a month ago, wasn't it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's in October. Wow. Do they eat turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving also?
Laura: I think they do.
Larry Hryb: They eat Tim Horton's.
Jeff Rubenstein: Chunky poutine? Oh, Tim Horton's. Man, I need to go back to Canada. All right, so there's a lot of news, and I didn't even know what to start with, so I said-
Larry Hryb: Just pull one. Just go.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know my audience.
Larry Hryb: Just go.
Jeff Rubenstein: And my audience is the two of you plus whoever's listening, and so I went-
Larry Hryb: And your mother, your mother's listening.
Jeff Rubenstein: She probably is. How's that Captain Morgan doing?
Larry Hryb: That's what she calls me.
Jeff Rubenstein: Every time. Every time.
Laura: You're Captain Morgan?
Larry Hryb: Yes, she does that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, the first time she did it accidentally. Now she does it because it's funny.
Laura: Great. Nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I think she follows two people on Twitter and you're one of them.
Larry Hryb: Really? Oh God.
Laura: Oh my goodness.
Jeff Rubenstein: Now available on Xbox One, Farming Simulator 17 Platinum Edition.
Laura: Yes.
Larry Hryb: And I would like to take a moment. First of all, I'm sorry Jeff, I need- this is actually pretty important, I need to say this right at the top. One of the new features that we rolled out last week, earlier this week actually, is the ability for gifting. So Laura, I can send you a gift. You can send- anyway, we can all- it's really easy. Just pull up the store and you'll see by and right next to it is send as gift.
Laura: And I was one of the most top requested managers.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so anyway we got that. I love every single one of you, but please don't send me any gifts, okay? I don't need any games, I get a copy of all the games anyway.
Jeff Rubenstein: Are they sending you the Nickelback pack from Rock Band?
Larry Hryb: People are sending me- so I'm just gonna take it and I'm gonna go ahead and turn around and give them away on Free Code Friday, but I-
Laura: That was nice of you.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, but what I'm saying is the thoughts are very nice, but you know what folks? You don't need to send me any gifts and Laura, I'm showing him an email, people said-
Jeff Rubenstein: You've got a million dollar IMAX at home, you don't need this.
Larry Hryb: No, I do not have that. So I get an email, and those are just a few of them that came in last night.
Laura: Very kind of them.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, very kind, nice folks, but you know what? Find another friend. You know what, you can send them to any of your other friends.
Laura: Oh, that's a nice phone you have there.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think we should roll them into one of the prize packs or something.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, well that's what we'll give away on this show, Laura, with Name the Game later on.
Laura: Yeah, Name the Game.
Larry Hryb: How's that sound?
Laura: That sounds great.
Larry Hryb: So thank you, thanks.
Jeff Rubenstein: Pay it forward.
Larry Hryb: So on behalf of some of the winners, and people that are sending me codes, thank you on behalf of them. All right, so-
Jeff Rubenstein: So the gift that everyone's gonna be sending you that you don't want them to send is gonna be Farming Simulator 17.
Larry Hryb: Well, I've already got a few of those.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm sure you do, but you can now plow South American fields, which you've wanted to do.
Laura: Super fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Soy beans.
Laura: Ask me how I love farming games.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, well you know. All right.
Larry Hryb: Except Stardew Valley.
Jeff Rubenstein: Probably the biggest news-
Laura: Except Stardew Valley.
Jeff Rubenstein: Depending on when you're listening to this, and if you're listening to this before Saturday morning at nine A-M pacific, noon eastern, eight P-M maybe, London time? Minecon Earth is this weekend, and there's gonna be a 90 minute live stream, and you're gonna be able to watch. They always announce cool stuff, I honestly don't know what those things are-
Larry Hryb: We have no idea what they are.
Jeff Rubenstein: Because I'm not privileged, but I know I will be watching, I'm gonna wake up super early, watch the arsenal match. First spurs, come on. And then I'm gonna watch Minecon Earth, live from Atlanta. I have a number of friends there, so that should be really fun. So I'll put a link there, but something-
Larry Hryb: Depending upon when you listen to this you can go to my blog at majornelson.com. I'm giving away an Xbox One X Minecraft bundle.
Laura: Oh, cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think that's the best console design we've ever done.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, the whole thing is just perfect.
Jeff Rubenstein: With the glass block and the red stuff. Anyway, and then after you're done that, it's actually, if you're an Xbox Live Gold member and of course you are if you're listening to this, you can play Rainbow Six Siege free.
Larry Hryb: Free.
Jeff Rubenstein: This weekend.
Larry Hryb: Free, you've got no money?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, it's already there, it's already waiting for you. So that will be- it runs until Monday at midnight and it actually started- by the time you listen to this, it will already have started. Started-
Larry Hryb: We're good to go.
Jeff Rubenstein: Last night. So yeah, should be a good time and they have some new contact coming. That game just keeps trucking along. And then another big thing we announced this week was our Black Friday deals. The Xbox One S is gonna be available at the lowest price ever.
Larry Hryb: Ever, ever.
Jeff Rubenstein: How low would you go?
Larry Hryb: Would you go 250, Laura, would you go to 225?
Jeff Rubenstein: Too low, too low.
Laura: Too low.
Larry Hryb: It's too high.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, it's too high. Well, surely we can't go lower than 189 dollars.
Larry Hryb: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: 189 dollars.
Laura: That is a deal.
Jeff Rubenstein: Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Gamepass will be available for one dollar each.
Laura: Wow, where can I buy these things?
Larry Hryb: I will tell you, just follow me on Twitter and I'll have links to my blog.
Jeff Rubenstein: And we'll link out to the overview posts on this, they'll be up to 68. Every year we have huge sales right around Black Friday and right around the end of the year as well, where digital games are incredibly affordable. So we list a couple of the titles and what those discounts are gonna be. Like 20 dollars off Forza Motorsports 7 and Halo Wars 2 will be $19.99. Forza Horizon 3, $29.99. Even off of Super Lucky's Tale will be 35 percent off, so there's a lot- there's gonna be, like we'll list all of them out as we get there, but if you follow Larry, Major Nelson on Twitter undoubtedly you will see some great deals.
Larry Hryb: Do you use that Twitter?
Jeff Rubenstein: The Twitters? That's a bit of a fad but I may give it a shot.
Laura: [inaudible 00:32:59]
Larry Hryb: You don't remember those days.
Laura: I remember those days.
Larry Hryb: Laura remembers.
Jeff Rubenstein: I just hit my ten year anniversary on Twitter.
Larry Hryb: Well, the days I'm talking about is when it first started, I was on it and Laura was of course part of the show and he was part of the show. He was emphatic, he didn't understand it. Right?
Laura: Yes, he refused.
Larry Hryb: He refused, he's like “I don't understand.” And now he's all over it. Now he's Instagramming pictures of his food and his dog.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, that was the thing, when it first came out I was like “Who wants to see what I ate for lunch?” Meanwhile, I'm the biggest offender of that right now.
Larry Hryb: You are, you are.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm terrible. That belongs on Instagram.
Larry Hryb: Especially if it has a fish head or a noodle, you're on it.
Jeff Rubenstein: What's wrong with those things?
Larry Hryb: Just merely pointing it out.
Jeff Rubenstein: I went to a Korean fried chicken place last night randomly, it was awesome. You should have been, you should have been, they had karaoke.
Larry Hryb: No, don't even talk to me about that. They went to this barbecue place in New York, I didn't even get an invite.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was all right.
Larry Hryb: Okay then.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm pretty picky with barbecue, okay? And New York is 500 miles north of-
Larry Hryb: Any place where there's-
Jeff Rubenstein: The next place I would go for barbecue. Anyway. So yeah, Rainbow Six Siege. Oh, a free update if you've played City Skylines on Xbox One, the Xbox One edition is adding snowfall in there. And that's a really good game, I actually only just got into it very recently. That's another game I will probably end up playing on the way out to Japan.
Laura: Yeah, I think I've played that too.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I have it on my laptop on Windows 10. It's really good.
Larry Hryb: Yeah?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's just, it's fun. You should do that.
Larry Hryb: Fun?
Jeff Rubenstein: And a couple of releases, we are getting towards really the tail end of the really big titles here, but Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 came out this week, L-A Noire, which has been enhanced for Xbox One X.
Laura: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: The Sims 4, this is the first Sims game to come out on Xbox, definitely this generation, and maybe- it's been a long time. And of course Star Wars Battlefront 2, so all those games and there's a number of others will be available by the time you hear the soothing sound of my voice.
Larry Hryb: Dun dun dun.
Laura: And not mine, sorry.
Larry Hryb: And not Laura, Laura's voice not soothing, not so much on the soothing. Needs to be soothed.
Jeff Rubenstein: Needs to be soothed.
Larry Hryb: But not soothing.
Jeff Rubenstein: If only we could fix this.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, sorry. I'm sorry. If you have any suggestions-
Jeff Rubenstein: We need a lozenge dispenser in here.
Laura: I don't know if that would help.
Larry Hryb: Maybe not.
Laura: Maybe there's new technology that could help.
Larry Hryb: I don't think. I think it's just the-
Jeff Rubenstein: You're the smartest one in the room, so if you can't figure it out-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you figure it out.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're in trouble.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's true. All right, so those are some of the headlines. Should we go Name the Game and then we'll kind of-
Laura: Yeah. It's been a long time for Name the Game.
Larry Hryb: It's been a few weeks, yes it has Laura, so are you ready?
Laura: Yeah, let's play Name the Game from last time.
Speaker 4: Whoa, hyah. Hyah. Whoa.
Laura: So that was Name the Game from last time, and it was Assassin's Creed: Origins. Pretty easy one.
Larry Hryb: It looks so good.
Laura: I know. And you've been playing that one, haven't you?
Larry Hryb: Been playing a little bit of that, yeah. I'm peanut buttering my games right now, I need to stop and just-
Laura: Go deeper on more of them.
Larry Hryb: Dedicate, yeah.
Laura: All right, so the winner-
Larry Hryb: Winner.
Laura: Is Florian from Paris.
Larry Hryb: Florian, oh. Congratulations.
Laura: Yep, gamer tag is halobiscuit.
Larry Hryb: Nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's a good name. That's cool.
Laura: And Florian, you've won a fun pack of games here.
Larry Hryb: Some of which may have been gifted to me.
Laura: Perhaps. Perhaps. Let's see, you've got a copy of Skyforge standard founders pack, which is an I-D Xbox game.
Larry Hryb: Nice.
Laura: Assault Android Cactus, which is also an I-D Xbox game. You have a copy of Black, which is now on Xbox back-compat.
Larry Hryb: Nice.
Laura: Fantastic. That's not all, you also get a copy of Zoo Tycoon, the ultimate animal collection, a copy of Disneyland Adventures, a copy of Rush, a Disney-Pixar Adventure. Those are all the new games that came out for Xbox that no longer need the Kinect controller, is that right?
Larry Hryb: Correct.
Laura: And that's not all, you also get a copy of Star Wars: Battlefront 2.
Larry Hryb: Woo-hoo!
Laura: So you'll have a lot of fun games to play.
Larry Hryb: Wow, lot going on there. Congratulations.
Laura: Congratulations.
Larry Hryb: And that means that you, dear listener, are ready for another Name the Game, right Laura?
Laura: Are we gonna do another one?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, if you want to yeah. Is your voice up to it?
Laura: Let's see.
Jeff Rubenstein: You have to sing this one.
Laura: Oh, gosh. I wouldn't be up for it. All right, let's roll the Name the Game for this week.
Speaker 5: See, y'all never had a chance.
Laura: So that was Name the Game for this time. Again if you, listener, would like to win fabulous prizes-
Larry Hryb: I do.
Laura: Super easy to enter, all you have to do is send us an email, lollypop@xbox.com and cc major@xbox.com-
Larry Hryb: Hello.
Laura: And let us know what game those sounds are from. As easy as that. If you want to you can include your name and your gamer tag or if you don't want to, that's cool too. We also love to know where our listeners are from, so include maybe if you want to, where you're from. Easy as that.
Larry Hryb: Good luck.
Laura: But I don't think there's a show next week, is that right? Cause it is Thanksgiving.
Larry Hryb: Well, it'd be on a future show, yeah. We'll do it on a future show.
Laura: So maybe two weeks. You have two weeks to enter.
Larry Hryb: Two weeks to enter. At the very least. Thank you Laura.
Laura: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: When I was back east last week I went up to New England and I went to a ComicCon. I went to Rhode Island ComicCon.
Jeff Rubenstein: The old R-I-C-C.
Laura: Rhode Island's the smallest state in America.
Larry Hryb: That is.
Laura: With the smallest [inaudible 00:39:11]
Larry Hryb: My sister reminds me that at low tide it grows three percent in volume.
Laura: That's amazing.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is that true?
Larry Hryb: I don't know. It's a line she's been using on me for years. It's a great little state and it was a fun ComicCon to be at and it was just fun.
Laura: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: It was fun to go there and see a lot of B and C level celebrities charging 20 dollars for a selfie.
Laura: How big was the ComicCon?
Jeff Rubenstein: How much were you charging?
Larry Hryb: I do not charge for selfies, Jeffrey, you know that. I don't know, there had to be maybe 50 or 60 thousand people there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, it was that big?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was a big boy. It was a big- it was much larger than I was expecting.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's probably more than three percent of the population.
Larry Hryb: You're right, it is actually a large percentage of the population of Rhode Island. But folks were from all over and it was really fun there. Lot of gaming stuff and just a lot of- it's always fun to go to ComicCons, so I'll be back. Laura, you talked about next week is a holiday week so we won't have a show next week because we're gonna be celebrating the American Thanksgiving here in the United States, so we'll have turkey and stuffing. Did you see the tweet I put out earlier this week about the Pringles and their turkey and stuffing potato chips?
Laura: No, I missed that.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, go take a look at it. Yeah, Jeff wheeled his head around “What?” Yeah, go onto my Twitter.
Laura: [inaudible 00:40:25]
Larry Hryb: Pardon me?
Laura: Like turkey and stuffing Pringles?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, and it was actually an entire meal.
Jeff Rubenstein: Then they have Walkers Crisps, which is like the English version of Lays. I think it's the same company, similar logo. They have always the craziest flavors compared to what us deprived folks have here in the States, and they have a turkey and stuffing flavor.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, this was a Thanksgiving-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh my God, that's crazy.
Laura: Pringle Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, goodness.
Jeff Rubenstein: Each of the stacks have a different flavor.
Laura: Wow. Actually, I'm intrigued.
Larry Hryb: Are you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Especially if it came with gravy that you could reconstitute in the microwave. I think that's what would bring it home.
Laura: Like a poutine?
Larry Hryb: If I can find it, it's got turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes. Eight delicious flavors inside.
Laura: I'm intrigued. I'm kind of curious how they got that into a potato chip.
Larry Hryb: The whole food science lately is kind of frightening. When I was back east I went to get some- they used to have these potato chips we would eat when we were kids called State Line, which were made on the state line between Connecticut and Massachusetts. So I always remember them and they're just a light airy chip and my wife and I got a bag of them and we were eating them at lunch one day and she stopped and she pushed them across the table at me. I'm like “What happened, what's wrong? Did you get one of those green ones?” Remember you used to get the green ones, you're like “What is that, why is that green?” And it was- on the front of it it was labeled that it was made with biogenetic material. Biogenetically enhanced, and she's like “I don't know what that means.” And I'm like “Well, they legally have to put it there, I don't know what it means either.” So, it was just scary.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh man, it's not available at retail, but according to this headline it tasted crazily close to the real thing.
Laura: Wait, who, what?
Larry Hryb: Why are they making things that you can't get at retail?
Laura: So how do you get a hold of it?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know, raise awareness for Pringles, maybe?
Larry Hryb: Is that a problem?
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe, I feel like the kids don't talk about Pringles nearly as much as they used to.
Larry Hryb: You're right, so this is-
Jeff Rubenstein: I couldn't go five minutes without someone talking about popping until they couldn't stop.
Larry Hryb: They are consuming valuable time on this very show.
Laura: Yeah they are.
Jeff Rubenstein: Indeed they are. Hashtag ad.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, hashtag not an ad, and what the hell? Oh boy, Laura, so anyway there we go. That's us. So next week, we're gonna try to come back. In a couple weeks, we're gonna have a special show for you.
Laura: We are?
Larry Hryb: We are.
Jeff Rubenstein: For Laura?
Larry Hryb: Us, this show.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh.
Laura: Are we gonna do the extreme version?
Larry Hryb: We are gonna go on Mixer. We are gonna do this show live on Mixer on a Thursday. I think we'll do it on a Thursday afternoon. So I will give you details as we get closer to that so you'll be able to actually see us in addition to hearing us, and it'll be live. We'll take questions. Maybe-
Laura: It'll be fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe we'll have hair and makeup?
Laura: Right?
Larry Hryb: No. Maybe we'll even do a Name the Game live. Maybe we'll do a video clip.
Laura: That would be really fun.
Larry Hryb: Like a vid clip?
Laura: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: So I'll see if the studio can handle that.
Jeff Rubenstein: You gonna use that camera?
Larry Hryb: No, no, we're actually using the big studio that they have over there.
Laura: Yeah, they have a proper studio.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's like a big deal. Big boy's studio.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh good, because this one is-
Laura: It's a little messy.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, it's quiet. It does that part. It needs some work.
Larry Hryb: It's cozy, Laura. It's very cozy.
Jeff Rubenstein: Will we have camera people?
Larry Hryb: Yes. No, they're robocams.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, good, because if a person had to sit there and watch us-
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: That would be not a great job.
Larry Hryb: We'll talk about this-
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm excited.
Larry Hryb: When we're ready to do it. Assuming you'll have time.
Laura: Yes, of course.
Jeff Rubenstein: He was speaking to the viewers at that point.
Larry Hryb: Yes, well I know you guys will. Anyway, should we talk gadgets at all?
Laura: We should talk gadgets.
Larry Hryb: Okay, you wanna go?
Jeff Rubenstein: You got one.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so I picked up the iPhone ten. I talked about this on social media because I have the Xbox One X. I have a car that is a Model X, and now I have a phone that is not a Model X, it's a model ten.
Jeff Rubenstein: And now you can watch the X-Files on it.
Larry Hryb: So now I can watch the-
Jeff Rubenstein: On any of those devices, really.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so I picked it up cause I was to check out a new phone.
Laura: It has a beautiful screen.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's got the OLED screen, it's beautiful and so it's fun, Laura. Is it worth $1000? I'll just say this. I both did the same thing with you when I got the phone which was I sent you both individually the animated emoji, and which you both rolled your eyes, so that was it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, it was poop. It wasn't talk.
Larry Hryb: Did I send you the poop one, Laura?
Laura: No, you sent me a talk.
Jeff Rubenstein: See, I get the unfiltered Larry.
Larry Hryb: Come on, I didn't wanna totally offend Laura right off the bat with animated poop.
Laura: A little bit of talking poop.
Larry Hryb: It's a nice phone.
Laura: You just said something. It's very fast.
Larry Hryb: And the screen is beautiful and-
Laura: The screen is a whole different thing.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, a lot of the apps are being updated. I don't mind the notch.
Laura: And then how do you-
Larry Hryb: Swipe up.
Laura: There's no home button, so how do you-
Larry Hryb: Swipe up.
Laura: So you swipe up, and then back down.
Larry Hryb: Swipe up to it.
Laura: Cool, I can launch an app first. Yeah, that actually works pretty well.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it does. So, anyway, it's fun. The Xbox app will be updated soon, there's a bunch of great apps on there. The Microsoft Outlook app is being updated if you use it for email.
Laura: How fast is Face I-D?
Larry Hryb: So let's be clear, Laura. I have headphones on, and I have glasses on.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's like a one Mississippi.
Laura: That was maybe a second.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh wait, it was done?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh.
Larry Hryb: So if you look at the top you can see the little padlock opening. You ready again?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yup.
Larry Hryb: Okay, so it's on. Bring it up.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was about a second.
Laura: Has to be [inaudible 00:45:31] maybe. Or half a second.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's actually a little bit slower cause I have all this gear. I have all this headphones and glasses on and so there's that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Are you gonna have headphones on when we do the live broadcast?
Larry Hryb: I'll probably have my broadcast earpieces in.
Jeff Rubenstein: Can we get Janina in for that one?
Laura: Can I have one of those?
Larry Hryb: What? You want an I-F-B?
Laura: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Wow, okay.
Laura: Those are really fun.
Larry Hryb: Well, it depends who's on the other end, I'll tell you. Fun is one way of looking at it, I guess I never thought about that. Yeah, I'm trying to get Janina. I don't know if we're gonna have her on for that, I'm gonna try to get her on for a show. If she can, we'll absolutely bring her in.
Jeff Rubenstein: Thank you. What?
Larry Hryb: She and I, we've been exchanging emails over a few things, so we're trying to get her in. Do you wanna talk anything else about gadgets and technology?
Laura: I don't believe I have a new gadget. I don't think I do.
Larry Hryb: It's getting into the holiday season. What's on your Christmas list, Laura.
Laura: Oh my goodness, I hadn't even thought about the Christmas list yet.
Larry Hryb: Really?
Laura: Yeah. Too busy thinking about Thanksgiving first.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey, what's on your Christmas list?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't want anything. I've got everything I- I've got my X, I got my game. I just want time to play it, and honestly I don't need anything.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I'm pretty much the same way. I have a lovely beautiful daughter.
Jeff Rubenstein: That you do.
Larry Hryb: So she's consuming up a lot of my time. My wife's time especially.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wait, you just wait.
Larry Hryb: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: Wait til you're driving to soccer practice three times a week.
Larry Hryb: It's fun, I love her.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, you'll get there.
Larry Hryb: All right, well listen, we're gonna wrap up. Thanks for coming in for the show Laura.
Laura: Yeah, thanks for-
Larry Hryb: Even though your voice was a little bit of a challenge.
Laura: Thanks for listening to me even though I had a challenge.
Larry Hryb: Jeff, thanks for coming in even though I know it was a challenge for you.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a challenge for you when I'm here.
Larry Hryb: You didn't finish your sandwich.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're good. We're good.
Larry Hryb: You sure? All right, well gang listen we'll see you guys in a couple weeks. We won't be around next week. You can follow us on social media. You can find Laura at-
Laura: At Lauralollypop.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey at-
Jeff Rubenstein: At jeffrubenstein.
Larry Hryb: Which is also, coincidentally, the same account you can tweet complaints to for Xbox.
Jeff Rubenstein: I get them. Believe me, I get them. They usually copy you too.
Larry Hryb: And you can hit me up at majornelson. Just a reminder you're gonna wanna make sure you follow me or at least check out my blog cause I'll be posting all the Black Friday deals for Xbox, and we've got some really- Jeff talked about them earlier-
Jeff Rubenstein: Can you show me the list?
Larry Hryb: I'm gonna show you after. Off the air, off the air.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll keep it quiet.
Larry Hryb: We've got some good stuff coming, some great games so you'll be ready to go this holiday. All right gang, have a great- if you're in the U-S have a great Thanksgiving. If not, have a great next Thursday and we'll just talk to you next time. Bye-bye everybody.
Laura: Bye-bye.
Jeff Rubenstein: Insert turkey sound here.

Larry Hyrb: Welcome to the show, everybody. My name is Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. This is show number Xbox One X. We're restarting-
Jeff: We are.
Larry Hyrb: We're doing it all new. We've got here ... Jeff is with us, Laura's with us. Hi, Laura.
Laura: Hello.
Larry Hyrb: We are ready. We're just a few days away ... Well, depending on when you listen to this, either it's a few days away from Xbox One X launch or it's out already.
Jeff: We may be in the future, future, future.
Larry Hyrb: Great to have you guys back, we haven't been back for ... Let me just look, let me just pull it up here and take a look ...
Laura: Pull out the calendar and see how long it's been.
Larry Hyrb: Looks like the last time we were together was, wow, a month ago.
Laura: It's been a long time.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, with my travel, your travel, Jeff's travel-
Jeff: You've aged. You look like a young Moff Tarkin.
Larry Hyrb: Are we gonna do that right now?
Jeff: Yeah
Larry Hyrb: Are we really ... Do you know what he's talking about?
Laura: No, I haven't watched any of the trailers. [crosstalk 00:01:24]
Jeff: Don't watch the trailers, they'll ruin the movie for you!
Larry Hyrb: Don't watch the trailers.
Jeff: Really don't.
Larry Hyrb: There was ... So, I don't know exactly how it started, but I was talking to Gary Whitta, who was the screen ... I think he was the story writer.
Jeff: I think on Rogue One.
Laura: Okay.
Larry Hyrb: On Rogue One. He's done some Walking Dead stuff, and he was asking ... He says, "I need to get an Xbox One X console." I said, "Well, look, I can probably work something out if you write me into the next screenplay in the Star Wars." But I said, "But I have to be a rebel. I'm not gonna be on the dark side." And then it started this whole ... It devolved into this conversation. Somebody posted a picture. I'm sure Jeffrey's pulling it up now-
Jeff: Yes.
Larry Hyrb: Of me as Grand Moff Tarkin.
Laura: Oh, no.
Jeff: So I ended up ... I was down in San Francisco this week, meeting with Greg Miller, the kinda funny crew, along with Albert, and Gary Whitta was there. And so he-
Larry Hyrb: Which is so bizarre.
Jeff: So we started talking about it, he's like, "He really does look like he would be part of the Empire." I couldn't argue.
Laura: That is so funny.
Larry Hyrb: So, anyway, that's-
Laura: Be careful what you wish for, Larry.
Larry Hyrb: I don't know. Yeah, don't watch the trailer, Laura. Don't watch the trailer. You know, I have my tickets and actually, let's ... Can we stop for a moment, just have a serious conversation? ... I'm sure you've probably seen if you follow me on Twitter, Laura, or Jeff, or E, former member of the show, we lost somebody. StepTo, who's a long time member of the show and will always be a member of the show, unfortunately passed away.
Laura: Very sad news.
Larry Hyrb: Last week surprised quite a few people. I mean, we've had him on the show to talk about ... He had some health issues. He was in coma, and he knew he was on borrowed time, unfortunately. Laura and I and E are going to get together in a future show. We're not going to do it today, but we want to make sure we recognize. We're going to get together and talk about him.
Laura: That's right.
Larry Hyrb: You okay with that?
Laura: Yeah, I'm okay with that.
Larry Hyrb: We'll probably do that when we get back, because we have the Xbox One X launch, but we're going to talk about StepTo. We have some great stories. I don't think we've ever told some of these stories before. We'll do that in a future show, but we do miss him. Sad times. Let's take a moment, take a breath and okay. Here we go.
Do a little reset. Hi Jeffrey.
Jeff: Hi.
Laura: Hello.
Jeff: You know, it's hard to follow that u[.
Larry Hyrb: It is. It is but we'll do our best.
Laura: We do miss him a lot.
Larry Hyrb: You know, you're welcome to join us on that show, Jeffrey.
Jeff: Yeah, yeah, I'd love to.
Larry Hyrb: If you've got time. Looks like we've got ... Laura, I'm going to ask you to step out if you would.
Laura: Oh, [crosstalk 00:03:51]
Larry Hyrb: Our guest here. Albert Panelo's joining us, so you're going to go retrieve him. Because we all have special access to the inner sanctum-
Laura: I'll be right back.
Larry Hyrb: But Albert, who's going to join us on the show, does not. You can hear the door opening. Laura's going to go down the hall there and get Albert. You were down in San Francisco with Albert, right Jeff?
Jeff: Yeah, I was. Yeah.
Larry Hyrb: You do the podcast [inaudible 00:04:12] with ...
Jeff: That's when we ... Actually, if anyone fanboyed out over meeting Gary Whitta, it was Albert. At some point I had to go, it was like 6 pm.
Larry Hyrb: Did you tell him about this?
Jeff: He was there when we had the conversation, yeah. At some point, I had to go and they just kept going.
Larry Hyrb: Once you wind Albert up about Star Aars or anything like that, he'll just go.
Jeff: Exactly.
Larry Hyrb: He's on his way in. Laura's out to get him. He's on his way in. We're going to talk about Xbox One X, coming soon or out now, depending upon when you're listening to this.
Jeff: Nobody knows more about the Xbox One X than Albert Panelo.
Larry Hyrb: Well, Albert ... He's one of the few people that's been at Xbox longer than I have.
Jeff: That is ... He'd also be working for the empire.
Larry Hyrb: No, now come on.
Jeff: It's really more about hair color, you know. Also, full credit to you, everyone in the empire ... They seem to hold on ... Outside of Darth Vader, they have a nice head of hair.
Larry Hyrb: And Albert does. Congratulations, we started without you Albert. Have a seat.
Albert Panelo: Are we live right now?
Larry Hyrb: We are, well we're live to tape.
Jeff: I brought some Sour Patch Kids.
Larry Hyrb: We're just ... Thank you Laura for going out and getting Albert.
Laura: You're welcome.
Larry Hyrb: I was just explaining. Apparently you were fanboying out down there in San Francisco?
Albert Panelo: Oh, yeah. What a great day. Did you rat me out?
Jeff: Yeah.
Albert Panelo: What a fun day. What a great group of guys. I had never met the kind of funny crew before.
Larry Hyrb: I haven't either.
Jeff: Get that done.
Albert Panelo: Had a blast, and got to spend some time with Gary, Gary Whitta.
Jeff: So we were just talking about the back and forth we had on Twitter. Did he tell you about that?
Albert Panelo: Uh-uh (negative).
Jeff: Okay, well we'll tell you about it later. We just already went over it. Apparently he thinks I look like a young Tarkin.
Albert Panelo: Well, someone did a little Photoshop job, just to sort of confirm that.
Larry Hyrb: You did see that, okay.
Albert Panelo: I wouldn't say it's looks as much as attitude, really.
Laura: Oh, dear. It's early, the jabs are coming.
Albert Panelo: But Gary's a good dude. The funny story with Gary is that I actually ... He didn't remember but, when I was at EA when I was a young lad, I had actually pitched a bunch of games to him when he was the editor of PC Gamer.
Larry Hyrb: Really?
Albert Panelo: Yeah, and of course it all came back because we sort of knew of each other through mutual friends. I had reminded him, I go, "Yeah, I was the marketing guy for the Jayne's Flight Simulators on PC." He was like, "That was you? That was forever ago." It was fumy to sort of catch up on that.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, it's a small world. We were just setting things up, depending upon ... This'll go out today, and depending on when people listen to this, they're either getting ready for their Xbox One X or they've already got it.
Jeff: They're busy playing.
Larry Hyrb: One of the things we want to talk about, because you and I talked about this earlier in the week, was this really cool ... Can we call it an app, an experience? What are we calling it?
Albert Panelo: That's a great question. I'll call it a demo.
Larry Hyrb: Okay. Demo.
Albert Panelo: Let's call it a demo.
Larry Hyrb: So, have you seen this Laura?
Laura: No.
Larry Hyrb: It's called Insects.
Laura: No.
Larry Hyrb: And this is ... I've got a video that'll got out on Monday but we're kind of doing a little preview here. Shall we?
Albert Panelo: Yeah for sure. Yeah.
Larry Hyrb: This is an experience, a demo that ... Albert actually worked on this, getting it together. Why don't you tell us about it Albert?
Albert Panelo: Yeah, there was this idea. We knew early on that people were going to have a lot of question about HDR and wide color gamut. The biggest challenge that you face is that you can't show it if you can't display it. When people say, "Show me HDR," you need to have an HDR screen and then I can turn it on and off and show you the difference or I can show you wide color gamut. We knew that that was gonna be a big thing that people were gonna both ask, and then we were going to have difficulty demonstrating.
The advanced technology group, that's the group that works in our engineering org who interfaces a lot with our development partners, had built this demo of a ladybug that was authored from the get go with wide color gamut and HDR in mind. It was also authored to run on both an Xbox One S and an Xbox One X. It was a just a tech demo, like "Here's how the code works and heres what your authoring path needs to look like." But it was amazing, because now you have all this power sort of rendering a flower and a lady bug. When we first saw it we thought it was a scene out of Planet Earth. We thought it was a movie.
Larry Hyrb: Or A bug's life.
Laura: To be clear, it wasn't filmed.
Albert Panelo: No, it is all computer generated.
Larry Hyrb: And it's all in engine render.
Albert Panelo: Yeah, it's not a movie.
Larry Hyrb: This is real time.
Albert Panelo: It's real time.
Larry Hyrb: In fact, not only is it real time, but as a result of the fact that it's real time, you can manipulate it.
Albert Panelo: That's right, you can pause it. You can zoom in and out. You can change the color of the ladybug, the color of the flowers, time of day. We said, "Oh my gosh. If we can get this out into people's hands, this would look awesome being displayed on TVs, it'd be an awesome way ..." When your family comes over and you want to show off your new 4K TV, you're not like scrambling for like "What's the piece of content," or like, "Where do I get to that part in the game where it looks really good?" You just turn this thing on and it goes.
We work with our advanced technology team, so I'll give a shout out to [Arthur 00:09:04] and to [James 00:09:04] for really spearheading this on the team, and got something that we can ship. It is gorgeous, it is beautiful, it's unexpected. I think the tech heads are gonna love it, because it's technologically very interesting, but my daughter who is three now always asks if she can watch the ladybug movie. It's just beautiful. It's something you can just run and show to anyone, and it's amazing.
Jeff: Like I said, depending on when you listen to the show, this will be available. It's a free download.
Albert Panelo: It's totally free, and it's small. I think it's only two gigs, so it's a really small download.
Jeff: You'll be able to download it starting when Xbox One X launches on Monday, the [crosstalk 00:09:42]-
Albert Panelo: Yeah, and if you're one of the lucky Taco Bell winners, you've got your console, you'll have it the night before.
Jeff: That's right. Anyway-
Laura: How do you find it?
Jeff: That's a great question.
Albert Panelo: Insects in the store. It's called Insects: An Xbox One X Enhanced Experience.
Jeff: I will put a link out on my Twitter, as well as on my blog, to download it, so people can download it.
Albert Panelo: I think we're gonna host it up on the dash as well, so that when you unbox and get it home, it'll be right there for you.
Jeff: The only time you're gonna want Insects on your Xbox One X, I can assure you.
Larry Hyrb: It's the only time you want bugs.
Albert Panelo: Thank you.
Larry Hyrb: Sorry.
Jeff: I will say this: like I told you, Laura, it's real time. You can toggle things on and off. It's just so interesting to watch the detail. You'll see ... This is the beauty of the technology. It's real time. It's gorgeous. Albert and I were talking, it's like ... Remember back in 1999, we're like, "Oh, this game's gonna look like a POne Xar movie." This looks like a POne Xar movie. It's not a game, but I'm just saying, it looks unbelievable.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah. 100% of the people that have seen this assume that we have done some photography and gone and filmed something and that it's a movie. Then I pause it, and then I change the ladybug's color or something.
Jeff: Real time.
Laura: [crosstalk 00:10:53] camera angle?
Larry Hyrb: A little bit, a little bit. It's all designed to show that it's in real time. You can zoom in and you can sort of manipulate things. It's not a playable thing. I like it. It's kind of it's own experience.
Jeff: Yeah. Then the other thing is, you can actually go in there and there's a setting to split the screen, so you can kind of see [HDR 00:11:16], [SDR 00:11:16] ...
Laura: Basically before and after?
Jeff: Yeah. You can see the side of the screen that's HDR, non HDR, so as it pans over, you'll see the lighting. You can turn wide color [gamut 00:11:23] on and off. You can make it render real time in 4K or 1080P, so you can see super-sampling. You can see the texture differences. There's even some advanced stuff in there for the guys that really get into it. If you want to see what part of the scene is displaying wide color gamut, you can filter it so that you can see the colors that would only be visible because of wide color gamut. There is a lot of really neat technical things you can do.
Albert Panelo: I thought of a sequel we can make for this. It is really cool to see the stuff, but I mean you can only look at ladybugs for so ... Your daughter, she will enjoy it for a while. After she gets out of the ladybug phase, can I suggest the sequel, which would be Empire Major Nelson in 4K. You can change him-
Jeff: It'll be like Rogue One. We CG his face and we can zoom in, put him in different scenes in the movies.
Laura: I hadn't seen that picture [crosstalk 00:12:15]-
Larry Hyrb: Would you prefer a target, a military target? Anyway.
Jeff: I thought I smelled your foul stench when I was brought on board.
Laura: Yes, I was just about to say that.
Albert Panelo: I don't know how we got into this. Thanks, Jeffrey.
Jeff: No, it's what I do. I keep us off target.
Albert Panelo: Insects is gonna be available at the launch of Xbox One X. You need an Xbox One X or an S. Does it work on the original?
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, it works on every console.
Albert Panelo: Everything in the Xbox One X family? [crosstalk 00:12:37]
Larry Hyrb: That's right. You will be able to see HDR on Xbox One S. There'll be [atmos 00:12:43] on all the consoles. That's the other thing, sorry. It also does spacial audio, so you can test that out if you've got headphones. We rendered it in spacial audio, the audio. It works on all the consoles, so here we are.
Albert Panelo: That's ... On the eve.
Larry Hyrb: We are on the eve of launching. What number console is this for you? How do you measure them? Because I was trying to figure this out. I've done a few, Laura's done a few, Jeff's done a couple.
Albert Panelo: It just depends on how impressive I'm trying to make my resume seem.
Larry Hyrb: Buff up your LinkedIn for us, will you?
Albert Panelo: Well, I mean, it's the third gen and a half. Then if you count things like the Xbox 360 S, [Trinity 00:13:19] [inaudible 00:13:20]. If you count Kinect, which felt a lot like a console launch ... We're at four, five, six of these. I would just say all of them.
Larry Hyrb: Are you gonna be with me in New York?
Albert Panelo: Yes. You're leaving tomorrow, right?
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, Jeff and I are leaving tomorrow. Are you leaving tomorrow?
Albert Panelo: Sunday.
Larry Hyrb: Okay, so we'll see you out there on Monday. In fact, I just did the show rundown yesterday. There's a lot going on.
Jeff: What's funny is everybody's Facebook feed that does the memories, it's been showing up the last couple of days seven years ago, and we're all in New York on the Kinect launch. I was like, "Oh, we're gonna be reliving these memories."
Larry Hyrb: Here we are in New York again. I have the details on my blog about what we're doing. We're doing a global launch. We've got a lot of things going on around the world.
Jeff: Yeah. I think Australia just opened up a little hotel you can go stay at and just play [crosstalk 00:14:06]-
Larry Hyrb: They did?
Laura: Really?
Jeff: Yeah. It's some sort of pop up hotel thing.
Laura: [crosstalk 00:14:10] amazing.
Jeff: I saw their tweet. It seems really cool. There's a lot of fan fests going on. All over the world we're doing things, and then in the US we're gonna have a bunch of folks out in New York at the Microsoft store. You can come and stand in line and play games and meet people. There'll be celebrities there.
Larry Hyrb: Phil's gonna be there.
Jeff: Like I said, celebrities will be there. Albert'll be there. Handlers and lower level people in the organization will be there, and I think there will be some surprise celebrities will be there. [inaudible 00:14:38] we've announced them.
Albert Panelo: I'm the fact checker here, we need that the whole time. There's something in Xbox Australia called the Xbox Stay and Play event. There's these pods. I've stayed in smaller hotel rooms in New York than this.
Jeff: If you've ever been to Japan [crosstalk 00:14:54]-
Albert Panelo: It's almost one of those capsules.
Larry Hyrb: Do they have capsule ... I got to take a look at this. Wonder who's going down for that.
Albert Panelo: I'll throw that in the show notes.
Larry Hyrb: Anyway, we're really excited about the launch. I wanted to get Albert in here, just to kind of walk us through ... We talked some about the Insects demo, the experience that people are gonna be able to download. A lot of questions, I've seen a lot of questions on Twitter. No more Scorpio editions. Those are done, right?
Jeff: Yeah. We sort of knew that when the standard editions came out people would swap, or there would be stragglers as orders kind of came through. I do think you might get lucky and sort of get the golden ticket and find one pop up [crosstalk 00:15:33]. I think I saw someone at Reddit that saw at a store ... There was a handful. Yeah, just when you're talking about the volume of units that we're doing, the fact that there might be dozens or hundreds of them that still show up in store.
If you find one, grab it, because those are done. We don't make those anymore. Whatever you see is what was part of the original batch that managed to make its way into stores. I want to remind ... If you're this weekend and you're getting ready for your Xbox One X, this is a perfect time to get ready. We can do that with the console, right Albert?
Albert Panelo: Yeah. I mean, that's one of the things I really love about what the team has done, and this whole idea about making this a family of devices, is that you can actually get ready for the launch now. You can get ready early. If you have an external hard drive, you can start backing up your settings. You can move your games over. If you know you're getting an X, you can start taking the 4K updates. There's already dozens of games where the 4K updates are already up on the service. We know people are out playing them now. You can actually download those to your Xbox One S.
I went through the experience just like a customer. I hadn't done anything at home. Probably one of the fastest out of box time between start and playing a game that we have had for probably since the original. Certainly in this day and age of updates we have a very small day one update that you'll take, but if you have the hard drive plugged in and if you know what your Xbox Live password is ... That's the two things. Please know your Xbox Live password. Laura's laughing because she knows what I major issue that is for some people who forget. Have your password, have your games on a hard drive, have your 4K updates downloaded. You will be playing games in 15 or 20 minutes from the time that you plug that thing in.
Laura: That's really fast.
Albert Panelo: It's amazing. [crosstalk 00:17:21]
Larry Hyrb: I also want to point out-
Albert Panelo: Congrats to the team on that.
Larry Hyrb: There's a lot of folks that may be picking up an Xbox One X at launch or maybe this holiday, for Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever you celebrate, in the gift giving season. There's a little bit of confusion out there that I've seen, like, "Wait a minute. I want to get an Xbox One X, but I don't have a 4K TV."
Albert Panelo: No problemo.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah.
Albert Panelo: It's all good.
Larry Hyrb: Tell people about that and super sampling and what it means.
Albert Panelo: Yeah. I think one of the things that I always remind people, being someone that's been in the business for a long time, consoles have never output the graphics based on the TV you were looking at. If you think about Xbox 360, which was right in the nexus of ... There were still people with analog televisions and digital at the same time.
Laura: They were spending a lot of time testing on both types of TVs.
Albert Panelo: Yeah. The small font problem ...
Laura: Yeah, small font problems, [inaudible 00:18:10] green space on the two TVs, then this beautiful big flat screen TVs.
Albert Panelo: Yeah, and no one ever asked, "Am I only gonna get the analog 480P assets on my TV on my Xbox?" It's like, "No, the consoles always output the best graphics." There is so much more that the games are doing beyond resolutions, with lighting and frame rate and textures. All of these incremental improvements that they're making that are still gonna show up on a 1080P TV.
If you want the best gaming experience, you don't need a 4K TV to see all of the enhancements the developers are doing. Then there is this technique called super-sampling, which basically shrinks the screen down so that all the detail and a lot of the anti-aliasing will go away. A 4K super-sampled picture is better than a 1080P picture.
Larry Hyrb: Right.
Albert Panelo: Plus, oh my gosh, the faster load times and the better texture filtering on 360 games and all of those things. You still get all of those advantages when you get an Xbox One X, even if you don't have a 4K TV.
Larry Hyrb: I think this really reveals itself, that people are starting to notice that. Recently when we started shipping the original Xbox games, there were details in those games that existed that nobody ever saw until we brought them over to the Xbox One, right?
Albert Panelo: Yeah. That's been one of the fun discoveries [crosstalk 00:19:37]-
Larry Hyrb: Have you heard about this, Laura?
Laura: No.
Albert Panelo: Have you played Fusion Frenzy on an Xbox One X?
Laura: Not yet.
Albert Panelo: Okay. There was the level ... What is the tower level?
Laura: That's my favorite one. Jump and duck.
Albert Panelo: The jump and duck. Most people were playing an original Xbox. We were probably fortunate, even in those days, that we were playing them on early HD sets-
Larry Hyrb: With the HD advance pack.
Albert Panelo: With the HD advance pack, or the VGA adapter. Trademark copyright Microsoft corporation.
If you remember, you would jump and this little yellow light would come around and you would duck. Well, when they first started getting it up and running on an Xbox One, they realized that that is actually a duck texture. It is not a yellow light.
Laura: Really?
Albert Panelo: You couldn't make it out at all on a regular TV. You could sort of see it if you had an HD set. What they've discovered is, not only was it a duck texture, but when they got it on an Xbox One X, the duck had an eye and an orange bill. That was all art that existed, so on an Xbox One X [crosstalk 00:20:42]-
Larry Hyrb: That no one's ever seen.
Albert Panelo: On an Xbox One X, not only does it look like a duck, but it has an orange bill and an eyeball. That was in the art 17 years ago. No one ever knew it was there until they started getting these games up and running.
When you see even what we did with the 360 Xbox One X enhanced games like Halo, you bring a lot of the team over to see that and ... I didn't realize that the Covenant pods that were dropped had a leather covering on them. It always kind of just looked like a texture. When you're moving away, you're not sure if it's anti-aliasing, whatever, but it turns out, the things are wrapped in leather. You're like, "Oh my God, that's a leather texture that I never even noticed was on this item that had existed the whole time.
Jeff: Much more luxurious than we thought.
Albert Panelo: Rich Corinthian leather.
Jeff: Exactly. I've really changed my mind on the Covenant.
Albert Panelo: They're more stylish than [crosstalk 00:21:34]-
Jeff: Details are very important, Larry.
Albert Panelo: It is fun to go back and look at those old games and realize that these developers were way ahead of their time in the creation. Now we've got a machine that can show it.
Larry Hyrb: Did I see correctly that a game that I had played probably a dozen years ago, and my first ever 1K, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been upgraded for Xbox One X?
Albert Panelo: Yes.
Larry Hyrb: My head's exploding right now. If this was a video podcast, [crosstalk 00:22:07]-
Jeff: I'm sure there's a filter we can put on it. I'm sure he's got an animated gif in his documents [crosstalk 00:22:10]
Albert Panelo: Someone edit it up so Larry's got some ammunition against Jeff.
Larry Hyrb: When I saw that written, I was like, "Somebody made a mistake. I need to refresh this, because that game came out in 2005." That's crazy that that's possible, that it was there.
Albert Panelo: Those games did a bunch of interesting things. There's a reason we're only doing a handful of these, because again, in those cases, the developers almost had to be living in the future, because there has to be ... I call it DNA in the game that makes it possible to do these kind of enhancements. Many of these games, especially for developers at that time that had PC backgrounds, like in the case of [Bungee 00:22:49] who had been building PC games and Bethesda who did their stuff on PC, their art was authored in 10 bit color instead of 8 bit color. The Xbox 360 couldn't display, and there were no TVs that could display it, so the console at the last minute would basically take the colors and remap them. The emulator now doesn't remap them, so you basically have ... The technical guys will get on me, but you basically have HDR and wide color gamut that existed in these old games that we're kind of unlocking.
The colors are more vibrant, the contrast ratio is higher in these titles. Again, the other thing that's interesting ... Everybody talked about textures in those days, where I'd get right up to the wall and I would see these amazing textures, but then the machines would have to store multiple layers of these textures, because they didn't have enough power to put a high res texture half a mile away on a building.
Laura: Yeah, like the level of detail.
Albert Panelo: The level of detail. One of the things that they're able to do is they're able to basically increase the level of detail, so you are getting better textures all the way through the image.
Laura: Oh, that's great.
Albert Panelo: You're able to see details and draw distances that were just impossible to do on the 360. All of that stuff ... This isn't a remaster. The original developers aren't going back and doing anything. This existed in the game, and the geniuses, the emulation ninjas, have figured out how to unlock that stuff so people can see it.
Larry Hyrb: It's like finding an old wallet, and there's 1000 dollars in it. It's just unbelievable.
Jeff: Bonus.
Albert Panelo: That's our new marketing tagline.
Larry Hyrb: There we go.
Albert Panelo: Xbox One X Enhanced: it's like finding a wallet with 1000 dollars in it. That's good, I like it. You're in marketing, so that'll work.
Larry Hyrb: I am now. I am now.
Jeff: Here we are, Xbox One X. Now Albert, of course we've talked to ... We just had you on two shows ago. We have done shows frequently enough. I was just looking back. We had you on a couple shows ago, where you were talking about naming the X after ... This concept you came up with, the nomenclature of that and the letter after the product.
Albert Panelo: The whole Xbox One S story?
Jeff: Yeah.
Albert Panelo: I told this story.
Larry Hyrb: [Controller 00:24:52] S.
Albert Panelo: [crosstalk 00:24:53] The Controller S.
Larry Hyrb: The [Akebono 00:24:54].
Albert Panelo: The Akebono.
Laura: [inaudible 00:24:56]
Albert Panelo: And how I was marketing guy S, and they all hated that name. Oh, the engineering team hated that name so much.
Larry Hyrb: Who's laughing now, Albert?
Albert Panelo: Who's laughing now? They've come to love it.
I told the story. I needed a name for the new controller we were doing, and the only reason we needed it was so that when people called up technical support, the call centers would know which controller they were talking about. It was never supposed to be the name, it was more a model designation. No one knew, because we were [inaudible 00:25:28] everything at the time. I think I got a call the day before we needed to print that was like, "We need to have another name."
Laura: You had one day to figure [crosstalk 00:25:36]-
Albert Panelo: No, I mean ... As we were driving in, there was an Acura type S or something right before ... I'm a car guy, as you guys know. I've said this many times. I was like, "Type S. I like that. It's sporty, S is kind of an open vessel. Could mean second, could mean small, could mean slim, doesn't really mean anything, but it means everything. Xbox controller S." I'm like, "Yeah, it rolls off the tongue."
I just went back and like, "That's what we're gonna do." That was the testing. That was the clearancing. It was it. Now we've got Windows 10 S, which sort of traces its roots all the way back to-
Jeff: You sitting in traffic.
Albert Panelo: On my way to millennium.
Larry Hyrb: I've now gotten to hear you tell the story three or four times. Can you tell the part about the prank that was pulled on you after this?
Albert Panelo: Oh, yeah. I told you, the engineering team absolutely hated it. I came back to my office after. After it had gotten printed, so it was done. I had sticky notes all over, covering my wall, that said "Marketing guy S" all over my wall. They did not like that name at all.
Larry Hyrb: Maybe we should legally change your initials to Albert S. Panelo.
Albert Panelo: Albert S. Panelo.
Larry Hyrb: Anyway, it sounds like you had a good time. I'm just looking to hear ... You had a busy time down in San Francisco. You were on all the different podcasts. You saw Ryan [Mcafree 00:26:58] again, it's always good to see Ryan.
Albert Panelo: Yeah, I love Ryan. He's great.
Larry Hyrb: He's a lot of fun.
Albert Panelo: We saw him a lot too, because he came up and did the [crosstalk 00:27:05]
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, we had him in here kind of secretly. We couldn't talk about it until he had talked about that publicly.
Albert Panelo: He was the perfect guy to do that.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah.
Albert Panelo: I mean, when we were talking about doing this story, his name was ... It just popped [crosstalk 00:27:16]-
Larry Hyrb: There was nobody else.
Albert Panelo: Well, he had just such an amazing history with Xbox, as one of the few people that's still in the industry that's not at Xbox that's kind of been around since the very beginning-
Larry Hyrb: Doing Xbox stuff, doing gaming stuff, right.
Albert Panelo: If you want to talk to someone who's gonna have a passion and sort of remember and a fondness for those titles-
Larry Hyrb: Not only that, but I remember when you were showing him Ninja Gaiden, right?
Albert Panelo: Yeah.
Larry Hyrb: I walked in the room and I was kind of hanging out in the back. He was playing it, and he remembered the moves.
Albert Panelo: It was unbelievable. He was clearing through that game.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah.
Albert Panelo: I spent forever jumping on the wall, trying to figure out where the try was and getting stuck. He's like [inaudible 00:27:50] He's like [crosstalk 00:27:52]-
Larry Hyrb: [Unidrop 00:27:53]. That was the move. That was the move.[inaudible 00:27:55]
Albert Panelo: Yeah. He was unbelievable, and actually KOTOR II, he was playing through, knew what choices to make. It was really a blast. The best part about that is you always kind of do the beginning of the day ... You know what you're gonna show and everything. In the beginning of the day, I remember asking him, "What do you expect to see today?" You always are wondering, "Am I gonna over deliver or under deliver?" He's like, "Well, it's gonna be great and I'm looking forward to meeting everybody, but I really want to see Knights of the Old Republic, and if you guys do Ninja Gaiden that would be amazing." [inaudible 00:28:26]
Larry Hyrb: "Have a good day brother. Here [crosstalk 00:28:30]-
Albert Panelo: "Have we got surprises for you."
Larry Hyrb: Here we go. We're really excited. We've got a few days ahead of us before we get to New York and start launching this thing. People start unboxing their consoles. Earlier this week, you were probably surprised when you saw it, the pre-boot animation.
Albert Panelo: Oh yeah, they gave that to you and let you put that up.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, it was one of those things where ... Because I remember you and I talked about it, but you're right. People started getting their consoles and I went to the right people like, "Hey, we just got to get this out there. I want to show people," so boom, out it went.
Albert Panelo: It's funny. I was thinking about you. You put out the boot animations for 360 and OG as well, so at this point [crosstalk 00:29:08]-
Larry Hyrb: I'm the boot guy.
Albert Panelo: We actually have given everyone pretty high resolution videos of all three boot animations.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, I showed the boot animation for when you put in original Xbox titles in Xbox One. I had the team send it over to me. It just looks so beautiful. I always love to tell the stories. I don't know if you remember this story, because you don't see this in the original Xbox because you can't get to the dashboard like you can with 360, but the dashboard ... If you remember correctly, one of the iterations ... I think it was the Tsunami release. You were around for that right, Laura?
Laura: Yes I was.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, I think it was before that. Anyway, the background sounds. Do you remember those?
Albert Panelo: The ambient chatter.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, what those were ... Because I always ... Because as an audio guy, I was always bothered. I don't remember who did them, but I went and found the person who did them and I said, "What's going on here? I got to know." He says, "Yeah, we needed some background ambience sound, so we got some publicly available NASA transmissions and just modified them." That's actually astronauts in NASA.
Laura: Oh, really?
Albert Panelo: No way.
Larry Hyrb: Yes.
Albert Panelo: I had no idea.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, so if you listen, they sped them up [crosstalk 00:30:13]-
Albert Panelo: So all that [inaudible 00:30:14].
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, that's actually ... Those are public domain NASA transmissions.
Albert Panelo: Get out of here.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah. That's one of my favorite pieces of trivia, because it's ...
Laura: Oh my goodness.
Albert Panelo: You just dropped a knowledge bomb on me.
Larry Hyrb: Boom. You're not the only ones.
Albert Panelo: It is funny how ... As we were preparing for the back-compat story to release and trying to put out assets and things like that, a lot of that stuff doesn't exist anymore. One of the challenges ... I was talking to the guy who's in charge of marketing for the back-compat stuff. As we were putting these videos out, we wanted to put the console logos on it so that you could see what version [crosstalk 00:30:48] wipes and stuff.
He comes back to my office. I was like, "Hey, I was looking at the videos. We should put these one." He's like, "Yeah, no one's got it." I went to our [markom 00:31:00] team, I went to all the art teams, and nobody has the logos.
Larry Hyrb: The old Xbox logo [crosstalk 00:31:03]
Albert Panelo: The old Xbox logos.
Larry Hyrb: Like this one I have?
Albert Panelo: Yeah, like the one on your shirt. I thought about it. I said, "Hold on a second." I started clicking through a bunch of folders on my computer, and I go, "Oh, here you go. Here's all the fonts, here's the art files, here's the layers for all the old logos." Nobody else had it, but I had it on a folder on my desktop.
Laura: Are you a digital hoarder?
Albert Panelo: I am. Well, you know, I would call it more like a historian. [crosstalk 00:31:26]
Larry Hyrb: Xbox librarian, I believe we prefer.
Albert Panelo: That's right. Digital hoarder does take up a lot less space than an actual hoarder, however. Hard drives are cheap.
Larry Hyrb: Of which he's also as well, if you've been to his office. He's a real ... anyways.
Albert Panelo: Thanks, Larry.
Larry Hyrb: Now it's back on me. Let's talk about Grand Moff Tarkin.
Albert Panelo: Yeah, I have a bunch of old ... Now of course, I regret that I didn't just grab it like everything. There's other stuff I wish I still had, but I have a treasure trove of documents and art files and things from back in those days.
Larry Hyrb: We should release those.
Laura: I do the same thing.
Larry Hyrb: We should release some of those.
Albert Panelo: On the anniversary, I think on the 10th, I went back through and found a bunch of stuff.
Larry Hyrb: I remember that.
Albert Panelo: A bunch of old TV commercials. Of course, they're all ... Back then, when they'd send you TV commercial to review, it was like the potato quality. It's like, "Oh my God, this thing is like 20 Megs. No one could download this thing. It's gonna take forever."
Larry Hyrb: And you need to download Real Player.
Albert Panelo: Yeah, that's right, or the QuickTime whatever plugin. I've got a bunch that have actually been challenging-
Larry Hyrb: Dark Master.
Albert Panelo: I have a bunch of those, but I can't do anything with them because they're so small, because they were the [crosstalk 00:32:37]-
Laura: Terrible.
Larry Hyrb: Postage stamp.
Albert Panelo: That's how you would go and [crosstalk 00:32:41]-
Larry Hyrb: Review.
Albert Panelo: Of course and your monitor resolution wasn't that big either, so-
Jeff: 624x768, top of the line.
Albert Panelo: It all scaled up at the time. To look at them now it's painful, but it is fun to go back and watch Dark Master and those old techno commercials.
Larry Hyrb: You [crosstalk 00:32:54] talked a moment about the generations. What do we ... This is a half generation, it's a mid generation. We talk about the family of devices. How are you thinking about it?
Albert Panelo: Well, I think about it as a mid generation upgrade. We said that the name really tells the story. When people ask, "Is this a next-gen console?" Well, the answer is it's an Xbox One. We called it an Xbox One. I think I said this on IGN, too. It was always gonna be Xbox One something, because there was no way that you were gonna be able to tell the story you wanted to tell around compatibility and how the games work and forwards and backwards if it was called something else. Everyone would have just immediately said, "Oh, they're starting Gen 9."
It was always gonna be Xbox One something, then it was a question of which Xbox One it was. It's part of the same family. It is the 1080 to the Xbox One's 1060. They're part of the same family. Everybody always says, "Oh, are you gonna make exclusive games for the Xbox One X?" It's like, "No, they're literally... " If you tried to build an Xbox One X exclusive game, you would get an Xbox One S version of the game. It's how we architected the system.
Larry Hyrb: I just want to ... Oh. That's my ringtone. Do you know what that is?
Albert Panelo: Is it NASA transmissions?
Laura: Sped up?
Larry Hyrb: That's actually from Totoro.
Laura: Oh.
Albert Panelo: Oh.
Laura: [inaudible 00:34:16].
Larry Hyrb: Big Totoro fan.
Jeff: As a former audio professional, leaving your ringer on, man? Come on.
Larry Hyrb: I had it on because I was working in here earlier and I wanted to make sure I could hear it if Albert texted us, because [crosstalk 00:34:29] wasn't coming.
Jeff: If it was one of us, we'd already be out the door.
Albert Panelo: By the way, it snowed this morning.
Laura: It did.
Albert Panelo: We talked about this. I woke up to my daughter going, "Daddy, daddy, it's snowing, it's snowing." What are you ... Are you having a dream? What's going on? It's November One. It hasn't snowed anywhere.
Jeff: Sure enough, there it is.
Albert Panelo: I live just ... Seattle, for those in the middle of the country where things are flattish, Washington is quite hilly. You can live very close to Seattle, which is close to sea level, and be quite a bit above sea level. We are just enough above sea-
Jeff: Are you the same altitude I am, roughly? [inaudible 00:35:07] on a hill, you know.
Albert Panelo: Yeah. Up there ... Yeah, probably almost 900 feet above sea level.
Larry Hyrb: I told Laura, I opened up the garage this morning. I wasn't even expecting it, and I actually went "Holy what?" I couldn't believe it. I screamed it out loud.
Albert Panelo: The nice thing is you've got an SUV, and I just have a regular car. Usually I have to prepare myself for snow. I [inaudible 00:35:30] slope driveway. This is all things nobody cares about [inaudible 00:35:33]. Unless you live in Seattle, you really ... Of course, people in the Midwest are like, "Ha ha ha, you and your snow."
Larry Hyrb: "I'm under six feet of snow right now."
Albert Panelo: "Your light dusting."
Larry Hyrb: I just got a text from someone on my team who just moved up here from LA, and it was just all caps, "HOLY S, THERE'S SNOW." Probably has not seen it in a decade.
Albert Panelo: As somebody who grew up in New England, this is not snow. It's merely a [crosstalk 00:35:53]-
Jeff: It looks like someone spilled a snow cone.
Albert Panelo: Yeah.
Jeff: But it is nice to have actual seasons.
Albert Panelo: It is nice.
Jeff: But it does bring traffic to a screeching halt.
Larry Hyrb: I wanted to talk about ... Before I let you go, Albert, because I know you got a busy day as you prep for launch, is ... One of the things that the team focused on was making sure that they knew what titles were gonna run really well on Xbox once they're enhanced.
Albert Panelo: Yeah. I mean, right now the support that we've seen from developers has been unbelievable. We created a very specific dev kit. All of the components and all of the specs that we have in the box were designed to do that. The result is just an unbelievable games lineup.
We're gonna have right around 50 titles on launch day that take advantage of Xbox One X Enhanced. We're tracking to about 70 titles in the first week or so. If you think about ... This is where I will talk about a traditional console launch. Typically when you launch a new console, you get 15 titles, 18, maybe 20.
Larry Hyrb: You have to buy new games.
Albert Panelo: Not only do you have to buy new games, but there's maybe only 20 titles that actually take advantage of the new stuff. We're gonna have between 50 and 70 games available. Many of them you already own.
Larry Hyrb: You're sitting right there.
Albert Panelo: That are taking advantage of the power of the new box. Over 160 announced so far, on top of 200 exclusives, 1300 titles, game pass, OG. There is so much to play.
Larry Hyrb: [inaudible 00:37:19] Gold every month.
Albert Panelo: Yeah, plus [inaudible 00:37:21] Gold. There's so much to play on Xbox One. To have 50 plus titles, around 50 titles on launch day is just remarkable. They all look amazing.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, and you can just go into your console and go into your game collection and you can sort by, filter, which ones are Xbox One X Enhanced. Bam, there they are.
Jeff: It's funny, because it's like ... Literally everyday it's being updated what games there are. There's a website, which I will link to. What I do is I just hit Ctrl+F, and type in "Avail," like for "Available," and every day it's taking me longer and longer to get to the bottom of the list. There's some pretty amazing games on there.
Albert Panelo: Yeah, there was ... Call of Duty just launched last night.
Larry Hyrb: The Witcher.
Albert Panelo: They just launched with their enhancements. Their enhanced version's already out. The Witcher they just did, Titanfall 2, which is right above 4K and actually does super-sampling from 6K down to 4K in some scenes. That's a whole nother thing we'll talk about. Actually, the Titanfall engine in certain scenes can render higher than 4K.
Remember how we would talk about dynamic resolution and it would be between 900 and 1080P? Their dynamic resolution is 4K and above. They actually in some scenes have super-sampling above 4K down to 4K. Yeah, the list is great. We're updating it every day.
Larry Hyrb: Every day.
Albert Panelo: The other thing that I like to say is, if you have an Xbox One S and you're curious, we also allow Xbox One X enhanced filters on the Xbox One S. If you're someone who's like, "Hey, I made this investment in games. What do I have? How many games to I own that are gonna take advantage of the new box we allow people to see?" It's almost like being able to see in the future. If I want to get one, how much of my content is [inaudible 00:39:10].
Larry Hyrb: It's also cool in the ready to install, you can also sort by that. Which games do I not have currently downloaded?
Albert Panelo: And which ones do I want to prioritize?
Larry Hyrb: Exactly. You can go back and go, "Oh, that one ..." [inaudible 00:39:20] download that and take another look. I've been very impressed with FIFA 18, by the way. They got [inaudible 00:39:27] you can see the blades of grass [inaudible 00:39:28].
Albert Panelo: Blades of grass.
Larry Hyrb: It's all about that.
Jeff: How's your Reinaldo?
Larry Hyrb: He looks ... It's funny because it was the first time ... I knew that they were updating, and the very first match they throw you in ... He is a beautiful man in 4K. I made sure as quickly as possible to slide tackle someone horrifically and get him sent off so I didn't have to look at him. Still won 4-1. Still won 4-1.
Jeff: I'm Jeff [inaudible 00:39:51] on Twitter. You can find it.
Larry Hyrb: I'm are principal man.
Jeff: Anyway, you're welcome to hang out with us. We're just gonna kind of tick through some of the news and do some housekeeping, if you have time.
Albert Panelo: I have to go. [crosstalk 00:40:01]
Larry Hyrb: You're busy? What?
Albert Panelo: It's a crazy time. This is always the best. I love seeing you guys.
Larry Hyrb: Albert Panelo on Twitter. You're actual the man ... I actually consider you one of the key people behind Xbox One X.
Albert Panelo: Thank you. There are lots of hard working-
Larry Hyrb: I know there are, but I just remember coming to you many, many years ago. You and I were sitting in your office and I'd stop by all the time. You would show me these ... And you're like, "What if you took your games with you?" I'm like, "What?" And here we are. Remember those conversations?
Albert Panelo: Larry, true story, Larry was a good sounding board. I've said this, that one of the great things about this journey for me personally ... Again, I have to say it, there's real smart people doing real work. The men and women here that are actually grinding, like Laura, doing real work and making sure this thing works, is not me. I'm just the guy out there telling people about it. But it has been a fun journey, because I've been fortunate enough to be there from the beginning. I always say, one of the most exciting parts was asking ourselves the same questions that we're getting asked now.
Larry ... Which probably now I can say it, because no one can get mad at me, because I probably shouldn't have told him at the time, but every idea we would have ... I would call Larry and I would say, "How do you think ... What if we did this? What if we did that? What do you think people will say? What would you like to see?" Larry was actually a great sounding board for me for many years on a lot of this stuff.
Larry Hyrb: It's a great partnership. You're right, we have a lot of smart people here. We're gamers. We just want to play great games [crosstalk 00:41:22]. Everybody here is about that. Anyway Albert, thank you, man. I'll let you run. I'll see you in New York.
Albert Panelo: Alright.
Larry Hyrb: Jeff and I [crosstalk 00:41:26] okay man.
Laura: Bye.
Larry Hyrb: Be careful out there, because it's snowing.
Jeff: It's snowing. There's a light dusting.
Larry Hyrb: There's a light dusting. Be careful with that.
Alright, we're gonna [inaudible 00:41:34] ... Jeffrey's got some headlines. While Albert ... You don't have to be quiet, they know you're leaving.
Laura: Bye.
Albert Panelo: Bye.
Larry Hyrb: You can let the door slam. Why don't you go ahead and tick through some of the headlines for us, and we'll keep going?
Jeff: It took me a long time to even figure out what to start with first. Since we're on the subject, let's talk about 4K upgrades and 4K enhancements. One of them that jumps out towards the top of the list is Halo 5, is a game that I cannot wait to see. It's already been updated. By the time you get this ... You have an Xbox One X, you have Halo ... Of course you have Halo 5. You do need to see it in beautiful, enhanced joy.
We're actually ... The Xbox [Wired 00:42:14] team has been putting together a series of stories on what different teams are doing, including Titanfall. I'm gonna link over to the story about Inside Xbox One X Enhanced: The Witcher 3, because this is the game that I cannot wait to see in 4K. I've been saving ... I've seen a number of people talking about this ... Saving the DLCs, Blood and Wine, and Hearts of Stone, I want to say, to see these in all their Xbox One X Enhanced glory.
I'll link out to that. It's really cool to see what [inaudible 00:42:45] Project Red is doing. We've also heard from Respawn, we've heard from the Halo Wars 2 Team. There's an ongoing thing.
Again, if you just want to see quickly, at a glance, what games are being enhanced, we've linked out to it. There's just so many games coming and so many games ... Literally every day, I'm getting an email internally like, "Hey, this one's live. This one's live. Assassin's Creed's live." I need to play Assassin's Creed.
Laura: Oh my goodness. So many awesome games.
Jeff: The other big news that is not directly talking about Xbox One X, although it kind of is ... Coming out of Paris this week, news from the French guys, is-
Larry Hyrb: Dateline Paris.
Jeff: Bonjour.
Larry Hyrb: The Axis have been pushed back.
Jeff: Oh, you got your news reader on, there. "And that's the way it is."
Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, the kids call it PUPG, has a date, and it's hard to even forget it because it's 12/12. 12/12. We will be playing with a joystick, with our favorite ... I'm gonna be playing with an [Elite 00:43:43] controller, because that's what I've been wanting to do. Really, it's only a little over a month now.
Larry Hyrb: I've got to get higher than three. I've gotten as high as three in the game on PC.
Laura: No chicken dinners for you?
Jeff: Really? That's really good.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah. Well ...
Jeff: That's really good.
Larry Hyrb: I said it. I have not been private about this. Camping is a strategy.
Laura: Yeah, it is.
Jeff: Oh, absolutely.
Laura: It's a big strategy.
Jeff: I try to be in the top 50 before I've even seen anybody. The goal is to get above the bell curve.
Larry Hyrb: Get halfway there.
Jeff: Yeah, exactly, before I even have to pull a trigger. There's actually a lot going on, and talking about what it's gonna look like on Xbox One. I'm just gonna link out to a story, but it really tells you everything you need to know about PUPG 1.0, what is gonna be on the Xbox One at launch, because it's gonna be part of the Xbox game preview program. I'll leave the details to that post, but the story will be linked out in the show notes.
Larry Hyrb: You talked about all the Xbox One Enhanced games coming up, been giving those away all week. I've been giving away ... I don't know if you've seen this on Twitter. I've been giving away copies of enhanced games all week long. Monday for the launch of Xbox One X, make sure you check in on Twitter. I've got something very special to give away.
Laura: Oh, do you?
Jeff: Oh.
Larry Hyrb: It's gonna be big.
Jeff: Can you tell me on the flight out?
Larry Hyrb: I will.
Jeff: Alright.
Larry Hyrb: Do you know, we're sitting next to each other on the flight out to New York?
Laura: Oh, you are?
Larry Hyrb: In fact we-
Laura: [inaudible 00:45:00] play Zelda again.
Larry Hyrb: Well, no.
Laura: [inaudible 00:45:02].
Jeff: It'll probably be Mario.
Larry Hyrb: We're gonna be playing Mario. I'm gonna bring my Switch, we're gonna play Mario.
Laura: Very good. You have Mario?
Larry Hyrb: I do. Have you played it?
Laura: I have only watched someone play it. Haven't had a chance to play it myself, but I hear is the best game a lot of people have ever played.
Larry Hyrb: It's a lot of fun. This is really the question that Jeff and I ... Frankly, this is the first time we've discussed it. It's a little awkward. Am I the hat, or are you the hat?
Jeff: What?
Laura: What? Okay, I played it at Pax.
Larry Hyrb: That's how you play it.
Jeff: That's how you play?
Laura: No, what?
Jeff: I've always been your hat, Larry.
Larry Hyrb: No, no, it's like if you're playing it together, co-op.
Laura: Do you?
Larry Hyrb: That's the way I understand it.
Jeff: Alright, let's try it out.
Larry Hyrb: We'll let you know.
Jeff: We'll see.
Larry Hyrb: We'll report from 30,000 feet up.
Laura: Please do.
Jeff: You'll be waiting with bated breath.
Laura: I will. [crosstalk 00:45:43]
Larry Hyrb: I know Laura and I-
Jeff: It is a delightful game.
Laura: [inaudible 00:45:44]
Larry Hyrb: I know you won't be sleeping until you get the answer to this question. Moving along.
Jeff: This was another piece of news. Because I've been so busy, we've all been focused on Xbox One X, I didn't even know it was coming until I saw it show up on your blog, [majornelson.com 00:45:57].
Larry Hyrb: That's right.
Jeff: NFL Customized Xbox Design Lab controllers.
Laura: Controllers.
Jeff: For some reason, and I can't figure out why-
Larry Hyrb: Fly, Eagles, Fly.
Jeff: Thank you. The seven to one Eagles, the best record in the league. Can you imagine if we had an Eagles-Patriots Superbowl rematch? I really don't want that, because Tom Brady ... I have bad memories of that. But yes, the Eagles one looks phenomenal. Of course we don't have it in picture, we have the Seahawks one, but this looks really good. I'll link out to a couple pictures of those, but yeah. This is something that I didn't realize I needed.
Larry Hyrb: I knew you needed this. I knew these were coming.
Jeff: I didn't know I wanted it until I saw someone with the Eagles one. There's someone here who actually works on the Xbox One X team, on the hardware team. He's a huge Eagles fan, and he tweeted out a picture of that controller.
Larry Hyrb: Jealousy ensued.
Jeff: Yeah. The money quickly flew out of my wallet.
Larry Hyrb: Do we ... Go ahead, keep going through.
Jeff: No, no.
Larry Hyrb: We haven't really talked about what we're playing, and I don't know if we have time for that.
Jeff: No, let's do that.
Larry Hyrb: Do you want to talk about what you're playing, Laura?
Jeff: [crosstalk 00:47:01] news desk?
Larry Hyrb: I don't know, maybe.
Jeff: Let me just tick through the new releases [crosstalk 00:47:05]-
Larry Hyrb: Okay, tick through the new release, and then we'll do Laura.
Jeff: The biggest game, no surprise, it is the first week in November therefore a Call of Duty game is out. This one people are very excited about: Call of Duty: World War II. I downloaded it last night, haven't had a chance to jump on yet, but we should at least play a little bit of the war mode. I played that in beta, played it at E3. A series of different objectives of happen where you're holding down a bridge and the other side is trying to build the bridge, you're trying to stop a tank ... There's a lot of different things happening. It's pretty fun. We should play, at least a little bit.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah.
Laura: That'd be fun.
Jeff: Let's at least give it a go, and then we'll get destroyed and then we'll [crosstalk 00:47:43]-
Larry Hyrb: You and I ... Laura and I haven't played since someone else was in the White House. It's been a long time.
Jeff: That was only a year ago.
Larry Hyrb: Beyond that.
Jeff: Two regimes back.
Larry Hyrb: You and I haven't played in probably a month or so.
Jeff: At least.
Laura: [inaudible 00:47:59]
Larry Hyrb: Because travel, my travel.
Jeff: Yeah. Let's get a couple matches in. Let's do that. I think, if you haven't played a Call of Duty game in a while, this is one ... It's very different than the last several, I feel like, so it might be worth a shot. Anyway, that's out now.
Larry Hyrb: [crosstalk 00:48:14] Do the loot crates really land on the beach?
Jeff: I've seen the gif. I haven't gotten there yet, but I'll let you know.
Larry Hyrb: Okay.
Jeff: Assuming I can actually earn one of the ... A kill streak. A few other games ... These ones, good for the kids-
Larry Hyrb: [inaudible 00:48:28]
Jeff: Three titles that are for Xbox One S and X, and they are Xbox Play Anywhere games. Three of them ... Disney POne Xar Rush, Disneyland Adventures, and Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection.
Larry Hyrb: You may remember the Disney and the Pixar games from the [Kinect 00:48:48] days.
Laura: I do.
Larry Hyrb: [crosstalk 00:48:49] These have been updated for Xbox One.
Jeff: I remember you sent me one.
Larry Hyrb: Did I?
Jeff: When I worked at the competitor.
Larry Hyrb: Did I?
Jeff: Yes.
Larry Hyrb: Okay.
Jeff: I ran it. Everyone that went to E3 press conference 2010 ...
Larry Hyrb: [crosstalk 00:49:02]
Laura: Yeah, that was the one I was onstage.
Jeff: Yes, that's right.
Larry Hyrb: Were you in the audience when she was onstage?
Jeff: I was in the audience.
Larry Hyrb: No. Did I know this?
Jeff: Here's the thing. There's always a couple people from Sony at the Xbox [crosstalk 00:49:11] couple people from X and Nintendo. Everyone attends everyone else's. I always went. I ran into you.
Larry Hyrb: That's right.
Laura: [inaudible 00:49:19] me.
Jeff: There was an announcement at one point. This was when the Xbox 360 S was ...
Laura: [crosstalk 00:49:24]
Jeff: Albert had his [crosstalk 00:49:25]
Larry Hyrb: Reveal, yeah.
Jeff: Everyone was gonna be getting one. I ran into you afterwards and I was like, "Even me, Larry?" And you were like ... You were in a big rush, of course, because it had just ended. You were probably gonna be doing a live hit or something. You were like, "Do you need it now? I can get it for you now if you need it now." Still the same Larry. I was like, "Larry, I can wait. It'll be fine." Then a month later it showed up at PlayStation Headquarters. I unboxed it and I went home, and actually I did play-
Larry Hyrb: It's a good console.
Jeff: Yeah. Kinect Sports was the game that we all played together. Anyway, it's funny how things work out.
Larry Hyrb: It's the weirdest thing. Here you are. You were in the audience watching Laura, and I was somewhere [crosstalk 00:50:02]-
Laura: You were backstage.
Larry Hyrb: That's right, because I remember talking to you, and Cliff was ...
Laura: I shared.
Larry Hyrb: She shared a dressing room with Cliff [Blazinsky 00:50:07].
Laura: I did, and Peter [Molineaux 00:50:09].
Larry Hyrb: And Peter Molineaux
Laura: [crosstalk 00:50:12]
Jeff: I don't even know what to say.
Larry Hyrb: You know what? Jeff, you and I should go away and work up a treatment for a TV series, because it feels like that could be a sitcom.
Laura: The green room of E3.
Larry Hyrb: Right. "Laura, Cliff Blazinsky, and Peter Molineaux. What'll happen? It's zany. Tonight, on must watch TV."
Laura: Oh, weird. Well.
Jeff: I don't even know what to say, which is very rare, isn't it? One last game I wanted to call out ... There was actually a lot of indie games that hit in the last week as well. One sort of caught my eye that just went into game preview. That is Mutant League Football. This was a game that ... I feel like back in the day it ran off the Madden engine. I'm talking back in the Genesis and Super Nintendo games, where it was sort of monsters playing football. It was sort of over the top. It was brought back by ... It was the people that made that game. Yeah, it was a Genesis game. [crosstalk 00:51:09]-
Laura: Yeah, I think I played it. It sounds familiar.
Jeff: I feel like we all did as kids. Anyway, it's in game preview now. I'm gonna have to take a look at it. Nostalgia is a big driving force in games, so definitely something probably worth checking out, if you look back on that game fondly, as I do. Awkward segue to, "What are we playing?"
Larry Hyrb: Well, we got a quick "What are we playing?" Because then we gotta go to "Name the game." We gotta wrap things up, unfortunately, because we're almost going an hour long and I know you've got to go and I've got to go.
Laura: You have a plane to catch soon.
Larry Hyrb: We got to pack and ... Yeah, it's a little crazy. I'm doing some cool stuff in New York with you, Jeffrey.
Jeff: Yeah.
Larry Hyrb: Stay in New York, come on.
Jeff: I would love to.
Larry Hyrb: I know, I know. Alright, what are you playing, Laura?
Laura: [crosstalk 00:51:51]
Larry Hyrb: Besides ... What you're playing, not what you're watching someone play, okay?
Laura: Fair enough. I'll tell a quick story. I went back into Thimbleweed Park. Do you guys remember that game?
Larry Hyrb: I do.
Jeff: I do.
Larry Hyrb: Of course.
Laura: Do you remember how I ran into Ron [Gilmour 00:52:04] the creator of that game at PAX?
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, and you were concerned ... Did you go pick up the phone?
Laura: I went to try and find the phone, so I went back in. As you guys know, I was stuck and I asked Ron Gilmore for help. He said, "The way you can find help in the game is you go find a pay phone and then you call the help line on the pay phone."
Larry Hyrb: As you do in the 80s or 90s.
Laura: Exactly. I ran around the map and I found the posters that talked about the help line. Pro tip: you can also find the help line in the phone book, which is-
Larry Hyrb: Under?
Laura: Game Help.
Larry Hyrb: Okay.
Jeff: Which surprised me, because this phone book starts at like, "A, Aaronson" or something. It's not like there's 10 numbers in there.
Laura: No, there's a lot of numbers in it, and I imagine it might have been all the backers from the Kickstarter. I don't know, but there's a lot of names in the phone book, so you have to search pretty hard for it, but I found the number.
Larry Hyrb: For those of you that know what a phone book is.
Laura: Right. I found the number, and then I went to dial the number, and it said, "Phones out of order." I was like, "What? It's out of order? How do I get help?"
Larry Hyrb: Oh no.
Laura: I'm now stuck again, because I don't know how to get help. Unfortunately then, at that point I was like, "Alright, fine. I'm gonna go search a wiki and a walkthrough to try and figure out how to get past this."
Larry Hyrb: Even Laura has to do it.
Laura: I know, but unfortunately the wiki did not help, because I am ... I think I might have gotten myself stuck.
Larry Hyrb: Oh.
Laura: Yeah. I think I might have found a way [crosstalk 00:53:19]-
Larry Hyrb: Do you want me to give you Ron's email address? Is that what you're saying? Is that what this is?
Laura: Potentially. Yeah, the walkthrough said you're supposed to do this before you do that, and I had done that before I did this. [crosstalk 00:53:30]-
Larry Hyrb: Story of my life.
Jeff: And here we are.
Laura: I had done it in the wrong order, so I might be screwed. I don't know. I'll keep searching. I'll have to try [crosstalk 00:53:39]-
Larry Hyrb: Good luck.
Laura: [crosstalk 00:53:41]
Larry Hyrb: If you have any tips, hit Laura up on Twitter.
Laura: Yeah, if you know how to get the phone to not be out of order, maybe help me out.
Jeff: Maybe there's gum in the ...
Larry Hyrb: Did you put a dime in it?
Jeff: Coin slot.
Laura: I have a nickel, and ...
Larry Hyrb: Okay.
Laura: It didn't work. It does take a dime [crosstalk 00:53:57]-
Larry Hyrb: Good luck.
Laura: Nickel. That's part of the problem.
Larry Hyrb: Okay, there you go. See? See? We're puzzling this out together.
Laura: I know, but the way you get the additional is ... Anyway. I'm stuck. I'm stuck.
Larry Hyrb: Okay.
Laura: Yeah. The other game I've been starting to play is Shadow Wars, finally.
Larry Hyrb: Which looks great.
Laura: It's amazing. Oh my gosh, it's so much fun. So much fun. It's great to be back in the world. It's great to be running around killing orcs and conquering things. Oh my gosh, it's so much fun, but I haven't had enough time put into it to really get completely into it and start leveling my character up. I'm back in the weak stage, trying to sneak around and not get killed the other day.
Jeff: That's the game I've spent far and away the most amount of time with. In fact, I'm looking up right now on the Xbox app on Windows 10 how much time I've put into it. 22 hours so far.
Larry Hyrb: Which sounds about right.
Jeff: I'm still on Act II, because I'm doing the collectibles and all the stuff. They all have a nice little story that goes with them [inaudible 00:54:51] [VIO 00:54:52]. The voice acting in this game is phenomenal. I always want to hear what thing Kela [Brimbor 00:54:57] wants to say that sort of dismisses everything. He's just so surly. He is dead, he is a ghost, had everything taken away from him, from Sauron, but can he smile a little bit, Kela Brimbor?
Laura: He's grumpy. He's a grumpy guy.
Jeff: He is. I love this game, and I've spent just a ton of time with it. I feel like I don't want to start anything else new, as badly as I want to play Wolfenstein, as badly as I want to play Assassin's Creed [crosstalk 00:55:22]-
Larry Hyrb: Wolfenstein is so good.
Jeff: I know, and I'm going to. I'm going to play all these games-
Larry Hyrb: I'll talk about that in a minute.
Jeff: South Park, all of these games I want to play, I know. Because Middle Earth, Shadow Wars, tough. If I walk away from it, I'm gonna lose my skill. I need to string these combos to get-
Larry Hyrb: Health bar.
Jeff: You've playing South Park.
Larry Hyrb: No, I haven't. Here's my memory of South Park, is when Jeff and I went out to Alan [Magordo 00:55:43]. He took his console. I just remember ...
Jeff: Yeah, I traveled with it.
Larry Hyrb: He was in a few rooms down and I was texting him. He was telling me all about the game. I hadn't had a chance. Did you finish it on that trip?
Jeff: I did finish it on that trip.
Larry Hyrb: I remember that. You just were loving that game.
Jeff: I mean, we were in the middle of nowhere. Literally the landmark that we saw was a landfill. I wanted to finish South Park, I was very into it, so I brought my 360 out. I must have played 30 hours in a three day trip while we were there.
Laura: [inaudible 00:56:13]
Larry Hyrb: I know that was gonna be one of the greatest trips we were gonna go on.
Jeff: It was. I don't remember what I had for dinner last night, but I remember every detail of that trip. I've never been dirtier.
Larry Hyrb: Filthy. Filthy.
Jeff: Anyways, Shadow War is awesome.
Laura: Oh my gosh, [crosstalk 00:56:31]
Jeff: If you get to it, please get to it. It just really opens up once you get into the middle of Act II.
Laura: [inaudible 00:56:39] open it up, yeah.
Larry Hyrb: What else have you played? Those are the headlines?
Laura: Those are the headlines. There's a lot of little games in there, but ...
Jeff: The one week when the game you always play has upgraded for Enhanced for Xbox One X and you haven't played it yet.
Laura: I know [inaudible 00:56:53]
Jeff: I'm gonna buy-
Larry Hyrb: She doesn't have an Xbox One X. That's the problem. She doesn't have hers yet.
Jeff: I feel foolish now.
Larry Hyrb: Rubbing it in her face.
Laura: Rubbing it in my face.
Larry Hyrb: Wow, that was cold.
Jeff: Yeah.
Larry Hyrb: I'm gonna do a quick little ... I'm play Wolfenstein II: the New Colossus, which is great. It's just ridiculously fun. I'm playing a little Assassin's Creed Origins. I was in New York a couple weeks ago for that with Ash. That games looks ... Your eyes will melt, how beautiful that game is. Its so, so beautiful. That's really what's taking up a lot of my time right now, in addition to the travel for the game launches and whatnot.
Laura: Been a busy man.
Larry Hyrb: Xbox One X, I'll be in New York all next week. Headed back up to New England to see family for a little bit. I'll be back, but Jeff, what are you playing?
Jeff: Literally, Shadow ... I've been testing out a few games here and there. I played a little bit of Forts of [Seven 00:57:39]. I wanted to see what that one looked like on the Xbox One X. Spoiler alert: stunning. I play a lot of our Xbox Play Anywhere games on PC. I travel a lot, and I bring ... I have a pretty nice laptop that makes games look beautiful. I've gotten used to really good looking games, but to be able to see in that resolution on a big TV in a living room setting is really, really, really impressive. I have a feeling, my laptop, other than when I'm traveling, is probably gonna get neglected now, because I'm gonna want to see Forts just enveloping me in the beautiful frame rate, 4K 60 and all these things. It's glorious. And FIFA, FIFA looks so good. Right now it's just ... The pile of shame is just ever growing.
Laura: That time of year.
Jeff: I'm stressed out about it. We have a vacation coming up at the end of the year. I'll be gone for [crosstalk 00:58:39]-
Larry Hyrb: You're going overseas.
Jeff: Yeah. I'll be going to Japan. I don't get to take a lot ... We work kind of crazy through the summer, so we just kind of take one big vacation a year. I'm almost dreading at. That is a good period of time I could be playing these games that I'm not gonna be able to do. I'm gonna go into January and ...
Laura: [inaudible 00:58:56]
Jeff: Some amazing game, some game of the year candidate, I will not even have started yet. It's just ...
Laura: Well, play anywhere. Play it on your laptop. [crosstalk 00:59:05] glorious 4K.
Jeff: No, no. You all go out and see the palace. I'm just cleaning up some achievements.
Laura: It's a long flight.
Jeff: Yeah, that's true.
Larry Hyrb: Alright, we're gonna wrap things up a little bit year. We haven't named the game to [inaudible 00:59:18], Laura.
Laura: Oh, that's right. Almost forgot to do that.
Larry Hyrb: We do. We haven't ...
Laura: It's been so long.
Larry Hyrb: It's been so long. This one was actually fairly easy. We had a lot of entries for this. Why don't you go ahead and play the ... You ready for the clip?
Laura: Yeah, let's play the old Name the Game.
Larry Hyrb: This is Laura's Name the Game payoff. Any time you're ready.
Laura: That was Name the Game from last time. Super easy one.
Larry Hyrb: Super easy one to guess, but it's a hard game.
Laura: That's true, it's a hard game to play. The answer was, Cuphead. Congratulations to our winner, Scott from Louisiana.
Larry Hyrb: Scott, Louisiana. You've been to Louisiana, Jeffrey?
Jeff: Yeah, quite a few time. A number of Mardi ... What'd be plural for Mardi Gras? Mardis Gras? Fat Tuesdays. Yeah, it's a great ... First of all, amazing food, really nice people ... I enjoyed Louisiana. It's been too long.
Larry Hyrb: This segment brought to you by the Louisiana Department of Travel and Commerce. I wasn't expecting a whole soundbite on it.
Jeff: Yeah.
Laura: It's a good state.
Jeff: Right, it's a great state.
Larry Hyrb: I've never been.
Laura: Scott ...
Jeff: Also, the best over Schlotsky's I ever went to. [crosstalk 01:00:51] nowhere. I think I was in either Monroe Louisiana or Hammond, one of the two. Man, I got the drive through and I went back in and I said, "Look, can I speak to the manager? I just want to say, this is the best sandwich I've ever had in my life." They appreciated that.
Larry Hyrb: Thank you.
Jeff: Louisiana, good memories.
Larry Hyrb: Brought to you by Schlotsky's. Really, Jeffrey?
Laura: I'm sure Scott [crosstalk 01:01:12]
Jeff: Look, you asked, I'm going to tell you.
Laura: Scott is wondering what he won.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, he's sitting there going, "Wait a minute, I won? What did I win?" Shut up Jeff and tell him what he won. That's what he's saying.
Jeff: A turkey original.
Laura: No, no sandwiches for you, Scott, but we have much better things. We have a copy of Cuphead, of course, a copy of Mutant Football League, which you heard about earlier-
Jeff: Oh, hey. I'm glad I talked that up.
Laura: Exactly. A copy of Black, which is an original Xbox back compat game, and a copy of Titanfall 2. That's not all. You also get a copy of ASsassin's Creed Origins, and a copy of Call of Duty: World War II.
Larry Hyrb: What?
Jeff: What didn't he get?
Larry Hyrb: I know.
Laura: I know. All of [crosstalk 01:01:49].
Larry Hyrb: I get all these codes and you give them away. Now I know why I don't have any codes.
Jeff: Not included: all of time to play all of those times. It's hundreds of hours of gameplay.
Laura: It's true. Find your own time.
Larry Hyrb: You're on your own there, pal. Congratulations to Scott down there in Louisiana. That means we clear the deck for another Name the Game, right?
Laura: Is it time for another one?
Larry Hyrb: I'm ready if you're ready. Hey listeners, are you ready?
Laura: I think listeners are ready.
Larry Hyrb: Let's do it.
Laura: Let's roll the tape.
That was Name the Game. If you, too, would like to win a large number of fabulous prizes, it's super easy. All you have to do is send us an email. Lollipop@xbox.com, and CC: Major@xbox.com. All you have to do is let us know what game those sounds are from. That simple.
Larry Hyrb: That's it.
Laura: If you want to, include your name or your gamer tag-
Larry Hyrb: Where you're from-
Laura: Or you don't have to, if you don't want to. If you can hear our voice, you can enter the game.
Larry Hyrb: Very simple, very simple. Everybody can play. In fact, why aren't you sending us an email right now? By the way, don't tweet at us. We only accept email entries. You can tweet at us, but it doesn't count as an entry.
Laura: That's true. It has to be to our emails. And that's it. That's it for Name the Game.
Larry Hyrb: It is. I'm just going through the list here, thinking of all the things Jeff and I have to do before we go to New York. You're not gonna go with us. You haven't been on the road with us in a while.
Laura: I know. It's been a long time.
Larry Hyrb: You came with us to PAX.
Laura: Yes.
Jeff: I don't think I've seen you on the road since E3 2010. That was a callback to earlier in the show. Yes, PAX.
Laura: I see. Funny.
Jeff: See what ... Yeah. Edit that out, Larry.
Larry Hyrb: I got it. No, it's staying in.
Laura: Too late, staying in.
Jeff: We don't have editing.
Larry Hyrb: Too late, stay ... No.
Laura: There's no editing staff.
Larry Hyrb: Editing is for chumps.
Laura: We're doing it live.
Larry Hyrb: We're doing it live. In fact, I want to talk to you guys about that. I haven't talked to you ... I'm completely sideswiping you guys. We have not talked about this before. There was a request, multiple, multiple requests for us to do the show on MOne Xer.
Laura: Really?
Larry Hyrb: Do you guys want to do a live video show on MOne Xer one time, just try it out?
Laura: Yeah.
Jeff: One time?
Larry Hyrb: Okay. Alright.
Jeff: People need to see this visage. I need an excuse to brush my hair. We should do that.
Larry Hyrb: Because this certainly isn't it.
Jeff: All the time we joked about it. I'm like, "Oh..." We're constantly doing "Bad radio" by pantomiming or showing visuals.
Larry Hyrb: Let's do it.
Jeff: Let's do it.
Larry Hyrb: Let's do it. Okay. We will do this when Jeff and I come back from New York, maybe the second week of November. Is that alright?
Laura: Yeah, sounds great.
Larry Hyrb: Third week we'll figure it out. Are you around over the holidays-
Laura: I am.
Larry Hyrb: Christmas? Alright. Jeff, when do you go on your ...
Jeff: Middle of December.
Larry Hyrb: Okay, so we'll definitely do it before we all leave. Before the end of the year, we're gonna do it once. We'll commit to that.
Jeff: Okay.
Larry Hyrb: Can we all commit to that?
Laura: Yes.
Larry Hyrb: Alright, there we go. Alright. Sadly guys, we got to wrap things up, because we have a lot of work to do and we have to get ready for Xbox One X launch. I want to thank everybody for all the support. Jeff and I may or may not see you in New York. You don't have to be there. You can watch the stream, MOne Xer.com/Xbox. Check out my blog. Jeff, did you put a link to it? We've got [crosstalk 01:05:30]-
Jeff: To your blog?
Larry Hyrb: No, no, we've got all-
Jeff: I think they know.
Larry Hyrb: I think there's a pinned post at the top that talks about all-
Jeff: The livestream? I'll go ahead and put that in there.
Larry Hyrb: The global events. Hopefully by then Laura will have picked up a console.
Laura: We'll see.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, we'll see. We'll see.
Laura: If I'm lucky.
Larry Hyrb: Yeah, no gadgets this week. You know, we're gonna do this. We're gonna do this live thing. I'm excited about this live video thing.
Laura: Yeah, that should be exciting.
Larry Hyrb: People have been asking for it. Jeff will comb his hair.
Laura: I'll find good lighting.
Larry Hyrb: You'll find ... Well-
Jeff: My hair cutter left the country for like three months, and you can tell.
Larry Hyrb: It shows. It shows.
Jeff: I know you can tell.
Larry Hyrb: You're looking a little ...
Jeff: I'm like, "I'm glad you're finding yourself in Paris and taking a class in the [inaudible 01:06:07], but look at me. I'm hideous."
Larry Hyrb: "No, don't look at me."
Alright gang, we'll talk to you next time. Thanks for ... You can follow Laura on Twitter at:
Laura: @Lauralollipop.
Larry Hyrb: You can send all your complaints and suggestions to Jeff at:
Jeff: @JeffRubenstein. You're already doing it.
Larry Hyrb: And I'm Major Nelson. We'll talk to you guys next time. Bye bye, everybody.
Laura: Bye.
Jeff: Bye.

Larry Hryb: Hello.
Laura Massey: Hi, Larry.
Larry Hryb: We're just coming off of the, uh, the intro music, kind of chill right now.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I was trying to, I was experimenting with a new intro there, that was one that we used at, uh, PAX.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, can you dance to it?
Larry Hryb: Um, you can, you can. I wouldn't.
Jeff Rubenstein: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Larry ...
Larry Hryb: La- Laura can, I can't.
Laura Massey: Larry wouldn't.
Larry Hryb: As, uh ...
Laura Massey: We've already discussed this.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so this is the ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Waltzes only for this gentlemen.
Larry Hryb: Welcome ...
Laura Massey: (Laughs) no ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Wearing a suit.
Larry Hryb: No, no ... Not at all, it's just that, just that I ...
Jeff Rubenstein: You're wearing a suit.
Laura Massey: Waltz are the best, don't dis waltzes.
Larry Hryb: I'm not dissing waltzes, I'm just saying dancing is not, as, as has been, um, proven, and on a public stage, that is not my thing, I'm not best at it.
Laura Massey: You know, I would say, yeah, dancing by yourself, super difficult.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: But partner dancing is actually really fun ...
Larry Hryb: It is fun.
Laura Massey: Not nearly as intimidating.
Larry Hryb: Show number 608 here talking about dancing, it's the dancing edition.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: The dancing with no stars edition.
Laura Massey: Finally, a dancing podcast.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: I've found my calling.
Jeff Rubenstein: Just Dance, 20-
Larry Hryb: You know, I, um ...
Jeff Rubenstein: 2018. I'm sure it's all ...
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: It's, it's, it's interesting because, um, have you ever, have you ever gone square dancing?
Laura Massey: Maybe.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is this the, the spin your partner round and round?
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Is that really a thing, by the way, or is that just ...
Larry Hryb: Well, all I know is I remember when I was in Connecticut I was, I was, uh, this, uh, person that I was, uh, dating, she, her dad was a, uh, a big time caller.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: Right?
Jeff Rubenstein: A caller?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, he was a big time caller, because that's the, because that's the term. They're callers.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Just Dance 2018 is, is coming out.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, there's a demo coming out for Just Dance 2018.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: That's the segue, gang, in case you're listening to this going, "What are they talking about?"
Jeff Rubenstein: Hashtag spawn, uh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yes. Anyway, so, uh ...
Jeff Rubenstein: October 24th.
Larry Hryb: Do we have any photos of you doing the square dancing, Laura?
Laura Massey: I don't think so.
Larry Hryb: In a pinafore or something?
Laura Massey: No, I don't think there's any photos that exist. Unfortunately.
Larry Hryb: You, you know, you, you were right at the end of the digital era ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Where there were, people were taking pictures, like, obviously I have a daughter now, and Jeff has a daughter, and, you know, taking pictures were, you were doing it on your phone ...
Laura Massey: Constantly, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Like I got, I got 50 pictures today, alone, of my daughter. So, it's ... (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: I, I feel like being a square dance caller is like one of those things you would have loved to do. There's game show host, there's auctioneer ...
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I think that anything where you use that voice and you're talking really fast and then ... Yes, Larry. Is. The. Guy.
Larry Hryb: No, I, I ... I just, you know, and I, I never went to see, you know ... I've never experienced the square dancing thing, but the game show thing, that's, that's my jam.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: So, I've got the microphone ...
Laura Massey: True that.
Larry Hryb: And I'm really bummed, because, you know, I do, went back to, was down in L.A. this week, last week, and did, uh, the, the Cuphead and the Force thing, I could have brought my, my microphone.
Laura Massey: You could have, yes.
Larry Hryb: And I, I completely forgot, I'm just an ...
Laura Massey: What were you thinking?
Larry Hryb: I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot.
Jeff Rubenstein: You need doors that you have to open. You could have revealed a car, that would be a great microphone for revealing a car.
Larry Hryb: It's a new car!
Jeff Rubenstein: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: All right, we're here talking about what we're playing. Uh, we've got a lot going on this week. It's, um, we're, we're marching towards the release of Xbox OneX next month, November.
Jeff Rubenstein: And we're in the middle of like all these games ...
Larry Hryb: It's October, which ...
Laura Massey: It's a good place.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a good time, this is a good place.
Larry Hryb: Which is a, which is a big month. I know Laura, you're a big, uh, Halloween fan?
Laura Massey: I am, (Laughs) I know you're not, but I am.
Larry Hryb: I app-
Laura Massey: I make up for ... (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: I appreciate your passion. We balance each other.
Laura Massey: We average out.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're going to be. You're going to be a Halloween fan.
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: Because you gotta dress up that little grub that you have at home.
Laura Massey: (Laughs) Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Perhaps like a ...
Laura Massey: Cute Halloween costumes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Gears of War grub I, I would recommend.
Larry Hryb: I will, I will, I will explain off the air what, how I've solved that problem.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: So ... (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, fair enough. Now I'm interested.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, Halloween's here ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: It's or, on its way. Um, surprise, it's October.
Laura Massey: I know.
Larry Hryb: Right, Laura?
Jeff Rubenstein: It doesn't feel like it.
Laura Massey: When did it become October?
Larry Hryb: Uh, after September?
Jeff Rubenstein: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Oh, that's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, they really shuffle that one around.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Oh, boy. So anyway, we've got Xbox OneX going on in about a month.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: I was down in L.A., we launched Cuphead.
Laura Massey: Which is awesome.
Larry Hryb: Which is, this game is, it's, these guys did such a great job with it. I was, I was doing the live stream with, uh, the two boys, with the two, the two brothers from ...
Jeff Rubenstein: The Moldenhauers.
Larry Hryb: The Moldenhauers ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: And, um, I don't know, did you watch the stream on Friday night? Because I was, I was ... Also joining us was special guest star, Clint Eastwood's son, Scott Eastwood.
Laura Massey: Really?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so, if, if ... Did you see any ... I sent you some of the photos, didn't I?
Laura Massey: No, I didn't see a single photo.
Larry Hryb: Oh, boy. I posted a couple on Twitter, but yeah, I mean ...
Jeff Rubenstein: What's he up to?
Larry Hryb: He's, he's actually, he's in some of the Fast and the Furious films, he is ... Here you go, Laura. Look, take, take a look.
Laura Massey: Is he a big gamer?
Jeff Rubenstein: So we'll see him in 2020.
Larry Hryb: I mean, if you look at him, he looks like, he looks like Clint Eastwood. "Get off my lawn."
Laura Massey: Oh, my gosh, he does.
Larry Hryb: And go to the, if you scroll to the, I think one way or the other you'll see more.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: So ...
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: So anyway, we had a great time ...
Laura Massey: He does.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, and it was great because he, you know, he's, he's in, um, uh ... Oh, what ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I thought that was you, I thought you meant you ... He really does look like him.
Larry Hryb: I'm just, I'm blanking out.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: What's, what's, the, uh, what's the big robot movie? Pacific Rim.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: So he's in, he's in Pacific Rim, and he was doing re-shoots for that. It comes out next year, so we were, he wanted to come down and play the game. And he's a hardcore gamer, he's telling me stories on the air and a little bit off the air about, um, how his dad has a bunch of cabinets, you know, arcade cabinets ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Oh ...
Larry Hryb: That he's collected in all his different houses, so I was like, well ...
Laura Massey: Cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: Have us over, Clint.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, right?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Well, that's Scott, so ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, I know, but if his dad has them ... I mean, Scott seems nice, but I'm going to go where the arcade cabinets are.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: A, a fair point. So anyway, we played, we played a lot of Cuphead, that was Friday night. We did it at Meltdown Comics, which is this ... Jeff and I've done an event at Meltdown ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, we've been there. We did, uh, Ori, actually I think we had the launch there ...
Larry Hryb: We did Ori and the Blind Forest, uh, which is right on Sunset.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Right on Sun ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, that's a great store.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's a great store.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was, I didn't tell you, when we were there ... So I was, I, we, we ... I mean, we're going back a couple years. But I, uh, I was talking with Hank Baskett, former Philadelphia Eagle ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And he does a lot, he's a huge gamer ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I know Hank.
Jeff Rubenstein: And he does some stuff with like these games cases, he's up here, uh, he's, he's married to, uh, a former Playmate, um, not Holly, the other one.
Laura Massey: I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: From, from ...
Larry Hryb: Not Holly, they only have two names, Holly and the other one. Crystal? (Laughs) Bambi?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, my wife's going to kill me.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: My wife's going to kill me. Anyway, at one point I, I ... We don't do a lot of things at Meltdown Comics ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And so I was just going into the back to get like, another sticker for Ori or something, and I walk into the wrong door, and I walked into them just like, look, talk, having a conversation in the back. And I just got a look, and it was like my one experience with, uh, The Girls Next Door, it was like, "Why are you in our, our greenroom?" And I was just ...
Larry Hryb: Oh, that little greenroom in the back, there?
Jeff Rubenstein: I thought that ... Yeah. So, you, you're familiar with the greenroom. Now I gotta look this up.
Larry Hryb: So, Laura, that was a fantastic example of a story not really paying off.
Jeff Rubenstein: Didn't really pay off.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Yeah he ... It just, it just was like you couldn't remember the name, facts weren't quite ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Kendra! It was Kendra.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Just edit it out.
Larry Hryb: No.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Just edit it right on out.
Larry Hryb: Gotta leave it in, gotta leave it in.
Jeff Rubenstein: Look, I got to meet Hank Baskett that day, and we talked about the, the Eagles, you know, chances under Chip Kelly, and we saw how that worked out.
Larry Hryb: Speaking of the Eagles, uh ...
Jeff Rubenstein: My family was impressed.
Larry Hryb: Jeff, Jeff and I have a, uh, we're gonna get to what we're playing ... We had a three ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Eww.
Laura Massey: God.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: See, I was just ...
Larry Hryb: That was the segue ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I forgot about that.
Larry Hryb: That we had at, we played our annual Madden tournament ...
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Which is, in this case was the best of three. New England versus Eagles.
Laura Massey: Patriots versus Eagles.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so we played, it was, uh, we played ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, all right, so first game ...
Larry Hryb: First game at Gillette Stadium.
Jeff Rubenstein: Gillette Stadium, we, so we play every year.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: We shouldn't have played like one match. (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Right. (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And, and Larry usually wins. So, so first game ...
Larry Hryb: Yup.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, Tom Brady, awful game, throws four interceptions ...
Laura Massey: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: Just the, the Gillette crowd was booing him.
Larry Hryb: Yes, it was rough.
Jeff Rubenstein: They won 28 to nothing.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Exactly.
Jeff Rubenstein: (Laughs) So then I was like, "All right ..."
Larry Hryb: Then we, then we took it to, not the vet, we took it to ...
Jeff Rubenstein: We took it to the Linc.
Larry Hryb: The Linc in, uh, in ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Lincoln Financial Field ...
Larry Hryb: In Philadelphia.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, and I won that one, I want to say 17 to seven ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was completely ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, yeah, so fewer points in that one.
Larry Hryb: And then ...
Jeff Rubenstein: And then ...
Larry Hryb: And then we went to a neutral place. We decided to go to the newest stadium in the league, which is ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: The Benz, they don't call it.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, probably. And this one ...
Larry Hryb: Oh, it was a, it was a nail biter.
Jeff Rubenstein: We were at the top of our game and ...
Larry Hryb: It was a nail biter.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was a, it was a baseball score.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I won on a, a game winning field goal 10 to nine, the Eagles ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was close.
Jeff Rubenstein: Over the Patriots.
Larry Hryb: It was close.
Jeff Rubenstein: We, we, I really think we got worse game after game.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: I think on average there was about seven turnovers per game.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, each of us was just ...
Jeff Rubenstein: With, with four minute quarters.
Larry Hryb: Our games were decaying.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: We had a lot of fun though.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we did. We had a lot of fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: A ton of fun.
Larry Hryb: Madden is definitely a different look this year.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I, I will give you that. And I will say one thing I really enjoyed was, uh, they clearly were, were putting in new commentary. So when I kicked that field goal, that, that massive, uh, 23-yard field goal that I kicked, they, they referenced Jake Elliot, who is on the Eagles, who kicked a 61-yard, game winning field goal like two weeks ago ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Are they like real time ...
Jeff Rubenstein: And they like, referenced that in, and they were talking all about it ...
Laura Massey: Really?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And it was really cool to ...
Laura Massey: Wow.
Larry Hryb: Yeah it was. Well not real time, but it was very contemporary.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, so ...
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness. How do they get that voice acting in there?
Larry Hryb: Well, they, you're down, you down ... Well, Jeff and I were talking about it, you download rosters ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: So they must have just, it was part, it must have been part of the roster payload.
Laura Massey: That's great.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative) But it happened real fast, and, and I was like, "Oh, I wonder if that means they're adding new commentary in?" And indeed, context sensitive, so well done, well done to good folks that ...
Larry Hryb: To the Madden team, our friends up, up in, your, your neck of the woods, your former neck of the woods.
Jeff Rubenstein: I, I was just there.
Larry Hryb: I know you were, you were down in Orlando, you went down to Miami.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I was, I was definitely freaking out, being away from Xbox when all these games came out. And good thing ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: I brought my, I brought my laptop, my gaming laptop.
Larry Hryb: And I had ...
Jeff Rubenstein: And I had Cuphead.
Larry Hryb: You had Cuphead.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I had Forza 7.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I had a few other things.
Larry Hryb: Bunch of other things. You had Ori.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Uh, I had Ori and the, Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so we played our Madden. Uh, been playing ... So, I really haven't had a lot of chance, of course, been playing Cuphead. Have you had a chance to play Cuphead, Laura?
Laura Massey: Not yet.
Larry Hryb: Laura ...
Laura Massey: I know.
Larry Hryb: Well you, I, I don't recall this, are you an animated cartoon fan?
Laura Massey: I do like animation. It's fantastic.
Larry Hryb: Like old school animation?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Okay, so, like, I, I'm a huge, I think we've talked about this, my ...
Jeff Rubenstein: You're a Tex Avery man.
Larry Hryb: Tex A, absolutely. We, my sisters and I grew up on Bugs Bunny, and we to this day, we still quote Bugs Bunny.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: It's still part of our normal lexicon.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Um, so they, this, this, the, the Cuphead, I'm sure you've seen the videos, a lot of people have been raving about it. It's, it is, it is pitch perfect, I believe is the best way to describe it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hm.
Laura Massey: Wow. That's high marks.
Larry Hryb: The game, the game itself, the gameplay is, is unforgiving.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: But the neat part about it is, again, it's an Xbox Play Anywhere title ... The, the mad-, the, the, the levels are like 90 seconds, two minutes long, Jeff?
Jeff Rubenstein: If, yeah, it's one of those things. You're never going to, unlikely you're going to beat something on its first attempt, so you can put in hours and hours and hours, and, and we all did. Except for you, Laura.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And, um, but then when you actually have like a good run and you actually beat a, a boss, a lot of times it's under two minutes.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, and you're graded on, on your, your skill, your parries, how many hit points you have left and your time.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so anyways, so check it out. Cuphead, you'll see all the videos, it's as good as people think it is. You've gotta play it, Laura.
Laura Massey: Oh, yes. Fantastic art. Just absolutely mind blowing.
Larry Hryb: I've gotta get some artwork done. I changed my computer profile picture. I've gotta change it back to my, uh, clips one. The one with the Xbox logo ...
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Are you Cuphead or Mugman? Which one are you?
Larry Hryb: I'm both, I'm both.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, that's, that's fair.
Larry Hryb: I'm Cuphead and Mugman, so ...
Jeff Rubenstein: That's, uh, I kind of expected ...
Larry Hryb: Right down the middle, right down the middle.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's good.
Larry Hryb: What else am I playing? Ah, of course Forza Motorsport 7 is out ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: That is just beautiful, I play ... Oh, man, um, I'm playing it on, I got a chance to play it on Xbox OneX and it looks just phenomenal, doesn't it?
Laura Massey: Oh, awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: The rain is unbelievable. I think our ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm actually playing in dash. I never play in dash, because it's a little harder to play in dash.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: But it looks so good.
Larry Hryb: First person. Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, you know there's a couple different like, sort of, there's the hood view and then there's like the chase cam and then the wider chase cam. But the one where you actually see your ... Because you can customize your drivers now for the first time. And so I want to see the driving gloves that I, you know, that, and the outfit that I picked out. The, just like the ...
Larry Hryb: What do you, what are you, what are you wearing if I may?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I switch like every other race. So I think I was wearing something very like, southwestern themed I think it, it was ...
Larry Hryb: Like cowboy boots?
Jeff Rubenstein: Like a cactus almost thing.
Laura Massey: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: And then I was running one like, uh, Forza Horizon 3 skin for a while. I'm, I'm constantly swapping them out. Like it, when you level up, um, there's a couple different sort of like level meters. One is like how good your, your car collection is, and then another one is uh, uh, on just like, you know, how much, you know from your racing prowess. But, like every time you get a choice of like, you get to choose either money, uh, a, a car, or the outfit, I'm almost always going for the outfit.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I've got, I got a chance to do this, we did it at the, um, we did the, the stream from the Peterson Car Museum.
Jeff Rubenstein: The museum, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Which you've been to.
Jeff Rubenstein: I, I've only driven by it.
Larry Hryb: Oh, okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's part of the ... It looks amazing.
Larry Hryb: Oh, it's, it's phenomenal. Laura, you haven't been there.
Laura Massey: Where is that?
Larry Hryb: It's in L.A.
Laura Massey: Okay, then I ...
Larry Hryb: It is, it is an unbelievable car museum. Got a chance to speak with those guys I was there with. Tanner Faust, who I've worked with ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, I've worked with him, too.
Laura Massey: Really?
Larry Hryb: You remember Tanner.
Laura Massey: He ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, he's a, a drift king of ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, he is.
Laura Massey: He was on American Top Gear.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, he ...
Laura Massey: He's probably the, the best driver that's probably been on American Top Gear. (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Yeah he was, he was busting my chops about ... Because, remember, I don't know, were you here? I think you joined us, Jeff. Remember when I had the, the jumpsuit?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: You, okay ...
Laura Massey: I remember the jumpsuit.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh ... (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: (Laughs) I know you can't ... Sorry.
Laura Massey: Did he remember the jumpsuit?
Larry Hryb: Yes, oh, he did.
Laura Massey: Oh no. (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Oh he did. So Tanner was there, and also Josef Newgarden who, uh, won the Indy, Indy 500.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hmm.
Laura Massey: Hmm.
Larry Hryb: He was a huge gamer, in fact he started, apparently he started getting into racing from Forza, like back in the day.
Laura Massey: Really? That's cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's amazing, yeah.
Larry Hryb: So he was real-, and he was really good. So I got to race with those guys, and I, I promptly lost. Um, which is expected.
Jeff Rubenstein: That ... If, you know, if you had won I'd worry.
Laura Massey: And curious ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so they, they, it was great to be with those guys. Anyway, Forza Motorsport 7 out. And again, Xbox Play Anywhere title, play it on your, if you got a PC that's powerful enough, it looks stunning. Uh, this is an Xbox OneX Enhanced title, so if you buy the title now, when you, and you wanna, and you purchase an Xbox OneX, there's going to be more stuff to make it look better. (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: It's gonna look amazing. It's running 4K, 60 ...
Larry Hryb: That's my official marketing term: More stuff to make it look better.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Let's put that on the box.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: And so ... (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Like, maybe with you winking ala Cuphead?
Larry Hryb: More stuff make it look better.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Anyways, so that's what I'm playing now. What are you playing, Laura.
Laura Massey: So I'm still stuck in Destiny. I've been going back to that.
Larry Hryb: Stuck?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh ...
Laura Massey: Well, like, I haven't had a chance to play all the new, the new things, yet.
Jeff Rubenstein: You still play it? Yeah.
Laura Massey: Because I'm still working my way through Destiny.
Larry Hryb: How do you, why do you not play with us? Why won't you play with Jeff and I?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, what's your light level?
Laura Massey: I think, I seem ... Uh, but I'm level eight at the moment, so not a massive ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, so you have to finish the story.
Laura Massey: I do. I still have to finish the story.
Larry Hryb: I'll, I'll power level you.
Laura Massey: I'm not 20 yet. (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Okay, come on.
Laura Massey: It seems that we play at different times, because when I play it's earlier on in the evenings and you guys seem to log in a lot later. But that's okay. Maybe we can coordinate something one of these days.
Larry Hryb: If we, if you, if you tell me, I can rearrange my schedule as best I can.
Jeff Rubenstein: We can, we can run you through the campaign and, uh ...
Larry Hryb: Assuming we're not throwing hail Mary's and ... (Laughs)
Laura Massey: I know, right? (Laughs) [inaudible 00:13:59]
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know, I kind of wouldn't mind going back.
Larry Hryb: I know.
Laura Massey: What? Are you filming in Madden football ...
Larry Hryb: It is, well, I was just ... What?
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: I was just saying, I'm just saying, if we're, if we're not playing ... Yeah, I would love to play with you Laura. I would love to ... Where, what, and you, you're rolling as Titan or Warlock?
Laura Massey: Warlock.
Larry Hryb: Warlock, right.
Laura Massey: Awoken Warlock, yes. And it's probably an obvious choice for me, but I'm actually really enjoying it, it's really great.
Larry Hryb: There's nothing obvious about you at all.
Laura Massey: I know.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: And then I am also trying to finish my Season 11 challenges in Diablo 3.
Larry Hryb: Right, right. You're chipping away at that.
Laura Massey: Chipping away. Still trying to get through. I'm having trouble with the very last one for Chapter Four.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: Which is to get through a level 20 rift on your own.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Laura Massey: I know.
Larry Hryb: I was going to say, let's, let's get to the community to help you out, but nope, can't do that.
Laura Massey: No, can't do it. So I'm playing a Demon Hunter and they are usually a support character.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: One that hangs out in the back and just takes out everybody.
Larry Hryb: So, yeah you, but you, you have no one to hang out in the back of.
Laura Massey: Well, what do you, you know, I know.
Larry Hryb: You're front lines.
Laura Massey: So I have to somehow work my way through getting better gear to be able to get through this rift on my own. So, I, that's my last one before I get all of the awesome gifts.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: For completing ...
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: The Season 11 challenges.
Larry Hryb: Keep us updated.
Laura Massey: I know.
Larry Hryb: Keep us updated.
Laura Massey: Can't wait to finish it.
Larry Hryb: Well you have, you have to hurry up and finish it, because you have ...
Laura Massey: I know.
Larry Hryb: You have a new Middle Earth coming out.
Laura Massey: Oh, I know.
Larry Hryb: Right, Jeffrey?
Laura Massey: I know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, so soon.
Laura Massey: I got just to play that at PAX. I gotta play it at PAX ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Five days.
Laura Massey: It's going to be so much fun.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Five days left.
Laura Massey: Oh ...
Larry Hryb: In fact, I think I'm supposed to go ... I just remembered my ...
Jeff Rubenstein: They're right down the street.
Larry Hryb: I'm supposed to go over there and do a stream.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Why don't we go over there and pick up our copies? Right? Yeah ...
Larry Hryb: I was supposed to go over there and do a stream when those guys ...
Laura Massey: Can I, uh, join you on that one?
Larry Hryb: Oh, oh now you want to join us?
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Actually, I think I'm ...
Larry Hryb: Now you want to join us. Anyway, uh, yeah so we got that coming out, and I know Jeff's excited about that, right?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah. And, the previous one, Shadow of Mordor was definitely my favorite game of 2014.
Laura Massey: It was mine as well.
Jeff Rubenstein: We had so much fun with that game.
Laura Massey: It sure was.
Jeff Rubenstein: Avenging each other and everything. And from what I've seen of the game, yeah, oh yeah, there is a stream on Monday that we're part of, I think. At least I'm part of it. Are you going to be joining me?
Larry Hryb: Uh, I ... Is it at Monolith?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, it's, it's from here on, ah, the Xbox, um, Mixer channel.
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: If I'm here I'll do it.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, well we'll, uh, I'll ...
Larry Hryb: Wanna come, you wanna come join us Laura, for you ...
Laura Massey: Yeah, send me the invite.
Larry Hryb: Oh, come on, really.
Laura Massey: Forward me the invite.
Larry Hryb: Okay, all right. All right. Well, I, and of course, you, dear listener, you're welcome to join us as well. Just, uh ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Go over to Mixer.com/xbox.
Jeff Rubenstein: Xbox, Monday afternoon.
Larry Hryb: You can join us as well and see what happens there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, that's going to be fun.
Larry Hryb: It could be fun. Monday afternoon I'm shooting, shooting a couple things, but anyway. So, anyway, so that's what you're playing.
Laura Massey: Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Looking forward to getting ahold of all the awesome games that are coming out, like Cuphead ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Forza 7 and Shadow of Mordor.
Larry Hryb: Talking about Jeff's playing Destiny, what else you playing?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, a ton of Destiny ...
Larry Hryb: Destiny.
Jeff Rubenstein: Got my light level up like 20 points in the last day. It's like, it's my favorite ...
Laura Massey: What is your light level?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's conference call season. Two, it's only like 264?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I'm at two ...
Laura Massey: I'm not too far behind, now.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, well ...
Laura Massey: We're only around like 110 or something like that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, okay.
Larry Hryb: 240, 250 I think is where I am.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, yeah.
Laura Massey: Not too behind.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I'm ready to run a Nightfall, we'll do that pretty soon. We should do that.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, so I'm playing a stylistic shooter. Some people are saying it's a little bit too difficult. It's an indy game, it's too ...
Larry Hryb: Who's saying that? Who?
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Two dimensional, ah, really fast-paced, tough bosses. I'm of course talking about, um, Ruiner ...
Larry Hryb: Wha?
Jeff Rubenstein: Hm? Record scratch. Ah ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, exactly. (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, man, Cuphead's not that hard.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh, so Ruiner is from Devolver Digital's uh, uh, a, an, Xbox Play Anywhere game, and while I was traveling, uh, this came out. Ah, and it is a, it's a really cool game. It has a, sort of like a Blade Runner aesthetic. And you have a helmet with messages on it. You, I'm assuming you're some futuristic Daft Punk, uh, cast off. Ah, pretty interesting. One, a game that I totally had to put the difficulty down from normal, was like too crazy. But, uh, it's sort of a, if you, uh, there's a little bit of Hotline: Miami in this, there's a little bit of, like, Dead Nation, if you ever played that game, which is a cool, uh, sort of, kind of like a twin stick shooter, but not really.
Uh, definitely worth checking out, look at some of the videos. Um, and that's available uh, again, both on Xbox One, and on Windows 10, so ...
Larry Hryb: Kind of, kind of seguing into some of the new stuff ...
Jeff Rubenstein: You can't beat that.
Larry Hryb: Of what Jeff's got some of the headlines.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, of, of course I do. Ah, but yeah, there's been actually just really a lot of Xbox Play Anywhere games in the last couple weeks. So there, there was Ruiner, there was Cuphead.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: There was, uh, Forza ...
Larry Hryb: Forza.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, Hor-, Forza Motorsport 7.
Larry Hryb: Motorsport, mm-hmm (affirmative) ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, and there was, uh, two or three other indy games that were, were available, um, yeah all around the same time. And also, actually, Gwent ...
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: The Windows 10 version of Gwent.
Larry Hryb: It's, it's in game preview.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is in game preview ...
Laura Massey: Cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a free download and it syncs up with your Xbox version, so go ahead and just ...
Larry Hryb: I just, I, I so worry about going back to that game. Because once I ...
Jeff Rubenstein: And we're going to have to do it.
Larry Hryb: Once I enter the Witcher universe, you just are gone.
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: Do, so you beat The Witcher, though, right?
Larry Hryb: Uh, well, I finished all of the main line.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, so you did beat the ...
Larry Hryb: Um, I haven't done the DLC yet.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, see I'm saving the DLCs for the Xbox One Enhanced Edition.
Larry Hryb: Oh, the DLCs, it is, I'm, I'm only about halfway through one, I, I finished the first DLC ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And, I, I'm a little bit through the second, so ...
Jeff Rubenstein: That may be the first thing I jump back into.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Because I cannot wait for that.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I heard they're just so good. So yes. Uh, anyway so one, that was one of the news bits is that Gwent is available. Do we want to segue, are we doing the full thing?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, let's, let's ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you play the stinger? You know, whatever?
Larry Hryb: Jeffery to the news desk.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, all right, yeah, yeah, now I feel better. So, uh, you mentioned Halloween's coming up ...
Larry Hryb: I did.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, uh, well, it wouldn't be Halloween without the Overwatch Halloween Terror 2017, and it is coming, uh, very soon. October 10th, we're only a few days away.
Laura Massey: Mmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, um, new skins. I, I, I feel like they, everyone jumps back into Overwatch every time there's a big, uh ... I mean, God, Summer Games, it, it was insane how many people were playing, so, um ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I remember playing with you and you're like, "Okay, I got my skin. Done."
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I ended up playing a ton over the summer.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: No, you did, you did.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: But I remember it ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, yeah, but it took ... Ah, God, I must have spent $100 on loot boxes. I need to not to do that again, probably. Um, so I'm sure there, there's going to be new skins, I'm sure there going to bring back, uh, Dr. Junkenstein's Revenge. What changes may come, I don't know, but, uh, I jumped back in recently to try out the new D'Va sort of loadout with the misses and, and, um, Mercy with her completely revamped look, she's actually ...
Larry Hryb: I, I love my Mercy you know that.
Jeff Rubenstein: New Mercy is really good. They're going to nerf her slightly, I think because she's too good. But, um, battle Mercy is like, I'm, I'm all about it. Anyway, so, uh, Overwatch Halloween, new skins, can't wait to see what they look like.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right. A lot of people talking about Battle Royale games. Of course, we've got PUBG we've been talking about, um ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, the Battle Royale version of Fortnite ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, which has been very popular, uh, and is now available on Xbox One. Um, The Culling ... So that was the first Battle Royale on console that I can think of.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, that came out last spring, it's sort of, it's more melee focused.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I think it sounds about right, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, and that was part of Game Preview, and now they've gone 1.0 so, achievements and all the like, uh, are ready to go. So, um, if you wanna scratch that Battle Royale itch, maybe could have picked a better analogy, uh, this is a good time to do it.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, couple other games out, now, by the way. Uh, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, this is game that there's just dozens and dozens of hours. It came out in the 360 era, uh, and now it's sort of a, a remastered version.
Larry Hryb: That was a good era, I like that era.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it was a good era.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And through the magic of backwards compatibility you can still live in it.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Laura Massey: That's true, that's great.
Larry Hryb: That's right, you can always go back.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, so Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, that would be a game that you potentially my want to ... Definitely like, I'd say something about cult hit, but like, so much gameplay for this. Um, Batman The Enemy Within: Episode Two. This is the Telltale story ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, uh, so Episode Two is now available on Xbox One. Uh, an indy game that I've heard a lot of good things about, N++, you may have played N+ ...
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: On, uh, on 360.
Laura Massey: We did.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, so N++ is now available on Xbox One.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: People were excited about that. They were like, "Wait a minute, I thought I was going to have to wait." Yeah, I saw some noise on, uh, some Twitter people were like very excited about that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: N++.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, and another indy game that, um ... This is not my scene, but then again golf is not my scene and I love playing golf games. Uh, this look, this game looks really good, I've seen people play it. And that is: The Hunter Call of the Wild.
Larry Hryb: Not a golf game.
Jeff Rubenstein: Not a golf game ...
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: But it's, I'm not a hunter, I, I don't, I don't, you know, I don't own ...
Larry Hryb: You are ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't go into Bass Pro Shops that often.
Larry Hryb: I, actually I disagree.
Jeff Rubenstein: Really?
Larry Hryb: You're a different type of hunter. I've seen you, when we go to Germany, you're hunting for those sneakers.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, well that's true.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: It's kind of the same thing, you have to go and you have to find like rare NMDs and, and Yeezys and stuff ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, no, you have to shoot deer in the neck, but hey, it looks really cool.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: So, um, if you're a fan of hunting games, this one looks, uh, the graphics are just phenomenal. And really, it's better to kill like, fake animals than real ones, probably.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: I, I mean, maybe, I don't know. I hear there's a lot of deer out there. I'm not the person to ask. Uh, and then finally ... Well, like if you took out the predators, you know, and there's not wolves to take off the ...
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Everything gets out of whack. Kill the fake animals, please.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And finally a new Xbox One S, the Assassin's Creed Origins Bundle has been announced.
Larry Hryb: Yes it is. Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Beautiful box.
Laura Massey: Oh, cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: The key art for Assassin's Creed Origins is phenomenal. Uh, and that launches October 27th, along with the game. So, uh ...
Larry Hryb: Can we talk about it for a second?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, let's do it?
Larry Hryb: Here's a little tip ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh ...
Larry Hryb: I don't think anybody's told, I don't think this is public yet ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Shh, let's keep this one ...
Larry Hryb: I will be in New York on the evening of the 26th at the New York Microsoft store on beautiful 5th Avenue.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, that's just wonderful.
Larry Hryb: Ah, on the evening of the 26th, so if you're in the area I'll have more details on that probably next week or the week after. But there's just, block your calendars off, I'm coming to New York.
Jeff Rubenstein: So a little bit about this bundle. It's, ah, it's not, you would think, "Oh, it's just going to be an Xbox One S, with, or with Assassin's in ..." Of course ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: But, uh, two different versions. There's a one terabyte or a 500 gig, uh, hard drive. Has Assassin's Creed Origins download code of course, but also Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, which, enjoying a very long life. Uh, a month of Xbox Game Pass subscription.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, uh, Xbox Live Gold, a 14-day trial experience if, if somehow you're listening to this show and don't have Gold, then, uh, well, that's one way to do it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's going to be available for $349.00 USD, and, uh, you know, other, other values as well depending on your region and, and the size of the, the hard drive that you're looking for.
Larry Hryb: Uh, so there's a lot of selections and choices.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Oh, actually in the story it does mention it has the details on, uh, the, the launch event in New York, so ...
Larry Hryb: Oh it does?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Oh, okay, I didn't if we were ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Your name's not ... Oh, your name's on it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, I'll just link out to it, how about that?
Larry Hryb: What? Why, why was it disa-, did I disappoint you?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I thought that they had left you out of it. You're the ...
Larry Hryb: Oh, no, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're the real draw.
Larry Hryb: Ah, no, Assassin's Creed is the draw, I am merely just a vessel to deliver it. Or something like that.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Larry, he's a real vessel.
Larry Hryb: Ah. All right, what else you got there for news, Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: I think that's more than enough, don't we also ...
Larry Hryb: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Did I leave something out?
Larry Hryb: Is it? You know we're, what are we? Five or six weeks away from Xbox OneX launch? I'll be sharing ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Four, four weeks.
Larry Hryb: Four weeks.
Jeff Rubenstein: Nah, well a month. We'll just say a month.
Larry Hryb: I'll be, I'll be the, I'll be sharing details of where I'm going to be for launch for that. Laura? Let's do that probably in the next couple weeks.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know where I'm going to be.
Larry Hryb: You're going to be with me, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: I hope so.
Larry Hryb: Laura, you can come with us. Well can't say where it is yet, so ...
Laura Massey: Yeah, oh. Secret location.
Larry Hryb: It's not here. It's not here.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: You will have to get on an air-o-plane to visit it.
Laura Massey: Ooh.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mmm, fancy.
Larry Hryb: That's, that's all I can say.
Jeff Rubenstein: Fly the friendly skies.
Laura Massey: Hope there's hints coming ...
Larry Hryb: All right, gang ...
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Yes, so, we're going to, moving along here, I want to talk about, uh, after, we're going to do Name the Game now, if you're okay with ...
Laura Massey: Oh, okay, so time for Name the Game?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, time for Name the Game.
Laura Massey: Sure.
Larry Hryb: After that I'm going to tell you about, uh, I got a chance to see a preview of a movie that's out this weekend.
Jeff Rubenstein: What?
Larry Hryb: Blade Runner.
Laura Massey: Did you see Blade Runner?
Larry Hryb: I saw Blade ...
Laura Massey: You saw Blade Runner?
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: Awesome, can't wait to hear about it.
Larry Hryb: So, we'll talk about that in a second. All right, you ready?
Laura Massey: Yes, let's do Name the Game from last time ...
So that was Name the Game from last time, and the game was Maize.
Larry Hryb: Yes. I've been playing that.
Laura Massey: Spelled like co-, the corn maize ...
Larry Hryb: Right, right.
Laura Massey: Not the puzzle ...
Larry Hryb: M-A-Z-E, not M-A-Z-E.
Laura Massey: Correct.
Larry Hryb: Although it is, there is some puzzles in here.
Laura Massey: There is sort of a ...
Larry Hryb: There is a corn maze in Maize.
Laura Massey: Wow, that's great. But it is a good, uh ...
Jeff Rubenstein: That's gonna freak me out though.
Laura Massey: (Laughs). Exactly it's a good seasonal pick.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, that's true.
Laura Massey: With Halloween coming up.
Larry Hryb: It's thematic.
Jeff Rubenstein: A lot of corn mazes up here.
Laura Massey: Great game. There are, aren't there?
Jeff Rubenstein: We like the corn mazes.
Laura Massey: So, who was the winner?
Larry Hryb: Who was the winner? I'm asking you? Don't ask me.
Laura Massey: The winner was Grant from Cleveland, Ohio.
Larry Hryb: Cleveland ...
Laura Massey: Congratulations, Grant. His Gamertag is Sarcastic Junk. So, way to go ...
Larry Hryb: Yes ...
Laura Massey: Good job getting the answer correct.
Larry Hryb: What did, what did Grant win?
Laura Massey: Oh, my goodness, so ...
Jeff Rubenstein: A new Gamertag?
Laura Massey: (Laughs) No, not that. He got a lot of awesome stuff here. I got a big list. He got a copy of N++, which you chatted about before. He also got a copy of Inverse Deluxe, which is an ID Xbox game. A copy of Zombie Party, also a good seasonal pick, ID Xbox game. That's not all, he got a copy of Cuphead, a copy of FIFA 18 ...
Larry Hryb: Wow.
Laura Massey: The Ronaldo Edition.
Larry Hryb: That's Jeff's favorite.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh ...
Laura Massey: Jeff's favorite.
Jeff Rubenstein: He's a good looking man.
Laura Massey: And you also, Grant, you also get a copy of Forza Motor, Motorsport 7, Ultimate Edition.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Laura Massey: Fantastic. Grant you also get a copy of an Xbox Live Prepaid one month EA Access membership, and ...
Larry Hryb: Wow, this is games, this is so many games.
Laura Massey: And, that's not all, you also get a copy of an Xbox Game Pass for three months.
Larry Hryb: Wow, so not ...
Laura Massey: So ...
Larry Hryb: So 100 games in there, plus all the rest of the games, this is ...
Laura Massey: So many games.
Larry Hryb: Grant, my Lord.
Laura Massey: You get so many games.
Larry Hryb: Busy, you are gonna be busy in Cleveland, my friend.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: You are going to be busy in Cleveland.
Laura Massey: So many awesome games are on the list.
Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, when your Browns are O and four, you know, why don't you turn your attention to games?
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Aw ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Games are good.
Larry Hryb: What about the Indians?
Jeff Rubenstein: The Indians are good.
Larry Hryb: The Indians are ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I know, I haven't played attention to the playoffs, are they doing all right? Let's just hope, let's hope so.
Laura Massey: All right, well ...
Larry Hryb: Thank you, Laura. (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Should we do another Name the Game?
Larry Hryb: Yes, to get out of this silly sports talk, yes.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Dancing or sports, you've had your choice.
Laura Massey: Oh, goodness. So if you, listener, would like to win those fabulous prizes, so many games, it's really easy: All you have to do is listen to these sound effects that I'm about to play, and then guess what game that is. So let's roll the sound effects ...
So that was Name the Game for this time. Again, you too could win fabulous prizes.
Larry Hryb: Fabulous.
Laura Massey: Super easy, all you have to do is send me an email ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: Lollipop@xbox.com, and CC Major@Xbox.com, and let us know what game that's from.
Larry Hryb: And what do they have to do when they email us? Because why don't you go through that a little ...
Laura Massey: Very easy; subject line: Name the Game, in the body of the email, what game that, those sounds are from. If you want to you can include your name and include your Gamertag, but all you have to do, just send us an email. Really simple. And if you can hear our voice ...
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: You can enter this contest.
Larry Hryb: That's it.
Jeff Rubenstein: I also apologize if you can hear our voice ...
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: It's ... You, you've made some decisions that you may not be happy with.
Laura Massey: You, you have, they've made some commitments ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: But hey, they could win prizes for listening.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's true. That makes it worth more.
Larry Hryb: And to, and to quote Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross: "It's just waiting for you. Go pick up these prizes." He, it was the Alec Baldwin character.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, I only remember the, the, uh, the part about coffee being for closers.
Larry Hryb: Well it's the, it's in the same speech.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yes.
Larry Hryb: And of course, you know ... Anyway, so, the, the prizes are waiting for you. Send us an email. All right, Laura?
Laura Massey: That's it.
Jeff Rubenstein: How about coffee? We should send coffee next time.
Laura Massey: I don't know if our listeners would enjoy coffee with their games.
Jeff Rubenstein: You gotta stay up late and grind out that light level, maybe a little bit more coffee and you'd be running a Nightfall with us tonight.
Laura Massey: Yeah, maybe. Maybe ...
Jeff Rubenstein: See? See? I can rationalize anything.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: I had too much coffee, I think.
Larry Hryb: What, whatever you need ... Yeah, trust me, he has, he's on his ...
Laura Massey: Is his coffee right here? I can smell it.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: yeah.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: That's, that's coffee right there. I mean, I thought I drank a lot, you, you're just a ...
Jeff Rubenstein: It's good for you.
Larry Hryb: You're just an animal.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's what they ...
Laura Massey: I don't know if it is good for you ...
Jeff Rubenstein: They keep coming out, it's, it's ... All right, well, we'll find out eventually.
Laura Massey: I suppose we will.
Larry Hryb: So a couple things, ah, I teased this at the top of the show; I had a chance to see a screening ... By the time this airs, uh, it'll be out, is, uh, I saw, uh, Blade Runner, the new Blade Runner. 2047?
Laura Massey: That's super awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: 2040 ...
Laura Massey: 2049.
Larry Hryb: 2049.
Jeff Rubenstein: Nine.
Larry Hryb: Right, I'm sorry about that. I don't know where 47 came from. Uh, so that's a lot of fun. I was thinking that this is the ... I've done, I've done a lot of press screenings. I've been, I've been doing movie press screenings for 25 years ...
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: Just a long time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Back when they called them Talkies.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: That's ... Can't, you can't see me, dear listeners, but I'm flipping Jeff off. (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (Laughs) He is. He, he is.
Larry Hryb: Um, but I, I remember, this is the first screening I've ever been to where some, the representative from the marketing, or the studio came out and basically said, "If you talk about the film we'd like you not to include any plot details, or basically tell ... " Basically we can just say that we saw the film, that's it.
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was very strange because there's a lot of ...
Laura Massey: It's not even under embargo.
Larry Hryb: I will say the, the film's beautiful and it's, it feels 80s sci-fi that's, okay, I've said enough.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: I, you've sold me.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, the less I know the better ...
Laura Massey: I agree.
Larry Hryb: I will say this, though, Laura, when I, you know, one of the questions, because I've been doing this so long, I always ask, "So, how long is the film?" This film's two hours and 40 minutes.
Laura Massey: Woo.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh, you may wanna make a pit stop right before you head on in ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, and so ... And hit, hit, hit ..
Jeff Rubenstein: And don't get the big soda.
Laura Massey: Yeah, nope.
Larry Hryb: Hit the little, you're gonna wanna hit the little developer's room on the way in there ...
Laura Massey: (Laughs) Oh, my God.
Larry Hryb: Because it, it is (Laughs) it is, it is, uh, woo, it's a long one. So, make sure you, uh, plan appropriately.
Laura Massey: Thanks for the tip.
Larry Hryb: You're gonna see that next week.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Ah, what else? You know what else I'm watching, is, um, is, I've been watching, uh, the Ken Burns Vietnam series.
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Larry Hryb: Have you watched this on PBS?
Laura Massey: No, Mm-mm (negative).
Larry Hryb: Phenomenal. On the United States Public Broadcasting System. It is, I think I'm six or seven episodes in, and I don't know about you, Laura, or you Jeff, but, there's a lot I learned from this that kind of wasn't mentioned in my high school history classes, to be honest with you.
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, there's, I was like, "Oh, really? Uh, what?"
Laura Massey: Do they just have the dope, or ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, a lot, a lot of high level stuff was left over this, this, so if you get a chance to watch Ken Burns' Vietnam, I highly recommend it. Did you see it, Jeff?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I'm going to rent Blade Runner. It's only on the Windows 10 like Movies and TV store it's $4.00, I'm just going to go ahead and rent it and I'm going to watch it.
Laura Massey: Yeah, it's a good precursor.
Jeff Rubenstein: I need to, I need to catch up.
Laura Massey: To remind yourself ...
Jeff Rubenstein: You got me excited for it. Ah, no, but I did watch that documentary on Netflix.
Larry Hryb: Oh, the one I, we were talking about, that right I, I tweeted that out ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, called The Longshot.
Larry Hryb: Longshot, have you seen this one, Laura?
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: This is a fascinating documentary. It's only about 40 minutes long, right Jeff?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah.
Larry Hryb: 40, 45 minutes long and it's a ... Go ahead.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like the less, all right ... Involved Larry David from ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Curb Your Enthusiasm, and someone wrongly accused of murder.
Larry Hryb: That's all you need to know.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's all you need to ... And Dodger's Stadium.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: That's all you need to know.
Jeff Rubenstein: You don't need to know anything else.
Larry Hryb: And, and go watch it, because it, it's on Netflix ...
Jeff Rubenstein: It ... yeah.
Larry Hryb: It's on Netflix.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was, it was really good.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And maybe a little moving.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: So ...
Larry Hryb: It was, it was ... You know, I really don't want to say anything more than that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: But go watch, 45 minutes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Eh, that's not too bad.
Larry Hryb: Okay? Okay? In fact that, there's your homework, folks. Go watch the Vietnam on PBS, go watch, um, Longshot on ... I did a lot of stuff while I was traveling, I guess.
Laura Massey: That's because you had lots of time to watch ...
Larry Hryb: Well yeah, yeah in the airplane and the ...
Laura Massey: Watching movies and things.
Larry Hryb: Of course the plane was delayed and all the rest of that stuff.
Jeff Rubenstein: The usual, for Larry.
Laura Massey: So Larry has, so ...
Larry Hryb: Well it's funny because I work, somebody I work with, Ryan ...
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Who's our, one of our video editors, when I arrived in Seattle on Sunday, I was, he ... Because I knew he was all, "Hey, are you going somewhere?" He was, he was headed down to San Francisco for the virtual reality event ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Uh, that we had earlier in the week.
Laura Massey: Right.
Larry Hryb: And he said, "Oh, yeah, I'm, I'm at, at, I think I'm at gate 810." And I said, "Oh, that's my plane. I'm, you know, you're gonna take my plane down to San Francisco." So, I have a, we, it's well documented I have terrible travel karma.
Laura Massey: You do.
Jeff Rubenstein: The worst.
Larry Hryb: You never want to see me getting on your airplane, because that means there's gonna be a problem. Sure enough, uh, Ryan texts me like an hour later. They were stuck at the gate for like an hour and a half or so, because there was a problem. So, I was, even when I'm not on the plane, my karma stink stays there.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, that one time we flew together.
Larry Hryb: Right?
Jeff Rubenstein: I got sick. That was ...
Larry Hryb: So ...
Jeff Rubenstein: That was not about, at first I thought it was about me, because I normally assumed ...
Larry Hryb: Which, which, when was this?
Jeff Rubenstein: When we went to PAX East ...
Larry Hryb: Oh, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was about making your flight miserable.
Larry Hryb: No, but then there was the ...
Jeff Rubenstein: You had the middle chair and I was gonna vomit on you for five hours.
Larry Hryb: That's, that's right. Well that was when we were playing Switch and you were getting angry at me. (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, oh my God, I don't want to think about that.
Laura Massey: That reminds me ...
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: I finally got a Switch and I've been playing Zelda.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's a good one.
Laura Massey: I just, just started. It's so good.
Larry Hryb: Now you know why we were talking about it at PAX, right?
Laura Massey: Yes, exactly. It's fantastic. Huge world, so much to do, and like I think what you were saying about it, like if you have an idea of what you could do, you could do it.
Larry Hryb: It, it's the game that says, "Yes."
Laura Massey: (Laughs) The game that says, "Yes." But, yes ...
Jeff Rubenstein: That's a good way of putting it.
Larry Hryb: It's the game that always just says, "Yep, you wanna do that? Yes you can. You wanna go over there? Yes you can. You wanna die like that? Yes you can." (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: (Laughs) Can and will.
Larry Hryb: I think, I think actually have some, I don't know if I have them on here ... I had some Zelda sounds ...
Laura Massey: Yes, the sounds are iconic.
Larry Hryb: So how ... Yeah, well, well some of them are just, I mean, the sound design in that particular game is just, is just phenomenal anyway.
Laura Massey: Oh, it is.
Larry Hryb: Do I have any in here.
Laura Massey: And you can probably guess what I started doing immediately.
Larry Hryb: What, fishing?
Laura Massey: Collecting things and cooking them.
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah.
Laura Massey: Farming.
Larry Hryb: Oh, oh, yes.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: So you need to learn how to cook things properly ...
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Because there's a lot of, uh ...
Laura Massey: Huge recipes ...
Larry Hryb: There's a lot of ...
Laura Massey: I've been experimenting.
Larry Hryb: There's a lot of recipes you could, you could do really well with, so ...
Laura Massey: Yeah, I'd love to get that list, because I've just been guessing and checking.
Larry Hryb: No, no, there's, there's some good stuff there. Because there, you get, have you gotten the bonus yet? Where it kind of goes ...
Laura Massey: Yes. And then you, and then you get five ...
Larry Hryb: And Link gets really excited.
Laura Massey: Yes, and you get a five ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Hearts instead of just the two that you were expecting.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Anyway, so we don't want to talk too much about that, because you're gonna have fun with that.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Because you're never gonna, you're never gonna finish your other games, because that, that game, that game sucked me in for like two months.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: That game is ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I still never made it.
Laura Massey: Huge.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel terrible about that.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, what, what I was talking about is we've been on more planes, what about the time we went to Alamogordo?
Jeff Rubenstein: That was a, I mean, that, we, we were on time, but then we had to go to the remote terminal ...
Larry Hryb: That was a bizarre one. That's where we actually had to walk out on the tarmac at LAX.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Remember that?
Jeff Rubenstein: And ...
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Oh, my goodness.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was probably ...
Larry Hryb: It was like 90 degrees.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe the bumpiest flight I've ever had ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: The one going into El Paso.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, but then we ...
Laura Massey: When you went to ...
Larry Hryb: Alamogordo ...
Jeff Rubenstein: The ET Dig.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: The ET Dig.
Laura Massey: The, the ET thing. The dump where you were digging up trash.
Larry Hryb: Yes, oh, God.
Jeff Rubenstein: And then we went to a fast food restaurant in El Paso and they immediately recognized you.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: It happens.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, and didn't hook it up.
Laura Massey: Oh, my goodness, that's amazing.
Larry Hryb: Yes, yes, I'm that guy.
Jeff Rubenstein: The tea had never been sweeter.
Larry Hryb: You ... (Laughs)
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Anyway, it was ... Did we, didn't we get stopped? Remember there was that weird ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, we did, yeah.
Larry Hryb: That weird border control, which is nowhere near the border.
Jeff Rubenstein: Like in the middle of nowhere, yeah.
Larry Hryb: In the middle of nowhere there's a border control place.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: That you have to pull over.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Larry Hryb: And we got waved through.
Jeff Rubenstein: That we did.
Laura Massey: Good.
Larry Hryb: "Where you boys going?" (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: A landfill, sir. (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Going to the dump. (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: All right.
Larry Hryb: "What you doing?" Digging up cartridges.
Laura Massey: Okay ...
Larry Hryb: Have a nice day. (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Off you go.
Larry Hryb: Anyways, so, uh, I want to hear more about your Link experience.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Um, did you, did you, did you send me your Friend's Code?
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: I'll send you my Friend's Code.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Because it's ...
Laura Massey: Is there any kind of multiplayer?
Larry Hryb: Not, not with that game, but at least I can ...
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: You can, I can creep on you and see how long, how many hours you play.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: I can't, there's not rich presents, but I can see that you played the game ...
Laura Massey: I see ..
Larry Hryb: And how many hours you play, that's it.
Laura Massey: That's all you can see? That part?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so ... Are you ...
Laura Massey: How many hours have you put into it?
Larry Hryb: Ooh, well north of 120.
Laura Massey: Goodness gracious.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, well north of that.
Laura Massey: How long does it take?
Jeff Rubenstein: He's a traveling man.
Laura Massey: Yes, how long does (Laughs) ... That's true. How long did take to finish the story?
Larry Hryb: I, so here's the thing, and I, I don't know if I've mentioned this, uh, I have not finished the story.
Laura Massey: 100 hours, and not finished.
Larry Hryb: Because I know ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Also you can basically after like the first hour, if you wanted to, and were amazing, you could just run straight towards Ganon and kill him.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: So there's, there's a ... Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I wouldn't recommend it.
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: There, I know that there's a castle in the center of the map, but I know that I have to go there to finish it, and I keep, I'm like, "Yeah, okay. I'm okay ..."
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm not ready, yeah.
Larry Hryb: I'm going to go over here, and I'm going to do this thing, and I'm going to go over here and do this thing, and I'm gonna ... I just, I just, I'm having so much fun in the world.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: So I'm like I'm kind of, I'm kind of putting off the inevitable. So ...
Laura Massey: I see.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, uh, I look forward to hearing what you say about that, so ...
Laura Massey: Cool.
Larry Hryb: Uh, what else can I tell you? Um, gee whiz. Hey, you know what I loading on my phone, Laura? Take a look at this, I was showing, showing Jeffery this at lunch. That you can now, you can now get ... Down here. You can now get the Edge browser ...
Laura Massey: Edge.
Larry Hryb: On your, on your IOS device, and your Android device.
Laura Massey: Yes. Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I think the best part about that, I believe there's like a functionality where if you're looking at something on your desktop, or your laptop, then you can pick it right up there on your phone.
Larry Hryb: And vice versa.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Oh, that's a fantastic feature.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Right?
Laura Massey: Pick up where you left off.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly.
Larry Hryb: I think I, I think all I end up doing is I think I either, whatever I, whatever I'm reading, and I want to remember to go look at it later, I think I text it to one of you guys.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Hey, did you see this? Why is he sending me that? That's so I can look at it later.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: So, you're, you're my living book, uh, bookmarks gang.
Jeff Rubenstein: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Somewhat. Anyway, what else do we have to discuss, Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, nothing, I think I'm good.
Laura Massey: So I little bit of news.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wha?
Larry Hryb: Oh, news.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is a surprise. Unrehearsed.
Larry Hryb: This is.
Laura Massey: Yep. And rehearsed. You guys know or remember me talking about an application that we built for Holland called Onsite?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: The Mars ...
Laura Massey: Yeah, that's the tool that we worked with JPL to allow their scientists to better explore Mars.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: That was nominated for a Unity Award. Unity is the engine that we built that experience in.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, a lot of games are built using Unity.
Laura Massey: A lot of games and, um, mixed reality and VR games are built in Unity.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: That was up for an award.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Laura Massey: Mixed reality, best augmented reality or mixed reality experience.
Larry Hryb: Who, do you remember who else was in that category.
Laura Massey: There was some other games. A mural drawer, I can't remember the others. I didn't really look through ...
Larry Hryb: They didn't send you to Mars, though.
Laura Massey: Yes ...
Larry Hryb: None of them sent, only yours sent you to Mars.
Laura Massey: Exactly. So I was really excited to be even nominated.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: To be considered as part of one of the best mixed reality experiences that have been made on Unity.
Larry Hryb: That was one of my very first, uh, holo lens experiences.
Laura Massey: That's right. And I, and I think I worked with you then.
Larry Hryb: You did.
Laura Massey: Yep.
Larry Hryb: Because, remember I was like crawling all over the place.
Laura Massey: You, you were. (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: I was like an animal.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: That seems like something you would do.
Larry Hryb: I remember Laura standing on the desk saying, "What the fudge is he doing?"
Jeff Rubenstein: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Yeah, and I think I told you afterwards like you were the most mobile person ...
Larry Hryb: (Laughs) Right.
Laura Massey: That I had taken through that demo.
Larry Hryb: Right, I was, I was trying to break it. (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Yeah. (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, and we actually forgot a news bit that you just jogged my memory ... We had a big mixed reality moment in San Francisco this week, where, Samsung unveiled their ...
Larry Hryb: We'll get back to Laura, hold on.
Jeff Rubenstein: Their mixed reality headset.
Larry Hryb: Jeff's just T-boning your conversation.
Laura Massey: Right?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I thought we wrapped up. Congratulations ... No, I'll back off.
Larry Hryb: Did she, did she say she won.
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb: She was building up to that ... (Laughs)
Laura Massey: (Laughs) I was ...
Jeff Rubenstein: You won, yeah of course you won.
Laura Massey: Yeah, Onsite won.
Larry Hryb: Yay.
Laura Massey: Yay, we are now an award-winning application.
Larry Hryb: Yes. Good for you.
Laura Massey: Which is awesome.
Larry Hryb: Now, how do people if they, if they, how do they, can they experience this now?
Laura Massey: No, it's only, you have to be a scientist working at JPL?
Larry Hryb: But, but is it still down at NASA?
Laura Massey: Mm-mm (negative)
Larry Hryb: It's, they pulled out of Florida?
Laura Massey: There was a version of it that was ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Created at, at a story-telling experience that you could go to Kennedy Space Center in Florida ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Called Destination Mars ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: And be able to walk around Mars and ...
Larry Hryb: Yup.
Laura Massey: See the same version of Mars that the scientists see. But that was much more of a, an entertainment and, and story telling experience because Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon ...
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: Narrated you through it, and you saw a hologram of him just, uh, captured in, in true life, you get to see him ...
Larry Hryb: I remember, I remember when they were shooting that.
Laura Massey: You do.
Larry Hryb: With, with Buzz, yeah.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I remember when they were shooting that.
Laura Massey: Did you get to meet him then?
Larry Hryb: I was, I was in awe. I was, I was complete, I was ... Very few people will stop me dead in my tracks, he was one of them.
Laura Massey: Oh, yes.
Larry Hryb: Anyway.
Laura Massey: So much charisma.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Like, just amazing. Oh, yeah, so there was an experience that you could have gone to see, but I think that's closed now.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It closed in January, I think of this year.
Larry Hryb: Sad face.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Sad face.
Laura Massey: But, good news is that JPL is still using the application.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: And now it's an award-winning one ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yay, well congratulations to you, Laura, that's ...
Larry Hryb: Congratulations.
Laura Massey: Thank you.
Larry Hryb: Yes Jeffrey, now would you like to talk about ... (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah there's some other mixed reality stuff that's cool.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: No, no, go through it a little bit.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, uh, sorry about that.
Laura Massey: That's all right, continue.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, she said mixed reality, I was like, "Oh, my God, how did I forget that?"
Laura Massey: Yeah, we had the October 3rd event.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, and you made the mistake of taking an inhalation of breath to continue your story and I was like, "She's done."
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, so yes, Samsung, so a number of our partners like Acer and, and Dell and Asus, and ... Have, have, have announced, um, uh, over the, the course of, of several months, uh, a number of different headsets, and now Samsung has joined with the HMD Odyssey, which is cool. Look, it has these, uh, built-in headphones, uh ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Or earphones, rather, which looks really cool. Uh, we've, uh, AltspaceVR has joined Microsoft, which is cool.
Laura Massey: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: In terms of like uh, a community building.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, and, and I found that having an avatar, you know, on Xbox is cool, and we all know each other's avatars and we can see who's online and things like that. But when you're in VR, having that, that avatar really like, brings home that you're talking to another person, and it really adds like a really awesome extra.
Larry Hryb: Unless, unless you've seen my Xbox Live avatars.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, when you've used the clown ...
Laura Massey: Um, you, you've had some creepy ones.
Larry Hryb: Or the care, or the carrot.
Laura Massey: I remember the carrot.
Larry Hryb: Or the butter covered clown. (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Oh ...
Larry Hryb: Change it back to ...
Laura Massey: Yeah, you had the gold clown that was butter covered.
Larry Hryb: (Laughs)
Laura Massey: I will steer clear of your avatar.
Larry Hryb: Woo.
Laura Massey: It's a little scary.
Larry Hryb: I just find the most disturbing things and try to put them out there.
Laura Massey: Have you dressed as a clown? Because I know you were scared of clowns, just like many other people, like ...
Larry Hryb: Well, I'm ... Could you, could you be a little more specific in your question, your line of questioning, your honor? (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Has your avatar (Laughs) dressed as a clown?
Larry Hryb: Yes, once.
Laura Massey: How did that make you feel?
Larry Hryb: It, it, it kept me up at night.
Laura Massey: Yeah. (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: I'll be honest with you, it kept me up at night. No I do not like clowns.
Laura Massey: Nope.
Larry Hryb: I haven't seen, what's the clown movie? It?
Laura Massey: It? Oh, goodness gracious, no. I saw lots of pictures of people who were at the early screenings of It and they'd walk into the theater ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: The first person in, completely dark, you know, previews haven't started rolling ...
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: And there's a clown with a red balloon ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah.
Laura Massey: And he's sitting in the back.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: I would have just turned around and walked out.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's it, I'm done.
Laura Massey: No thanks.
Larry Hryb: Jeff, I know you love clowns.
Jeff Rubenstein: They don't bother me the way they bother you, but I'm just not a fan.
Larry Hryb: Oh, they will. They will. You'll grow into it.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Is it something that happens, like a late life phobia?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, exactly ... (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Like developing a, an allergy to sunlight or something? It happens.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, yeah. And then the last thing is like, so what are you going to play? What are you going to do on the, on these mixed reality headsets?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, quite a few things. So a number of things over the, and other apps of course, but you know, we're, this is Xbox, so ... Um, games like Space Pirate Trainer, which I'm a huge fan of. Superhot, uh, Arizona Sunshine ...
Laura Massey: Which, Superhot won for the best VR game on Unity Awards.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's so good, it's so ... I mean it was a great game on ID at Xbox, in VR it's phenomenal, too.
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah, it's the one where you're moving around and your shooting, right ...
Laura Massey: It's intense like ...
Jeff Rubenstein: And, and nothing moves unless you move, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Right, right, right, right. That's cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, ah, and then, like big announcement was that, um, Halo Recruit, like an introduction into the world of Halo, uh, in, in mixed reality, that got announced and people got to try it out. And I didn't get to try it out, yet. Did you get to try it out, yet?
Larry Hryb: I have not, um, I actually was in a meeting about a month ago, they were talking about it, I was like, "I need to try that."
Jeff Rubenstein: You need to, why don't we prioritize that? We should do that.
Larry Hryb: You want I should get us a demo?
Jeff Rubenstein: I, I wouldn't say no.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Okay. Laura do you know anybody who can give us a demo?
Laura Massey: I think I do.
Larry Hryb: Oh, see.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hmm.
Larry Hryb: She was being quiet until asked.
Laura Massey: I know, I might be able to find a way.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Jeff Rubenstein: So anyway these uh, these headsets, the Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung, all available now for pre-order. And, um, also I believe shipping this holiday, including like, this month. So, uh, there's a lot of MR and VR things, so I'll just link out to that in the notes. It's an exciting time to be alive, Larry.
Laura Massey: It sure is. Lots of awesome things happening.
Larry Hryb: But you can't go to Mars.
Jeff Rubenstein: Not yet.
Laura Massey: Unless you're a scientist at JPL.
Larry Hryb: Unless you're a scientist at JPL.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: All right then ...
Laura Massey: Maybe soon though.
Larry Hryb: I think ...
Laura Massey: I hear Elon Musk is really hot on it.
Larry Hryb: Is he? Is he?
Laura Massey: Yes, yes.
Larry Hryb: He's, he's got his hands full.
Jeff Rubenstein: He's a busy guy.
Larry Hryb: He's got his hands full right now.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Give me my three first ...
Larry Hryb: He needs to learn how to, (Laughs) he needs how to learn how to say no.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Right. He needs to learn how to say, "No, I think we're gonna focus on this thing right now." But good for Elon.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: I think he listens to, I wonder if he listens to the show. I know, I know, I'm pretty sure he plays Xbox. Somebody told me he plays Xbox, yeah.
Laura Massey: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Really? Does he follow you? Can you DM him?
Larry Hryb: Uh, I don't recall if he does, I'll go check. Yeah.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: I should know that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe you follow him ...
Larry Hryb: If he does, I, I'm pretty sure he doesn't because otherwise I'd be sending him feature requests for my Model X.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah.
Larry Hryb: Because I've already got about two pages of feature requests, so ...
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: There you go with that. All right, Laura, we're gonna wrap things up here.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: We'll be, we'll be back next ... Unless you have anything else. Do you have any other awards you want to talk about?
Laura Massey: No. (Laughs) no.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll cut you off.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll do it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: It's like (Laughs) don't, don't tempt him.
Laura Massey: That is a fantastic offer-
Larry Hryb: So this is the, uh, this is the show that is the award-winning ... We talk about awards ... (Laughs)
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Do we? Did we win an award? The Streamies?
Larry Hryb: You know you can find us on, you know you can find us on Spotify.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura Massey: Oh? That's awesome.
Larry Hryb: This, this show is now on Spotify, so if you're a Spotify subscriber just go over there, look up podcasts, search on Major Nelson, bam! Be right there. So it's pretty straight forward, so we'd love to, uh ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Like and subscribe.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: Like ... No, I don't do that thing. I, but I will say this is, uh, you know I have my playlist over on, uh, Spotify, Jeff, you that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: Which playlist?
Larry Hryb: The, my, my gaming playlist.
Laura Massey: I didn't know you published a playlist.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I did it last month.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: You don't listen to me. You don't listen to me Laura.
Laura Massey: You didn't tweet it out.
Larry Hryb: Oh, I did. (Laughs)
Laura Massey: Maybe when, not in the hours I'm awake.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, exactly, and maybe you were too busy doing something else.
Jeff Rubenstein: Were you the one telling me about the Cuphead soundtrack?
Larry Hryb: Mm-mm (negative), is that ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Apparently this Cuphead soundtrack is charted on like the Billboard jazz records.
Larry Hryb: God bless them.
Laura Massey: That's awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a great soundtrack, it's so good.
Larry Hryb: It's on vinyl but anyway, uh, my, I refreshed my playlist on there as well.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well that should be on there, put some Cuphead tracks ...
Larry Hryb: I have a lot of good stuff on there. I think it is. It's, it's gaming themed and ... Go ahead, look for it, Laura.
Laura Massey: I will look for it.
Larry Hryb: Go ahead and look for it while we wrap things up.
Laura Massey: (Laughs)
Larry Hryb: All right Jeff, any final words before we, uh, we, we, um fade to ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I said more than enough.
Larry Hryb: Fade to black.
Jeff Rubenstein: Too much, one would say. Edit me out.
Larry Hryb: Laura?
Laura Massey: Thanks for listening.
Larry Hryb: Gang, we'll see you guys next time. We don't know when or where that will be, but we'll see you there. Thanks for listening. Have a great time, and we'll see you on Xbox live. Bye, bye everybody.
Laura Massey: Bye.
Jeff Rubenstein: Bye.

Larry Hryb: Hi, it's Larry Hyrb. Xbox Live's Major Nelson, Show 607. The gang is here. It's Fall up here in the Northern Hemisphere. We're getting ready for the launch of Xbox One X. So a lot's going on here. Hi, Laura.
Laura Massey: Hello.
Larry Hryb: Did I get it all out in time? I feel like I just blurted a bunch of stuff.
Laura Massey: Just all-
Jeff Rubenstein: At the top of the hour-
Larry Hryb: And then Jeffrey's here.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey's here.
Jeff Rubenstein: How are you, sir?
Larry Hryb: It's nice to see you. We're back in the ... You know we have a special guest this week?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, actually he's so special-
Larry Hryb: How special is he?
Jeff Rubenstein: ... that VICE UK has penned up an introduction. Let's talk a little bit about Albert Penello. A word on Albert, I'm now quoting: "Albert is possibly the most enthusiastic and American man I've ever, ever met-"
Larry Hryb: Enthusiastic and American?
Jeff Rubenstein: "... and I want to deeply be his best friend, but as our conversation unfolds, it becomes clear that he already has a best friend, and that best friend is the Xbox One X, available November 7th and unless I have the capability to render 4K-quality footage of a non-4K TV, it is sadly gonna be a very one-sided match in terms of who gets to be Albert's best friend, with me, once again, losing to an Xbox."
Larry Hryb: Well this is ... That was beautiful. Can we put a link to that?
Albert Penello: Why am I friends with you guys?
Larry Hryb: That is extraordinary.
Jeff Rubenstein: I will link to that.
Albert Penello: I'm getting no end of grief about that quote.
Laura Massey: Aww.
Albert Penello: Who was the author? His name is just escaping me right now. I want to just let him know ... I'll tell him I'm making room, I'm booting off a best friend.
Larry Hryb: Do you remember this interview?
Albert Penello: I do. Well, I remember a lot of interviews.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: And yeah, I am very enthusiastic and I've been on the road, which I'm sure we'll talk about. I've been on the road a lot with Mr. Rubes himself, so I did a lot of interviews and I guess I was pretty enthusiastic, evidently.
Larry Hryb: So as you've probably figured out, Albert's here to talk about ... This past week, Xbox One X pre-orders lit up around the world-
Albert Penello: Around the world.
Larry Hryb: Which is unbelievable. We're actually shipping ... You would know this, because you've been here a little bit longer than I have, this console will ship to the most regions we've ever shipped to at one time, correct? Is that accurate?
Albert Penello: I'd have to go back and look. 360 was pretty close. We might have launched in more regions in 360 but we had very few units.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I just remember with 360 ... The one thing I remember about that, and you'll remember this, we're gonna get into old-school stuff here, Laura.
Laura Massey: Back in the day.
Larry Hryb: Back in the day. I remember, in a meeting with Peter Moore and we had to airlift the consoles in, remember?
Albert Penello: Oh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Because they were produced and we needed to get them into the country so fast, and you know, most people that come over from production overseas, you put on a boat because it's cheap. Flying consoles in, not cheap.
Laura Massey: Not cheap at all.
Albert Penello: Not cheap, no. They were heavy pallets of consoles, yes.
Larry Hryb: But we're not doing that. In fact, we're not doing-
Jeff Rubenstein: Did they parachute in? You know, like an airdrop?
Larry Hryb: So we just airdropped them in,
Albert Penello: Yeah, that's what it sounds like.
Larry Hryb: But anyway, Albert's here to talk about Xbox One X, which we had a lot of press. You were out doing interviews and a lot of that stuff came off embargo this week, so-
Albert Penello: Yeah, yesterday. We've been out for ... I've been at my house for like a sum total of four days in the last six or eight weeks, I think.
Laura Massey: My goodness.
Albert Penello: So yeah, it's-
Laura Massey: How do you do your laundry?
Albert Penello: How do ... Well, I have a wonderful wife who, you know, when we talk about what games we're playing, the game I'm playing is hide and seek with my daughter. I'd like to be playing Destiny, but my wife says, "Your destiny is to play with your daughter."
Larry Hryb: There you go.
Jeff Rubenstein: I had to do the same thing, but I said, "Honey, why don't you go hide? Da-da's gonna be in this room, playing Destiny."
Larry Hryb: Count to a thousand. See, and as somebody who has a new little girl, I can't do any of that yet because she's too young. So I'll get there eventually.
Laura Massey: You can't hide yet.
Larry Hryb: But it's great to have you back on the show. We're gonna talk about what you're doing and obviously we teed it up a little bit but a lot of really exciting stuff here.
Albert Penello: Yep, tons of stuff.
Larry Hryb: There's the consoles, Phil tweeted out Panos is over in China, they're starting to come off the line.
Albert Penello: Touching stuff.
Larry Hryb: Touching stuff for some reason. Anyway, it's funny because we were getting ready for you to come in here and Laura came in here and sat down, cause this is actually a true story. Today ... This is the first time I've seen Jeff in a week plus since the last show and this is the first time Laura I've seen you since the last show.
Laura Massey: That's right, we've been busy.
Larry Hryb: We've been all busy around here but, you know, when Laura came in I said "Hey, Albert's coming by" she said "Oh, great! What's he gonna talk about?" I said "Well, you know, Xbox One X." She's like "Yeah, yeah, yeah." And I said "We're gonna talk about Xbox One X Enhanced." She's like "What's that?"
Albert Penello: Come on.
Laura Massey: Yes, that's what I said.
Larry Hryb: She's been busy.
Laura Massey: And then I asked if there's a new acronym for it and you were like "No."
Larry Hryb: So I said "Well, we'll talk to Albert about it." Usually we start the top of the show talking about what we're playing. We talked a little but about Destiny. I finished that game. Have you finished it?
Laura Massey: You finished it? Already?
Larry Hryb: I finished the-
Jeff Rubenstein: The campaign.
Larry Hryb: The campaign.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which is very well done.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's delightful.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm actually on the last part.
Larry Hryb: So you're on the last mission.
Laura Massey: I'm still working through it.
Larry Hryb: Okay, and Albert, we know, is playing hide and seek with his daughter.
Albert Penello: Yeah, and Sonic Mania is actually the game ... I was using my own gamertag, so I really was, been playing a bit of Sonic Mania.
Jeff Rubenstein: There was the time where ... So, your console was the one that wasn't loaded with a non, you know, prototype game or beta game? And so at some point someone came in to the LA stop we were at and they were like "Who loaded Destiny onto this?" And I just sorta slinked out of the room.
Albert Penello: Yeah, he downloaded Destiny onto my account, which is wonderful of him. Jeff is a real bro there. [crosstalk 00:05:19] He's a real pal but I haven't had a chance to play it yet. Well, the funny thing is I actually worked at Sega back when they launched the original Sonic.
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Albert Penello: So I have an affinity for Sonic media, it's fun to watch.
Laura Massey: I have an affinity for Sonic, too.
Larry Hryb: Now what is your affinity? Laura, tell me about your affinity.
Laura Massey: The Sega Genesis was my first console. I wasn't allowed a console growing up but then finally my father gave in to the family and we got a Sega Genesis [crosstalk 00:05:42]
Larry Hryb: It's a great choice.
Laura Massey: Of course Sonic was the best game to play.
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah.
Albert Penello: That was the best game. That was your first console? I was in college.
Laura Massey: How old does that make you feel?
Albert Penello: I am way too old. That's the console I brought to college.
Jeff Rubenstein: I did see you-
Laura Massey: I was honestly an older kid. I was in middle school, I think at that point.
Albert Penello: Okay, so I don't feel so bad.
Jeff Rubenstein: So you were there when Sonic launched?
Albert Penello: I was at Sega answering telephones-
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Albert Penello: - when Sonic launched.
Laura Massey: Do you know all the secrets still?
Albert Penello: This is a story for another time, but yes I actually ... This is how much of nerd I am. I'm from the Bay Area. I used to call Sega when I was in high school and I would beat the games before they did so I would call them and tell them how to beat the boss.
Laura Massey: What?!
Albert Penello: So then when I went to work at Sega I would see tips for games that they took from me over the phone.
Laura Massey: No way!
Albert Penello: Yeah, that's actually, that's totally true.
Larry Hryb: It's a true story.
Albert Penello: 100% true story. I think might still have my binder somewhere, cause back then it was all on paper. So someone would call up and ask how to beat the game and you'd have to flip through your tabbed binder and those were written by people who would go and get the games right before they came out cause cartridges, you know, they have to be manufactured.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: And so they'd play them and then you'd have to beat them and write down how to beat it so that when someone called ... So for a bunch of games I would beat them before they would so I had to call and tell them how to do it.
Larry Hryb: Look at that!
Laura Massey: Wow.
Larry Hryb: See, you thought Albert was just a pretty face, didn't you? You were saying that. "That Albert-"
Albert Penello: "Just a pretty face."
Jeff Rubenstein: Now [crosstalk 00:06:55] cause GameFAQs came out.
Larry Hryb: You know, it's funny, cause I actually have a connection to Sonic as well. I had a Genesis before, but one of my very good friends who I used to do radio with, at Syracuse University, is the voice of Doctor Eggman.
Laura Massey: Is he?
Larry Hryb: He's the cartoon voice, name is Mike Pollock, and he and I did a lot of radio together and we were in classes together. He is one of the voices of Doctor, he does a lot of other voices, as well.
Laura Massey: Super cool.
Albert Penello: What video game character should Larry be the voice of?
Laura Massey: That's a great question.
Larry Hryb: That's a great question.
Jeff Rubenstein: You were in a game.
Larry Hryb: Well I've been in-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, you were in ...
Larry Hryb: I was in Explosion Man.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes and you were in Kinect Sports Rivals.
Laura Massey: What were you in Explosion Man?
Larry Hryb: I was ...
Laura Massey: You were live action.
Larry Hryb: Right, I did, I was at the end ... I was the reverend-
Laura Massey: The priest.
Larry Hryb: - the priest, right. I was doing the wedding at the end. Oh, that's right!
Laura Massey: Spoiler alerts, by the way.
Jeff Rubenstein: With your hair color though you'd have to be the bad guy if it was a Japanese game. You know, that's mandatory.
Albert Penello: I don't know about that.
Larry Hryb: So people with gray hair are always the bad guy?
Jeff Rubenstein: Gray and white-ish hair, you're almost always the bad guy. Except in Devil May Cry and even then.
Albert Penello: So, we're villains.
Jeff Rubenstein: In a morally gray area.
Albert Penello: What Jeff's really saying is we're villains.
Larry Hryb: Cause you and I share a similar tuft of hair.
Albert Penello: Yes.
Larry Hryb: As it were.
Jeff Rubenstein: At least you have hair.
Albert Penello: Not share it as in we take it off of a head and then share it between us. Share it as in we have similar-
Larry Hryb: Similar.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're talking about this now.
Albert Penello: We're not actually sharing hair, to the listeners out there.
Larry Hryb: Anyway- [crosstalk 00:08:14]
Jeff Rubenstein: One of my favorite stories is you were in Kinect Sports Rivals-
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And in the demo-
Larry Hryb: Oh, God. I was so angry over that.
Jeff Rubenstein: And you would always, like your character, your NPC, would always finish in seventh place.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I believe you went and had a talk with Rare.
Larry Hryb: Right! I talked to them, I was like "Look, I know that I can't win all the time but could you not make me come in dead last every single time?"
Jeff Rubenstein: And they boosted you, didn't they?
Larry Hryb: They did and then the other thing that irritated me is that when they put me in that game they put me in that onesie.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was a wet suit.
Larry Hryb: It was-
Jeff Rubenstein: Look, you liked scuba diving!
Larry Hryb: I do, but, you know.
Jeff Rubenstein: They took care of you.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, okay. Anyway.
Albert Penello: This is off the rails.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:08:47] What we do! It's what we do here, Albert. Laura, what are you playing? Are you playing anything other than Destiny? Let me try to get it back.
Laura Massey: I am playing a lot of Destiny and I'm also still playing Diablo.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah, I see you playing Diablo.
Laura Massey: I'm still playing Diablo, getting through season 11. I'm almost done with all that's left of season 11.
Albert Penello: Are you playing Path of Exile? Where are you on the Path of Exile versus Diablo debate that's raging online?
Laura Massey: Well, I haven't tried-
Larry Hryb: She hasn't tried it.
Laura Massey: Path of Exile.
Albert Penello: I hear that it's, according to some people, better than Diablo.
Laura Massey: I don't know if that's possible.
Larry Hryb: Ryan [tried 00:09:14] on the team is playing it and he's ... He hasn't rendered his final verdict yet but he's leaning in that direction.
Laura Massey: I must give it a try then.
Larry Hryb: So you must, yeah.
Albert Penello: It's supposed to be good.
Laura Massey: Super good. But I did run into ... one of my favorite things in the game, which I didn't know existed. I love finding out new things about this game.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: You know how there are shrines in the game? You run up to it, it's a little spire that gives you a power up like you can run faster or you can pick up gold with more radius. Well there is such a thing as a treasure goblin shrine.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's right. Your treasure goblin. I remember you talked about this.
Laura Massey: No, I didn't know there's a shrine!
Larry Hryb: Oh, there's a shrine?
Laura Massey: A shrine!
Larry Hryb: Oh!
Laura Massey: And it spawns treasure goblins!
Larry Hryb: Well, what's wrong with that?
Laura Massey: Exactly! I had no idea this could [inaudible 00:09:54] so I ran up to it and like ... Treasure goblin spire? What is that? Click. Treasure goblin spawn, oh my gosh get the treasure goblin! Another one spawned, then another one, then another one, then 15 spawned and you're like "What do I do?!"
Larry Hryb: I don't know, what do you do?
Laura Massey: What do you do?
Larry Hryb: What do you do?
Laura Massey: So, you have to pick your battles and can't kill them all.
Larry Hryb: Treasure goblin.
Laura Massey: Unfortunately I didn't pick the right battle and I ended up having all of them run away and escape.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: It was very sad, but if you ever find a treasure goblin shrine get ready because it's going to be a big battle.
Larry Hryb: It's delightful.
Laura Massey: It's really fun. Really good.
Larry Hryb: Fun.
Laura Massey: I'm playing a lot of Destiny. I logged in last night and ... I finally took part in my first public event. Have you guys done a public event?
Larry Hryb: Sure, quite a few.
Jeff Rubenstein: I mean I did during a conference call today.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you did one, it was a true story. I was watching him do it.
Laura Massey: I wish I could play games during conference calls.
Larry Hryb: Try it.
Laura Massey: I just wish [inaudible 00:10:44]
Larry Hryb: It's good.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is what happens when you're non-essential versus a very essential person in calls.
Albert Penello: Who's doing the real work in this crowd, ladies and gentlemen? The one who can't play games while they're doing work.
Laura Massey: Right, but I'm running the meeting. And unfortunately I was the only one who was doing this public event.
Larry Hryb: It's funny, Jeff did one and he was the only one as well.
Laura Massey: I felt really sad and lonely.
Larry Hryb: Well.
Jeff Rubenstein: That seems to be a rare occurrence.
Laura Massey: It is rare.
Larry Hryb: You are welcome to join, you know, do Jeff and I ... I played last night for an hour and a half or so, you're welcome anytime you want to join just let us know and Albert, whenever you're ready to do a public event ...
Albert Penello: Yeah, one of these days.
Larry Hryb: I know, I know.
Laura Massey: It does take a few hours to get through the extended tutorial when the world opens up.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, like 20 levels.
Laura Massey: Really?
Larry Hryb: That's what it feels like, it feels like ... just the whole campaign is basically a big tutorial for the whole thing is what it feels like sometimes.
Laura Massey: I see. 20 is the highest, is that right?
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Laura Massey: I'm at eight, I think.
Larry Hryb: Okay, you're getting there.
Laura Massey: Yeah, getting there.
Larry Hryb: Little less than half way, for those of you having trouble with math.
Laura Massey: Thanks for the math.
Larry Hryb: No problem!
Albert Penello: Hashtag did the math.
Larry Hryb: Alright.
Jeff Rubenstein: Speaking of math, a friend of mine just sent me a countdown timer, it's just until Xbox One X releases. He pre-ordered his Project Scorpio Edition, cannot wait for it [crosstalk 00:11:54] for 47 days.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Albert Penello: Yeah, like six weeks, right?
Larry Hryb: We're gonna talk about that in a minute with Albert. We're gonna talk about what you're playing and then we're gonna go right into the Albert section.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, of course.
Larry Hryb: Albert brings the goods.
Jeff Rubenstein: I've been traveling, so bringing my laptop with me and during that time, when I have downtime in the hotel room playing ReCore Definitive Edition, the Eye of the Obsidian content. I feel like the platform in that game is just so good and ... It's just really fun to keep coming back to it and I've been doing a lot of the races. It took me a while to figure out that the tank ... robot, or Corebot, you can hold down B and boost and I was like "Man, I am having a hard time with these races" and then I realized, though, I can ... you can boost with B. B for boost.
Laura Massey: Hit the button to go faster.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a little mnemonic. Then I got home and, in addition to Destiny, NBA 2K18 came out.
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:12:40] That was your game.
Jeff Rubenstein: Everyone was tweeting about 2K Day and I love [crosstalk 00:12:42] So, I'm happy to ... I scanned myself in-
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey Dean Chamillionaire.
Jeff Rubenstein: Jeffrey Dean Chamillionaire. This time, the scan came out a little bit better. I look shifty, though, in this. I look like ...
Larry Hryb: Shifty-er?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, I looked like very dumb, I would say, in my previous scan and this one I just look like I'm up to something, you know? So maybe I'm gonna be-
Larry Hryb: So, far more accurate.
Jeff Rubenstein: A lot of jersey, but yeah. Actually, yeah, it's pretty accurate. I've made it, I'm a walk on for the Sixers, so let's see what happens if Joel Embiid can play this year. We're going all the way. I just feel like we're gonna go all the way with me on the team. That was the missing piece, for the reason we worst team at basketball.
Larry Hryb: NBA 2K18.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's so good, it's so good. And then ... Wow, FIFA 18's coming out real soon, too.
Larry Hryb: It's actually available now if you have EA Access.
Jeff Rubenstein: If you have EA Access so get on it and if you have the Ronaldo Edition that'll be unlocking very soon as well, so [inaudible 00:13:36]
Larry Hryb: And I know you're a big Ronaldo fan.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, but ... I was forced to do it because I want to get back into the ... The big thing in sports games is story modes and they're like, for me, the most fun. I love the one in Madden. I mean, would you imagine ever, five years ago, if I said to you "You're going to be playing Madden and five years from now there's gonna be a scene where you're singing a Miley Cyrus song, The Climb, as part of the scene and you know what? It worked. Oh, it worked"
Laura Massey: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. See!
Albert Penello: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: You gotta play the Madden! You're like a good old boy from Texas, trying to make it into the NFL and when you're in your pick-up truck, you leave on Miley Cyrus. You do that.
Larry Hryb: When are we playing?
Jeff Rubenstein: Let's play it soon cause, you know what? I want us to do a-
Larry Hryb: Co-stream.
Jeff Rubenstein: I want us to do a co-stream on Mixer and we can use it with maybe a USB camera.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Did you see that news this week, Albert?
Albert Penello: Yes, of course.
Larry Hryb: It finally came out, yep. Laura, so now you can use, for alpha members, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's just for alpha, those are coming [crosstalk 00:14:33]
Jeff Rubenstein: We'll link to the details [crosstalk 00:14:34]
Albert Penello: Not the mic, though. Just the camera.
Larry Hryb: Just the camera. Mic soon. One feature at a time, gang.
Laura Massey: One step at a time.
Larry Hryb: One step at a time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, most webcams do not have noise canceling and it would be very echo-y unlike the Kinect which has like a whole matrix of [crosstalk 00:14:48]
Larry Hryb: And Array has-
Jeff Rubenstein: An Array.
Albert Penello: An Array microphone.
Larry Hryb: Array microphone, thank you. Much like the top of the new iPhone X, it's got a little Kinect.
Laura Massey: It does have a little Kinect.
Albert Penello: That would be the iPhone 10.
Larry Hryb: The iPhone-
Albert Penello: We're the Xbox One X-
Larry Hryb: I'm gonna call it the X.
Albert Penello: They're the iPhone 10.
Larry Hryb: I'm gonna call it the X.
Laura Massey: It's the year of the X.
Larry Hryb: It's the year of the X, we talked about that. So, alright-
Albert Penello: We started it.
Larry Hryb: So, here we are. I'm gonna talk to Albert about, are you all set with the headlines or do you want to come back to them?
Jeff Rubenstein: We'll come back for the headlines.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I want to get Albert cause I know he's gotta get out of here but we brought you over because you and I did a video, Xbox One X Enhanced. They were just about some of the new titles. I wanted to see if you could, for those people that haven't watched the video and they don't really understand this whole YouTube thing.
Albert Penello: There's an amazing new technology where video stream from the internet.
Larry Hryb: What?
I wanted to talk to you about the program and obviously we have someone here who hasn't really been familiar-
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: - with the program because, again, essential versus non-essential.
Albert Penello: That's right. Also, doesn't know YouTube.
Larry Hryb: No, that's not true.
Albert Penello: Yeah, look, I mean, yeah we shot a video, which was quite fun and shooting videos with Larry are always ...
Larry Hryb: We have fun.
Laura Massey: I bet there were good times.
Albert Penello: We're always the guest. In fact, the first, my favorite one was the very first edit we saw, the very rough edit.
Larry Hryb: Where they left a bunch of stuff-
Albert Penello: Where they left the sort of, like, after we ended we left the trail off.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: Where, you know, it's like, you know, you can see both of us just shut off.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: And then we're like "Okay" and then we're just randomly looking around and we're-
Larry Hryb: Voices are coming off camera.
Albert Penello: Answering questions that you can't hear that are being asked in the background and it's really fun.
Larry Hryb: We fixed it.
Albert Penello: We did, it was good. [crosstalk 00:16:18]
Yeah, I mean we shot the video, I don't want to sort of re-do the video here now live but there was a ... We're doing something new, obviously, with Xbox One X and launching sort of a console with a different level of performance and so one of the things you want to do is you have to sort of help guide people to understand what's gonna work and what's gonna take advantage of all the power and it's always a balance of trying to make a program simple.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: So that people understand it but also be accurate in what you're communicating and so we established what we're calling Xbox One X Enhanced, which to me, basically is just a way of telling people this game is the developer's done work to take advantage of the horsepower.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: Because of course all the games work.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: So, you've got sort of two almost conflicting things you're trying to tell people. One: if it says Xbox One on it, it works and probably works better on Xbox One X and then two: there's a bunch of games that are doing work to take advantage of all the advanced features and capabilities of the GPU.
Larry Hryb: And there's a lot of different, we talked about this in the video, it's funny but before we continue on this I want to let you know. I had to get my haircut this past week, cause you know I gotta look good.
Albert Penello: Our hair.
Larry Hryb: Our hair, that's right.
Laura Massey: It is shared hair.
Larry Hryb: I was getting our hair cut last week and there was a guy sitting next to me who didn't really recognize me cause I wasn't ... paying attention.
Jeff Rubenstein: Not everyone recognizes you, Larry.
Larry Hryb: Which is fine, but they were talking about Project Scorpio and they said "Well, I don't know if I'm gonna pick a new one up because, you know, it doesn't work, you know, unless you have a 4K TV, it doesn't matter." And that's actually not true!
Albert Penello: That is not true.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so talk about that.
Albert Penello: So, yeah, I mean it's, we know a lot of people haven't upgraded yet and so we had to be real thoughtful-
Larry Hryb: Upgraded their television.
Albert Penello: Upgraded their television yet to 4K and so that is one of the top questions that we see over and over again is like well, the system was built for 4K so that's great that people understand that but if I don't have 4K do I need to upgrade and the answer to that is yes. There's lots of reasons why you might want to upgrade to an Xbox One X even if your TV isn't upgraded. Some of them are hardware specific with, we have a 50% faster hard drive so loading times will be better. Your existing games will run faster if you have variable frame rate or variable resolution.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: Those will run at higher settings. We have some texture filtering improvements in the SOC to make texture-
Larry Hryb: System on a chip.
Albert Penello: Yeah, the Scorpio engine has ... a better texture filtering for existing titles so just if you like the game library you already have, an Xbox One X is gonna amp up all those games.
Jeff Rubenstein: And we've got quite a, there's a whole list that we'll link to of games that are supporting or are enhanced for Xbox One X and there's some great titles on there.
Albert Penello: Yeah, so we have the Xbox One X Enhanced list, we have a new webpage that we just released that breaks this down and in those cases then we have this thing that we call supersampling, which is effectively a technique that downscales the 4K content onto a 1080p TV.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: We've got some examples that we've shown but basically a lot of the jaggies are gone so you have better anti-aliasing, but also all the better lighting, all the better textures, all the better effects that are in the 4K versions you can still see even if you don't have a 1080p television.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: So, even if you haven't upgraded yet there's still a lot of good reasons to get an Xbox One X and our video is just spending time sort of talking people through what those features are.
Larry Hryb: When I was getting our haircut, I went over and I told this guy I said "Well, actually," and then I introduced myself and he felt like an idiot but that's fine. We just talked about, I said "Actually, there is reason," I gave a much, a worse version of what you just explained about how it's okay if you have a 1080p TV then your games are gonna look better and I want to point out the list that Jeff talked about, that we'll put a link off to, that includes previous games so there's some games in your Xbox library right now that are gonna be Xbox Enhance-ified. Enhanced.
Jeff Rubenstein: Quite a few.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And a lot of like major titles.
Larry Hryb: And then a bunch of ones coming up, right?
Albert Penello: Yeah! And we're gonna ... We've seen unbelievable support and there's two things, sorry, like my mind is rattling thinking of two different things. The first is Xbox One X Enhanced doesn't just mean old games that are getting upgraded.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: That's actually a thing that I think people confused because when we talked about it at E3 we talked about it mostly in reference to existing titles.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: So, Tomb Raider, Gears of War-
Jeff Rubenstein: Fallout 4, Final Fantasy XV-
Larry Hryb: Fallout 4's getting it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Forza-
Laura Massey: Yes!
Jeff Rubenstein: Gears of War 4-
Albert Penello: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: The Witcher 3. Oh I can't wait.
Albert Penello: So those are existing games that are coming [crosstalk 00:20:33]
Larry Hryb: - be back.
Albert Penello: But all the new games that are coming out, like Forza 7, is also Xbox One X Enhanced and all the new titles like Crackdown 3 and all these games are Xbox, so Xbox One X Enhanced-
Larry Hryb: Assassin's Creed.
Albert Penello: Assassin's Creed, so new titles and existing titles fall under the banner of Xbox One X Enhanced.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: So when you're trying to figure out what games are gonna take advantage of this new box that I just bought, search for Xbox One X Enhanced.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, we're linking.
Albert Penello: Oh, we're gonna link to the site.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, where you'll be able to see it-
Larry Hryb: We'll link off to it and all of that stuff. You were out there talking to a lot of the media, we heard at the top of the show about your-
Albert Penello: My new best friend?
Larry Hryb: Your new best friend over at Vice. Was it Vice UK?
Jeff Rubenstein: It was Vice UK.
Larry Hryb: We're gonna link off to that story. We need to.
You went through, what were some of the things you were hearing? What were some themes that when you were talking to some folks?
Albert Penello: It was great cause we were in ... Sydney, New York-
Larry Hryb: You went to Sydney?
Albert Penello: I didn't go but we had people there so, like, we're kind of like huddling up and taking calls back and forth but I was in London, LA ... San Francisco.
Larry Hryb: Did you do New York?
Albert Penello: No, we had someone else was in New York and someone else was in Sydney.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know if you made any best friends but he was good. Ryan was good.
Albert Penello: Ryan was good, yeah Ryan on my team went to New York and Kevin Gammill went to Sydney.
Larry Hryb: Oh boy, wow.
Albert Penello: Lucky bastard.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Albert Penello: It was really good, you know, people-
Larry Hryb: Until you do the flight, trust me.
Albert Penello: Well then once you arrive ...
Larry Hryb: Right, right.
Albert Penello: No, it was really great talking to people and I think everybody's been really awesome about ... just asking really good questions and I love that people have really thoughtful opinions and questions that get asked and so even if they're not questions that are favorable, I mean, people can be critical of us of things and I like those kind of questions too, cause I think it keeps us on our toes.
So, for me, going out on the road is a chance to talk to people that I normally don't get to talk to cause normally the people I've talked to are you guys.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: It's people inside and so getting an external perspective is always really exciting and people ask really good questions and I make new best friends, but we showed the new UI.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: And then we got to talk about all the cool new features, all new personalization, all the speed of the new UI. It was a good chance for me to give some demos, we have some supersampling demos.
Larry Hryb: Oh, you do?
Albert Penello: That show sort of what supersampling looks like.
Larry Hryb: I think we saw one, Jeff. You and I saw one a while ago?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it was a ... A bee was involved, yes?
Albert Penello: A ladybug.
Jeff Rubenstein: A ladybug, yes.
Larry Hryb: I thought it was a beetle.
Albert Penello: It's a ladybug.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, maybe it's a ladybug now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Named Bee.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, her name is Bee.
Jeff Rubenstein: I took the time to get to know the lady.
Albert Penello: Look, I want to honestly, there's actually some really, really great videos that other people have done about supersampling that just show, sort of, how it works that have nothing to do with us that I would encourage people to go take a look at.
Larry Hryb: When you were talking with some folks, I know that last year that ... the PlayStation had their PlayStation Pro come out.
Albert Penello: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Which a lot of people have looked at the consoles and say "Well, it's kind of the same thing," but your response to that is what?
Albert Penello: Oh, man. Is there a lot of PlayStation listeners to this podcast? Cause every time-
Jeff Rubenstein: There's gamers!
Laura Massey: There's some, there's gamers.
Albert Penello: No, I mean, I always say the thing I find most interesting is one of the handful of people that has been involved in Project Scorpio since it was conceived many years ago is that we didn't know what they were doing so when I and the team were putting together this idea for what Project Scorpio might be it was never relative to something else.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: We actually thought that we were coming up with something totally unique so I think it's super interesting that both Sony and us that arrived a similar idea of doing this mid generation platform. They took a different approach and ... I think we built a much more powerful box and I think that now is something that people have seen and we did work with Digital Foundry on unveiling the box, so they're not the same box. I think we, for people who want the absolute best versions of games you're gonna want to play on an Xbox One X. They're the best versions of their party titles. The best versions of their own titles will be on Xbox One X.
Larry Hryb: You know it's funny cause Albert talked about when they were planning Project Scorpio and it's true cause I would come by Albert's office, remember? I'd come by, and I'd shut the door like "Alright, what do you got?" And he'd bust open these crazy powerpoints, and he would explain to me how your games are gonna work, and they're gonna look better. I'm like "that's magical, let's do it."
Albert Penello: It's true, cause Larry-
Larry Hryb: Right?
Albert Penello: One of the best, you know this is a story we don't tell very often but one of the things I think was most exciting about working on Project Scorpio was, it was a blank slate and from the idea, and we got to ask ourselves all these questions, all these questions that people are asking us now are questions we asked ourselves, and the truth is, is like Larry's ... I would use Larry as a proxy for like if we did A or did B, you know, and he wasn't even really [tented 00:25:01] on the program but Larry would come in, and I would say-
Larry Hryb: Right, then we'd talk around it.
Albert Penello: We'd talk around it, I'd say like "What if we did this versus doing that, how do you think people would respond to that?" And so that's why now it's exciting just for me to have, like, remember all the ideas and all the hard questions we asked ourselves and we gotta do this right. We're gonna do it, we gotta do it the right way and working with, and even asking Larry, like there's different answers to questions.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: We could do it this way or that way, and now to see it come to pass and I think people are really responding well to like ... thinking about where the port locations are and that the power cable's the same and then all the games work and all the accessories work and all the old games are better and now we've got these new more powerful games and how we did the development kit.
It's exciting cause it was really a blank slate and so much of what is shipping was reflective on our original ideas for what we wanted to do.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's also, we talked about the new dashboard. There's also a ton of new features that they're putting in, to help make for those of you who own an Xbox One or an Xbox One S the transfer easier, we're doing over network copying over network and a bunch of other really cool things.
Albert Penello: Oh, the hard drive. Yeah, the hard drive and network transfer, thank you for bringing this up because this to me is something, this is, I think, will be one of the most unsung features and as the marketing guy for the console I'm sure that this team is listening they're like "Albert! Do your job!" Is getting people to get a hard drive. Without a doubt ... the experience between moving between an Xbox One or an Xbox One S to an Xbox One X with a hard drive is gonna be-
Larry Hryb: Seamless.
Albert Penello: - so much better and it's not just, I'm not trying to make people spend more money, like I know you can probably get a two terabyte now for about a hundred bucks
Larry Hryb: You can get like four or five like $105.
Albert Penello: Yeah and ... for people that download a lot of games, keeping that stuff on your external hard drive, even on your current box, the load times are faster.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's amazing. Like as someone who has swapped out boxes or if I travel with it, not having to download again, especially if you're a multi Xbox household. I have level caps. I can only download so much and when we come to this time of year I'm definitely pushing up against that but I can download it once and then bring it downstairs.
Larry Hryb: What happens at this time of the year?
Jeff Rubenstein: When all of the [00:27:05] play games.
Albert Penello: When all of the titles come out.
Larry Hryb: You don't have the unlimited package on your home [inaudible 00:27:08]
Jeff Rubenstein: Nah ... I don't live in ... behind the high hedges of Larry Land out there.
Albert Penello: So, for people who don't live in the high hedges of Larry Land I highly recommend, no I mean really like guys, go get a hard drive. It's gonna be -
Larry Hryb: Before you even send somebody out, you just need a USB 3 hard drive, there may be one lying around your house.
Albert Penello: Yeah, in fact, I gotta tell you. I have a bunch, I went and spent like $29 on Amazon on a Clamshell case.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: And I took old hard drives that I have that lying around and plug them in a case and now I've a ton of USB 3 hard drives that really didn't cost me anything. Just upgrading the one on my PC, I format it, put it in a case and now I've got a USB 3 hard drive.
Laura Massey: That's a great tip.
Albert Penello: Yeah, so getting your stuff on a hard drive you will save so much time re-downloading. We have a really awesome, the team has put together a really awesome sort of like upgrade process where you can basically backup your settings if you haven't moved it, it'll just do one button press and it'll move all of your games over to the hard drive so when you get ready for Xbox One X all you're gonna have to do is put in your log in with your gamertag and your MSA password and there'll be a day one update, it'll be very small it's not gonna be a huge update, and then boom! The console's yours again, everything will just be restored and all your games are there and ready to go.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I want to talk about that because we've talked a little bit about the transfer, of course when you have your games on an external hard drive we'll have the option, you'll get an update soon, to transfer the settings.
Albert Penello: Yes, that's one of the big things that's changing now.
Larry Hryb: Cause there's three components that I look at. So, the games obviously you download those and you put them on a hard drive. You put them on an external hard drive, unplug it, plug it in, done. Settings are more of the what's my background, kinda that stuff, right Albert?
Albert Penello: Yeah, and some of that stuff is stored in the cloud. We'll have more details about what all settings are gonna get transferred over.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: But, yeah, it's just gonna save you so much time on that first day experience and for people who are bandwidth limited.
Larry Hryb: Right, and there's a lot of people that are.
Albert Penello: And there's a lot of people that they're gonna, like you won't have to re-download all your stuff, so the only downloads you'll take are the ones for the Xbox One X Enhanced titles but we're even allowing people to do that ahead of time on the Xbox One S.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: So if you know you're gonna upgrade, maybe you're not gonna upgrade for a while, maybe you didn't get your pre-order, you're not gonna get one on launch day.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: You can still go ahead and manage your bandwidth caps by taking those updates early on an Xbox One S so that when you plug it into the Xbox One X you're, like, not only are you ready to go but the 4K upgrades are there as well.
Larry Hryb: The other thing, there's a third category of things ... that we forgot about, because we were one of the very first to do it and that is, of course, your game saves. You know you never have to think about game saves anymore, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: They're just there.
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: Back in the old day we used to have those, what were those little-
Albert Penello: Memory units.
Laura Massey: The MU's.
Larry Hryb: The MU's, right.
Albert Penello: The MU's.
Larry Hryb: And we're like "Where's my Halo save? And where's this save?" No, we haven't had to think about that for years.
Laura Massey: It's true, I remember carrying it ... carrying it on my keyring.
Larry Hryb: We had the little cases, right?
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Albert Penello: The keyring, yeah. You had a key chain for them.
Laura Massey: Yeah, and freaking out if I lost it like "Ah! That's everything! That's everything."
Larry Hryb: Right, cause that's all your games. Now you don't have to worry about that.
Laura Massey: Now, no more.
Larry Hryb: But yeah, so obviously that'll all work-
Albert Penello: I think it's gonna be, like for people that are, for games that are coming out now that are gonna get enhanced, what's gonna be awesome is just this concept that you're like in the middle of a game ... You're gonna get an Xbox One X, you're gonna get the 4K update, you're gonna pick up that game exactly where you left off-
Jeff Rubenstein: But your cataracts have been removed.
Albert Penello: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're seeing it for real.
Albert Penello: Your vision is so much more clear. There's just so much cool stuff that we're doing and it's fun to talk to people about this stuff and I can't, you know, we're not that far away from [crosstalk 00:30:36]
Larry Hryb: Yeah we're getting ready, we're getting ready, of course, and then we talked about, of course, this week pre-orders lit up.
Albert Penello: That's right we had our second round of pre-orders, so and I've talked a little bit about this. Pre-orders are interesting because there's, you know, you're trying to execute these globally, like all around the world. You're trying to coordinate times and you've got different retailers with different customers and so with the Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition that we announced at Gamescon, that was our program.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: Like we worked really closely with retailers, it was primarily done online, we wanted people, we knew there was gonna be a lot of enthusiasm, we wanted people to get online and those things, we sold more of those units faster than any Xbox ever and I've been here from the get go, so I know.
Larry Hryb: You've seen them all.
Albert Penello: I've seen them all. Then we had people asking "Well, what if I want the standard edition, the one without the Project Scorpio packaging and the ID changes?" And so that's what we launched yesterday on the, well now on the 20th.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: And so that is really run by retail, so what we do is we tell our retailers "Okay, this is how many units you're gonna get on November 7th, you obviously want to have some in store for people to go shopping and it's up to you how many you want to decide to pre-order." So, this program, what I'm telling people is like I think go to the stores if you can't find them online, they're probably not sold out. A lot more retailers are gonna want you to go in-store so that you can pick yours up on launch day. So, if you're having a hard time finding one check your old fashioned brick and mortar store.
Larry Hryb: Yeah and I've got a link on my website on the pre-order post. I've got a link off to Amazon and the Microsoft store and Target and Best Buy and GameStop and the rest of those, so.
Albert Penello: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: There you go, so that's exciting.
Albert Penello: It is exciting.
Larry Hryb: So that's that. Now it's all done, now we just got to launch it. Right?
Albert Penello: Now it's about games and getting the console out and demand and making sure we got enough for all the people that want them and, you know, it's all the logistics of getting them shipped over from ... from factories.
Larry Hryb: From overseas, yeah.
Albert Penello: And getting them in peoples hands.
Larry Hryb: What happens now, so does this mean you get to hang out at home and finish Destiny now for the next few weeks? Since you've been on the road?
Jeff Rubenstein: One never finishes Destiny.
Albert Penello: I'm hoping that I have some more time to play games and now I'm in that, one of the most interesting questions I got, which I'm probably breaking into jail, was "What do you tell people who want to play the Xbox One X versions before the Xbox One X is out? What do you do?"
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: So now I'm probably the guy who's just gonna backlog everything and just wait until the console comes out and then, cause I'm gonna want to play everything. I'm not gonna have time to replay everything, so anything I finish or beat or just get done with now I won't go back so part of me just wants to wait til the box comes out.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, there's a ... that is a little challenge, right? You want to enjoy it.
Albert Penello: It's kind of like a six week problem.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: Because really, like, there's a lot of games coming out over the next six weeks but once the Xbox One X is out then the decision is easier so, you know what, I'm gonna tell myself I'm gonna play Destiny but I'll probably just gonna wait and play it when the Xbox One X comes out. That's my excuse anyway.
Larry Hryb: That's cool, that's cool.
Laura Massey: Sounds like you're gonna have to take some vacation to get through your backlog.
Albert Penello: To get through my backlog. Spend some time with my family as well, try not to get divorced.
Larry Hryb: I can't even think about, I mean I'm thinking about all the events that I have to do between now and launch-
Albert Penello: Oh yeah, we're all over the place.
Larry Hryb: You know, I've got a New York, I think I'm going to Mexico again. I've got a bunch of stuff going on so we've ... There's no shortage of things to do and places to be and stuff to talk about.
Albert Penello: Oh, yeah the two or three weeks leading up to launch, you and I and you guys are-
Larry Hryb: Everybody-
Albert Penello: We're all gonna be-
Larry Hryb: Laura's gonna be back here doing-
Albert Penello: Doing work.
Larry Hryb: - smart stuff.
Albert Penello: Making sure the thing actually works.
Larry Hryb: That's true! Anyway, alright Albert well listen I appreciate you coming by. You're welcome to hang out if you-
Albert Penello: It's always a pleasure. I am going to bail.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Albert Penello: Because I actually do have work. This is one of those days
Jeff Rubenstein: You gotta spend time with your best friend.
Albert Penello: I have to spend time with my best friend, the Xbox One X. Launching on November 7th.
Larry Hryb: Alright, actually, so we're gonna take a break now, don't go yet. Why don't we take a break and we'll do name the game.
Laura Massey: We should do Name the Game, it's been a long time.
Larry Hryb: Then while we're rolling that you can step out so we don't have to-
Albert Penello: Sounds good, thanks.
Larry Hryb: Are you ready?
Laura Massey: Yeah, let's do Name the Game from a long time ago.
So, that was Name the Game from a long time ago and it was actually a pretty difficult one.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It was Black The Fall.
Larry Hryb: It was so difficult we only actually got like a handful of correct entries.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: And the winner is, I have their name in front of me, is-
Laura Massey: You have to pull it up [inaudible 00:35:23]
Larry Hryb: His name is Dylan!
Laura Massey: Dylan! Congratulations Dylan!
Larry Hryb: Dylan has not provided a gamertag or location, he asked us to refrain from that so we will respect your privacy, Dylan. So you'll be in touch, you'll get an email from me at major@xbox.com and with all the prizes and there's actually quite a few prizes here, Laura. Let's take a look at that, watch them all plugged in here, so.
Laura Massey: Okay, so, Dylan.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: You have won a copy of Morphite which is an ID@Xbox ... ID@Xbox game, right?
Larry Hryb: Correct, yes.
Laura Massey: Yes, okay. And ... Pankapu.
Larry Hryb: Pankapu.
Laura Massey: Which is another ID@Xbox game.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: That's not all. You also get a copy of XCOM 2 plus the War of the Chosen DLC.
Larry Hryb: Nice.
Laura Massey: Which is a fun game.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And ... Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
Larry Hryb: So there you go.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Larry Hryb: What, there's more?
Laura Massey: Well, there is more.
Larry Hryb: There is more.
Laura Massey: Jeff will like this one.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: Dylan, you also get a copy of FIFA 18 the Ronaldo Edition.
Larry Hryb: Jeff! Is that your copy?
Jeff Rubenstein: Just make sure you have to look in the mirror and you have to, like, you have to give it blue steel before the game will load up. That's just part of playing with Ronaldo.
Laura Massey: I see, I see. Oh, so I'm feeling generous.
Larry Hryb: Oh, you are?
Laura Massey: I am.
Larry Hryb: You have more? What do you go, now you got something off your computer. What do you got there?
Laura Massey: I also have a copy of ... a one month EA Access Membership-
Jeff Rubenstein: Nice!
Laura Massey: - and the Xbox Game Pass for three months.
Larry Hryb: What? That's like a hundred plus games.
Laura Massey: You killed it today.
Larry Hryb: Dylan, well-
Laura Massey: It was a super hard one.
Larry Hryb: You know, we felt bad because we haven't done a Name the Game since July-
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: - because we were on holiday and God only knows what else.
Jeff Rubenstein: And Dylan is the recipient of your large [crosstalk 00:36:54]
Larry Hryb: Of that bounty! Of that bounty, so alright well, there you go. Congratulations Dylan, we'll be in touch. You'll get an email from us with the information on how you get all your games.
Laura Massey: That's great, and should we do another Name the Game?
Larry Hryb: This is your feature.
Laura Massey: We should because that one was a really hard one.
Larry Hryb: Alright here we go.
Laura Massey: So, let's do another Name the Game.
So that was the Name the Game for this week. Super easy to win fabulous prizes. All you have to do is tell me what game those sounds are from.
Larry Hryb: That's it.
Laura Massey: Super easy.
Larry Hryb: That's it.
Laura Massey: Send us an email lollipop@xbox.com and CC major@xbox.com.
Larry Hryb: Let us know your name, where you're from and your gamertag if you'd like us to announce that on the air or not if you don't want to.
Laura Massey: That's right. We do respect your privacy.
Larry Hryb: This is like, by the way, this is like this weird thing I'm playing with on my desk, that's that sound you hear. This is like the poor man's fidget spinner. You've got the real fidget spinner.
Laura Massey: I've got the real fidget spinner.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's just a bolt.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's just a piece of hardware. It's a microphone-
Jeff Rubenstein: It's really glossy, though.
Larry Hryb: It is. I like my microphones-
Jeff Rubenstein: That's a high-end thing.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so go ahead and enter, let us know. Drop us an email, that's the way. Don't hit us on Twitter, I mean you're welcome to do that but it doesn't count as an entry.
Laura Massey: That's right, we only accept email entries for this one.
Larry Hryb: Only. If you want to win more prizes you can actually follow me on Twitter @majornelson, every Friday free code Friday.
Laura Massey: You do free code Friday.
Larry Hryb: Which I've been doing free code Friday for about a decade now.
Laura Massey: I know, right?
Larry Hryb: It's been forever, Laura.
Laura Massey: Goodness, it has been forever.
Larry Hryb: I'm not gonna say it to you, Laura, because I respect you too much. Jeff, we're getting old.
Jeff Rubenstein: What is this "we" business?
Larry Hryb: What?
Laura Massey: I know, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I've-
Larry Hryb: I have some hair for you.
Jeff Rubenstein: I could use it.
Larry Hryb: Oh boy, alright. So, there we go. That's what's going on. That's the show this week. Jeff, you got some more headlines, you got some news to kind of wrap up here, that we could-
Jeff Rubenstein: I do, indeed. It's a very newsworthy week.
Larry Hryb: Yeah!
Jeff Rubenstein: First of all, for you Minecraft fans all many, many millions of you ... The Minecraft Better Together update is here. So, basically it allows people that are playing Minecraft on Xbox, on mobile, you know, on IOS or Android-
Larry Hryb: Pretty much everybody-
Jeff Rubenstein: - VR, Windows 10.
Larry Hryb: Pretty much everybody except one of the large major electronic manufacturers in Japan.
Jeff Rubenstein: I can't even figure out what that would be.
Larry Hryb: So, you ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Can play together! So, there's a lot of, there's details and information and all that stuff but it is overwhelmingly a good thing.
Larry Hryb: Better together.
Jeff Rubenstein: We have a link to Mincraft.net with details on the Better Together update.
Larry Hryb: Better together.
Jeff Rubenstein: But there's a song for it, apparently. Here's something you can play for free right now, which looks beautiful. It's called the Forza Motorsport 7 Demo on both Xbox One and on Windows 10 and, you know, you can play it now. Get that demo, get ready, the game's coming out rather soon.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: First week in October and a little earlier if you've got, if you've pre-ordered the Bells and Whistles Edition. Make sure that you ... It's actually a pretty meaty demo, I've been playing it so you definitely want to get on that.
You know what else is coming up?
Larry Hryb: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: In just about a week and change. Cuphead!
Laura Massey: That's right! Cuphead's coming.
Jeff Rubenstein: Cuphead is coming.
Larry Hryb: I'm gonna be down in, I think I'm going to LA for the-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh are you going to that? Cause I was actually gonna talk about it.
Larry Hryb: Are you going?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, if you're going I might have to go.
Larry Hryb: Laura?
Jeff Rubenstein: Join us.
Laura Massey: I'd love to go.
Larry Hryb: Join us!
Laura Massey: I'd love to go.
Jeff Rubenstein: So they're at Meltdown Comics in LA-
Larry Hryb: Have we announced this?
Jeff Rubenstein: - which is a pretty awesome thing. Oh, yeah. I'm reading it off of a-
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: - off of a public site.
Larry Hryb: I'll be there.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a party going on at 7 o'clock on September 29th, which is launch day ... on Windows 10, on Xbox and Steam. And so you should come out to this party-
Larry Hryb: To say hello.
Jeff Rubenstein: - if you have the means to be there, it will be worth it. I've been hearing about some of the interesting things they'll be doing at the party.
Larry Hryb: Do you know if they're gonna have parked in the back?
Jeff Rubenstein: A taco truck?
Larry Hryb: No. I think, I think if I heard correctly, and please don't hold this to me. I think they're gonna bring in the mobile In-N-Out truck.
Laura Massey: There's such a thing?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. It's a popular thing to rent out at weddings in California. I think I've been to one of those.
Larry Hryb: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Huh.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Okay, there you go.
Laura Massey: I wish they had them up here, you know.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yes we do.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's pro tip: skip the fries. You heard it here first.
Larry Hryb: We have been-
Jeff Rubenstein: Great burgers though.
Larry Hryb: Yes, great burgers. Fries are, fries are ... you know.
Laura Massey: Ask for them well done, that's the tip.
Jeff Rubenstein: The fries are an acquired taste.
Larry Hryb: I've tried that, I've tried that.
Laura Massey: Double well done?
Larry Hryb: Double, how much do you want to-
Jeff Rubenstein: Is that a thing?
Larry Hryb: Double well done. I'm not gonna have them until the place is burning down!
Jeff Rubenstein: So, anyway that's happening down in LA and I'll go ahead and link to that so you have a little bit more details.
Larry Hryb: I'll be there, I'd love to see you. Jeff may be there, Laura's gonna be here doing work. I've already made the decision for you.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, dude, we're a little less mission critical.
Larry Hryb: Mission critical.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh my God we've been spending too much time together.
Guess what-
Larry Hryb: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: - is now available on backwards compatibility?
Larry Hryb: Oh boy.
Jeff Rubenstein: [Two 00:42:12] Halo's.
Laura Massey: I saw that!
Jeff Rubenstein: So, your Xbox 360 Halo's. Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, Halo 4 and Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary are all now backwards compatible for Xbox One, you probably have those. So you can try that out.
We played a bunch of Ghost Recon last spring. Ghost Recon ... Wildlands and a new version-
Larry Hryb: Was that last spring?
Jeff Rubenstein: - is coming. It was last spring ... and so now, that was mostly PVE you would jump in with three friends and you would go and you would wreak havoc in fictional Bolivia. They're adding a PVE, or a PVP version where you can play against other folks. It's coming for free and there's an open beta on Xbox One and you can try that, actually you can try it even if you've never played Wildlands you can get into that beta and I'll link out for more details on that.
We're in the middle of silly season of crazy amounts of games coming out, like I mentioned, Cuphead and Forza and FIFA are coming out in the next week and change. Out this week NBA 2K18, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which is a very interesting looking game and I'm hearing good things ... and I actually can't wait to see how that one, how professionals are doing cool tag ins and outs with that.
And Minecraft Season 2, Story Mode, Season 2 Episode 3 is now available for X-one, and of course Xbox 360.
Larry Hryb: You know you can catch up on all the latest Xbox news each week,
Laura Massey: Where can I do that?
Larry Hryb: There's a lot that happens on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, of course, we have our show that we release but every Friday morning, at least on the West Coast, Friday midday on the East Coast, and then everywhere else around the world. You can catch it on This Week on Xbox.
Jeff Rubenstein: You had to think about that for a second.
Larry Hryb: Occasionally hosted by Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: Occasionally, and then it's really funny. So, I read the YouTube comments, you're never supposed to do that.
Laura Massey: No and you always do, eh?
Jeff Rubenstein: And they weren't too terrible, the first week I did it a couple listeners of the show or whatever were like "Oh hey Jeff's doing it this week, that's cool."
Week two.
Larry Hryb: Uh oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: People were like "Are you trying to usurp Larry?"
Laura Massey: Oh no!
Jeff Rubenstein: "Has a coup happened? What did you do with Larry?"
Larry Hryb: "What's going on?"
Jeff Rubenstein: "This isn't cool!" Once is like "Oh, just a one off." Two? That's a trend and it was a trend. Most people did not want ... and then when you came back it was like "Oh my God, thank God, Larry. We missed you." Sometimes you have to, I think, disappear for a little bit. They don't know how much they love you til you're gone.
Larry Hryb: You know what I'd love to do? I would love to have Laura host one of the shows.
Laura Massey: Oh I'd love to!
Larry Hryb: Would you?
Laura Massey: Yeah, that'd be super fun. Super fun.
Larry Hryb: Just don't read the comments.
Laura Massey: No, no. I stay, steer clear of that.
Larry Hryb: So anyway, This Week on Xbox you can catch it on your console or I put it up on Twitter in the afternoons, Xbox YouTube channel, it's quite the thing. There's plenty of ways to catch up on the news, you don't have to worry about hitting F5 and refreshing your browser on every news site on Monday through Friday. We'll take care of that for you, we'll give you the straight dope.
Laura Massey: Is that still a thing?
Larry Hryb: It is now, I'm bringing it back.
Jeff Rubenstein: Alright.
Larry Hryb: What else do you got Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, I think that's more than enough for this week.
Laura Massey: That's the news.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was the news. That was it. I've linked twice.
Larry Hryb: So, I gotta tell you a funny story.
Laura Massey: I'd love to hear your funny story.
Larry Hryb: I was, where is it ... I had a meeting over in Bellevue earlier this week.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And, where is it? Hold on a second.
Laura Massey: That's like a 10 minute drive from ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's just right next door. I had a meeting and I realized that I had a meeting in ... the same building that E works in.
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, really?
Larry Hryb: So, basically-
Jeff Rubenstein: Pokémon central. You were at the Pokécenter.
Larry Hryb: So I texted him like "Hey! I'm in your building, you want to get together?" So look at that Laura, so you see it says "I'm in London." And then, so basically what I did is I went up to his floor cause I needed to get some work done and I'm trying to get on his Wifi. You can see the screenshot, I'm asking him for his Wifi.
Laura Massey: You did, you asked for the access code. He didn't even reply.
Larry Hryb: He never responded, he never even responded.
Laura Massey: He didn't even reply!
Jeff Rubenstein: He would be a terrible network engineer if he gave you that password.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, that was just a funny, I enjoyed it.
Laura Massey: That's hilarious.
Larry Hryb: You never know what I'm gonna be up to.
Laura Massey: Nope!
Larry Hryb: Alright, well, that's kind of the show this week. Next week we'll hopefully be back, do you have anything else you want to talk about before we roll on out?
Laura Massey: I think I don't, no.
Larry Hryb: You all set?
Laura Massey: No new gadgets.
Larry Hryb: No new gadgets. I'm still, you know we got a couple of emails and a couple of tweets about your ... your Roomba.
Laura Massey: Oh, that's funny.
Larry Hryb: And your inability to name said Roomba.
Laura Massey: I still haven't-
Larry Hryb: Just give it a name!
Jeff Rubenstein: The public demands it.
Larry Hryb: Alright, you know what I'm gonna name it?
Laura Massey: Give me your good names.
Larry Hryb: Steven.
Laura Massey: That's boring.
Larry Hryb: It's a better name than-
Laura Massey: No offense to the Steven's in the world-
Larry Hryb: No offense to the Steven's.
Laura Massey: - but a Roomba ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I think, like, Jeeves or something.
Larry Hryb: That's so obvious.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is it?
Laura Massey: Too cliché.
Larry Hryb: Of course, it could be Rosie.
Jeff Rubenstein: Steven.
Laura Massey: Roomba. Rosie Roomba.
Jeff Rubenstein: Little Jetson's-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, like from the Jetson's.
Jeff Rubenstein: - from the Jetson's.
Laura Massey: Yep, not too bad.
Jeff Rubenstein: Marvin.
Larry Hryb: Also a good cartoon reference.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was going with-
Larry Hryb: The martian?
Jeff Rubenstein: - Marvin the paranoid android from Hitchhiker's Guide.
Laura Massey: Oh, right.
Larry Hryb: Well I was going with Marvin the Martian from the Warner Brothers.
Jeff Rubenstein: Either way it works.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative), it does work.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, that's it for that. And meanwhile, Jeff how's your life living the life electric?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, it's been good. I think spent $2.48 this week, quote on quote, gassing up.
Laura Massey: Nice!
Jeff Rubenstein: I like that, that money's going straight into games.
Larry Hryb: Yep, that you can't play because you don't have time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well we don't need to talk about that.
Larry Hryb: Alright gang, we'll be back next week. Laura will join us, I hope.
Laura Massey: Yep.
Larry Hryb: Jeff, you'll be here?
Jeff Rubenstein: Nope.
Larry Hryb: Where you gonna be?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm gonna be in Orlando.
Larry Hryb: What are you doing in Orlando?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going down for a non Xbox thing.
Larry Hryb: You've got some business down there?
Jeff Rubenstein: For some of the other parts of my job.
Larry Hryb: I wish I could go down.
Jeff Rubenstein: Then I'm gonna drive down to Miami to see the folks.
Larry Hryb: To see your folks.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm bringing my laptop.
Larry Hryb: I haven't really been paying attention, I only had a-
Laura Massey: Yeah, are your folks okay?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, everything else okay?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, they're doing okay. I feel, my heart goes out to the folks in Puerto Rico. I have some, I don't have any direct relatives in Puerto Rico-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: - but I have a lot of friends who do and-
Larry Hryb: Well we went down there! You and I went to Puerto Rico.
Jeff Rubenstein: We did!
Larry Hryb: Right? We had-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh my God.
Larry Hryb: - that holiday.
Jeff Rubenstein: We had a great time. Met the nicest people. It was beautiful there, it's just terrible what's happening there.
Larry Hryb: This weather is crazy.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Everywhere, I mean there's so much goes out to everybody.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm lucky that ... my relatives in Florida, they got a brush with it and obviously it made a mess but they're alright.
Larry Hryb: I was listening to this story, I think it was on the BBC, and they were interviewing this woman who was an alligator wrangler.
Laura Massey: Cool!
Larry Hryb: Who apparently, when some of the waters got, came up in Florida because there's salt water, there's regular, there's alligators in every body of water is what they all said.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, there's over a million alligators in Florida.
Larry Hryb: And apparently this woman, like she got calls to go take alligators out of peoples houses.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. Occasionally you get them in a swimming pool or something like that.
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness.
Larry Hryb: That's like a nightmare.
Laura Massey: Yes it is.
Larry Hryb: Because those things are like pretty historic, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: They are. I mean, and they ... they're tough. You don't want to mess with a gator.
Laura Massey: No!
Larry Hryb: No, you want to go the other way.
Jeff Rubenstein: Good eatin', though.
Larry Hryb: That's nice.
Laura Massey: I haven't had them. I hear that they are very healthy, like to eat.
Jeff Rubenstein: They're ... I don't know if that's the case. They're tasty.
Laura Massey: The fat to protein ratio.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, that's good. I think they also have mercury in them so, you know, you win some you lose some.
Laura Massey: Yeah, you might lose some too.
Larry Hryb: Alright, if you want to hit up-
Jeff Rubenstein: I got a good recipe for you for a gator burrito.
Larry Hryb: - @jeffrubenstein is you want to talk to him about gator stuff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Now I'm hungry.
Larry Hryb: How do they find you on social media, Laura?
Laura Massey: You can find me on Twitter @lauralollipop.
Larry Hryb: Yes you can, you can find Jeffrey @JeffreyRubenstein.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, not rey r-e-y, there is probably that person.
Larry Hryb: There is a Jeffrey Rubenstein.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's Jeff Rubenstein, thanks.
Larry Hryb: That's also, he also handles all of the complaints for the show.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, all complaints can go to @JeffreyRubenstein.
Larry Hryb: Of course, you can find me @majornelson and we'll see you, if I don't see you on Friday during This Week on Xbox ... then I will, did you see, by the way before we sign off and let me bring the music back down. Did you see the video I did with Aaron Greenberg? No, you didn't see it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, I saw it.
Laura Massey: I don't think so.
Jeff Rubenstein: And LEGIQN.
Larry Hryb: That's right and LEGIQN.
Jeff Rubenstein: Jordan Payton.
Larry Hryb: Jordan Payton.
Jeff Rubenstein: Good guy.
Larry Hryb: Go watch that one.
Laura Massey: You recommend it?
Larry Hryb: I'll let Jeff do it.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, I'm gonna link to it.
Larry Hryb: Okay, let's link to it. Alright gang, we'll talk to you next time. I don't know, maybe Laura and I won't do a show next week cause Jeffrey won't be here, we'll figure it out. We'll talk to you next time.
Buh-bye everybody!
Laura Massey: Buh-bye!

Larry Hryb: Happy August, my name is Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. This is I think show 603-ish, sitting here with Jeff Rubenstein.
Jeff Rubenstein: You had one job Larry.
Larry Hryb: Well it gets so-
Jeff Rubenstein: This is it.
Larry Hryb: It gets so confusing because we have so many shows. You know how it is, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: By the way this is show 60 ... No, it's 605.
Larry Hryb: Is it?
Jeff Rubenstein: The last show was 604. Look at the list, because 603, 604, 60, we're counting back down to one.
Larry Hryb: I just fixed it. I just fixed it.
Jeff Rubenstein: There we go.
Larry Hryb: We have a shared notebook here. Anyways, 605, welcome and unfortunately, as even within the first 30 seconds Laura has failed to keep us in line because she's not here.
Jeff Rubenstein: It is her job to count the shows.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Every day she comes in. She just starts from the beginning.
Larry Hryb: You and I can't even do that right.
Jeff Rubenstein: No sir.
Larry Hryb: We are a fail.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're talkers.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, good to see you Jeff, as always.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, thanks you too.
Larry Hryb: We're here. It's we're rocketing through up here in the northern hemisphere ah summer.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Summer in Seattle, it's been very warm this week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, weather tweets are among the worst tweets. Only lunch tweets are worse than weather tweets. We'll tweet it. It's in the mid 90s here. Everyone's like, "It's in the mid 90s, we're almost at 186 degrees in Phoenix."
Larry Hryb: Yeah, now you grew up in Florida, so you're used to this type of heat, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, it's more humid there. The difference is you live in Florida, you live in Arizona, you live in Texas, you have air conditioning or maybe a swamp cooler. I'm still not sure what that is.
Larry Hryb: Apparently it's just a bunch of ice or cool water with a fan blowing over it.
Jeff Rubenstein: That would be an improvement to what many ... I would say most of us have in Seattle which is nothing.
Larry Hryb: In fact according to the New York time, two-thirds of the people in Seattle don't have air conditioning.
Jeff Rubenstein: Correct.
Larry Hryb: Really, wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so I'm one of those people. That takes you back like a 100 years. I feel like I'm in pioneering days sitting in a puddle of my own sweat and just playing games and praying that my mind will go into the character to the point where I don't feel hot anymore. Of course, it'll all be over soon.
Larry Hryb: It'll all be over soon.
Jeff Rubenstein: By that I mean the weather, not just all of it.
Larry Hryb: Let's get to what we're playing Jeff. What are you playing?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, sure. It's been a couple of weeks since we last spake.
Larry Hryb: It has been. Yeah, since we last got together.
Jeff Rubenstein: And a couple good games, interesting things have come out now.
Larry Hryb: Quite a few actually.
Jeff Rubenstein: One of them is, What Remains of Edith Finch.
Larry Hryb: Oh, that's a good one, I finished that one. I know you did too.
Jeff Rubenstein: I did, I got the 1K on that one. So I think it's interesting, you interviewed Ian Dallas, from Shine Sparrow last show, and like he was saying, the more you know about the game, you shouldn't know too much about the game going into. Suffice to say, you largely play a young woman learning about her family. Actually, located up here, not far from Seattle.
Larry Hryb: In the northwest.
Jeff Rubenstein: In the northwest on Orcas Island.
Larry Hryb: Have you been there, Orcas Island?
Jeff Rubenstein: I never have.
Larry Hryb: Oh Orcas is beautiful.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a place where I know people go camping or something, you have to take a boat to get there. And she has a very interesting family, and I'll just leave it at that. And it is definitely worth your time, I thought it was really interesting game.
Larry Hryb: It's one of those games, go back and listen to the interview last week with Ian, you can't say too much about the story, you don't want to ruin it, and the way they tell the story, I tweeted this out, this is some next gen storytelling, it's really creative.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. I feel like if you've played Gone Home, and that's sort of like a first person, you uncover a story. This takes it a step further. There's some different mechanics in there besides just walking around and reading or hearing stories. There is part of that but, it's really cool. I just really enjoyed it.
Larry Hryb: Can't say too much more about that. I finished that as well, lot of fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Now for something completely different, on the polar opposite end would be Fortnight.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: So a lot of people I've seen playing this.
Larry Hryb: A lot of people. Game preview.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I don't know if it's part of the game preview program specifically, it has achievements and all that, but the game is in an early stage. It's not 1.0 yet. But that being said, the combat's very polished. The way this game works is like, you build up a base. It's kind of like, I don't want to say Mine Craft. Like if you were to boil down Mine Craft, at least the survival mode, and Fortnight, to their base essentials, you build all day and you fight all night type of situation.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I've heard it described as Mine Craft meets Hoard Mode.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. It is a lot different than either, I've played hundreds of hours of Mine Craft and Hoard Mode for that matter, and it does, I think, distill a number of the elements of that. But if you just want to fight, you don't want to be much a builder, you actually spend a ton of time scavenging. Going through and harvesting materials out of cars or hours or hidden things. There's some interesting stuff there.
Larry Hryb: Garbage cans.
Jeff Rubenstein: The characters look very interesting, even the zombies are kind of cute. Like Pixar-ish. It kind of reminds me, the visual style, almost of The Incredibles a little bit.
Larry Hryb: Okay. I'll buy that.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a bit of that right? So yeah, I think it's a pretty interesting game, a lot of people are streaming it so it's worth taking a look on. Mixer or Twit or You Too or wherever it is you consume your content. Definitely having a lot of fun with that, I think they're going to be continuing, Epic's going to be continuing to work on the game.
I will say that there's, like when it comes to like, the crafting and actually like, resource management, there's so much there. There's so much to it, the skill tree is huge.
Larry Hryb: Oh it's massive.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a lot to learn, so I'm waiting for like, really good guides to come out. I've been watching some YouTube vids on people who break down, oh this is a great way to find this, and there's tons of loot. I do enjoy the loot box mechanic.
Larry Hryb: I know you do. Who doesn't?
Jeff Rubenstein: You hit llama pinatas with a sword or-
Larry Hryb: Sometimes you're bat bounces off.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, and then it turns into like, silver. I thought that was really-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's a cute touch.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a very cool mechanic. So definitely a game I think people are going to be playing for a long time. Much like the other game we're playing for a long time and that's Overwatch.
Larry Hryb: Right of course, which goes without saying.
Jeff Rubenstein: So we had to go back there.
Larry Hryb: To get ready.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: To get ready for?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, we're getting ready for summer games.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: But since the last time we spoke Doomfest.
Larry Hryb: Doomfest has made an appearance.
Jeff Rubenstein: Joined the fray. Unlike, I would say one of the previous characters, Anna and, oh my God, help me out here.
Larry Hryb: Sambra?
Jeff Rubenstein: Sambra, thank you. When they join, and everyone jumped in for like, two days, and then some people really like Anna and Sambra and most people don't. You go play in matches where you don't necessarily see one or the other. Every match I have played in the last week has had at least one Doomfest and usually two.
Larry Hryb: You played Doomfest, I hadn't played him-
Jeff Rubenstein: It's hard for me to get, I played him one time in a match.
Larry Hryb: I think I did too, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I think it was during survival, and I did get killed. Definitely there's a lot going on there. I feel like, he's kind of like Ryu from Street Fighter. He has a dragon pipe. You can kind of almost spam special moves. Obviously high level players play a lot differently, but I feel like he's constantly moving, he's constantly jumping through the air, he gets his ultimate it seems like six or seven thousand times per match.
Larry Hryb: He comes out of nowhere.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I'm curious how they're going to end up balancing him, but he's definitely I would say, the most popular new character added to that game in a year plus it's been out.
Larry Hryb: Right. Rock on.
Jeff Rubenstein: So playing that, and then one other thing is Pubg. The player unknown battleground. So something they had, we know it's coming to X-Box, we announced that at E-3. But this week they, I guess Brendan Greene or Bluehole, the people that work on this, they announced that they were going to be supporting the X-Box controller on the PC version of the game. So I fired it up.
Larry Hryb: Is that out yet?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's in the test server. Actually I think it hit the normal servers slightly before we-
Larry Hryb: Now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, by the time you hear this. And you know what, I got it killed. I got my first kill.
Larry Hryb: Yeah you did.
Jeff Rubenstein: And now, you're still playing in controller versus people playing in a mouse and keyboard environment, and I'm not going to be sniping 360 or scoping people from across the [inaudible 00:08:23].
Larry Hryb: And we're not going to wade into that religious debate.
Jeff Rubenstein: No. But the bottom line is I'm trash with the keyboard and mouse, so at least when it comes to navigating the space and looting things-
Larry Hryb: I think it's part of the inverted issue.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe. Maybe it's lack of practice. So I was playing my first one, I was sort of messing around on, there's this lobby screen at the beginning. I was just trying to test out the controllers or the buttons mapping the way I want them to, and then it jumped into the game and I'm like, I'm just going to play it. I'm not going to bail out. So I'm in the plane, I dive out, I'm by myself and I'm orienting myself with the controls, finding a shotgun. And actually this is good, if I'm going to be using a controller versus a mouse and ... I'm not going to get into a sniping battle across the map will destroy me. But a shotgun was a shotgun.
So I'm sort of towards the edge of the map, I'm running, I'm just trying to get into the circle so I don't get firebombed. And then I sort of stop at the crest of a hill and I'm looking around, like is there any motion. Because I'm going to have to get the drop on somebody, I only have a shotgun.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so you hit the deck?
Jeff Rubenstein: And there's just a bit of movement about 10 feet in front of me.
Larry Hryb: 10 clicks.
Jeff Rubenstein: 10 feet. I don't know what a click is. A kilometer?
Larry Hryb: Kilometers.
Jeff Rubenstein: Prone, a sniper laying down facing the other way. And oh my God I just like, like time slowed down, my salivary glands kicked in, a little bit of drool.
Larry Hryb: You brought the weapon up.
Jeff Rubenstein: Heartbeat, and I walked up, I didn't even aim down the sight, and I got my first kill.
Larry Hryb: Did you just casually, Javier Bardem style, walk over to him and go boom?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. This is when I was like, I need a emotes. So I got that first kill and at this point there's like, 46 people left out of the 100.
Larry Hryb: Oh, so you made it pretty high.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I'm like, oh man, this is my chance to get top 10. I seem to be away from everyone else-
Larry Hryb: This is your first time playing?
Jeff Rubenstein: This is my first time playing with a controller and first time ever playing solo. And then I go about 10 feet and then-
Larry Hryb: Time slows down again.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, literally that's my computer shutting down because I brought it upstairs.
Larry Hryb: Oh no!
Jeff Rubenstein: This is a laptop. These gaming laptops, love them. You need to have them plugged in pretty much all the time.
Larry Hryb: Your battery ran out!
Jeff Rubenstein: I had brought it upstairs just to test out the controls, I didn't expect to jump into a game.
Larry Hryb: No!
Jeff Rubenstein: So as far as I'm concerned my player never died. They probably just sat out there on the edge of some village.
Larry Hryb: He just went limp.
Jeff Rubenstein: Everyone else killed themselves and I must have finished first.
Larry Hryb: He went limp Mex style.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. I have no choice but to assume that I won.
Larry Hryb: Oh wow, that's terrible.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: We'll have to play, I've been looking forward to coming to the console and I make no bones that I am not an expert with mouse and keyboard, so maybe that's-
Jeff Rubenstein: We're going to have a lot of fun with this one.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I know we will.
Jeff Rubenstein: So tell me, what have you been playing?
Larry Hryb: It's pretty much everything you've gone over, we've talked about, I checked about Fable Fortune, it's now in game preview.
Jeff Rubenstein: X-box and Windows 10.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. The Long Dark, I'm checking out the Path Of Exile Beta.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, POE.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, doing that. Of course that's always a lot of fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's kind of like a Diablo-esque.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, very much so. So yeah, one that I tried was Canadian Football 2017.
Jeff Rubenstein: So tell me, how does it compare to American Football?
Larry Hryb: It's a different game.
Jeff Rubenstein: More polite, like sorry after every tackle.
Larry Hryb: Apparently someone said on Twitter, and I haven't gotten this far, because I booted it up and then I had to run, apparently instead of Gatorade there's Tim Hortons. And every game ends in a tie.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sweet. Are there any Canadian stereotypes we didn't?
Larry Hryb: I know I feel like, some our good friends are Canadian.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know, I'm up there all the time.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so I'm playing that. Of course What Remains of Edith Finch was great, so that was a good one. I was playing a lot of stuff. I want to have a little bit of a programming note here. We are, in August and between holidays and vacations, Laura's out, Jeff's out, I'm going to be out for a week. We are probably not going to do another show until PAX, East PAX Prime, whatever, PAX West, whatever-
Jeff Rubenstein: PAX West.
Larry Hryb: Whatever it's called now. So Witches Weaver will be there on that Saturday like we normally are. So we'll record that and we'll put that out. So just in case, we probably won't have time to get into the studio again because of the vacations, but I wanted to make sure that I signed off properly and let people know what was going on Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going to miss you.
Larry Hryb: I was down at Comic Con last week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I do know that.
Larry Hryb: That was a lot of fun. I did Comic Con, was there-
Jeff Rubenstein: You were with Terry Crews. You sat at a table with Terry Crews. You took a great picture with him as well.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I'll tweet that out probably closer to launch. I want to save that one for the launch crowd.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Larry Hryb: We had a lot of fun, Terry and I moderated the panel and that evening I did the, what now apparently is an infamous screen-
Jeff Rubenstein: Infamous was the word I was going to be going for.
Larry Hryb: From-
Jeff Rubenstein: Start with the positives. You got to spend an entire evening with Genine [inaudible 00:13:08].
Larry Hryb: Oh she was delightful. In fact she and I have been emailing back and forth talking about a few projects. But she's great, and there's a lot of people there. Met with some of the guys from Stranger Things, we saw that trailer breaker.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh that looks so good.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we saw that one coming out, it takes-
Jeff Rubenstein: I love how it starts in an arcade.
Larry Hryb: Right? And then they got the old Vincent Price.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, that's right, Thriller. I'm going to link to that trailer.
Larry Hryb: So we've got that. One of my favorite moments, and I mentioned this to you is, I was at this event in the stream and I think Genine was on, or somebody was on, and I stepped away to check out the chatroom and whatnot, and Zak Penn comes up to me.
Jeff Rubenstein: Zak Penn, director of ...
Larry Hryb: Of the E.T.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, of the E.T.
Larry Hryb: The Atari.
Jeff Rubenstein: But I think people, if they're hearing his name now-
Larry Hryb: Right, they're like, "Wait a minute, I know that name." So he comes up to me, and I'll explain to you in a minute. So Zak comes up to me, he was the gentleman who wrote and directed the ... That was one of our strangest trips Jeff and I have ever taken, we went out to Alamagordo New Mexico.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, we did.
Larry Hryb: And we unearthed those Atari cartridges. And Zak comes up to me and says hello, gives me a hug, and says, "Hey, great to see you. I want to let you know that the Atari dig we did was one of the greatest projects I ever worked on." I'm like, "You worked on a lot of stuff, really?" He tells me because of that, he met Ernie Cline, who was the author of Ready Player One. When Ernie was shopping his book around Hollywood, apparently he wanted Zak to co-write the screenplay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which is crazy.
Larry Hryb: So Zak is writing the screenplay, or co-writing the screenplay. Who is, of course, directing is-
Jeff Rubenstein: Zak Penn.
Larry Hryb: No, directing.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, Steven Spielberg.
Larry Hryb: Steven Spielberg. So the fact that we were in the desert in the landfill in Alamagordo let him to a gig with Steven Spielberg. Anything can happen folks. Anything can happen.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's so crazy.
Larry Hryb: But I had him on here, I think he was the last guest of the night.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like we missed our big breaks. I remember when Ernie Cline, and I didn't know who he was at the time, I had not yet read Ready Player One, I remember him driving by in his Delorean, which he had the gold wing doors he had up, and he was blasting the E.T. theme, or maybe it was, it might have been the Raiders of the Lost ... Some John Williams score.
Larry Hryb: Which is always-
Jeff Rubenstein: Very '80's. And we're like, what just happened?
Larry Hryb: He's got this beautiful car in the middle of a landfill.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know who that car belonged to right? That Delorean?
Larry Hryb: Who was it? I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: The writer of A Game Of Thrones.
Larry Hryb: Really? Why did he get rid of it?
Jeff Rubenstein: George R. Martin. Actually it might have been in the documentary. He went out, because George R. Martin lives elsewhere in New Mexico, in Santa Fe or something.
Larry Hryb: I thought he lived in Austin.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, he lives in New Mexico somewhere, and, I don't know how conducive it is to finishing your sixth book, maybe he should move somewhere with worse weather. So he stays indoors, finish that book please, it's a winner. And yeah, he went there and he borrowed the car from George, and then drove it down. I guess they're friends.
Larry Hryb: So that was his car?
Jeff Rubenstein: So that was George R. Martin's delorean.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so go back and watch ... Can we link off to the Atari, I'm sure it's on Netflix by now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it was called Game Over?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was so good. Do you remember that? That was the weirdest thing, I was like, "Jeff, we're going to go."
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh that was-
Larry Hryb: We had to transfer. Remember we were sitting on the tarmac in LA. The whole journey was just once in a lifetime.
Jeff Rubenstein: It looks like it's on Netflix so I'll link out to that.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so that was ... it was great to be down there at Comic Con and all sorts of fun like that. Lot of stuff coming out of that with Crackdown related. There's a lot of news going on, we've got some news here. Jeff, I know you've got some of the news headlines in front of you. Why don't we bang through those real quick. I want to just remind folks, even though we're not going to be doing a show you can always catch up on the news at my blog at MajorNelson.com. You can follow me on Twitter at MajorNelson. And of course this week on X-Box, which airs every Friday on your console, and I try to put it on Twitter and so forth.
Jeff Rubenstein: This looks like a good one.
Larry Hryb: Which one?
Jeff Rubenstein: We were just commenting on how good the lighting looked this week.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: As they were editing.
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah, the show.
Jeff Rubenstein: You look radiant Larry.
Larry Hryb: Well, it's not me.
Jeff Rubenstein: You have that summer glow.
Larry Hryb: It's the post production. Anyway, let's go through the headlines real quick so we can get people on their way.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, quite the few. Something you may have seen, is that X-box is joining forces with-
Larry Hryb: With-
Jeff Rubenstein: This is where you put the bell ringing sound in.
Larry Hryb: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Jeff Rubenstein: Or more like gong. Taco Bell. To bring the X-box OneX to fans. So starting at the end of the month, August 31st, X-box and Taco Bell are going to be combining to give you the first chance to win the X-box OneX. You have to buy this $5.00 box.
Larry Hryb: You like your quesarito right? You like your churros?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm a big fan of the, what's the double taco, where it's like the regular taco and then it has the bean burrito around it. Like the soft ... The double whatever. And I'm a chalupa man. Oh you know what is really good is the doritos locos. I'm hungry now. Doritos locos taco? It's something that I feel like, once a year I'm like, this is happening, I'm getting Doritos Loco taco.
Larry Hryb: Only in America. Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's so good.
Larry Hryb: Okay once a year.
Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway, we'll link out for some details. Basically the Taco Bell $5.00 box will have a code that you can text to win the X-box OneX. We're going to be giving away quite a few of them. I guess we actually partnered for the original X-box way back in the day.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, way back in the day. Taco Bell, so check that out. You can take a look at that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, we'll link out to that. Three new controllers are revealed this week as well.
Larry Hryb: We'll have those on the show, and I've put it on the Instagram.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know which one, my favorite out of these three is the green gray, where it's kind of understated. It's a grayish controller with dark gray buttons, but underneath it there's like this neon green sort of color to it.
Larry Hryb: It's nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: It looks good. I know our good friend Graham poked in from his annual leave to weigh in and say the volcano shadow edition was his favorite. There's also a Patrol Tech. We had a different tech controller that came out recently, it was very textured.
Larry Hryb: Black and gold.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, and so we have another one in that series. So we'll link out to all the details. But I think the green gray, I feel like that's your-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I actually really like that. Just reminds me of old, it's old X-box colors.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly.
Larry Hryb: Classic. All right, what else do we got for news today?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's more like X-box 360 colors. It's almost like the X-box 360 controller. Anyway. So Mine Craft. We talked about our better together update, I believe that was also talked about in E-3, where the goal is to unify our versions of Mine Craft across console and mobile and Win10.
Larry Hryb: Here, there, everywhere.
Jeff Rubenstein: So it is in now, it's in beta. So it's something that, right now it's rolled out for Win10 and Android. It's going to be coming to X-box One soon. So it's something you're going to want to take a look at. If you're really big into it and you want to get a hold it now, I'm going to link out to the MineCraft.net entry on that and you can find out more about the better together beta.
Larry Hryb: A lot of people play that game.
Jeff Rubenstein: This was a cool thing. I would say Force Horizon Three has had some very interesting crossovers. And first it started off with the warthog, which was probably one of my most used vehicles in that game. Definitely good for the outback. And the second was was, of course, the hotwheels expansion, which was phenomenal.
Larry Hryb: They had fun with it.
Jeff Rubenstein: This one I was not expecting. This one I feel like I came out with this idea, but I'm sure I didn't.
Larry Hryb: Really, did you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe it was in my mind. And that is the Final Fantasy 15 regalia which is the big car that Noctis and Crew drive throughout the world, is coming to Force Horizon Three. In fact, it's there now. And if you're somebody who had Final Fantasy 15 on their X-box One, you should check your X-box messages. There should be messages, system messages that come from X-box. You'll have a code, you hit a button, you download, and you will have the regalia. So it is available, and if you haven't played Final Fantasy 15, it's within the game as well, so it's something you can get, and it's free so no reason not to. I'm curious how it's going to handle, because this car is like, 20 feet long, it's like-
Larry Hryb: Right, it's a big one.
Jeff Rubenstein: Super Cadillac. It's like a Mybok and then some, but it is one of the characters almost, in the game. So curious if you can bring the hood down, I'll have to ... I mean the roof down, I'll have to check that out. Anyway, now I guess we can talk about the games.
Larry Hryb: By the way, don't forget there's a demo out for EA Sports NHL 18. It's got this great 3-D 3 mode we should check out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh really, sort of like back in the day?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, exactly. So we should check that out. But let's go through, that one just came out right before we started recording, so you should, go to my blog MajorNelson.com you'll have ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I could use the fumes of ice right now. Just cooling me down right there, better than AC that I don't have. Tacoma.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is a game that we've been talking about for over a year. It is from the Fulbright company, the people that made Gone Home and this is really their follow up to that, and it takes place in a space station about 100 years from now, 50, 80 years from now, whenever we're going to be in space. Can't happen soon enough. And so that is out, I think it's another game where the more you talk about it the more you give away, so I think that [inaudible 00:22:23]. So Tacoma is available now. It's out on X-box One now and it will be coming to Windows10 at some point down the line as well.
The Long Dark. This is a game that was in game preview. It was one of the very first game preview games. And it has hit 1.0, the achievements are up and ready to go, and it is also an X-box play anywhere title. The X-box One version is available now. Windows 10 version will be released at a later date. But a pretty brutal survival game from what I'm told.
Another game that has really caught my eye that I'm planning on playing this week is Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. So it looks kind of like a tactical game taking place in Edo era Japan and you have a Samurai who's the one that can kill people aggressively. Then you have a woman who blends in as a villager. Anyway, a couple of different types of soldier types that can go through and, there's a really cool trailer. Actually I'll link out to it because it really-
Larry Hryb: Please do.
Jeff Rubenstein: Definitely it caught my attention. So somebody who enjoys X-Com and games like that, I think there's more of a real time element to it. It might be worth your attention. That's Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.
And one last new game that, actually if you're an X-box live gold member, is free for you, is Slime Rancher.
Larry Hryb: You like free right?
Jeff Rubenstein: I like free.
Larry Hryb: Who doesn't like free?
Jeff Rubenstein: I like slime.
Larry Hryb: Well, there you go.
Jeff Rubenstein: I've never been a rancher so I'm going to be able to complete the circle.
Larry Hryb: It's from your days on Nickelodeon.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's true. You know Double Dare was originally a local show where I grew up in Philly. And like-
Larry Hryb: Just like Wonderama?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know what that is.
Larry Hryb: Okay look that one up.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll have to look that one up. But I always, that was the thing we talked about in elementary school, like, "I'm going to be on Double Dare. I have a friend who's on Double Dare and knows how to get us on Double Dare." Never came through. But I was like, "Man we could win $500.00 and think what we could do with that."
Larry Hryb: You could have won big.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, could have changed the orbit of my life.
Larry Hryb: All the Capri Sun that you could have drunk.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was a lot, if I could get the straw in.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Without poking it all the way through the other side.
Larry Hryb: Or squirting it out all over yourself. Great design there folks.
Jeff Rubenstein: Capri Sun still exists by the way.
Larry Hryb: Oh it does?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. I was at a soccer practice thing for my kid and someone brought Capri. I'm like, "Did you pull these out of a time capsule?" But apparently it's still there. And you know what, still just as difficult to open.
Larry Hryb: They haven't solved that problem?
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb: This is where we need to put the innovation. These are the problems we have to solve.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think we fixed it, it was called the drink box. And yet, Capri Sun's still kicking. They've said, "We're not going to distinguish ourselves by the flavor, just by the frustration you have on the packaging." Only watch this, Capri Sun just came on as a partner sponsor, we should ... I love Capri Sun, it's phenomenal.
Larry Hryb: Yes. News desk brought to you by Capri Sun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. And the other X-box live game with gold for the first half of August of course, is Bayonetta. Which is a heck of a game. Platinum games and-
Larry Hryb: If you like weapons in your shoes, this is your game.
Jeff Rubenstein: You do, guns in your hands, [inaudible 00:25:26] in your shoes. I believe the names, you know the guns have names.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I do.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I believe it was like, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Which is all the ingredients you need to do to make a great Thanksgiving turkey. So every time it's Thanksgiving time I can't help but think of Bayonetta.
Larry Hryb: I remember playing that game and my wife coming into my office and she's like, "What are you playing?" I'm like, "I don't know."
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you finish that game?
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: See there is a level late in the game, spoiler alert. I mean, the whole game, it's just so ridiculous, I don't feel like anything is connected from one or the other, you just kill everything.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: But where you're on a missile, like a nuclear missile that's going, I don't know if it's going to Earth or wherever, but you're basically riding it like a rodeo. But then other missiles are coming at you and you have to like, fight. Basically the level takes place on top of like an ICBM. Yes. Bayonetta.
Larry Hryb: Bayonetta.
Jeff Rubenstein: You've got to play it.
Larry Hryb: And it's free and it's waiting for you gold members right now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. I remember playing this thing, we have reached peak Bayonetta. Hell of a game, I do love that game. Anyway, so that's your news.
Larry Hryb: Games gold course later this month, we've got Games Con. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to attend, I've got a personal appointment I have to take care of. Jeff, you're not going out this year right?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know that I'm going-
Larry Hryb: I'm working on some videos for it though, so you'll definitely see me there on some videos but, I will not be on site this year for Games Con. Hopefully I'll be back next year, but X-box will be there and Alisia Bongos is going to be co-hosting the show, he'll be holding down the fort without me.
Jeff Rubenstein: They're just not letting you back into Germany right?
Larry Hryb: Well it's you and I after that incident last year at the jellybean store in the train station.
Jeff Rubenstein: At the gummy bear store?
Larry Hryb: That's right, it was a gummy bear store.
Jeff Rubenstein: Apparently it is a hard limit, you can only have three samples. I went for sample number four, not going this year.
Larry Hryb: You were escorted out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. They take it seriously.
Larry Hryb: Thrown out right there on the side of the dom so-
Jeff Rubenstein: Who is going to pick up gummy bears for me. Every year.
Larry Hryb: Who's my gummy bear mule.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. One year I brought back 25 pounds worth of gummy bears and you know what? It was worth it.
Larry Hryb: My wife loves those grapefruit ones.
Jeff Rubenstein: They're so good. I'm a mango many myself.
Larry Hryb: What is it? The Bear.
Jeff Rubenstein: Bear and Company.
Larry Hryb: Bear and Company. Those are the ones that are just phenomenal so.
Jeff Rubenstein: You need to sort this out, who's going to be bringing them back of us, we've got to figure that part out.
Larry Hryb: All right, those are the news, so anyway, as I said we're not going to have a show for the rest of August, we'll be back when we come back for PAX West. We've got a special guest planned for PAX West. Can't tell you who it is but you'll find out soon, just follow me on Twitter, I'll tell you there. Do we have anything else? Otherwise I'm going to wrap the show up. This is a quickie because we wanted to take care of everybody and do a proper sign off before we head out for our holidays vacation.
Jeff Rubenstein: I suppose that's it.
Larry Hryb: It feels short.
Jeff Rubenstein: It does, talk more Larry that's what you do.
Larry Hryb: I don't want to just talk to talk.
Jeff Rubenstein: Really? Really Larry?
Larry Hryb: I don't. We'd love to see you at PAX West.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, we would.
Larry Hryb: We'll have our panel on that Saturday. I don't know if it's one, two or three. It's usually right in the middle of the afternoon. I don't know if that's good or bad, should we change?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I think it's good. You want people right after lunch, and they want to take a nap and you know what, we've got the perfect place for you.
Larry Hryb: It's cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: If we keep you awake it means we've done a good job.
Larry Hryb: It's quiet, we're not too loud, we're not too interesting.
Jeff Rubenstein: No. But it's like, instant feedback. We don't need to send a survey out later, it's like, oh they woke up.
Larry Hryb: Are you getting as fatigued by everything asking me about what I thought in surveys as I am?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, especially when you just get to the website and they immediately want to give you a survey. I'm like, "Well let me experience the site first please."
Larry Hryb: Everybody wants to know what I think and what's going on, and I'm like, I just want to-
Jeff Rubenstein: You're important Larry.
Larry Hryb: No, it's not me, I know it's everybody. There's this data paralysis, that everyone wants to get data. And I understand data is good to drive decisions, but come on. I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: What do you think about that fidgit spinner you're fiddling with?
Larry Hryb: Get off my blog.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Okay there we go, I knew you were waiting.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was a little bit of a ... On one hand you're complaining about something from the internet and on the other had you have a fidget spinner.
Larry Hryb: This is Laura's fidgit spinner, I'm going to put it over there.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like eight year old Larry and 80 year old Larry are having a war.
Larry Hryb: Of which I'm neither. So they're struggling, it's an internal struggle.
Anyway, we'll be back with PAX, which is, what are the dates of PAX?
Jeff Rubenstein: I can look that up. I believe it's like, September first.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's always right at the beginning of September when everyone rolls in from out of town and the weather is really nice. Everyone's like, "Ooh, this is really nice in Seattle." It is, but it's usually the beginning of September right?
Jeff Rubenstein: September first through fourth. There's a lot going on in Seattle that week to so-
Larry Hryb: Is Bumper Shoot going on?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. And they've got a pretty good line up so, if you come, speaking from the city of Seattle, please come and bring your wallet because there's a lot to do that weekend. Bumper Shoot is the same weekend, which is like a big outdoor festival. It's kind of like panorama or lalapalooza or one of those things.
Larry Hryb: Come for the games, stay for the music. [crosstalk 00:30:17].
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm curious to see her live.
Larry Hryb: This segment brought to you buy the Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
Jeff Rubenstein: Gucci Maine will be performing. Spoon. Actually this is a really good line up. I'm going to link to the Bumper Shoot line up. If you want restaurant recommendations, I'm going to put together a whole thing for you. You've got to get out of downtown, you've got to go-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's always our PAX tip because everyone always gets plugged up within the block around. All you got to do is walk like, three blocks north, south, east or west and bam.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, there's a whole city here.
Larry Hryb: There's a whole city here. There's plenty of great places. There's the donuts.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh you've got to get the Top Pot Donuts.
Larry Hryb: You know, we haven't been to Red Mill since you've moved here.
Jeff Rubenstein: The burger place?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Actually there's another place we should try.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a lot of burgers. What?
Larry Hryb: First we talk about weather at the top of the show now we're talking about food at the bottom.
Jeff Rubenstein: We have become what we hate.
Larry Hryb: Yes. Get off my blog.
Jeff Rubenstein: Fidget spinners, tweeting about the weather. Why are you still listening.
Larry Hryb: What is wrong with me, what is wrong with us? All right, you can find Jeff Rubenstein on Twitter, and where do you find you Jeff?
Jeff Rubenstein: @JeffRubenstein, and it'll make it all about coffee.
Larry Hryb: And I can tell you this, if you get confused you can find me MajorNelson and Jeff is one of the six, that's right, six people that I follow. There's an explanation for every ... Should I still follow E, I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: You should still follow E. He would be heartbroken if you unfollowed him.
Larry Hryb: I know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is he bothering you, or you just want to get that down to a five?
Larry Hryb: I just want to get it to a five, it has nothing to do personally.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like, one day you'll unfollow me, and it'll be devastating.
Larry Hryb: No, stop it.
Jeff Rubenstein: I will be inconsolable.
Larry Hryb: Like when I did it with Graham?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And I put the GIF up showing me unfollowing, click.
Jeff Rubenstein: Because you accidentally followed him didn't you?
Larry Hryb: I don't remember what it was, we were doing something.
Jeff Rubenstein: You made his day, he was so excited, and you were like, oh that was a mistake.
Larry Hryb: All right, gang, I just realized I've tweeted 5,126 photos and videos.
Jeff Rubenstein: That seems like a lot.
Larry Hryb: That is, I'm sorry about that Twitter, wow, that's crazy.
Jeff Rubenstein: Taking up all that server space.
Larry Hryb: All right gang we'll talk to you, we'll see you at PAX. You can hit us up on Twitter, we'll of course be checking that when we're traveling and taking our annual leaves and doing our own thing. But thanks for hanging out with us, make sure to watch this week on X-box every Friday, as I said earlier, on your console. When I'm away, Jeff, you're going to fill in for me.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I'd be happy to do that.
Larry Hryb: If that's okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's okay with me. To those of you who have functioning vision and hearing that will have to see and hear me, I apologize in advance.
Larry Hryb: As we say in the business, we'll cover you with B-roll.
Jeff Rubenstein: Who's hosting? I don't know.
Larry Hryb: I don't know, it's a voice.
Jeff Rubenstein: Just a disembodied voice.
Larry Hryb: All right gang, we'll talk to everybody next time, and have a great August and we'll be back for PAX West. See you next time, bye bye everybody.
Jeff Rubenstein: See ya.

Larry Hryb: Welcome back. My name is Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. We've got the show, here. We were off last week. We've got the full gang, here. Laura, hello.
Laura Massey: Hello.
Larry Hryb: How you doing?
Laura Massey: It's good to be back in the studio.
Larry Hryb: Isn't it nice?
Laura Massey: It sure is.
Larry Hryb: Isn't it nice, we're back [inaudible 00:00:57].
Laura Massey: A nice smell in here.
Larry Hryb: Up here in-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:00:59].
Larry Hryb: What does our studio smell like?
Laura Massey: It smells fresh and clean.
Larry Hryb: Fresh, we just took the plastic off the seats, and that's why Jeff's here.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's your [inaudible 00:01:08].
Laura Massey: Oh, that is a genius idea.
Larry Hryb: How, interesting.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Or, one that doubles as a fan.
Jeff Rubenstein: This way after the apocalypse you can still smell fresh. You know you cannot, you know, you have to count on electricity.
Larry Hryb: Febreze that is a free product idea.
Jeff Rubenstein: You can have that one.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Just take it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: We've got a lot of them. Anyway, we're here for the show, 604. We were off for a couple weeks. I was down in a-
Jeff Rubenstein: Annual leave?
Larry Hryb: No. Unfortunately not. I was down in Anaheim at D23, which is the big Disney conference.
Laura Massey: Totally jealous-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: By the way.
Larry Hryb: Oh, it was-
Laura Massey: My face is green.
Larry Hryb: Is it? Oh, that's what that color is.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: It was a lot of fun to be down there. You know, Anaheim is fun. At D23, I did an interview about Star Wars Battlefront.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:01:48], so you can watch it this week on Xbox. In fact, if you go over to your console right now, or up on YouTube, or Twitter you'll see my interview with her. I hung out with her, I didn't even get a chance to walk around the show for Laura.
Laura Massey: You didn't.
Larry Hryb: No. I had no time. I was in and out. We were prepping for a few things. We wanted to make sure we saw some things. There were so many things I wanted to see, because it was all Star Wars, and then there's all the Disney stuff, and the live action movie this, and you know what I'm talking about.
Jeff Rubenstein: What's up with the Star Wars hotel?
Larry Hryb: I saw that.
Jeff Rubenstein: How much is the thing going to cost?
Larry Hryb: I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you see this, Laura?
Larry Hryb: Did you hear about this, Laura?
Laura Massey: I heard the headlines, but not the details.
Larry Hryb: But, did you read the details?
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: Apparently when you check in-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:02:23].
Jeff Rubenstein: Like, you assume a new identity.
Larry Hryb: You are in a cosplay.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:02:26].
Larry Hryb: You're in a cosplay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. It's Laura stalk killer.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: Awesome thing. Right?
Laura Massey: That sounds much better.
Larry Hryb: I was, like, hm, so, yeah, if you noticed on Twitter last week I was pleading with Disney, I was like, Disney World people you know how to find me, because we need to take the show down there.
Laura Massey: We do.
Jeff Rubenstein: Apparently, there's not going to be any windows in this hotel. The conceit of this is that you're going to be on a spaceship, so all the windows will show space-
Laura Massey: Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Like you're on the set of whatever, Star Trek-
Larry Hryb: That's-
Jeff Rubenstein: It's very Star Trekean.
Larry Hryb: That sounds good, but I kind of want to window, I mean, otherwise, it's like you might as well put it in a basement.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, maybe it will be.
Larry Hryb: Well, that's right. Who knows?
Jeff Rubenstein: Hopefully it's under attack, and it shakes. I don't know how it's going to be, but it sounds very west worldy.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. It does.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Which means, I mean-
Larry Hryb: What could go wrong?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: What could go wrong?
Jeff Rubenstein: Please have [inaudible 00:03:12].
Larry Hryb: I got to tell you this funny story, I get down there and we're doing, I had a few minutes, so I went out to In and Out Burger, which I've done-
Laura Massey: Of course.
Larry Hryb: That in the past.
Jeff Rubenstein: We talked about this, Larry.
Larry Hryb: No, but this is funny. I go down there, my producer and I we were going to have a production meeting, and-
Laura Massey: At In and Out Burger?
Larry Hryb: At In and Out Burger. I get in and a very nice gentleman from, I don't know where he was from, somewhere in Europe slash the Middle East, and this older gentleman, and we're talking and telling him we're from Seattle, and yeah, we're just doing this, we're going back tomorrow, he drops us off, so the next morning I do everything, and I'm going back to the airport.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: So, I open up my Uber app, and I put in going to the airport, call an Uber, and it's the same guy.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: Really nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: I've never had that happen in my life.
Larry Hryb: He gets out of the car-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And, I see that it's him, and we see each other through the thing, and I smile, and he smiles at me, he gets out right in the front at the pickup at the hotel and he says, "No, Mr. Hryb. No, In and Out, today. You're going home. Let's go." I said, "All right. Let's go," which is funny because I've never had that happen before.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: It was just a nice fun moment.
Laura Massey: That's really [crosstalk 00:04:10].
Larry Hryb: Anyway D23 was a lot of fun, I watched the video, and then hopefully we can go down sometime and see Star Wars land and all the-
Laura Massey: Absolutely.
Jeff Rubenstein: A lot of fun, too. It looks really good.
Larry Hryb: I will tell you a little disappointing thing about that. Can I tell you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Have you been Anaheim or Disney Land, Laura?
Laura Massey: I have not been to Disney Land.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: I have.
Larry Hryb: You have. So, Disney Land, for those, like I grew up on the west coast, Laura-
Jeff Rubenstein: You grew up on the east coast.
Larry Hryb: On the east coast, thank you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Don't change your story, now.
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, Mr. Hryb.
Larry Hryb: I grew up on the east coast, which everybody there goes to Florida.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I don't know, because growing up in Texas your kind of in the middle of the country, Laura.
Laura Massey: We are in the middle.
Larry Hryb: Did you go to Disney World, or Disney Land.
Laura Massey: We went Disney World.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: We drove from Texas to Florida.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's a long drive.
Laura Massey: A long drive.
Larry Hryb: Disney World is, for those of you on the east coast that have never been to Disney Land, Disney World is massive 25,000 acres, the whole nine yards.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Disney Land much smaller. You can see it from the street.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: It's a different experience. Anyway, it's definitely a V1 to Disney World's V2. Well, you can see what was the Tower of Terror.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Which is an iconic ride, and has been, but they've completely redressed it as Guardians of the Galaxy, and I'm disappointed.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: Because it just looks, let me show, can I show you the picture?
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I took a picture of it and I texted it to a friend of mine, who's a huge Disney fan, I was just really disappointed that this is what the back of it looked like, so I don't know where it is, here. Do I have it, here?
Jeff Rubenstein: You don't remember that iconic scene in The Guardians of the Galaxy where they dropped and they-
Larry Hryb: Oh, I don't.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:05:35], and they dropped again? Did that happen in that movie? No?
Larry Hryb: I do have this slide-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:05:40].
Larry Hryb: Check this out, there was a land speed around front and it was signed by, Laura?
Laura Massey: Lando.
Larry Hryb: Billy Dee Williams.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: It works, every time. I don't know, for some, I don't know why I took a photo of it. Anyway-
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: It was a good time to be at D23 and look for that on this week on Xbox. Star Wars Battlefront II looks amazing, coming to Xbox One, Xbox One X, later this year. We'll be playing that, and I'm sure we'll play that, a lot of fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: [inaudible 00:06:08], I'm sure.
Larry Hryb: The [inaudible 00:06:09] you cannot do it early, Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:06:11].
Larry Hryb: We're going to get into what we're playing. We talked to, Laura's probably playing Diablo III.
Jeff Rubenstein: Skip.
Larry Hryb: Am I right?
Laura Massey: That's right. I am also playing other games, as well.
Larry Hryb: What are you playing?
Laura Massey: It's not just Diablo-
Larry Hryb: What are you playing?
Laura Massey: All the time.
Larry Hryb: What are you playing?
Laura Massey: I have been playing Diablo III-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: I did want to mention that I finally hit level 70 with my [inaudible 00:06:28], and that's a big achievement.
Larry Hryb: I don't have any with me, but imagine my hand going, confetti-
Laura Massey: Yay.
Larry Hryb: Yay.
Laura Massey: Not only is it an achievement, it's also a rare achievement.
Larry Hryb: You know, you love that sound, don't you?
Laura Massey: I love that sound.
Larry Hryb: Va room.
Laura Massey: That's a great sound. It's also really fun to see that pop up instead of a normal achievement.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, because the diamond spins around.
Laura Massey: Yeah. The diamond is spinning around.
Larry Hryb: The flourish, because I remember when I worked on that audio piece, Jeff, you and I talked about this-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: That it was, I remember playing for you the different audios.
Jeff Rubenstein: There was one where it just went, Yay. Like, you were at a kid's birthday party, and they whacked the pinata.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, but we've already done that in Halo.
Laura Massey: Yeah. [crosstalk 00:06:59].
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Oh, it was very much-
Larry Hryb: That was-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:07:01].
Jeff Rubenstein: I've been thinking of that, that-
Larry Hryb: Yeah. [crosstalk 00:07:02] birthday party.
Jeff Rubenstein: I love that.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I told this story before, but I'll tell it here, I don't think I've ever told it on air. The original sound, what they wanted for the achievement was the, and Laura I've talked to you about this-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Was the sound that you get from antique roadshow, when they reveal how much the item is appraised at.
Laura Massey: That was the original [crosstalk 00:07:20].
Larry Hryb: It's kind of like a xylophone, ring, and they came up with that and I remember looking at them in the office going, "No. This is what it sounds like," and they didn't know, so I go to YouTube and pull up a video and I'm like, "I don't want to sound like we got the proper bid on a 200 year old chest."
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Okay. That's not what this is, or a clock, or a Victorian brassiere.
Laura Massey: brassiere.
Larry Hryb: Right?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: You with me on that, Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: What?
Larry Hryb: Anyway, I'm glad you enjoy that. What else did you playing?
Laura Massey: I also got a chance to check out What Remains of Edith Finch.
Larry Hryb: Out this week on Xbox, in fact, we've got an interview later on with the developers, so we don't want to talk too much about it, because it is a story based game-
Laura Massey: It is.
Larry Hryb: We don't want to give too much away.
Laura Massey: This is similar to story games, like everyone's going to the rapture, or-
Larry Hryb: What was that other one?
Jeff Rubenstein: Gone home?
Laura Massey: Gone home. Yes.
Larry Hryb: What was that other one we played, that was started on a fairy? Oxenfree.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oxenfree was great.
Larry Hryb: Right? Oxenfree.
Jeff Rubenstein: I love that game.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Oxenfree is good.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: But, it has less, I'd say less interruption than-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Oxenfree. For this game you do, it's basically a progression that you walk through.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And, you experience this story in the shoes of the protagonist.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And, you do-
Larry Hryb: There's multiple protagonists.
Laura Massey: There is.
Larry Hryb: Right. In this game. Right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Spoiler.
Larry Hryb: We'll talk about it-
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:08:30].
Larry Hryb: We'll talk about it later on with the interview.
Laura Massey: Yeah. But, lets, I don't know if your interview will cover this, but what's awesome, to me, is that it's set in the Pacific Northwest.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: It's set on [inaudible 00:08:41] Island, which is just-
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Laura Massey: You know, a few hours, or a plane ride away, very, very close.
Larry Hryb: Depending on [crosstalk 00:08:49].
Laura Massey: And, it looks a lot like the area around here, so I was able to really put myself in the shoes of this, and imagine myself walking around the area that we live in-
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: And, seeing the story unfold.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: And, specifically they even have the right flowers in there. At the very beginning-
Larry Hryb: I did not-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:09:05].
Larry Hryb: Realize you were an accomplished botanist, Laura. I didn't even notice. It's funny you say that, because at the very beginning of the game you're walking down the driveway-
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: There's some flowers-
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And, I actually went over to them, like, oh, this is pretty. I wasn't like, oh this is a pretty scene I've seen before, I was like, oh, this is nice.
Laura Massey: Yeah. That's native flowers to the area, it's called foxglove.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: And, they only bloom in the summer, so I can tell you exactly-
Larry Hryb: I feel like I got those in [inaudible 00:09:28].
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't even [crosstalk 00:09:29].
Larry Hryb: You know, you and I are pretty good friends, I did not know that you were a-
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Florist, a botanist.
Laura Massey: A botanist. I'm not a botanist, but I do enjoy gardening, and growing flowers, and things like that. I've grown foxglove-
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: In my garden, before.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Oh, Laura, Laura, how does your garden grow?
Laura Massey: Exactly.
Larry Hryb: That's unnecessarily creepy. I apologize.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well-
Larry Hryb: It's not the first time.
Laura Massey: If you want to give props to the artist of this game. They did a very good job of capturing the Pacific Northwest, especially at the beginning of the game.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: So, you walk through the very long driveway of this house, and you get inside the house-
Larry Hryb: The story is setting up as you're walking through.
Laura Massey: It's setting up as you walk through, and it's just one of those games that really, it involves you, gets you hooked from the moment you turn it on.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: Like, everything about it, it's just, it makes you want to know more.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: I love how the story and the text appeared inside the world.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And-
Larry Hryb: It's almost like augmented reality.
Laura Massey: It is. It's almost like augmented reality.
Larry Hryb: Right. Yeah.
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:10:30] as the protagonist narrates, that she narrates her story, you see the words appear like on the signs, or along the path, and when she's done saying that sentence then the characters, they're just disappearing, they actually fall down [crosstalk 00:10:41]-
Larry Hryb: And, they melt away.
Laura Massey: Or, they bounce away-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Or, they get blown away in the wind.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It's really, really well done.
Larry Hryb: We don't want to say too much more.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. But, this is Giant Sparrow-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is the developers, their first game on Xbox. I think it's only their second game, ever. They had a game called, the Unfinished Swan, which I played back in my, I think it was on PS3, days, which was also really cool, and sort of like an early quote on quote, walking simulator, actually it was very similar to Beyond Eyes, in a way-
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Where you sort of unveil things as they went along, but really great to have them having a game for us on Xbox.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. We'll have that interview later on. We'll go through some of the headlines, now, and what we're playing, but we'll play that later on. If that's all right with you, Laura?
Laura Massey: Yeah. Sure thing. I'm very interested to hear this, the interview.
Larry Hryb: So, you're playing that.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: I'm playing that, as well. The other thing I'm playing, I'm sorry, are you done?
Laura Massey: I am done.
Larry Hryb: Okay. I'm playing that, of course, I'm playing Overwatch, Jeff and I been playing a little bit of that. Started playing the Destiny 2 Beta, which hit-
Laura Massey: Oh, nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Hit earlier this week-
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.
Larry Hryb: For Xbox fans. Jeff and I, we're going to try to play that tonight. Right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. I've already completed the first level, which is what was shown, I think, during E3, Activision showed it off. It's really impressive to actually play. Then, I also finished through, I played through the strike last night, as well. Yeah. So far, so good. I like what I got. It looks really good, like visually it's a very impressive game.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I am, I enjoyed it, and I actually stopped playing it last night, because I knew that I was going to play it with you.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right.
Larry Hryb: Probably tonight, or whenever.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll escort you through.
Laura Massey: Cool. What would you say are the differences between Destiny I and Destiny II?
Larry Hryb: Oh, boy. Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know if they're using a different engine, but the game, it definitely felt smoother [inaudible 00:12:24] playing on a TV that I didn't have previously, but man it looked, it just looked really good.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: As far as the feel, most of the feel, is very similar, and it's just the beta, so a lot of the stuff-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Is not in there.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: In fact, a lot of the stuff-.
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:12:36] probably a month old, or so.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh. Yeah. At least. You end up getting a legendary, actually, you get an exotic rifle like pretty much is just handed to you-
Laura Massey: Nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: Early on, and like going through equipped menu, and all that, it looked exactly the same. I'd imagine, we cannot judge the final product, until we have that?
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:12:58].
Jeff Rubenstein: And, it's less than two months, away, I think it's September 6th, but if you wanted more Destiny, and I know many, many of us did-
Larry Hryb: You do.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's coming.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: It felt like the things that worked, worked well, and I would say that the first mission, this campaign mission is definitely more epic than any of the campaign missions-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: That I played in the original Destiny.
Larry Hryb: Here's a little bonus for those of you on Xbox, if you're listening to this, now, the first weekend, this weekend of the beta, it's available for free-
Jeff Rubenstein: That's right.
Larry Hryb: Not only that, but it's a free gold weekend.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: So, you can actually check out the game, and play it multiplayer for free, Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: That is correct. It's funny, let's say you play through that strike multiple times, you play [inaudible 00:13:41], you have all that kind of fun, there's another game that is actually free this weekend as part of the free gold weekend, and that is Doom.
Larry Hryb: Doom.
Laura Massey: Doom.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, Doom is putting out a big update the 6.66 update, very funny.
Laura Massey: Ha, ha, ha.
Larry Hryb: Ha, ha, ha.
Jeff Rubenstein: For those of you who read the [inaudible 00:13:57] here and listen to the podcast, yeah, it's a free weekend for both gold and Xbox Live, silver, folks, as well. It will let you play the first two levels of the campaign, but then also makes all the DLC available to everyone, and I believe everyone can play the multiplayer regardless if you have the game or not. Yeah. You'll be able to, and then you can even just buy it for 14.99 if you like it. This is-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: A shooter that is rated just about as good as it gets last year, and a very crowded shooter, here, last year, with a lot of amazing shooters-
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:14:29].
Jeff Rubenstein: People really like Doom.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: It was really good.
Jeff Rubenstein: If you didn't get a chance to try it, this would be the weekend to do that.
Larry Hryb: So, if you're looking for something to do, we got you covered. Not going to Comic Con, should I talk about Comic-Con?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. If you're not going to Comic-Con, you know, these are the things to do.
Larry Hryb: If you aren't going to Comic-Con-
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:14:43].
Larry Hryb: I will be there Saturday, the San Diego Comic-Con, which is the legendary con down in San Diego, and I will be there Saturday at 11:00 a.m., I will be hosting the Crackdown III panel.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: I will be handling that, as well as joined by-
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah-ha.
Larry Hryb: Terry Crews, so Terry will be, of course he's in Crackdown III.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And, he will be joining us on the panel.
Jeff Rubenstein: He's just perfect for that role.
Larry Hryb: You think?
Laura Massey: He really is.
Larry Hryb: Yeah? Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think so.
Larry Hryb: Okay. I agree. I agree, so we're looking forward to that. I'll be hanging down at, I'll be there most of the day Saturday doing a bunch of other stuff as well. I'm doing a stream, Saturday night, Laura.
Laura Massey: All right. I'll be streaming?
Larry Hryb: I'm going to be streaming with Entertainment Weekly.
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I'll be hosting their official stream.
Jeff Rubenstein: What's hot? [crosstalk 00:15:27].
Larry Hryb: I don't know, we'll see. I'm going to have a lot of fun there. [inaudible 00:15:30] who I interviewed last week is going to be joining me.
Laura Massey: Cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: You two are becoming good friends.
Larry Hryb: Apparently we are.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: So, now I just need to get into a Star Wars game/movie.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. Or, if they bring back True Blood.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I'm also-
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:15:43] that.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, we're doing that, and Entertainment Weekly, it's no big deal, just-
Laura Massey: Right. Just, you know-
Larry Hryb: Just Entertainment Weekly.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:15:51].
Larry Hryb: At Comic Con.
Laura Massey: Just-
Larry Hryb: Just hosting the stream, Laura.
Laura Massey: Yeah. That's pretty sweet.
Larry Hryb: Sometimes I was like, wait a minute, what did I sign up for? Oh, God, I'm nervous.
Laura Massey: Right.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, you can tune in and watch that on Beam, excuse me, mixer.com/xbox you will host it there. We'll take your questions. You'll see [inaudible 00:16:09]. I think the kids from-
Jeff Rubenstein: Stranger Things.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I've asked to see if they can stop by.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:16:18].
Larry Hryb: Because apparently they're Xbox fans.
Jeff Rubenstein: Really?
Larry Hryb: I want to see them [inaudible 00:16:20].
Laura Massey: My goodness.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: That would be [crosstalk 00:16:23].
Larry Hryb: There's a couple of reasons, because they're playing kids, growing up in the '80s, which was when I was, so I mean, I want to talk about that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Just lie and tell them we're coming up with a gorgon based video game or something.
Larry Hryb: They're Xbox fans.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe they could make one.
Larry Hryb: They're Xbox fans, they want to come by.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Anyway I'm looking forward to that, so I've got a busy weekend ahead of me, Laura.
Laura Massey: Right. Are you playing dress up for Comic-Con?
Larry Hryb: I don't. I really don't.
Laura Massey: No?
Larry Hryb: No. You know me, I'm not a Halloween guy, every day I get to be what I want to be and I have fun, and I don't want to pretend to be anybody else. I love being me.
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:16:54], Major Nelson
Larry Hryb: Yeah. That's exactly it.
Jeff Rubenstein: We should all get to that state of enlightenment. Really.
Larry Hryb: It's really, it's being centered, Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: It's being centered.
Jeff Rubenstein: Embrace tranquility.
Larry Hryb: Thank you. That's my Zenyatta.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's another thing you can do this weekend.
Larry Hryb: What is [crosstalk 00:17:11].
Jeff Rubenstein: If you're not at home-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Playing both Doom and the Destiny II beta, if you're not at the San Diego Comic Con.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, if you are in places like LA, Santa Clara, Miami, or Oak Brook, I'm assuming that's Illinois.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know if you saw, but Xbox One is now the official console partner of Real Madrid, and that's a soccer team-
Larry Hryb: Thank you-
Jeff Rubenstein: Your looking at me like
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:17:31].
Jeff Rubenstein: I know Madrid is a real place. What do you mean?
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, we forget I used to play soccer.
Laura Massey: For real?
Larry Hryb: Professionally.
Jeff Rubenstein: You did?
Laura Massey: What?
Larry Hryb: I used to, I was one of those boys running around in shorts, and then I just got older, and said, I cannot do this anymore.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wow. I was not aware of this.
Larry Hryb: I wasn't either, but I did fly-
Jeff Rubenstein: I have seen photos of you in short, shorts, but you were not kicking a ball.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I wore-
Jeff Rubenstein: Everyone wore short, shorts in the '80s.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:17:54] from my mind.
Larry Hryb: Yes. I wish I could.
Laura Massey: It's gone.
Jeff Rubenstein: I wish I could.
Laura Massey: I will not retrieve.
Larry Hryb: Really, Laura? Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Men in Black flashy thing.
Larry Hryb: Blink.
Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway, in honor of this, there's going to be FIFA '17 fan tournaments at the Microsoft store, I'll link out to it in the notes below.
Larry Hryb: Oh, I've been to that Oak Brook store, that's nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is it really?
Larry Hryb: That's a beautiful mall there. It's like the south side thing. It's where the corporate headquarters are for McDonald's.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's actually going to be a special Real Madrid fan tournament in the New York City Flagship store on 5th Avenue, which I was at this week.
Larry Hryb: You were just there earlier this week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. I came by to check out the Mixer NYC studio-
Larry Hryb: Oh, you've never seen it?
Jeff Rubenstein: No. It was amazing.
Larry Hryb: It's bananas, isn't it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's the thing, it was like a 1000% humidity-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: There this week-
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:18:36].
Laura Massey: Cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, I was like, they were like, "Do you want to see the studio?" And, I've been in video studios before, they crank the AC, it's in the '50s-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was like, please, let's do it.
Larry Hryb: And, it's a walk in, it's a freezer.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, I just stood under the vent, it was amazing.
Larry Hryb: Like I told you on Twitter we need to do a show there-
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Would you come to New York, Laura?
Laura Massey: Of course, I would.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. You know, I love New York.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:18:55].
Larry Hryb: New York is my, you know, I'm lucky, I adore that city and I need to go back. We need to go back.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And, do a show.
Jeff Rubenstein: My favorite dim sum restaurant opened up in New York edition, like from Hong Kong.
Laura Massey: All right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: So, you can take us to dim sum.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're going to [inaudible 00:19:09]. We're doing it. I'll do the ordering.
Larry Hryb: Thank you.
Laura Massey: We just need to get invited.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:19:13].
Laura Massey: That's all we need, first.
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's the thing about Larry, Larry's a meat and potatoes guy, he loves a good burger. I bring him to this place he'll be like, you were right, I like a pork bun.
Larry Hryb: I'm open.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Larry Hryb: I'm open.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah?
Larry Hryb: They're too bunny they're not enough porky.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. No. You're not having the good ones.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so Real Madrid, where is this taking place, again?
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah, yeah. Again-
Larry Hryb: That's this weekend?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, Real Madrid is having this US summer tour, I think it's called the International Champions Cup, they're a huge team worldwide. This is their preseason, they come over here, and they play other, either MLS teams, I think they're playing the MLS All stars at some point in the next couple of weeks. They're going to be playing other European teams that are over here. And, they're going to be in Santa Clara, which is in the Bay area of California, LA, Miami, and apparently in the Chicago area, Oak Brook, and in New York, so what will happen is we're going to have these different FIFA games, and then you have the chance to win tickets to one of those matches in real life.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's delightful.
Laura Massey: Cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway, I'll link to that.
Larry Hryb: Please, do.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, there's a lot going on, but I think that's kind of a cool connection. Microsoft as a whole already had a connection with Real Madrid, a partnership and now that extends into Xbox.
Larry Hryb: Thank you for that.
Laura Massey: Cool.
Larry Hryb: So, you got a busy weekend, this weekend, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, as long as you have your console, or in the San Diego area, or any of those above mentioned places that Jeff went through. We've got you covered.
Laura Massey: That's right. Lots of games this weekend.
Larry Hryb: Lots of games-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:20:44].
Jeff Rubenstein: Say hi to Cristiano Ronaldo for me.
Larry Hryb: He's not my favorite player.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:20:50].
Larry Hryb: The women everywhere just gasped.
Jeff Rubenstein: They do. They do.
Larry Hryb: Really? He's not your favorite player? How can that be, Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm more of a Barcelona fan.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey is more of a pork bun fan.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Exactly.
Larry Hryb: All right. We're going to take a break, here. We've got a wonderful interview.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: A wonderful interview.
Laura Massey: I'm looking forward to this interview.
Larry Hryb: This is an interview that I've been looking forward to for a while as Jeff said, earlier on that the game, What Remains of Edith Finch, or what became, What Remains of Edith Finch, it's available on Xbox, first game. I had a chance to talk to someone from the studio, so what do you say, we roll that now, shall we?
Laura Massey: Yeah. Let's listen.
Larry Hryb: What Remains of Edith Finch is out on Xbox One, very soon, like within the next week or so. Joining me on the line, right now, is Ian Dallas, he's the creative director of Giant Sparrow, the developers behind, What Remains of Edith Finch. Ian, thank you for joining us.
Ian Dallas: Oh, my pleasure.
Larry Hryb: Now, it's really exciting, the game has been out for a little while on another console, on PlayStation, and PC, it's coming to Xbox One, it's coming out next week. What is the date of release, by the way?
Ian Dallas: It's going to be out on Wednesday, July 19th.
Larry Hryb: Now, this has been a very, very well received game. Tell us, for those folks on the Xbox side who haven't had a chance to really look at it maybe they've heard a little bit about it, walk us through what this game is about, because it's a very interesting approach that you guys have taken.
Ian Dallas: Yeah. The game is about high level, it's a collection of short stories about a cursed family in Washington state, and you play as Edith Finch who is coming back to the house that she grew up in, and trying to figure out why she is the last family member alive. As you're exploring this house in each of the bedrooms you'll find a different story about how that family member died, and then you get to play as that family member, and living out the last moments of their life, and one of the things that makes this game really unusual is that each of those stories that you play is essentially its own entirely different game with its own set of mechanics, often gameplay that people have never seen in a video game before.
So, your kind of going in, it almost looks like a walking simulator at first when you're exploring this house with all its different passages, and then suddenly you find these stories and it's like sort of Alice in Wonderland, you're falling down the rabbit hole, it's just a crazy bunch of totally different games that give you an insight into how this family lived and ultimately died.
Larry Hryb: Now, this is also a challenge, you know, when I do interviews like this with some story based games is you don't want to give away too much for obvious reasons, no spoilers. But, I want to talk about at least, before we move to some of the story, as much as we can, about the art style and really what you were, you know, as a creative director, what you were going for in the art style in, What Remains of Edith Finch.
Ian Dallas: Yeah. I mean, I think, overall we were trying to go for variety. This is a game where there's 13 different family members and they've all got their own kind of personality, and we were trying to make each of the stories feel distinctive, but then also kind of bind that together, and feel like you're playing one game, which is obviously a bit of a challenge. It's sort of like the Twilight Zone, just one of the inspirations for the game, trying to make something that feels like every episode is different, but you still have something, some continuity to it.
Initially, because the game was inspired by a lot of ghost stories, and kind of serial tales, we were looking at something that felt very [inaudible 00:24:28], like almost cartoonish in a way, like each of the stories was very unrealistic, because the stories are dealing with things that are potentially sort of magical, and so unclear of what's going on. Then, something very strange happened about midway through development, we ended up hiring a lead artist, Brandon, who came from the Call of Duty team. He's like fresh off of the latest Call of Duty, which is not where you might expect to find, you know, kind of an Indy lead artist from-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ian Dallas: But, he just ended up being a really good fit, and a little militaristic, actually, in the way that he approached things, of like, all right, just give me a hundred things to model, like a lampshade, an easy chair, and whatever, and I will crank through those things, and he just did a phenomenal job. Brandon's really interested in lighting.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: What ended up happening artistically with the game after Brandon joined is that the house section of the game, which is about half the game, or so, you as Edith exploring the house-
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Ian Dallas: Ended up becoming quite realistic looking, so even though there's a lot of, the stories are quite theolized, the art style for the rest of the house ended up being, not like Call of Duty, I'm not saying it looks like-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: Call of Duty, but it looks like someone who had been making Call of Duty for a number of years had been given the challenge of making something that feels much more dream like-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: And, that's kind of, we ended up with this house, it's really beautifully lit, and the Unreal Four Engine, does a great job of realistic lighting. Yeah. So, we got this kind of hybrid of half the game looks quite realistic in some ways, and half the game looks like a fantasy.
Larry Hryb: Now, we talked about the art. Talk about some of the inspirations, you talk about some of the stories that maybe you, you made a reference a moment ago, some real life stories, tell me about some of the real life stories that you used for the inspiration for some of the stories, I mean, it's a little macabre to talk about, but maybe for the deaths, or at least some of the storylines.
Ian Dallas: Yeah. No. I mean, it's a little weird to say since all these Finch family members are dead, and a lot of them died quite young, but the game broadly was based on my own childhood, like what it felt like for me growing up in Washington state, and my family is more or less alive at this point, but what it feels like basically to be a child in the forest, for example, like the kind of initial inspiration was my memories of scuba diving in Washington state-
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Ian Dallas: And, feeling like you're very small, and you're in an element that is quite, like an area that's quite beautiful, but also a little overwhelming. Yeah. The game is this kind of strange hybrid of things that I remember. For example, like the importance of salmon, like in Washington state, if you grew up, you ended up eating a lot of salmon.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: It's like a rounded part of that culture, and because a lot of these things are, you know, the stories are very dream like, I wanted to ground them into things that felt very familiar, and intimate, and kind of mundane. We talked about it feeling a little bit like, This American Life, the NPR show-
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Ian Dallas: Something where you could really feel a human recognizable element that balances out, because that's like trying to make something that feels surreal, you're always in danger of it feeling just nonsense, and kind of random, and arbitrary, and kind of Ren and Stimpy like, almost, no offense to Ren to Stimpy.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ian Dallas: But, you know we wanted something that was a little more grounded. Growing up, one of the things that I remembered was what it felt like to be on a swing set, and that kind of freedom, so one of our stories, for example, takes place on a swing set, and usually things happen in stories that didn't happen to me personally, but the kind of initial feed was these memories that I had, like things that stood out most from my own childhood.
Larry Hryb: Essentially, because you talk about it taking place in Washington state, here in the United States, and I actually live here, now. I've lived here for about 15 years working at Xbox, and I was looking at some of the screenshots, and not growing up in this area, I could actually see it, and it's funny, because I actually am I diver, a scuba diver, so when you said that, my ears kind of perked up, so I'm interested to see. I haven't had a chance to play it, yet, so I'm interested to see, I know there's a little bit of a beach in here.
Ian Dallas: You know, it's not out on Xbox, yet.
Larry Hryb: Well, I know that, that's why we're doing the interview.
Ian Dallas: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I'm looking forward to seeing what that entails, because like I say, the art styles are so different, I mean, you have some of the, obviously, some of the lush exteriors with the green, and the trees, and the foliage, and then inside some of the, I was looking at one of the bedrooms where it's just such magically lit, you know, there's beautiful pinks, and blues-
Ian Dallas: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: It's like a sun setting, or a sunrise, so it's interesting how you're capturing all these microcosms. When you were working on that, you talk about playing each part of the game through a different characters point of view, did you take into account that maybe this character may see things one way and perhaps does character see the same thing perhaps slightly different?
Ian Dallas: Yeah. You know, one of the things that was a very happy discovery for us midway through development was that reusing environments, and even characters, and kind of repurposing things had a lot of resonance, because it felt like seeing the same living room, for example, like it appears in one of the stories in the 1960s and then Edith walks through the same living room, herself, in present day-
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ian Dallas: And, as a game developer I was, you know, there's this pressure to reuse things, because it's easier for the artist-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ian Dallas: It's easier for everybody, and it's just like cheaper, and maybe you can just turn it 90 degrees and people won't notice it's the same thing, even. So, we kind of shied away from that, because a lot of the game was about giving things to players that were surprising.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: And, that they'd never seen before, so we kind of constantly trying to reinvent ourselves, but, yeah, actually seeing things from different perspectives, especially in time, but then just even seeing the same thing multiple times, even when it hadn't changed significantly made the world feel a lot more real-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: You know, there are areas in the game that you'll see from three or four different perspectives, in different stories, because a lot of stories ended up taking place in and around the Finch house, because midway through development we found out, oh, this isn't a bad thing to reuse, and it will be very different. Like, some of the environments that we rendered, like in a cel shaded comic book style for one of the stories, and then other stories might be something else. Yeah. It's very interesting to see, like, oh, right, that couch was here, but then it got moved, like very binal things.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Ian Dallas: Like I was at this family reunion, recently, with people watching videos of themselves, films, from 40 years ago-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: And, the comments were always such binal things, like, wow, I still have that raincoat. It's weird that objects have this life that video games, I think are really well suited for because there are so many objects-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ian Dallas: In a space like a house.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, and then add to your point, I mean, when you look at an object in the '60s obviously you can take the same art asset in a video game and weather it a little bit, and age it a little bit, and it's still recognizable, but it also makes sense, because again you're exploring a house that has history with this family.
Ian Dallas: Yeah. Absolutely.
Larry Hryb: Now, I want to talk about the development, because you guys have been at Giant Sparrow, so committed to this idea, tell me a little bit about the development cycle and how you came up with the idea, and then how you moved it forward to really ultimately deliver a well regarded, highly rated game.
Ian Dallas: Yeah. Backwards. We start with an idea that is very, kind of abstract, but sometimes very specific in that we start with a feeling, and in this game it was the feeling of the sublime moments where like in real life you feel simultaneously like something is beautiful, but also a little bit overwhelming.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: So, the initial inspiration, for me, was like I said, these memories of scuba diving in Washington state and seeing the bottom of the ocean slope away into a seemingly infinite darkness.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ian Dallas: And, the way that, that can make you feel kind of like impressed by the grandeur of nature, but then also feeling very small and fragile. I just wanted to explore that feeling. The game initially started out as a scuba diving simulator, and we started the game the first day making an underwater scene in scuba diving, and breathing in and out with a regulator and all that.
Yeah, it was interesting for about five or 10 minutes of gameplay, and then it just kind of started feeling too much, to us, like a traditional game where, you know, I think as soon as players get comfortable there's this part of their brain that switches over to, okay, I now understand what I have to do, let me do that thing, and how do I do it better, and challenge me? This isn't a game that's about challenge in a traditional sense, I mean, it's more of discovery, and exploration, and just like a general craziness.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: We looked for references in the real world for things that had done the sublime feeling well, and there aren't a lot. I mean, you find like traces of things, like in cathedrals, for example, like walking in, that feeling you get, but I think the clearest reference we found was weird fictions people like HP Lovecraft, and Neil Gaiman, and Edgar Allen Poe, and stories that are kind of about people experiencing the unknown. A lot of them tend to be kind of horrific, that people die in them.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ian Dallas: That worked out well for us, as well.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ian Dallas: And, a lot of them tend to be short stories, as well. I think, that's no accident, that a lot of the references that we looked at, including things like the Twilight Zone, tend to be these very brief vignettes, like just the feeling of the sublime, I think, worked best when it has a short runway, and then you're off into it, like a ski jump or something. In the development of the game we pivoted kind of early on, okay, let's do like one scuba diving simulator thing into what if we did like a series of these stories?
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: Then it was like a lot of just making these crazy prototypes, a lot of which didn't end up in the game, like I still wish we could have done the story about the infinite parking garage, I don't know what the gameplay of that story would have been, unfortunately-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: Like, that's the rock we foundered on, but we just tried a whole bunch of different idea and then ultimately called out to around 13 of these stories that kind of felt cohesive, and it's weird that the game itself ends up feeling like they all kind of bind together. In the beginning, that was definitely not the case, it was just like, let's try a bunch of things that feel like they kind of evoke this element of the sublime, and-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: What we ended up discovering was that a lot of stories that worked best were about characters getting lost in their own imagination.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ian Dallas: And, I think part of that is because as a development team, like Giant Sparrows, is just kind of interested in those sort of subjects, but then also that's kind of what the experience of being a game player is like. You just naturally focus on one thing to the detriment of everything else.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: As a player, when your given one objective, your like, got it, I will go and kill four warthogs, or whatever it is.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: There's no warthogs in this game.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: But, that kind of a thing.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. You understand that-
Ian Dallas: [crosstalk 00:36:34] completely ignore-
Larry Hryb: You understand the combat loop of the game, as we call it.
Ian Dallas: Yeah. No. Exactly. As a player, you just kind of have been trained to focus very narrowly.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Ian Dallas: So, that's what a lot of these stories ended up being about. In some ways the game is like a version of what it's like to be a player, but I think that's, you know, any story is like you're showing up and putting on a new costume and taking on a new role.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Ian Dallas: That's kind of like reading a work of fiction, or watching a movie, or in this case, playing a game, there's that kind of element to the unknown where you have no idea what this person's life is like, but these stories give you an opportunity to live out a bit of these different peoples lives.
Larry Hryb: Essentially, you talked about where players just go in and they understand what they need to do, the combat loop, and do it again, and again, and you kind of, I don't want to say, solved it, but you approached it by having each of the short story, having different mechanics, and then of course supporting that difference, and reinforcing that difference with the art and the tone. Then, of course, what's interesting to me is that you've got all these little pods of gameplay that are dramatically different, but then you tied them together with something that everybody knows, which is the family.
Ian Dallas: Yeah. No. I think we got lucky in some ways. That we were basing all of these stories on something that was so relatable, like the family, and the way that family histories get created, and each person has their own kind of take on events, so there's a nice sort of melding, it's like when you're making a stew, or something, you throw all these ingredients in, but then there's some magic that happens when you let it boil, in our case, for about four years.
Larry Hryb: Right. Let it simmer. It simmers.
Ian Dallas: Yeah. Simmers, exactly. Right. There's no [inaudible 00:38:29] and boil, it's just a light simmer. After it [inaudible 00:38:33] long enough, it feels like, wow, this thing kind of works together. Right? The stock in this case is what it's like to be in a family, and that's something that hopefully everyone can relate to.
Larry Hryb: What Remains of Edith Finch, coming out to Xbox, coming out next week. Depending upon when you're listening to this it either could be out now, or it's going to be out. What's the date, again, Ian?
Ian Dallas: It's going to be Wednesday, July 19th.
Larry Hryb: There you go. I appreciate it. All right. Ian Dallas, creative director for Giant Sparrow, they are the development house behind the highly regarded development house, you guys have a lot of game out that you've done in the past, and really good stuff. What Remains of Edith Finch coming to Xbox next week. Ian, I want to thank you for your time, and I wish you luck, and welcome to the Xbox platform.
Ian Dallas: Thank you. Glad to be here.
Laura Massey: Thank you very much to Ian Dallas, from Giant Sparrow-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: For stopping by to chat with us.
Jeff Rubenstein: You like anyone with the last name of Dallas.
Laura Massey: Who doesn't?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Like, that's a really sweet name.
Jeff Rubenstein: [inaudible 00:39:23], and Austin. Ian Lubbock. Ian-
Larry Hryb: Houston.
Jeff Rubenstein: San Antonio. Houston's a good one.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: It doesn't sound as good as, Ian Dallas.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ian Dallas is a heck of a name.
Laura Massey: That's pretty great. I am looking [crosstalk 00:39:34]-
Jeff Rubenstein: Ian Padre Island.
Larry Hryb: Dallas. Dallas.
Laura Massey: That was Padre-
Jeff Rubenstein: [inaudible 00:39:37].
Larry Hryb: Wasn't that one of the names of the guys in, yeah, it was, in Alien. Dallas. I think it was the captain. Go ahead. Sorry.
Laura Massey: Well, anyway, I am looking forward to finishing up that game.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Because it just talked to me.
Larry Hryb: Good go through there, so check it out.
Laura Massey: It tells a good story.
Larry Hryb: Check it out. Jeffrey, you said you had a few more interviews.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:39:54].
Larry Hryb: There's even more.
Laura Massey: More news.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, there's more, and more games. If you are a Minecraft player, and who isn't? There are more skins on the marketplace, and if you bug fixes that have taken place for both pocket edition, and the Windows 10 edition, so definitely worth checking out. These skins are interplanetary explorers, and, you can find that on the marketplace. Gigantic, that was a game we were talking about a few years ago, and it just finally, it had been part of the preview program-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Or, the game preview program, I should say, is now, 1.0'd so the starter bundle and the ultimate bundle are now available for Windows 10, I believe and and definitely on Xbox One.
Larry Hryb: Check it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, check that out. A couple of games. So, since we last spoke we have passed the Ides of July, so that means more new games for you, thanks to Xbox Live games with gold.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, Runbow, which is a multiplayer party game, up to eight people can play locally, and that has debuted into, directly into games with gold, so make sure you pick that up, as well as, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:40:59].
Jeff Rubenstein: Video game. Another game coming out about the time you'll be hearing this, it will be the early access to Fortnite, another game that was long time of the long time in the making, I've been watching some streams this morning as influencers are starting to get a hold of this game, it looks really good.
Larry Hryb: What's the game about?
Jeff Rubenstein: The game is about a zombie infestation that occurs in these storms, so while the weather is good you collect all these resources, and you build up like a fort, and then the storm is going to roll in at night with these zombies [crosstalk 00:41:34]-
Larry Hryb: So, they're storm zombies?
Jeff Rubenstein: Storm zombies, tornado zombie, it's a zombie tornado.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, they're going to sweep in and then you add four players together you combine to sort of fight them off and live to see another day, and then you collect more resources, you level up. There's some very interesting looking character models, it looks good, and the streams that I was watching it looked really good, so this is, this is something I think I'm going to be playing, we might, we should give this a shot.
Larry Hryb: I'm-
Laura Massey: It sounds pretty fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Is it more real time strategy-isch where you build it out?
Jeff Rubenstein: There are elements where you are building-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: In real time, but you're controlling, it's a third person shooter.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, you're manipulating panels of wood, or traps, or things like that, and it looked like it was platforming going on. I think there's a lot, I mean, added space, it's like, okay, build in the daytime, fight monsters at night, it's kind of almost like Minecraft-
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: But, it seems very different than Minecraft.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, you have guns, first of all, and there's different character classes, the character models look really cool. I'm excited for this one, so I'm looking forward to playing that this weekend.
Laura Massey: It comes out in preview?
Jeff Rubenstein: It is-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:42:40].
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. It's early, I believe it is the earliest version of the game, so there's a couple of different skews of it, if you will, where it comes with different supplies, or different things.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm just going to go ahead and link out to it, because there's a standard founders pack, a super deluxe founders pack, a limited edition. There's a lot of different things. I'm just going to go ahead and link out to that page.
Laura Massey: Cool.
Larry Hryb: Thank you.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, decide, which Fortnite is right for you.
Larry Hryb: Thank you for that.
Laura Massey: That looks good.
Jeff Rubenstein: One last thing that you may see-
Larry Hryb: But, wait, there's more.
Jeff Rubenstein: To be part of the Xbox insiders program-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: The Creators Collection is starting to make its way out to a subset of folks in this group, and so you might start to see some of these new games, where independent creators will be able to make games do like sort of a simplified certification process, similar in a way-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: To the Xbox Live independent games, program, back in the day.
Larry Hryb: Back in the day.
Jeff Rubenstein: I made a game with Zombies.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: If you recall that one. So, you're going to see that in the game section of the store, it's starting to roll out to folks in the insider program, and we'll go from there.
Larry Hryb: Speaking of that, we had a big update last week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, we did.
Larry Hryb: You know, last week, big dashboard update, you can now customize your image.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: So, you can see my custom image. Laura, I'm waiting for yours.
Laura Massey: I know, I don't have a custom image, yet.
Larry Hryb: What are you waiting for? How about a flower?
Laura Massey: That was last year [crosstalk 00:44:04].
Larry Hryb: One of your flowers you're building.
Laura Massey: Building.
Larry Hryb: A foxglove.
Laura Massey: Flowers that I'm building.
Larry Hryb: You are kind of-
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:44:08] Dallas.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:44:09] Dallas.
Laura Massey: That's right. I don't know, what do you suggest?
Larry Hryb: Well, hmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think a necromancer.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:44:17].
Larry Hryb: Yeah. There's tons of stuff. You can take a screenshot, and figure that out. Yeah. I do wish you would change it, though. I do wish you would.
Laura Massey: Yeah. It's been a while.
Larry Hryb: I mean, I had angry toast. How long did I have angry toast?
Laura Massey: You had angry toast-
Jeff Rubenstein: For at least two years.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I had angry toast for a while-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: That was my favorite.
Jeff Rubenstein: When I see angry toast, I still think it's you.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Thank you, Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. So, my favorite feature-
Larry Hryb: When I see a cup of coffee I still think it's you.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's usually, yeah, well, because I kept it at that. No. I made it a personal one, now.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: But, I'll switch to another cup of coffee. I'll switch to a different varieties, I definitely appreciate that by looking at a cup of brown liquid, they'll know. My favorite feature for this update, and it's something we've tried out, and we need to try out again-
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is Mixer co-streaming?
Larry Hryb: Co-streaming.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Co-streaming.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, when you're playing multiplayer games, and you access the guide, you're used to seeing invite party to game-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: For instance.
Larry Hryb: You're still going to see that.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're still going to see that, but right underneath that you can see invite party to co-stream-
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: But, wait, what's that Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah-ha. So, what it means is if you're playing a multiplayer game and viewers are going to be able to see both streams, or multiple streams, I think it goes up to four-
Larry Hryb: Total four.
Jeff Rubenstein: At a time, which would be perfect for Fortnite.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: That one person can then watch all four vantage points at the same time, and with the sub second latency of Mixer, it looks really good. I was watching when we were playing, we did this with-
Larry Hryb: Overwatch.
Jeff Rubenstein: With Overwatch, maybe a month ago when we were testing it out, and I was able to watch you, and it was so close to real time that I could have played off the stream-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was very impressed with that.
Laura Massey: That is incredible.
Larry Hryb: So, I highly recommend you try that out. Co-stream, find a buddy.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Find a co-streaming buddy.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Right? Or, two, or three.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:45:54].
Larry Hryb: Right? You could do a whole bunch of folks.
Jeff Rubenstein: It is the more the merrier situation. It's kind of fun. It combines the chat, so everyone can see the same chat.
Laura Massey: Oh, that's great.
Larry Hryb: Because it will make even less sense, now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, I mean, when you're broadcasting-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It scrolls through pretty quickly.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: The average person probably, that's a one percenter-
Larry Hryb: Yeah. [crosstalk 00:46:13]. That is a problem I have. I'm sorry.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Co*streaming.
Laura Massey: Thank you.
Larry Hryb: Lots of new features coming out that are-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Available now, we talked about those, some coming out in the future, really cool stuff coming, I got a preview of some things coming out later this year, very excited. I cannot talk, cannot tell it.
Laura Massey: Ewe.
Jeff Rubenstein: I only got to everything that is in that-
Larry Hryb: That's all I can say.
Jeff Rubenstein: That new Xbox One update, another thing we're checking out is the sign in via your controller-
Laura Massey: Oh, yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, there's multiple people sharing, if kids, other folks using the Xbox at the same time, if they always use the same controller, they can just hit that nexus button, turn on the controller, and it signs them in, which is a great way of doing it.
Larry Hryb: That is right.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's how we do it.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: That is how we do it.
Laura Massey: Great.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is how we do it.
Laura Massey: Oh, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wow. Taking it way back to Montell Jordan. The year was 1995.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: God, what happened in 1995?
Larry Hryb: Was that the year it happened. Was that the OJ thing?
Jeff Rubenstein: That was.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: The trial.
Laura Massey: Was that '95?
Jeff Rubenstein: The trial.
Larry Hryb: Windows 95, OJ, the whole-
Jeff Rubenstein: Windows 95 was at the top of the charts.
Larry Hryb: That's actually when I started working for Microsoft.
Jeff Rubenstein: Really?
Larry Hryb: In 1995. Yeah.
Laura Massey: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: You've not been here 22 years.
Larry Hryb: No. I started doing contract work for them.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh.
Laura Massey: Oh. Okay.
Larry Hryb: So, when I was still in Connecticut.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Actually, I know how long you've been working here, because I heard a different podcast this week that you were on, where you talked about having been here for 14 years.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: At least worked on Xbox for 14 years.
Larry Hryb: That's right. Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: [inaudible 00:47:31] to the podcast, I guess I should point out.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a different team at Microsoft does, it's very NPR style, This American Life, like really high production values, not that this isn't.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:47:46].
Larry Hryb: Because it's not.
Jeff Rubenstein: Down a cul de sac and I pulled a 180 power slide. It's sort of that tone where it's like every inhalation is edited out, in those.
Larry Hryb: I cannot do that.
Laura Massey: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I find it so-
Jeff Rubenstein: You know it if you've edited a video before, you can hear, you never hear anyone inhale.
Larry Hryb: They do that, I've seen that on, This American Life does it a little bit-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And, they bounce back and forth, where the moment I start speaking, Laura, you would start speaking, they take out any breaths, anything in the middle, and our voices are essentially on top of each other. Now, I haven't listened to the podcast, yet, that I was on, so I don't know how they do that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. It's very well, it's a really interesting podcast. They talk about some interesting stuff. We partnered with the groups, but it's not like a Microsoft, like we talk about Xbox the whole time, they talk about a lot of different topics, but this particular episode was about independent games, and it's talking about someone who was there during the fall of, or the Iranian Revolution in like 1979, and made a video game about it.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's some interesting stuff in there, but Larry's part of that, Larry was not there for [crosstalk 00:48:53]-
Larry Hryb: I was not in the Iranian Revolution, though.
Jeff Rubenstein: You were not there at the time. But, it's a really interesting podcast, so I'll just go ahead and I'll link to it.
Larry Hryb: If you don't mind.
Jeff Rubenstein: If you want to, Larry needs to hear it.
Larry Hryb: I do.
Jeff Rubenstein: Larry needs you to hear it.
Larry Hryb: No, I don't. You're listening to this podcast, the low quality one, I believe this is what you call low rent.
Laura Massey: Oh, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is-
Larry Hryb: This is the non NPR version.
Jeff Rubenstein: This a DIY podcast. Look, can you edit that out please?
Larry Hryb: We leave breaths in the here, we leave everything in here, much to the [inaudible 00:49:22] of the audience, we leave it all in. We're not taking anything out. We will spare nothing. Anything else?
Jeff Rubenstein: No. I think that's, that.
Larry Hryb: We got to do a name the game, which is-
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: We had a winner last time, finally, after the longest running on-
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Like, ever.
Laura Massey: And, we did another one.
Larry Hryb: And, we did another one-
Laura Massey: And, awesomely enough-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: I took pity on the audience, [inaudible 00:49:41] was really easy.
Larry Hryb: Should we play the piece?
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And, then, okay. Let's go ahead and play the [inaudible 00:49:48] ...
Laura Massey: So, that was the easy name the game from last time, and you probably already guessed it, listener, the answer was Diablo III.
Larry Hryb: Yay.
Laura Massey: Of course, the Necromancer DLC
Larry Hryb: Yes. One of Laura's hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of hours of playing that.
Laura Massey: Right. I'm sure, of course, we got lots, and lots of correct-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Winners, but we took them all and picked out a random person, who guessed it correctly-
Larry Hryb: Who did? Who's our winner?
Laura Massey: The winner is Mark from Scotland.
Larry Hryb: Mark, who made no [inaudible 00:50:38].
Laura Massey: Maybe.
Larry Hryb: Or, not.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:50:39], or, not. You know, what else. His gamer tag is a feline rampage.
Larry Hryb: Great camera talk.
Laura Massey: That's awesome.
Larry Hryb: Feline rampage.
Laura Massey: So, Mark, here is what you've won.
Larry Hryb: What have you taken out of my office, this week, Laura?
Laura Massey: So, I scrounged around and somehow found a copy of this game, which strangely enough to me wasn't being played, I don't know why it wasn't being played.
Larry Hryb: Which game?
Laura Massey: Of course it was also Diablo III, the entire collection.
Larry Hryb: That's because I have a digital copy. Go ahead.
Laura Massey: That's right. Of course the eternal collection includes the Reaper of Souls-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: As well as the Necromancer DLC.
Larry Hryb: The whole thing.
Laura Massey: The whole thing. That's all you need.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Is that one game.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Trust, Laura, she never takes her disc out of the tray.
Laura Massey: That's right. I also, that's right, I don't. I also found a copy of EA Sports FIFA 17.
Larry Hryb: Sweet.
Laura Massey: For you Mark, as well as a copy of Halo Wars II, the ultimate edition.
Larry Hryb: Wow. Look at you going.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: That's where my games went. What else?
Laura Massey: I also found a copy of Minecraft Story Mode, season two.
Larry Hryb: Oh. Fun.
Laura Massey: The complete season. There you go, Mark.
Larry Hryb: Now, for something completely different.
Laura Massey: And, I also got you a copy of Xbox Game Pass-
Larry Hryb: What?
Laura Massey: For three months.
Larry Hryb: Three months of-
Jeff Rubenstein: That's really of you.
Larry Hryb: All the games you can eat.
Jeff Rubenstein: How thoughtful.
Laura Massey: That's great. Yes.
Larry Hryb: That is fantastic.
Laura Massey: I like to reward my winners, here, on name game.
Larry Hryb: Well, you do, with my stuff, so thank you for that. Anyway, congratulations-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:51:55].
Larry Hryb: Mark. Now, you're probably listening right now asking yourself, all right, I want to win, I don't know what to do, I'm confused.
Laura Massey: Right.
Larry Hryb: I'm hurt, it's raining out, my clothes are dirty, I'm lost, my phone isn't charged.
Laura Massey: Where are you going with this?
Larry Hryb: I'll just go through all the angst you feel when your young and whatnot. I wanted to tell you how you when, all you need to do is we're going to play a clip, here.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: What could it be from, Laura?
Laura Massey: It could be from any Xbox One game, Xbox One DLC, Xbox One Back Compat, any of those games.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It's not a pre-released game.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It's not a beta.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Not a beta. It's not-
Laura Massey: Spoiler alert.
Larry Hryb: It's not Destiny II.
Laura Massey: It's not Destiny II.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. There you go.
Laura Massey: It's not a beta, it's a fully released game.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: That you can go and buy-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Or, download from the store.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And, Xbox One.
Larry Hryb: So, there you go. Let's play the clip.
Laura Massey: All right. Here's the clip for this week ... All right. So, if you, too, want to win fabulous prizes like Larry said, it's super easy, you just have to send us an email. Email me, Lollipop@xbox.com and Major@xbox.com.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: Let us know what game you think those sounds are from, easy as that.
Larry Hryb: It's that easy.
Laura Massey: It's easy as that.
Larry Hryb: We take all the correct winners, put them into a virtual hat, and randomly chose one, and boom-
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: You could win.
Laura Massey: You could win.
Larry Hryb: Someone right now listening to our voices has already won, they just don't know it.
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: Da-dah.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:53:49].
Laura Massey: Very good, Larry.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Good luck to all of our listeners out there.
Larry Hryb: Please.
Laura Massey: Please send us an email Lollipop@xbox.com, and Major@xbox.com.
Larry Hryb: That's it.
Laura Massey: That's it.
Larry Hryb: That's it.
Laura Massey: Pretty easy.
Larry Hryb: Thank you very much.
Laura Massey: You're welcome.
Larry Hryb: Jeff, we got anything else? I'm kind winding down towards-
Jeff Rubenstein: What do you want to talk, you know, we never talked about new gadgets, it's been a little while.
Larry Hryb: Well, I got the new Surface Notebook, which I'm, the laptop, which I'm sporting over here in what's cobalt blue, right?
Laura Massey: It's beautiful.
Jeff Rubenstein: That is cobalt blue.
Laura Massey: It is beautiful.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Cobalt blue.
Laura Massey: Very shiny.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, as part of my job, I have to, I didn't have to, I am honored to give these to people-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: But, it pains me every time.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Because I don't have one.
Larry Hryb: You don't have one.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, I really want one.
Larry Hryb: You're like me, you give stuff away-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: All the time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which is good, that part is good.
Laura Massey: Do you think you could-
Jeff Rubenstein: But, I really want one.
Laura Massey: Give one to me.
Larry Hryb: I was going to say, you're not giving anything to Laura.
Laura Massey: That's right, if you're a giver I could-
Larry Hryb: Receive.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I suppose you are an influencer of a sort [crosstalk 00:54:41]-
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Especially amongst the botanical set.
Jeff Rubenstein: No. It really looks good, the burgundy looks really good, I would take that one in a second.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And, even the gold one is surprisingly good looking.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:54:53].
Larry Hryb: They're all good lookers.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: So, yeah, I've got that. I think I talked about this, maybe I haven't talked about this, but I put the networking system in my home the euro system-
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: That I upgraded to their pro, which is I'm testing it, I'm all mesh all the time, if you haven't gone to an all mesh network, there's a ton of different options out there. Ubiquiti has them. Orbi has them. A few other people have them. Mesh is fantastic at home.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: So, I don't really understand how it works, I don't need to know, it just works, I just know I plug them in, and all my stuff just works.
Laura Massey: Great.
Jeff Rubenstein: Build them up.
Larry Hryb: Exactly.
Jeff Rubenstein: Break them down.
Laura Massey: That's exactly what you want from a home networking solution.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: It's just working.
Larry Hryb: It's just working.
Laura Massey: Because I feel like I've never really had that experience with my home networking solution.
Larry Hryb: I can tell you this, Laura, and I want to show this to you, because it comes with a app management, I can look at the app, and I think I showed this to you, before, so that's a real time view of all the devices connected to my house, right now. How many do I-
Laura Massey: You have 50.
Larry Hryb: 50, right now.
Laura Massey: Five, zero.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Connected devices.
Larry Hryb: And, I'm not even home, yet, with my laptop, and my phone, and some other stuff-
Laura Massey: Right. It's interesting, you can look at this when you're not at home.
Larry Hryb: Right. It's [crosstalk 00:55:55].
Jeff Rubenstein: Why do you have a wifi connected toaster, Larry? Why do you need that?
Larry Hryb: Why don't you have one?
Jeff Rubenstein: Touche.
Larry Hryb: I've got all this crazy, to be honest with you, there's my gaming PC, yeah, I cannot really talk about much of this stuff, can I? No.
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: Xbox One, what?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so I've got that in there, a great system. It's a little pricey, but it is absolutely worth it, so I recommend it. Whatever you do when you're upgrading your home network, go mesh, that's all I can say.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: That's all I really have with that. What else can I talk to you about? We talked about this, I don't really have much more to say.
Laura Massey: I've got a gadget that I'm working on.
Larry Hryb: Oh, go. Go, Laura.
Laura Massey: It arrived yesterday, and I haven't had a chance to set it up, yet, but I just got a Roomba.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Laura Massey: A robotic vacuum.
Larry Hryb: That's right. A robotic vacuum.
Laura Massey: It's one of the newer models that is supposedly a lot more fancy than traditional [crosstalk 00:56:47]-
Larry Hryb: But, at the end of the day, it's just going to clean the floor, I mean how much fancy do you need?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well.
Larry Hryb: Is it going up the stairs?
Laura Massey: No. It doesn't go up the stairs.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: But, those do multiple rooms and it does do carpet and hardwood floors, and go seamlessly between the two, and it has, apparently a lot more power, and a lot more suction power than the previous models.
Larry Hryb: Which is what you always wanted in a vacuum cleaner.
Laura Massey: It does a, supposedly, a better job of vacuuming.
Larry Hryb: Can it bring you out a gin and tonic from the kitchen?
Laura Massey: That actually would be amazing.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: If only I could teach it to do that. [crosstalk 00:57:15]-
Jeff Rubenstein: If anyone in this room could-
Laura Massey: Disposable [crosstalk 00:57:17].
Jeff Rubenstein: It's you.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: I suppose we could add attachments, some robotic hands.
Larry Hryb: I get an upgrade.
Jeff Rubenstein: Larry, I know you would ask this.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Have you named it, yet.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. That's true.
Laura Massey: All right. No, I haven't named it, yet.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: I need [crosstalk 00:57:30].
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:57:34]
Larry Hryb: Let's name it, Fred.
Laura Massey: Fred, the robotic vacuum.
Larry Hryb: Stephen.
Jeff Rubenstein: Stephen.
Laura Massey: I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:57:44].
Larry Hryb: Actually, I'm sorry, I'm kind of imposing, do you think it's male or female?
Laura Massey: That's true. I don't know.
Larry Hryb: I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Don't project.
Laura Massey: I don't know either.
Larry Hryb: I don't want to, I'm sorry.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:57:51]. We could go with traditional-
Larry Hryb: Marjorie?
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:57:55].
Larry Hryb: I was going to say Martha, I think we're somewhere at [crosstalk 00:57:58]. I like that.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think Martha would be a good-
Laura Massey: Or, Marvin.
Larry Hryb: Marvin.
Laura Massey: Marvin the robot from-
Larry Hryb: Bugs Bunny?
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:58:04].
Larry Hryb: I was going to say, Bugs Bunny.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi, Marvin, I'm the robot.
Laura Massey: Or, Robbie.
Larry Hryb: Or, Robbie the robot, also a good one. That's right.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: May I humbly suggest, Jeffrey. It would make a great butler name.
Larry Hryb: It works well on a podcast.
Jeff Rubenstein: Did I tell you-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:58:19].
Jeff Rubenstein: Because that name is gone. They've essentially retired that name, and I think Larry as well.
Laura Massey: Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. My family was down at Disney, and you know they have personalized everything, those little personalized license plates-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And-
Laura Massey: Key chains.
Jeff Rubenstein: Whatever, yeah, key chains-
Laura Massey: Mugs.
Jeff Rubenstein: All this other stuff.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And, apparently I've been replaced, Jeff, is no longer there. My daughter is very upset, because she was looking for my name.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And, it goes-
Larry Hryb: Did she find hers?
Jeff Rubenstein: No. She's got pretty-
Larry Hryb: Unique name.
Jeff Rubenstein: Unique name, as well. Go straight from Jayden-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Thanks, Brittany.
Larry Hryb: Jayden.
Jeff Rubenstein: To Jenna.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Laura Massey: Oh, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, I've been replaced by Jayden and Jenna.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Jeff is no, I think if you, if I peeled off the sticker where it said Jayden, or Jenna, you would see Jeff under that.
Laura Massey: Oh, no.
Larry Hryb: Because I remember back in the day, they used to have two separate stations, there would be the male names and the female names, and now they've just combined them.
Jeff Rubenstein: Jayden could go either way.
Larry Hryb: Well, I'm not saying-
Jeff Rubenstein: Either way.
Larry Hryb: They always have Laura, don't they?
Laura Massey: Usually.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. That's a classic name.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:59:20].
Larry Hryb: They always have mine, which is-
Jeff Rubenstein: No, they don't.
Larry Hryb: They-
Laura Massey: What?
Larry Hryb: They have the proper use of my, the proper, Lawrence.
Jeff Rubenstein: Lawrence.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:59:26].
Larry Hryb: Now, is it a W or a U, and there's a whole conversation around that.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: In France, I'm sure they have it.
Larry Hryb: No, Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, Jeff.
Laura Massey: That's surprising, because I thought Jeffrey was pretty common.
Jeff Rubenstein: Nope. We're done. Yeah. Maybe in the '80s. I think if you actually looked up after that-
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:59:40].
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, you can look and you can see when did names peak in popularity, and it was basically from 1970 to 1982 there hasn't been a Jeff before or since.
Larry Hryb: Oh. That's too bad.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: Sad face.
Laura Massey: That is a sad face.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Well, okay, so we're going to name it Jeffrey.
Laura Massey: Okay. Bring back the Jeff's.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is going to be the equivalent, be transferring in my brain into a robot, so I can live forever.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: But, also vacuum. Let me tell, you name it Jeffrey, it will learn how to make that gin and tonic.
Larry Hryb: Laura I'd like to introduce you to Jeffrey, your humble servant.
Jeff Rubenstein: I just want the name to live, however-
Larry Hryb: You got to do what you got to do.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 01:00:17]. I won't stop until Disney makes that key chain.
Larry Hryb: Cannot stop, won't stop.
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb: All right, then. Anything else we want to talk about? We look forward to the report on-
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: On Jeffrey.
Laura Massey: I will give a full reports.
Larry Hryb: The robot.
Jeff Rubenstein: Thank you.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey Stephen Roomba.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. There we go. I told you this off camera, but-
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: I got a VR device. I got a-
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 01:00:39]. We talked about that a couple weeks ago.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. We did. That show didn't make it.
Larry Hryb: No. I think we did, didn't we?
Laura Massey: I don't think it did.
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb: okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was last week.
Larry Hryb: I thought it was a couple of weeks, ago.
Jeff Rubenstein: This part we will definitely-
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 01:00:49].
Larry Hryb: I don't remember. I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, I got a [inaudible 01:00:52], and I've been amercing myself in mixed reality gaming-
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was really fun. I've tried it before, like the Microsoft store, and at a couple museums, like this Game of Thrones thing. Having it in your home it definitely feels like the future. It's interesting, because the games that I enjoy on Xbox on like a 4K screen are very different than the games, I've been playing this game called Front Defense, which take place during World War II. You're in like a little foxhole-
Laura Massey: Oh, yes.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Laura Massey: This sounds awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, you don't move, like if I was playing this with a controller on a 2D screen, this would not be a good game, but in 3D it's amazingly intense.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, you're basically, there's troops, enemy troops coming down, you're in like a European sort of street, and there's like you and a couple of AI companions, and your just huddled in a foxhole-
Larry Hryb: What do you have to do, stay alive?
Jeff Rubenstein: Stay alive, basically.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: They're coming in and you've got a machine, it looks familiar from playing like Call of Duty, and Battlefield, and stuff, and you shoot until you're empty and then you literally, you take your left hand, and you pull the clip out-
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 01:01:59]-
Jeff Rubenstein: You grab another one off your belt-
Larry Hryb: Pop it in.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, jam in it, and you keep going. There's a battlemint there, but it doesn't, sort of like a machine gun-
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 01:02:09].
Jeff Rubenstein: A [inaudible 01:02:10]. Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, sometimes I'm like one handing that, and I'm keeping the machine gun in my left hand in case I need to-
Larry Hryb: You do a wheelie?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm doing wheelie.
Larry Hryb: My Lord.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 01:02:21].
Jeff Rubenstein: And, then occasionally a vehicle will come in, and you actually have like a rocket propelled grenade that you pick it up, you load it in the missile into the back, but a lot of times you're like wincing, you're like [inaudible 01:02:32].
Larry Hryb: Put a link in the show, so people can [crosstalk 01:02:34].
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know it's just so immersive, the game that-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Certain things that, and even stuff like carnival game type stuff it's just really fun in VR. Anyway I'm enjoying myself, and I'll report back if I play anything super intense. Actually, I started playing, the Arizona Sunshine, which is like a zombie game-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: That one, like one of them I missed, and I empty my clip, and it was coming at me and I like freaked, because it like lunged at me, and like you viscerally-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Recoil.
Laura Massey: Because it feels so real-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura Massey: It's coming at you, and you don't want it to come at you-
Jeff Rubenstein: You do not.
Laura Massey: So, you have [crosstalk 01:03:06].
Jeff Rubenstein: No. Exactly.
Laura Massey: Your brain says, evade, and you do.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's some interesting stuff out there, but definitely-
Laura Massey: Have you played Space Pirate Trainer.
Jeff Rubenstein: I have. It was literally the first game I got.
Laura Massey: Yeah. [crosstalk 01:03:17].
Jeff Rubenstein: This is a lot of fun, I know it's something that [crosstalk 01:03:19] big fan of.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, he talked me into it, and you just feel very empowered. You just get into it so much.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I've got the Vive at home, as well.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And, I just haven't had the-
Jeff Rubenstein: We should play some multiplayer stuff.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: I didn't know you did.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I talked about this last year. I've been playing a few things, I just haven't had, I don't have in my particular home office where I have my gear set up, I just don't have the large play space.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: So, it's
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 01:03:41].
Larry Hryb: Yeah. It's restrictive.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: So, I need to get a bigger house. Isn't that the way it works?
Jeff Rubenstein: I think my house is probably smaller than yours.
Larry Hryb: It is.
Jeff Rubenstein: The West Wing, but we did clear enough space to make it work. It doesn't need a ton.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: [inaudible 01:03:56] super fun. I'm glad you're getting into it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. You work up a sweat, I'll tell you.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 01:04:01].
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm down on my knees, I'm like hunkering down like behind these sandbags-
Laura Massey: Basically, hunkering down.
Larry Hryb: That's right, because-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 01:04:08] stretching.
Larry Hryb: We went to dinner with Jeff last week-
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And, my wife and I was at dinner with him, we met him down near his house, and he was on time, but he looked, it was rather warm that evening, and I just chalked it up, because remember, I asked you-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Did you walk down? I didn't know he was getting that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Because you looked a little tired, a little worn, your hair was a little askew.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And, I was like-
Jeff Rubenstein: No. I've been in Vive for about two hours straight.
Larry Hryb: You were apparently in a foxhole 10 minutes before.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. War never changes [inaudible 01:04:38].
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 01:04:40] yeah, thank you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: All right. Well, I think we've got, successfully have completed the show for this week.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 01:04:47].
Larry Hryb: Have we?
Laura Massey: I think we have.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 01:04:49], sorry, I don't know, it's not up to us.
Jeff Rubenstein: They've tuned out long ago.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. So, we're going to have an interesting few shows ahead of us, we've got Gamescom coming up. I won't be able to go to Gamescom this year, unfortunately, I've got a conflict, so I'm going to be taking care of that. So, we may, or not be, we've got a few shows that are going to be taking care of over August, most of the world is on holiday.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Annual leave.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I know, Laura, you said, you're going to be, you've got a-
Laura Massey: I'm going to be on some annual leave, as well.
Larry Hryb: You're going to be on annual leave, and then we'll be back. So, we may, or may not be doing some shows during August, we'll see.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: But, we will be back at [inaudible 01:05:21].
Laura Massey: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: We should do some-
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 01:05:23].
Jeff Rubenstein: Streaming in the meantime, if we have [crosstalk 01:05:24]-
Larry Hryb: Co-streaming.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. We should all get together-
Larry Hryb: Co-streaming.
Jeff Rubenstein: It would actually be a good way to have the show.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: That would be fun.
Larry Hryb: Or, something that's similar-
Jeff Rubenstein: Something similar.
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 01:05:31].
Jeff Rubenstein: Something show-isch.
Larry Hryb: Show-isch.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm down.
Larry Hryb: More nonsense. All right, gang. We'll talk to you guys next week, or whenever we can talk to you. Thank you for downloading the show and tuning in. We'll have all the details of most of what we talked about on the show, we'll put in the show notes if Jeffrey was-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, they're there.
Larry Hryb: If you want to catch up with Laura and her flowers, you can find her on Twitter.
Laura Massey: @Lauralollipop.
Larry Hryb: You can find Jeffrey, and his cheese steak ad.
Jeff Rubenstein: @jeffrubenstein.
Larry Hryb: I'm Major Nelson, we'll talk to you guys next time. You can see me every weekend, this week on Xbox on your console, or on your Twitter. See you next time. Bye-bye, everybody.
Jeff Rubenstein: See you.
Laura Massey: Bye-bye.

Lawrence Hryb: Thanks for downloading the show, this is show number 603, my name's Larry Hryb Xbox Lives Major Nelson. Joining me in the studio, Jeff Rubenstein, my trusty steed. That doesn't sound good, does it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Quit riding me Larry. Metaphorically obviously.
Lawrence Hryb: It's always good to see you. You just got back. You were away, you were on radio leave.
Jeff Rubenstein: I picked up many great ideas over the years from Graham. One of them is actually taking annual leave. So yeah, I was just down in the Bay area for fourth of July with some family. Got a little work done while I was down there.
Lawrence Hryb: That's San Francisco Southern Bay area right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, all over. Everywhere from Sacramento to the sea to shining sea I guess, I don't know.
Lawrence Hryb: All right, well welcome back up to Seattle, which is enjoying its beautiful summer.
Jeff Rubenstein: By the way, yeah San Francisco, I forgot used to live there. It's only 50 degrees.
Lawrence Hryb: It's cold.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, you can't see fireworks. Fog rolls in, so we ended up just going to see Baby Driver.
Lawrence Hryb: I heard you like that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, well I'm a huge Edgar Write fan. He's made my favorite movie of all time, which is Shawn of the Dead. He's a huge gamer, he directed Scott Pilgrim if you saw that. He just understands gamers, he himself is a huge gamer. Games have always played a big roll in a lot of the stuff he does.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I need to go see it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's worth seeing from a cinematic perspective. He crafts a great film.
Lawrence Hryb: Right, right, ooh, hello Laura.
Laura Massey: Hi.
Lawrence Hryb: We're just getting the show started. We didn't know where you were. You didn't text us, we didn't know if you were joining us, so.
Jeff Rubenstein: We call off the search.
Lawrence Hryb: Laura's ... Yeah exactly, Laura's just sitting down to her position here in the studio. It's nice to see you.
Laura Massey: Hello.
Lawrence Hryb: Hello, hello. You're welcome to ... There you go.
Laura Massey: All right I'm all seated now.
Lawrence Hryb: You're all seated, you're ready to go, you've got your seatbelt thing because it's going to be a bumpy ride. We were just talking about, what was it? Baby Driver?
Jeff Rubenstein: Baby Driver. Have you seen that movie Laura?
Laura Massey: What?
Lawrence Hryb: You haven't seen it.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's not a sequel to boss baby, which I when I first heard the title-
Lawrence Hryb: Or baby mama.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, or well I can't think of another, Bye Bye Baby, yeah that was probably a movie, right?
Laura Massey: Million Dollar Baby?
Jeff Rubenstein: Million Dollar Baby.
Lawrence Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's just basically a video game of a movie. You know car races, car chases. A good friend Blaine is in the movie.
Lawrence Hryb: Is he?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, it's John Hamm with the Blaine haircut.
Lawrence Hryb: Oh that one yeah. Don't encourage him.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's too late.
Lawrence Hryb: I forgot John was in this one. I should see how he's doing. I remember chatting with him at an event when they were shooting Mad Men. They all play X-Box during Mad Men they all played Xbox and they were telling me-
Jeff Rubenstein: It was period accurate. The original Xbox from the 70's, you know they all played that one.
Lawrence Hryb: Thank you, thank you. The one with the wood finish on the side.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. You know my first system did have wood on it.
Lawrence Hryb: Of course it did. Any self respectable consumer electronics from the 70s was wood grained. Your Magnavox TV.
Jeff Rubenstein: I had an RCA. It did have wood on the side. It gave a good sign, because this was a thing you had to actually bang on the TV if the picture was moving around. There was a time when literally you debugged things by banging on them.
Lawrence Hryb: Do you remember that Laura?
Laura Massey: I do.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I bet you I remember something that you don't remember.
Laura Massey: What's that?
Lawrence Hryb: Black and white television.
Laura Massey: Mm, my family had one old TV.
Lawrence Hryb: That was black and white? Really? Wow. That's cool.
Laura Massey: It's a small old TV.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a hipster TV.
Laura Massey: Sure was.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. My [inaudible 00:03:53] so yes, giant black thick rimmed plastic glasses. Yup. Larry doesn't like any of this.
Lawrence Hryb: No, I'm just trying to remember-
Jeff Rubenstein: Actually you have hipster glasses.
Lawrence Hryb: I'm unwinding how we got here. I'm unwinding how we got here.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wood grain.
Lawrence Hryb: Back to gaming, back to-
Jeff Rubenstein: Mad Man.
Lawrence Hryb: Baby Driver.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Lawrence Hryb: That's what it was. You know what movie I'm excited about seeing?
Jeff Rubenstein: Let's hear it.
Lawrence Hryb: I bought tickets for it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Spider Man?
Lawrence Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know.
Lawrence Hryb: Dunkirk.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah.
Lawrence Hryb: I'm very excited for Dunkirk.
Laura Massey: I haven't heard of this.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're seeing it because Harry's in it, right?
Lawrence Hryb: No, I'm seeing it because it is one of the greatest ... I mean there were many many many many fascinating stories that came out of World War Two, this is one of them.
Jeff Rubenstein: Right, but I think there's a generation of people that will be seeing it because Harry Styles is in it.
Lawrence Hryb: Okay, whatever.
Jeff Rubenstein: The movie was trending yesterday.
Lawrence Hryb: I'm not seeing it because of that. I'm not seeing it because of that. See, because, because-
Jeff Rubenstein: You're going to come for the historical nature and you're going to stay-
Lawrence Hryb: I'm going to stay for the haircut. No, actually it's interesting because I think you and I have talked about this. There's something that happens, Laura, and you and I have talked about this, there's something happens genetically as a male, whenever there's anything on for World War One or World War any war movie we have to stop and watch it.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's me with the Naked Gun. That movie is so funny.
Lawrence Hryb: Oh is it? Is there a movie that stops you dead in your tracks Laura? Like I have to watch when it's on TV or something. Do you have one?
Laura Massey: Lord of The Rings, Indiana Jones.
Lawrence Hryb: Okay, that's fine.
Laura Massey: Any of those.
Lawrence Hryb: Any of those. All right. I can appreciate that.
Jeff Rubenstein: So after everyone was rescued from Dunkirk and they were brought back to England a lot of them ended up in Dover.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I actually visited Dover.
Lawrence Hryb: The white cliffs of Dover.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Last December, it was really cool. They have an underground military hospital underneath a castle. That area is high ground, right on the water. It's been strategically useful since Roman days. So on this one site you have everything from a 2000 year old Roman era-
Lawrence Hryb: Bath.
Jeff Rubenstein: Probably, maybe at one point.
Laura Massey: Probably at one point.
Jeff Rubenstein: A bit leaky these days. Yeah so like a rampart or something and then there's the main castle, which was built in the game of thrones era. Great documentary, can't wait for the next season. And then all the way up through World War Two. It's really a very cool place to visit.
Lawrence Hryb: Thank you.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm just trying to make you feel good about it.
Lawrence Hryb: This section of the broadcast brought to you by the this tourism board of the United Kingdom.
Jeff Rubenstein: South Eastern England.
Lawrence Hryb: Visit the UK on your annual holiday.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly, on annual leave.
Lawrence Hryb: On annual leave. Anyway, we should talk about what we're playing since we like to talk about games in this podcast. No we're not getting to you Laura. I know what you're going to talk about. We'll get to you in a minute. We'll start with you since you actually were very excited about your diabolo.
Laura Massey: When you emailed saying "Are we still on for the show recording?" I was like, "Yes, I am I'm ready to talk about-"
Lawrence Hryb: Diabolo, you played a lot of diabolo. Did you know I joined your party?
Laura Massey: No, I didn't know that.
Lawrence Hryb: You didn't know. You left the party open, your game party and I joined it.
Laura Massey: I didn't even know that.
Lawrence Hryb: I didn't think it gave you ... I don't know who you were playing with, but it was-
Laura Massey: No notification.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I didn't think ... It Join You puts the characters on the main screen and I wasn't quite in your session. I was kind of in your lobby, but you didn't get a notification about it.
Laura Massey: No, it didn't say a player has joined your lobby or anything like that.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, no.
Laura Massey: So did you see my outfit? Or my-
Lawrence Hryb: No, I guess I did, but I was like oh, she probably doesn't want me here. So I left quickly. It was one of those awkward moments. Where you open the door and oh she's in the middle of something so I left.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Lawrence Hryb: But I did not. I'm sure it was glorious.
Laura Massey: It was glorious.
Lawrence Hryb: Let's talk about the game.
Laura Massey: Yes, so I've been a one track gamer this week and have just played Diabolo-
Jeff Rubenstein: This week she says.
Lawrence Hryb: This week, yeah. This week. Keep her honest internet.
Laura Massey: I've been playing the Neck Romancer, offer Diabolo Three.
Lawrence Hryb: What level are you?
Laura Massey: 62, I think.
Lawrence Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: Almost to the level cap of 70, which is ... Well, I think I have three or four characters that are 70, so I'm excited to get the Neck Romancer up to 70 and finally use all of the fantastic equipment that I've been saving in my stash.
Lawrence Hryb: You have lots of gear.
Laura Massey: Level 70 characters.
Lawrence Hryb: Nice.
Laura Massey: Yeah. Its been super fun. I have probably like this one just as much as the wizard, which is my favorite class. So if you haven't had a chance to jump in, I highly recommend it. It's just a bunch of fun mayhem. Still doing [crosstalk 00:08:22]
Lawrence Hryb: Fun mayhem.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lawrence Hryb: That's it, in fact that's what it says on the back of the box. Fun mayhem!
Laura Massey: Fun plus mayhem equals Diabolo.
Jeff Rubenstein: A friend of mine was telling me he was able to get his Neck Romancer up to level 70 in two hours.
Laura Massey: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: He had some sort of gem of something, of leveling that got him back-
Laura Massey: To the legendary gem of leveling or something like that.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll connect you two off line.
Laura Massey: Yeah, I would love to know how he did it in two hours, because I've been playing mine for I don't know five, six hours and I'm almost a 70. I have all kinds of awesome gear, but I apparently am missing something.
Lawrence Hryb: I think it's called the game genie.
Laura Massey: I had one of those.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, a throwback.
Jeff Rubenstein: The legendary gem of time management I think.
Laura Massey: Yes, probably so. I must have this gear that I don't have.
Lawrence Hryb: Call you intrigued.
Laura Massey: I am intrigued.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes, all right. So you're playing and you're having fun. You're playing a lot of it?
Laura Massey: Playing a lot of it yes, that's probably all I've been playing this week is Diabolo.
Lawrence Hryb: I can confirm that's all you've been playing. It's not probably, I can confirm it. I was watching. Every time I look at my friends list, Laura's on Diabolo.
Laura Massey: I am.
Lawrence Hryb: I opened it up to get started, but a couple of people that I was playing with, they were so far ahead of me. It just, I was like forget it. And then I went and played over watch. Yeah, that's my overwatch is your Diabolo, or your Diabolo is my Overwatch. Yeah, anyway, good for you.
Laura Massey: I see. That's all I have been playing. I can confirm it is fun.
Lawrence Hryb: Okay. Jeffery.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes sir.
Lawrence Hryb: What you up to?
Jeff Rubenstein: So I've been traveling for the last week.
Lawrence Hryb: Down to the Bay area as fore mentioned.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, but much like I would do if I was here, still played video games. I was over a friends house and he was like, "Have you ever played Injustice Two?" I really don't play a lot of fighting games these days. Mostly because the people I used to play fighting games with live in the Bay area and so there's just not a lot of ... I always like to-
Lawrence Hryb: You know there's this thing called Xbox Live.
Jeff Rubenstein: I agree, but for me, fighting games having grown up in the arcades, in person is always-
Lawrence Hryb: Shoulder to shoulder.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly, because there's sort of a physical element and you're sort of jockeying for position and whatever. We played a little bit of that and oh my God it is really really good. The amount of detail, visual quality, I mean you expect all these things from Nether Realm and the first injustice was very good, but the level. It feels like it is the apex of what I feel like that team has made in terms of quality. It was really cool. Even in the characters to Lex Screen and he's using the Flash. He's sort of taunting the other character. They sort of mess with each other. There's so much context sensitive things that happen. You probably know this if you've already played Injustice Two, but if you haven't ... And I'm not huge into the DC world. On paper, I shouldn't be into this game at all, I really was. I took to using Supergirl, who is voiced by ... Very quickly I was like, "Man I know that voice."
Lawrence Hryb: Who is it?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's Laura Bailey who voices-
Lawrence Hryb: Oh Laura.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Among many many other people Kate Diaz from Dears Four.
Lawrence Hryb: She's delightful.
Jeff Rubenstein: She's awesome. She's a huge talent. I actually looked at some of the voice talent in this, this prestigious voice talent on this game. C. Thomas Howell voices somebody. There's Hollywood actors, there's people that have been doing Batman from the Arkham days. There's a weird mix of very prominent folks. Anyway, definitely a ringing endorsement for Injustice Two and I think I'm going to have to pick that up myself.
Laura Massey: Is the Joker in Injustice Two?
Jeff Rubenstein: The Joker is, he looks very young in this. It's like a young very sassy Joker, baby Joker.
Laura Massey: Who voices that character? Do you remember?
Jeff Rubenstein: You know I have to look that up.
Laura Massey: I have a bit of nerd trivia for you.
Lawrence Hryb: Oh?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Lawrence Hryb: Go on.
Laura Massey: Do you know who voices the Joker in the animated series of Batman?
Jeff Rubenstein: We all know that.
Lawrence Hryb: It's Mark Hamill.
Laura Massey: Yes, it's Mark Hamill.
Lawrence Hryb: Who else would it be? Who else would it be?
Laura Massey: Well, there's been a lot of voices of Joker, of people who played Joker in movies.
Lawrence Hryb: But if you played any of the Batman games of which he's been in, he is stop you dead in your tracks amazing. That's one of my favorite characters. He's a little bit ... Although, he reminds me, which I'll bring it back to games because you haven't played it that much Laura, but in Overwatch we have Junkrat, he's got a little bit of, Junkrat has a little bit of Joker tendencies. Jeffery, would you agree with that?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh very much. He says some of the funniest stuff. I don't use him too often, but occasionally we'll play mystery heroes and he's very funny.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, he's very very funny.
Jeff Rubenstein: Scott Porter plays Robin. Scott Porter, he's a friend of Xbox shows ... One of these folks is always at E3, big fan. Fred Tedacy who has done a ton of voices, he is the voice of both Bane and Swamp Thing-
Lawrence Hryb: Bane.
Jeff Rubenstein: If you look him up you'll see a ton of stuff that he's done.
Lawrence Hryb: Voices for Injustice Two, play it now on Xbox, what are you waiting for?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, and you should.
Lawrence Hryb: You can even play it over Xbox Live.
Laura Massey: You could.
Lawrence Hryb: Jeffery.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know, I know, I know. Yeah, the voice of the Joker is not someone I'm familiar with. It's not Mark Hamill.
Lawrence Hryb: A great unknown.
Jeff Rubenstein: But this is a very different Joker.
Lawrence Hryb: All right, so you're down at the Bay area, you play this, what else you do? What else you play?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, then I got back into Dishonored Two, which is a fantastic game. I just don't like killing people in these games. It's a very challenging game, even more than the first one I feel like in terms of keeping Stealth and I told myself I wouldn't reload when I mess up and I'm detected and I end up in the middle of a blood bath, but I'm doing that so it's going to take me forever to behave with this. It's really good.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, it's kind of a quiet period right now for gaming. In terms of releases and what not.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's not that quiet though.
Lawrence Hryb: Why not? Well, there's a lot going on. And there's been some news coming out.
Laura Massey: Oh yeah?
Lawrence Hryb: We got Doom Fest coming for Overwatch. Okay, I'm sorry Jeffery.
Jeff Rubenstein: all right let's talk about Doom Fest, it's killing me. Doom Fest was announced right before we started filming today and I really like this character for Overwatch, needless to say. Doom Fest had been teased for quite some time.
Lawrence Hryb: And he's part of the Lore.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, exactly. And you heard the name and the design. I was envisioning someone like Fanos or some over the top super villain type of character. The reality is the designs really cool.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, well you'll link off to the show notes, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, I'll link off to the trailer. They made a, they being Blizzard made an anime style.
Lawrence Hryb: As they often do.
Jeff Rubenstein: If you go to Play Over Watch then you'll see screen shots and things. Maylay, mostly Maylay character. I feel like he's an offensive minded Reinhardt. We have someone who can go toe to toe with Reinhardt.
Lawrence Hryb: He's got a massive punch.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think that can be really cool. Sometimes when Reinhardt's in the right position it's really hard to get after and you need to keep your distance. There's not necessarily a great foil to that, obviously you can be countered, but-
Lawrence Hryb: Catch phrase.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... It's more like like one on one. There's always a character who ... I feel like for any character there's always that one who you don't want to run into in a corridor or something like that.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I know that's the story of my life.
Jeff Rubenstein: Now, I think Reinhardt's got that.
Lawrence Hryb: All right, anyway.
Jeff Rubenstein: We'll find out when we start playing coming soon.
Lawrence Hryb: Some other really exciting news, Jeffery you're going to get that ready, why don't you call it up.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh I'm ready. Are we talking about the Halo Summer Celebration.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes we are. Yes we are, yes we are.
Jeff Rubenstein: So great news, 4K coming to Halo Five.
Lawrence Hryb: Halo Five Guardians for you, it's going to play best Onyx, Box One X.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, so very much looking forward to seeing that. That update will be coming along with the release of Xbox One X later this year and 343 will be sharing more as we get closer to that release of course. And of course Xbox One X is releasing on November seventh. Really just four months. It's not that far away.
Lawrence Hryb: And just when you thought you had a lot of Halo in your Xbox One, we're going to dump more in.
Laura Massey: Oh really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yes.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes we are.
Jeff Rubenstein: So thanks to the magic of backwards compatibility Halo Three, Halo Three ODST, Halo Four, and Halo Comet Evolved Anniversary, CE anniversary you may call it. All of these games are going to be coming to Xbox One through backwards compatibility.
Lawrence Hryb: I'm just looking at this and I've been involved in some way or another with all these games and I'm starting to feel old.
Jeff Rubenstein: You go back a ways.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I was just look at wow. Anyway, look at this, this is great.
Jeff Rubenstein: So there's some cool stuff here. You'll be able to pop the disc. I know a lot of people ... I still have, I'm still sitting on my Halo Two disc.
Lawrence Hryb: Are you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Of course.
Lawrence Hryb: Guns up or down?
Jeff Rubenstein: Huh?
Lawrence Hryb: Guns up or down?
Jeff Rubenstein: I think up.
Laura Massey: I didn't realize there was a choice.
Lawrence Hryb: There is, well I don't know if it made it to the box open. I remember when we were releasing, I'm pretty sure it was Halo Two there was-
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going to have to go back and look.
Lawrence Hryb: We had two different pieces of key art, because in some countries when guns were ... When Master Chief had his guns pointing up and I'm doing that, listeners you can't see it, but I have my two fingers up. When they were gun ... It was considered aggressive. If you go back and look at some of the imagery the guns are down so it's less aggressive. So guns up or guns down.
Jeff Rubenstein: Little, little-
Lawrence Hryb: Little trivia for you. Things you learn. I do have another story to tell and please remind me to tell this later on in the show, it's about gamer pictures.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, all right we'll do that. I know what you're wondering now.
Lawrence Hryb: What am I wondering?
Jeff Rubenstein: These games are coming out, backwards compatibility, what about the map packs, what about the DLC?
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, what's up with those Jeffery?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, how about they're going to be free. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Lawrence Hryb: Free as in no charge Jeff?
Jeff Rubenstein: Why, that's exactly what I mean. Although, I'm sure there's an asterisks somewhere that says you may have to pay for your internet bill. But yes, so every 360 Halo Add On Map Pack in the Xbox store will be made available for free.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: So that this way everybody can play everything.
Laura Massey: It's fantastic news.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a good time to get that larger hard drive, between that and Xbox game pass and games gold, and everything else.
Lawrence Hryb: Of course if you're a Halo fan the 343 team will be down at RTX in Austin. July seventh through the ninth, which is pretty much as we're recording this so if you can make it have fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Man, yeah.
Lawrence Hryb: Awesome, that's a nice place.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a lot of stuff. So everything on there-
Lawrence Hryb: You've been there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Halo Wars Two all the stuff there's going to be a new premium expansion that's going to be after the season pass wraps up called awakening the nightmare. There's a lot of Halo stuff including the Archaic stuff you just mentioned. I will just link over to the Halo Summer Celebration stuff.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, that's the guns up for.
Laura Massey: Yeah, I was definitely remembering guns up for Halo Two, I just looked it up.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah and I may have been, you're showing this to me on your phone, there may have been I think guns up and guns down that may have been an option for the little standup's we made. The little statues. I do remember this conversation. Can I tell our gamer picture story now?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh sure.
Lawrence Hryb: So there was this question on Reddit about a month ago where people were talking about gamer pictures because custom gamer pictures were coming to Xbox One, to all Xbox one members very soon. Some people are testing them out too. Have you customized yours yet Laura?
Laura Massey: Not yet.
Lawrence Hryb: I have.
Laura Massey: I've seen it.
Lawrence Hryb: I'm sorry.
Jeff Rubenstein: We talked about this last week.
Laura Massey: You didn't tell me what the story was behind it though.
Lawrence Hryb: About which one?
Laura Massey: Your custom gamer.
Lawrence Hryb: Well mine is if you look at it, if you go to Uptown Major Nelson, it's the same one I have my Twitter account, which is me holding a Scorpio chip in my mouth.
Jeff Rubenstein: How does it taste? Is it better or worse than a switch cartridge?
Lawrence Hryb: I can tell you this. It's better. I will say this is that it's actually taped to my mouth, because we had a little bit of show business to make it happen. The story is around, and Laura I've got to implore you to see if you can search for this one, back when we shipped 360, we had a series of gamer pictures that they were just the stock ones, there was about a dozen. Do you remember them?
Laura Massey: Oh yes.
Lawrence Hryb: One of them was a young boy with a hat on, could have been a young boy could have been a young girl, we don't know, but they were blowing a bubble a balloon. Do you remember that one?
Laura Massey: Yes I do.
Lawrence Hryb: Okay so the story, so Reta this is for you because you've been asking me I wanted to share this. So what happened was when we had contracted the series of artists back in the day to create these, because they were all very different pieces of art and what happened was we got from this particular artist from another part of the world this great piece of art with this young person with the hat on, they had a beanie on it, it had a great tone to it.
Laura Massey: I remember bluish.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, maybe it was blue or gray. Did you find it yet? I know you're searching.
Laura Massey: I'm looking for it.
Lawrence Hryb: If you look at it, they're blowing a bubble, Jeff, you know bubble gum. What happened was is when we got it in the original character was smoking a cigarette. We realized that probably wasn't the best to show, so we went back to the artist and had them rework it to show a balloon instead of smoking a cigarette, so that's-
Jeff Rubenstein: You shouldn't smoke balloons either though.
Lawrence Hryb: No, well bubble gum, it was bubble gum. So anyway, I'll see if I can find that image, the original image somewhere, Laura if you haven't found it yet. We'll link off.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know exactly what you mean.
Lawrence Hryb: You know which one I'm talking about though, you can look it up if you want. You can just look up original gamer pictures and you'll see an Xbox 360. That is my story about the original gamer pictures. One of them. I have a ton of little stories.
Jeff Rubenstein: When are you writing a book?
Lawrence Hryb: Who wants to hear the story that I have to tell?
Jeff Rubenstein: The people that are listening to this podcast. You're still here, right?
Lawrence Hryb: I'm still here. They're still here, they're listening. It was exactly that one. It was the one next to the ... See it Jefferey? Here, let me-
Jeff Rubenstein: All right send that over to me. So yeah, one of our friends is still using that pirate. He refuses to change it.
Lawrence Hryb: And then the rings, do you remember what the rings were called? I think it was just the rings of color. The rings of light?
Laura Massey: The green?
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, the green, all the different circles, the concentric circles. Oh back in the day.
Jeff Rubenstein: I remember when Matt and ... God, I feel like some of the first paid ones were NFL ones that came from that end. I remember I had a Philly one.
Lawrence Hryb: Right. Gamer pictures were big back in the day. So anyway, features coming very soon for all Xbox One members where you're going to be able to pretty much use any photo. Yes, Laura.
Laura Massey: Since you're being nostalgic.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: Do you remember when we shipped the camera for Xbox 360 and then you had-
Lawrence Hryb: The vision cam.
Laura Massey: Yes, the vision cam and you could take a picture of it and set it as your private gamer picture.
Lawrence Hryb: Right, because back in the day we had two concepts. We had a private and a public. Because the concept being if it was private, you probably don't want somebody on your friend's list who's showing you something you find offensive.
Laura Massey: Right.
Lawrence Hryb: There were other uses for that camera too in Uno, but we won't go into that in this show. I think that's best for everybody.
Jeff Rubenstein: I did play a lot of Texas Hold 'em. That was one of the first games to also use it.
Lawrence Hryb: You know who loved that game was Step Toe. He played it all the time.
Laura Massey: He loved it.
Jeff Rubenstein: I played way more of that than I played actual Texas Hold 'Em, which is good because I'm not that good at it.
Lawrence Hryb: Well, you're the perfect person tat they want to play I believe.
Jeff Rubenstein: I suppose that's true.
Lawrence Hryb: Anyway, so we're going to, let's go through and hit some more of that news.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so great news for fans of Shadow of Mordor, or folks that are excited about Shadow of War. This is a game that I beat in 2014, I think was my ... I have a reason to go back and so do you. The team is updating and adding an orc forge to the game. The nemesis forge. So basically you're going to be able to bring over some of your choices into Shadow of War.
Lawrence Hryb: Oh?
Jeff Rubenstein: So your biggest nemesis and also your best ally, that orc will be able to come into the new game.
Lawrence Hryb: Laura love that, you love that game.
Jeff Rubenstein: Even if you haven't played it in a very long time, oh such a great game.
Lawrence Hryb: What did you ... I mean I never got into the game, is it because of the history and the lore and the IP? Is that what really got you? I mean the gameplay was solid.
Laura Massey: That was the initial hook, but what kept me there was-
Lawrence Hryb: Was the game play.
Laura Massey: Was the game play and leveling system. The way that you felt when you were playing the game.
Lawrence Hryb: The combat loop, yeah.
Laura Massey: Because you felt awesome while you were playing that game.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, at the very beginning it's like you're sneaking around. It's almost all stealth, but as you get more and more powerful you can confidently walk into the middle of a base and it's like come at me.
Laura Massey: Exactly. I can take all these orcs.
Jeff Rubenstein: Come at me bro.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was right at the peak of come at me bro, back when you could say that non ironically.
Lawrence Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: I remember that feeling distinctly. I remember starting the game just trying to find a normal orc and I kept dying. I continued leveled up, got more and more powers, and then eventually I'm running on rooftops saying "Yeah, come at me." Exactly.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's just like I dare you.
Lawrence Hryb: Laura's saying come at me, I don't know why I just enjoy that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Laura had pioneered come at me.
Lawrence Hryb: A lot of people don't know that.
Jeff Rubenstein: At the campus of UT Austin.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, that's right, that's right back in the day.
Jeff Rubenstein: Come at me, sir.
Lawrence Hryb: Come at me, bro.
Laura Massey: It was one of the most polished game frames I played in a while.
Lawrence Hryb: Come at me y'all.
Jeff Rubenstein: So it's great news for those of us who already have it. If you do not have Shadow of Mordor-
Lawrence Hryb: Then what are you waiting for? Because-
Jeff Rubenstein: However, you can play it right now.
Lawrence Hryb: Right now.
Jeff Rubenstein: For free as part of Xbox Live Gold free play days.
Lawrence Hryb: Go download it.
Jeff Rubenstein: This goes through basically midnight this coming Sunday.
Lawrence Hryb: Wait a minute, is that another free item coming for Xbox owners? We have the Halo Maps.
Jeff Rubenstein: It never ends.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I don't even know, Jeffery, I don't know what to say.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, you open your door to us and we're-
Lawrence Hryb: The free train keeps coming down the tracks. Toot, toot.
Laura Massey: Oh goodness.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Can we get back on track? Who knows.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think you're missing out that you didn't do a crazy Larry sketch for the Ultimate Game Sale this year. You're getting it out of your system a little bit at a time.
Lawrence Hryb: We're working on something. Actually, you know what I got to tell you a story, we're working on a special crazy Larry sketch for Christmas.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Lawrence Hryb: A really good one.
Laura Massey: Already?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, you're planning this far ahead.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I've been planning for a year. It's going to be, hopefully, if we can pull it off it will be at Beck, that's all.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're going to use your microphone, your Price is Right microphone?
Lawrence Hryb: Okay I got to tell you what it is. I'm going to pause, I'm going to tell you. You ready? So that's what we're going to do.
Laura Massey: No way.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is perfect, this is perfect.
Lawrence Hryb: Isn't it?
Jeff Rubenstein: This is perfects. Now I know why you have to plan six months in advance.
Laura Massey: Yeah, that takes a lot of planning.
Lawrence Hryb: Any way, all right.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, so that's amazing. So anyway, if you don't have Shadow of Mordor, you can play it for free between probably the time you hear this and July 9th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific, so this coming Sunday and even after that, the game is on sale for 80% off.
Lawrence Hryb: Eight, zero.
Jeff Rubenstein: Eight, zero, I mean it's a-
Laura Massey: A lot of percents.
Lawrence Hryb: Is that 499?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's like four bucks, it's four bucks.
Lawrence Hryb: It's less than the cost of a latte in most major countries.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, that is for what is easily one of the best games of the generation.
Laura Massey: Yes, that is a fantastic deal, there's no reason to say no.
Lawrence Hryb: As Jeff would say, just a deal.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's what I say all the time. A little bit more news here. The story move trailer for season two of Minecraft story mode is now available. If you're into Minecraft story mode season one, the combination of tell tale and the good folks at Muyang, well then more is on the way and you can see a bit of that. The ultimate game sell that we were referring to is still going on. It goes up to July 10th.
Lawrence Hryb: Last chance.
Jeff Rubenstein: Again, games up to and above 80% life.
Lawrence Hryb: Go empty that piggy bank, lots of games to grab.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll link you. There's this site that I found called Major Nelson.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: That has everything, including links. God I feel bad for whoever had to put that together.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes, that was a beast.
Jeff Rubenstein: It is a lot.
Lawrence Hryb: It's a beast.
Jeff Rubenstein: Even just scrolling my arm is cramping because it takes so long. I'll link out to that again and this is a great time in these dog days of summer to pick up some great deals. It's Christmas in July.
Laura Massey: It is Christmas in July.
Lawrence Hryb: What are you crazy Larry for you got it. Insane Jeffery.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura Massey: Insane Jeffery, insane deals.
Jeff Rubenstein: Where you grew up did they have a place called Crazy Eddies?
Lawrence Hryb: Yes, that's what Crazy Larry-
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, that's where I bought my Nintendo when I was nine years old.
Lawrence Hryb: Well it was because you grew up in Philadelphia. Laura, I don't know if we've ever talked about this, but Crazy Eddie was big in the North East. He was specifically in the New York area. They would buy late night TV spots and it was exactly ... Go look them up on YouTube.
Jeff Rubenstein: As a kid I thought it was hilarious because he's basically just yelling at you.
Lawrence Hryb: He's yelling at you for 30 seconds.
Laura Massey: Is it like Vern Funk here?
Lawrence Hryb: No. Like way-
Laura Massey: Way more crazy?
Lawrence Hryb: Way crazy.
Jeff Rubenstein: Turn up 15.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, exactly. Didn't he ultimately get indited for something?
Jeff Rubenstein: I think-
Lawrence Hryb: There was legal issues.
Jeff Rubenstein: He was not so much crazy as he was immoral Eddie I think. We'll have to look that up.
Lawrence Hryb: Anyway, that was yes, Crazy Eddie, his prices were insane.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll see if can find a video [crosstalk 00:28:46]
Lawrence Hryb: Oh, there's a bunch on YouTube, I remember looking at them, because I remember when we started doing Crazy Larry I had to show the editors, I'm like you don't remember Crazy Larry and as a child of the east coast this person didn't know it. I had to show it to them and now he gets it.
Laura Massey: I see. Was that your research your inspiration?
Lawrence Hryb: Oh absolutely. I make no bones about it. All right, that's the news. You know what the great news is though this week Laura?
Laura Massey: What is the great news?
Lawrence Hryb: The great news is we have a name the game winner. Exactly.
Jeff Rubenstein: I thought this was going to go on forever. We kept rolling the pot over.
Lawrence Hryb: It kept going and the pot as is at 43.4 million dollars. No it's not. No it's not at all. That's a lie there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Name your power ball.
Lawrence Hryb: We're exciting because we do have a name the game winner. I was so excited when we finally ... This was a particularly difficult one.
Laura Massey: It was and we gave a hand question.
Lawrence Hryb: All right, so shall we play it?
Laura Massey: Yeah lets play name the games from last time. So that was name the game from last time. It's the first name the game in history that we didn't have a correct the first time we played.
Lawrence Hryb: Right we had to actually do it again.
Laura Massey: So we had to do it again and we gave a hint and the hint was, it was a space game.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes, and you want to know there's another meta hint that I gave.
Laura Massey: Oh really.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I actually played it on my console for a few days right after last weeks show. If you were watching my profile you could see it pop up there.
Laura Massey: That is a mega handful. But we do have a winner this time around, which means it worked. And the winner is-
Lawrence Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: Brad from California. I don't know the name of your city. I can't pronounce it.
Lawrence Hryb: Let me take a look. Let's take a look here. Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: I would have guessed it would have been Mario 64.
Lawrence Hryb: It is Temecula?
Jeff Rubenstein: Temecula, yes it's in So Cal.
Laura Massey: Temecula.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, okay well hopefully if it's in southern California I'll see him at Comic-con, which I'll talk about in a minute.
Laura Massey: Congratulations Brad, you correctly named the game and the game was Planetbase.
Lawrence Hryb: Yay!
Laura Massey: Good job. The game of tag is Big Bad, which is a pretty good game of tag.
Lawrence Hryb: Big Bad.
Jeff Rubenstein: What does he win?
Lawrence Hryb: What does he ... Oh you know what? Laura always finds stuff in my office on my desk, under my desk, behind my desk.
Jeff Rubenstein: In the couch cushions.
Lawrence Hryb: Everywhere. What did you find this week, Laura?
Laura Massey: I found some really great stuff for you. First you're going to get a copy of Planetbase.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, of course.
Laura Massey: Which is the name the game-
Lawrence Hryb: Which means you probably already have it, but go ahead.
Laura Massey: Right, and-
Jeff Rubenstein: Gift it to a friend.
Laura Massey: You also get a copy of the Golf club too.
Lawrence Hryb: Very difficult. I've been playing that.
Laura Massey: Have you?
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, it's no joke, I'll just say that.
Laura Massey: I see, good so you'll get some good golf practice in. But that's not all, you also get Podcast favorite, Overwatch game of the year.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Which hopefully we'll have the new characters.
Lawrence Hryb: Just in time for Doom Fest, what?
Laura Massey: You'll also get Podcast favorite Diabolo Three Eternal selection.
Jeff Rubenstein: What's this?
Lawrence Hryb: What is this? Where did you find that?
Laura Massey: Which also has-
Lawrence Hryb: I didn't even know I had that in my office.
Laura Massey: That one has the Necromancer dealsy pack added in.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, all there.
Laura Massey: So it's Reaper of Souls and Necromancer.
Lawrence Hryb: This is like $100 already. Go ahead.
Laura Massey: This is fantastic. That's not all.
Lawrence Hryb: What?
Laura Massey: I also found a copy of a token for the Xbox game pass for three months.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, we'll give you three months of game pass, which is access to over 100 games.
Laura Massey: Congratulations Brad, you did a great job of getting this really difficult name the game and we've rewarded you thusly.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, well done my friend. Jeff you seem to-
Jeff Rubenstein: I should have studied harder. I should have put more into it.
Lawrence Hryb: You know you're mother and I have been saying that. When you were in high school and college you should have studied harder.
Jeff Rubenstein: I had so much potential and here I am now.
Lawrence Hryb: You didn't unlock it.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm just sitting here, watching you fumble with the USB.
Lawrence Hryb: Kvetching. I hate USB.
Laura Massey: You know they're supposed to change it.
Lawrence Hryb: I know three times.
Laura Massey: Oh no, they're supposed to change the design of USB.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, it's USBC.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah USBC.
Lawrence Hryb: Which is even worse because it pretends to be a standard, but it's no where near a standard. There's Thunderbolt Three, there's power delivery, it's a nightmare. I was talking with a couple of people about this. Anyway, congratulation to you Brad from Southern California. By the way, I'll be at Comic-con.
Laura Massey: Oh great.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah I'm going to Comic-con in a few weeks.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is your comic book finally coming out?
Lawrence Hryb: No, my superhero comic book has been put on hold, Crazy Larry saves the earth has been put on hold.
Jeff Rubenstein: I pre-ordered issue number one.
Lawrence Hryb: Atomic Man.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, I'm going to retire on that. Detective video game comics.
Lawrence Hryb: Oh boy, but yeah I'll be down at Comic-con, I'll have more details on that probably next week, but I'll be down there. Hey, we've got to do another name the game.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Lawrence Hryb: All right, so that means the slate is clean, we've reset the odometer to zero and we're ready to go again.
Laura Massey: Let's do another name the game. All right, so that was name the game for this week. If you too would like to win some fabulous prizes, super easy all you have to do is send me an email, lollypop@Xbox.com and major@Xbox.com with what game you think that is.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It is going to be a game that is on the Xbox One, it could be DLC-
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, could be DLC.
Laura Massey: It could be an indie game.
Lawrence Hryb: ID @Xbox.
Laura Massey: Could be an ID @Xbox game, and Xbox one. It could be a back compact.
Lawrence Hryb: Could be a backward compatible game.
Jeff Rubenstein: I just hope it's easy.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah I think-
Laura Massey: Maybe this week I'll take a little bit easier.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, we should make it easier this week, Laura right? Just since we went for two whole months, basically two whole months without a winner.
Laura Massey: That's right. Maybe a little easier this week. Maybe, we'll see. We'll see if I'm feeling generous.
Lawrence Hryb: All right, so that's what you need. Send me an email at major@Xbox.com, lollypop@Xbox.com, include your game tag, where you're from if you'd like and if we can use it on the air. That won't impact your odds of winning, but we'd love to have you join us.
Laura Massey: Exactly.
Lawrence Hryb: It's as simple as that. You know I give stuff away all the time on Twitter. If you follow me on Twitter. Free code Friday.
Laura Massey: Free code what day?
Lawrence Hryb: Well, we usually do it on a Friday. I started doing that back in, I don't remember.
Jeff Rubenstein: Twitter's only 10 years old Larry, so.
Lawrence Hryb: I've been on it for 10 years, you know that.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know, I had my 10 year anniversary last week.
Lawrence Hryb: Did they tell you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, you get a little notification. You've probably been on more than that.
Laura Massey: Yes, I would say.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think you probably about six months because it came out the end of 2006.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I was on then.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh you were very quick.
Lawrence Hryb: I was on that early.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, one could say.
Lawrence Hryb: One could say. Laura was on it.
Laura Massey: I was. I remember initially being against it. And then-
Lawrence Hryb: No, you weren't as against it as he was.
Laura Massey: But not as against it as he was.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah he was ... I mean very rarely do I use the term. He was violently opposed to it. Not anymore. Now it's all dogs and food.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly what he was afraid it would become.
Lawrence Hryb: Exactly. He is the problem. Oh I wish we had him on to defend himself. Anyway, that was name the game. Good luck to you all. We got all the headlines. We'll have a lot of things we talk about in the show will be in the show notes at majornelson.com on the show. Also, I don't know if a lot of people don't know this, I tweeted this out last week, but for every show for the past two years, we do transcripts.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Lawrence Hryb: So if you-
Jeff Rubenstein: Right now this transcription expert is transcribing these very words and in fact I feel bad. If I thought about it before I came in I'd be much more economical with my-
Laura Massey: With your words?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, my diarrhea of the mouth.
Lawrence Hryb: Well, I will say this is that we don't use machines to do it, it's actually humans who do it, so whoever the human is that's doing it this week, thank you.
Laura Massey: Thank you.
Lawrence Hryb: Hopefully they're smiling right now, as they're listening to this.
Jeff Rubenstein: Do you think they still call me Jeffery? I remember at the beginning you told them to do that.
Lawrence Hryb: I did send a memo. It said memorandum, Jeffery.
Laura Massey: Yes, his name is Jeffery.
Lawrence Hryb: Per contractual agreement Jeff Rubenstein must be referred to as, in all cases Jeffery.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, I get it here.
Lawrence Hryb: You're making this face.
Jeff Rubenstein: I get it at home. My kid has started calling me by my first name.
Lawrence Hryb: Oh no.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: You're not dad? You're Jeffery?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I'm Jeff. Hey Jeff and I'm like "Excuse me?"
Lawrence Hryb: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I've lost. There's just no going back.
Lawrence Hryb: Do you ever grow up with people with friends who call their parents by their first name?
Laura Massey: I don't think so.
Lawrence Hryb: I remember we had a family-
Jeff Rubenstein: These were the kids that smoked in elementary school probably. They've got one of this.
Lawrence Hryb: Chewing bubble gum in this case.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, exactly. Really TGF for that one. Yeah, that's what I've got to look forward to.
Lawrence Hryb: I may have told your daughter to do that. No, I didn't, I didn't do that.
Jeff Rubenstein: You do have a gamer tag.
Lawrence Hryb: Right and she does play a mean diva. It's not surprise surprise.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, no, level 45 already.
Lawrence Hryb: Anyway, so yeah we're kind of winding down to the end of the show here. Usually we talk about cool interesting stuff we find. Have you come across any gadgets lately Laura? Because I'm working on a couple.
Laura Massey: I can't recall at the moment, though I did use Smokey McSmoke Face over the holiday weekend.
Lawrence Hryb: Yes, you're smokey, you're a smoker smokey thing. You never sent me a photo.
Laura Massey: That's right I forgot.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah you did. I'm not surprised you tend to forget.
Laura Massey: I do tend to forget to send people pictures of food.
Lawrence Hryb: I didn't even ask hey can I come by and eat it. I was like I'll settle for a photo. I didn't even get that. My God, was it good?
Laura Massey: It was fantastic.
Lawrence Hryb: What did you smoke?
Laura Massey: Baby back ribs.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ooh.
Lawrence Hryb: Go ahead Jeff.
Laura Massey: Fantastic.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I just really like ribs.
Lawrence Hryb: Go ahead.
Jeff Rubenstein: What?
Lawrence Hryb: You're not going to sing the baby back song?
Jeff Rubenstein: I got my baby back, baby back, baby back.
Lawrence Hryb: Wow, okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wasn't that like NSYNC did that or something?
Laura Massey: No, that was the Chili's-
Lawrence Hryb: Chili's ad.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, but who performed it?
Lawrence Hryb: I don't know who did it.
Jeff Rubenstein: I want to know the band that did it.
Lawrence Hryb: The Internet's right in front of you Jeffery. All the answers you ever need to know are right in front of you on that computer. Yay internet.
Jeff Rubenstein: Chili's.
Lawrence Hryb: What did you have with the ribs?
Laura Massey: That was stuck in my head the whole day.
Lawrence Hryb: What did you have with the ribs?
Laura Massey: Baked potatoes and I can't remember the vegetable. Green beans I think.
Lawrence Hryb: Oh really?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Lawrence Hryb: That was your-
Laura Massey: And then dessert was s'mores. It's American.
Lawrence Hryb: Well, kind of American.
Laura Massey: Oh goodness gracious.
Speaker 4: I want my baby back, baby back, Chili's-
Jeff Rubenstein: Baby back-
Lawrence Hryb: Who did it?
Jeff Rubenstein: It sounds like-
Speaker 4: Chili's baby back ribs.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm telling you, I feel like it was a young Justin Timberlake or something.
Speaker 4: Chili's baby back ribs.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was like a key change. This is the golden age of everything.
Lawrence Hryb: This part of the podcast is brought to you by Chili's.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is part of the ad. Barbecue sauce. That's what makes it.
Lawrence Hryb: All right, so you had your s'mores, did you cook them out over the fire?
Laura Massey: I did. Had a little fire, cooked some s'mores. It was delicious.
Lawrence Hryb: Did you have a s'mores maker?
Laura Massey: No.
Lawrence Hryb: You just manually create them. Like stick the marshmallow. What Jeffery.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're just going to bring this completely full circle.
Lawrence Hryb: I don't think that's possible. We're talking about some-
Jeff Rubenstein: Really, I found an article about the inventor of the Chili's Baby Back ribs song.
Lawrence Hryb: I believe they call it the writer.
Jeff Rubenstein: He has never eaten the ribs. Two, his name is Guy Bommarito and he's referred to as the Don Draper of the 90's.
Lawrence Hryb: All right.
Jeff Rubenstein: As in from Madman.
Lawrence Hryb: Well there we go. End scene.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Couldn't plan this better. And we certainly don't plan it.
Lawrence Hryb: All right Laura, so we're talking about your baby back, baby back, baby back ribs.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going to link to this story, this is a good read.
Laura Massey: Well maybe I'll post a photo of my baby back ribs.
Lawrence Hryb: Because I haven't seen it.
Laura Massey: Because you haven't seen it and they were the best I've made.
Lawrence Hryb: You know we made it over the July 4th for those of you who didn't know, outside the United States. In the U.S. it's generally a time when families get together and have picnics and fireworks and do other sorts of outdoorsy things. It's usually warm here. We made hamburgers. Did I tell you about the beyond meat burgers? Have we talked about those?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: I don't think on the air.
Lawrence Hryb: Have we. I know we talked about ... Yeah, so my wife, who's a vegetarian wanted to try these new hamburgers, which we've been having in our house for a few months now. You can get them at Whole Foods right now specifically, but its this company called Beyond Meat and they wanted to design, they came up with the idea of let's create a burger that's plant based, notice I'm not saying veggie burger because that has negative connotations, but it's plant based.
Jeff Rubenstein: Also probably patented.
Lawrence Hryb: To feel, to taste, to smell, as the texture and cook style of a real burger made out of beef. It's made out of plant material. Anyway, it was quite good.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're the last person I expect to approve. So it must be actually good.
Lawrence Hryb: My wife asked me she's like "Do you like it?" I said, "Well, it's the best non beef burger I've had."
Jeff Rubenstein: I might buy one of these tonight. My family's out of town, I'm living off of potato chips.
Lawrence Hryb: No, I'm going to come by your house, we're going to go to Dick's okay?
Jeff Rubenstein: Context Larry, context. There's a fast food restaurant called Dicks that is on my street. It's very popular. You go there after a wild night out on a Friday or something and you go and get a bag of dicks, that's what you do. That's what you do.
Lawrence Hryb: This part of the podcast is brought to you buy bag of dicks.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, I'm just going to go ahead and link to what that is so you know it's a thing. It's Dicks Drive In.
Laura Massey: We're sorry transcriber.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, exactly. Dear transcriber, feel free to asterisk that out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Please.
Lawrence Hryb: Oh we're just silly now. Yeah so I'm working on some other things now. You know I put in ... What was that? Was that you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I put the volume up for [crosstalk 00:42:34]
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, otherwise you know I've got some technology projects I'm working on at home. I'm redoing my home network as always.
Laura Massey: Yes, I want to hear about your Arrow upgrade.
Lawrence Hryb: Well, I don't have them in yet. They released a new firmware, or some new hardware so I'm waiting to get that in and I'll upgrade everything. I've got a bunch of units I need to install and upgrade there. Installing a new weather station.
Laura Massey: Ooh.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah. I have a weather station, I'm a weather nerd.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Lawrence Hryb: Jeffery I-
Jeff Rubenstein: It's got it's own weather station.
Lawrence Hryb: I sent you mine, right? A link to it?
Jeff Rubenstein: You did, yes.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, I sent you a link to it.
Laura Massey: I saw a screenshot. It was really cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: We live in a world of micro climates here on the pacific.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, well and it's funny because I actually moved it from my backyard to the top of my house and the temperature went up 10 degrees. Anyway, so I'm working on that. What else am I working on? A few other technical things I can't really ... Some cool stuff we're working on, we can't talk about it. I will say this, is we kind of talked about this in email Laura, so I apologize for t-boning you on this one. Packs, we're going to do Pax right?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Lawrence Hryb: Okay Pax Prime.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, is it nice and conveniently located.
Lawrence Hryb: Conveniently located in Seattle. We're going to have our show. Usually it's during the weekend, usually Saturday. We're waiting for the confirmation on that. I've already lined up a special guest, I'm very excited about that. Can't say who it is yet. It's someone involved with a highly anticipated game coming to Xbox.
Jeff Rubenstein: I look forward to this.
Laura Massey: Me too.
Lawrence Hryb: Very excited about that. Yeah, this is what sucks Laura. We're already talking about Pax, which kind of signals the end of summer.
Laura Massey: It does. It just started.
Lawrence Hryb: Right, and we just started.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, we're still eight or nine weeks away from Pax.
Lawrence Hryb: I know, we're still eight or nine weeks away, but the other thing that's weird is we talk about E3, which sets the tone for what's going on this holiday. Of course Xbox One X is, but I've been in meetings, I know Jeff you have we're already planning stuff for November and December and January and I'm like it's not even-
Laura Massey: Winter.
Lawrence Hryb: It's not even winter yet, but on the same stroke I know that in December, January, February, we're going to be planning for E3 in the summer, so it's like you just got to take it.
Jeff Rubenstein: It never ends.
Lawrence Hryb: We're just little mice on little ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I know we get eight weeks of nice weather, I'm in no rush to be thinking about beyond that. Pax is the end of it and on the other side of it, it's the great wall, I didn't see that movie anything could lurk on the other side. Matt Damon or dragons or whatever.
Lawrence Hryb: The Larrabee dragons.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going to stay here on the sunny side of the wall for now while I can.
Lawrence Hryb: On the sunny side of life. Anything else we should talk about or should we wrap it up and get you out of here?
Laura Massey: I have a question that people ask me about all the time on Twitter that I'd like to address.
Lawrence Hryb: Sure, what's the question?
Laura Massey: The Xbox One X when would it be available for pre-order?
Lawrence Hryb: Oh. That is an excellent question Laura and if you follow me on Twitter at MajorNelson I will tell you. We haven't announced the date yet. They're working on a couple of cool things. There's the headline, there's the gaming headline, there we go. We're working on some cool stuff for Xbox One X launch and so they're working on it.
Laura Massey: Coming soon.
Lawrence Hryb: Coming soon, I don't know the date either.
Laura Massey: What should they do in the meantime?
Lawrence Hryb: Follow me on Twitter at MajorNelson, or you can keep an eye on the blog.
Jeff Rubenstein: I would have to imagine-
Lawrence Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: When we're going to open up pre-orders you're going to know it.
Lawrence Hryb: I will absolutely know it and I will absolutely shout it from the top of the digital mountains. Is that a thing?
Laura Massey: The Twitter mountain.
Lawrence Hryb: Is that a thing, I don't know.
Laura Massey: I don't know either.
Lawrence Hryb: Do you get that question a lot on Twitter?
Laura Massey: I do.
Jeff Rubenstein: About digital mountains?
Laura Massey: No.
Lawrence Hryb: Just say we haven't announced it yet. That's it. No you don't know when it's coming because I don't know either.
Laura Massey: Nobody really knows when it is.
Lawrence Hryb: Sometimes for instance when I found out the name of the Xbox One X I didn't really want to know about it too far in advance because I just don't like to know things too far in advance.
Laura Massey: Can't keep them secrets.
Lawrence Hryb: No, it's just about hey I have an encrypted partition in my brain. I want to keep it that way and I want to make sure nothing leaks out. Jeff, what are you doing over there?
Jeff Rubenstein: My phone, someone texted.
Lawrence Hryb: Okay. Do you need to go. We'll wrap up so you can go.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh I got a text from Disney.
Lawrence Hryb: What did they say?
Jeff Rubenstein: Apparently, you know how they have the key chains with your name on it.
Lawrence Hryb: So let's give people a little context. Your family right now is at Disney.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Minus me.
Lawrence Hryb: So Disney Land. Disney the corporation is not randomly texting.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, Mr. Eisner. Yeah.
Lawrence Hryb: Dating yourself.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I don't know who runs Disney these days.
Lawrence Hryb: Iger.
Laura Massey: Iger.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was close. I got a text and it's just the key chains and it's where Jeff should be if Jeff was still a relevant name and I've been replaced by, and this one hurts.
Lawrence Hryb: Justin.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's worse than that.
Lawrence Hryb: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Jayden.
Lawrence Hryb: Oh no. Did you tell them to look for one that says Jeffery?
Jeff Rubenstein: It doesn't matter, I'm not there, it goes straight from Jaime, to Jayden, to Jessica. Jeff is not, now you don't meet anymore Jeff's. They just don't really exist that much. I think it was an 80's name or something, late 70's maybe. Now it's Jayden. So you know what Jayden enjoy your time in the limelight before you get replaced-
Lawrence Hryb: Replaced by Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, oh yeah.
Lawrence Hryb: Because it will come back.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're coming back.
Lawrence Hryb: Coming back.
Jeff Rubenstein: Jeff Junior we're getting it.
Lawrence Hryb: That was the Itchy and Scratchy land bit with Bart.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh it's Bort. I have the Bort key chain and they're like, "Excuse me my son is also named Bort." Then later on they're in the underground part and you hear the operations and just as a throw away gag they're like we're out of Bort license plates in the gift shop again.
Lawrence Hryb: They're going to be out of Jayden license plates.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, exactly. Jayden I'm coming for you.
Lawrence Hryb: All right. You didn't have any problem finding yours Laura when you went to Six Flags or Disney?
Laura Massey: Nope, apparently mine's a pretty common name.
Lawrence Hryb: Laura really? It's classic.
Laura Massey: Yeah, classic. Any Larry problems?
Lawrence Hryb: No, because mine is either Larry or Lawrence, so just like you Jeff or Jeffery.
Laura Massey: There's two different names.
Jeff Rubenstein: They don't make them anymore.
Lawrence Hryb: Maybe we should have the transcription now every time I mention should be Lawrence in this transcript.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think that would be great. Take a note please.
Lawrence Hryb: Jeffery and Lawrence. See Laura you don't have a long version of your name.
Laura Massey: I don't.
Lawrence Hryb: Right?
Laura Massey: Maybe we should make one up.
Jeff Rubenstein: Lawrence.
Lawrence Hryb: No. That's already taken.
Jeff Rubenstein: L-A-U-R-A-N-C-E?
Lawrence Hryb: No, she needs to come ... What would the long version of Laura be?
Jeff Rubenstein: Laura Lie.
Lawrence Hryb: Lauralie, what?
Laura Massey: That's kind of cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe a little Hawaiian.
Lawrence Hryb: Did you or did you make it southern?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah maybe that. Something Hawaiian.
Lawrence Hryb: Southern bell.
Jeff Rubenstein: Southern Hawaii.
Laura Massey: Southern Hawaii.
Lawrence Hryb: Southern Hawaii. Right. All right well, we apologize for this random.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're just all of it the last 60 minutes.
Lawrence Hryb: Yeah, this whole thing. Everything about it, we're sorry. All right, we'll be back next week after we decide what Laura's longer name should be. If you have any ideas don't ask her when Xbox One X is in, hit her up on Twitter.
Laura Massey: That's right tell me.
Lawrence Hryb: You can find her at?
Laura Massey: Lauralollypop.
Lawrence Hryb: And of course you can find Jeffery at.
Jeff Rubenstein: Jayden.
Lawrence Hryb: Jayden Rubenstein.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. At Jeff Rubenstein.
Lawrence Hryb: Maybe I'll just have them change your name to Jayden this entire show. Mine to Lawrence and you're to LauraLie. That's what we're going to do.
Laura Massey: Yeah, no one would know who is on the podcast.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah and you know what they might enjoy it. It might be better for everyone in that way. We should start using pseudonyms.
Lawrence Hryb: All right gang, we'll talk to you next time. Have a great time, wherever you go whatever you do. We'll see you online. Bye-bye everybody.
Laura Massey: Bye-bye.
Lawrence Hryb: Bye.