Larry Hryb : (music)
Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm name's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's MajorNelson. I'm here with you in your ears, or in your speakers, in your car, wherever you're listening to us. I'm here with Jeffrey. Hi, Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi.
Larry Hryb : Jeffrey!
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm sorry to be in your ear canals.
Larry Hryb : Well, it's- We all are. It's- it's- that's the beautiful thing of podcasting. Uh, Laura couldn't join us this week. She had a little last-minute emergency and we weren't gonna cancel the show because I'm really excited, Jeff. You- you know I'm a big fan of, of our next guest.
Our in-studio guest. He was - I believe, I need to check Wikipedia, but - I believe he was the longest-running editor of Thrasher magazine.
Chris Charla: (laughing) Not only that, but-
Larry Hryb : Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Christ Charla. No, that's not true. Hi, Chris.
Chris Charla: Hey. How's it going?
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing)
Larry Hryb : Is it true that you won X-Games Seattle in 1994?
Chris Charla: I- I won X-Games [Wallingford 00:01:22].
Larry Hryb : Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: (chuckles)
Chris Charla: There weren't a lot of entries, but uh, yeah. Yes.
Larry Hryb : But you're here. But it's great to see you, Chris. Of course, you're in charge of our ID@Xbox game and we announced, uh, ear- earlier, I think, but- you know, depending upon when you listen to the show, but we announced, uh, recently that 500 games have been launched on the ID@Xbox program. Wow!
Chris Charla: Yeah, it's awesome, and- and- it's- it's been super fun so far and there's tons more coming, too.
Jeff Rubenstein: Do you remember the first one?
Larry Hryb : Uh, gee whiz. That's a great question, Jeff. I- Do I? I don't think I do.
Jeff Rubenstein: I- The- It- It seems like it was just yesterday.
Chris Charla: Yeah. I'm- What's- What's-
Jeff Rubenstein: I re- I remember the first one.
Chris Charla: Go ahead and tell m- tell us.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was uh, Strike s- Zero.
Larry Hryb : Oh, that's right.
Chris Charla: That's right! I remember-
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a space shooter-
Chris Charla: Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Really fun space shooter.
Larry Hryb : Yeah. That's right. I remember that. Well done, and that- and so that was the first one, and w- I know there's a whole bunch that had came out, so which one did you guys look at and say, "This is number 500!" (laughing).
Chris Charla: Yeah, we- we really had to do that because, you know, when we were counting, we knew were getting close to 500 and then we were saying things like, "Okay, well, uh, are we juts looking at Xbox One, are we counting Windows 10-"
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... Because we obviously help a lot of Windows 10 games ship as well-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And then- And then the big question was like, "Well does a, does an Xbox Game Preview count? Because it's not technically at 1.0 but we still-"
Larry Hryb : Right. Right.
Chris Charla: " ... Have shipped something." Anyway, we- we- we took all these things into account. We had top men working on it-
Larry Hryb : Yep. Top men.
Chris Charla: ... And (chuckles) pricewater house coopers, and uh, we determined that City Skyline's was number 500.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yay!
Larry Hryb : Yay, which came i- which is now out of- now available on Xbox One, of course.
Chris Charla: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Chris Charla: Yep.
Larry Hryb : That's, the- Well, congratulations. I wanted to get you on because obviously that's a huge milestone. I mean, any time- Any game that ships is unbelievable, but t- you work really closely with all these teams around the world!
Chris Charla: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we've had games ship now, I think on, uh, uh, maybe six continents.
Larry Hryb : Six-
Chris Charla: We've had- We've had [crosstalk 00:03:02] games.
Larry Hryb : Which ones? [crosstalk 00:03:02] Antarctica?
Chris Charla: So we haven't had anybody ship from Antarctica, so-
Larry Hryb : Well, we do hav-
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:03:05] base.
Larry Hryb : We do have listeners, apparently, I've been told we have listeners on this show from McMurdo base, so if you're in McMurdo base-
Chris Charla: That would be awesome!
Larry Hryb : ... Contact Chris Charla so we can get you an ID@XBox-
Chris Charla: Make a game!
Larry Hryb : Make- Make any game! Survival on McMurdo base! Or, what's- Wait a minute. Remember-
Chris Charla: The Thing.
Larry Hryb : Remember what happened the- uh, was it, like, back in the 60s where somebody was - I think it was down there - where he had to operate on himself? Do you remember that story?
Chris Charla: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Larry Hryb : This- This, like, doctor or- There was no one there and he had to operate himself. I know. It's- it's morti- as mortifying as it sounds here-
Chris Charla: I didn't even want to see 128 Hours.
Larry Hryb : Anyway, so- So congratulations. This is really good. What are- Let's talk about some of the milestones in the program and- and frankly, where you're going from here?
Chris Charla: Yeah, I mean, so we- We launched a program, um, more than three years ago before Xbox One launched. We announced it, I think, 2013 at Gamescom.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: We had incredible developer response. We still have amazing developer response. We still have new developers joining the program every day, and um, you know, we just worked as hard as we could to make sure that, like, it was just easy as possible for a developer to get their game out on Xbox One-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And on Windows 10, and you know, it's just a testament to the- It's really a testament to the support of Xbox fans. Uh, it just, you know, how well the program has done, because they've generated, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars in sales for-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... For ID@Xbox developers, millions and millions of copies of games have been sold, and it's been, um, uh, a really successful program so far and we're- we're not slowing down.
Larry Hryb : And I want to point out, it's- obviously you're in charge of the program. You've got a whole team behind you.
Chris Charla: Oh, there's- Yeah. There's a- There's a, a huge team here at Microsoft who work on it and- and the- the other thing that's been probably the- the most amazing thing is from the day one of the program is, you know, we had a- we started with a really small little team and we would go to these different parts of Microsoft, and we were asking for big changes in how our, our back-end systems worked to accommodate independent developers, and we were not sure what reception we were gonna get, honestly.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: We- We knew it was the right thing to do and we hoped other people did, and we would go into these meetings with like, you know, 10 people you had never met before, f- some- some part of Microsoft you didn't even really knew existed, but you kinda have to get through to ship a game, and you're a little bit intimidated.
Larry Hryb : Sure.
Chris Charla: You've got like, your eight-slide PowerPoint presentation and we'd go in there, and like, the first thing that would happen is they'd be like, "Oh, you're the indie guys. How can we help?" And then the second thing would be like, "Have you seen this game? Have you seen that game?"
Larry Hryb : Oh, really?
Chris Charla: And so the support really from inside Microsoft-
Larry Hryb : Really engaged. Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... Was just, like, ridiculous. Um, yeah, and then since- And we've- we've built the team up bigger and you know, continued to encounter the same level of awesome support from inside Microsoft. We have an unbelievable team of uh, really, really passionate, um, folks who are just super invested in developer's success.
Larry Hryb : W- Tell- Tell me a little bit about, you know, this show is a little bit abnormal because we're celebrating the 500th of ID@Xbox and we're not- we may go over some of the stuff we're playing. Right- Right, Jeff? [crosstalk 00:05:44]?
Jeff Rubenstein: I think we should do that, especially since there's some- I was making sure to play a bunch of ID@Xbox [crosstalk 00:05:48].
Larry Hryb : Do you want to do that right now, and then we can kind of talk about s- because I have a ton of questions, both from Twitter as well personally that I want to talk to Chris about the ID@Xbox program.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, I'm- I'm assuming you've been playing Voodoo Vince.
Larry Hryb : Uh, yes. That's an- Ah- It's a- This is not a video podcast, [crosstalk 00:06:01]. You need to say "yes."
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing) He's nodding his head.
Chris Charla: Um, ro- One of the things I've really been enjoying and I find myself spending more time with a lot of, um, ID games recently because a lot of them have adopted, uh, the Xbox Play Anywhere program. VooDoo Vince being one of them, so, uh, during a conference call today, I was-
Larry Hryb : You were not. You were not.
Chris Charla: Oh, come on. That's like, my MO. I beat Dark Souls on a conference call.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's awesome.
Larry Hryb : (laughing)
Chris Charla: Um, but Voodoo Vince, I- I've really gotten into- I-I love that sort of e- exploratory, you know, 90s feeling game. I guess it came out probably in the first, uh, the first couple years of, uh, the 2000s. Um, but like, Ukulele's another one which I- I need to jump into. Um, but definitely getting into Voodoo Vince. Another game, uh- Into the Gungeon, I was playing. These are just like, in the past week, on my PC while I've been traveling. Uh, Spheroids I had a pretty good time with and Everspace, which is still in game preview. I'm waiting for a- Can't wait 'til they give achievements, but they've added a lot to that game.
Larry Hryb : Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Chris Charla: Yeah, and uh, being able to play that and jump back and forth. Oh, and Snake Pass was another one, which was, uh, pretty cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: Snake Pass is awesome.
Chris Charla: Yeah, this- The, uh- I've played that-
Jeff Rubenstein: We talked about it a couple weeks ago.
Larry Hryb : Yeah, it was like I all of a sudden, like, this actually how a snake feels, I guess (laughing), right?
Chris Charla: Yeah, I mean, it is- You're playing it and you're like, "Wait, what do a- I gotta- you know, waggle the stick to make the- Oh, yeah! It's like a snake!"
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : Yeah, yeah, that feels right! It's like a snake!
Jeff Rubenstein: And y- And- Yeah, that game is really, really fun.
Chris Charla: I- I played that and then I watched Planet Earth II, like, the part where-
Larry Hryb : Oh.
Chris Charla: I like your copier, by the way.
Larry Hryb : Do you [crosstalk 00:07:26] my copier-
Chris Charla: Yeah, it's right here (laughing), uh ...
Larry Hryb : My disc- My 4k version.
Chris Charla: Yes. Uh, because I wanted to test out my- my- I- I had gotten a 4k TV and that is the thing you test it out with, but that scene where the racer snakes are going after-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... And I was like, "I wish I was that good in Snake Pass."
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: You know, to catch those iguanas.
Larry Hryb : No spoilers.
Chris Charla: Sorry.
Larry Hryb : Voodoo Vince! [inaudible 00:07:41]- Voodoo Vince. We're talk-
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : So, Chris, we're just gonna talk about what we're playing and then we're gonna get back to this great 500 milestone. I haven't played City Skylines yet. I'm sure you have, and it's a lot of fun.
Chris Charla: You know, I haven't played it on Xbox yet.
Larry Hryb : Oh!
Chris Charla: I- I've played it a ton on PC. Uh, but I usually try and- I try and wait 'til the- G- I generally try and wait 'til games commercially available before I play it.
Larry Hryb : Right. Yeah, that's- I'm- I'm the same way, because you find out- You kind of- you kind of- I don't know. You- You just want to- You want to experience it the way that our- our- our fans and- and- and Xbox people- you know, everyone else experiences it.
Chris Charla: Ye- A- And I want to be able to talk about I on Twitter and I want to be part of the- you know what I mean? Like, I- I want to play it day one-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... But I want to play it when it's available so I can talk about it and-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... In- Once in a while I'll break that rule. Like, Inside.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: I played before, but-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: But uh ...
Larry Hryb : Yeah. So, uh, that's important to point out is that Inside was also an ID game.
Chris Charla: Yeah, absolutely.
Larry Hryb : And it's- it's interesting because you have had the scope of, of, of, of teams, you know, anywhere from single to double, two or three people, up to, uh, much, much larger teams that have worked around the world dispersed, right?
Chris Charla: Oh, yeah, absolutely. We have everything from, you know, o-one man or one woman teams, uh, all the way up to, you know, 200 person studios are coming through ID-
Larry Hryb : Wow! Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... And i-it's kind of uh, uh, like, um, you know, when we design the program, instead of kind of focusing on, you know, what was an indie game in 2013-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... Uh, we kind of looked and said like, "How- How can we- you know, make this future-proof a little bit?"
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: And so that was what a lot of the back end work was, and so-
Larry Hryb : So from a technology standpoint.
Chris Charla: It's- Exactly.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: And so we've ended up enabling, um, you know, a lot of different game types. My favorite kind of trivia fact is the- the MLB is technically an independent developer because-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... RBI baseball is an ID@Xbox game, so you-
Larry Hryb : Right. Even though it's licensed.
Chris Charla: Right.
Larry Hryb : It's got licensed goods.
Chris Charla: We- It's made by- made by the MLB.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: And- And so they're- They're- They're an indie developer.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, does it- But it doesn't-
Larry Hryb : Technically. Oh, wow, wait a minute. My head just exploded.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Right. MLB's okay.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: It doesn't necessarily- It's not like the days of every game being like, sprite-based, 8-bit, four people making the game-
Larry Hryb : Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Chris Charla: I mean, those games still exist, and are pretty great-
Larry Hryb : A-absolutely. There's some great ones.
Chris Charla: Um, but, yeah, there's some, like, very visually impressive games out there. Um ...
Larry Hryb : Yeah, exactly.
Chris Charla: Sort of defining ... Like, the definition of indie has changed significantly in a way.
Larry Hryb : Well, yeah- Well, how do you look at that? You know, because we get that asked all the time. How is an indie game versus a triple A title? I mean, is that- i- tho- those really the two categories?
Chris Charla: Ye- And we- we- we don't-
Larry Hryb : You don't?
Chris Charla: You know, we- we actually- you know, I- I come from the- the- the punk rock era-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... And I spent, like, most of my 20s arguing about what was punk rock and what wasn't punk rock and- and-
Larry Hryb : Did you come to a solution?
Chris Charla: No! And so- so with, uh-
Larry Hryb : Time well spent.
Chris Charla: Yeah, absolutely.
Larry Hryb : (laughing)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing)
Chris Charla: Um, with uh, with um, with independent games, we decided early on we weren't gonna worry about that. You know, if a developer comes to us and says, "Hey, I'm an independent developer and I want to ship a game through ID@Xbox," We're like, "Sounds great," And you can be, you know, uh, one person or-
Larry Hryb : And then you look at their email address and it says so-and-so@ea.com.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing) Yeah.
Larry Hryb : Right?
Chris Charla: E- EA has another path onto the console. Um, but you know, if it's major league baseball or it's, you know, o-one person in South Africa, like-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... We're excited to, to see their games.
Larry Hryb : Yeah. Yeah, I was looki- I was talking with some of the people from your team when I was in Australia, and they told me about some of the games you guys are working on and some that aren't out yet, but I'd be- It's just, the richness, uh, the tapestry and the- that you have to select from, it's just- It's unbelievable.
Chris Charla: It's- It is amazing, and when we- When we first started the program, you know, one of our big goals was we wanted to make sure when Xbox players turn on their Xbox One, they have access to this huge, diverse array of content, and if you had asked me to say what that meant in, in 2013, I would have had an answer, and I would say by 2014 I was already completely blown away-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And you look today at the breadth of content-
Larry Hryb : Over 500 titles.
Chris Charla: Ye- But- Over 500 titles and just, the diversity of, you know, things, you know, from Smite to Inside to Street Force Home to, you know, Thimbleweed Park, Her Majesty's Spiffing, like- this- there's just-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: Like, so much variety in, uh, in the games that are coming from independent developers. It's- there's really something for everyone.
Larry Hryb : What has changed since you started the program in terms of- in terms of the technology or the approach or the types of games you're seeing? Talk to me a little bit about the cycles, you know?
Chris Charla: Y- Well, you know, what we see is we've seen, um, uh, w- what we're seeing now on Xbox One which I think is really cool is we're seeing sophomore efforts and junior efforts.
Larry Hryb : Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Charla: So developers who have shipped one game on Xbox or two games on Xbox-
Larry Hryb : They cut their teeth.
Chris Charla: Yeah, and now they're working on new things and they're pushing the boundaries of their hardware, and you know, obviously Project Scorpio is gonna, you know-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... Y-you know, change that even more. Um, but the really cool think, I think, that we're seeing is we're seeing developers at all stages of their journey, so we're seeing, you know, we're still getting lots and lots of, you know, um, console debuts coming onto Xbox One from developers and the ID@Xbox. At the same time, it's- we're seeing, you know, these veteran studios, and then the- the- one really fun thing is we're seeing groups of veterans, like the guys at System Era who made Astroneer, um, who have, you know, in-incredible resumes, um, come together with some new blood and then just make a new studio, make a new game that's informed by not only, you know, the- the- the kind of passion that the new guys are bringing, uh, but also the- the- the veteran stuff that the veterans have seen-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... And you end up with a debut effort in Astroneer that actually is a, you know, stunning game.
Larry Hryb : I want to point out, also, the fact that this is y- 500 more titles, 500 more titles. These are purely digital titles.
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : Right? I mean the- this is- uh, the- the days of shipping on a disc, while still exist for some- some part of the audience, these are all digital titles. That's amazing!
Chris Charla: Yeah. It's- it's super cool.
Larry Hryb : Yes, Jeffrey. You have something to add (laughing)?
Jeff Rubenstein: No! I was just wondering if- if- if out there, there are, uh, students who are putting together games, and um, and there's a lot of like, pretty well developed programs these days, and that are thinking like, how do I get it off the ground? How could I get onto Xbox? Ha- What is that first step for them?
Chris Charla: Yeah, so, I mean, th- they- First of all, y-you can just come to xbox.com/ID and apply, but the other thing that we announced at GDC that I think is really exciting is that-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... The Xbox Live Creator's Program.
Larry Hryb : Now, what is that?
Chris Charla: So, it's a really cool program. So basically, you- you are home. You have a, a, a retail Xbox One. You can-
Larry Hryb : Just like you bought at Best Buy or Gamestop or anywhere else, right?
Chris Charla: [crosstalk 00:13:44]. Yep. You download, uh, I think it's called, um, oh, is it devmode app, um ...
Larry Hryb : .exe?
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : (laughing)
Chris Charla: There's- There's a free app, uh- sorry, I just spaced on the name of it.
Larry Hryb : Ye- Right.
Chris Charla: Um, devmode activation, I think.
Larry Hryb : Yep.
Chris Charla: And it's a free app that's on the- the Xbox One app store.
Larry Hryb : On the- on the store.
Chris Charla: That turns your Xbox into a devkit, and then you can download free version of Visual Studio-
Larry Hryb : Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Charla: ... And you can deploy a game from Visual Studio on your PC, a UWP game, um, to your Xbox One and it runs the sa- you know, the- the- your PC sees the Xbox as another PC-
Larry Hryb : Yep.
Chris Charla: ... Because Xbox One runs Windows 10-
Larry Hryb : Yep.
Chris Charla: ... And you can just deploy a game to your Xbox and immediately start playing it with your controller on your television.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: And so that was really cool. We announced that, actually, last year in, uh, 2015-
Larry Hryb : Sure.
Chris Charla: I'm sorry, 2016 at GDC.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: And so, in 2017 we announced Xbox Live Creator's Program. So now, in addition to doing all that for- for playing and testing, you can, uh, you can go get - without signing any NDAs, without, you know, signing any contracts - you can just go download Xbox Live.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: Implement Xbox Live into your game. Most of the features, all the social features like Identity and Presence and Leaderboards, and then put that into your game and ship it on Windows 10 and on Xbox One.
Larry Hryb : So this is- This is the, I guess as- as- what- what programmers call APIs, right?
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : These are your p- APIs that allow you to call into Xbox Live-
Chris Charla: Exactly.
Larry Hryb : ... Which is obviously a massive service with millions and millions of people, um, and easily implement that in your game.
Chris Charla: Yeah. Absolutely.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah, linking to that in the show notes if that sounds like something you want to- But- It's like a four step process.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: Yeah, it's- It's really straightforward, and those games, um, they don't have everything that uh, that uh, that uh, uh, you know, a game that comes through the ID program or, you know, from a publisher like Electronic Arts has.
Larry Hryb : Sure.
Chris Charla: They don't have access to achievements and gamer score.
Larry Hryb : We don't- We want to keep those as pure as we can.
Chris Charla: That's right, and uh, and they don't have access to the multi-player features.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: We have those gated, but if there's no- there's nothing stopping a game, uh, you know, like a student game or something like that from starting as a game that's in the creator's program and then at any point, either it's during development or even after they launch, like, talking to the folks at ID and then just, uh, you know, becoming an ID@Xbox game and getting access to gamer score and achievements. So it's-
Larry Hryb : So you can go from the- the kind of the- the kiddie pool to the big pool to the Olympic pool (chuckles).
Chris Charla: Yeah, that's right, and- and- but I wouldn't- I would- I wouldn't say it's exactly a kiddie pool-
Larry Hryb : Sure.
Chris Charla: ... Becau- But I- Because I think we will see, um, we'll definitely see really cool games from students and experimenters-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And hobbyists and makers-
Larry Hryb : So let's call it a sandbox.
Chris Charla: Right, but I think we'll see pros, too.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: You want to get a game out really quickly, do a, you know, quick game, see ha- what the response is, and then decide if they want to take it to ID, but I think what's really cool is t- is two things. One is, it- make sure that every Xbox can now be used for creation-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... As well as playing, and then two, when you look at just the full spectrum for developers, whether you're, you know, um, coming through ID-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... Whether you're, you know, going through a, you know, a third-party studio or whether you just want to do it all yourself completely unmanaged, like, there's a place for you on- on the Xbox [crosstalk 00:16:40]-
Larry Hryb : If you want to make a game - and regardless, as you said, if you're one person or 10 people - we- we have a solution for you!
Chris Charla: Absolutely.
Larry Hryb : Right? At very, very low to almost no cost!
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : Right? You may- may- you can use that console you already have at your house!
Chris Charla: Yeah, it's amazing.
Larry Hryb : [crosstalk 00:16:55] console. Yeah. That's fun. Yes, Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm waiting to see what kind of game you're gonna come up with [crosstalk 00:16:59].
Larry Hryb : Me?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : I- I- I'm-
Jeff Rubenstein: Ma- Major's Revenge?
Larry Hryb : I don't- I don't know what kind of game I would come up with. I've- I've had many of idea over the time and I know a great game when I see it, but it feels like I- I- I'm always- I'm always surprised at the creativity that comes through the program.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah.
Larry Hryb : You know, like I say, we talked about Inside which is one of those zowie moments when you get to the end. I don't want to have any spoilers, and we all- we all got to the end, many of us did. Um, but yeah, the creativity in this space is great, but it's also great to see, you know, we had Thimbleweed Park and I had, uh, I had Ron on a few weeks ago and it was great to see, you know, Ron who's been in the games industry m- you know, longer than anybody in this room for the most part-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Larry Hryb : ... Shipping on that platform, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : And doin- doin' some really cool stuff!
Jeff Rubenstein: And then you've got Cuphead.
Larry Hryb : Oh, boy. L- All right, so- I- I gotta ask yeah, when's Cuphead coming out?
Chris Charla: Th- It's coming out in 2017.
Larry Hryb : Okay.
Chris Charla: That's what the team has said, and uh, and, and so it's coming out this year, but you know, you think about that game, like when you- you know, start a program you think, "Oh, we're gonna get this kind of game, we're gonna do that kind of game-"
Larry Hryb : Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Charla: Nobody thinks, "We're gonna get a game that is 100% hand animated in 1920-style paired with, you know, contra-style of run-and-gun gameplay."
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: You know, tha- ah- you know, you can't- like-
Larry Hryb : That-
Chris Charla: Unless you're the- the Moldenhauer brothers you can't think that up-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And then you see it and it is just, every time I see it - and I've seen it a lot - it, it just blows me away every time. I cannot believe this is an interactive video game.
Larry Hryb : Right. Ra- And- And of course, you talk about the- the story with Inside, which was very story-driven and the- I don't want to say it was simple gameplay, but it was very approachable.
Chris Charla: Yeah, absolutely.
Larry Hryb : Right?
Chris Charla: I mean, that game was in development for a long time. It's not a long game, but one thing that they did - and they're, you know, such great designers - was every second of that game, every place you were, they knew everything you might do there-
Larry Hryb : Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Charla: ... And they basically had a custom animation for it, and-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... And were ready to go-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And it's just, uh, it's unbelievable.
Larry Hryb : And it's also, I love the- because Play Dead, right?
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : They- They oh- they just recently won some D.I.C.E awards, right?
Chris Charla: Yeah, I think they won some D.I.C.E awards-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... And they just won a BAFTA.
Larry Hryb : Yeah, the [crosstalk 00:18:53]-
Chris Charla: Or, a couple of BAFTAs.
Larry Hryb : And they just- the- it's funny 'cause they just don't- they just- they like to just let the game speak for themselves. Right?
Chris Charla: That's exactly right.
Larry Hryb : And that's always- That's always admirable. Uh, moving right along here, Jeffrey. You've got some other stuff we want to go over? You got some news?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know. Do you want to hit news? You want [crosstalk 00:19:05]?
Larry Hryb : We might as well hit news. I mean, we- we're- we're s- talking about games. If you have any- you know, we- we had some questions from Twitter, Chris, so while we're reading some of the news headlines, if you can go out to Twitter and grab some of those-
Chris Charla: Sure.
Larry Hryb : ... We'll answer those when we come back. Yeah, you're gonna stay here with us, but we'll answer those in just a minute. Let's go through some of the headlines we've got. Even though Laura's not here, we're gonna do Name the Game. I- I've asked, uh, Chris to pick up the mantle on that this week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ooh!
Larry Hryb : So, we're gonna do that, but we- yeah. Let's go through-
Jeff Rubenstein: And- We have to- Is it gonna be a punk-rock game? We have to ...
Larry Hryb : No. Maybe- Maybe an ID@Xbox game. We'll find out. So ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe. Well ... Um, yeah, so one of the big changes, uh, we've been listening to feedback and um, for the system itself, for Xbox One, we've released a- a- a number of fan-inspired feature updates to the community last month. More are coming, so-
Larry Hryb : Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... There's- There's quite a bit, but uh, one of the big things is Arena. We've been talking about it. Um, it's gonna be coming, now, to Killer Instinct, so you know, when you hear about the world of e-sports, people immediately think pro-gamers, people that, you know, do this-
Larry Hryb : Call of Duty, Halo ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah, well- And- But people that play 14 hours a day, you know, in, a-arenas and things like that-
Larry Hryb : Yep. Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... But really e-sports can be as simple as, like, you know, the- the equivalent of, like, the, uh, the Work League or something like that.
Larry Hryb : Yeah. I want- I want a beer league for- for e-sports.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, exactly, a beer league, and- and y- now you're gonna be able to set that up. So we have a lot of details, um, and I can link out to that but-
Larry Hryb : Please do.
Jeff Rubenstein: It'll be easier than ever to set up a Killer Instinct tournament. Smite is actually gonna be supporting this as well.
Larry Hryb : World of Tanks.
Jeff Rubenstein: World of Tanks, which was the first, and Halo Wars II, so a lot coming there. Um, a party overlay.
Larry Hryb : Hmm.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, I don't know if you've tried out the achievements overlay. I am an achievement hunter, and so when I'm, uh, trying to, uh, uh, track a, an achievement where I'm like, having to collect- I'm actually doing this with Voodoo Vince where you need to get, like, 100 of the zombie sands, uh, zombie dust bags or whate- Wa- I actually got them, that one this morning. Uh, where you can do a little bit of an overlay that keeps track, uh, as you go.
Uh, if you haven't tried this, it's sort of like, I think Gears of War 2 was like, the first game where as you were getting close, when you did your first active reload, it would let you know you were getting your- your progress towards the achievements getting closer.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, similar thing with the party overlay. So you can see, uh, who's in your party and who's speaking, uh, a-at any given time. Like, the little speaker icon on top.
Larry Hryb : Really helpful for Destiny Raids, uh, and you can move it around to any one of six- eight quadrants on the screen. Eight, not quadrants, I guess, sectors on the screen.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. So, and a number of the other features, but one that I know, Larry, you're definitely gonna want to take advantage of and that is captive portal support.
Larry Hryb : Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: So if you take that word by itself, "captive portal support"-
Larry Hryb : That's en- That's en- That's engineering speak, Jeffrey!
Jeff Rubenstein: ... A lot- What does that mean? Yes it is, uh-
Larry Hryb : But- but let- Why don't you tell us what it really means?
Jeff Rubenstein: It means, in layman speak, you can- you can use your Xbox One at a hotel.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, um, all of these a- I've traveled with my Xbox One a number of times, um, and I have a travel router for different places on Wifi where you have - and hotels are the most common example of this - where you have to like, click through on a website in order to like, turn it on-
Larry Hryb : Accept the terms of agreement, where it goes high speed, low speed, what's your room number, etc.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ex- All of that stuff. Yeah, um, you will be able to do that directly through the Xbox One. That's something that, uh, we are working on and a number of other features that we're hearing from the community, so I know that's one of the ones I'm excited about. Um, a number of things involving clubs, involving, uh, beam and twitch broadcasts. A number of things- we'll link to that.
Um, and normally I'll pick out a couple of, uh, couple of games to highlight, um, and-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... And, and in- I was like, "Oh, in honor of Xbox, uh, of ID@Xbox, in honor of you being here, I'll call out one or two-" But it actually, this is a great week for ID- Re- Like, an insane week.
Chris Charla: Unbelievable.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh, we talked about Voodoo Vince. A-again, this is an X- and XPA game. This was a game that I first knew about because Phil Spencer is a big fan of Voodoo Vince.
Larry Hryb : Well, what am I, chopped liver?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well ...
Larry Hryb : (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Is there- Is there a MajorNelson Easter egg in the game?
Larry Hryb : There is ... (chuckles) I can't confirm or deny.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well (chuckles) ... We- Well- Well, ah ... We'll always have, uh, Kinect Sports. Yes.
Larry Hryb : Yes, that's right. Thank you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, where you didn't finish first in the-
Larry Hryb : Thank- Thank- Thank you Craig [Duncan 00:22:56].
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, exactly.
Larry Hryb : (chuckles)
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, so, uh, it's an excellent game from the- that era. Uh, of the e- the OG Xbox era, um, of exploratory, third-person, character-based-
Larry Hryb : Platformers.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Platformers and adventure and, I'm definitely having a lot of fun with that, that New Orleans theme. Flint Hook. This is a game a lot of people are talking about. Um, hearing it- it- uh, there's like a bionic commando sort of vibe to it. What can you tell me?
Chris Charla: It is amazing. So, super fun, basically like, uh, I guess you could describe it as an action platformer. Um, but you've got this cool hook, uh, you know, grappling hook mechanic, and the thing about the game that is just really cool is it's super fluid, and they've done some- you know, they've done are- a lot of work with the controller so you just, you know, from your thumbs to the screen is just like, there's no barrier, and so the game itself just flows really, really beautifully. They have a bunch of gifs online that you can see it and it's just- it's just unbelievable.
Jeff Rubenstein: So that's Flint Hook. Um ...
Chris Charla: Flint Hook.
Jeff Rubenstein: Two really beautiful games that came out this week. Uh- Sh- I do- Help me of- if I'm pronouncing this right? Shinesse, or Shinesse? Uh, the lightning kingdom? This is like an RPG and it looks really- it has a very cool cell-shaded look that kind of reminds me of like, like, Dragon Quest 8 which is one of my favorite games of all time. This has a really cool look to it, and something that I li- I like about it based on what I heard is it's not a 100-hour RPG.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's nice when you can actually fit one into your schedule, uh, and another game that just looks fantastic is uh, Wonderboy: The Dragon's Trap, and we have a- a great article, uh, on Xbox Wire that was written by, um, one of the, one of the devs, uh, from Lizard Cube, and we have actually a couple of animation gifs as well, uh, built into that. So definitely worth checking out and then-
Larry Hryb : What are these animated gifs?
Jeff Rubenstein: These animated gifs? Is it "jiff"?
Larry Hryb : Is, uh, is uh, is it like- [crosstalk 00:24:40]-
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:24:41]- I said it right, right?
Chris Charla: Obama said it was gif, so ...
Jeff Rubenstein: So like, he's got more authority than I do. 'Nother game with a very interesting visual style, in the complete opposite direction, is Late Shift.
Chris Charla: Yeah!
Jeff Rubenstein: So, ah- ah, the- Full motion video is back! I- It-
Larry Hryb : It is?
Chris Charla: From our friends at Wales Interactive, um, they put together a full-motion video game and they've done some really neat stuff with it. First of all, I think the cinematography is great. You look at still images or you look at it when it's moving, like, they did a really nice job, and um, it's an FMV game, like a classic FMV game, and you basically make these, uh- Actually, it's a little different than classic FMV games. So, it's not like Night Trap or Sewer Shark.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing) I- Sega CD owner right here. Yes.
Larry Hryb : (laughing)
Jeff Rubenstein: It's more like, uh, a choose-your-own adventure game. So there's not a lot of repeating video, it's really just like, you get to a branching choice and you have like, a very short amount of time to make a choice-
Larry Hryb : Dragon's Lair style, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... And you've gotta sort of decide, like, hey, am I gonna, you know, uh, you know, how am I gonna choose how to progress the story?
Larry Hryb : Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... And, um, it really does have some meaningful branches. I think there's seven different endings, and um, so there's a lot of different things than can happen and uh, I was- I was really surprised, um, by the production values and uh, that's a pretty neat one.
Larry Hryb : Let's check that out.
Chris Charla: Yeah, so- ye- there's a bit of a renaissance there, like Her Story last year and-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, and- Yeah, and Wales Interactive also did The Bunker-
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Which is another, uh, more traditional FMV game that was, um, super disturbing, so ...
Chris Charla: (laughing) Way to sell it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : You're right, you're right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hey, sometimes you want that out of the way.
Larry Hryb : Yeah, you're right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, couple other non-ID titles, uh, Guardians of the Galaxy, uh, Telltale Series Episode One is out.
Larry Hryb : Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, kind of excited for this one. The Disney Afternoon Collection, um, as someone who played, used to come home from school and play DuckTales every single day.
Larry Hryb : Total- Stop it! Why you making me feel old?
Jeff Rubenstein: What? I was, uh, a little too old to be playing DuckTales, but-
Larry Hryb : Okay (laughing).
Jeff Rubenstein: I could beat- I could beat it in one go. Um, and this one's maybe right up your alley, Larry. Professional Farmer 2017.
Larry Hryb : You know, I've heard about that. I've heard about that and you know, you know I love my farming simulators.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know you do, and I love how they still use that sort of like, that- that- that italicized font that goes back all the way to like, Flight Simulator.
Larry Hryb : Flight Sim- Flight Simi- Yeah. Ohh.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. It just- It lets you know who this audience is for, which you, Larry.
Larry Hryb : Lot of news out this week. Head over to majornelson.com or news.xbox.com, which ever is your fancy, and we'll make sure we uh, show you what's going on. There's- There's just so much, Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: There is, there is. One last thing, uh, Star Wars Battlefront 2 was announced last [crosstalk 00:27:07]-
Larry Hryb : Yeah! Was down in Orlando for that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. That's pretty cool.
Larry Hryb : Lovely. Your- Your- Your, uh, old stomping grounds, huh?
Jeff Rubenstein: It- It is, uh, I came for the, I came for the Magic Kingdom and I stayed for the humidity.
Larry Hryb : Yes, you did.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb : Yes, you did. It was ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Nine years.
Larry Hryb : It was- It was humid down there, but yeah, it was a lot of fun to go down there, so we've got a video up on this week on Xbox.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb : In fact, I dressed as a Jedi. Have you seen it yet?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, n-no I haven't (chuckled) seen this.
Larry Hryb : (laughing) You've gotta see this one, it's great. The team did a great job, so you'll- uh, t- watch the latest episode of this week on Xbox.
Jeff Rubenstein: I will do that.
Larry Hryb : It's on my Twitter.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh. Okay.
Larry Hryb : Follow now, @majornelson.
Jeff Rubenstein: F- S- Uh, I don't ca- whatever. You know how to find me.
Larry Hryb : And Janina, uh, Gavankar, you know her? She's uh, she's uh, going to be playing, uh, Iden Erso- Versio-
Jeff Rubenstein: Apparently I've interview- Apparently I've worked with her before.
Larry Hryb : You have?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb : She's- She's- She's a huge gamer. Um, and we've worked within a, in, in a number of ca- uh, different ways and-
Jeff Rubenstein: I rem- I remember- Yeah, once I realized [crosstalk 00:27:55]. She's great.
Larry Hryb : She plays everything. She's great.
Jeff Rubenstein: A delightful young lady.
Larry Hryb : She was in, uh, she was in True Blood and- You've seen her.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : You'll know her.
Jeff Rubenstein: We worked together! We did- We did an E3 together!
Larry Hryb : But she [crosstalk 00:27:59]- Yeah. Yeah. What? How come you're not in this game, either?
Jeff Rubenstein: I, bu- Please. This is the alt- This is the burning question. Maybe I'm in Voodoo Vince as a- (chuckles) as a [crosstalk 00:28:08]-
Larry Hryb : Uh, [crosstalk 00:28:09]- Yeah. I'll have to go back and get all the collectibles to unlock the-
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing) Ah, look for a microphone. So (coughs), anyway, so that- those are the news. You- you know how to find it. Uh, we ha- we said we were gonna take some questions form Twitter. You had a couple out here. Do you mind the- I've got a couple here if you want to go over them, Chris.
Chris Charla: Yeah, do- Wa- So what- Do you want to start or do you want me to start?
Larry Hryb : I'll- Let me- Well- Um, well- I got s- I got one up here right away from Megan-
Chris Charla: Okay.
Larry Hryb : ... Uh, Savannah wants to know, I want- He wants- I'm supposed to ask you about your zine, Incredibly Strange Games. What is that?
Chris Charla: So, uh, I do a fanzine.
Larry Hryb : Yeah?
Chris Charla: Um, I've done fanzines ever since I was like, six years old-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And, uh, so I do a fanzine still, uh, about strange video games and it's printed in-
Larry Hryb : Also, which is even stranger (laughing).
Chris Charla: Yeah, yeah. No, I still- I mean, I ki- I mean, it's like using Cork Express or InDesign and stuff and-
Larry Hryb : [crosstalk 00:28:51], wow.
Chris Charla: ... Uh, there is like a blog for it, too, but to get to-
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm linking to that.
Chris Charla: Oh, okay-
Jeff Rubenstein: Incrediblystrangegames.com?
Chris Charla: That's correct.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Chris Charla: Uh, but to get the- the- the real thing, you've gotta, you know, see me at a show and I- I usually have some, although it- recently in Seattle we've done a couple live nights at a bar that is smaller than this studio-
Larry Hryb : Really?
Chris Charla: ... And um, and so we'll have a couple different people come and bring and show- show off weird games and uh, and then we'll make like a little mini-zine for, just for that show. So ...
Larry Hryb : Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is that the, the Grizzled Wizard or something?
Chris Charla: No, I- I wish. It's uh, or- Grizzled Wizard was awesome, but it's at the Fuse Box, which is up by the zoo.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, I've never- I'll have to go there.
Chris Charla: You c- I'll- I'll- You [crosstalk 00:29:28]-
Jeff Rubenstein: That's up near your house! That's up near your house, yeah.
Larry Hryb : [crosstalk 00:29:28].
Chris Charla: Yeah, yeah, it's good.
Larry Hryb : Okay, good. Fun. So, so yeah, so Megan wanted to know about that. Um, "Are you ever too old to skate?" You're a skateboarder.
Chris Charla: I am a skateboarder. No, you're absolutely never too old to skate.
Larry Hryb : Yeah. Yeah, I- I completely agree, and then finally, "Tater tots or nachos, and there only better be one answer?"
Chris Charla: You know, I really feel like Seattle doesn't have a lot of native foods, but Seattle does tater tots better than any place on- in the whole country.
Jeff Rubenstein: Y- You don't have to choose between tater tots and nachos if you go down to Ballard and you- there's a counter in a wall, I don't know what it's connected to, but you go up there and you get the Totchos.
Chris Charla: Yeah, we- you know, w- the- Damon's, which is the sport's bar closest to where we're sitting right now here in Redmond-
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing) Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... Uh, has some of the best Totchos on the East side, so ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Seattle owns the Totcho scene.
Larry Hryb : I- I have no room in my diet for- for tater tots.
Jeff Rubenstein: Eh, maybe after E3.
Larry Hryb : No, I never! I don't like them spicy-
Jeff Rubenstein: You gotta live a little!
Larry Hryb : I don't! I just, they don't interest me, it's com- it's- I don't know. Whatever.
Chris Charla: Tater tots are amazing.
Jeff Rubenstein: Tater tot is like Seattle's national food.
Larry Hryb : Yeah, maybe- I-
Jeff Rubenstein: We don't have a lot to offer culinary-wise here, but [crosstalk 00:30:26] we've got tots.
Larry Hryb : Oh, I disagree. I disagree. As a gateway to Asia, you certainly do (laughing).
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. Y-you mean, like, good food. I'm talking like, bar food.
Larry Hryb : Yes- Yeah- Oh. Fair point, fair point, fair point. All right, so yeah, do you have any- Do you have any of the, uh, any (chuckling) Tw-Twitter response you want to r-
Jeff Rubenstein: Wel- O- One question that came up, uh, a lot was, uh, just about, uh, what's going on with the game Ashen.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, which was, uh, with us at E3 a couple years ago, and uh-
Larry Hryb : Right. Can you remind people what the game is about?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so um, it is a really cool low-poly game that we showed a cool teaser trailer, uh, uh, um, with some, you know, pretty violent stuff happening-
Larry Hryb : Yeah (chuckles).
Jeff Rubenstein: ... And uh, so I'm not gonna say more than that because I don't want to give away more than, than what they gave away.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, but, um, t-the team's still hard at work, and um, you know, this is a case where, um, you know, I saw uh, some, you know, video of latest build, or recently, um, but it's, um, it's up to the team when they want to announce what's going on, and- and- so we didn- you know, as- as excited as we are for the game, like, we can't say much more than-
Larry Hryb : Yeah. That's their- That's their project to own.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. That's exactly right.
Larry Hryb : Why they own the messaging on it, so we don't want to- we don't want to take away any thunder from them, so stay tuned. What else you got over there for questions?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, another question was about - I think we already hit, but - it was just about hey, I'm f- My son's 14, he wants to get into game development, what should he do? Xbox Live Creator's Program.
Larry Hryb : Right there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Turn that Xbox into a devkit and get going.
Larry Hryb : Yeah. W-wouldn't it be awesome if you know, if your mom or your dad or your somebody, I mean, your family bought you an Xbox and then you came down one day and said, "I made a game." "How?" "I turned my Xbox into a devkit!"
Jeff Rubenstein: "And now I'm movin' out!"
Larry Hryb : Yeah!
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing) "Get my own place."
Larry Hryb : "See ya later, gang!" Uh, well that's cool, yeah. So you can find- You- They can find you on Twitter. Where do they follow? @IOCat.
Jeff Rubenstein: IOCat, yeah.
Larry Hryb : Ioca- was there-
Jeff Rubenstein: All these things are linked.
Larry Hryb : Do you want- Do you want me to- Can you explain the story behind that Twitter handle?
Jeff Rubenstein: I- No.
Larry Hryb : (chuckles)
Jeff Rubenstein: It's uh- It's real- It's really old. It's from the Apple 2 days.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Everybody needed a handle.
Larry Hryb : I remember. I rem- I remember the Apple 2 days.
Jeff Rubenstein: What was your first handle? Was it majornelson?
Larry Hryb : Uh ... (laughing) That's a great question. No, it wasn't. Um, so I actually, I actually- that's a good question because there was- before there were computers and I lived in the time there wasn't when I was a little boy, my dad ha- we- I had a CB radio.
Jeff Rubenstein: Nice!
Larry Hryb : Uh, I had a CB radio license, uh, so I had that. So my red- handle- my dad gave it to me, was "redcap."
Jeff Rubenstein: Hmm.
Larry Hryb : That was it. So, I don't know why, but that was what he gave me. So that- That has- That ha- That lived in- Lived and died right there, so, anyway, that's a way to bring a broadcast to an end.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing) Well, no, we can't- You've got other stories [crosstalk 00:32:49]?
Larry Hryb : Oh, I have many stories!
Chris Charla: I want to know this, uh, Diet Dr. Pepper story.
Larry Hryb : Oh, the Diet Dr. Pepper story. What happened was is so, um, Jeff came into the studio before we were recording and he showed me the Diet Dr. Pepper and I got very excited. I'm a Diet Dr. Pepper fan. I should not drink it, but I do. S- I have very few vices, Chris.
When I joined the company in 2001, um, I was like, you know, we had free beverages at Microsoft and I was like, "Oh, this is a cool, big deal," And they didn't have Diet Dr. Pepper, so I started wri - this is before I was anybody - I started writing an email to the people that- whoever this email address was, it was behind stock in the things, I'm like, "Hey, can we get Diet Dr. Pepper?" And n- like, every two months I'd send the same letter.
Two months later- Or, I'm sorry, two years later, it finally appeared in the coolers and I'm taking credit for it.
Chris Charla: Nice!
Larry Hryb : So I was really excited. Well, about six or eight months ago, Jeff was with me, we noticed the Diet Dr. Pepper was no longer there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. We got- We got coconut water instead.
Larry Hryb : Right?
Chris Charla: (laughing)
Jeff Rubenstein: Some- Had- Something had to go.
Chris Charla: Something!
Larry Hryb : So I was like, "Wait a minute, wh-" And I was like, okay, maybe this- maybe it's a bad week, maybe they didn't resto- And I went to, like, six different coolers on campus looking for them. So I started my letter-writing campaign again, and I said, "Hey, um, what happened?"
So long story short is the Diet Dr. Pepper [inaudible 00:33:59]-
Chris Charla: I am drinking one right now and it really does taste more like regular Dr. Pepper.
Larry Hryb : Yes. So it's- it's- Anyways, so I'm very excited that I- So- So that's-
Chris Charla: That's- That's awesome.
Larry Hryb : I'm taking credit for it's- for it's- for it being implemented, going away, and- and returning at- it's triumphant return!
Jeff Rubenstein: Larry, that's a great, ripping [inaudible 00:34:15] but let's talk about the other thing that you're supposed to tell me about that I've been waiting to hear about.
Larry Hryb : Which one? The-
Jeff Rubenstein: The thing that happened in Orlando.
Larry Hryb : So- So Chris, let me tell you what happened [inaudible 00:34:21]-
Chris Charla: Oh, nice.
Larry Hryb : I was hoping- hoping, uh, uh, Laura's gonna be here to tell us. So I go to Orlando for the Star Wars celebration, which is a- which was amazing, and it's always so fun to be in Florida (coughs). So flat, Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's no topography.
Larry Hryb : It's just like, f- ... Anyw- Oh, you know, you know you [inaudible 00:34:35] trouble when apparently the tallest mountain in central Florida (laughing)?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, it i- (laughing) It's- It's uh, it's a landfill.
Larry Hryb : It's- No, it's Space Mountain (laughing).
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, it- I was in South Florida. My- My sister lives, um, smelling distance from the [inaudible 00:34:48] road dump which is, uh, [crosstalk 00:34:50]-
Larry Hryb : Mara Del- Mara Del [crosstalk 00:34:51] (laughing)?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, stepping into that one, Larry! At a- at a height of like, 400 feet, it is the highest point in South Florida.
Larry Hryb : Wow. Anyway, so I g- So I go to this hotel and I will not give out the name to protect the innocent, but I get to this hotel, Chris, after flying all day and we've all done this, you know, business trips and-
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : ... I'm exhausted, and I just want to get to the room, and ... So I put my- Put- Slide my card, uh, into the door. The door opens, and I open the door, and on the little desk - this is your basic hotel room, you know, with the- with the bathroom and then you walk through in the bedroom - and I see there's like this- this- this bottle of champagne, and like, flowers, and there's some food. I'm like, "This is cool, someone-" And I'm- I'm kind of- This is all happening so quickly, but it's in slow-mo.
I'm like, "Why did somebody- Why? Nobody knew I was here. Why do I have this?" And as I step three foot, four foot, five foot into the room, I realize there is a couple without any clothes on in the bed.
Chris Charla: (laughing) Oh, my goodness.
Larry Hryb : And apparently, I barged in on their party. So, uh, they- they let out a gasp. I let out a gasp, and I said, "Oh! Excuse me!" And I looked at the gentlemen. I said, "I think you have things covered here," And I left.
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you really (laughing)?
Larry Hryb : I can think pretty quickly sometimes! And it was- It was rather embarrassing, so I went down to the manager and I said, "Let me pull you aside here, [inaudible 00:36:06], just FYI, this is-" And he was- He was mortified, and they put me in a different room, but it was just- it- I'd never had that happen, Jeffrey!
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I hope the new room had the champagne and the food as well.
Larry Hryb : Uh, I do not recall seeing that. It was- that was a little disappointing.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hmm ...
Chris Charla: I feel like a fruit basket might have been good compensation.
Jeff Rubenstein: Bare minimum!
Larry Hryb : You think? You think? It was- It was one of those moments where I- I- I apo- So, whoever that young couple is that I interrupted, uh, well done and I'm sorry to bother you (laughing).
Jeff Rubenstein: Keeping the magic alive!
Larry Hryb : Exactly. So, uh, whew, that was uh, that was uh ...
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing)
Larry Hryb : Thank you for- I was gonna hopefully- I really wanted to tell that when Laura was here because I- I- I kind of started telling this story and you made me stop.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, because I wanted to hear it in-
Larry Hryb : Well, I texted you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb : I texted you and I said, "You're not gonna believe this."
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, yeah. Funny thing is I totally believe that.
Larry Hryb : It- It is! This- The weirdest stuff happens to me when I'm on the road.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Yeah. Yes it does.
Larry Hryb : Um, and then we were at- We were getting in to go see Mark Hamill. I didn't tell you this story.
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb : We're going in to see. They did the premiere of the Last Jedi, uh, the trailer, and we were running late. It was me and somebody from the team, and this woman, uh, this- this- this woman, the security woman- the security guard standing there, I said, "Hey, we- we need to get in to see it," And she looked at me, she said, "We can't let you in. It's over capacity."
And there was this dead silence, and she looked at me and she said, "You're the Xbox guy. Let's go." And she brought me in the back and were standing on the side of the stage, it was really this special moment.
Chris Charla: Nice.
Larry Hryb : So, anyway, that's-
Chris Charla: That's awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you get to meet Mark and-
Larry Hryb : We- I did not because they were- I- I didn't to- I didn't want to interrupt them.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah.
Larry Hryb : They were having their moment.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I guess so.
Larry Hryb : But it was fun. Orlando! Yay!
Jeff Rubenstein: It's, uh, America's #1 travel destination. Probably.
Larry Hryb : It- It is, uh, is, uh- Am I going back there? No, I'm not. I'm sorry. Uh, t- Apparently I'm not going back any time soon, but hopefully- Hopefully we- you know, you and I need to go back.
Jeff Rubenstein: We've never gone together. We need to go to the Millennium Mall-
Larry Hryb : We need to go to the Millennium Mall?
Jeff Rubenstein: We need to go to the- I used to know the, uh, community manager at that Microsoft store there.
Larry Hryb : We need to go to Universal Studios if I'm allowed back on property.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. That would be fun. Harry Potter land.
Chris Charla: I hea- I heard the Harry Potter land at Universal in Florida was like-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, it's pretty- It's crazy. Yeah.
Chris Charla: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Larry Hryb : Everybody says that.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's- It's very cool.
Larry Hryb : I can't wait 'til Star Wars land opens up over at Dis- at, uh, down at Disneyworld.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb : Anyway. I'm sorry, we're doing too mu- too much theme park talk. That's another podcast that Jeff hosts.
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing) Ye- Central Florida's theme-
Larry Hryb : Inside theme parks.
Jeff Rubenstein: Inside central Florida.
Larry Hryb : So yeah, so, uh, anyway, hey, we've got, uh, we've got Name the Game which is we do every week. Laura couldn't join us, but um, I spoke to her and I said, "Hey, look. Chris Charla is coming on the show. Do you think he could do it? 'Cause I mean, he's the games guy!" I mean, he does a- he does a zine! So she said yes. So anyway, we're gonna play Name the Game. We're gonna play the last week's clip right now, and Chris you're gonna come back and tell us who the winner is. How's that sound?
Chris Charla: Sounds good.
Sound Clip: (music) (frogs croak) (crickets chirp) (scraping)
(music fades, then continues)
Chris Charla: So big congratulations to Hannah from Brighton, U.K., gamertag HannahLou, who correctly identified Thimbleweed Park-
Larry Hryb : Yes!
Chris Charla: ... And your prize, of course, is a copy of Thimbleweed Park-
Jeff Rubenstein: But!
Chris Charla: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: You- You came with your pockets stuffed (laughing)!
Chris Charla: That's right. That's not all.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's not all!
Chris Charla: Uh, in addition to Thimbleweed Park, which is a fantastic game, you will also get Flint Hook, a new ID@Xbox game-
Larry Hryb : Ri- Ooh! We already talked that one up.
Jeff Rubenstein: We talked about that-
Chris Charla: Which we already talked about.
Larry Hryb : Yep.
Chris Charla: Late Shift.
Larry Hryb : Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: (scoffs) It's like we planned this out!
Chris Charla: Which we also already talked about. Super cool new ID@Xbox title.
Larry Hryb : Yep.
Chris Charla: Voodoo Vince-
Jeff Rubenstein: Hmm!
Larry Hryb : Which we also talked about. Yeah.
Chris Charla: Amazing, which may or may not have a majornelson Easter egg in it.
Larry Hryb : Can- Cannot confirm or deny that at this time.
Chris Charla: Uh, City Skylines.
Larry Hryb : Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : Which was the 500th ID@Xbox ti- Woo!
Chris Charla: Uh, the 500th ID@Xbox game.
Jeff Rubenstein: (cheering)
Larry Hryb : Audio confetti, audio confetti, audio confetti (laughing).
Jeff Rubenstein: Woo-hoo!
Chris Charla: And-
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:40:00] post.
Chris Charla: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy-
Larry Hryb : Yeah!
Chris Charla: ... From our friends at Tell Tale!
Larry Hryb : Wow. So that's- That is a great collection of games. Thank you, Chris.
Chris Charla: That's pretty awesome.
Larry Hryb : Thank you Chris, for- Thank you for all of those, uh, the- First of all, congratulations, Hannah, for all the great, uh, for identifying this. Now, you're probably listening right now saying, "Oh, come on, how do I get in on the free games, Chris Charla?" Well, it's easy! All you need to do is we're gonna play an audio clip right now which is from an Xbox game. It could be- It could be any one of the types of games we've talked about, but you play it on the Xbox and uh, you guess what that is, send us an email, major@xbox.com or lollipop@xbox.com. Tell us where you're from, and uh, and uh, we'll put all the correct winners into a pile and randomly pull one. How's that sound, Chris?
Chris Charla: I think that sounds awesome.
Larry Hryb : All right, you ready to play the clip from this week?
Chris Charla: Yeah. Absolutely.
Sound Clip: (music) (roaring) (whooshing) (roaring)
Larry Hryb : So if you think you know what that is, just send me an email, like I said earlier. Major@xbox.com, you can uh, CC lauralollipop@xbox.com. Good luck to everybody. We'll, uh, you can win cool games just like the ones Chris went over, right?
Chris Charla: Absolutely.
Larry Hryb : Right. Well, how are things going? You getting ready for E3?
Chris Charla: Yes.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: Yes.
Larry Hryb : Yeah, you got- I mean, we- I don't know- We- we're not gonna talk too much about it because we do- We can't. Uh, but you're- It's always a busy time of the year for those [inaudible 00:41:30]. They must get excited when you call them and say, "Yeah, yeah. You want to be on the stage?" Right?
Chris Charla: Yeah. Who doesn't get- I mean, if somebody, if- You know-
Jeff Rubenstein: Right.
Chris Charla: Uh- It- It's the big show, right?
Larry Hryb : Right, it is the big show.
Chris Charla: It is the biggest stage in video games, and so the- to the extent we've been able to showcase some cool ID games there. It's been super awesome.
Larry Hryb : Or when we have them playable on the show floor, some- any- any of the events- w- events we're doing-
Chris Charla: Absolutely.
Larry Hryb : It's always- It's always good to see that, and you guys are- Maybe- I mean, I don't- I don't want to- I don't want to push it on you, but usually towards like around PAX, PAX Prime, we do a, we do a little ID game event here.
Chris Charla: Yeah!
Larry Hryb : Are we gonna do that again this year?
Chris Charla: Yeah, absolutely.
Larry Hryb : Uh, okay.
Chris Charla: I think it was already booked.
Larry Hryb : Oh, is it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Nice.
Chris Charla: Yeah, I- It- I'm pretty sure.
Larry Hryb : They haven't given us the dates, but just so- Just- Just if everyone remembers the past couple years, you and your team put together this- You- You round up these amazing developers. You bring them on, uh, to the Microsoft campus here, and then we just throw open the doors and say, "Hey, if you're in the area, come on down!"
Chris Charla: Yeah. We have a big open house at Building 92-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... And uh, invite everybody in to play a bunch of ID games and last year I think we had 50 games and- and we had Halo Wars and the year before we had, I think, Big Halo and, uh-
Larry Hryb : Yeah. Big Ha- Is that what we call it? Big Halo (laughing)?
Chris Charla: You know, it's we- (laughing)
Larry Hryb : Big Halo, Baby Halo.
Chris Charla: Um, but yeah, it's really fun. Um, we throw open the doors for a few hours-
Larry Hryb : Hundreds of people show up. Yeah.
Chris Charla: Yeah, yeah. I think last year we had, like-
Larry Hryb : Many, many hundreds, I gather. Yeah.
Chris Charla: Yeah, tons.
Larry Hryb : Yeah, it was- It's a lot of fun because it's great to walk around and see- I mean, it always- Whenever any of the events you do, you see the developers who many, for the first time, are showing off their games to people that have never seen it before.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : So they're looking through with really fresh eyes.
Chris Charla: Yeah, and- And there's- As a developer - and we talk to developers all the time, you know, what's working for you, what's not working for you- and, and those kind of events they love because you know, it's not just about getting- obviously getting to see people, most of these games that we show at these kind of events are not done yet.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: And so they get to see people play their game before it's finished, so they get to see, like, oh, they're enjoying this part, they're not enjoying this-
Larry Hryb : Oh, they're having a hard time- Right.
Chris Charla: ... And it's, you know, and so- It's r- It's great feedback, but I think to me the thing that I always love and if a developer hasn't shown, uh, you know, publicly before, getting to see that happen for the first time is amazing, is that, you know, you've been working at- you're a developer, you've been working on this game for months and months by yourself. You- you hope it's good, and you put it out there in the public and when you see people start to play the game and they're smiling and they're laughing and they're getting their friends to play it-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... That energizes you as a developer so much-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And so, and for us, it's, you know, the- the guys who are, you know, on this program, um, getting to see the developers get energized energizes us and it's just, you know, there's that moment - for me, anyway - um, right before, you know, one of those events opens it's doors and you look around and there's like, you know, 50 new games and, you know, 50 studios and you're- it's just, like, super special to like, you know, be there for that and-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... It's just really fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: One of the games I played last year that I had a really good time with was Deformers, and that's coming out really soon isn't it?
Chris Charla: Yeah, Deformers should be out, uh, uh, literally any time now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. S- Maybe even by the time they hear this.
Larry Hryb : "Deformers"? What was it about?
Jeff Rubenstein: So it's sort of like an arena battler of like these squishy animal balls- I-
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Like it's hard to- It- It looks really cool, and it's like, it's- again the- I think you can play with, like people of a variety of different skills, but there's definitely like some serious strategy to it.
Chris Charla: Oh yeah. Yeah. When you first play it's like super fun button mash-y fun, so you play it at a show or something-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Chris Charla: ... You immediately get into it, but when you play it more and more, like, you know, obviously if you're skilled, you- you win, and uh, so it's got like-
Larry Hryb : Kind of like life (laughing).
Chris Charla: Exactly. Li- Easy to access, and then, but it's actually got this deep skill thing to it which is really, really cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: And- And it's made by Ready at Dawn, who-
Chris Charla: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... I guess this would probably be the first game they've ever made to appear on Xbox, if I recall. They did the- the God of War games for PSP.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Change of Olympus and whatever the other one was. Um ...
Larry Hryb : You worked on those, didn't- Are yo- Are you in those games?
Jeff Rubenstein: I did. Actually, I'm- I'm in the credits, I believe, for those games-
Larry Hryb : Yeah!
Jeff Rubenstein: ... And uh, and then they did the Order 1886 and they're, you know, doing other stuff so it's cool to-
Larry Hryb : Ah-
Jeff Rubenstein: One of the- One of the marketing guys, I- I knew 'cause I used to work with them. That actually was kind of cool.
Larry Hryb : Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway. Keep an eye out for it, yep.
Chris Charla: Yeah. It's a [crosstalk 00:45:21] game.
Larry Hryb : Delightful. Yeah, so anyway, so we'll be doing that later this year, but yeah, you guys all have a lot going on. It's a- What was- So- What do you hope when you- We're kinda- kinda wrap the show up here, but when you look forward, what do you hope to get out of the next 500 games on Xbox?
Chris Charla: Man. If we got, uh, the same things that we got out of the last 500-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... I would be completely satisfied-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... But- But knowing what's coming, uh, some of the games that are coming are just tremendous-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... And, uh, it- it- it- to me, like, um, like uh, you know, we try really hard on the program - on ID - we never want to sit around and say like, "Oh, yeah. We made it. Like, everything's cool." You know.
Larry Hryb : No.
Chris Charla: Like, we're always just focused on, like, hey, what can we do next? How can we shave two hours off a developer's journey onto Xbox? How can we make things a little bit easier? So we- we really focus on what's next and how we can fix things, but when I look at just the number of games that came out-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... From, um, um, that's awesome.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: Uh, uh, when I (chuckles) look at just the number of games that have come out and just the diversity, it- it is just tremendous, and I think what you're gonna see in the next 500 - and we've got more than 1,000 games in development right now coming through the ID [crosstalk 00:46:27] -
Larry Hryb : Wow! Wow!
Chris Charla: ... Is uh, y- just an incredible flowering of what independent developers can do, and- and what you thought an independent developer could do five years ago or three years ago or six months ago-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... Uh, compared to what independent developers are gonna be doing six months from now or two years from now-
Larry Hryb : Yeah, 'cause you- you're looking six, 12, 18, 24 months up the pipeline.
Chris Charla: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Uh, is, you know, and- and when we think about Project Scorpio-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: ... It is gonna be, uh, ridiculous, and so it's- it's a- it's a great time to be a player on Xbox right now.
Larry Hryb : And I know that the- I don't want to ha- I don't want to put you in a position where you're, you know, representing every single ID@Xbox game, and I don't mean to do that, but since you work with them on a regular basis, what are some of the themes you see of, everyone talks about, oh mobile gaming is huge, and certainly the- it is huge for a certain audience, but how does that sit next to the ID gamer around it, behind it, above it, be- I don't know, right?
Chris Charla: You know, it- it's been really interesting. Um, we've seen games come to Xbox that actually started in mobile-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And, you know and they do work to make sure it feels like an Xbox game and everything like that, and- and sometimes they do really, really well-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... Because it's, you know, it's about like, you know, is this game, you know if we're thinking just about Xbox One, you know, putting Windows 10 aside for a minute, um, does this game feel good with my hands on a controller looking at a TV in my living room?
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: And, uh, and those kind of games can come from any place.
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: Um, one thing that's been neat is we've seen some developers go to the- the mobile fields, really, really great developers, and now they're coming back to console. Um, they've learned stuff, but they- they want to be back in console, and um, it's amazing to see the games that those guys are producing.
Larry Hryb : I gotta say, I just- I just noticed this. Jeff, I don't know if you noticed this. You know, over the past month or so I've been playing Zelda Breath of the Wild.
Jeff Rubenstein: You and I both.
Larry Hryb : Right, and I think you have as well, right, Chris?
Chris Charla: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Larry Hryb : And you have a [inaudible 00:48:12] pin on.
Chris Charla: No! It's not! It's- It's-
Larry Hryb : Is it? It looks-
Chris Charla: It's, uh, [inaudible 00:48:17].
Larry Hryb : Oh! It looks like [inaudible 00:48:18]- Oh! Okay.
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : It looks like- From here, it looks like [inaudible 00:48:21], the guy that you give the- the seeds to. Doesn't it?
Chris Charla: Oh, yeah. No, no.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, is the [inaudible 00:48:24] name?
Larry Hryb : Yes!
Jeff Rubenstein: I was like, "I don't know what [inaudible 00:48:26] is," (laughing).
Chris Charla: Yeah, no, no, this is from a cool ID@Xbox game called [inaudible 00:48:30] that's being developed my Glumberland which is a two-person studio, um-
Larry Hryb : Where are they?
Chris Charla: They are in New Hampshire.
Larry Hryb : Ah! Jeff and I know New Hampshire very well!
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing) We're going back!
Larry Hryb : We're going back!
Chris Charla: So, uh-
Jeff Rubenstein: That's good, that's a Xbox play anywhere game as well, is it not?
Chris Charla: Yeah. It's gonna be Xbox play anywhere.
Larry Hryb : Tell- Tell us a little bit about [inaudible 00:48:45]. When is that coming out?
Chris Charla: Uh- I do not know.
Larry Hryb : Okay.
Chris Charla: In the future-
Larry Hryb : In the future.
Chris Charla: ... But it's super, super cool looking game. Really, really cute style and it is basically a mash-up of a farming game-
Larry Hryb : Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Charla: ... Uh-
Larry Hryb : So Stardew Valley-like?
Chris Charla: Yeah. Animal Crossing-
Larry Hryb : Okay. 'Kay.
Chris Charla: In terms of interacting with all these kind of characters, and then the things that you're raising are these [inaudible 00:49:04]-
Larry Hryb : Two people? Two people are doing this?
Chris Charla: ... And, y- That's right.
Larry Hryb : Right? Oh, my gosh.
Chris Charla: And, uh, yeah. Rebecca and Ben, and um-
Larry Hryb : Are they- Are they a couple?
Chris Charla: I think so, but I'm not sure, so I don't want to-
Larry Hryb : Okay. Okay, doesn't matter. (chuckles) It doesn't matter.
Chris Charla: And, um, and uh, and then there's a, a big Pokemon element in terms of these characters that you're raising and collecting.
Larry Hryb : Have you heard of that game, Jeffrey? Pokemon?
Jeff Rubenstein: The- The Poke-Mans?
Larry Hryb : (chuckles) The Poke-mons. I know you- I-
Jeff Rubenstein: Look, I- I'm not bragging about my Pokedex being 227. I wouldn't do that on a podcast or anything like that, but-
Larry Hryb : Yeah. Jeffrey. Jeffrey, brag- Nobody likes a bragger I believe is what somebody told me once (laughing)!
Jeff Rubenstein: I may have said that to you once on ... Bit me on the butt for that one. Yep.
Larry Hryb : Any-hoo, uh, yeah, that's- I remember [inaudible 00:49:43] because I saw that when I came down to San Francisco for doing our event.
Chris Charla: Yeah, you were at- at GDC.
Larry Hryb : Right, yeah. I remember that. That's- I can't wait to see that, but yeah, I would love to go back up to New Hampshire.
Chris Charla: Yeah. New Hampshire's awesome.
Larry Hryb : I don't- th- I- that- I don't think we've ever had a game out of New Hampshire.
Chris Charla: It- They may be- So we just shipped out first game from South Africa-
Larry Hryb : Okay.
Chris Charla: ... And, um, and, and yeah, this may be our first game from- from [crosstalk 00:50:02]-
Larry Hryb : Do you tra- Do you ha- Like, do you guys have a map, like, you know, a big map with the push pins on it?
Chris Charla: We- Actually- Well, uh, actually, um, somebody on our team, uh, has gone into like, Power BI-
Larry Hryb : Right.
Chris Charla: ... And we actually have a spinning globe that, uh-
Larry Hryb : (gasps)
Chris Charla: We have a gif of a spinning globe that shows where every ID@Xbox developer is.
Larry Hryb : Can you send it to me? If I- Or if you tweet it out, I'll re-tweet it.
Chris Charla: Yeah. Yeah, that would be awesome.
Larry Hryb : I'd love to see that. That'd be awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: And Antarctica, just ... [inaudible 00:50:24] ...
Larry Hryb : Yeah. Just- Under-represented.
Chris Charla: Come on, guys.
Jeff Rubenstein: See, I know you're like, a, you're obsessive with- I've- Cause I remember a few years ago at PAX, you like, stood up in the middle of the [inaudible 00:50:31] and you're like, "Does anyone-" On your 3DS, like, 'cause you were trying to get, like, one last state, like, Indiana or something like that to get the street pass with.
Larry Hryb : Yeah. I needed Iowa.
Jeff Rubenstein: Iowa. It was an I state.
Chris Charla: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, th- Antarctica. Come on. We need it. We need to hit that seven- seventh continent.
Chris Charla: That would be awesome.
Larry Hryb : We need- H- Have you ever had one from my home state of Connecticut?
Chris Charla: I don't know if we have.
Larry Hryb : Oh, come on, nutmeg state! I need you to represent!
Jeff Rubenstein: Is it the nutmeg state?
Larry Hryb : Yes, it is. Yes it is.
Jeff Rubenstein: So there's a state completely around kicking a soccer ball between someone else's legs?
Larry Hryb : Uh, sure. Like, okay, that's- That's pleasant.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's very interesting. Okay. That's-
Larry Hryb : That's really- That's really what you're doing here on this show?
Jeff Rubenstein: That's what a nutmeg is.
Larry Hryb : No, I'm just- it is a spice.
Jeff Rubenstein: That, too.
Larry Hryb : Okay. Don't you- You have it on your- you have it on your-
Jeff Rubenstein: Your eggnog.
Larry Hryb : Your eggnog (laughing) once- us- Apparently that's all.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe not the best industry.
Larry Hryb : No, no, it's-
Jeff Rubenstein: The thriving nutmeg industry.
Larry Hryb : Yes, it's good right along with-
Jeff Rubenstein: B- Home of Big Nutmeg. Hartford.
Larry Hryb : (laughing) Big Nutmeg and Big Insurance. Uh, anyway, so yeah, there's- so you, you've uh, you've got gre- Anyway, man, I kn- I know I gotta let you go 'cause you've got- you've got some work to do (chuckles).
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : So I really appreciate coming by. You're always welcome, Chris Charla. You're always welcome to come on the show. Uh, @IOCat. You can follow him on Twitter. Um, if you see- If they see you they- they can get a zine from you, right?
Chris Charla: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: I- I would like a zine.
Chris Charla: And- And I have to warn you, if you're wearing a Cuphead shirt and you're walking around, I will stop you and start talking to you.
Larry Hryb : Okay. That's g-
Chris Charla: I was just in L.A. and I saw somebody walking around with a Cuphead shirt and I was like-
Larry Hryb : Did he know who you were?
Chris Charla: W- Actually, yeah, he kinda did, and then- So wh- we're just ended up talking about Cuphead and, and Xbox for a long time, so, cool dude.
Larry Hryb : Oh. That's great. Well that's- That's beau- Isn't that great, when you're traveling, when- And certainly when you're going to Redmond in Seattle we run into people that are Xbox fans all the time, but Jeff and I, and just like yourself, you travel the world and you run into people who, I ran into this when I was in Orlando. The guy, uh, at, at TSA- Jeff, I didn't tell you this?
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb : The TSA, the guy looked at the- you know, I hand him my, you know, I hand him my ID and my- my, um, my uh, airline ticket and he looks at, looks at it, looks at me, looks at it, looks like ... "Major Nelson. How's it going." I said, "What's up?" And so we start- We started talking about what we were playing. You never know where people you run into are-
Jeff Rubenstein: And then you were randomly - "randomly" - selected for, uh, a- a- [crosstalk 00:52:31] screening. Yeah.
Larry Hryb : You know, now that you mention it, I was. I was. They- they had me-
Jeff Rubenstein: Got any game codes in those pockets?
Larry Hryb : (laughing)
Chris Charla: I was checking into a tiny little- like, it was at your Gamescom and I was going up to meet my family in Scandinavia, and on- on the way I stayed in Hamburg for a night and I was checking into this tiny little, like, you know, whatever the cheapest hotel was I could find in Hamburg.
Larry Hryb : Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Charla: I'm checking in, I'm all exhausted, and the guy just looks at me and, I was wearing a Cuphead shirt. He's like, "Cuphead. When is it shipping?" (laughing).
Larry Hryb : (laughing)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughing)
Larry Hryb : That's awesome.
Chris Charla: It was kind of amazing.
Larry Hryb : Are- You're- You're kind of like, exhausted. You're like, "Wh- Wait a minute, what?" It's amazing how those moments just kind of snap into focus-
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : ... And you're like, yeah, there's this- It just shows you to your point about the 500 games, how games of all sizes, shapes and sizes, touch everybody around this globe.
Chris Charla: Absolutely. It's amazing, and totally brings everybody together.
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Chris Charla: Like, if you see somebody with a Cuphead shirt on-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, Cuphead!
Chris Charla: ... Kind of friends automatically.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah. You've got something in common.
Larry Hryb : Jeffrey, did- do you have a Cuphead t-shirt?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't. I don't have a Cuphead shirt.
Larry Hryb : Because I don't either. I don't either.
Chris Charla: Yeah. We may be able to fix that.
Larry Hryb : All right. I went- I would- I want a Mug Man shirt (laughing).
Chris Charla: I- I had people [inaudible 00:53:31] Mug Man shirt to my Cuphead shirt.
Larry Hryb : Wait, there's a Mug Man shirt?!
Chris Charla: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Larry Hryb : He's got the- the big nose like me-
Jeff Rubenstein: Right.
Larry Hryb : ... And he's blue, like me-
Jeff Rubenstein: Like you.
Chris Charla: Yeah.
Larry Hryb : Okay. I've- Well, either way. Maybe- Maybe you get Cuphead- Mug Man for him and Cuphead for me.
Chris Charla: We can- We can [crosstalk 00:53:42].
Jeff Rubenstein: That's a- That's a- That's a new, um, Twitter banner right there.
Larry Hryb : I need to cha- you know what else? You know, we talked earlier about um, about uh, some of the new features coming to Xbox. One of them is custom gamer pictures.
Jeff Rubenstein: I updated mine.
Larry Hryb : Yeah, I saw you updated yours. I updated- Did you update yours yet?
Chris Charla: I have not yet.
Larry Hryb : Yeah, I- I mean, I need to update my Cuphead.
Jeff Rubenstein: I still have my day one, you know, remember like on-
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... On the one-year anniversary, got that day one gamer picture?
Larry Hryb : Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And so like I, just, like, I really like that one, so ...
Larry Hryb : I- I- I feel the same way. My original one was one- the toast one, which was-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah.
Chris Charla: [crosstalk 00:54:09].
Larry Hryb : Which we call "angry toast," because he's like, "Grr!" So I- I finally swapped it out and I did, uh, a great picture of the- the- the um, uh, the Scorpio engine. You know, the chip.
Chris Charla: Oh, nice.
Larry Hryb : And then I had- N- I now have one for Voodoo Vince so yeah, I'll change it out every now and then, but that feature will be coming to everybody very soon to Xbox, but, all right. We've been random enough in this show. Jeffrey, thanks for your time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Happy to be here.
Larry Hryb : Chris Charla, again, congratulations to you and everybody on the ID@Xbox game shi- ship, uh, team shipping 500 titles. Huge milestone.
Chris Charla: Yeah. Thanks a lot and thanks to all the developers who've been supporting the program.
Larry Hryb : Yes, thank you developers, and thank you fans. All right, gang. We'll talk to you next time. Buh-bye everybody!
Jeff Rubenstein: Buh-bye.
Chris Charla: Bye!

Larry Hryb: Hi, it's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson, thank you for downloading the show. Jeff, good to see you.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's good to see you too, Larry.
Larry Hryb: Sitting across from you is an empty microphone, Laura is out of the office again, and you know what that means?
Jeff Rubenstein: We're playing hookie? Oh, we're gonna be off the rails.
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: What?
Larry Hryb: It means Albert's here. (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes! We've never seen you two in the same place.
Albert Penello: No, we did. Actually, last time, it has been confirmed after many years that we are not the same person because we were in the same place at the same time.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we did one show.
Albert Penello: But this goes back to the tradition of every time I'm on the show, she just decides to-
Larry Hryb: Well, it's funny, because when I was- when I was talking to him, like, "Hey, Albert, can you come on this show because we're gonna talk about some Scorpio stuff", we'll do that in a little bit.
Albert Penello: Never heard of it.
Larry Hryb: But you, uh ... I looked at the schedule, I'm like, "Oh, hey, of course Laura's gone, thanks, so ..."
Albert Penello: I- Did I do something? I've been so nice to her.
Larry Hryb: I know, we all have. She's a tough read, she is.
Albert Penello: She bails every time I'm on the show.
Larry Hryb: She's a tough read. But anyway [crosstalk 00:01:22] It's great-it's great to see you, you are-you are the, uh, the director of Scorpio marketing?
Jeff Rubenstein: Senior director.
Albert Penello: Come on.
Larry Hryb: I know, sorry.
Albert Penello: [inaudible 00:01:29]
Jeff Rubenstein: You know how I know it's senior? Because of the gray hair. (laughs)
Albert Penello: Really? (laughs) From this crew?
Larry Hryb: Anyway, we usually- we ... you know, the show ... I got Albert on the show because we had some news, um, this week, depending upon when you're listening to this, that just recently broke about Scorpio, and you were involved with that, and I wanted to kind of get you on because I-I read the- I read the story over at, um, over at Digital Foundry, watched the video, and I'm-I'm not the smartest person in the world, um-
Albert Penello: Oh, Larry.
Larry Hryb: But my god, the techno-the technology that's in that video and what was going over, I felt like I was in an electrical engineering class, I stumbled into the wrong room.
Albert Penello: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: That being said, um, the article was called "Scorpio is console hardware pushed to a new level", and you should read it, even if you're not gonna understand every spec, which is why we've got you here, it is well worth reading.
Albert Penello: Actually, well he also ... oh, I mean, we're gonna be talking about ... he also has a great sort of article just for like what does it mean if you're not technically savvy, that's also really excellent.
Jeff Rubenstein: Scorpio made simple.
Albert Penello: Scorpio made simple.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll link to all of those in the show notes.
Larry Hryb: But anyway, normally we do the show, we talk about what we're playing, and have some interviews, but I figured to let you know, there's such ... this is the first time, frankly, since E3 last year where we said, "Okay, we'll talk about Scorpio."
Albert Penello: Yeah, it was, uh ...
Larry Hryb: So let's do that.
Albert Penello: Yeah, we were joking before, what game have I been playing? The game I've been playing is getting ready to tell everyone about Scorpio.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: Uh, it is funny, because we have said very little since E3 last year.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: And I kind of joked that we announced, like, we said three numbers, we said 60 teraflops and eight cores and 320 gigabytes, and the most powerful console ever, and then nothing, really.
Larry Hryb: Well we kind of said four if you want to count 2017.
Albert Penello: Okay, and 2017, yeah, coming next year.
Larry Hryb: Right (laughs)
Albert Penello: So, uh, you know, people thought it was crazy to announce a new console at the beginning of the show, and then announce another new console at the end of the show.
Larry Hryb: But we did it.
Albert Penello: But we did it, and, uh, you know, the-the anticipation and the reaction was great. Um, and of course inside, you just want to, like, tell everybody everything right away.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Now I must-I must tell a personal story, I'm sorry to cut you off, which is what I do in the show. Um, is ... Albert, I've known you a long time, you've been ... you and I have been working on the Xbox business for a long time, and I would- I stopped by your office frequently, "Hey, what's going on?", and you kind of tell me what, this is the plans for the next thing, you know, in this case Scorpio. So you and I have been chatting about this for quite some time.
Albert Penello: Quite some time, that's right.
Larry Hryb: And so I'm-I was so excited, obviously, when we announced it last year, and even more excited because we're sharing more details.
Albert Penello: Yeah, yeah, I mean, so the-the idea was, you know, uh, when we announce the specs last year, we made a claim, like, we stuck our flag, as it were, and said we're gonna build the most powerful console ever, and we're gonna deliver 4K games. And it was interesting because people, you know, they question things like that. "Are you really gonna be able to do it?," and "I don't understand? And I knew that we not only were gonna deliver it, I believe we would exceed it, and what's been great about today is that I think, um, we have been able to prove definitely with an outlet that is known for being very savvy and being very technically focused, we've been able to sort of tell the story that, yeah, we're gonna do exactly what we said we were gonna do, and better.
Larry Hryb: Let's talk about that for a second, because I saw some people online going, "Wait a minute, why would you- why would you just not do an event, why did you ... why Digital Foundry?" So tell me a little bit about why-why the decision to go with ... or to talk to Digital Foundry? I mean, they're well respected, as I always like to say, they're the pixel counters on the Internet. (laughs)
Albert Penello: Yeah. Look, I mean, here's the thing. The launch has been unorthodox, and I mean that in a great way. Like, we are doing things unexpected, and announcing a year early was unexpected.
Larry Hryb: Never happened before.
Albert Penello: Um, typically people think, "Oh, they're gonna do a big reveal event and they're gonna parade people out on stage", and we said, "No, like, this product is for core gamers. This product is a technical achievement beyond just a bunch of numbers on a page." And really, like, the guy, Richard and the guys at DF, that's what they do, they're an unbiased, well respected source, they're very knowledgeable, there's nobody like them, and we thought, "You know what, why, if I go out and tell the specs, and if anybody follows Neogaf they'll laugh at that, but if I go out and talk about it, you know, then people are just gonna say, "Well I'll just wait for Digital Foundry."
Larry Hryb: "Well that's just Albert", yeah.
Albert Penello: Well, exactly. And so I'm like, "Why don't we just go to Digital Foundry?" Then you don't have to wait.
Larry Hryb: Cut to the chase.
Albert Penello: So yeah, it was-it was-it was a, I think it was a, uh, I don't want say bold decision, but I think it was an out of the box decision, and for what we were trying to do I think it was a good one.
Larry Hryb: And let's be clear, it was a bold decision because, my understanding is you invited Richard-Richard-Richard Leadbetter from Digital Foundry to come in here. And we showed him everything, we didn't know ... and this is an honest to god true story, we did not know until the morning that article went up what was ... what he was gonna say, right?
Albert Penello: Uh, 100%. In fact, I, uh, you know, we, you know, you prepare for something like this.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: We-we read his stuff, I read his stuff, your listeners read his stuff.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: You know what he's been thinking, you know what he's been saying. So we had a good idea that we were gonna exceed his expectations, because we knew what his expectations were.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: So you plan, you have a day prepared, you want to ... you-you know what questions he's gonna ask.
Larry Hryb: You studied for the test.
Albert Penello: We studied ... but more-more than that, it's like, we didn't ... look, we built a great product. I mean, the people that have been reading the reviews, they know that, we're building a great product. And so we were gonna let the product speak for itself, and we were gonna have an expert come in. And the fact is that I was up at 5:40, I was up at 5:15.
Larry Hryb: So was I.
Albert Penello: I was here at 6:00, 5:56 with the crew, with hitting refresh on my browser just like anyone else, because again, when you do that, it's like ... look, you know the movie business, you make your movie, and you put it out and you're waiting for the reviews to come in, or you're waiting for what the feedback is.
Jeff Rubenstein: Can we back up a little bit? All three of us, I know, have read this article, but for those who ha- or are listening here now and haven't read the article, what did you show Richard?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, let's go through what-what he say and kind of ... because I know certainly he was ... he wrote a ... he did some videos, he wrote a lot of words about it, but tell us about it.
Albert Penello: Yeah, well I think, you know, we were really focused on the tech. So one of the pieces of feedback I'll just start with is, like, "Hey, they didn't show or announce any games, they didn't announce a date or a price." And, like, we all knew from going in, that wasn't what the goal ... there are other events, maybe some events that happen, you know, in the summertime, and later in the year.
Larry Hryb: In Los Angeles.
Albert Penello: In Los Angeles, perhaps, where things like that happen. But we-we knew that people were gonna have questions about what- about these numbers, and about what we were doing. So we wanted to bring the foremost expert in to do that, and so this was a tech, spec, and hardware unveil, it wasn't intended to be a game unveil. We did show him some-some engine demos, a Forza tech, we took him to Turn 10.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, he talked about that in the video.
Albert Penello: And he talked about in the video. Because we knew we needed to punctuate this with content.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: We needed him to see something running to validate the claims. Um, and so he did, but it wasn't a game reveal, it was a tech and hardware reveal. So what we basically did is we brought him in, and Mike Ybarra and myself just gave him a little bit of background on-on Project Scorpio and what our goals were. Um, we kind of told him, "Hey, you know, we want to-we want to get our mojo back, we want to be the platform where the best games are played on Xbox." That was our drive.
Larry Hryb: That's the goal.
Albert Penello: That's the goal. And we wanted to hit four things, you know, we wanted to hit ... we wanted to own 4K, we really wanted to hit a big beat around 4K. Um, we want it to be a great platform for developers, and I think people will hear maybe more news around our developer story. We have a really awesome developer story.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: Uh, we want it to, um, be, um, excellent, uh, for people who have 1080p TVs and we could talk a little bit about the fact that not everybody is gonna have 4K this year. And it needed to be a great Xbox, even if you don't have 4K. And it-it ... everything needed to work, and all the effort and energy we put into compatibility and upgradability, and things like that. So those were the four things we wanted to take him through, and we just spent the day, you know, taking him through all those- all those areas.
Larry Hryb: We-we heard a lot, or we saw a lot in the video, and we've seen some chatter online afterwards about the Scorpio engine. Explain, you know ... I want to kind of ... if we can go through his article and maybe talk about some of the things, and bring them down to, you know, to something I can understand.
Albert Penello: Yeah. (laughs) Well frankly, or something I can understand, too, because I still- I still sit ... I've been doing this for years and I still sit in awe, um, over guys like Andrew-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, these electrical engineers-
Albert Penello: You know, Kevin, and talk about the software and the hardware, still-
Larry Hryb: But I would like to point out that you-you do have an honorary pocket protector, so you are kind of a nerd. (laughs)
Albert Penello: You know what, they let me in the club, right? I'm the class clown, it's like, "You can come in. That guy's cool, let him in."
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, exactly.
Albert Penello: But so, no, you know, I've been working with those guys for along time, so-so I understand, but still, like, the passion and the deep depth and history of game development and hardware development-
Larry Hryb: From the Silicon point of view.
Albert Penello: Yeah, from Silicon, and Andrew from graphics, and Kevin, you know. [Gamel 00:10:06] from the platform perspective, these guys are wicked smart.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: Um, but no, like, uh, I think your question was explaining it-
Larry Hryb: The engine.
Albert Penello: Yeah, the Scorpio engine.
Larry Hryb: Well more about the engine, but more about explaining what we saw.
Albert Penello: Well there was two things, first off is when we announced Project Scorpio, you know, it's a cool name. And the Scorpio engine was really the sort of thing we're talking about.
Larry Hryb: You know that the Internet wants that to be the final name.
Albert Penello: I know the internet wants that to be the final name.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's already got an emoticon.
Albert Penello: Well, and it's now ... it is part of the final product in the Scorpio engine. That will be where Scorpio continues on into the product, that's-that's where that sort of, the beating heart of the product is the Scorpio engine. The other thing I like about it is, um, it is very easy, and I see this frequently, for people to think that building a console is like building a PC. That I just call up AMD and I say, "Give me that CPU and give me that GPU."
Larry Hryb: You go to PartPicker.com.
Albert Penello: It's like AMD's got a Fry's Electronics shop that we just go pick at, for those in the West Coast that know Fry's. And then that's it, that's how you make a console. And it's so much more than that.
Larry Hryb: Talk to us about that.
Albert Penello: It's so much more complicated. Well, you know, we, AMD is a great partner for ours, that AMD has IP, they have technology, we have IP and technology. Um, we work with them to scope the objectives and goals of the project, so there is AMD IP and there's Microsoft IP in these things, and we work together to build the Scorpio engine. It is not just simply a Radeon graphics chip and a Jaguar core that we've sort of just glued together. It's way more complicated than that, again, a reason why a guy like Richard Leadbetter's perfect to tell that story. So we wanted to sort of talk about all the customizations, because the Scorpio engine is something unique, and it's something that we're super proud of.
Larry Hryb: Should I think of it, you know, should people think of the Scorpio has like, this-this is the graphics engine, or this is the game engine, this is the sound ... what, is it all of those?
Albert Penello: Well that's the thing about a game console is you have what's called a system on a chip.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, SOC.
Albert Penello: SOC, you'll see an SOC which is the-the memory controller and the CPU and the GPU and the audio processing blocks and all of the command processors are all in one thing.
Larry Hryb: Whereas normally on a PC board they'd be broken out, correct?
Albert Penello: You'd have a ... well I wouldn't say sound card, but you used to have those. But in the old days-
Larry Hryb: Did I date myself again?
Albert Penello: I did.
Jeff Rubenstein: The sound blaster?
Albert Penello: You'd have a sound blaster, well you'd put your sound blaster in your 3dfx card. No, but you'd have these discrete components is what you'd call it, right, discrete components that do all these things. In the Scorpio engine and in modern consoles they're all in one place, and we call that the Scorpio engine.
Larry Hryb: Got it. So that's what ... so let's continue on with, you know, what he saw, and Jeff, you seem to have a question.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well yeah, I-I ... so we talked about six teraflops, I saw way more numbers come out in that. So six teraflops tells us something about just, like, raw power, but I think we're getting sort of a better idea of what that can now translate into.
Albert Penello: Yeah, I mean there's so many ... there are so many, um, numbers. (laughs) And each of them is important to do different things. Like, again, I hate ... I-I wish I could just come up with a great analogy, you know, about a car or something, because that's where I tend to go. But, you know, you generally think of the-the GPU as about rendering the pixels on the screen, and CPU is about AI and frame rate.
Larry Hryb: Moving those bits and pixels-
Albert Penello: And the memory, the amount of memory you have is how much, how much graphics quality can be stored, I'm really oversimplifying, I'll get slaughtered for describing it this way. And so all of these things need to work together. You need to have enough GPU to be able to-to drive, you know eight million pixels or whatever is on a 4K TV. You need enough CPU to feed that GPU fast enough so that your frame rates and your AI and all of that ... and by the way, things like load times are bound by your CPU as well. And then you need enough memory to store all those textures and all that information. And so the-the reason you see a lot of numbers is to sort of describe ... we've got six teraflops of GPU, that's about getting ... that's about driving a 4K display. We have, um, you know, we got to 2.3 gigahertz on our CPU which is crazy, both of these are crazy fast for the technology, but we made a ton of improvements like moving DX12 out of the CPU and into the GPU.
Larry Hryb: There's been a lot- a lot of people were talking about that and they're like, "Wait a minute, how do I get that?"
Albert Penello: Yeah, it's about freeing up ... it's about freeing up resources, so you take commands that you have to write in code and you embed them in the hardware, and then that frees the CPU to do other things. And then I have to have memory bandwidth, that's how fast the information and memory can feed the CPU and GPU. So all of these things have to work together.
Jeff Rubenstein: I guess to phrase it a little bit better, uh, when you mention, like, six teraflops, that talks about ... that's the GPU, but Scorpio's more than just about improved visuals, 4K visuals, correct?
Albert Penello: Well that-that's the thing about it. We built ... we had a goal, and as I said, the goal was to own 4K, to drive, to be able to drive true 4K games.
Larry Hryb: And we kind of started that, I'm sorry, with Xbox One S, because it's the only console with a 4K Blu-ray player.
Albert Penello: Yeah, we're ... look, we're committed, with HDR and 4K Blu-ray on Xbox One S, we're, like committed to 4K, like, we love 4K.
Larry Hryb: And there is a 4K, uh, drive in Scorpio we saw, right?
Albert Penello: Yeah. So we continue that-
Larry Hryb: We've confirmed that.
Albert Penello: In Scorpio, yeah, we've confirmed that with Scorpio. And so, um, we needed all these things to work together to be able to drive 4K. But that wasn't the only goal. So-so developers can decide what to do with this power, they don't have to build 4K games if they don't want to, that's one thing, they can go ... we're just giving them an unbelievable amount of horsepower to realize their visions, again, I always say we have to have a goal, our goal was 4K, but the developers are gonna choose their own path, and that's awesome. The other benefit is it just elevates the Xbox platform in general, it brings a ton of improvements to the library that you already own.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, and I think that's really important because when we talk about Xbox, we talked about Xbox One and Xbox One S and now Scorpio, that is the family of devices. And what does that mean, Albert?
Albert Penello: Well, there's a lot of analogies, and so I'll use two, and both of them break in their own way, but there's the analogy of the phone and there's the analogy of the PC. And when we started Scorpio, the idea was, this is the way that things work today. People upgrade their devices more frequently and expect that their-
Larry Hryb: Their tablets, their phones.
Albert Penello: Their tablets, their phones, and they expect that content just goes with them, and, oh, by the way, when I get the new iPhone or the new iPad, my old stuff is faster on it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, works, looks great.
Albert Penello: And by the way, people then make, you know, improvements to those things that work on-
Larry Hryb: Those apps, right?
Albert Penello: Or there's the PC, which is game engines today are just inherently scalable, they have to work on game consoles, they have to work on low-end PCs and high-end PCs. And I can just ... I can ... the nice thing about PC is, I can buy as much performance as I can afford. And so neither one of those models are exactly what we're doing, but there-there's ideas in both. And so when I talk about the family, I guess the closest would be a PC, in that you can think of the Xbox One S as a great gaming PC, and you can think about Scorpio as a really badass gaming PC. I don't ... I don't, like, not get to play a PC because I chose one of the two, the settings might have to come down, I can only run it at 1080 instead of running it at 4K, I have to turn some effects off or maybe the textures aren't quite as good, but it's the same game.
Larry Hryb: It's the same game.
Albert Penello: And that was ... that's the model that we're using with Scorpio, is they are part of the same family, the games run on both, but we've designed Scorpio to be able to, sort of literally, turn the dial up to ... turn the dial up to 11 on Xbox One games if that's what's important to you.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I just got a 4K TV and my mind is currently still blown, I'm still just, like, walking around, like, my pupils dilated and stuff like that.
Larry Hryb: Well they're really gonna blow your mind, because I didn't tell you this, Albert, but I let him borrow my copy of, uh, Planet Earth II.
Albert Penello: Oh, I'm gonna watch that tonight at 4K.
Larry Hryb: I said that's the one.
Albert Penello: That is the one.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I'll be doing that. But I'm still just-just amazed at the size and all ... and just like the brightness and the resolution and everything, and I'm playing on Xbox One S. Um, and the HDR, ugh, yeah. So there's that. Um, but two days ago I didn't have a 4K TV, and we know that many people are gonna be adopting 4K in the next five, six years. For those that are still running 1080, what does Scorpio do for them?
Albert Penello: Yeah, I see that question a lot and I think it's great. There's a lot. I'll talk about the one thing that's probably the least understood last, I'll talk about the easier things first.
Larry Hryb: Go hard.
Albert Penello: So when we ... the first thing is, we have a, um, a hard drive in Scorpio that provides about 50% more throughput than the hard drive in the existing Xbox, and that's because we didn't want load times to be terrible when you're loading these big 4K textures. So we did a lot of work on-on a custom hard drive in our console. The nice thing about that is when I'm loading 1080p textures, the load times are much faster. So just by putting an Xbox One, uh, game in the Scorpio, your games are gonna load faster. Now, I think everybody knows today, load times vary from game to game, but all your load times are gonna be a lot faster on Scorpio for the existing games.
The second thing is as people might remember when we launched Xbox One S, that we upped the GPU clock just a little bit for HDR.
Jeff Rubenstein: Just a wee bit.
Albert Penello: And those that follow Digital Foundry will have noticed that a couple of games that have either dynamic resolution or dynamic frame rates saw a little bit of a bump. Um, you know, a couple of frames per second when running on the new box. That was one of our design goals with Scorpio, is that those games will also be able to take advantage of the power of Scorpio. So if you have games with dynamic, um, resolution or dynamic frame rate, you're gonna run at even better, higher resolution and higher frame rates, and in many cases, you should max out frame rate and resolution for an Xbox One game running on Scorpio. So there's another great reason.
Um, there is some filtering improvements, some texture filtering improvements that are inherent in the hardware. I will be out of my element to try and, um, try and describe what that means, but just assume that the texture quality, um, and the anti aliasing is a little bit better on Scorpio. This requires no work, by the way, on the developers, this is just inherent.
The last one is something called super sampling, and that's the one that the guys, that I think a lot of the enthusiasts are really excited about. And so, again I will give the ... I will give the way I would describe this to my wife. Um, when you ... if you're a photographer and you've got a 20 ... what's the latest, 20 megapixel camera? Like, what does an SLR take these days?
Larry Hryb: 20, let's say 30, 20.
Albert Penello: Okay, when you take a 20 megapixel picture, you've got 20 megapixels worth of information. Your phone screen is not 20 megapixels, but all of the data's there. So 20 megapixel pictures on a phone screen look great. When you shrink them down, none of the information is lost. So you kind of think of super sampling as the same thing. It's a way that you're ... all the 4K improvements that exist in Scorpio games, that-that information is still there even on your 1080p screen. So the better textures, the better anti aliasing, all that information is there, and then we do work and hardware to shrink it down to 1080p. So you basically get all of the 4K quality, but you're just on a 1080p display, just like you can see a 10 megapixel picture on your phone, but your phone isn't 10 megapixels.
Larry Hryb: Got it.
Albert Penello: So that's probably the best way I can describe it. What it means is, anti aliasing, just the quality of the art, all the graphics improvements that they're doing for the 4K games, you'll still see it, you just won't get the native resolution.
Larry Hryb: Right. Okay, my head's kind of blown.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, no, that makes a ... that was a good explanation.
Larry Hryb: Thank you very much for that. Yeah, I mean, because one of the questions we also see is, "Wait a minute, so-so should I buy an Xbox One S now or should I wait for Project Scorpio later this year?" What are we ... what are you telling people a-about that decision, because it's key, it's important to know, is that your-your ... and Phil said this last year on stage, your games go with you.
Albert Penello: That's right. I mean, the-the fact is that, um, people who own an Xbox One right now own Scorpio games. They have games that will be better on Scorpio. Their accessories work on Scorpio. Their, whatever you've got, your friends list, your achievements, your gamerscore, all that investment you've made on Xbox One is ... you're already a Scorpio owner in many ways.
Larry Hryb: So in some ways, this holiday, when some of these listeners, and many people hopefully will buy Scorpio, when they get their ... when they get it home they can just unplug their USB drive and plug it back in and they're off to the races.
Albert Penello: I love to tell that story, and this was one of my favorite ... you know, the things that go easy and the things you debate about at work always fun. One of the biggest discussions that I had to have with the hardware team was actually about the power supply. So we wanted the same ... you know, the-the power output of Scorpio, and I mean by watts, like-
Larry Hryb: Like gigawatts.
Albert Penello: 200 something watts of power, um, requires typically, you know, heavier duty cable. You think about how big the cable is in a PC. I wanted the same cable, so literally every port is the same. And look, we achieved it, we did it, but it was a bit ... it was actually a lot of work.
Larry Hryb: It was hard.
Albert Penello: And it was-it was a big discussion, because I wanted people who own an Xbox One S, if they choose to upgrade, they ... all you do is you set the new box on top, you don't even have to look, power supply, HDMI, HDMI, take the old one out, done, you're good. Plug your hard drive in, it's your box again. Um, and, like, that's a level of thoughtfulness we've put into the design that actually seems like a ... like, "Well, of course they would do that." But, you know, it was a lot of work.
Larry Hryb: It's one thing to-to design and in your head go, "Wouldn't it be nice if ...", but once-once you bring electrical engineers into the room, they-they put the pedal to the metal and they bring real facts.
Albert Penello: Yeah, exactly.
Larry Hryb: Right? Sometimes things can't happen.
Albert Penello: That's right. Well, there's all kinds of ... the big world you ship products in with varying rules and regulations that sometimes put a dampener on your-your party sometimes. But look, they-they knocked it out of the park.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. So the Digital Foundry, and again, Jeff, I'll put lengths in the ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, everything's in the-
Larry Hryb: Show notes, there's so much that Richard went over. Uh, were you surprised at, like, he must have been like a sponge just absorbing everything.
Albert Penello: It-it was interesting because, you know, again, I-I'll just use the sort of ... we made a movie and we sort of ... you brought a reviewer in to see it r-right off the bat. Um, it's funny, the truth is he actually said very little. I-I think you're right, I think he was absorbing a tremendous amount of information that was coming at home.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: Um, and, uh, you know, we didn't know. You know, I mean, obviously, I think he, uh, enjoyed getting to see things and enjoyed, uh, getting to-to be able to talk to people and ask questions directly. But, you know, he leaves and then you don't know.
Larry Hryb: Now also, um, we-we want to point out that, you know, everything that's over there, it's everything that he wrote about, I mean, that's accurate, right?
Albert Penello: That's-that's what we did, and we gave him the facts. We gave him the specs, uh, we gave him the tech, we let him ask questions of our engineers, and then it's up to him to report on his ... on his findings.
Larry Hryb: Lots-Lots of good stuff. Do you have anything else you want to add before we move on, because I mean, there's so much to go over. (laughs)
Albert Penello: You know what? Here's ... I mean, again, I'm-I'm just really, obviously, I'm tired. (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you are.
Albert Penello: Because it's been a long and exciting day, I'm just ... I'm so jazzed about what we're doing, so jazzed about being able to talk to people about it. There's more coming, I mean, this is not the end of our unveils of Scorpio, it's actually the beginning, really, of our unveils around Scorpio. So, um, I'm just, you know, I can't wait for the holidays.
Larry Hryb: Last time we had you on, though, you were talking about 4K TVs, I think it was before the holiday, wasn't it?
Albert Penello: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And so I wanted to see if you can kind of give us the-the, uh, 2017 Albert pitch on 4K TVs that you've been tracking. Jeff said he picked up one. Um, what are you seeing in that, I mean, we're seeing momentum in that area, obviously.
Albert Penello: Yeah, I mean, I-I, if you look at the industry numbers, the rate of 4K, uh, TV sales versus other ... versus 1080 sales is gonna go through the roof.
Larry Hryb: Of course.
Albert Penello: And I-I think that probably by next year, most people, if you're buying a TV, will be buying a 4K TV. Still, people don't buy TVs once a year like they do phones, so it takes a few years for that, uh, technology to adopt. Um, look, I think right now the sets that are coming out right now are really good. I think actually this year's sets-
Larry Hryb: 2017, yeah.
Albert Penello: Um, are probably the first time I would say I wouldn't be afraid of buying a TV. Of course, sizes go up, costs come down, features get added, you could just decide you never will buy a TV because the next year's one ...
Larry Hryb: Is always bigger, yeah.
Albert Penello: But if I think about, you know, these things are really ... you know, really driving 4K pixels, really delivering HDR, really getting the latency down in game mode, this is a good year. Like, I think you're safe. And I ... you know, as Jeff talked about, Jeff bought, uh, um, a very nice, uh, TV, um, that you know, even in the mid range sets, they're great, if you want to spend money on an OLED, those things are excellent. But you can get a really great 4K TV, I think, at a really reasonable price.
Larry Hryb: I want to ... I just saw a question here online about Project Scorpio, just to get back to that because we're just all over the place. When ... one thing we didn't show, we didn't show the visual ... we didn't show the box. I mean, we kind of did because we saw ... you see what's in the box, but what's-what's going on there?
Albert Penello: Well one of my favorite ... yeah, go ahead.
Jeff Rubenstein: What's in the box?
Albert Penello: What's in the box? (laughs) Oh, come on. Uh, actually, one of my favorite parts of the day, I'll tell this story. One of my favorite parts of the day was when we talked about the hardware, so not the silicon, and not the specs, but they actual box itself. Um, and as it turns out, to, uh, productize this level of performance, um, I mean, think about how big, uh, 4K capable PC card is ...
Larry Hryb: Oh, I've got one, it's a big boy.
Albert Penello: It's a big card.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: And we're trying to squeeze that into something that fits in your television. And so there is just ... there is so much innovation and work put into the hardware. And so there was three things people probably heard us talk about, they heard us talk about the Hovis method, the vapor chamber.
Larry Hryb: Explain the Hovis method and the ... I want to talk about those two things.
Albert Penello: So I'll get into ... I'll get into that. So Leo Del Castillo, who runs all of our hardware, he's actually run hardware, um, since the original Xbox, he's built every Xbox.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, he has.
Albert Penello: He actually brought all the pieces out on a table and literally assembled-
Larry Hryb: It was disemboweled?
Albert Penello: In real time. It was just a cage, and he put it together in real time as he was describing it, and I think Richard mentions that in the article. And really, the-the craftsmanship into being able to do that, to just literally put it together and so how things like ... we have to keep the hard drive cable, um, secure and away from the ODD drive because the vibration, the minor vibrations from the Blu-ray drive can affect the signal quality between the hard drive and the motherboard.
Larry Hryb: So let's be clear, this is not just putting components in a box, this is looking at every-every cable and every electron that's going around there and making sure it's optimizable.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm thinking, like, it's not just Tetris spatially, but in the way they actually-
Larry Hryb: Oh, it's-it's Tetris atomically. (laughs)
Albert Penello: I mean, look, that'll be a whole nother, like, the amount of density of this box. So, um, there was a couple things that we talked about, like in order to power the Scorpio engine and cool the Scorpio engine, what were the things that we needed to do? Um, vapor chambers are things that ... basically, it's a liquid cooling solution. Um, and really, if you go look, only the highest end PC cards have vapor chambers.
Larry Hryb: And what is a vapor chamber?
Albert Penello: It's a-it's effectively, um, a, um, a heat sink on top of a membrane that is filled with water. And just like a radiator in your car, as it heats up it turns to vapor, and then that vapor then is-is quicker to be cooled through the cooling process.
Larry Hryb: Sure, standard physics apply.
Albert Penello: As opposed to just typically on a PC when you've got the heat sink right on top of the chip. So we have a liquid cooling solution-
Larry Hryb: He seemed to like that idea.
Albert Penello: It is, well, because he knows that that's the kind of tech that's reserved for really high-end graphics cards. Um, and we've got it in the console, and is ... no other console has ever had a vapor chamber in it. Um, the centrifugal fan, you know, we use an axial fan today, um-
Larry Hryb: Okay, what does that mean? (laughs)
Albert Penello: Uh, so think about one as a ... one as like a squirrel cage, so one is a blower, and one, uh, god, I gotta think about how to describe this ... it's the difference between ... it's the difference between a fan that you have in your house, and a fan for like an eight track system. So like a regular fan is an axial fan, it just blows air. This-this takes air and compresses it.
Larry Hryb: Okay. So we see ... we usually see them as circles. Looks like-
Albert Penello: Yeah, so an axial fan would be like a typical PC fan you see that just looks like a fan.
Larry Hryb: And if you look at some of the graphics we released, you'll probably see the actual fan case right in the middle there.
Albert Penello: Yeah, the actual ... yeah, the actual cage for the centrifugal fan.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Albert Penello: So basically what it does is it produces a much higher volume of air and cooling at a much lower fan speed, so that's how we're able to cool the box and not have it be loud. So we moved to a centrifugal fan for Scorpio. The last thing, one of my favorite things is the Hovis mes-method. So this is something that our team invented, um-
Larry Hryb: Who is this Hovis?
Albert Penello: There's really a guy, and I won't ... there's a really a guy whose last name is Hovis who works on the team, who basically came up with this method, um, for basically, uh, fine tuning the power, um, that each and every unique Scorpio ship with. So, um, anybody who overclocks their-their GPUs and stuff, the PCs kind of understands that you play with the voltages and you-you can run, um, your CPU at different voltages and-and sometimes you'll get a little bit more power, sometimes you can lower the voltage and get the same performance. So there's a distribution curve.
Larry Hryb: And this all lends to the fact that when those-those integrated circuit chips are coming off of the assembly line, there's a margin of error.
Albert Penello: There's a margin of error.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: They all perform-
Larry Hryb: They all perform this spec-
Albert Penello: Some require a little bit more power, and we're talking about, like, little tiny amounts of power to achieve the performance goals. Well, you actually waste power by just ... because you have to obviously power every chip to the needs of ...
Larry Hryb: Right, so you're like, "This is what we're gonna power this at x"
Albert Penello: That [inaudible 00:32:34] in Scorpio. Every single chip is running at the power necessary to power that particular chip.
Larry Hryb: So it's dynamic.
Albert Penello: So it is-it's dynamic to each console, it's more energy efficient, um, so we don't waste any energy in the box, and it's one of the things that allows us, uh, to keep it cool, because we are only running the voltages required to power-
Larry Hryb: So hopefully no electricity is being wasted.
Albert Penello: We're not wasting ... we are not wasting any electricity in the box.
Jeff Rubenstein: Man, I have a new life goal, and that is to get a method named after me. Yeah, I want the Rubenstein method.
Larry Hryb: Well there's a sandwich named after you, that's all you get. (laugh)
Jeff Rubenstein: Man, not even the best Reuben.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Albert Penello: Not even the best Reuben. So no, I, like, I jokingly call it the su-supercharge, intercooled, and dyno-tuned.
Larry Hryb: Okay, there's your car terms again.
Albert Penello: Right? There's my car terms, we've got the supercharger in the fan, we've got an intercooler in the vapor chamber, and we dyno-tune each and every chip to make sure it's running optimally, um, at the factory, each and every unit.
Larry Hryb: That's crazy. I mean, I don't even know what to say, because I remember when you were explaining it ... I must ... like I say, you-you ... I've been aware, obviously aware of the teams, what we've been working on for many years, because you and I talk all the time. But every time I would stop by and see you, I remember you would just get up on the whiteboard and you'd pencil it out, and I was like, "This is amazing." So to see it all come to fruition in this really concrete way is really extraordinary.
Albert Penello: It is, the team is ... you know, I think that we had clear goals. Um, the team is just operating, like, it has just been such a fun and sort of inclusive, just like, brainstorming and arguing-
Larry Hryb: Kind of reminds me of-
Albert Penello: Doing all the great stuff you want to do.
Larry Hryb: Reminds me of when we were working on 360, doesn't it?
Albert Penello: It does. It has ... there's a lot of that vibe, there's a lot of that energy right now. It's like this is gonna be an excellent product, we got a lot more good news, I think, for people, and we built the most powerful console ever. And today we told everybody and we proved it.
Larry Hryb: And-and over the next ... over the coming months and obviously leading up to launch, we'll have more news. More games, of course, that's gonna be the theme of E3.
Albert Penello: That's gonna be the big thing, games, games, games. Look, I get it, I hear the feedback, I want everybody to know, games-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, but what about the games, Albert?
Albert Penello: It's coming, that's ... today was about the specs, today we told you what the box does, you're gonna see games, we know.
Larry Hryb: What's interesting is there's this shim in between the great games that are coming and the hardware we talked about, you talked a little bit earlier about the developer platform, and we've-we have this whole interesting developer story that probably is gonna be coming out in the future, right?
Albert Penello: Yeah, I think-I think one of the things I'll just sort of tease is, like, I think one of the things that people wonder about this transition to these ... to the two console model is, am I gonna get two slightly less versions of the game than I would have gotten in the old model where I can just work on one, um, one platform for 10 years. We have put as much care and craftsmanship and effort and energy into the process for developers as we've put into the product for customers. That's a story that-that will ... that I'm excited to, you know, to be able to tell at some point.
Larry Hryb: Which, and just to put a fine point on it, and that means more games.
Albert Penello: That means better ... it means better games, because the developers are spending time on the content and the quality and not spending time making things work.
Larry Hryb: Right, which is critical, fun. Jeff, you had something to say?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I'm excited, I'm ready, I'm glad I bought my new TV.
Albert Penello: Yeah, that's right, get your 4K TVs now, kids.
Larry Hryb: All right, Jeff, thank you, Albert. Albert's gonna hang out with us a little bit, but we're gonna kind of ... we want to tick through some of the headlines before we get going, even though everything almost pales in comparison.
Jeff Rubenstein: I mean it kind of does, yeah, but there ... you know what, there's still new things to play this week. Including the April update for Gears of War 4, so that's gonna include some chocolate weapons. Remember back at PAX in Boston, where you were hefting a 39 pound chocolate Lancer?
Albert Penello: Team creamy.
Larry Hryb: Well to be clear, (laughs) I asked for peanut butter, and the text I got from [inaudible 00:36:18] was "Crunchy or creamy."
Jeff Rubenstein: You can't just say things like that out of context. But yes, we did have creamy peanut butter, anyways. Yeah, okay, so now that we've said that, I think we should just abandon ... but oh, yes, new ... there are some new weapons, new maps, obviously the Gears team, uh, up in Vancouver, continuing to, uh, to support Gears of War 4, and the new maps coming will be, uh, Hotel, and The Slab. Um, also, Dead Rising 4 has a major piece of DLC, which really, like a couple of new game modes, really. One is a, uh, like a mini golf mode, and the other one is called Frank Rising, I'll link to a trailer for that, but Frank has been infected and, uh, now you're actually a zombie, and so it sort of turns the-the gameplay on its-its head.
A couple of new releases I want to call out this week. One is an Xbox Play Anywhere game, we know what that means, you buy it on Xbox, you play it on Windows 10.
Larry Hryb: And?
Jeff Rubenstein: Vice versa, you buy it on Windows 10-
Larry Hryb: You'll also be able to play it on your Scorpio later this year.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, yes, exactly. So, uh, this one's an indie darling, it's called Enter the Gungeon. And so, uh, I know personally I'm gonna be jumping into this, but it's a very fast paced dungeon crawler shooter type of game, um, so you can definitely check that one out and, like all XPA games, you buy it once, you play it anywhere, and, uh, your save games, achievements, everything will go with you. Big release this week, Lego City Undercover.
Larry Hryb: Dun-dun-dun-dun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Albert, you like the Lego games.
Albert Penello: I love Legos.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I know you ... (laughs) I know you do.
Jeff Rubenstein: So like all Lego games, uh, two player co-op, which is always the best way to play through those. And then, um, want to call out an [inaudible 00:37:57] Xbox game, Use Your Words. So, uh, I know you've played, uh, Drawsome, or Drawful.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: You've played-
Larry Hryb: You Don't Know Jack, the Jackbox games, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And one of the best parts about that is-is when you're playing with folks who aren't gamers, they just use their phone, it doesn't matter what kind of phone you have.
Larry Hryb: Any device, yeah, just use your device.
Jeff Rubenstein: Then you can go ahead and you can play along with, and this is another one of those games, so great party game for people, if you don't have enough controllers or people who aren't gamers are intimidated by a controller-
Larry Hryb: Controllers are scary.
Jeff Rubenstein: For some people, uh, this can ... no one in this room, but, um, they can play along with you and be just as good, so that's called Use Your Words, and if you're looking for a party game this weekend, uh, worth checking out.
Larry Hryb: All right. What else? Did you go over the Duke Nukem news?
Jeff Rubenstein: There was Duke Nukem news?
Larry Hryb: Well, didn't you see This Week on Xbox on Friday? With me dressed as Duke Nukem?
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs) You sent me a picture with no context earlier in the week, much like team creamy, that gave me pause.
Larry Hryb: (laughs) What was it ... actually, Albert, did you see ... so This Week on Xbox, if you don't know, it airs on your console every week, and, um, I did a bit this week. Where is it? I've got it right here, here, show that to ... show that to Albert, here.
Albert Penello: Is this Mr. ... do I call you Mr. Nukem?
Larry Hryb: Well this is a little ... I'll let you kind of figure that part out.
Albert Penello: Major Nukem?
Larry Hryb: This was in front of the green screen, and I'll let you figure that one out. Uh, but yeah, go ahead and just tune on-turn on your Xbox.
Jeff Rubenstein: Two tickets to the gunshot.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: Bringing the guns.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Albert Penello: Or I call them the pistols?
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:39:25] More of a ... all right already, enough already. Hey, I don't see any of you guys in a tank top in front of-in front of five million people on the console.
Jeff Rubenstein: It takes moxie, yes.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so that's ... but all the details you can find ... this news, much more over at my blog at MajorNelson.com, and This Week on Xbox, which airs every Friday right on your console.
Jeff Rubenstein: And this would, I'm assuming, be how to use Duke Nukem in Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition?
Larry Hryb: That's right, that's right. So ... great game, do you remember that game?
Jeff Rubenstein: I do remember that game.
Larry Hryb: That was so good. What are you playing right now, Albert, other than the ... other than the Scorpio game.
Albert Penello: Uh, I haven't had time to do anything.
Larry Hryb: I know you haven't.
Albert Penello: (laughs) I have not had time.
Larry Hryb: I know.
Albert Penello: I like games. I remember when I had time to play games.
Larry Hryb: Do you?
Albert Penello: Yeah. Feels like-
Larry Hryb: Did you get anything good lately?
Albert Penello: Did I get anything good-
Larry Hryb: Usually you find those good old school games that you're kind of collecting.
Albert Penello: Uh, I did finally get my NES Classic which I'm very excited-
Larry Hryb: With the really tiny cord?
Albert Penello: No, I bought the ... I bought the-
Larry Hryb: You bought the extender.
Albert Penello: I bought the extender and then I got the wireless ones. I like that thing a lot, actually.
Larry Hryb: What are you playing on it?
Albert Penello: Uh, you know, I went back and played a little Super Mario 3, oh, and Punch-Out!! I love the original Punch-Out!! I love that thing, it's great, they did a great job on that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Punch-Out!!, the first rhythm game. Once I started thinking about it like that I realized, "Oh, I'm not so intimidated."
Albert Penello: By the way, only time that I owned a Punch-Out!! arcade game for a while, and I was terrible at it when I was a kid, but once I played the-the NES version, I was able to go back, and I got pretty good at the arcade game after playing the NES game, which they're so different you wouldn't think that's true, but the rhythm is in the arcade game too, so there you go. I love Punch-Out!!
Larry Hryb: Love it. Have you got a chance to check out Zelda yet?
Albert Penello: Yeah, I bought my Switch, I got my Switch pre-order.
Larry Hryb: Zelda's good.
Albert Penello: Also a fan. That thing's really super cool.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, Ze-Zelda's amazing.
Albert Penello: Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.
Larry Hryb: We talked about that on the last show too, lots of fun there. Anyway, all right, I think, uh, I think we're gonna let Albert go because you need to kind of relax, you've had a busy, busy day. I really appreciate you coming by the studio and kind of giving us the lowdown, explaining us to us in simple terms for me what all of it means. Um, but at the end of the day, all of ... what it really means is great games for you people.
Albert Penello: Great games. Thanks, guys, for having me here, I really appreciate it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Always good to have you.
Albert Penello: You can find Albert Penello, @albertpenello on Twitter, I'll put a link in the show notes, thank you, Albert. Jeff, you can find Jeff at?
Jeff Rubenstein: @jeffrubenstein.
Albert Penello: My name's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson, uh, we may not be here next week, because I know I'm on the road, Jeff, you're on the road, too.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes sir.
Albert Penello: So if Laura wants to do a show I'll leave her the keys to the studio. Till then, see you guys later, bye bye, everybody.

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

Larry Hryb: Hey there folks! Welcome to show 594. My name's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. Uh, you downloaded the podcast. We got the gang in the studio. We're back in the studio, back from the road. Joining me is a, uh, is Jeff Rubenstein. Hello Jeffery.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi!
Larry Hryb: And sitting directly across from you is a, a slightly blue, slightly frozen Laura Massey. Hi, Laura.
Laura Massey: Hello.
Larry Hryb: You're sl, ha- have you recovered from our, from our, uh, East Coast swing yet? (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs) Where did, who did, this is like a Motown Philly reference?
Laura Massey: (chuckle) Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD? Uh, the East Coast family. Thank you.
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness. I became [crosstalk 00:00:54]-
Larry Hryb: I can't top it. Okay, show's over. Goodnight everybody (laughs).
Laura Massey: We're, we're done.
Larry Hryb: Uh, you, you, you, you, you, we had a great show last week, although we talked a little bit about the weather. The weather was, uh, the weather was a little bit rough.
Laura Massey: It was a bit chilly.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was the coldest PAX we've been to, isn't it? Wasn't it?
Laura Massey: Yes. I think that's probably the coldest that I've ever been.
Larry Hryb: Really?
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Oh wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Two years ago was close, but this was single digits.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm
Jeff Rubenstein: This was, I, I, we, we grew up on the East Coast, Larry.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah.
Laura Massey: So you're probably used to it.
Jeff Rubenstein: We used to, this used to be no big deal.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: We are not used to it now.
Larry Hryb: Well I was, uh, Laura and I were walking back and I was telling her, I said, "Laura, see how cold it is?" She's like, [inaudible 00:01:23]. I said, "This is what I dealt with pretty much every single day when I was at Syracuse University." Or, you know, you're like, the snow's blowing side, you don't, you don't realize snow blows sideways.
Laura Massey: Right.
Larry Hryb: Um, and, and it's so cold that your ears are, feel brittle, and they feel like pins and needles.
Laura Massey: Yes. Well I thought my eyeballs were going to freeze.
Larry Hryb: Which-
Laura Massey: It hurt so bad.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: (laugh)
Jeff Rubenstein: I was actually thinking about that, like my eyeballs are horribly exposed.
Laura Massey: Yeah, I tried to, like, look down, cover them.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's why I had glasses on. So ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah. That's smart.
Laura Massey: That's nice.
Larry Hryb: Uh, but anyway we're back in the studio. It was a great time to be at PAX. We had a wonderful time. Thank you, uh, everybody that came to the show. Thank you very much everybody that tuned in on Twitch. Thank you very much. And, and thank you to you, Jeff, and you, Laura. You guys came out and you left. You, you hightailed it out of there, like, that night.
Jeff Rubenstein: Look we, it was good to be there, and, uh, we had a great crowd.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And it was, it was really worth it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was really awesome.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Definitely was.
Larry Hryb: Did you have fun?
Laura Massey: I had a great time.
Larry Hryb: Did you?
Laura Massey: Yes. I enjoyed every minute of it, and thanks again to everybody who came.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It was fantastic.
Larry Hryb: Because we can't do it without you guys and girls. But I'm working on so, I got, I can't, you know, I, I hate doing this cause you know I don't like, I'm not really a hype master, I just kinda talk about stuff.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs) That is what you do for a living, Larry!
Larry Hryb: No. But I don't like, "Hey you're never gonna believe this!" But I am working on something super cool for PAX Prime.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, he is.
Larry Hryb: So, yeah.
Laura Massey: I'm looking, I haven't heard about this.
Larry Hryb: No you haven't.
Laura Massey: I'm looking forward to hearing about it.
Larry Hryb: I, I have something cool that I'll be using at PAX Prime that we're not gonna talk about.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And, uh, and, working on a cool little, anyway. Well, that's, that's, that's many, many months away. We have so much going on between now and then. But we're, we're tuning in right now. What you're playing, you know, we can talk about what we're playing. Uh, Jeff and I are playing a little Mass Effect. Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. So, uh ... It, by the time you hear this-
Laura Massey: You have it (laughs).
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, no I don't. Uh, well I do through EA Access. So through EA access, um, you know, we were gonna jump on multiplayer and Larry, uh, we weren't a, we weren't all able to sync up, so I was like, "Oh, I'll go into the, to the creator, you know, and make my new Ryder," and I was, you know, do I go Fem Ryder or Bro Ryder-
Larry Hryb: And what did you do?
Jeff Rubenstein: Fem Ryder.
Larry Hryb: And what did you name her?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, you know, the, the initial name it gives you is Sarah Ryder and you could change it, and I actually left it, I always like leaving in the default because what I've noticed, and I don't know if this is the case here, but in certain games, they will actually record like the voice of, like-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Or the name, you know-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: ... So, so instead just-
Larry Hryb: So it's-
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Referring to her as Ryder, they may use the first name Sarah here and there, so I left it. Um-
Larry Hryb: Because all, as, as you go through the customization, the last name is, is, is standard.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: What is cool though, uh, is that, so you, you create your, uh, character however you like, and then, it gives you the opportunity of using either the default, you have a twin brother or sister depending on what you choose, so I think this is what was, was cool about, uh, so like, Bro Shep in Mass Effect One, Two and Three does not exist.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: He, he, he, he's on another timeline.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And he's in, in multiverse. Whereas here, both the characters will exist and it's just a matter of which one you will control versus which one, that I guess the other sibling will be in the story. But then you have the opportunity as the, you, you change, er, races, or you know, skin color-
Larry Hryb: The whole thing.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Features, whatever, they alter, if you like, the, the, your, your twin brother or sister to, to look like you're all part of the same family. Which I thought was [crosstalk 00:04:23].
Larry Hryb: You know I made with mine?
Laura Massey: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: What?
Larry Hryb: I, so it's, I went female as well-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: I named her Red.
Jeff Rubenstein: Red Ryder (laughs)?
Laura Massey: Red Ryder (laughs)?
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: I did think of going Ruff Ryder, R-U-F-F.
Larry Hryb: Oh, also good, also good.
Jeff Rubenstein: A little DMX, uh, and then I was just like, "That's stupid."
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: I gave her red hair, too.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah? Oh, well-
Laura Massey: Funny.
Jeff Rubenstein: I shouldn't say that, but ah, anyway,
Laura Massey: BB gun?
Larry Hryb: Maybe.
Laura Massey: (laughs).
Larry Hryb: You'll shoot your eye out, kid (laughs).
Laura Massey: (laughs).
Jeff Rubenstein: Wow, that's really good.
Larry Hryb: (laughs).
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, so yeah, I jumped in, played the first hour, uh, every, I would say anything in that game is a spoiler. Including the Achievement list.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, ah-
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Which, they did not hide, uh, plot points under hidden Achievements, so I would just recommend just don't even look at the Achievement list, and coming from me, I, I, you know, someone who obsessively reads xboxachievements.com or TrueAchievements, ah, uh, don't look. And so, um, anyway, did that. We should play a little multiplayer this weekend, I think would be fun.
Laura Massey: Yeah, that'd be super fun.
Larry Hryb: (sighs) We should. Should we talk about what happened in Boston after the, after we did the show?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, let's do it.
Larry Hryb: So we're all back at my hotel room and Jeff here-
Laura Massey: All back (laughs).
Larry Hryb: ... And Jeff, you're working on something.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And I had brought my Switch with me.
Laura Massey: Yes, you did.
Larry Hryb: And Laura hadn't seen it yet cause I'm playing Zelda, uh, Jeff's playing Zelda, you're not, you, you don't have a Switch yet, and you and I were playing the demo game.
Laura Massey: Right.
Larry Hryb: We were playing the, what was it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Snipperclips.
Larry Hryb: Snipperclip, that you, that I had downloaded-
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: ... And you and I, so you and I, you have, you have one of the Joy-Cons and I have one of the Joy-Cons and we're, we're, I don't have it on the big TV. I've, we're, we're, su- we're huddled around this little tiny, what six or seven inch screen, right? So-
Laura Massey: Right, and it's one of the first, like, local multiplayer games I've played on a handheld.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Like something that's portable.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Usually you have to pass it back and forth-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: ... If you're playing it, but this is brand new to me-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: ... Because I can play on a Joy-Con and you can play on a Joy-Con.
Larry Hryb: Right, we were playing at the same time. In fact, we had to work together.
Laura Massey: We did.
Larry Hryb: We had to solve puzzles.
Laura Massey: We did.
Larry Hryb: And-
Laura Massey: And it must have been very entertaining for Jeff.
Larry Hryb: Yeah because-
Jeff Rubenstein: It was! Because I was like, what is [inaudible 00:06:11]
Larry Hryb: You were sitting on the couch with us, and he was like, I, I kept looking over there and he was giggling and you and I were just like ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I was supposed to be working on like, a deck, and I just, there was so much giggling happening and, here, the other thing was, this game must be challenging because two of the smartest people I know, I'm really rounding up here for, for your sake Laura.
Laura Massey: (laughs) Thank you, thank you very much.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, we're having, we're, we're really having like a, a tough go of it.
Laura Massey: (laughs) Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Well-
Jeff Rubenstein: It looks like it's a kids game and-
Larry Hryb: Well I'm just gonna say this, um, I was having like, flashbacks to high school ...
Laura Massey: (laughing) Oh no.
Larry Hryb: ... Where, you know, where I'm teamed up with the really smart girl in the class and I'm dumb. And I'm watching, and you're like, "You know exactly what to do." And I'm like, "Yeah, I just, uh, hmm, uh, what do I do?"
Laura Massey: (laughing) Oh no.
Larry Hryb: "What do I, she, uh, mm-hmm (affirmative), right, hmm." So I felt like I was dragging you down so I have to apologize, Laura.
Laura Massey: (laughing) It's okay.
Larry Hryb: I felt like I was drag- because you looked at that and I could-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:06:56]
Larry Hryb: ... I could, it was fascinating for me watching you pull this thing apart and dissect it.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: And trying to figure out what we're, because you have to take these, for those of you that don't know, you, you each have a character, and they're, they're, they're one dimensional.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Actually they're two dimensional.
Laura Massey: They're two dimensional.
Larry Hryb: Two dimensional, and they have to, you, basically you're given an, a, a, a, a task on screen and it could be, hey, you have to fill in this shape, it's a dotted line or you have-
Laura Massey: Simply match the whole or-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: ... Something like that.
Larry Hryb: So you, and, and basically when, when your characters overlap you can cut parts out of each other to kind of like, I can cut you, you can cut me, and we can kind of create the shapes, or in the shape of the balloon one we created a pointy thing and we popped balloons.
Laura Massey: It's, that one was probably the longest one, uh ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: ... For us to figure out. (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah.
Laura Massey: That one felt like the most entertaining as well.
Larry Hryb: So I ap-
Laura Massey: How do you, how do you pop the balloons?
Larry Hryb: I apologize, Laura I apologize, I apologize and I was, I feel like I was ...
Laura Massey: It was really fun.
Larry Hryb: I feel like I disappointed you.
Jeff Rubenstein: I will say it was pretty cool to see you two playing, like, a co-op game, like together same screen, like, portable.
Larry Hryb: Right. That was [crosstalk 00:07:50]-
Jeff Rubenstein: And I gotta say that it's, it's, it's well done.
Larry Hryb: So anyways, so, yeah. It's a free, free demo actually if you want to download that. If you have a Switch go ahead and download that, so ...
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Anyway.
Laura Massey: And let us know how it goes.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, let us know how that goes. Pick somebody out who you may or may not be friends with. This is always a problem when you and I played multi, er, you know, games like that where you need to cooperate as, uh, I'm always afraid you're just gonna, I mean you already know I'm an idiot. So you're, you're (laughs) just gonna, like, it's just gonna put, it's gonna put the icing on that cake!
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Anyway. Jeffrey!
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes sir!
Larry Hryb: Listen, I'm sorry, what-
Laura Massey: I was just gonna say you were a very pleasant partner.
Larry Hryb: Thank, you're very kind, thank you very, well we figured it out.
Laura Massey: Very pleasant. Cause we eventually figured them all out.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's, that's if you do the game, and actually by the time we finished it, the demo was over.
Laura Massey: Yeah, exactly.
Larry Hryb: Right?
Laura Massey: We, we played the entire demo all the way to the end.
Larry Hryb: I was, uh, I felt bad cause, like, you left cause, remember you went right to the airport.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Like, I turned to Jeff, like, "Did I piss her off? She just kind of stormed out of here."
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: She's just like ...
Laura Massey: Didn't want to be late.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, but you got out of there safely, didn't you.
Laura Massey: No problems.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was delayed many, many hours.
Larry Hryb: We all did.
Jeff Rubenstein: As were a lot of people [inaudible 00:08:42].
Larry Hryb: But we're, we're done with that. We're talking about what we're playing. Let's continue on with what you're playing there, Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah! So in addition to Zelda which is, which is just an incredible game. It's very, very, very good. Uh, in our house one of the, uh, the games that sort of like taken over with all the people, all the different gamers in the house, uh, is The Witness. And it's-
Laura Massey: Oh good!
Larry Hryb: Yeah, which has been out on Xbox One for quite some time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, probably since last fall, maybe? Um, so, like, my brother beat it. He's smart, he's an engineer. You should play Snipperclips with him.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And so I, like, purposely whenever he would play it I would make sure, unless he was really stumped I would help him, you know, we would try to work through it together. But it's actually kind of a great co-op game in that way.
Laura Massey: Yeah, well you're sitting all together.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, trying to work your way through it.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:09:22].
Jeff Rubenstein: Because otherwise it can be really-
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... You know, you can hear a mental block.
Laura Massey: And it's fantastic to have a, an additional perspective-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Laura Massey: ... To say, "Oh, why don't you look over there, I have an idea-"
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Laura Massey: ... Where you wouldn't have had that idea otherwise.
Jeff Rubenstein: So we were looking through, like, the desert pyramid, which I was, I was kind of killing it. Then I got out to something-
Larry Hryb: I don't think, I don't think I made it that far.
Jeff Rubenstein: It, it's actually pretty close to the beginning, but obviously-
Larry Hryb: Is it off to the left?
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, depends on which way you're facing, I guess, maybe?
Laura Massey: It's a particular island.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Um-
Larry Hryb: I don't remember.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... But I, I guess, you know, you can go wherever you want.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: But it, you're, before you discover the boat, you're likely to end up in this desert area.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And I was-
Larry Hryb: There's a boat?
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Blowing through it but then I got, I came up to, like, a part where I just couldn't figure it out and, like, my seven year old figured it out.
Laura Massey: Oh good!
Jeff Rubenstein: She was like, "Why don't you go back there and ... ?" And so she's actually further in the game than, she hit her seventh laser yesterday-
Laura Massey: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Which is crazy. I ...
Laura Massey: Wow!
Jeff Rubenstein: ... I had to help her out. The only one was with the sound one, which, uh, it was pretty cool, like, they started getting in the ones where you're hearing, like, birds chirping and that's how you do it, like if it's a high or low pitch and then they make it more and more complicated. That was actually my, that's been my favorite puzzle so far. So anyway, the, The Witness is, uh, is an underrated co-op game, I would say.
Laura Massey: It is a very clever game.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Impressively clever.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. So, uh, that and I'm just gonna be really sinking a lot of time, I think, into, into Mass Effect. Oh, and, I mean we've talked about this before but, um, my favorite couch, secondary activity game if, like, the TV's on and I kind of don't care is, is Stardew Valley.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I know.
Jeff Rubenstein: So a lot of Stardew Valley.
Larry Hryb: You're all, you're all doing the Stardew Valley.
Jeff Rubenstein: Runs really well on the Surface.
Larry Hryb: Laura, you're next. Have you, did you have a chance to play anything when we were traveling?
Laura Massey: I played a few minutes of a game.
Larry Hryb: What did you play?
Laura Massey: I went home and I downloaded Robo Recall.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, wow, I played it too!
Laura Massey: Yeah, it's awesome!
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes! No, do, you're right, you're a hundred percent right. You talk and then I will affirm-
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Everything you said because I forgot about that.
Larry Hryb: Go on!
Laura Massey: Because I had so much fun at PAX, and you heard me talk about that, you know, last, last week.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: And I went home and I bought it.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: And now I'm playing it.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: And it's just super fun!
Larry Hryb: Good!
Laura Massey: Super fun. The, I don't think-
Larry Hryb: Why don't you remind people that didn't hear PAX what it is.
Laura Massey: It is a VR game on the Oculus. I think you can also get it on the Vive through other means. And you are shooting robots and it is one of the best looking games on VR.
Larry Hryb: This is the one you were talking about on the show last week.
Laura Massey: Yeah, it is.
Larry Hryb: When we were at PAX, right.
Laura Massey: Yes, and it is one of the most immersive games I've ever played in VR, where you feel like you are doing amazing as you are shooting these robots. Like, it feels amazing.
Jeff Rubenstein: You feel like, like a hero-
Laura Massey: Yes!
Jeff Rubenstein: ... In this game. So I was at South by Southwest and I had, um, we were there doing some meetings and-
Larry Hryb: So you went there after PAX.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, like, directly from PAX.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, uh, it wasn't as warm as I would have liked. Um, but it wasn't nine degrees.
Larry Hryb: It wasn't.
Jeff Rubenstein: And, and, uh, and I ate my weight in queso, which, I feel great.
Laura Massey: Oh my gosh, fantastic. I miss queso.
Jeff Rubenstein: The queso's so good.
Laura Massey: So good.
Jeff Rubenstein: So um, so we're walk- uh, walking around that [inaudible 00:12:10] and we notice, "Oh, there's the Dell," uh, like they sort of had like a, a, a, a building, they had taken over a building which is kind of what, like, all, a lot of companies do down, during South by Southwest. And, and I know a couple of people on the Alienware team, a couple of people on the Dell team-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... I was like, well you know, I'm gonna go in there and, you know, we'll say hi and just see what they're working on. Uh, spoiler alert, some cool stuff. They, they, I don't know if you ever saw that OLED. We had brought it in the office. They, they had, like, basically like the smallest laptop with a 10, I think it has a 1070 but with, like, a Pascal graphics chip in it, uh, from Nvidia. It has an OLED screen. It basically is like the smallest laptop you could run VR with and they have, like, an updated version now with, like, the new process- like, an even better version.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Jeff Rubenstein: So that's really cool. Anyway, trust me. Uh, but then I looked over and I was like, oh, they, they have, they had an Oculus and a Vive there. I was like, "They have Robo Recall on there." And it was like, oh, one of my colleagues said that this was the most fun she's ever had playing a game, so I got on there.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: Did you get on the Oculus or Vive?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, they had it on the Oculus. I think for Vive you have to, like, get a mod or something.
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:13:08] heard that.
Jeff Rubenstein: I, you ain't heard that, you hadn't heard that from me.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: But, um, so I, and I had never used the Oculus touch controllers before. I'd used the Vive a lot and I like it. Um, so I figured, well, this is a chance to do that, and you were right. It is so much fun.
Laura Massey: It is!
Jeff Rubenstein: And you can, like ... These robots are just coming from everywhere but the thing that I like is when they get close to you. Like, you, you can grab them and throw them or you can just punch them.
Laura Massey: (laughs) Yes!
Jeff Rubenstein: And they just, like, go, you feel like Iron Man or something.
Laura Massey: Yes!
Jeff Rubenstein: And, and at one point I, I used, you can ... One thing that it does well is in VR when you're moving around, um, like the way you would in a first person shooter, it can actually be a little disconcerting but you, in this game you can warp around.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And which, which makes it so you don't feel that-
Larry Hryb: So it runs on Windows 10, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, well yeah, of course.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Um, and so I, I warped up to the top of a, like a awning or something and I stood up there and, like, occasionally, like, a, a, a robot would come up there and you would just grab him and chuck him or you, you'd slam two of them together.
Larry Hryb: What's, what's a win state?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, there are levels.
Laura Massey: There are levels, they have levels.
Larry Hryb: Okay, if they have levels, okay.
Laura Massey: And a [crosstalk 00:14:12].
Larry Hryb: It's not just an onslaught of robots.
Laura Massey: No. There, there are levels, there's progression, there's objectives to do in each of the levels-
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: ... There's maybe three or four objectives per level, and in some objectives, it's to shoot as many robots as you can. In another objective it's to throw robots into a portal that teleports them away.
Larry Hryb: Right, a waste receptacle?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah!
Laura Massey: Perhaps, perhaps. There's also a, an ability to upgrade your weapons where you go into the weapon zone and you get [crosstalk 00:14:36].
Larry Hryb: Is this where you get your shotguns?
Laura Massey: Yeah. You can holster different weapons, you unlock different weapons and then you can, uh, accessorize your weapons with, uh, you know, sightlines or, um, silencers.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh man, I didn't get that far, yeah.
Laura Massey: Clips and, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, you, you have the game now. But the, but one of the coolest things is when you're shooting and then you're out of ammo, like, you, you, you throw them away.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: It's sort of like, I felt, I've never felt more like Antonio Banderas in Desperado.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, just chuck the gun over like [reaper 00:15:00] and, and, and then you just reach down in your hip-
Larry Hryb: Die, die, die!
Jeff Rubenstein: ... You pull the thing and you just pull one out there.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:15:04] little more.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I did a little death blossom action, I will say that.
Larry Hryb: Did you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I, I, I was, I would expect nothing less.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, and I actually whacked somebody-
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Uh, because I forgot that I was in VR and I got just so into it and I was like, "Oh I'm sorry, sir or madam, I'll apologize later."
Laura Massey: (laughs) Oh!
Jeff Rubenstein: Good! Right in the chest.
Larry Hryb: So anyway, that's what you're playing, Laura, so that sounds like, great.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, I [crosstalk 00:15:23].
Larry Hryb: We should put a link to that in the, uh, in the notes there, Jeff, okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah.
Laura Massey: I also took [E's 00:15:27] advice and tried out Space Pirate Trainer-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: ... Which, you've played that one.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah, that's a really good one.
Laura Massey: It's also really fun. It's a completely different mechanic but you are shooting robots in that one as well. But this one is endless onset of wave after wave after wave of robots and it just gets more progret-
Larry Hryb: Robots.
Laura Massey: ... Progressively harder. And then you have a shield where you can defend yourself. It's a little bit different.
Larry Hryb: I could play that one, yeah.
Laura Massey: It's a little bit different, but it's a shorter gameplay-
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Laura Massey: ... No progression so I-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: ... Kind of get bored after a little while. At least I do.
Larry Hryb: Understandable, understandable.
Laura Massey: Robo Recall's got at least some, you know, some levels and progressions and so, it keeps you, keeps you in it. So I'm playing that, it's super fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sweet.
Laura Massey: It's almost like, it's almost like exercise! (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh I was sweating! I was absolutely sweating.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's because you had, you, uh, you were in between taco feedings.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, like queso was coming out of my pores, right. It was still good.
Larry Hryb: Okay, yeah! (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll be, I, I gotta go play some VR and then I'm gonna be right back, Torchy's.
Laura Massey: (laughs) Oh my goodness.
Larry Hryb: Uh ...
Jeff Rubenstein: At the Torch? Yeah, I know, I know.
Larry Hryb: Um, good. So then you've had a, you, you've, again, thank you guys for coming out. Uh, I'm playing Mass Effect. We talked about Zelda. Jeff and I were playing, you know, Jeff and I were on a plane together. Oh, we talked about that during the show.
Laura Massey: Oh, on the way up to ...
Larry Hryb: On the way, on the way over to, to Boston. And, uh, sitting, I was sitting in the center seat.
Jeff Rubenstein: I gave him the armrests.
Laura Massey: That's great. I [crosstalk 00:16:37] do that.
Jeff Rubenstein: I, I think it's a, a corner-
Larry Hryb: You know what I gave him?
Jeff Rubenstein: ... A pillar of our society.
Larry Hryb: I, I, I, I gave him my barf bag. (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs) Oh, sorry.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, have we archived last week's show or is it-
Larry Hryb: Well it's only VOD.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, so then most people probably haven't heard, yeah. So, my, my fear ...
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Because I had the window seat, which of course the, the one time I feel like I might have to run up to the bathroom, I, I, I had the window seat.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: And my fear was just vomiting on Larry.
Larry Hryb: Going all over me.
Laura Massey: Oh now! (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. I woke up and I, and it was just, I was in a bad state but I was like, "I'm going to PAX."
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I saw that morning as I [inaudible 00:17:07] get breakfast, it'll, it'll be fine.
Laura Massey: Oh no! (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: So there, so Larry handed me his barf bag and I, like, sort of tucked in the back of the chair, just with, like, the lip up, and I was, like, testing, like, like-
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: ... My quick draw action, like how quickly can I grab this bag if need be?
Larry Hryb: It was pretty quick.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Fortunately it was not necessary because I became so agitated watching Larry-
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Kill poor Link in, in many ingenious ways that eventually-
Larry Hryb: I, look, look, it's, it's when you get a-
Jeff Rubenstein: ... I [crosstalk 00:17:30] up.
Larry Hryb: ... New video game you learn how to, you're like, "Can I do this? No dice."
Laura Massey: You press all the buttons.
Larry Hryb: Do this, let's go, all the things, you pick up all the things, jump off all the things, and that's-
Jeff Rubenstein: Jump into all the things, get eaten by all the things.
Larry Hryb: ... What I was doing, that's what I was doing.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Uh, made significant progress since we last spoke, Jeff, so ...
Laura Massey: Oh good.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're ahead of me.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so, there we go. Elephant, that's all I'll say.
Jeff Rubenstein: Elephant?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hmm ...
Laura Massey: That's a mystery.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Uh, I'm playing Mass Effect, we need to get back into Overwatch, we got some Ghost Recon we gotta catch up on. Uh, there's some other things that we need to do that I can't really talk about, so we've got some other games, yeah.
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:18:04], secret stuff is happening.
Larry Hryb: It's all the secret stuff that's happening.
Laura Massey: It's that time of year for secret stuff.
Larry Hryb: It's the most wonderful time of the year. (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs) You're like in lounge, full on lounge singer mode.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: By the way, your glasses match your sweater today-
Laura Massey: Yes they do.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Which is [crosstalk 00:18:20].
Larry Hryb: Is that okay? Is that all right?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, it's good.
Laura Massey: Very stylish, very stylish.
Larry Hryb: I just, you know, I just try to, you know, it's spring, I'm trying to dress for spring.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're there. Not quite pastel but-
Larry Hryb: (sighs) You know I, normally I stay, I think we talked, we didn't really talk about this but, you know, cause, cause of what happened but normally I stay out of New England for the weekend and we weren't gonna do a show this week.
Laura Massey: Right.
Larry Hryb: But when the blizzard started, uh, started knocking on the door-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: I was like, I'm outta here. So I flew out early and unfortunately it disappointed my family as a, to the maximum.
Laura Massey: Oh!
Larry Hryb: So yeah, mom and my sisters are, are none too pleased with me. They're like, "But you grew up here!" And I'm like, "Yeah, I know but I don't live there anymore, see you later, bye!" So ...
Jeff Rubenstein: You made the right call.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, based on the photos I saw, but anyway. Uh, all right. Well, Jeff, you got some news we can go over there?
Jeff Rubenstein: I do.
Larry Hryb: Cause we gotta, we got some stuff to go through in the show. We, we don't have interviews last week, or this week, base- you know, cause we had a couple last week so we're kind of keeping a nice, clean, tight show. This is more of a surprise, a pop up show if you will.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it was nice to have Mac there, uh, last week-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... From the Mass Effect team.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, he was great.
Jeff Rubenstein: So congrats to them, these, uh, these guys will be launching. I mean if you have EA Access, you're already playing.
Larry Hryb: You're in! You're in!
Jeff Rubenstein: If not, the rest of you, uh, this coming Tuesday. Uh, depending on when you're listening to this, this may be your last day or next to last day to get an Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites bundle for just $249.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, what are you waiting for?
Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh, that, uh, deal goes from, uh, from the time you're hearing this through, er, from March 12th, uh, through March 18th.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so this, this weekend [inaudible 00:19:38] the US and [crosstalk 00:19:38].
Jeff Rubenstein: This is just about the end of it, so, in the US, so, uh, but yeah, that's a pretty darn good deal. Um, also ...
Larry Hryb: Yes?
Jeff Rubenstein: ... We are now into the second half of March with, with, without incident-
Laura Massey: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Past the Ides of March. And-
Laura Massey: We're in the second half of March?
Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, yeah, I know.
Laura Massey: When did that happen?
Jeff Rubenstein: Which means, uh, the second half of, uh, March's Games With Gold are now available for download. That is, uh, Evolve: Ultimate Edition ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:20:00].
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Uh, and Heavy Weapon, which, uh, was, I feel like one of the first arcade games-
Larry Hryb: You're right.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Xbox Live Ar- er, going backwards.
Larry Hryb: Back in the day.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, and-
Larry Hryb: Classic, an oldie but a goodie.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... And, uh, that is backwards compatible. And actually speaking of backwards compatibility-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Uh, highlight of this week's trove of games, uh, Street Fighter IV.
Larry Hryb: Right?
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: I, I feel like that may be the best fighting game of all time.
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:20:21].
Jeff Rubenstein: I, I, there's a lot of arguments being made but I, I, I certainly played just a ton of Street Fighter IV and I, I thought that was awesome.
Larry Hryb: Fighting games, I just, I was never any good at them for some reason.
Laura Massey: Neither was I.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I just, I just, when I, all the years I spent in the arcade with the standup, I was just, I was that sucker just pumping quarters in. I was, I was the, I was the patsy.
Jeff Rubenstein: See, when I was in high school is when fighting games were really coming out. I think I was, like, a freshman when Street Fighter II came out, and it was just like, it was like a moth to a flame, like all of, all of the kids in the class would just, like, after school we were going to a bowling alley, to an arcade if there was an arcade nearby, and this was sort of like an era when arcade games would be in places where you didn't expect. Like, this doesn't happen now.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Like, arcades are in a, I mean arcade games are in an arcade or they're in-
Larry Hryb: They're on your phone! (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Or in barcade or on your phone, but they're, they're kind of hard to find. But, like, when I was growing up, like, restaurants might have a couple of-
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... arc- like a Pac-Man machine in the front or something like that.
Laura Massey: Pizza Hut had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle machine.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: That's what I played all the time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly, yeah!
Larry Hryb: That was your, that was your jam?
Laura Massey: That was my jam.
Jeff Rubenstein: So Street Fighter was sort of in a lot of places, go, oh no, you got something to say here, Larry?
Larry Hryb: Wait a minute. I'm sorry, can we just, can we just rewind a little bit. Bowling alley? You spent some time at a bowling alley?
Jeff Rubenstein: I spent a lot of time in bowling alleys.
Larry Hryb: As did I, as did I.
Jeff Rubenstein: I shot a lot of pool.
Larry Hryb: Did you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, yeah. Uh, actually, the, the bowling, the pool-
Larry Hryb: Do you have a leather jacket that says the Jets?
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: No, but just back then, people would smoke in a bowling alley and it would just, leather would just smoke up all the smell and you would just stink. It was [crosstalk 00:21:40].
Larry Hryb: Okay. All right.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was, this was the 90s, Larry.
Larry Hryb: Did you ever spend time in a bowling alley, Laura?
Laura Massey: A little bit of time.
Larry Hryb: Little bit of time. As little as possible. (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: But here's the thing. The bowling alley near me was only a quarter for, uh, for Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II and III, not 50 cents, so we had-
Larry Hryb: Did you ever play duckpin or candlepin?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know what that is.
Larry Hryb: Really!
Laura Massey: Neither do I.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, in New, in New England we had duck, we had regular bowling but they also had duckpin, which are shorter, squatter pins, and then candlepin which is, look it up, this circular, circular pins. So it's completely like a tall, circular pin.
Laura Massey: Does it just make it much harder?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, the little, little fat, little pins and candle-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, duckpin and candlepin.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Oh, [crosstalk 00:22:19].
Larry Hryb: And the, and the duckpin if I remember correctly, the balls were smaller. They were like bocci balls.
Laura Massey: Oh! (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Whoa, the candlepin-
Larry Hryb: Check the can-
Jeff Rubenstein: ... It's like, it's like bowling into an menorah.
Larry Hryb: See? Just like ... (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Yeah, that looks super difficult, as if bowling wasn't difficult enough already ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I don't remember the-
Laura Massey: ... And that takes [crosstalk 00:22:34].
Larry Hryb: ... I don't remember the size of the candlepin ball. Uh, maybe Wikipedia will say, but I remember the duckpin were absolutely, you could just take them and if you, like, I remember, I, I, I had a couple of friends that were on the softball team and they could just underhand those things, voom! We are off to the races.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, it's like a shot put!
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it, uh, it was a-
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, I'll link to those-
Laura Massey: Wow.
Larry Hryb: My big hands.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Because this is weird stuff.
Larry Hryb: I was a-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, and, and not only that but just, like, the Wikipedia's just like, "This is a Boston thing!"
Larry Hryb: Yeah. (laughs) Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: Although there's a set of lanes in Wyoming.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Or no, Wyoming, Ohio. I didn't know that was a place. That's the closest we're gonna get.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway, uh, this is what happens when you look at Wikipedia on the fly.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Back compat.
Jeff Rubenstein: Back, oh yeah!
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh no!
Larry Hryb: That's where we ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so Street Fighter IV, it was really good. Yeah, I, the, the fighting games, man, back then it was cool because when you played in the arcade, it was, it wasn't, wasn't about latency or all that cause there is no latency, it was about, like, physical positioning. Like, and I was really skinny in high school and, so a larger person could, like, sort of muscle you out.
Laura Massey: Oh, push you away from, like, the machine.
Jeff Rubenstein: Right, yeah, or they, well they, or they, like, they would stand, like, essentially in the middle and you're sort of hanging off the edge.
Larry Hryb: Oh, there was a whole physical element to that that you do not get today.
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness!
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah! Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Oh no!
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, it could be very intimidating. There would be times I'd go into the arcade and I'm like, "I don't want to stand here and play next to that person cause I'm afraid they will just destroy me, like physically, like, jump me if I win."
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, or, or I'm worried that I'll, I'll just-
Larry Hryb: Or just because! (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah! Well, I mean which happened a couple of times.
Larry Hryb: Cause it is a bowling alley.
Jeff Rubenstein: Right, in Miami. But, um, yeah, it, it's, that whole element seems to be gone today, but that's probably for the best.
Laura Massey: Probably.
Jeff Rubenstein: Probably.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway, Street Fighter IV, backwards compatibility.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: This flashback brought to you by, uh, age.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: I want to go find a candlepin bowling place now or duckpin and take you. Next time we go to Boston, we'll go to duckpin or candlepin bowling, all right?
Jeff Rubenstein: I, I love this idea.
Larry Hryb: Do you, do, do, do you approve?
Jeff Rubenstein: This is just so strange!
Larry Hryb: I, I know that Laura will only go if it's nine degrees outside and the only reason she's really going in there is to get away from the outside. Right?
Laura Massey: Per- perhaps, perhaps. I do have my own bowling shoes, though.
Larry Hryb: Wait a minute, what?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Are you some strange size that you had to require them or did you just, were you into bowl- were you on the bowling team?
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Were you?
Laura Massey: No!
Larry Hryb: Wow.
Laura Massey: No, strangely enough I bought them for dancing. They're really good for dancing because they have a soft, you know, toe-
Larry Hryb: You're right.
Laura Massey: ... And a hard heel.
Larry Hryb: Are they funny colors?
Laura Massey: No, it's white. I try to get [nada 00:24:50] looking bowling shoes because when I took dancing lessons, that's what I would wear.
Larry Hryb: Wow.
Laura Massey: They're much cheaper than normal [crosstalk 00:24:58] shoes.
Larry Hryb: If Laura had a bowling nickname, what would it, what would be the-
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... What would you have on the back of your jersey?
Laura Massey: It would be inscribed on my ball.
Larry Hryb: Right, your ball and your, and your, and your ball bag, your carrier.
Laura Massey: My ball bag.
Larry Hryb: You carrier, right? What would that be?
Laura Massey: Yes, and my leather jacket.
Larry Hryb: Let me think about that, but certainly, I mean lollipop, we're just put out some [crosstalk 00:25:12].
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, but with the bowling ball instead of a lollipop.
Laura Massey: Oh yeah!
Larry Hryb: What color would your ball be? Pink?
Laura Massey: It would be a lollipop color.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's really, that's, that's just ...
Larry Hryb: What? I'm just asking!
Laura Massey: I want to get a swirl.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, the swirl like a lollipop.
Laura Massey: That would be amazing.
Larry Hryb: Hey, that's, that's what I'm talking about. All right, we-
Jeff Rubenstein: You don't have a bowling ball?
Larry Hryb: Uh, me?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: No, I don't have a bowling ball.
Laura Massey: Do you?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know, just, I, well I do-
Larry Hryb: Wait, you have a bowling ball?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's, it's literally the only possession from my dad that I have.
Larry Hryb: Really!
Laura Massey: Oh!
Jeff Rubenstein: And, but we had the same, I ... Uh, my, uh, the hands fit perfectly, which of course makes sense. So I have the bowling ball in, like, a totally 80s bag.
Larry Hryb: I want to take, can you take a photo of it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Put it on Instagram!
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll have to go home, I'll have to, yeah, I'll find where it's at, but it's literally the only match.
Larry Hryb: You, so you [crosstalk 00:25:49] so different cause you have that and one of the only things I have from my dad is a stapler.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh! Is it, was it a Swingline?
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah!
Jeff Rubenstein: Well there you go!
Larry Hryb: It was back in the day and this-
Jeff Rubenstein: You want to hold onto that one.
Larry Hryb: ... This, both of them could do damage, trust me.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: You know, it's like rock, paper, scissors.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, couple more, couple more-
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: ... News bits here. Uh, so, uh, the ID@Xbox Game Fest is now into week three. And so, uh, what's happening is for the last few weeks is, is, a huge percentage or a huge, uh, a huge chunk of great ID@Xbox indie games are having a huge percentage off.
Laura Massey: Great.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh, some of the, the games worth mentioning here would be, uh, Knight Squad. Reagan Gorbachev, did you ever play that?
Larry Hryb: I played that, yeah, it's a good one.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's so bizarre, like, it's like a buddy movie between the two of them. Don't Starve: Shipwrecked, uh, Shantae: Half Genie Hero, Axiom Verge, which is a very cool Metroidvania type game, and, uh, Manual Samuel, which is, um, the conceit of that game is, like, very awesome. Did you, did we talk about this game before?
Larry Hryb: No.
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: I don't, I don't recall.
Jeff Rubenstein: So it's, uh, it's about someone who, uh, a, a, a boy or a young guy who, who's died but he's so lazy and he was so spoiled, he doesn't actually know how to, like, do anything including walking properly or breathing, and so you have to manually control every single one of these moves. It's sort of like QWOP-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: ... If you've ever messed around with QWOP, but, like, with better graphics, but it's so funny and, and there's just great animations like when you forget to breathe and then all of a sudden you're like, "Why is he turning blue? Oh, I didn't hit the-"
Laura Massey: (laughs) Oh no!
Jeff Rubenstein: ... "The B button to breathe," or whatever it might be.
Larry Hryb: So you're like the brain?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, you, well you're like, almost like, he's almost like a marionette.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And you have to help him just go through normal, mundane tasks like making breakfast or getting in the car or whatever it might be. Uh, but, like, all the things that your brain stem does without you thinking about it, you have to think about.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Laura Massey: Oh!
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a very interesting game.
Laura Massey: That is interesting.
Jeff Rubenstein: And it's on sale. I'll link to that, I'll link to that one, I like that game. Uh, there, there was just a big update, speaking of, uh, indie titles, an Xbox Play Anywhere title, Everspace, which is pretty fun. Uh, it's just been adding, ever since it went into early access it's been adding tons and tons of new stuff. Uh, huge update, uh, including new, new ships, new perks. Um, I believe they actually updated, uh, the game engine to make it, uh, work better on both Windows 10 and on Xbox One.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I feel like they, they might be getting pretty close to hitting, uh, uh, 1.0. I was just taking a look on their web site the other day, uh, the folks from Rockfish Games. So that one is, uh, definitely worth checking out. And then Trove is a new release, uh, by the folks at Trion. It's made with voxels and for that alone it's worth mentioning.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, think blocky Minecraft esque sort of visuals. The game, of course, is different. And, uh, Death Squared is a cooperative puzzle game for up to, up to four folks.
Larry Hryb: Head over to majornelson.com, my blog. You can see-
Jeff Rubenstein: They're all there.
Larry Hryb: ... All the releases and more! Also if you follow me on Twitter @majornelson, I'll tell you when those Games With Gold are available, uh, so that, or I'll just tell you what I'm eating for lunch.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: So you just never know what-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:28:46]!
Larry Hryb: ... You never know what you're gonna get!
Laura Massey: Free stuff for ...
Larry Hryb: Free stuff, that's right.
Laura Massey: For information.
Larry Hryb: For information. You're gonna get, you're gonna get, something that's there is going to amuse or irritate you.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: (laughs) I'll, I'll just pretty much guarantee that. Cause it's the Internet! Uh, Laura, you have Name the Game from a couple of weeks ago. There were, I know there's-
Laura Massey: We do!
Larry Hryb: ... Some folks who were a little disappointed we didn't do it at PAX.
Laura Massey: Right.
Larry Hryb: We normally don't do that feature when we're live on location cause it's, it's just, it's a little more difficult-
Laura Massey: It is.
Larry Hryb: ... Cause it requires, it just requires a lot of stuff. It requires the clip from before, it requires a new clip and it just, no, so we don't do it.
Laura Massey: Right. So we just do it here in the studio.
Larry Hryb: So why don't we go ahead and, uh, roll the clip?
Laura Massey: Yeah! Let's do, uh, Name the Game from last time.
Clip: Hornet reporting, over.
Clip: Infantry level one researched.
Clip: Keep in formation!
Clip: It's like sand!
Laura Massey: So that was Name the Game from last time, and it was Halo Wars 2.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: That was a pretty easy one.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Also we're playing that too.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: On the road, cross platform, all sorts of stuff.
Laura Massey: Play anywhere ...
Larry Hryb: Play any- I'm playing the anywhere.
Laura Massey: And the winner is Allison from Arizona!
Larry Hryb: Allison! We have a lady winner!
Laura Massey: Yes! And her gamertag is, uh, Bad Alley Cat.
Larry Hryb: Bad Alley Cat, sweet.
Jeff Rubenstein: I bet she goes to the bowling alley.
Larry Hryb: Where is she?
Laura Massey: That would be a good bowling name.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well the bowling alley I used to go to in college was Alley Cats.
Larry Hryb: Oh!
Jeff Rubenstein: In Gainesville, Florida.
Laura Massey: Nice!
Larry Hryb: Allison, do you bowl? Let us know, but it doesn't matter if you bowl or not cause you're a winner! What'd she win, Laura, what'd you-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:31:09] she has a lot of cool stuff coming her way.
Larry Hryb: All right, what've you got?
Laura Massey: She's got a copy of Trove: The Essentials Pack.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Which is the add on for the new free to play game, which is Trove.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And she gets a copy of Death Squared, which is a new ID@Xbox game. A copy of Blue-Collar Astronaut, which is also a new ID@Xbox game. A copy of Dark Arcana: The Carnival-
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: ... Which is a new ID@Xbox game.
Larry Hryb: I mean, I [inaudible 00:31:31], yeah.
Laura Massey: I can see a theme here.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And another game, the NeuroVoider, which is another new ID@Xbox game.
Larry Hryb: Neur- NeuroVoider.
Laura Massey: NeuroVoider.
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah, I think I talked about it on the show this week. On This Week On Xbox, sorry.
Laura Massey: This Week On Xbox.
Larry Hryb: That's my other, my other show.
Laura Massey: But that's not all!
Larry Hryb: That's not all! What?
Laura Massey: Allison also gets a copy of EA Access for 30 days.
Larry Hryb: Oh, she can try all the games in the Vault out!
Laura Massey: Exactly!
Larry Hryb: Nice.
Laura Massey: So now she could even play Mass Effect-
Larry Hryb: Yes she is, she sure can.
Laura Massey: ... Before most other people. And that's not all! She also gets a copy of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands: Deluxe Edition.
Larry Hryb: Whoo, look at her go!
Laura Massey: Very fun. And ...
Larry Hryb: And?
Laura Massey: ... She also gets an Xbox wireless controller-
Larry Hryb: Wow!
Laura Massey: ... Which is the Winter Forces Special Edition.
Larry Hryb: Oh, that's a nice one. Have you seen, that's a good one.
Laura Massey: It's beautiful.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, the timing. Only a few days left in winter.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, right? Allison, nice work! You just cleaned up whole bunch of stuff there. Those are, of course, we send you codes so you get the digital version of the games. You can, you can fully embrace the digital lifestyle-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: ... So it's, uh, we'll, we'll get, we'll get an e-mail out to you there, so ... All right! Well done!
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:32:29]. Thank you! And I bet people are wondering how do they win these fabulous prizes?
Larry Hryb: I don't know, how do they win? Why don't you tell me?
Laura Massey: It's really easy.
Larry Hryb: Tell the listeners, dear Laura.
Laura Massey: You can play Name the Game and you too could win!
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: It's really easy. All you have to do is listen to the sound effects that I'm about to play.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: And then send me an e-mail with what game that's from.
Larry Hryb: That's right, all you have to do is listen, and I will tell you this right now. There, you do not need to own your own bowling shoes!
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: You can, but it's not-
Laura Massey: But it's not required!
Larry Hryb: ... It's not a requirement. So, you ready?
Laura Massey: All right, let's roll it!
So that was Name the Game for this week. If you think you what game those sounds are from, just send me an e-mail, lollipop@xbox.com and CC major@xbox.com.
Larry Hryb: Yep, Microsoft employees-
Laura Massey: Easy as that!
Larry Hryb: ... Are not, uh, allowed to participate-
Laura Massey: Right.
Larry Hryb: ... And there's, uh, there's, the rules are on a, on a FAQ over on my blog, so ...
Laura Massey: Right. So good luck to all the listeners out there.
Larry Hryb: And you'll win cool stuff!
Laura Massey: Who knows what you could win!
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I know. Apparently you go into my, I, I don't know how you get into my office.
Laura Massey: I do!
Larry Hryb: I'm always, I'm always there and I'm like, oh, I'd never, Laura's, I just couldn't, I, you know, I've figured it out! You're using your bowling shoes and you're coming up over the door! I just figured it out!
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: It's crazy, Laura!
Laura Massey: You know now, I had those connections.
Larry Hryb: All right, we're gonna to, uh, we're getting ready to wrap up the show. I don't know if you guys have anything to add. Um, do you have anything to add, Laura? I mean it's, it's kind of, this is kind of, like I say, a surprise show since we-
Laura Massey: It's a bonus show!
Larry Hryb: ... Weren't, we, just, we, we were not scheduled to be in the studio this week. I've got a couple of things. I got my, uh, just got, got my gaming PC back.
Laura Massey: Oh, that's good.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was upgraded. They put a new, uh, new processor in, a new motherboard, you know, just got everything ready.
Jeff Rubenstein: What are you gonna test it out with?
Larry Hryb: I don't know. Gotta find something good to test, maybe, you know, maybe I'll play, uh, maybe I'll play, um, Robo Blocks, or Robo Recall.
Laura Massey: Yes!
Jeff Rubenstein: Do, do you have an Oculus?
Larry Hryb: I don't have an Oculus, I have a Vive.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay. Well ...
Larry Hryb: So, I think I, though I think someone I know must have an Oculus, looks at Laura.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Um, so yeah, I, I'm sure we can figure that out. But yeah, I gotta, I gotta, I'm undecided what I'm gonna play yet but I'm gonna get back into it and get my, I'm gonna finish up Halo Wars on it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, that's a good idea.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Cause, cause we were playing that cross platform.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: I just kind of wanted to play on my big 4K-
Laura Massey: Big screen.
Larry Hryb: ... 4K monitor.
Laura Massey: Yes. I bet that looks really nice.
Larry Hryb: So sharp.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: You know it's, when you use a 4K monitor, it's the same as when you're on the web or, you know, whether you're using, like, a Mac or Windows, it looks so good in 4K, but then when you find that weird part of the operating system that they never updated-
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: ... The icon, it's like, oooh.
Jeff Rubenstein: And it's really big.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, and it's really big and blocky and, oooh.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: And, and I've seen them both on Windows and the Mac side. They, uh, they still get there. (sighs) All right Jeffrey, what else before, cause I know you gotta run-
Jeff Rubenstein: I do.
Larry Hryb: ... Laura's gotta finish, you gotta finish up your lunch over there.
Laura Massey: I do.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you gotta finish up your lunch. I appreciate you coming into the show.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:35:39]. Thanks for having me.
Larry Hryb: All right. Well we may be back next week. Who knows? Sometimes we plan to be here, sometimes we're not, sometimes we don't not plan to be there and sometimes we are. [crosstalk 00:35:47].
Jeff Rubenstein: Count me in if you're doing it.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: We're getting ready for E3. Jeff and I will be there, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yes.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Laura, we're still trying to get Laura to go.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: We bare- we barely got her to PAX!
Laura Massey: Still don't know, still don't know. (laughs) That's true!
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Yeah, your, your, your plane ride coming in was, was a-
Laura Massey: Just awful!
Larry Hryb: ... A little bit, uh, rough, but-
Laura Massey: It was way delayed.
Larry Hryb: ... But we'd love to have you down. It's a little, it's only two and a, two and a half hours away down in LA as opposed to the ...
Laura Massey: Six plus ...
Larry Hryb: ... Six ...
Laura Massey: ... Hour.
Larry Hryb: Four hour, six back, whatever it is, it's crazy.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: All right, gang, hit us up on Twitter. You can find Laura and her bowling shoes at?
Laura Massey: (laughs) @lauralollipop.
Larry Hryb: You can find Jeff and his, uh, his bowling ball-
Jeff Rubenstein: Thank you! (laughs) Well done, @jeffrubenstein.
Larry Hryb: And you can find me and my candlepins @majornelson. We'll talk to you guys next time. Bye bye everybody!
Jeff Rubenstein: Bye!
Laura Massey: Bye!

Larry Hryb: Welcome to the show, everybody. My name is Larry Hyrb, your host. Xbox Live's Major Nelson is what you know me as. You see me on your console every Friday and now I'm here in your ears!
Jeff Rubenstein: Can't escape you, Larry!
Larry Hryb: It kind of sounds scary, doesn't it? Hi Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi.
Larry Hryb: Hi Laura.
Laura Massey : Hello!
Larry Hryb: I was talking, I did a Facebook Live stream the other day.
Laura Massey : Oh, you did?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey : [inaudible 00:00:41].
Larry Hryb: Everyone was, there were some people that was all, "Hey, we want you to stream on YouTube!" I realized, no, there's too many places you stream! On Facebook, on YouTube, and we have Beam, there's Twitch, there's everything but you know what? There's only guy on your console and that's me, so that's where my show is.
Jeff Rubenstein: Take that, everybody!
Larry Hryb: Take that, people! I'm glad we're back. We got a lot of news this week, some big news.
Laura Massey : We do.
Larry Hryb: I was traveling, went down to San Francisco, the City by the Bay for the day. Came back. Jeff you love-
Jeff Rubenstein: Tampa? You were in Tampa?
Larry Hryb: That scary bridge in Tampa, I can't-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yes! He's not talking about the Sunshine Skyway.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, we're going to talk about what we're playing. We're going to give you the news of the week. Phil Spencer's going to come by, we've got an interview with Phil Spencer-
Jeff Rubenstein: What?
Larry Hryb: ... And ID@Xbox's Chris Charla.
Laura Massey : All right!
Jeff Rubenstein: Wallingford's own.
Larry Hryb: Wallingford, which is a part of Seattle. It's a region here in Seattle.
Jeff Rubenstein: He's there for the skate parks.
Larry Hryb: It's a prefecture.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes!
Larry Hryb: He'll come by. I had to go down to San Francisco to interview those guys, which is so peculiar because I work with them.
Jeff Rubenstein: It sounds like it's a peculiar thing, but I've noticed it since I got in the industry 10 years ago this very year, there are people that I don't know where they live. I see them in certain meetings, I see them at events and I assume that they live in places like LA or whatever. It's like, "No, no, I live in Seattle."
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's just sort of this thing where we have heads down and working, we're doing stuff.
Larry Hryb: Go to an event.
Jeff Rubenstein: You don't look up sometimes until you're at an event and then you're just like, "Oh, I've just seen you again."
Larry Hryb: Speaking of events, we got PAX East coming up. We'll talk about that later in the show.
Jeff Rubenstein: What a segue way.
Larry Hryb: Boston. Laura's going to be there, I'm going to be there, Jeffrey's going to be there.
Jeff Rubenstein: City also by a bay, maybe? City by the harbor?
Larry Hryb: It is, well it's Boston Harbor between the Cape Cod, Cape Cod Bay.
Jeff Rubenstein: City by the harbor.
Larry Hryb: Harbor.
Laura Massey : [inaudible 00:02:33]. I can't compete.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, sure you can. Give me a y'all.
Laura Massey : Y'all!
Larry Hryb: There we go!
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going to South By after that!
Larry Hryb: There we go.
Laura Massey : Yeah!
Larry Hryb: Anyway, why don't we jump in. We'll talk about what we're playing and then we'll kind of rattle off some of those headlines earlier. Jeffrey, did you finish it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Did I finish what?
Larry Hryb: "Firewatch."
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I did!
Larry Hryb: Yay!
Laura Massey : [crosstalk 00:02:52]! I saw you playing it.
Jeff Rubenstein: I watched through the fire, yeah.
Larry Hryb: I talked to him earlier in the week. He's like, "I'm gonna go play 'Firewatch.'" Because he wanted to finish it for the show, so I respect that you hit your goal.
Jeff Rubenstein: Thank you.
Larry Hryb: Congratulations.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I appreciate that. That was one of the games from last year that was right on the very top of the pile of shame. Everyone's like, "It only takes a couple of hours!"
Laura Massey : Yes, it does.
Jeff Rubenstein: It took me maybe three or four. It's a good game.
Larry Hryb: Did you play it, Laura?
Laura Massey : Yes, I did.
Jeff Rubenstein: I would say that the less I tell you the better, but ultimately I would say if you liked games like "Gone Home," if you liked games like "Oxenfree," I felt like there was a little bit of both in this game. I loved the color palette, has a distinct style. Actually, Campo Santo, who developed the game, won a, it was an IDF award or IDG, they won a GDC award yesterday.
Laura Massey : For the game?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, for the game.
Laura Massey : Fantastic.
Jeff Rubenstein: Best Newcomer, so congrats to Campo Santo, "Firewatch." Very enjoyable.
Laura Massey : Yes.
Larry Hryb: I need to get, I mean, this is the story. Look, we got so many games to play right now, Laura. It is just ridiculous how many games we have to play.
Laura Massey : The stack is so big.
Larry Hryb: Jeff and I are playing "Overwatch," of course. That's kind of the new-
Jeff Rubenstein: The new plucky little indie, which actually won Game of the Year, well deserved, at GDC.
Laura Massey : Awesome.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It just keeps bringing us back.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. It's just we get in there, they tweak it more and we got to play that, Mister-
Jeff Rubenstein: Can we talk about Bastion?
Larry Hryb: Do you want to talk about what they did to Bastion?
Jeff Rubenstein: What they did, what Bastion did to everyone else is what you mean!
Larry Hryb: They're undoing it. You saw that.
Jeff Rubenstein: They might be, we'll see.
Laura Massey : It sounds from the tone of your voice, Larry, that Bastion was your go to character.
Larry Hryb: No, no, no. Actually I didn't play him a lot. He's just, right now he's really overpowered.
Laura Massey : You didn't? Okay.
Larry Hryb: Really overpowered!
Jeff Rubenstein: It's one of these things where everyone was using Bastion at first and then very quickly people realized, "Oh, Bastion is very easily countered." Pharah would take him down. I would always get killed by, Tracer would always just sneak around behind you. They buffed Bastion significantly. I feel like he never runs out of ammo in sentry mode. You can now run around and heal at the same time. It used to have to be something you would stop.
Laura Massey : Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: If I took a hit from afar I would go behind a wall and I would heal.
Larry Hryb: Because you're exposed when you're healing.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Now you can heal while you're walking. I got into a one on one with Zarya yesterday.
Larry Hryb: Who's a tank.
Jeff Rubenstein: Who's a tank. Doesn't have the strongest gun. Zarya couldn't kill me because I just hold down the left trigger and then move to heal.
Larry Hryb: Wait, is that the time I was healing you as well?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, was that happening?
Larry Hryb: Yes! I was Mercy and I was healing.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was like, "You can't hurt me!" Then she's [crosstalk 00:05:25] up.
Larry Hryb: You were in the corner, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: I was, yeah, I guess.
Larry Hryb: I guess we were in Numbani, that's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it was Numbani. I'm like, "Wow!" She could not kill me. Then eventually she turned around, I'm like, "I'm going to just shoot you in the back now."
Larry Hryb: Right, boom.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was not honorable but we won. Actually, we had a good night yesterday. I think they may have indexed her a little bit too high and I think we'll see some tweaks. Jeff Kaplan, who is the face of-
Larry Hryb: I need to get Jeff on the show. I got a lot of people on the show.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I need to get him on the show.
Jeff Rubenstein: He's provided us so much enjoyment.
Larry Hryb: By the way, you were talking about, I'm sorry, I want to go back to "Firewatch." I had Sean Vanaman in from ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Campo Santo?
Larry Hryb: Campo Santo. He's on, just looking here, show number 580 if you want to roll back and listen to that podcast so long ago.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right. I should bring up the notes.
Larry Hryb: Sorry. We'll get back into what we're talking ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. We were looking and actually yesterday, we were playing and it changed around. I think it was the Numbani map, and there's robot parts all over where you're sort of hanging around before you spawn. We're like, "Oh, new character must be coming soon!"
Larry Hryb: Yes. Today!
Jeff Rubenstein: Here we are! "Overwatch's" new hero is Orisa, who is like a tank character. I like a tank character.
Larry Hryb: Did you watch, you haven't seen the trailer yet have you Laura? Because it just came out really a day or so ago.
Laura Massey : Have not seen it.
Larry Hryb: Jeff, you watched it.
Jeff Rubenstein: No. There was the origin, and then there's the developer update but I haven't really seen much about it.
Larry Hryb: Because I watched the video and the video, it's nice. There's not a gameplay video. If you listen to the voiceover because it's very light, it's like a child's voice delivering it. I actually wrote the script down here because I wanted to read it as, it's all in the way you deliver the message.
Laura Massey : Oh yeah.
Larry Hryb: In a child's voice it sounded kind of fun and fancy, but if you read it like this, the same exact words take a different meaning. May I?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'd just like to say that we don't know what Larry's going to say.
Laura Massey : Yeah, we have no idea.
Larry Hryb: This is the text from the video that was released on Thursday where they released the new hero. I copied it down and I wanted to read it in Mr. Announcer, big evil voice.
"The world is a scary place, even here in Numbani. We needed something to protect us. Enter the defense bots. They took the older model and gave it a complete makeover. That kept us safe for a while. I was at the airport when Doomfist attacked. Poor bots did not stand a chance. Everyone else gave up on you, but I saw what you could be, so I rebuilt you, upgraded your programming and gave you a heart. Orisa, I made you strong and brave. You still have a lot to learn, and you'll probably mess up sometime but I know, I know what you'll do. Orisa, you are the hero we need."
Now, that was-
Laura Massey : Wow!
Jeff Rubenstein: Get the Grammy people on the phone!
Larry Hryb: No, I'm just saying, because if you listen to her, go play it. Go play it right now.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right.
Larry Hryb: Because I want Laura to hear, but I'm just saying because I was listening to this voice. Put the microphone down towards it.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's the wrong one.
Larry Hryb: If you can do it.
Laura Massey : How much did you practice that, Larry?
Larry Hryb: That's my first read. Listen to this. There's a couple words I dropped.
Trailer: The world's a scary place.
Jeff Rubenstein: I can't hear the difference.
Trailer: Even here in Numbani.
Larry Hryb: "We needed something to protect us." Enter, duh, duh.
Trailer: ... The OR15 Defense Bot.
Larry Hryb: I don't know what she said there.
Trailer: They took the old [adina 00:09:01] model from the crisis and gave them a complete makeover.
Larry Hryb: "And gave them a complete makeover."
Trailer: They kept-
Larry Hryb: "Kept us safe for a while."
Trailer: For a while. I was at the airport when Doomfist attacked. [inaudible 00:09:12].
Jeff Rubenstein: I never realized how much you sound like Soldier: 76 until just now.
Larry Hryb: Get off my lawn! Anyway, I wanted to take, because she's got such a wonderful delivery there and I was like, "Let's just take the same words and make it evil."
Jeff Rubenstein: The original guy, and I can't remember his name right now.
Larry Hryb: I don't know why I said that.
Jeff Rubenstein: He would do all the, "In a world."
Larry Hryb: Yeah, "In a world."
Jeff Rubenstein: Like that guy, he passed away a few years ago and there's someone else who's not quite as good. I think you need to just fistfight him and take over the trailer.
Larry Hryb: Oh, well actually the best guy is, I think we've talked about Ernie Anderson, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb: Ernie Anderson's an old school announcer. He used to the ABC, "This is ABC!" You'd recognize your voice if you heard him, there's some YouTube videos of him doing it. He's a consummate professional. Anyway.
I was watching the trailer the other day when it came out and I was like what if, it's the same words but you just deliver them in a different style and they take a completely different meaning.
Laura Massey : Absolutely.
Larry Hryb: It goes from "save the world" to "kill the world." Anyway.
Jeff Rubenstein: Are you the final boss? Are you Doomfist?
Larry Hryb: Maybe I am. All right, sorry about that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, we'll link out to Orisa. Orisa looks like a really cool character.
Larry Hryb: If you need me for voiceovers, you can contact @jeffrubenstein on Twitter. He's my agent.
Jeff Rubenstein: Take a flat 10%!
Larry Hryb: All right, where are we?
Laura Massey : Can I be your agent? I want [inaudible 00:10:36].
Larry Hryb: I don't know. I don't know if you can be. I mean, religious speaking, Jeff's more [inaudible 00:10:42], but you can be.
Laura Massey : Okay. What?
Larry Hryb: What? You have agent background.
Jeff Rubenstein: I suppose I do. Somewhere. Actually, I am related to a casting agent.
Larry Hryb: See? I knew it!
Laura Massey : There you go.
Larry Hryb: I knew it! Laura, you're welcome to be my agent.
Laura Massey : I don't have the-
Larry Hryb: You're welcome to be. Anyway, enough about that. Moving along. Is that you played? I mean not that all you played, but you played "Firewatch" and "Overwatch," because I want to get to Laura. Because I know what she played!
Laura Massey : Yeah, we talked [inaudible 00:11:11].
Jeff Rubenstein: Played a bunch of "Fallout Shelter" That's it. Since it came out on Windows 10, it's just totally like, "Oh I have 10 seconds, let me just go ahead and load this up," and I'm working my way towards achievements.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: That one's still fun. "Riptide GP Renegade." We talked about that one last week, that is a XPA game, Xbox Play Anywhere, so you can play it on Windows 10 and on Xbox One. I've been doing that. We didn't talk about "Sniper Elite." We were playing together.
Larry Hryb: Oh!
Laura Massey : You did play it together.
Larry Hryb: We played it together!
Laura Massey : Fantastic!
Jeff Rubenstein: You know what? Two snipers are better than one.
Larry Hryb: We had a great time.
Laura Massey : Really?
Larry Hryb: I think so. Did we? I don't want to speak for you, Jeffrey!
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I felt like we were like back to back.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, exactly.
Jeff Rubenstein: I felt like two Charlie's Angels, just cutting our way through the Nazis. It was just a lot of fun. Occasionally one of us would go a little too far, Larry, and you know, the other one would have rein him back in.
Larry Hryb: Vice versa.
Jeff Rubenstein: I would say co op totally changes [crosstalk 00:12:05].
Larry Hryb: Totally changed it, as always.
Jeff Rubenstein: For the best. It makes it really fun. That was my favorite thing last week.
Larry Hryb: Little bit of that. Laura, what are you playing? Then we'll get to what I'm playing.
Laura Massey : Yeah, sure. I've been playing "Halo Wars 2."
Larry Hryb: Yes. Oh yeah, that's right!
Laura Massey : Still cranking through some of the campaigns, still really fun, I'm enjoying it.
Larry Hryb: As am I.
Laura Massey : Yeah. I also decided I need more motivation for my workouts, so I started playing "Dance Central Spotlight."
Larry Hryb: Okay. Now Jeff, you don't remember what happened with "Dance Central," do you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, I played "Dance Central."
Larry Hryb: No, no, you don't know what happened. You don't remember the PAX Seattle massacre.
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb: May I?
Laura Massey : Sure!
Larry Hryb: Laura challenged me once on this very show, this is before you joined us, and I mistakenly took the bait.
Laura Massey : This is before we had talked a lot about "Dance Central" and how I was obsessed with it.
Larry Hryb: Right. Right, you still are, obviously. We had a dance off on the stage, on the main "Dance Central" stage in front of God, the world and everybody, and I got my clock cleaned! Oh God, I hope, there's not video of that? I'm sure there's video.
Laura Massey : I hope there's not. I'm sure there is somewhere, but ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm looking for it right now.
Larry Hryb: Please don't. Please do not. Anyway, you're playing "Dance Central," that's good for you, Laura.
Laura Massey : Yes. It's out for Xbox One. I hadn't actually played a lot of this game but finally came back to it because I would like to become more healthy and "Dance Central's" a great way to do aerobic exercises.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey : If you're also interested in trying it out, another good awesome pro tip is you get lots of achievements.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you do. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Laura Massey : [crosstalk 00:13:39] achievements.
Larry Hryb: Did you not have these achievements already?
Laura Massey : No.
Larry Hryb: This is why I'm so stung, because you played the heck out of that game.
Laura Massey : I did. I played a lot of "Dance Central" until two. I hadn't played that much "Spotlight."
Larry Hryb: Oh, oh, oh, oh, okay.
Laura Massey : When it came out, I played a bunch of other games and I just lost track of it.
Larry Hryb: I see.
Laura Massey : Now I've gone back to it and playing through the songs there. It's a little bit [crosstalk 00:14:00].
Larry Hryb: What's your favorite song to dance to? Do you have one?
Laura Massey : Last night I was playing "Happy" by Pharrell.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey : That one, I was trying to get all the moves on.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey, Jeffrey, don't even tell me you found it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Found a video of Laura doing the robot!
Laura Massey : No, no [crosstalk 00:14:15].
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, that's from PAX East, isn't it? 2011!
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Link will be provided!
Laura Massey : I am so embarrassed! No!
Larry Hryb: It's a good robot! It's a good robot!
Jeff Rubenstein: There's some popping, there's some locking, there was a lot going on here!
Laura Massey : It's so embarrassing! If I wanted a moment to regret, that's one of them.
Larry Hryb: Really? If that's the only moment you had to regret, trust me, you have some growing up to do!
Laura Massey : I have many others! Yeah, I got a rare achievement, which I was super excited about. Have you guys gotten a rare achievement?
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we got a couple of them. Did we get one in "Sniper Elite?" No, I got a couple in "Halo Wars." Do you like the audio? Because I worked on that.
Laura Massey : Love it, great.
Larry Hryb: Thank you. I worked on the audio and the animation with the team at Rare and our platform team here.
Laura Massey : Oh great.
Larry Hryb: I remember them, this is true, I don't think I've ever told this story. We were in a meeting and they presented one which was this, like when we were getting ready to work on rare achievements and we kind of had the animation down. They were working on the sound and I just didn't like the sound. They played it and I said play it again. I said play it again. I said hold on a minute. I go onto YouTube and I said, "This is what it sounds like." I played them a clip from "Antique Roadshow." Do you remember when they reveal how much whatever the antique is worth and it goes "ring" and the little treasure chest spins around the bottom?
Laura Massey : Right.
Larry Hryb: That's what it sounded like. I said I don't want it to sound like "Antique Roadshow!"
Laura Massey : I'm sure that actually made your point!
Larry Hryb: It did!
Jeff Rubenstein: I remember you coming into the office.
Larry Hryb: Do you remember I was talking about that?
Jeff Rubenstein: There were four or five of them and some of them, it would go like, "Yay!"
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Or like, "Oh, [inaudible 00:15:51]."
Larry Hryb: This one, my description, and I think maybe I said this on the show before when we were working with the audio team, is I said I want it to be audio confetti.
Laura Massey : Audio celebration.
Larry Hryb: Right. It's got to be fun, excite, anyway. I'm glad you got one.
Laura Massey : Yeah, very good. The one that I got was getting a 32X multiplier in a pro or deluxe. They've changed their difficulty settings. It used to be easy, medium, hard, expert. Now it's standard, deluxe, pro and then they keep going with different types.
Larry Hryb: They need one below that, like "overweight white guy" for me.
Laura Massey : Oh no!
Jeff Rubenstein: Sit and be fit!
Laura Massey : [inaudible 00:16:34]. Then I went through the whole achievement list. It looks like there are a lot of rare achievements [deluxe do 00:16:42].
Larry Hryb: Now, did you notice something in our achievements? No, you probably don't. This is the first one you've gotten, right?
Laura Massey : This is the second one.
Larry Hryb: We changed it this past week. We now do decimals. You used to say it was 1%, now we can see you're 2% or 5%. Now you'll see 3.72%.
Laura Massey : Yes. I had scrolled all the way to the bottom for the "Dance Central" achievements and found a 0.01%.
Larry Hryb: Is that the one you're going after? Do you remember what it is?
Jeff Rubenstein: Just the Harmonix team did it.
Laura Massey : Yeah, I bet. Just [inaudible 00:17:10] Harmonix team.
Larry Hryb: That's the only one that has it.
Laura Massey : Probably. I have to unlock all moves in the game.
Larry Hryb: Right, right.
Laura Massey : [inaudible 00:17:17] move is really hard.
Larry Hryb: Wow, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a bunch. If you want to see the animation, I would say play "Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime" on co op, makes the game a lot easier. On easy level, which makes the game a lot easier, there's a bunch that you can unlock that are rare. We got, like, four in a day. Since me, my brother and my kid were all logged in, we saw that animation repeatedly.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Laura Massey : Nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: One after another.
Larry Hryb: Firing like crazy. Fun.
Laura Massey : Super satisfying when you unlock one of those. If you haven't by chance, try out "Dance Central."
Larry Hryb: Got a little diamond animation we worked on, so glad you liked it, so glad. We haven't talked about that.
Laura Massey : [crosstalk 00:17:48]. Ding! Yeah, it's great. I guess that's it for me.
Larry Hryb: Oh. On my side, of course I was talking about traveling to San Francisco. "Overwatch," "Sniper Elite 2." "Gwent," "The Witcher" card game, playing a little "Gwent."
Laura Massey : Oh, you are?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's really good.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I'm having fun with that.
Laura Massey : That's great.
Larry Hryb: Last weekend was "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands," that beta, we did that. Jeff, you and I didn't play that, did we?
Jeff Rubenstein: I thought we played in the alpha.
Larry Hryb: We played the alpha or the closed beta, whatever it was.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's coming out really soon.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. We played that. I'm continuing my "Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" story because I'm working on the DL-
Laura Massey : You are?
Larry Hryb: Well, the DLC.
Laura Massey : Still going through, oh.
Larry Hryb: The DLC.
Laura Massey : You talked about that last time.
Larry Hryb: Well, the DLC, it's a game unto itself. Playing "Halo Wars 2," still cooking along on that. "Resident Evil VII: Biohazard," which, did you finish that?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I got to go back to it.
Larry Hryb: "For Honor," I'm hitting that up.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a lot there.
Larry Hryb: There's a lot going on.
Laura Massey : So many games.
Larry Hryb: And even more-
Jeff Rubenstein: "Ghost Recon's" Tuesday.
Larry Hryb: Pardon me?
Jeff Rubenstein: "Ghost Recon's" Tuesday.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, "Ghost Recon" is this Tuesday.
Jeff Rubenstein: We got to just jump in there together.
Larry Hryb: You know what comes out this week? The Nintendo Switch!
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah!
Laura Massey : Yeah!
Larry Hryb: Did you preorder yours, Laura?
Laura Massey : I did not.
Larry Hryb: Did you, Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: I did.
Larry Hryb: I didn't because when they went up for preorder, I was on an airplane or something, so I don't have one. I will not have one.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well I'll bring it in. Actually, I'm going to bring it to PAX which is, the timing's good.
Laura Massey : Oh great. [crosstalk 00:19:02].
Jeff Rubenstein: The reviews for "Zelda" are stellar. I'm real excited.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, the reviews, congrats to those guys. Shipping games is hard.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, right on down the street. Somehow, I missed Wii U, so it'll be fun getting back in. New hardware's fun.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's always fun. I'll take a look at that. I'm sure we'll talk about that once we get our hands on the hardware but that's fun coming up this week. Lot of games came out, a lot of ID@Xbox came out the past week and a half or so.
Jeff Rubenstein: I got a bunch. There's new releases, bunch came out of the GDC. Hit the stinger and I'll go.
Larry Hryb: You should have, "dun dun dun dun, here's the news!"
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, thanks [inaudible 00:19:34] Larry, I have big news coming out on Monday! That was "Middle Earth: Shadow of War."
Laura Massey : Yes!
Larry Hryb: Now Laura, do you remember because I know you were into this.
Laura Massey : Yes I was!
Larry Hryb: I found out about this about a day before and I forget to tell you, so I apologize.
Laura Massey : Well I watched the trailer.
Larry Hryb: You ended up finding out. That's the most important.
Laura Massey : I did. I watched the trailer when they announced it. So excited for that to play!
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Something I like. They announced the game, they announced that it was Xbox One and Windows 10, which is kind of great and obviously Scorpio as well, and a date, August 22nd.
Laura Massey : That's really soon!
Jeff Rubenstein: Already draw the line the in the sand. Holiday starts with this game.
Larry Hryb: That is right around PAX Seattle.
Jeff Rubenstein: It should be, yeah. Maybe a couple of days before that. The game is, I believe, made very near by here.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's actually up near my house, up at Monolith, up in Oakland. I've been over there!
Jeff Rubenstein: If you're in the windows, let me know how it looks.
Larry Hryb: Maybe we'll take the show down there, we'll do an interview.
Jeff Rubenstein: Really?
Laura Massey : Great!
Larry Hryb: We should all go down there, want to all go down to Monolith? All right, I'll work it out.
Jeff Rubenstein: I would love for it.
Laura Massey : Work on that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. "Shadows of Mordor" was amazing.
Larry Hryb: Did you finish that?
Laura Massey : Yes, I think I, almost, so close.
Larry Hryb: I remember you were just all into that.
Laura Massey : Couldn't-
Larry Hryb: I loved it, but you got caught up in the story and the whole thing, which is great.
Laura Massey : Yeah, oh yeah. I thought it was a fantastic telling of that story.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, absolutely. It filled in all those gaps, and this one looks like it's going to be really cool as well. The Nazgul, the Wraiths seem to have a pretty major role. You now command an orc army! You possessed all those orcs with the nemesis system in "Shadow of Modor" and now I think you have one and you take it on and you'll end up facing other ones. That could be really cool.
Larry Hryb: Fun! Fun!
Laura Massey : [crosstalk 00:21:09] fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Right before GDC started, also, we announced Xbox Game Pass.
Larry Hryb: Now this is a huge, or as some people would say-
Jeff Rubenstein: Don't do it, don't do it Larry! Don't do it! You were just coming off presidential!
Laura Massey : I know!
Larry Hryb: This is a very large program we're very excited about. It's available to preview members now. Jeff, why don't you give some of the details?
Jeff Rubenstein: Basically, think of Xbox Game Pass as something like an all you can eat with over a hundred games at any time. For $9.99 a month, you get unlimited access to over a hundred Xbox One and backwards compatible Xbox 360 games. We've mentioned some of the developers and the publishers. Games like "Halo 5" and "NBA 2K16," "Mad Max," "Saints Row IV." Lot of great games and games will cycle in and out. The thing that I think really makes this sing is that not only is it Xbox One games as well as Xbox 360 backward compatible game, but you download it so you're not going to be reliant on bandwidth at any given point to determine what your performance is like. You're going to be able to download it, you're going to play it like every other game.
Larry Hryb: Full fidelity.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Some of the publishers that are involved are 2K, Namco-Bandai, Capcom, Deep Silver, Sega, Warner Brothers who makes "Shadow of Mordor," "Shadow of War," Microsoft Studios of course. Lot of great games coming and we're going to be sharing more in the coming weeks. Right now, the people that can look at it first are those in the Xbox Insider program.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so it'll be coming to everybody, all Xbox owners, soon. Don't know the exact date but it will be coming later this year.
Laura Massey : Cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: You'll find out here.
Larry Hryb: In fact, Phil talked about that. Why don't we take a break here. I'll roll the interview I did with Phil and Chris where he talks a little bit about Game Pass as well as some of our GDC news, and then on the other side of this we'll have Jeff go over that news again. How's that sound?
Laura Massey : Sounds great.
Jeff Rubenstein: Let's do it.
Larry Hryb: As promised, I'm down here in San Francisco at the ID@Xbox event. Joining me is Phil Spencer and Chris Charla. Hey guys, how are you doing?
Chris Charla: Great. How's it going?
Phil Spencer: It's going well. You can't see it but Larry and Chris are sharing a microphone.
Larry Hryb: Well, yeah.
Chris Charla: [crosstalk 00:23:26] get your own!
Larry Hryb: We're going to pass it back and forth, right Chris?
Chris Charla: [inaudible 00:23:29]. It's very, very natural.
Phil Spencer: Let's see if we can try to get them to talk at the same time.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, first of all I want to thank you guys. I know it's a busy week. We're down here at Game Developer Conference, GDC, and we've had some great announcements this week. I figured I'd come down here because you guys wouldn't meet with me back in the office. I flew all the way down here just to interview you guys to go over the headlines. I thought we could do that.
Chris Charla: Sounds good to me.
Phil Spencer: See, they didn't talk at the same time again. Yeah, it's great!
Larry Hryb: Or we could get in really close like this and it's really-
Chris Charla: We can talk at the same time.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, I want to go over what we announced. What's going on here at Xbox? Let's start with you, Phil.
Phil Spencer: We're at the ID@Xbox event, which is always my favorite event at GDC because I get to come down, see a bunch of developers that are building new games, trying new things. I love the ID space because you have developers that aren't afraid to experiment, aren't afraid to try to push the boundaries of what gaming's about and then we get people to come in and play the games. I love coming down early. I'm always here when they open.
Larry Hryb: You're the first guy in.
Phil Spencer: I stand in line.
Larry Hryb: You're before the first guy.
Phil Spencer: Pressed up against the glass. Chris then lets me in, says he always lets me in third. I can't go in first. I love it down here.
Larry Hryb: Would you do a scene setter because obviously this is audio. We're in a special space here in San Francisco, we've got a bunch of game points set up. Talk about that.
Phil Spencer: I'm going to start with the space. Oh, is Chris going to talk?
Chris Charla: No, no, I'm just [crosstalk 00:24:53].
Phil Spencer: I want Chris to talk about it.
Chris Charla: The space is awesome. It's super cool! You know what it is. I don't even know, this is just some weird space that we come to.
Phil Spencer: We, the Xbox team, grabbed a space in New York and a space in San Francisco actually before the Xbox One launched.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Phil Spencer: We set them up as living room experiences. Once we launched and Chris got ahold of all of this, we took all the living room stuff out and made them game spaces. It's an old garage, so I think this was actually an auto repair garage before we took it over. We've had it for a few years but every year I'm down here, it's usually some kind of press event or an ID@Xbox event, cement walls, very industrial.
Larry Hryb: Is there a car lift?
Chris Charla: There probably used to be.
Larry Hryb: What there is is awesome, is these amazing laser cut iron things everywhere that all include an Xbox logo. It's really fantastic.
Phil Spencer: Yeah. The team that put this space together does a great job. The thing I love, and I want to thank all the ID developers that come here because we know this, they sit in this space. As cool as we think it is, I imagine after the 20th hour it's probably a little less cool being in here. At least they keep it, temperature wise, cool. These developers sit by their stations while press comes by, enthusiasts come by, play the games, get feedback. Random people like me come by. You can see in the morning, they're all enthusiastic and you can come by at the 12th hour and they're still enthusiastic about showing their game, talking to you even though it's random questions about, "Hey, why is that blue," and, "Why is that purple?" The energy level's always great. I think that they just do such a great job showing their game and showcasing what we're trying to do at Xbox, so thanks to all of them.
Larry Hryb: I also want to point out, this is a private invite only event that we do for media and partners, so these are games that are coming out later this year, in the future, right?
Phil Spencer: As we know, trying to guess when they're going to come out with some of these ID games, see "Cuphead," isn't always the easiest thing, but we can ask Chris when these games will ship.
Chris Charla: They will ship when they are ready to ship. We don't dictate release dates to developers, they tell us when the game's ready to come out and we support them.
Phil Spencer: Then they tell us again when it's a different date.
Chris Charla: Yeah, that's right.
Larry Hryb: All right, well let's focus on what we have here. Now Chris, I want to go to you because I want to talk about what we're showing off here in terms of specific titles and maybe some of the highlights. There's so many titles to go through and I'm sure that people are watching their favorite gaming sites to see what some of their favorite games are. Can you give us some of the highlights?
Chris Charla: Yeah, sure. We're showing 22 games. I can't run down the exhaustive list, or I could but you'll probably start kicking-
Phil Spencer: He has a list in front of him on a piece of paper, so he actually can.
Chris Charla: I do have a list in front of me. We have a convenient blog post that anyone can go to to see a list of all the games. There's some amazing ones here, some that are brand new that we haven't shown before. One is "Ooblets," which is a really cool new game.
Phil Spencer: Winner, winner.
Chris Charla: It's, I guess, a combination of "Harvest Moon" meets "Animal Crossing" plus "Pokemon."
Phil Spencer: It's a real dark themed one.
Chris Charla: No, it is not the real dark themed one. It's a very happy, light [crosstalk 00:28:01].
Phil Spencer: It would be the opposite of dark themed.
Chris Charla: However, directly across from it is an extremely dark game.
Phil Spencer: From Poland.
Chris Charla: Yeah, from Poland, which is a super cool sort of horror game that I think, "Inner Chains," which is super dark but really cool. It shows the diversity of the program, that we have games from "Inner Chains" to "Ooblets" to "Path of Exile" to "Super Mega Baseball."
Phil Spencer: Yeah. I love seeing "Path of Exile" come to the platform. It's a game I played on PC for quite a while. It's got a really good following on PC. I was talking about bringing it to console, how they moved over to controller. Even they were surprised, I think, with how the game showed up when they actually brought it over, put a controller on it. It looks really, really good. Team's done a fantastic job.
Larry Hryb: Now Phil, I don't have a lot of time because I know you're busy and you're running out of here, but I want to get to a couple of things. Talk about the ID@Xbox program and how it fits into the broader portfolio and how you look at it as the head of Xbox. How do you look at ID@Xbox versus everything else?
Phil Spencer: I know you throw out the word versus, but I'm going to pick on that for a second because I actually don't see it as a versus thing. I think as somebody who's been in the game industry now for quite a long time, I think we see creativity and diversity come from many places. We see it come from triple A, we see it from new business models and I think we can see it from small teams, maybe developers that worked at a bigger studio and had a passion for what they wanted to go build. The "Ooblets" game, you talked about. I love talking to the developer. It's a man and a woman, it's two people who are the whole studio. I think they're in New Hampshire if I remember correctly.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Phil Spencer: They've got a passion for a game that they want to go build. What I love is our ID program, and Chris has been the spirit of this for us, and other platform holders have done a great job with indies as well, Steam, Sony's doing a good job. Now these people, unlike maybe 10 years ago, the smaller studios have an avenue to get to the largest audience. Obviously they can ship on PC. Now they've got a way to bring these games to console. I think it's a great opportunity for them and most importantly it's a great opportunity for the gamers to get their hands on more and more games, which is really what it's all about.
Larry Hryb: Now moving forward a little bit, this week we're in town for GDC, and Chris, I wanted you to go through some of the announcements. We're actually recording this before the announcements.
Phil Spencer: This is a leak!
Larry Hryb: Well it's not a leak as long as no one gets ahold of this audio file early! We're recording this a little bit early, but I want to see if you can go through, because this will post afterwards, what are some of the announcements we have this week? There's a lot of stuff coming out of GDC.
Chris Charla: We're going to be announcing a lot. One thing we're going to be announcing is a new program called the Xbox Live Creators Program. It's pretty interesting news, actually a pretty cool new program. What we're doing is we're actually opening up Xbox Live so that anyone can go to MSDN, download Xbox Live, implement it in their UWP game and ship that game on Windows 10 or on Xbox One in a completely open fashion.
Larry Hryb: This is like, back to Phil, your idea of a game is a game is a game, right?
Phil Spencer: Yeah. I think even more than a game is a game, and that's included in this, is the fact that when I play games I want to be connected to the community of friends that I play with. We know that some developers coming in aren't coming in through the ID program. Maybe they're taking their own path to developing their game. We wanted to make sure that even on the Windows platform and wherever in the end they might want to be, that they're able to access Xbox Live.
Now it's not full Xbox Live and I'm sure when we talk about this, because there are certain things about Xbox Live that we want to protect, but all up we want these games to be able to connect into Xbox Live and reach the rich social network that's there of gamers.
Larry Hryb: Now Chris, how do people get into it? How do they get involved? What are the options?
Chris Charla: It's really easy. They can go sign up, and I think they're taking a limited audience this week and then it will broadly open up to everybody within a couple months, and they can just download Live, start implementing the SDK and then ship a UWP. On PC, the game will just ship into the PC, the Windows Store. On Xbox One, we had to be thoughtful. There's a lot of debate about curation versus openness. Console players expect a curated store environment and we didn't want to change that. We want to open up the Xbox to development, but we don't want to change that. On Xbox One, the store will remain the same curated store and there'll be a special section for these Creators Program games where people can go in there and see everything the world has to offer.
Larry Hryb: This actually builds on one of the original ideas, Phil, that the team had, which is taking a regular console and turning it into a dev kit, right?
Phil Spencer: That's right. Opening up development of console games to everybody is just going to lead to more creativity coming to the space. As Chris talked about, we want to make sure that gamers know, I'm going to say what they're getting themselves into. I don't mean that that's a bad thing, but this is an uncurated space and we want to make sure that if you're a parent, hey, here's the stuff that might be in this space and you can make your own decisions about that, level of quality, finish or whatever it is. We also know some great things started from a seed that built. I think you'll see a lot of those kind of game ideas come to this space.
Larry Hryb: There's a lot going on. I also want to talk about, even though we're down here at GDC, some news that went out earlier this week was Game Pass. We've been seeing a lot of good pickup on that, haven't you? You're pretty happy with that.
Phil Spencer: Yeah. Game Pass is something that we've had in our heads for quite a while. This idea that we could give Xbox gamers access to a large catalog of games for, some people say a lot, some people say a little but I think a fair monthly fee. They're getting a hundred games in the US. It's $9.99 a month, I think basically $10 a month. You get access to a hundred games.
I saw some of the questions online. Some people were asking because it is true that certain games will come into the program for a little while, certain games will go out of the program for a while, but obviously our motivation behind this is a majority of the games are there month in and month out. We just know some publishers will make decisions, so we wanted to be transparent about when games will be there, but the response has been fantastic.
One of the things that we didn't talk about that I'd to take a second and talk about, because I think there's an opportunity here for this to not just be about games that have already shipped. I'd actually like to see this grow to a program that you can see frontline games, first shipped games, come into Xbox Game Pass as something, as a way that they get distributed. I think you've seen this in the TV space with Netflix.
You've seen Netflix at first was really about movies or TV shows that I might have missed and I subscribe to Netflix and I go watch it. Now some of the best TV out there is actually being created as Netflix originals, Amazon originals. HBO's doing the same thing. I'd love to see us be able to grow Game Pass to a program where maybe like episodic and smaller story based games could see this as a way that they actually launch because obviously there's a business model behind Xbox Game Pass and I think it could really support that.
Best thing for me, parent walks into the store, they buy a console. For a fairly minimal monthly amount, they're able to get access to a hundred games for everybody in the family. That's great.
Larry Hryb: I want to point out that went to a limited preview audience this week and it's going to come out to everyone later on this year.
Phil Spencer: The people who are in Preview, as always, there might be some bumps. That's what being in Preview's about.
Larry Hryb: Welcome to the world.
Phil Spencer: It's a limited catalog of games in the beginning, but I thank those people for the time they spend running our Preview builds on their console and helping us out as we test new features. This is a feature I really wanted to bring to Xbox and it's nice to be able to bring it. I'd love to be able to bring it to more and more platforms. I know in the Q&A there was a little bit about Windows. I think a long term vision here is that we'd be able to bring a service like this to every platform where we ship games.
Larry Hryb: I know I'm sure ID@Xbox guys would like to get in there too, wouldn't they?
Phil Spencer: Yeah, we have a bunch of ID@Xbox games that'll be launching.
Larry Hryb: It's pretty much for anybody. Now Phil, we're down here at GDC, we're talking about all the great stuff this week, the Creators update, some of the other things, you're meeting with some developers. What do you see? There's a lot going on in the space over mixed reality, we called augmented reality or virtual reality. What's going on in that space in your head?
Phil Spencer: I see a ton of creativity going on as people are trying to build things and I think really trying to find what I call the vocabulary of what games in that space are like. Simply taking the camera that might be in a first person game and making that-
Larry Hryb: Putting it on your head.
Phil Spencer: ... That's a learning experience as well for all of us whether it's motion sickness or whatever and trying to figure out how that works. I was over in Japan last week and I saw some developers that were trying new things. All of them that I see are starting on Windows. It's a very open space for them to try and I like our news this week that we're really liberating that development, trying to bring down the price point, make mixed reality just a default place, part of Windows where anybody can go off and build mixed reality experiences. In the fall we talked about the lower price points for the HMDs that we'll be supporting.
Larry Hryb: Head mounted displays.
Phil Spencer: Head mounted displays, sorry.
Larry Hryb: That's okay.
Phil Spencer: It's a place where we're going to start that motion. Right now, it's about development on Windows, which I think is great. Our longer term plan would be to bring this to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox.
Larry Hryb: What have you played lately in the VR, MR space that you like?
Phil Spencer: You know, it's funny-
Larry Hryb: This is not an announcement about a coming to Xbox, I just want to be very clear, everybody!
Phil Spencer: No! Actually, this is not something people can go buy but when I was in Japan last week one of the stops I had was at Namco-Bandai. They have these VR experiences they put in their arcades. You pay, I don't know how much it is, but you stand in line. It's almost like a ride. They had this one Gundam experience that was just really cool, like you walked into a park and there was the big robot-
Larry Hryb: Did you do it?
Phil Spencer: Yeah, yeah, I did it! There's this hydraulic couch that you actually end up, when you have the head mounted display on, it looks like the hand of the robot that you go and sit in and you kind of hug the thumb and you get picked way up in the air.
Larry Hryb: Wow!
Phil Spencer: While you're in the air, there's this battle between the two robots that are-
Larry Hryb: You're getting tossed around?
Phil Spencer: You're getting thrown around! It was really, really well done. I don't know if it was a game but as an experience you felt the sense of height, the sense of immersion that I think VR has done a great job in bringing to gaming. It was just one of those experiences that I felt, you know, you could really tell a story that would land in a very fundamental way with somebody using this as the medium for that.
Larry Hryb: I think it's interesting to point out, is that a lot of folks may not know this but the arcade scene over in Japan is just crazy. It's still on fire.
Phil Spencer: Still there.
Larry Hryb: Right. You've been over there, right Chris? You know what's it like.
Chris Charla: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Phil Spencer: That's it?
Larry Hryb: That's it!
Chris Charla: Absolutely! I like going to Japan and getting destroyed at multiplayer fighting games in arcades, and then the person stands up because in Japan the fighting games are back to back. You're playing across from the person. Then you get destroyed and then they stand up and laugh at you and then you quietly walk out of the arcade.
Larry Hryb: What's your go to?
Chris Charla: I like any weapons fighter.
Larry Hryb: Yeah?
Chris Charla: Yeah. I'm playing a lot of "For Honor" right now, actually, on Xbox One.
Phil Spencer: Yeah, look at that little plug!
Larry Hryb: All right, we got to get back to what's going here at GDC because we got a lot going on. One of the other areas we're focused on is something that's really throughout all of team Xbox, which is the Gaming for Everyone initiative. Phil, I want to see if we can talk about that for a moment.
Phil Spencer: Yeah. GDC is an important place for us because it's where the industry comes together. We started Gaming for Everyone inside of Xbox, but we've always viewed that our role in the industry is something that's critically important to this. We think about our products, we think about our teams and we think about the industry in which we work. It's really been great to see the way the industry, not lead by us in any way, I think we're just a participant in an industry that's trying to create the most inclusive work environment and inclusive content that we can create. The Women of Gaming event that's done here, the Blacks in Gaming, Latinos in Gaming events is done down here, LGBTQ events that happen.
It's one of the reasons I love coming to GDC because this is not so much of a press event. It's not so much of a, "What's your booth look like," or, "How many new games did you announce?" It's the industry coming together and talking about what we want to stand for, and to be a part of that with our internal Gaming for Everyone initiative is really great.
Larry Hryb: Now you talked about a couple of things there, what the booth looks like and some other stuff. Let's pivot quickly and talk about, E3's coming up in a couple of months. How are you feeling about that?
Phil Spencer: I'm already a little nervous. I'm always nervous before I go on stage for that thing.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you are.
Phil Spencer: It seems like it's tomorrow, so you do as much planning and work, you do more work than I do for E3. It does seem like it's tomorrow. I know there've been some people that question, we made some changes at this year's E3. Our briefing is now on Sunday. It's not on Monday. I say "now," who knows what it will be next year, but this year we're on Sunday. Some of the reasons behind that, we wanted to be a little later in the day, which I think is great. I think that works for us.
Also, this time if we needed to go a little bit longer, I'm not sure I want to go a little bit longer but if we needed to go a little bit longer we could so we don't have somebody that's right after us.
Larry Hryb: Just make sure we're over by "Game of Thrones." That's on Sunday night! DVR, DVR!
Phil Spencer: In the past we always wanted to be a good citizen at GDC. I'm on the ESA board, I'm the vice chair with Strauss Zelnick from 2K, so I feel a responsibility of our show to make sure that we get done in time so that the people who have their briefing right after us, I'm conscious of the press and other people-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, but usually running either EA or Sony or somebody.
Phil Spencer: Or Ubi or somebody's right after and Sony goes. We're all, I think, there's obviously a lot of competition but there's also a lot of, we want to work together to make E3 great.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Phil Spencer: This maybe gives us a little more time, but we'll see. We'll see if we actually need to go a little bit longer. The other thing was the booth. We moved the booth. We're in a different hall. The booth's size from people that have kind of done math on our booth size, there's no conspiracy theory behind the size of the booth. We know consumers are coming to the booth this year so our booth will probably feel a little different than it has in the past because when you open the show floor to 15,000 people who are really there to play games and maybe not stare at some of the big things that we've kind of had around.
Larry Hryb: Even the meeting rooms we always had in there, right? That people never saw because they were behind the scenes.
Phil Spencer: That's right. What we're trying to make sure this booth is about, and we're going to learn so bear with us, everybody that's going to be there. We're trying to make a booth that will allow more people to play as many games and getting, as you said, our meeting rooms and everything else out of the way. It shows no lack of commitment to E3. I think E3's an incredibly important point for our industry and something that we're committed to make great and I can't wait to see all of our fans down there.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's going to be fun this year. Yes we will, we talked about this on Twitter, we'll have a fan event. We don't know what it is. We'll have something.
Phil Spencer: We might know what it is.
Chris Charla: We might [crosstalk 00:42:38].
Phil Spencer: We just might not say anything. I think it will be-
Larry Hryb: You can't give everything up right away. All right, now Chris before I let you and Phil go, do you have any final words you want to talk about with the ID@Xbox program? How do people get involved and what do they look forward to?
Chris Charla: No, I mean if you want to make a game, come to xbox.com/id. Other than that, we're super excited. We had tens of millions of people play ID games last year.
Larry Hryb: How many ID games did we ship?
Chris Charla: 450.
Larry Hryb: 450.
Chris Charla: In 2016, we just got to these numbers, and I'm sort of excited by, we had a billion hours of ID games played in 2016 which seems, like us [crosstalk 00:43:09].
Larry Hryb: Are you serious?
Chris Charla: Yeah, it's amazing. It's awesome.
Larry Hryb: A billion hours?
Chris Charla: A billion hours. That's no joke.
Larry Hryb: That is incredible. Are we counting "Minecraft" as an ID game?
Chris Charla: No, no, this is just games that are in the ID@Xbox program.
Phil Spencer: That's fantastic.
Larry Hryb: Phil is stunned. First time's Phil's hearing this. I'm just as stunned as you are! That's great, good job.
Phil Spencer: Chris has done a really great job. I think when we launched the Xbox One we were behind in supporting independent developers. I feel like I can say that. We put a team together.
Larry Hryb: A great team.
Phil Spencer: A great team who [inaudible 00:43:43] like the whole team that you've got here that's really driving the ID program. I should go through and list everybody. That's a great accomplishment for the developers, obviously, but as a member of the team and a member of the Xbox Community, I want to thank you because that's really great.
Chris Charla: Yeah, I mean thanks to developers, it's all the devs, right? They're amazing.
Phil Spencer: The first thing I ask when I'm on the floor, and I know I'm going to drag us out here, is I always say, "How's our team supporting you?" The first thing they ask me is, "I've never seen you before and you've done nothing for my game." That's me, [inaudible 00:44:09] so I get that. Then when they talk about the people who are actually helping, our account managers and stuff, the teams are always so positive about the way Chris and his team engage with them for press events here, to help them get kits, answer questions.
Larry Hryb: Are you telling me ID@Xbox people are looking at you sideways, like, "Who are you?"
Phil Spencer: No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. No, I realize I'm not the one that's doing the hard work to make sure these games get set up here.
Larry Hryb: You're not troubleshooting that shader.
Phil Spencer: For 450 games, making sure that enabling a billion hours of gameplay to get done, that's Chris and his team.
Chris Charla: It's Wally.
Phil Spencer: Is it?
Chris Charla: I mean, let's just call out Wally right here for everybody. It is Wally, yeah.
Larry Hryb: I don't know who Wally is, but thank you Wally.
Chris Charla: That's great. The devs know who he is.
Phil Spencer: Yeah, but when we started the ID program there was a, "Is this a good thing or a bad thing for us on Xbox?" I remember those debates before I was in this job. To see what it's turned into, and I think some of the most creative and innovative things that have hit our platform have come through that from "Ark" to "Astroneer" to the things we're seeing here. Some really great, whether it's game preview or just directly into ID, it's fantastic.
Larry Hryb: That actually begs a good question here, Chris. How should people think of the Creators Program announcement that we had this week at GDC? How does it work and how should it sit next to ID@Xbox? Explain that for folks.
Chris Charla: I think you just said it. It sits next to ID@Xbox. It's a great opportunity. There'll be professionals in there but there'll also be makers and educators and experimenters and folks doing games that are just different than traditional commercial games, but it doesn't change, ID@Xbox isn't going away. We're still here. We actually anticipate there'll be games that start in the Creators Program and then once they launch and the dev sort of figure things out and starts to get some traction, they'll probably bring that game into ID to get access to the full suite of Xbox Live capabilities.
Larry Hryb: Wally.
Chris Charla: Yeah, and Wally. Exactly.
Phil Spencer: Apparently the police are coming to get Chris. He was looking a little shifty there. If they came close, he's like, "Oh, I got to get out of here!"
Chris Charla: I used to live in San Francisco and I get nervous when I hear the sirens.
Phil Spencer: They still know, they're here, they're here. Charla's back in town!
Larry Hryb: That's how people should think about it. It's a complement to our existing programs.
Chris Charla: Yeah, that's exactly right. We're adding something new to address a new category of developer. I'm super stoked about it.
Larry Hryb: Well I think-
Phil Spencer: They found him!
Larry Hryb: I think they found him!
Phil Spencer: He's right! Is there a reward?
Larry Hryb: This is like a weird episode of GTA. Anyway, I'm going to let you go but I just, you know, if you had any final words for anybody about our GDC here, maybe even look forward to E3.
Phil Spencer: The same thing I kind of push on all the time, I love our community of Xbox gamers. They've been incredibly supportive. It was nice to get online this morning and see the response to Game Pass. Game Pass is just one of those signals that we get from the community. When we do things that they like, it's very positive. When we do things that they question, we get the feedback. The passion and commitment they have to our product and our brand is the fuel that keeps our team going and pushing us to try to do more, try to do better and live up to their expectations. Thanks everybody. It's great to be down here at GDC, and for those people I'll see here at GDC come up, I'd love to say hi to you.
Larry Hryb: I also want to point out that you mentioned-
Phil Spencer: I'm going to say that after GDC.
Larry Hryb: That's okay, but I want to point out that blog post that you mentioned. I'll put a link to that in the show notes. Do you have any final words you want to say, Chris?
Chris Charla: No, thanks to all the players and thanks to all the devs, and bye!
Larry Hryb: I'll put links to their Twitter handles as well, @iocat and @xboxp3.
Chris Charla: @iocat, just follow @iocat.
Larry Hryb: All right, man. All right, we'll talk to you guys later. Thanks for joining me!
Phil Spencer: Thanks Larry.
Chris Charla: Thanks.
Larry Hryb: Joining me in the studio is Dan Miter from the "Battlefield" franchise, community manager. Dan, so good to see you.
Dan Mitre: Yeah, it's good to see you too, man.
Larry Hryb: First of all, thank you for coming in here. We had you on "This Week On Xbox." Always good to see you there, but now we're going to go a little bit further into what we're talking about which is some of the great stuff going on in "Battlefield 1." First of all, congratulations on an incredible launch. You guys have just had great momentum.
Dan Mitre: We have had a tremendous amount of success ever since reveal that game last May, which breaking records all over Twitch, breaking records on YouTube. There's an insatiable [crosstalk 00:48:16]-
Larry Hryb: Was that last May already? That was last May!
Dan Mitre: That's right. I came down and we did that last May on campus.
Larry Hryb: Then you talked more about the campaign at TwitchCon, which was in the fall, and then of course you guys had that amazing release. That was fun. That stream was fun.
Dan Mitre: It was, man. We had some moments.
Larry Hryb: We sure did, but anyway, I wanted to get you in here because obviously you're in town, but to talk about some of the things you guys have recently announced. Can you give us the headlines then we'll go deep on each of them?
Dan Mitre: Yeah. We've announced the full lineup of expansion packs coming out. The first one dropping March 14th is "They Shall Not Pass." That's the French army finally making it into "Battlefield 1."
Larry Hryb: How will that reveal itself? Are they foes, are they friends? What are you doing here?
Dan Mitre: You're playing as the French army. Obviously you could play as the other armies as well, and you are defending your homeland on the Western Front. You're in that beautifully clad blue uniforms with the-
Larry Hryb: Stylish.
Dan Mitre: Oh dude, you're very much a stylish-
Larry Hryb: Oh ho ho, very [inaudible 00:49:10], oui oui! Come and see my French! Ho!
Dan Mitre: You're shooting all the weapons that you would see in World War I with the French army, but you also have access to the Behemoth.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, what is that? I mean we know what Behemoths are in the game, but which one did you [crosstalk 00:49:27].
Dan Mitre: This was the Char 2C. It's basically a mobile Behemoth. Where you had previously the train, which is on rails, this one you can go anywhere on the map. You get your whole squad in there, you have a huge cannon on it, outfitted with all sorts of other artillery guns on the side, an incredibly amount of armor and everything.
Larry Hryb: It's a beast.
Dan Mitre: It's a beast, it's a beast. That's not the only thing that's obviously coming up in "They Shall Not Pass."
Larry Hryb: Actually, so how many people does it hold? How many, four, five?
Dan Mitre: You can fit your whole squad in there.
Larry Hryb: Fit the whole squad in there. Then I'm sure because it's French it probably has a little dining area in it? Espresso machine?
Dan Mitre: Yeah, there's a place you can cut some brie, yeah.
Larry Hryb: One must travel in comfort.
Dan Mitre: Absolutely, and you got to be stylish.
Larry Hryb: There you go!
Dan Mitre: There's access to four new maps as well. That is Verdun Heights, Fort de Vaux, Soissons and Rupture.
Larry Hryb: Tell us about each one of those and what you guys are doing.
Dan Mitre: Verdun Heights is this infantry only map. It's super brutal. It's basically this action inside an inferno taking place in the first days of Verdun. Verdun has been a very pivotal location in World War I, so finally we get to play that.
Fort de Vaux is more of a smaller scale map. If you're aware, "Battlefield 4" had an operation locker, so very close quarters.
Larry Hryb: Close quarters.
Dan Mitre: Yeah. This is our take on that, so you're going to get that insane close quarter combat. You can be turning a corner, there's a grenade, run the other way.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's interesting because when I think "Battlefield," certainly you've had those close quarter maps in the past but "Battlefield" to me is those epic, wide sweeping landscapes where you're playing and things are flying and shooting. Close quarters, you rethink it a little bit because there's not usually the vehicles and the Behemoths, right?
Dan Mitre: Yeah. "They Shall Not Pass" has a little flavor for everybody. Then you have Soissons, which is the classic large scale "Battlefield" map, so bringing it back to that "Battlefield" DNA. In this one, you're featuring the French tank assault against the German defenses. This is the biggest tank assault battle that you'll see.
Then we round it out with Rupture. This is a maze of dead tank wreckage, but the key one here is these incredible poppy flowers all over the map.
Larry Hryb: Oh, the poppy fields. Sure.
Dan Mitre: You get this incredible contrast of the red fields with the blue skies with just brutality all around you.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, and then it's been such an amazing launch that you guys had and the incredible reception. I want to talk to you about, were you surprised at how well World War I was received in terms of gameplay because I know a lot of people looked at you guys like, "Wait a minute, what is going on here?" You guys delivered! Right?
Dan Mitre: Yeah. Yes and no. Our core, the franchise was built on World War II. We knew that people wanted to take a step back again, but how far? I think you could say that we took a risk, being what that risk totally proved out. People wanted to see World War I done right. Your first conception is, "Oh, trench warfare, I'm going to be stuck in a hole all day." That's not the reality of World War I.
Larry Hryb: It can be if you want it to be, but that's not it!
Dan Mitre: Yeah. "Battlefield 1" really showcases World War I for what it is. There's a lot of emotions in that war. We capture that in the single player as well.
Larry Hryb: Let's talk about some of the other announcements you made. You've got a lot of content coming up. You guys have lifted up your head, you've been busy working on the game and working on our plans and now you've revealed them. Let's talk about the longer range plans if you don't mind.
Dan Mitre: Yeah, so next expansion pack is going to be "In the Name of the Tsar." That's the Russian front. Takes place in predominantly snow maps.
Larry Hryb: As you would expect in Russia.
Dan Mitre: Absolutely. You're staying warm, but man, the heat of the battle's still very prevalent. You're going to see just burning heaps of tank wreckage and gunfire.
Larry Hryb: Blinding white landscape.
Dan Mitre: Yeah. It's going to be a sniper haven but also some really awesome close quarter combat as well.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I love that. I love that. What else you got?
Dan Mitre: Expansion pack three, "Turning Tides," and then finally we're rounding out with "Apocalypse." There's a lot of information we're going to be sharing in the next coming months, especially as we lead up to those expansion packs, so I'm going to save it there.
Larry Hryb: No, it's okay.
Dan Mitre: I'm not going to talk too much-
Larry Hryb: No, you've given up so much right now. You guys went quiet for a while, which is great because you went through the holiday, you shipped the game, you're updating it, taking care of some things, but now you're saying, "Okay, here we go and here's our plan." It's really exciting to see what you guys have done with the franchise in terms of experimenting with it and having fun with the gameplay and the environments. What are some of the things you guys learned from World War I, from the experience?
Dan Mitre: World War I, like I stated earlier, there's a brutality to it. There's this visceral hand to hand combat that you didn't necessarily pick up, because again, the conception was that it was all in trench warfare. No, this is the first time that you saw a tank in actual battle. Enter the Mark V tank. You saw a lot of different new innovative ways of, unfortunately, delivering death upon your foes. Bringing in pigeons as bombers, that's something that actually happened in World War I, something that maybe we can consider in the future for gameplay. There's all these little moments in World War I that we try to capture.
Obviously, "Battlefield 1" isn't a direct accurate representation of the war, but it's certainly inspired by it. You see that in all the weapons and the vehicles in that environment that we create.
Larry Hryb: It's also the first time we really had large scale chemical warfare, with mustard gas and what not. Of course we see that in the game. You've always got your mask at the ready on your controller, so it's different with that, too. What are you guys, you're looking forward into 2017, what's next? You just went through the whole list. It's got to be an exciting place to be right now.
Dan Mitre: Not only do we have the big, major expansion packs, we can dive into a little bit of Premium Pass, see what that offers.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, let's do that, let's do that.
Dan Mitre: Sure, okay, and then we'll dive into some of the other stuff.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, let's pause, talk Premium Pass and then we'll dive into the other stuff.
Dan Mitre: Premium Pass, as we all know, or some who don't know, it's an additional service that allows access to all of our expansion packs. You're going to get two weeks early access to every single one, direct to your Xbox.
Larry Hryb: That alone is great, but then you guys plus it.
Dan Mitre: Then we plus it, yeah. You got additional Battlepacks, 14 of them, you got 14 dog tags, you got server priority queue so you're going to hop in before everybody else.
Larry Hryb: Front of the line, please.
Dan Mitre: On top of that, all sorts of other stuff coming up. The other stuff. In between all of our expansion, in between the Premium Pass perks, we're also continually updating the game. Every so often we'll be introducing game improvements, tweaking the game, making sure this game is fun for everybody no matter what class you play. Assault, recon, support. We're always updating. We're always looking for feedback, so we just recently introduced the "Battlefield 1" Community Test Environment.
Larry Hryb: Tell us about that.
Dan Mitre: If you are a Premium Pass owner, you can hop into a test environment called the CTE.
Larry Hryb: Community Test Environment?
Dan Mitre: Community Test, yeah. Right now it's only available on PC, but this allows us to play and test unreleased features before we even roll it out to the public. Some of this stuff may not even make it to the public.
Larry Hryb: It's a sandbox.
Dan Mitre: It's a sandbox.
Larry Hryb: Just have fun, come in, you may see things you like, you may see things you don't like. You may see things that ship, you may see things that don't.
Dan Mitre: There might be things that you want to suggest and that maybe we'll run with it and you might see it actually in CTE.
Larry Hryb: I've been in the games industry a long time like yourself and I've seen other games internally. I'll go play an internal build where they put different things, "Hey, what do you think of this?" That's even better because you're kind of crowdsourcing some ideas and, hey, let's try this. You're right, it may not be that exact idea but maybe it has a spark into something else. You just never know.
Dan Mitre: Yeah. We have a lot of fun too. We'll do holiday things. Like in "Battlefield 4" during the holiday season, everybody had snowman heads. You're shooting, you got some crazy assault rifle.
Larry Hryb: Why not? Why not?
Dan Mitre: Halloween, you have all these little pumpkins everywhere and you're shooting them and confetti goes flying everywhere.
Larry Hryb: You do anything for Easter? Am I going to get bunny ears?
Dan Mitre: Maybe sneak a couple of eggs around there?
Larry Hryb: This is not an announcement! Not an announcement. That sounds like a lot of fun. Listen, Dan, I appreciate you coming in and chatting with us. It's been a delight and it's always great to see you, man. I guess we'll look forward to the updates in the future, we'll have you back on the show?
Dan Mitre: Yeah!
Larry Hryb: All right, thank you my friend.
Dan Mitre: Sounds good. Thanks Larry, see you on the battlefield.
Jeff Rubenstein: GDC, very busy. Not just, as Phil mentioned, the Xbox Live Creators Program and Xbox Game Pass, but this is the time of year we always put together an event, Chris Charla does, where we show off some of the most promising ID@Xbox titles that'll be coming to Xbox One and Windows 10.
Larry Hryb: This is just a slice of them. You heard about that in the interview.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. Some of them we're seeing for the first time. "Ooblets," which we had mentioned last week, was getting a lot of buzz this week. Something that's got me particular excited, "War Groove." This is from the creators of "Starbound," Chucklefish Games. They also helped bring "Stardew Valley" to Xbox One, which I can't stop playing.
Larry Hryb: Are you playing it by yourself?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's a single player game.
Laura Massey : [crosstalk 00:58:42].
Larry Hryb: No, I didn't know if you were playing with your daughter.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh no. I don't want her, you know, this is my farm. She can tell me where to plant the cauliflower and I will disagree!
Laura Massey : [crosstalk 00:58:53] the farm.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're also disagreeing on whether or not Abigail is who I should be going after.
Larry Hryb: I see. It's rife with [crosstalk 00:59:01].
Jeff Rubenstein: She can manage her own farm in her own way. "War Grove" is, I don't know if you've ever played "Advanced Wars."
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: Or "Advance Wars." It started on the Game Boy Advance and it's a handheld franchise that we've seen on the Nintendo side. This game is very much inspired by that. Just looking at it, and I'll link to it, we have a trailer, actually a post from the team at Chucklefish Games. This game looks really good, so if you're into this turn based strategy that's very light hearted and very simple graphics but really cool. It's got an editor and all kinds of stuff. Anyway, if the word "Advance Wars" works for you or "Fire Emblem" works for you, this is something you're going to want to keep your eyes open.
Another game, "The Escapists 2." The first "Escapists," very successful, enough that we'll be seeing "Escapists 2." I believe it will be later this year. Yep, later this year, and "Trove," which is coming this week, or next week I should say, a free to play adventure MMO. Has a voxel look, kind of "Minecraft" esque. Obviously it's going to be a different type of game. It's an MMORPG, an action RPG, but that will be coming out soon. It's free, so no reason not to check it out.
It's March. Smarch, lousy Smarch weather.
Larry Hryb: Is it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey : When did it get to be March?
Jeff Rubenstein: That means Games With Gold. There's the one half where it's like, "Wow, it's March already! I'm one step closer to death!" Then there's the other part of it being March already, which is, "Hey, new games!"
Laura Massey : Another game!
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: One step closer to death?
Laura Massey : I know.
Larry Hryb: That's kind of dark!
Jeff Rubenstein: Not as dark as the Denny's Twitter was this week!
Larry Hryb: Oh, don't link off to that!
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, you need to start doing some zoom in Twitter fad photos, but I don't think that's going to happen. Anyway, "Layers of Fear" and "Borderlands 2."
Larry Hryb: In a world ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I was very impressed with that. Are you doing side work? Are you cutting trailers? What you do after hours is not necessarily my business.
Larry Hryb: I have fun with it. I have my little microphones and I'll sit in the corner.
Laura Massey : [crosstalk 01:01:17].
Larry Hryb: You can see, I'm transcribing game trailers and reading them back! That's what I'm doing with my spare time!
Jeff Rubenstein: That's how all the professional VO people, they're not stomping into the studio in LA. They live wherever they live. I used to work with a guy named Jim Cutler, and you would know him because he does all the Turner Broadcasting, TNT if you ever-
Larry Hryb: "Eyewitness news!"
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Hear basketball, all those. He does tons of stuff, you would know the guy's voice. Guy just lives in a house somewhere in Long Island or something.
Larry Hryb: That's the way to do it.
Jeff Rubenstein: He just records all day long.
Laura Massey : In his house?
Jeff Rubenstein: In his house.
Laura Massey : Nice.
Larry Hryb: I have a lot of friends who have their home studios and they just, I mean my studio is not as good as some of these people, but yeah. You record in your house, you have ISDN, you shoot it, [inaudible 01:01:55].
Jeff Rubenstein: It was ISD [crosstalk 01:01:57], Larry.
Larry Hryb: I know!
Jeff Rubenstein: Very good! Those two, and then in the middle of the month, just after the Ides, will be "Evolve" and "Heavy Weapon." New games to play now.
Laura Massey : Cool, those are great.
Jeff Rubenstein: Couple games, ones to talk about that came out this week. One, an RPG I've been hearing good things about from our friend Jez Corden over at Windows Central, "Torment: Tides of Numenera." If you love RPGs, you want something that's a little deep and a little more, I would say, total fantasy, it looks super complex and there's a lot going on, sort of a choose your own adventure sort of thing, lots of different endings, it's not super linear, "Tides of Numenera" is waiting for you.
Then a new battle mode came to "Minecraft," the Fallout Battle maps. I don't know if you've played battle mode, but it is really fun. You can just play really quick. I like the ones where you're throwing snowballs at folks and you just sort of drop them in the lava. There's a lot of different stuff, it's a fun way to play. If you liked "Fallout," you like "Minecraft," it's the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. It's chocolate in your peanut butter.
Larry Hryb: There you go.
Laura Massey : Nice!
Larry Hryb: Who doesn't like that?
Jeff Rubenstein: Finally, just wrapping it up, "Halo Wars 2," if you haven't tried it yet, tisk tisk.
Larry Hryb: There's a demo!
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a demo!
Larry Hryb: You have no excuse.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right!
Larry Hryb: You have zero excuse.
Jeff Rubenstein: None. No, none whatsoever. That is available now.
Larry Hryb: That's a lot of news.
Laura Massey : That is a lot of news.
Larry Hryb: Game Pass, we had Phil and Chris to come on, we had a lot to talk about, Jeffrey.
Laura Massey : It's a big gaming week.
Larry Hryb: I don't even know what to say.
Jeff Rubenstein: Do you want to talk about next week, what people will hear from us?
Larry Hryb: Oh, PAX East?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah!
Larry Hryb: Sure, we can talk about PAX East. The show will be Saturday. I think it's one o'clock? Saturday at one o'clock we'll be in one of the big places there. Laura will be there, you're joining us on the east coast.
Laura Massey : I'll be there. Sure am.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey will be there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Always happy to [crosstalk 01:03:41].
Larry Hryb: Of course I'm always there. This is going home for me. Trying to get my mom to go, to come to the podcast.
Laura Massey : You're so good.
Jeff Rubenstein: Put her on the panel!
Larry Hryb: I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Tell us stories! Here's what I know. I don't know a lot, but here's what I know is every time anything is dredged up from your past, especially the pre-Xbox, it's always good.
Laura Massey : It's always good, like the clown college? Fantastic!
Jeff Rubenstein: You're always wearing really short shorts. I have that photo. Should I show Laura?
Laura Massey : Have that [sand 01:04:10] photo.
Larry Hryb: Laura, this photo, I don't want to show this to her.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yesterday we're in a meeting and Larry opens up his bag and he's like, "Oh," and just closes his bag immediately. I said, "What is it?" He goes, "My wife put something in the bag." I can see it's a photo and I'm like, "There's going to be short shorts in this photo." It did not disappoint.
Larry Hryb: Laura, did you have a analyst appointment this week, because you may want to make one after you take a look at that. That's me and a friend of mine.
Jeff Rubenstein: "Friend," a lady friend! That's my grandma's-
Larry Hryb: Back in the day.
Laura Massey : Oh my goodness, how old are you?
Larry Hryb: I was in college.
Laura Massey : Yeah, you look about 20.
Larry Hryb: Thank you.
Laura Massey : There's amazingly 80s shorts.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, where do those come from?
Laura Massey : It's bright green, white squares.
Larry Hryb: No, I'm not posting that on the Internet, guys! You're on your own.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, 1:30.
Laura Massey : Did you share that with your meeting?
Larry Hryb: Pardon me?
Laura Massey : Did you share that with your meeting?
Larry Hryb: No.
Laura Massey : Okay.
Larry Hryb: No. Jeff, I just shared it with Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think we need to share it with the panel!
Larry Hryb: No, no we don't. We'll be doing the panel. This is actually the first time I'm going to reveal who's going to be on the panel.
Laura Massey : You are?
Larry Hryb: We have somebody from "Mass Effect" coming by to talk about "Mass Effect Andromeda."
Jeff Rubenstein: Who is it?
Larry Hryb: No, I'm not going to reveal everything yet, but would you like me to tell you who it is? Do you want to play 50 questions and see if you can figure it out?
Jeff Rubenstein: Is it Mike Gamble?
Larry Hryb: It may be, it may be.
Laura Massey : [inaudible 01:05:37] first question!
Jeff Rubenstein: I talk to Mike Gamble on Twitter. We've never met, so I really hope it's Mike Gamble!
Larry Hryb: No, we'll have details on it next week. I never like to commit. I know the subject, I just don't know the names because people get busy.
Jeff Rubenstein: That game went gold, there's no excuse for, one, him not to bring a copy for me and you guys I suppose. Then two, for them to be there. I can't believe "Andromeda's" coming out so soon.
Laura Massey : I know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Where are we going to find the time?
Larry Hryb: We're going to have that. We may have some other guests as well, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Right?
Larry Hryb: Right?
Jeff Rubenstein: You're looking at me. Did I miss a to do?
Larry Hryb: I guess something's not funny!
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yes! It's kind of funny.
Larry Hryb: We're trying to get Greg Miller to come on the show who has a very popular PlayStation fanboy podcast, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: They're calling me up. They do have a PlayStation podcast but it's not their only. They're good people.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, he and I were going back and forth on Twitter, you can see that there, we're trying to get him on the show.
Laura Massey : That's great.
Larry Hryb: We're really excited about that. We'll be out there on Saturday. It's actually Mac Walters, he's the creative director of "Andromeda," so he's going to join us.
Laura Massey : Fantastic.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, well I'll go look up that.
Larry Hryb: You can find him on @macwalterslives on Twitter. I'll put a link to that or Jeffrey will put it in the show notes.
Laura Massey : That's super exciting.
Larry Hryb: We're going out there. I don't know. I have no idea what they're going to talk about. I figure the game is out in a week, they got to have something to talk about! That's the way we do that. We'll probably have something to give away. Who knows? We just have some fun. We want to meet you, our east coast fans.
Jeff Rubenstein: Bring your good questions!
Larry Hryb: They always bring good questions, don't they?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm just saying, think about it.
Larry Hryb: Mac's going to join us. He's the creative director, BioWare. He's coming out of Edmonton. I've been to Canada, I've been there. I've been to that studio. Have you been up there, Jeff?
Jeff Rubenstein: I have never been to Alberta.
Larry Hryb: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: At all.
Larry Hryb: I just realized I've been to Edmonton twice.
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you go to the mall?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I cut the ribbon at the Microsoft Store at Edmonton Mall.
Laura Massey : That's great, I remember that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Isn't that the biggest mall? Isn't it bigger than Mall of America or something crazy?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's redonkulously big.
Jeff Rubenstein: Let's all go to the mall!
Larry Hryb: No, no, it was a scary place. No Jeffrey, no, we're not doing that. Anyway, so that will be next week. We've got a busy week, so that's no show next Thursday but we'll do the show live. I believe it's going to be streamed, so if you want to join us and maybe ask some questions on the stream, if we're able to that we will do it. If not, then, well, you're on your own.
Laura Massey : Very good. That's super exciting. I can't week to talk "Mass Effect." It'll be so much fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mac, if you're listening, I'll bring my Xbox.
Larry Hryb: I told him I needed to play the game at least before I did the interview, right?
Laura Massey : Right? [inaudible 01:08:15].
Jeff Rubenstein: That's smart.
Larry Hryb: It's the least you can do, right? I must sound intelligent, or try to be at least. In a world ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe there's a release trailer that you can cut.
Larry Hryb: I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: "In a galaxy ... "
Larry Hryb: "In a galaxy ... "
Jeff Rubenstein: Far, far away.
Laura Massey : Far away!
Larry Hryb: With a FemShep.
Jeff Rubenstein: You got to go FemShep, or Fem Ryder? FemRyder, I guess?
Larry Hryb: In "Ghost Recon," I made my character female.
Jeff Rubenstein: I want to hear who the voices are. FemShep was Jennifer Hale. Look, no offense to DudeShep, BroShep, but she's the better talent.
Larry Hryb: I can tell you, this is the one thing I can share with you about "Mass Effect." I probably should wait until the panel but I will reveal it here, is I am not in the game. I am not doing the voiceover for the game, so I just wanted to be very clear on it.
Laura Massey : Oh no! That's such a disappointment!
Jeff Rubenstein: Refund!
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I'm sure you're disappointed, Laura, I'm sure you're disappointed! All right, so we've got that coming up. After that, yeah, it's crazy. We all fly out there, we do the show, we hang out there for the day and then Laura, you, did you book your flight yet?
Laura Massey : Not yet.
Larry Hryb: Why don't you do that?
Jeff Rubenstein: You should probably do that.
Larry Hryb: You might want to do that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Larry's already in middle seat territory.
Laura Massey : Okay!
Larry Hryb: This is true story, look.
Laura Massey : Oh no! I always like to sit in the [crosstalk 01:09:32].
Larry Hryb: In fact, I went to check in today and I sent Jeff the photo and I was like, "Dude?"
Laura Massey : There's at least a lot of middle seats to choose from.
Larry Hryb: There's a lot of middle seats!
Jeff Rubenstein: You can lean all the way back! If you're on our flight then you want 9C. Because he's an A, I'm in B, you can be in C. Actually, we're going to put you in B because you're smaller.
Laura Massey : I usually get the middle.
Jeff Rubenstein: We'll preboard because we'll need a little extra time.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we'll just need a little extra time to get to our destination. You'll definitely see Jeff and I out there. We don't know if you'll see Laura.
Laura Massey : I'll try my best.
Larry Hryb: You may want to book an Amtrak and leave now. How long does it take to get cross country on Amtrak?
Jeff Rubenstein: We don't have those Japanese high speed rails. We don't exactly have the Shinkansen there.
Larry Hryb: It is a leisurely trip. We'll say that.
Jeff Rubenstein: To ride in boxcar, I'm sure.
Larry Hryb: All right, why don't we do Name the Game. Do we have time for Name the Game?
Laura Massey : Sure do.
Larry Hryb: You sure, Laura?
Laura Massey : Let's do Name the Game.
That was Name the Game from last week, and it was "For Honor."
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey : It's a good one.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey : The winner ...
Larry Hryb: "La La Land!"
Jeff Rubenstein: You got to walk that one back!
Laura Massey : Nope! Not that.
Larry Hryb: What is the winner? Who is the winner, Laura?
Jeff Rubenstein: "He's not the winner!"
Larry Hryb: Wait, there's been a mistake! This is not a joke!
Laura Massey : The winner is Rocky from Denver, Colorado!
Larry Hryb: Rocky!
Laura Massey : Congratulations, Rocky! You have a boatload of prizes.
Larry Hryb: Do you? Oh, really?
Laura Massey : Yes. I cleaned out your office.
Larry Hryb: Laura, I don't know where you find this stuff.
Laura Massey : It just keeps appearing in your office, and it keeps disappearing.
Larry Hryb: Yes, that's right.
Laura Massey : You never notice it!
Jeff Rubenstein: Easy come, easy go.
Larry Hryb: It's in receiving and it's in shipping out receiving. Go ahead.
Laura Massey : Exactly. Rocky, you get a copy of "Gwent," the "Witcher" card game which is now in game preview.
Larry Hryb: Yep, get a beta for that code.
Laura Massey : Ship laden with gold for "Battle Island Commanders." This is a free to play game. You get a card that is a $99 value.
Larry Hryb: What?
Laura Massey : I know!
Larry Hryb: Where did I have that?
Laura Massey : Under your keyboard. [crosstalk 01:12:15].
Larry Hryb: I know. Is that what that was?
Laura Massey : Then you get a copy of "Kill All Zombies," which is an ID Xbox game. Should be pretty fun.
Larry Hryb: That's fun.
Laura Massey : "Eekeemoo - Splinters of the Dark Shard," another game from ID Xbox.
Larry Hryb: Lots of ID@Xbox games in here, Jeffrey.
Laura Massey : "Toby: The Secret Mine," also ID@Xbox. Copy of "iO."
Larry Hryb: Rocky, what are you doing to me? You're cleaning me out!
Laura Massey : Cleaning him out. Also, gets a copy of "Torment: Tides of Numenera."
Jeff Rubenstein: See? That'll keep you busy!
Laura Massey : That's not all, a copy of "Halo Wars 2."
Larry Hryb: Congratulations, Rocky!
Laura Massey : That was a boatload of games.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was the "Rocky IV" of prizes, not the "Rocky V."
Laura Massey : Very good.
Larry Hryb: Rocky, congratulations. If you're listening to this thing, I want in on the prize as well. Laura's going to tell you how you can win these prizes. Go ahead, Laura.
Laura Massey : Okay, I'll clean out Larry's office again next week. I'm sure it'll just, like they grow on trees in Larry's office.
Larry Hryb: I like to share the wealth. I think you both know that, and the listeners, I think you guys know that.
Laura Massey : Very, very good. It's super easy. All you have to do is listen to the sound effects that I'm just about to play, and then let us know what game that is!
Larry Hryb: All right, so you're ready?
Laura Massey : Yep, let's roll the sound effects.
That's it. If you think you know what game those sounds are from, just send us an e-mail! Lollypop@xbox.com and ccmajor@xbox.com. Let us know what game that is. If you want to, you can include your name. We like to know people's names, Gamertag, but if you don't want to, that's cool too. We respect your privacy.
Larry Hryb: If you want to tell us your real name and then give us a fake name for us to mention on the air, we're happy to do that. Keep it clean.
Jeff Rubenstein: Are you thinking that Rocky's not his real name?
Larry Hryb: It may, I knew a Rocky. Did you a Rocky? Well, you live in Philadelphia, of course you do!
Jeff Rubenstein: Yo, of course I know a Rocky! That's not even a Philly accent [crosstalk 01:15:05].
Larry Hryb: Did you know a Rocky when you lived in Texas?
Laura Massey : I did not, no.
Larry Hryb: Did you know a Tex?
Laura Massey : I don't think so. I think it may be a few dogs were named Tex.
Larry Hryb: Okay, no actually people. Well good luck to everybody who's listening and can recognize that game. Give us an e-mail, win some prizes, hang out with us. What?
Laura Massey : The cow's name was Tex!
Larry Hryb: What cow? Oh, that cow! The cow that you were telling us-
Laura Massey : The pet cow was named Tex!
Larry Hryb: Now it's all coming back! Do you remember the pet cow?
Laura Massey : Do you remember the pet cow?
Jeff Rubenstein: What?
Larry Hryb: You were here for that. Laura had a pet cow that really was her friend's cow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah!
Laura Massey : It [crosstalk 01:15:40] was a friend's cow. My friend's cow, not my cow, but its name was Tex. It had a patch on the side that was almost in the shape of Texas.
Jeff Rubenstein: Was this repressed? Did this end badly?
Laura Massey : You were asking me.
Larry Hryb: Dear listeners, I wish you could have seen the light that went on in Laura's head. I saw it and I was stunned.
Laura Massey : It just took a few seconds for my brain to reach it. You had asked me last time we talked about the cow what the name was and I couldn't remember.
Larry Hryb: Right. Now you remember!
Laura Massey : Now I remember!
Jeff Rubenstein: Of course it was Tex.
Larry Hryb: Of course it was, of course it was. All right, well we're kind of heading toward-
Jeff Rubenstein: Something you're not going to bring up?
Larry Hryb: Okay, go head.
Jeff Rubenstein: He's not going to talk about himself, but I would like to mention a congratulations to our own host-
Larry Hryb: Oh no, oh no, we're not going to do that.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... Larry Hyrb, has been promoted.
Laura Massey : All right!
Larry Hryb: Oh, I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: I remember seeing back before I worked here, you'd be introduced oftentimes as the director of Xbox Live programming or something like that?
Larry Hryb: Right, programming. It was all crazy stuff, right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Then I came here and anyone who works here, when you're sending an e-mail to them it populates a little picture.
Larry Hryb: It autofills, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Then you can mouse over and see what their position is.
Larry Hryb: Like it's director of test or senior manager this.
Jeff Rubenstein: Senior manager of marketing or something like that. When you mouse over Larry, it just says, "Major Nelson."
Laura Massey : Yes!
Larry Hryb: I'm the only one in the company! A hundred thousand people, I'm the only one!
Jeff Rubenstein: They sent that e-mail and it said so and so's now senior director and so and so's now a manager. It just said, "Larry, Major Nelson."
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Laura Massey : Larry is still Major Nelson!
Jeff Rubenstein: Not Lieutenant Colonel Nelson, which if we're following the proper rankings. Actually by now you'd probably be some level of brigadier general.
Larry Hryb: Oh, I'd be four star, of course.
Jeff Rubenstein: Field marshal.
Larry Hryb: I don't know. I don't want to know.
Laura Massey : Something prestigious.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, certainly not commander in chief.
Chris Charla: Welcome.
Larry Hryb: Thank you.
Chris Charla: RIP Major Nelson, long live Major Nelson.
Larry Hryb: Exactly! Well that's very kind of you Jeffrey. I don't like talking about myself.
Chris Charla: That's what I do!
Larry Hryb: That's why I don't do selfies, that's why I don't do any of that stuff, because I'm here for you, the gamers. You want to know what's going on here at Xbox and I try to connect you with Phil and Chris and Jeff and Laura and [E 01:17:51] and Steptoe and the whole, and even many, many, many, many more. You who we need to get back on the show? James [inaudible 01:17:56].
Phil Spencer: We do. We haven't heard from him in a while.
Larry Hryb: You know what he's working on?
Jeff Rubenstein: Pharah?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, his Pharah as well. He was, ooh boy, he's a good Pharah in "Overwatch." He was working on Game Pass.
Laura Massey : Yeah, I saw his Tweet.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, he's been working on that, he and I have been talking about that. I got to get him on the show to talk about that.
Laura Massey : That'd be great. So many things, what a big week.
Larry Hryb: It has been a big week. We're going to be off next week but not really off, we're just going to delay the show by a couple days so that we can get it posted for you. I'm working on some travel coming up. We're working on E3, of course. Jeff, you're going to E3 this year, right? 10th year in a row?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm always going to E3.
Larry Hryb: 10th year, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: This will be my 11th.
Larry Hryb: 11th.
Laura Massey : Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm old.
Larry Hryb: Thanks.
Jeff Rubenstein: How many is this for you? 57!
Larry Hryb: I don't remember. It's 14, 15, 16?
Laura Massey : Lot of trips to E3.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I don't remember.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think Geoff Keeley's been to all of them. All 21.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I don't know about that. He started when they were in Atlanta.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, and I thought it was warm inside the LA Convention Center. Can you imagine being in Atlanta in July?
Larry Hryb: No thank you!
Laura Massey : Oh my goodness.
Jeff Rubenstein: With 38,000 of your closest friends?
Larry Hryb: No thank you. We did see, well actually you heard Phil talk about that, the E3 booth. People saw where our booth is going to be at the expo, excited about that.
Jeff Rubenstein: South hall?
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Got our event on Sunday.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's kind of cool.
Larry Hryb: I think I'm doing a broadcast again, I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: The usual.
Larry Hryb: We talked about this last week, we don't need to go over it again. All right gang. Laura, your to do item this week is-
Laura Massey : I have homework?
Larry Hryb: Yes you do.
Laura Massey : What?
Larry Hryb: You got to book an airplane!
Laura Massey : Yes, that's true!
Larry Hryb: Let me just tell you, if Laura can't get on a flight, Internet, you know what to do. Although we could just bring you in remotely like we did with Jeff last year.
Laura Massey : Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Start playing "Dark Souls."
Laura Massey : I could [crosstalk 01:19:44].
Larry Hryb: I do know you like to come to Boston for your lobster rolls.
Laura Massey : I do.
Larry Hryb: Jeff and I are going to go get that. We're going to go get the ...
Jeff Rubenstein: The baked potato?
Larry Hryb: The baked potato with the ...
Laura Massey : [inaudible 01:19:53].
Jeff Rubenstein: Judo baked potato?
Larry Hryb: Actually we're going to go to that place again, but if you want to go, [inaudible 01:19:57].
Laura Massey : You two are having some [inaudible 01:19:58].
Larry Hryb: All right gang, we'll talk to you guys next time. You can find us online. You can find Laura over there on Twitter at?
Laura Massey : @lauralollipop.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey's over?
Laura Massey : @jeffrubenstein.
Larry Hryb: Of course I'm @majornelson. We'll see you next time. Bye bye everybody!
Laura Massey : Bye!
Jeff Rubenstein: Bye!

Larry Hryb: Why hello there, dear listeners. My name's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. You've successfully downloaded the podcast, you've pressed play. You are now in for some amount of time of gaming goodness, uh, as you, as you've probably figured out.
Uh, this is show number 592. I'm here with, uh, Laura. Hi there, Laura.
Laura Massey: Hello.
Larry Hryb: Nice to see you, as always.
Laura Massey: Nice to see you too.
Larry Hryb: Sitting across from me is Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's been too long-
Larry Hryb: Hi Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi.
Larry Hryb: We're back, we're back in the uh, we're back in the um, back in the studio. You know we have this fancy-
Jeff Rubenstein: You were gonna "back in the saddle again" and-
Larry Hryb: Back in-
Jeff Rubenstein: Then you were gonna do a-
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: Whole guitar solo.
Laura Massey: (laughing)
Larry Hryb: No, it's just that we're back in the studio, which just feels good.
You know, we have a dedicated studio that, that I-I've-I've negotiated for this.
Laura Massey: We do.
Larry Hryb: Because this show's so big. Uh-
Laura Massey: It's a nice studio.
Larry Hryb: It is, isn't it? Soundproof, it has all these speakers that I don't even know what they do.
Laura Massey: Exactly.
Jeff Rubenstein: Security's a bit lax.
Larry Hryb: Security, well, no it isn't. Security's very tight, I couldn't even get in here, so. Um, anyway we, we're, we're, we're uh, happy that you could join us it's uh, we love spending the time with you and hopefully you enjoy spending it with us.
Laura Massey: I hope so too.
Larry Hryb: This is like the, this is, this is a, you know, I have many highlights to the week and this is one of them.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: It's one of the few times I get to see Laura and Jeff actually one of the few times I get to see you as well.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's one of the few times that I look you in the eye-
Larry Hryb: That's right. Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: And talk to you about games.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: We uh, so we, we jump right in, I mean it's been a busy couple weeks, we last, last, on the last show we had Graham, so-
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: Always delightful to have him.
Laura Massey: It is.
Larry Hryb: Although I did, somebody on Twitter said I was mispronouncing his name.
Laura Massey: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Do they think it's Grame?
Larry Hryb: I don't know.
Laura Massey: Or Grammy?
Larry Hryb: I-I-I don't know. I used to call him Grammy, uh, so Graham, if, if I have been mispronouncing it why haven't you corrected me for all these [crosstalk 00:02:00]?
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: He's too polite to correct.
Larry Hryb: Yeah he is, he's way too polite. But we're here, we're going to talk about what we're playing. Halo Wars 2 is out, it's a great, uh, Xbox play anywhere title, it's, I know Laura's playing it.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Jeff is playing it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: I'm playing it, you guys are all playing it I'm sure. Uh, so we've got that, we're playing a bunch of stuff. We're going to hop right into it. By the way, before we get going Laura.
Laura Massey: Yeah?
Larry Hryb: Do you know what happened, uh, let's see, when are we recording? I think earlier this week.
Laura Massey: What happened?
Larry Hryb: Mini Metro had an update.
Laura Massey: It did, I can see it.
Jeff Rubenstein: New cities?
Larry Hryb: For ios. I think they did some, they did some music to it and some other things. I don't know, I was reading it, I was reading. You know, a lot of developers are getting lazy [inaudible 00:02:32], it's just bug fixes, right?
Laura Massey: They're not listing out.
Larry Hryb: They're not listing out like they used to be.
Laura Massey: In their change log.
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you just throw the lazy devs trope out there Larry?
Larry Hryb: No. Laura, back me up on this?
Jeff Rubenstein: I blame the marketing people.
Laura Massey: No. I mean.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: When I-
Larry Hryb: You're on your own. (laughs)
Laura Massey: When I would update my own app I would take a lot of care in that.
Larry Hryb: Right. Do you know, she actually used to do an app Jeffrey?
Laura Massey: I did.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know. I've played it.
Laura Massey: Oh good, glad you've played it.
Larry Hryb: When's it coming back? We're talking Nerd Trivia here.
Laura Massey: Don't ask me.
Larry Hryb: You started it.
Laura Massey: I know, right?
Larry Hryb: You started it.
Laura Massey: I get that question all the time on Twitter, "When's Nerd Trivia coming back?" And I have no ETA. My life has gotten so crazy and it takes a lot of effort to maintain it.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: So.
Larry Hryb: Just do what everybody else does.
Laura Massey: What's that?
Larry Hryb: Kickstarter.
Laura Massey: (laughs) That'll be great if I wouldn't have to have a full-time job.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: I could just do that.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: That'd be fantastic.
Larry Hryb: Oh, we need you here. Uh, anyway. Jeff, what are you playing? We're going to start with you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh thanks. Man it's been a while.
Larry Hryb: Yes it has.
Laura Massey: It has been a while.
Jeff Rubenstein: And so there's a long list here. Um, one thing I wanted to talk about. We, we've talked about I think how great a year it had been in the last six months or so for single-player campaigns in first-person shooters. Um, we loved Battlefield, we loved, uh, Titanfall.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Which I think surprised us all. And one thing I had sort of left for recently was Call of Duty Infinite Warfare. And, uh, I picked it up on PC, on, on Windows 10.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: And at some point I was like oh you know I'm going to jump into this one. It is really really good. In fact I would say out of the Call of Duty campaigns it's my favorite one since the original Modern Warfare. Actually, like, the people in it.
Larry Hryb: You were, you were going on and on about this campaign.
Jeff Rubenstein: Because I really like the casting. It had a focused cast and you see them outside of helmet and it wasn't just a lot of like sort of, um, military jargon, but it really like got into, you know, what's more important, the mission or the people carrying out the mission? And, um, I sort of like that debate going back and forth. Do you, do you do the right thing in terms of the mission.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Even if it's going to cost lives? Anyway, it made for a very interesting story and, and when certain characters, if they didn't make it through, it was just a little bit of someone was chopping onions in the room at the time.
Larry Hryb: You really got into it?
Jeff Rubenstein: I did.
Larry Hryb: Good for you.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think it was a really excellent game. It was very different from a lot of Call of Dutys. There was, uh, side missions you could do, and I did them all. Uh, and there was a lot of space battles. Maybe that's not what everyone's looking for in a Call of Duty title-
Larry Hryb: But you enjoyed it?
Jeff Rubenstein: But you know what, I really liked it.
Larry Hryb: You enjoyed it?
Jeff Rubenstein: I enjoyed quite a bit.
Larry Hryb: So. @JeffRubenstein if you want to share your thoughts.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, please do.
Larry Hryb: And I know you will.
Laura Massey: Are there any other onions.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura Massey: Any other onions that were chopped in other rooms.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Look, I've liked it a lot. So another game, another shooter game that I've gotten into recently, I think you two, you have as well Larry, is Sniper Elite 4.
Larry Hryb: Oh yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: It took me four Sniper Elites to get into this.
Larry Hryb: I, I played the last one a little bit, and then something came along. And I booted this one up last weekend, I was like, "Let me give it a shot." No pun intended.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: And I started playing it. It just, it was fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Why don't you explain what the gameplay is because it, it may, people may not get it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sure. So, uh, I knew one thing about the Sniper Elite series and that is, uh, when you line up a shot well everything goes into, well, bullet time if you will.
Larry Hryb: Slo-mo.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, you see the bullet travel through, you know, through the countryside, and then rip into like a visible, anatomical mans body, and what it does. So it's like, "Oh you punctured a lung." Or you, you really viscerally see what the bullet does.
Larry Hryb: It is, it is, it is, warning, it is graphic.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's really disgusting.
Larry Hryb: It's really [inaudible 00:06:00].
Jeff Rubenstein: But it's also kind of great sometimes. Uh, and there is perhaps the best achievement I've seen so far this year. And that is for, uh, shooting the Fuhrer in, uh, in the mommy-daddy button down there.
Laura Massey: Oh dear.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's an achievement. Look.
Larry Hryb: Did you get it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh I haven't gotten that far in the game.
Larry Hryb: Okay because I was going to say, because you and I are-
Jeff Rubenstein: I think it might be part of DLC.
Larry Hryb: Alright then, you and I need to, because we're going to do, it's got co-op.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: And you and I have been talking about this. I think I need to stream it on Beam.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think you should do that. Yeah.
Larry Hryb: We can do a little bit of-
Jeff Rubenstein: So there's co-op, that's what we need to get into. Anyway, it's, I think-
Larry Hryb: Unless you'd like to play Laura? Unless you and Jeff want to play, or?
Jeff Rubenstein: That'd be fun.
Laura Massey: I don't have it. I'll give it a try if I had a copy.
Larry Hryb: I don't, what I know about you, I don't think you'd like it.
Laura Massey: Is it too graphic for me?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's pretty-
Jeff Rubenstein: You, I think you could probably turn that off. But basically you're a lone sniper-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Sent in behind enemy lines in Italy. It's a beautiful game.
Larry Hryb: It's World War II.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, World War II. And you're going through and taking out targets of opportunity, sabotaging things, and uh,
Larry Hryb: Generally behind a nuisance.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. And, uh, but the levels are really big. It's like a big, like sort of playground area if you will, where, I was at that first level for almost two hours just going through.
Larry Hryb: I, I, I did too.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And you can kind of go about it, you just have here's your tasks, do whatever you want.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: It's kind of open worldy.
Laura Massey: Open world [inaudible 00:07:17].
Jeff Rubenstein: And you can always get that first shot off, and then they start to be able to triangulate. So there's all sorts of ways where you can use diversion.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: So you can set traps. Maybe if you end up shooting a, an explosive barrel, that's going to throw people off. You can, you can do all manner of things, uh, to sort of distract people. A couple of times I was found and I had to run a little bit. Um, I think the difference between this Sniper Elite and previous ones is that if you're caught you do have the ability to use an SMG or a pistol and with any luck actually survive the encounter.
Larry Hryb: I thought you were going to say-
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's a cyanide pill in your [inaudible 00:07:51].
Larry Hryb: (laughs) Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I've been playing a lot of that.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Been playing a lot of um, well I started Resident Evil 7.
Larry Hryb: I've been playing that, you know I've played that.
Jeff Rubenstein: It is a scary game.
Larry Hryb: It's very scary.
Laura Massey: How are you playing? How are you playing it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Really, so, get a lot of rain up here.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Rainy, night, lights off, surround sound. This was a huge mistake, I was not prepared for this.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: See now.
Laura Massey: Larry plays it the opposite of you.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I turn up the brightness, turn on all the lights.
Laura Massey: All the lights on.
Larry Hryb: Outside, in a park, a sunny day.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: It was so, the first hour was so intense that I just needed to turn it off and, and play Stardew Valley for a little bit.
Larry Hryb: I don't get jump scares.
Jeff Rubenstein: That doesn't bother you?
Laura Massey: Wait do you mean it doesn't bother you or?
Larry Hryb: It just, it just, yeah, that whole thing doesn't, because I can always see it coming, usually. Um, but even when it happens it's like, oh okay, so they're trying to. It just, I don't know, feels formulaic to me, so.
Jeff Rubenstein: It scared the crap out of me. And I think that because the move from third person to first-person makes a huge difference, especially if you've mostly been playing RE4, 5, 6, which are very action, they're sort of like just gross action as opposed to true horror. Um, and this is more in the line of like, like some of the scariest moments in gaming were in Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3. And um this definitely harkens back and really ups the ante. So I, at some point I need to gird myself and go back and play some more.
Larry Hryb: I need to go, I need to go through and play it as well. I mean I'm, I'm probably 10 or 12, I had a really difficult time with one of the bosses. Really hard time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah I've heard the chainsaw [crosstalk 00:09:22]
Larry Hryb: It was, I actually, I've never, never thrown the controller. I threw it in this game.
Jeff Rubenstein: Really?
Laura Massey: Oh no.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I was.
Laura Massey: It was that bad?
Larry Hryb: It popped me over the edge, so.
Laura Massey: Is there difficulty settings in the game that you could lower?
Jeff Rubenstein: There is.
Larry Hryb: Yeah I guess there is.
Laura Massey: That's an option.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I ... no.
Laura Massey: Really?
Larry Hryb: Well.
Laura Massey: So you throw the controller, get really angry, keep doing it.
Larry Hryb: Especially if you're playing it at the lowest level.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Well look, Laura, I don't know if you've even started the game, but like the first hour, visually this game is stunning.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Like to the point I was playing, I had my brother and my wife were in the room watching as well.
Larry Hryb: It was a family affair?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, well they wanted to see.
Larry Hryb: Nothing says family like RE7.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, and then it'd be like 15 minutes or so, my wife out of nowhere would like jab me in the ribs like to scare me.
Laura Massey: Oh that's great, that's hilarious.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which, so, R.I.P. our family because that was not cool at all. I was not happy about that. But visually like, they were like, "Is this video?" Like in the beginning scenes when you're getting your way out to the farm in Louisiana. I mean it looks like video.
Larry Hryb: Now, now I must point out, it is an Xbox play anywhere title.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's right.
Larry Hryb: So your save goes between your PC version, you've got the PC version or the console version, whichever one you bought, you get the other platform, it's included, and your save goes back and forth.
Laura Massey: That's great.
Larry Hryb: So I was going back and forth actually.
Jeff Rubenstein: [inaudible 00:10:42] to do that. I just felt like with my laptop, if I was like one foot away from these abominations, I would be very scared.
Larry Hryb: Yeah no, it's a different story. Yeah you would be.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. More so than at home.
Larry Hryb: Well good for you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. You should sit your wife down and the two of you can pass the controller back and forth.
Larry Hryb: You know we don't do that in our house. She's not interested. She's like, she wants me to come in and tell her the story.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Like what I just did. Like, so tell me about the, like the one, you know, the famous one is when she came into the room right after I finished Red Dead.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: And I was, I was weeping.
Jeff Rubenstein: What a good ending.
Laura Massey: You were weeping?
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah. She was like, "What happened?" She's like, "It's just a video game." So I kind of played it again so she could see, she was like, "Okay, I can see it." So, anyway.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, and the last game we've all been playing together was Games with Gold game for February I believe, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.
Laura Massey: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: We've been going through, with three players you can really wreck house in that game.
Larry Hryb: You and I played that. We streamed that didn't we?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah we did. That's a great game, it's still good.
Larry Hryb: You know back in the day when we all had time and we used to stream, right?
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is, is this a jab at me?
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:11:40] waste time.
Larry Hryb: No no no, just in general.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll make time, I'll make time.
Larry Hryb: I'm so busy, you're so busy, Laura hasn't streamed with me streamed with me since-
Jeff Rubenstein: Lets stream next week.
Laura Massey: A while, a long time.
Larry Hryb: With Viva Pinata? (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs) No, not that long ago.
Larry Hryb: Wow. Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I haven't had my inaugural Beam stream yet.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, I used to stream on Twitch.
Larry Hryb: We should do Sniper.
Jeff Rubenstein: We should do that with co-op Sniper Elite.
Larry Hryb: Or.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think that would be really fun.
Larry Hryb: Or another game that has co-op which came out this past week, Halo Wars 2.
Jeff Rubenstein: Huh. Yes.
Larry Hryb: That's the big title, big first-party title that came out, Halo Wars 2. Did the stream last week, did you get a chance to watch it Laura?
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: No she didn't, no, that's okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was really good.
Larry Hryb: Thank you.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was a good stream. Nice to see-
Larry Hryb: Thank you for tuning in.
Jeff Rubenstein: Of course, of course. Comments were really nice, they like it. Phil was on.
Larry Hryb: Phil is always great, I mean it was fun to, it was actually really hard broadcast to do because, I think I mentioned this to you Laura, you know, in the middle of a party and so I've got an earpiece where they're like, "Okay you've got to go to camera two, take camera two, go to camera two." I'm like, and you can't hear anything because it's just chaos. Where's the camera? You can't see it. But anyway, it was a lot of fun, hopefully you guys and girls enjoyed it. That was a lot of fun there, so.
Laura Massey: Can you get it after the fact?
Larry Hryb: It is available on video on demand. Jeff can you make a note of that and I'll, I'll dig up the full, there's like a short version which is the highlight reel but then there's the long version.
Laura Massey: Okay. Is the long version the whole full show?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's an hour twenty minutes. It's pretty short because I'm used to doing two hours, or in the case of-
Laura Massey: Or six hours.
Larry Hryb: Or in the case of Gears at PAX it was six hours. (growls)
Jeff Rubenstein: This wasn't like, you know, a normal lets play where you're just playing. This was like a very produced and-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, you got to see inside 343. It was really-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Laura Massey: That's great.
Larry Hryb: So did that. But anyway, Gear, uh, Halo Wars is out this week, played a lot of that, and Laura you want to talk about that? Because you've been playing it right?
Laura Massey: I have.
Larry Hryb: You played a little bit?
Laura Massey: Yeah I played a little bit.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. So lets talk, we'll segue right into that.
Laura Massey: Sure thing. So I played a lot of Halo Wars, the original game. And if you guys are a fan of that game you will absolutely love Halo Wars 2.
Larry Hryb: We were so much younger back then.
Laura Massey: I was. I was a younger version of myself.
Larry Hryb: Yes you were.
Laura Massey: Past Laura.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: And if you do remember Halo Wars you'll know that there was really good balancing, really good campaign. They've taken that and just made it even better in Halo Wars 2.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: So I highly recommend the campaign, it is similarly just as enjoyable and fun as the original one.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: They've amped it up of course, so there's a bunch of polish they did and some of the, uh, shortcuts and motions are a bit easier and the cut scenes, have you guys seen them?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, they're gorgeous.
Laura Massey: They're gorgeous.
Larry Hryb: They're stunning.
Laura Massey: They are stunning. They remind me of, you know, [inaudible 00:14:14] movies.
Larry Hryb: Yeah they are, well Blur does, I think Blur did them and they are, they are stunning. Jeff is actually stepping out, are you going to be coming back and join us?
Jeff Rubenstein: Very soon.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: Okay, very soon.
Larry Hryb: Apparently he's got to go jump on a call. We actually have real jobs here, this is not our only job unfortunately, so Jeff had to jump out and [inaudible 00:14:26].
Laura Massey: I wish it was, that would be great.
Larry Hryb: Wouldn't it?
Laura Massey: Just sit around talking about games all day?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, right? Anyway, so-
Laura Massey: Visually stunning, absolutely stunning.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And I am probably four or five missions into the campaign.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Laura Massey: I haven't had a chance to play multiplayer yet.
Larry Hryb: I got hung up on the third mission, I got distracted by something, I don't know what it was. I think it was Sniper Elite. But I've got to go back to it. But I know you love strategy games.
Laura Massey: I love RTSs, I am so excited that there's finally an RTS [inaudible 00:14:51].
Larry Hryb: Again, it's a play anywhere title.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: So you have it on your console and you have it there on your Surface.
Laura Massey: Yep, have it here on my Surface book.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: And I love the fact that the save game goes between, it's fantastic.
Larry Hryb: Yeah it just happens.
Laura Massey: Without any effort whatsoever.
Larry Hryb: It's just like oh okay.
Laura Massey: Pick up where I left off.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. It's the way it should work.
Laura Massey: Exactly.
Larry Hryb: Right? It's the way it should work.
Laura Massey: Should be easy.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And transparent. But I know that there's a new mode, have you had a chance to try it out? Called Blitz Mode.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I played a little bit of that, Ryan and I played a little bit of that, Jeff and I are going to play. I'd love to play with you if you want because we can, you can do cross-platform play, but we can, you know, I have it on my computer at home, so I'd love to do that.
Laura Massey: Yeah, I'd give that a try. I hear it's super fun.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: And, um, yeah, like, the moment hit me, like when I was on the start screen, just the music. Just hearing the music again, it's the Halo music.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: It reminds me of all the fun times playing Halo and Halo Wars back in the day on 360.
Larry Hryb: Do you, um.
Laura Massey: Music is great.
Larry Hryb: Do you, do you play with the con, the controller when you're on your PC, or do you go mouse and keyboard?
Laura Massey: I'm going to give it a try mouse and keyboard and see how that changes the game.
Larry Hryb: Okay, yeah.
Laura Massey: And see, because as most people know, RTSs originated on PC.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Laura Massey: Because, uh, of all the minuet detail you have to do with controlling your troops.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And they really struggled on consoles.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Because of the complications.
Larry Hryb: But they kind of did it?
Laura Massey: But they did it, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Like, Halo Wars was one of the first ones I felt like was a truly like wonderful game to play.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Like super easy and just super super amount of fun.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, one thing I miss on the console that you can't really do is you know like when you just go down to the mini-map and click in an area, boom you're there.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Right? And you can't really do that on a console. Maybe they'll figure it out some day.
Laura Massey: They do have the speed up.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: If you move the controller, the-
Larry Hryb: The stick.
Laura Massey: The stick that handles the camera movement. You can hold down the left bumper.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And then it will speed up.
Larry Hryb: Zoom.
Laura Massey: So you can go faster, but of course you can't do the random access on the mini-map to go to any location.
Larry Hryb: Right, right. But it's a lot of fun, so play it where there's, there's co-op in there, there's campaign co-op.
Laura Massey: Yes there is.
Larry Hryb: Uh, there's the Blitz Mode which is cards. Did you build your decks, did you build your card decks?
Laura Massey: I have not yet.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: I got, I have a bunch of decks I need to go through.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: I'm playing the campaign.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: Um, but yeah like, the campaign level I was playing last night, it's, it was a simple level, and of course there's a bunch of bonus missions on it and I just get so into it that, uh-oh, instead of spending the 15 minutes I thought you would spend on it I keep going and keep building the biggest army to go after all the bonus missions.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Just because it's so much fun and yeah, I'm a huge fan of RTSs.
Larry Hryb: (sighs)
Laura Massey: And this really scratches that itch.
Larry Hryb: Yes. Well that's, so that's pretty much all you're playing right now, right?
Laura Massey: I also got a chance to play Overcooked, the game we were talking about.
Larry Hryb: Oh that's right, yeah, Overcook, yeah.
Laura Massey: Multiplayer, which is again what we talked about last time that it was designed to be played multiplayer, and it is so much fun multiplayer.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Yeah, that's Overcooked, I know Jeff was playing a little bit of that, I played a little bit over the holiday. That is, that is a lot of fun.
Laura Massey: It sure is. All of the levels are pretty much designed to, if you play multiplayer and somehow make chaos.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: So I bet if Team Dysfunction tried to play Overcooked together.
Larry Hryb: It would be, it would be chaos.
Laura Massey: It would be-
Larry Hryb: To the nth degree.
Laura Massey: Disastrous.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: There would be some yelling and (laughs) some fighting as we try and work our way through it.
Larry Hryb: It's, it's, maybe we should stream that?
Laura Massey: Yeah maybe we should, that would be hilarious.
Larry Hryb: You know I have this big TV in here, I just need to bring a console in the studio.
Laura Massey: Yeah that'd be great.
Larry Hryb: And the problem would be solved.
Laura Massey: Yeah. And a pro tip for people playing Overcooked multiplayer, try and establish what jobs each of you will do.
Larry Hryb: As, as any successful kitchen-
Laura Massey: Beforehand, yeah, in any successful kitchen, beforehand.
Larry Hryb: Make sure you know your role.
Laura Massey: Exactly, know your role instead of diving into a map and it just being complete chaos. Like running into each other and all trying to do the same job at the same time, and nobody's cleaning the dishes.
Larry Hryb: No, no. They're stacking up.
Laura Massey: Just disastrous. So try to identify what role each person will play beforehand. Do a little strategy.
Larry Hryb: Sweet.
Laura Massey: It goes a long way.
Larry Hryb: Yes. I agree, I agree. Alright then.
Laura Massey: And what are you playing Larry?
Larry Hryb: Oh boy Laura, well I'm still, I'm still scratching the Overwatch itch. That's kind of my go-to right now for a quick multiplayer fix.
Laura Massey: Yep.
Larry Hryb: I was playing Typo Man, I started playing that.
Laura Massey: What's, what's Typo Man?
Larry Hryb: Typo Man.
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:18:45].
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's kind of like this, you're playing as a little, your character is a type, like an O or a T or something.
Laura Massey: Oh the character?
Larry Hryb: He's a character.
Laura Massey: A literal character.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, a literal character. The character's a character, precisely.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:18:57]
Larry Hryb: So again, [inaudible 00:18:59], I've only played the first you know 10-15 minutes of it.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: So you kind of roll along and solve puzzles. It's a platformer.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: So I'm playing that, Halo Wars 2 we've talked about that, checked out a game called IO which is kind of a puzzle game. It's a ID@Xbox game.
Laura Massey: Oh really?
Larry Hryb: You have to, you have this little character, it's a sphere, and you can like make him bigger or smaller to solve puzzles.
Laura Massey: Oh, like fit in different places?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, fit in different things, and like if they're bigger they get bigger speed and so forth. Sniper Elite 4 we've talked about that. GTA V, get back into there every now and then because it's such an incredible, rich sandbox to play in.
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:19:29] it is.
Larry Hryb: Resident Evil 7 Biohazard we've talked about that. And then the one that I'm, I'm, I keep going back to because I've, I've finally finished the game, the main game, you know, a few weeks ago, now I'm chewing through the DLC, is The Witcher.
Laura Massey: Oh you're still into The Witcher?
Larry Hryb: Well, The Witcher, this DLC, and Jeff I'm sorry he's not here yet to step up, but this is some of the, and Laura, I've been doing this a long time, just like yourself, and Jeff has as well. This is some of the most incredible downloadable content. This is not new, this has been out for quite some time, I just haven't had a chance to get around to it.
Laura Massey: Oh okay.
Larry Hryb: And it is just, it is just, it's mind-boggling. It is, the quality, what they do with the story, I mean it is, it is, it is, I mean each one of these, each one of these quests could be an episode from Game of Thrones. It's just so well written.
Laura Massey: Oh wow.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so, it's just.
Laura Massey: I should really get back into that.
Larry Hryb: I'm telling you, it is.
Laura Massey: Super enjoying it?
Larry Hryb: It is, I just love it so much. I got to be honest with you, I kind of got this really badass armor too so I feel good. It's all metal and stuff so.
Laura Massey: How did you get that armor? Did you [inaudible 00:20:28] quest?
Larry Hryb: In, in the game there's these Witcher armor sets. So there's whole side quests of do specific side quest and you can collect the blueprints for this Witcher armor, which are enhanced in certain ways. So I, I got a bunch of Witcher armor.
Laura Massey: Can you craft armor?
Larry Hryb: Uh, kind of. You can put runes inside of armor to kind of buff them a little bit.
Laura Massey: Okay. Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: But you can't like make it from nothing. Um, you can kind of, you get, you can in the sense you find blueprints and you bring them to a armorer and they can create it.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative) They create it for you?
Larry Hryb: But you can't just like, you're not rolling your own.
Laura Massey: I see.
Larry Hryb: If that makes sense.
Laura Massey: Reminds me of Diablo.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Scratch my Diablo [inaudible 00:21:06].
Larry Hryb: Yeah I don't know, Diablo is such a different, it's very fast paced for that, so. Anyway, so yeah, so that's what we've got going on. I'm playing that. Jeff is going to come back in in a minute.
Laura Massey: Okay, I hope so, I hope he's not lost.
Larry Hryb: I don't think so. So we're going to flip things up a little bit, normally we do his bit and we do the name the game, so we'll just do name the game here.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Okay?
Laura Massey: That makes sense.
Larry Hryb: Right? Because you're here, I'm here, the listeners are here.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And they want to know who won.
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: So why don't you go ahead. Do you have the clip ready?
Laura Massey: I do. So lets roll the clip from last week.
So that was name the game from last time.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It was a pretty easy one, it was Resident Evil 7.
Larry Hryb: It was easy because it was scary.
Laura Massey: Scary.
Larry Hryb: (evil laugh)
Laura Massey: You have a great evil laugh.
Larry Hryb: Yeah I know. So that means, if we said the name of the game, that must mean we have a winner?
Laura Massey: We do.
Larry Hryb: And who is that, who is the lucky person today?
Laura Massey: The lucky person is Randy from Madison, Wisconsin.
Larry Hryb: Oh, it's a little chilly up there I bet?
Laura Massey: It sure is I bet.
Larry Hryb: Or is it now? I don't know, with all this global warming that's going on, or isn't going on.
Laura Massey: Who knows.
Larry Hryb: I never know.
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:22:49] gamertag is [inaudible 00:22:50] which is pretty cool.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: Congratulations Randy.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: You are our winner for this week.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: And you get fabulous prizes.
Larry Hryb: What do they get? I don't know what he got.
Laura Massey: You get a copy of Shift Happens which is a ID@Xbox game.
Larry Hryb: Yes it is.
Laura Massey: A copy of Zombie Vikings, also an ID@Xbox, and a copy of Warhammer Quest, also an ID@Xbox game.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: That's not all. He also gets a full copy of For Honor.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: Which I hear is a fantastic game that I want to try.
Larry Hryb: A little combat game. And then?
Laura Massey: And, Halo Wars 2.
Larry Hryb: Oh we couldn't let the show go by without giving away a copy of Halo Wars 2, could we Laura?
Laura Massey: Exactly.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And we also have-
Larry Hryb: Wait, what?
Laura Massey: A bonus.
Larry Hryb: What? A bonus?
Laura Massey: A bonus gift.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: Which is he gets a $50 gift certificate to Jinx because they have a new collection of Halo Wars 2 products.
Larry Hryb: Oh, that's right.
Laura Massey: That of course he can use the gift certificate for whatever he wants but.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I think we showed some of those on the show but he got, so we're going to give you 50 bucks to go splurge on, uh, your Halo Wars 2 stuff.
Laura Massey: Halo Wars 2 stuff.
Larry Hryb: Or Jinx stuff, whatever you want.
Laura Massey: Exactly.
Larry Hryb: Wow.
Laura Massey: All kinds of crazy games.
Larry Hryb: That is an incredible prize package.
Laura Massey: Yep, crazy game, crazy prizes.
Larry Hryb: You can win too you know. A lot of questions, who can win? If you can hear our voices, you can win.
Laura Massey: Exactly.
Larry Hryb: Unless you're an employee of Microsoft, Steptoe or E.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: I'm verbally calling them out.
Laura Massey: Sorry, Steptoe and E.
Larry Hryb: Specifically calling those guys out, so, former-
Laura Massey: Former members of the show.
Larry Hryb: Former members of the show are not, not eligible, so. That's right.
Laura Massey: That's right, and super easy to enter, super easy to play.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: All you have to do is listen to the sound effects that I will play shortly and then send us an email with what game that is.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it could be a game, it could be, it's a game.
Laura Massey: It's a game on Xbox.
Larry Hryb: That's all you need to know.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: So are you ready?
Laura Massey: Yep, lets roll the tape.
So that was name the game for this week. Like we talked about, super easy to enter.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I think I know what it is.
Laura Massey: I'm sure you do.
Larry Hryb: I think I know what it is.
Laura Massey: All you have to do is send us an email, lollipop@xbox.com cc major@xbox.com, just let us know what game that is.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: If you want to, you can tell us your name and gamertag.
Larry Hryb: Where you're from.
Laura Massey: But you don't have to if you don't feel comfortable sharing.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Or you can just tell us, hey, here's my name and information but don't say it on the air because we're protect your privacy.
Laura Massey: Exactly.
Larry Hryb: We respect that. Now don't hit us up on Twitter please. I mean you're welcome to say hello to us on Twitter, but that does not constitute an entry.
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: We have to get an email to, to be considered entry, and only one per person please.
Laura Massey: Yes. So good luck to all you folks out there who also want to win fabulous prizes.
Larry Hryb: Oh Laura. Oh Laura, Laura, Laura, Laura.
Laura Massey: Yes Larry. Larry, Larry.
Larry Hryb: What a day, what a day.
Laura Massey: What a week.
Larry Hryb: So I was waiting till Jeff comes back in here, but I don't know where he is. So we'll just bust into some of the news. I want to point out, I tweeted this out, but we haven't talked about it on the show is we're talking the show on the road.
Laura Massey: We are.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. You and I and Jeffrey, we're going to PAX East for our annual, uh, PAX East outing.
Laura Massey: Exciting.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we're going to go, we don't know what the weather's going to be like.
Laura Massey: Hope it doesn't snow.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I'm going to try to see if my mom, I'm trying to get my mom to come to the podcast.
Laura Massey: That'd be amazing.
Larry Hryb: She's, she's like, "Oh I don't want to go." Come on Mom.
Laura Massey: Amazing.
Larry Hryb: I've had her on the show before.
Laura Massey: You have?
Larry Hryb: A long time.
Laura Massey: When was that?
Larry Hryb: Before you were on.
Laura Massey: I think that's right.
Larry Hryb: I did an interview with my mom.
Laura Massey: What did you guys talk about?
Larry Hryb: Uh, I don't even remember. Because she's kind of a nerd. She was building her own PC.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Laura Massey: That's awesome.
Larry Hryb: So she was telling me about that. Um, so that's obviously where I get it from. But uh, yeah, so I'm trying to get mom to go, my sister to go. But we're going to be out there, we'll be, we're really excited bringing the show out there, we've got a couple, a couple of cool surprises, some guests. We'll have some fun stuff, right? We'd want to say hello, we'd love to see you. It's Saturday, I believe it's at one, one o'clock.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: And I'll put a link in the show notes, since Jeff isn't here to write it, a PAX link. Uh, so yeah, we're excited about that. Are you excited about it?
Laura Massey: I am excited. It's been a while since we've done a show.
Larry Hryb: We, well, in Boston.
Laura Massey: Year. A whole year.
Larry Hryb: You and I, well, do you remember what happened last year?
Laura Massey: I remember all the years.
Larry Hryb: You and I were there.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And Jeffrey had to join us remotely.
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: Right? He was playing Dark Souls, remember he was playing Dark Souls?
Laura Massey: He played Dark Souls through almost the whole podcast.
Larry Hryb: Right, right, right. So that was fun. But yeah, we're going to be doing, we're all three of us will be there live, um, looking forward to that. Walk the show floor, our new Xbox, we've got a big booth. I was talking to some of the gang that's working on the booth, we're going to be doing some cool stuff there. I think we're going to do some Beam streams from there.
Laura Massey: Sweet.
Larry Hryb: And so on and so forth. So yeah, so we're doing that. If you didn't, if you don't have a chance, go watch the last episode, well previous episode, I think it was a couple of weeks ago, of This Week on Xbox, where I had some folks on from, I had Chris Charla from ID@Xbox, I had Shannon Loftus, you know Shannon?
Laura Massey: Oh yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Shannon Loftus came on to give us an update on Crackdown. Um, we had a whole bunch of guys on to talk about some cool stuff, so you go back and take a look at that. Just talked about some of the stuff to expect in 2017, uh, in terms of games, and that's, that's not even the stuff we've announced, uh. If you want to hear more about that, go watch the interview I did with Phil Spencer at the Halo Wars 2 stream.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, Phil's always-
Laura Massey: Phil's always [crosstalk 00:28:11]
Larry Hryb: I'm trying to get him back on the show but he's, do you know where he is this week?
Laura Massey: No, where is he?
Larry Hryb: He's in Japan.
Laura Massey: Really?
Larry Hryb: Yeah. He's just, he's going, I don't know, he's doing work over there.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: He's going to talk to some developers. But he has been flying around doing his, doing his Phil Spencer thing, so it was, I'm trying to get him on the show. So hopefully I'll get him on a future show before E3.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Um, we talked about that. We announced that we're doing our, our briefing on Sunday now.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we have announced that. So, uh, the Xbox media briefing will be on the Sunday before E3. For some reason the 11th is sticking in my head.
Laura Massey: That's different, because it's usually it's on Monday.
Larry Hryb: That's right. As you know very well.
Laura Massey: Yep.
Larry Hryb: Uh, let me go back to, what is it? June, June. Yeah June 11th, from LA, we'll be doing it where we normally do it, the Galen Center.
Laura Massey: Oh very good.
Larry Hryb: And uh we'll have some fun there. The other thing is E3. The E3 organization has opened up, you know, they're selling tickets to the public for the first time.
Laura Massey: That's very new.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, very very new.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: So, now I want to be clear. I've had a lot of questions on this on Twitter and whatnot. Tickets to that do not get you into our briefing, they're two separate events.
Laura Massey: Right.
Larry Hryb: And even tickets to the briefing don't get you into E3.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Because they're, you know, we just happen to do our briefing obviously around E3, so just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that. We will probably have tickets to give away to fans, I can't tell you any more details other than yeah, we probably will.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Uh, but just want to be clear that just because a ticket gets you into E3 does not automatically get you into any of the briefings. Not just ours, any of the briefings.
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: So I can speak on behalf of all of our fellow platform holders and publishing partners.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: That's not the way it works unfortunately.
Laura Massey: No. But if I am a listener and I'm interested in potentially get a hold of one of these tickets, you talked about what do I do?
Larry Hryb: oh right now you just have to follow me on Twitter.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Because I'll be tweeting out, or if you want to follow me on Facebook, on Facebook. See this little guy right here?
Laura Massey: Do you Facebook?
Larry Hryb: Yeah well see this thing right here?
Laura Massey: I do see this thing that you're pointing at.
Larry Hryb: That's the camera.
Laura Massey: Nobody else can see.
Larry Hryb: That's the camera that I've been using to do Facebook Live. That's all it does, it does Facebook Live streams.
Laura Massey: What's it called?
Larry Hryb: It's called the Mevo.
Laura Massey: Mevo. And now you've changed it, it's standing on a stand now.
Larry Hryb: It has it's own.
Laura Massey: Instead of on a pile of boxes.
Larry Hryb: Well yeah it's supposed to be a tripod. But this is the thing that if you go watch the video on my Facebook, on the Major Nelson Facebook page, it uh, it actually was doing some weird tracking and it was like following somebody up in the corner.
Laura Massey: Did it have, was there a ghost in the corner?
Larry Hryb: It was creepy, it was creepy, it was very creepy.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: So anyway, so you should go check that out. But yeah I want to make sure if you want some tickets to E3, hopefully you can purchase them, but if you want tickets to go to the Microsoft briefing then maybe you can win them, but I'll have details on that. In the future we'll be doing Fan Fest and some other cool stuff.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Larry Hryb: So you may, if you have good ears you probably heard Jeffrey come back into the room. Hi Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi.
Laura Massey: Welcome back.
Larry Hryb: Hold on, I've got to turn your microphone up because you were so loud out there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, was I really?
Larry Hryb: Dude, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sorry.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: This is not a soundproof room I guess.
Larry Hryb: That's exactly what Laura and I said, it was, it was a spirited conversation you were having.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. That's a good way of putting it.
Larry Hryb: Well we already did name the game so we figure we roll right back into the releases. We talked about we're going to be at PAX.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes we are, really looking forward to that.
Larry Hryb: Just to kind of go over it quickly again. Laura's going to join us, you'll be there, we're talking about the last time you played Dark Souls.
Laura Massey: You weren't paying attention.
Larry Hryb: Yes, you weren't paying attention.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well I was mostly paying attention.
Larry Hryb: Mostly.
Jeff Rubenstein: We were dialing in from Seattle.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you were wearing your pajamas.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's just how I normally dress when I'm at home Larry, comfort clothes. Do you always wear blazer and paisley shirt?
Larry Hryb: I have a robe.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh.
Laura Massey: Oh. Oh.
Larry Hryb: Sorry about that Laura.
Jeff Rubenstein: An Ascot and a smoking jacket and some [inaudible 00:31:40] or something? Yes. Um, sure, why don't we, did you talk about news?
Larry Hryb: No, that's, we were just getting ready for you. We could tell by the sound of the call you were winding up out there. (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Schedule fail. Well anyway, why don't we talk about March's Games with Gold line-up.
Larry Hryb: Yes, which was announced earlier in the week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes it was. So, uh, starting March 1st, just a few days from now, you'll be able to download Layers of Fear on Xbox One, as well Burgerlands 2. Um, I like the Burgerlands.
Laura Massey: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: That's a good one.
Larry Hryb: Borderlands.
Laura Massey: Is that a product announcement? Burgerlands?
Jeff Rubenstein: Burgerlands, get the Burgerlands. Uh, and then on the 15th of March.
Larry Hryb: The Ides of March.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, I said that and then I was like oh the 16th. Um, Evolve will be available and uh Heavy Weapon, which is like one of those first XBLA games. So those are your Games with Gold. I'll link out to that so you can see that we have a video that you'll be able to see a bit more.
Larry Hryb: I did that video.
Jeff Rubenstein: You, of course you did. You do all of the videos Larry.
Larry Hryb: No I just did the voiceover. It's funny because this, I like doing voiceovers every now and then I get to go into the studio and you know, wear the big headphones. They actually have a special microphone, because I requested a specific mic that they happened to have, they didn't buy it, it's this Neumann microphone which Laura, I know you don't know anything about microphone but anyone listening who does, it's a pretty high-end mic, so.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Larry Hryb: Makes me sound good. It's kind of like your setup you have here.
Laura Massey: With a cloud lifter.
Larry Hryb: With your cloud lifter and your SM 87, or is 87B?
Laura Massey: Fancy microphone that nobody else has?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's specific to you.
Laura Massey: It is.
Larry Hryb: Um, anyway.
Laura Massey: I'm very thankful.
Larry Hryb: When you walked in Jeff we were talking about the live streaming that I do in here once in a while to do with Facebook and how we should do it, uh, we should maybe do it, um, you know, we should do a show.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: There's been an enormous request to do this show live so we're kind of, we're kind of handling that request by doing it at uh, at PAX.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Um, but we do need to, I'd love to Beam it or Facebook it live from in here some time, if you guys were up to that?
Laura Massey: Sure.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm always ready for that. Yeah, it's been a long time since we've done-
Laura Massey: You'd have to clean this room up though.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is someone above us?
Larry Hryb: It's terrible. No, it's just terrible lighting in here.
Laura Massey: It is pretty bad.
Larry Hryb: It's studio, like-
Laura Massey: It's not as bad as when we did cool hangouts though.
Larry Hryb: Oh God, Laura, you had the worst lighting, God. I don't know what [inaudible 00:33:49]. Do you notice I quietly stopped asking you to do hangouts? No we just stopped doing them.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's been a while.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we haven't done them in a while.
Laura Massey: No we haven't.
Larry Hryb: We can do it on Beam though.
Laura Massey: That's true.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah we should do that.
Larry Hryb: Yeah because I can, I can, once I get my gaming PC back I can like take all your streams in and export them together and put them on Beam or something. We'll figure that out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Alright.
Larry Hryb: We'll figure that out. Anyway, lets go through the news Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so lets talk about some upcoming games. This time of year we're seeing a lot of indie games coming out, and I recommend you tune to this, there's a website called Ma-Majornelson.com?
Larry Hryb: I've never heard of it.
Laura Massey: No, what's that?
Jeff Rubenstein: They seem to be really focused on the releases, I don't know, check them out, let me know what you think, I don't know much about that site. But what I do know is, uh, a number of games have also been announced that'll be coming out.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: So one of them which I thought was interesting is Ooblitz which is sort of like a farming RPG which is very big now.
Larry Hryb: Sounds like, what's the name of it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Ooblitz. O-O-B.
Larry Hryb: Oh, I bought one of those at Ikea once.
Laura Massey: (laughs) [inaudible 00:34:45] build it.
Larry Hryb: Exactly, I had to build it.
Laura Massey: What did it build in to?
Larry Hryb: And I had seven parts left over, I don't know why. An Ooblitz. (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, you, you, the studio that's making it, uh, has a chief mapping officer, so, uh.
Laura Massey: Can I have that role please?
Jeff Rubenstein: I was about to say, I've already applied for it. So, um, they describe it as having elements of Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing and Pokemon.
Laura Massey: Whoa.
Jeff Rubenstein: So if that works for you.
Laura Massey: That sounds amazing.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: And Ikea?
Jeff Rubenstein: And I'm playing a lot of Stardew Valley, so this is kind of singing to me right now. That will be coming to Xbox One and Windows 10, there's no date on that yet but it is a DoubleFine Presents game, so that is a seal of quality.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: DoubleFine Presents.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll link to the news on that one. Uh, also another big indie game that will be coming this Spring to Xbox is City Skylines.
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm sure you've tried this one out.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, so a awesome city builder that has done very well, and they, there is a, we have a story about how they're adapting it for Xbox and, and, you'd be playing on your sofa. So very much looking forward to that. And if you have a Windows phone.
Larry Hryb: Yes?
Jeff Rubenstein: Minecraft.
Larry Hryb: Minecraft for Windows phone gang.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, came out for-
Larry Hryb: Pocket edition.
Jeff Rubenstein: Pocket edition.
Laura Massey: Great.
Jeff Rubenstein: Now available on Windows phones, so, uh, I thought that was worth talking about. And one other game, big fan of the XPA games, the Xbox play anywhere games that as we talked about, like Resident Evil 7, you can, you can jump seamlessly back and forth between Windows 10 computer and uh Xbox One. Riptide GP Renegade, um, this is a long standing series of sort of water racers.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, hydro racer, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hydro, yeah, foil type of things. Hydro jets. Um, that will be coming out, that comes out the 24th. So, uh, if you're someone who, like me, likes to jump back and forth between the Xbox and the PC, Riptide GP Renegade just the latest.
Larry Hryb: Just the latest.
Jeff Rubenstein: In a series of XPA games.
Larry Hryb: I love that.
Jeff Rubenstein: I do too.
Larry Hryb: I love that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: We were talking about E3 when you were stepping out on your call, talking about tickets.
Jeff Rubenstein: You want people to start writing stories already?
Larry Hryb: No no. No, we were just talking about.
Laura Massey: Not to that degree.
Larry Hryb: We were talking about the fact that we moved our briefing, that's on Sunday.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
Larry Hryb: So, it'll be a lot of fun because it's always that rush. It's, there's something fun to start the week on a Monday, you know, with the Monday morning. Because Laura, you've been in the briefing before?
Laura Massey: I have.
Larry Hryb: Remember when you and your sister were?
Laura Massey: I persisted.
Larry Hryb: You and your sister?
Laura Massey: Yes, my sister and I presented, that was really fun.
Larry Hryb: Were you there that year Jeff?
Laura Massey: Did you see us?
Jeff Rubenstein: Actually I did, I was in the crowd.
Laura Massey: Oh really?
Jeff Rubenstein: You did a connect call, right?
Laura Massey: I did, video connect.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't remember if that was through Skype or not.
Laura Massey: Video connect.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was a long time ago.
Larry Hryb: Video connect.
Laura Massey: It was before there was a Skype.
Jeff Rubenstein: Was that the Beatles year?
Larry Hryb: No.
Laura Massey: No, that was the year after the Beatles year.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well I was there for both of those. I was the quote unquote 'Sony spy'.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a well known fact that there are always folks that are invited from-
Laura Massey: Absolutely.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I remember.
Larry Hryb: It's a detente.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, because I remember sending invites to you.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And Aaron Greenberg.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: To come to ours and we gave you good seats.
Larry Hryb: Yeah yeah, always. I remember I went to one in Culver City.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, back at, yeah I remember that one.
Larry Hryb: Remember that one?
Jeff Rubenstein: That was at the, wow, that was my first E3, that was before I even worked there, at Sony Pictures Studios.
Larry Hryb: Yep, yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: I remember looking around for Alex Trebek's parking spot. I found Pat Sajak's one time.
Larry Hryb: Well that one I just remember coming on, because I hadn't, that was, I'd been onto the lots quite a few times and I hadn't been in that, because lots are huge, [inaudible 00:38:01].
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: I hadn't been in the way you brought us in and Laura, you go onto the, and I'm sure it's still the same, because it used to be I believe MGM Studios, or something.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's before my-
Larry Hryb: No no, way before. Well, you drive in and right there is Tara from Gone with the Wind, the house.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Larry Hryb: Like right off, this was back in the day, I'm sure it's still there.
Laura Massey: Really?
Larry Hryb: It just shows you how, with the proper framing and the right angle, anything can be anything.
Laura Massey: Anything can be anything.
Larry Hryb: Even me. So, um, but anyway, yeah so we've got E3 coming up, we'll do that on Sunday.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: We'd love to have you there, uh, Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Thank you. I'll see what I can do.
Larry Hryb: As a non-spy this time.
Jeff Rubenstein: It is, it is nice coming and being invited. Actually I remember there was one year.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, and it might have been the Beatles year, where, when the Xbox 360 S was announced. And it was like everyone in the crowds get one.
Laura Massey: That was my year.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh that was your year?
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay. So it was in some theater downtown and LA.
Laura Massey: Yeah it was.
Larry Hryb: The Wiltern.
Laura Massey: Yeah. A much smaller theater
Jeff Rubenstein: And I came down out of the theater and I run into you and I'm like, "Larry, where's my Xbox, I want it now." And, uh, and I was just joking, I was just, you know, giving you a little hustle. And you were busy because of course-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're never busier really in a year than right after the briefing. You were like, "Do you really need it now? I can do it if I need to." And I was like, "Larry, do your thing." I was like, that was touching.
Larry Hryb: I, I, I care.
Jeff Rubenstein: I still have that Xbox.
Larry Hryb: That was, [inaudible 00:39:25] your point, that was the year we unveiled it. If you remember correct, do you remember how we unveiled it?
Laura Massey: I do remember.
Larry Hryb: Because that was, I don't know if I can get-
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:39:29] loved it.
Larry Hryb: I came up with the idea, I don't know if somebody else did in addition to me.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Because it was a good idea.
Larry Hryb: Because it was inside the original 360.
Laura Massey: So Don Mattrick came to the little stage and then lifted.
Larry Hryb: Because it was there the whole time.
Laura Massey: It was there the whole time.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: But inside of it, unbeknownst to the entire crowd was the Xbox 360 S.
Larry Hryb: Was the Xbox 360 S.
Laura Massey: So he just lifted the shell of the original 360.
Larry Hryb: And it was the ta-da.
Laura Massey: Ta-da, the Xbox 360 S.
Larry Hryb: I remember that.
Laura Massey: And then you get a console, and you get a console.
Jeff Rubenstein: Was that like 2009?
Laura Massey: No, 2010.
Larry Hryb: 10.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, yeah.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: But it's funny because I remember, we were talking about the Beatles being at it, and I remember because Laura, do you remember that one?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Laura had, was that your first-
Laura Massey: That was my first E3.
Larry Hryb: Okay. And I remember you coming down and I said I'll get you seats. And I remember I told you where to sit.
Laura Massey: Yes you did.
Larry Hryb: And I said I need you to sit here.
Laura Massey: You'll get a really good view from this seat.
Larry Hryb: I said I need you to sit here. Because I had gone through rehearsals and I know where Yoko and the Beatles were all going to come out on stage and you were being a huge Beatles fan but you didn't know.
Laura Massey: I had no idea, I had zero idea it was going to happen.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: And that is the best memory of E3 that I have. That shocking moment.
Larry Hryb: Because I remember, because you were right on the railing.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Right? I had you right on the railing.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Because we did it sideways back then. In, in, in the-
Laura Massey: Galen Center?
Larry Hryb: In the Galen Center.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, [crosstalk 00:40:41].
Larry Hryb: Because normally we would go longways, this was sideways.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And I parked you right in the center so you could, you got a perfect view.
Laura Massey: Oh it was a fantastic seat, it was perfect.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so, anyway.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think I was up on the top row.
Larry Hryb: Were you?
Jeff Rubenstein: I think, yeah. I was last year too. I always end up, you know, near the entrance, talking to people and then it's like oh the lights are coming down, I should find a seat.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And then you miss the first five minutes of the show because you're walking to the upper deck.
Laura Massey: Looking for a seat.
Jeff Rubenstein: Don't be like me.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, we would love to have, if you want to be, to see the Xbox E3 media briefing, we may be giving away tickets, is all I can say.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: So we'll just leave it at that. So I'm sorry Jeff, we were going through the news, you were-
Laura Massey: We got distracted.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh those, those, those were your, I would recommend, just because of the sheer number of releases, and I think I counted ten ID@Xbox releases in the last week.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I think, I ran into Chris Charla, I think I he said there's going to be eleven.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, crazy amount for one, for one week.
Larry Hryb: Cuckoo even.
Jeff Rubenstein: And there was a huge amount the week before. Something for everybody.
Larry Hryb: There is.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I would definitely check out MajorNelson.com, and next week is GDC, the Game Developers Conference. We usually, and this year's one of them, we usually show off a lot of ID@Xbox games as well. We'll have a number of previews and things like that on Xbox Wire which is news.xbox.com.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I'd keep an eye on that site all next week.
Larry Hryb: There you go. Lots of stuff. You going down to GDC?
Jeff Rubenstein: Not this year.
Larry Hryb: I'm not but I may have to go down for something that I can't talk about yet.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: So I just-
Laura Massey: Secret trip.
Larry Hryb: I was, yeah there was email coming in while we're recording here about wanting me, wanting to, there has been request for my presence.
Jeff Rubenstein: I always love to go to SF if you need someone to show you around all the sights.
Larry Hryb: Last time we went down there we kind of went in your old stomping ground.
Jeff Rubenstein: We did, we walked around The Mission.
Larry Hryb: We had ice cream.
Jeff Rubenstein: We had ice cream.
Larry Hryb: We had ice cream.
Jeff Rubenstein: We had a heck of a burrito.
Larry Hryb: Oh boy did we.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: It was like the size of my forearm.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah that's how it's done.
Larry Hryb: Actually that's not saying much.
Jeff Rubenstein: Have you ever heard the term Mission style burritos?
Laura Massey: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is the mission.
Larry Hryb: This is the mission.
Jeff Rubenstein: You were supposed to say yes, I just kept barreling right on.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes of course I've heard of mission style burritos Jeff.
Larry Hryb: Who hasn't?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. This is the mission.
Laura Massey: Is the mission to finish it in one sitting?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's a mission you shouldn't undertake.
Larry Hryb: Well done Laura. I like what she did there, a little wordplay.
Jeff Rubenstein: She's pretty smart, pretty smart.
Larry Hryb: I'll keep her around. Um, yeah so the GDC is coming up, Game Developer Conference, and then after that we will swing right over to PAX.
Jeff Rubenstein: To PAX.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. It's going to be a good time.
Larry Hryb: Going to be busy busy bees all week, hopefully the weather will behave. I know it's, I talked to my sister, this week it's like 50 degrees up there in New England.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll take that.
Laura Massey: I'll take that too.
Larry Hryb: So yeah, it's crazy weather going on. Alright, we've got, what else do we have to go over? Because otherwise we'll going to wrap things up here so you guys can get back to your day jobs.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which, you know, encroach occasionally on this-
Larry Hryb: Well as we've talked with that phone call.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sorry about that.
Larry Hryb: No, look, things happen. We're going to play some Sniper Elite. You know, we, I, we mentioned this off the air. We should stream it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah yeah.
Larry Hryb: You being one side, I being the other side?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it would be my first Beam and I want you to be there.
Larry Hryb: Now do you have it in your, at home, right? You're in the Preview Program?
Jeff Rubenstein: Of course I'm in the Preview Program.
Larry Hryb: Laura are you in the Preview Program?
Laura Massey: I am.
Jeff Rubenstein: Xbox Insider Program.
Larry Hryb: Yes that's right, the Xbox Insider Program.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm an insider, yeah.
Larry Hryb: XP edition. Professional, I don't know.
Laura Massey: What are those names.
Larry Hryb: Oh, it's nothing like that, but we appreciate everybody out there. We're working on some cool, we've got some great cool features coming for the next release, um, that some people are testing out right now. One button guide, Beam streaming, and a few other cool nifty things.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, can't wait till everyone gets that. I love me some one buttoning guide.
Larry Hryb: Do you? Isn't that nice?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: There's some other cool stuff that I'm working on with the team that I can't talk about yet. I spent most of the day over there saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if we did this?" And they always roll their eyes when I say that.
Jeff Rubenstein: And then six months later it's there.
Larry Hryb: Well, it's not six months, sometimes twelve months. Actually one of the ideas that I've been requesting for a long time is coming in a future update. There's your headline, okay clickbaiters, there's your headline. I can't say what it is.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're really flirting with the [inaudible 00:44:17] razors edge.
Larry Hryb: I'm just going right, right up to the edge, and I'm just kind of tapping the tiger, pulling the tigers tail.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Larry Hryb: Alright. Alright, we're going to wrap it up. Thank you for coming by Laura.
Laura Massey: Thank you for having me.
Larry Hryb: It's kind of a, kind of a, kind of a crazy show there.
Laura Massey: Whirlwind show.
Larry Hryb: We, we flipped it around, we put, we put name the game at the top and news at the bottom, we usually flip it around.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: And reversed it, yeah.
Larry Hryb: But I appreciate you rolling with that.
Laura Massey: Of course.
Larry Hryb: I appreciate it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Are we doing a show next week?
Larry Hryb: It depends if I have to go to GDC.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh okay.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Ideally we are, uh, you'll be here and like I say, if I'm not here then we won't do a show.
Laura Massey: I'll be here.
Jeff Rubenstein: And if not it'll be PAX, it'll be in Boston.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we're going to do it live. We'll do it live.
Jeff Rubenstein: We'll do it live.
Larry Hryb: We're going to do it live like we always do, and we're going to love to see our fans out there, so.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Larry Hryb: All right gang, we'll talk to you guys next time. You can follow us on Twitter, you can find Laura lollipop at?
Laura Massey: @lauralollipop
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's how you find us.
Laura Massey: Exactly. Thank you for telling me that.
Larry Hryb: You can find Jeff Rubenstein?
Jeff Rubenstein: @JeffRubenstein
Larry Hryb: Just follow me and look for the, they're one of the seven people that I follow, okay, you can't miss them.
Laura Massey: Do you still follow E?
Larry Hryb: I still follow E. So I, I don't know what the verdict is, what's the protocol there?
Laura Massey: Did you, did you get any feedback from our listeners?
Larry Hryb: No. Nobody emailed me.
Laura Massey: We're serious, help.
Larry Hryb: Help, should I, do I unfollow E now because?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, he's in. He's, he had his jersey retired, leave him in. You can't say you know what, we don't care about John DiMaggio, or, oh, I was going to say Joe DiMaggio.
Laura Massey: Whoa.
Jeff Rubenstein: John DiMaggio?
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was thinking, because he's the voice of Atriox.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: A.k.a. Bender and, uh, Marcus Fenix.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And many other.
Larry Hryb: God that was the strangest E3 last year. With, when he did that Q&A.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: That was so bizarre with him. Love him.
Jeff Rubenstein: He's awesome.
Larry Hryb: Anyway. Uh, alright gang, we'll talk to you, you can follow us, you can hit us up there, uh, oh we've got some Back Compat titles before I let you go.
Laura Massey: Yeah, last minute.
Larry Hryb: Jeff do you have the Back Compat titles? I tweeted those out on Thursday, there's some new Back Compat titles. All you need to do is go to my blog at MajorNelson.com and at the very top there's a Backward Compatibility-
Laura Massey: There is.
Larry Hryb: And you can, there's the whole list there of over 300 titles. But Jeff, the titles we released?
Jeff Rubenstein: The most recent ones are-
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Gyromancer.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Moon Diver.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Space Invaders Infinity Gene, which was a lot of fun.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, yeah those are your ones right there. And then, uh, man they just keep coming don't they?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Every week.
Laura Massey: Yeah, and the whole list is here so if you have a question.
Larry Hryb: It's sortable.
Laura Massey: What?
Larry Hryb: It's sortable.
Laura Massey: It is sortable, yes, by lots of different filters.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: And you can also search if you want to know is Bejeweled 2 part of the Back Compat list.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is it?
Laura Massey: All you do is search and, there it is.
Larry Hryb: Control F.
Laura Massey: Control F on this page.
Larry Hryb: Control F is your friend.
Laura Massey: And you will find.
Larry Hryb: There's also a, there's also a huge FAQ down at the bottom, or is it the top, I can't remember. About hey when is this game going to come, when can I play Black Ops? You know. I don't have the answer. All I have-
Jeff Rubenstein: Black Ops?
Larry Hryb: It's something, I see it in my feed, I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: People are asking you for that?
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I don't know why. But anyway, all the information that I can share publicly is in that FAQ, so I highly, highly recommend you enjoy that read, so.
Laura Massey: Yes, absolutely.
Larry Hryb: Alright, alright gang, we'll talk to you guys next time, bye bye everybody.
Laura Massey: Bye bye.
Jeff Rubenstein: Bye.

Larry Hryb: Hey everybody, my name's Larry Hyrb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson, welcome to the show this week. We've got a full gang in here. As usual, Laura's with us, hi Laura.
Laura Massey: Hello.
Larry Hryb: Nice to see you.
Laura Massey: Good to be here.
Larry Hryb: What a show it was last week right?
Laura Massey: It was a good show.
Larry Hryb: We're gonna talk about that in just a minute.
Jeff Rubenstein: You guys did a show last week?
Larry Hryb: Sitting across from you is Jeffrey, hi Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi.
Larry Hryb: And then, you were in the- you were in the UK last week.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was, and look what I brought back with me.
Larry Hryb: And- and just, you know, he is carry-on size, Mr Graeme Boyd.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs) That's the nicest thing you've ever said about me.
Larry Hryb: Nice to see you.
Graeme Boyd: Hello.
Larry Hryb: It's nice to see you, we're here- I don't know, Graeme, I don't know if- I know you listen to the show frequently.
Graeme Boyd: Absolutely, yeah.
Larry Hryb: You know, you're alway-
Graeme Boyd: I hear you slagging me off all the time, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Well- well you are-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:56]
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, well I had some annual leave, so I thought I would pop off.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, hey.
Larry Hryb: You're gonna just own it. That's what I love about you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Every year.
Larry Hryb: Yeah you al- you see- That's what I'm a little puzzled about, you call it annual leave, yet it happens like every two weeks. (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: So ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I just love the eventuality, "I'd love to help you but I'm on- it's annual leave."
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I'm sorry.
Graeme Boyd: I'm not even gonna try to defend myself on this one.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know that Jeff and I, we have been talking about this for years.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Maybe every week.
Jeff Rubenstein: You've been off the show, it's just-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, privately it's like-
Graeme Boyd: The only time I ever come up on the show is when you about it being a holiday.
Larry Hryb: But it's nice to see you, welcome back. Speaking of holiday, did you have a nice holiday? Because we haven't talked to you since your Christmas.
Graeme Boyd: Uh yeah, it was lovely. Yeah I had like two and a half weeks off, lots of time with my family.
Larry Hryb: Did you play some games?
Graeme Boyd: I did yeah. I got a chance to play a lot of games recently, more than I have been for a while.
Larry Hryb: Well usually, you know, we start the show with what we're playing so I'll just let you kick right into it.
Graeme Boyd: Yes, last week was a good week.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: For getting to play lots of different things, so I guess the one I played most and took the longest time to pluck up the courage for, was Resident Evil 7.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Laura Massey: Oh really?
Larry Hryb: How far- I want to talk about that when we get to my section, how far did you get? Without spoiling it.
Graeme Boyd: I think I'm about three hours in, so um ...
Larry Hryb: Oh boy, okay.
Graeme Boyd: Um, Mia was ... yeah, I've got to be careful with spoilers.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, right?
Graeme Boyd: She was running away from Marguerite.
Larry Hryb: Okay, enough said.
Graeme Boyd: When you're- yeah.
Larry Hryb: Have you played it Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I'm trying to pluck up the courage, and falling short.
Laura Massey: I hear it is terrifying.
Larry Hryb: Have you plucked any, Laura?
Laura Massey: I have not plucked any.
Larry Hryb: Okay, we'll talk about that-
Laura Massey: I hear it's terrifying.
Larry Hryb: Okay, so you're playing Resident Evil.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, it's absolutely fantastic. So there's that, and then I got involved with some of the betas last week, so Halo Wars 2 Beta.
Laura Massey: Sweet.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Graeme Boyd: That was good fun, I really enjoyed that actually, nice and fast, you know, the blitz mode stuff.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Because I haven't- I haven't really played real-time strategy for a long time. Like the original Command & Conquer was really the last time I uh-
Larry Hryb: Right, right, right.
Graeme Boyd: And I find it quite stressful. I was actually thinking about the original Command & Conquer, I don't know if you remember, there was like a glitch in it, where when you were building your base-
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Graeme Boyd: You could build sandbags around the outside of your base.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: And if you built enough sandbags, like across the map, you could actually wall in the AI.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: Or wall them out.
Graeme Boyd: Or wall them out.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: And then just spend all your time building up a humongous army and then just absolutely steam rolling them. When I wasn't able to put sandbags around the AI I start to get a bit stressed out.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: But yeah, blitz kind of simplifies a lot of that stuff and I just love like, the fast pace of it and stuff, so it was good. The one thing I regret about it, is I didn't actually play it with another- like a friend, on comms. I was just sort of jumping into matches.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: But as I was playing it I was thinking, "If you're playing with someone you know, or two people you know on the same team and you're really coordinating what you're building, where you're placing it, you know, getting the high ground, that could be-"
Larry Hryb: Well that goes for any game though, I mean we see that in Overwatch.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: You know, all those types of games, yeah that's-
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, but I think if you know, when you're talking about real-time strategy and that quick thinking-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: It adds that extra element, so yeah, so I really enjoyed that. And then the other beta was For Honor.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Graeme Boyd: Had a quick go of that as well, a quick swing at that. Um, which was a lot of fun too.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Because-
Larry Hryb: I got through the tutorial on that one, we'll talk about that. It was, I mean, it's a heck of a fighting game isn't it?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: It is quite the combat.
Graeme Boyd: And I'm obsessed with vikings at the moment.
Laura Massey: Are you?
Larry Hryb: So you obviously, you didn't- you didn't choose the samurai or the knight.
Graeme Boyd: No, I went straight for the viking that was not even a choice for me.
Larry Hryb: Now tell me about that.
Laura Massey: Yes, how come you're obsessed with vikings?
Larry Hryb: Come over here.
Graeme Boyd: Well, the TV show. That's why I'm obsessed with vikings the the moment.
Laura Massey: Which one?
Graeme Boyd: Vikings.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is that on BBC One or Two?
Graeme Boyd: No, it's on the History Channel over here.
Larry Hryb: Sky?
Graeme Boyd: See this, right, this is my thing right.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Graeme Boyd: I think Vikings is currently the most under appreciated TV show out there period.
Larry Hryb: All right so-
Graeme Boyd: And I think what's gonna happen-
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Graeme Boyd: Is that it's gonna have a bit of a Breaking Bad moment, where everyone's gonna suddenly realize how awesome it is. It's four seasons in, they've just finished the last- the like, season finale of season four. And I think everyone's gonna suddenly realize that that's the show. And everyone's gonna start watching it.
Jeff Rubenstein: So it's a drama? Or it's a documen-
Graeme Boyd: It's a historical drama, yeah. It's like based in history.
Larry Hryb: So vikings are the new thing, so I'm gonna- I'm dialing my phone right now, I'm calling uh, Rare. "Uh, gamer boss? Yeah, forget that pirate game. Vikings are where it's at."
Jeff Rubenstein: Just put the horns on them, it's kind of- exactly.
Graeme Boyd: A million miles apart.
Jeff Rubenstein: A little less Rome, but yeah.
Graeme Boyd: But, do you want to hear something bold?
Larry Hryb: Please.
Graeme Boyd: I think it's better than Game of Thrones.
Laura Massey: What?
Larry Hryb: Woah, woah.
Graeme Boyd: For real.
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Laura Massey: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: I can't believe you-
Larry Hryb: @AceyBongos on Twitter, let him know what you think of that.
Graeme Boyd: Don't @ me. That's better.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: No, I'm not s-
Larry Hryb: Why?
Graeme Boyd: It's so- and you know, I should say, Game of Thrones is amazing, and I love Game of Thrones. So, I'm not saying it's rubbish and Vikings is amazing.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: But Vikings is so good because it- it has it's basis in history, for one thing.
Larry Hryb: Right, right.
Graeme Boyd: And viking culture is fascinating and bloody and brutal and, so there's amazing things there. But the narrative focus is much tighter and therefore the character development is much tighter as well. And you- they- you know, it's a sprawling story, but it doesn't feel as sort of disconnected as some of Game of Thrones does.
Larry Hryb: Really?
Graeme Boyd: Because let's be honest, there's some bits in Game of Thrones where it drifts a little bit, and you're like, "Mmm."
Larry Hryb: The story? Or ... because I don't know, I- I- I, you know what I have to watch it so I-
Jeff Rubenstein: Does it have dragons?
Larry Hryb: Well, on the ends of the-
Jeff Rubenstein: There's only one good answer here.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: No, it doesn't have dragons.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well forget it.
Larry Hryb: Now you guys, I just- I keep remembering, because we've got, obviously Game of Thrones is coming up later this year. Um, it airs in the UK Monday nights, so you have to go 24 hours in a black ... media blackout, so that you don't get spoiled, right?
Graeme Boyd: I think what they've been doing recently is they like air it simultaneously.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Graeme Boyd: In the middle of the night in the UK.
Larry Hryb: I see.
Graeme Boyd: Then they show it again prime-time.
Larry Hryb: In prime-time, right. So it has officially aired once.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: If you want- if you've got the DVR or what have you.
Graeme Boyd: Exactly, I think that's what a lot of people do, stay up [crosstalk 06:24]
Larry Hryb: Waking up- I don't know if waking up Monday morning and having your tea and crumpets with Game of Thrones is really how you want to start your week. (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: I did actually do that one time, because we had like a public holiday on a Monday morning, and I got up and that was the first thing I thought, I was like, "Oh this is amazing, I can just like have a coffee and watch Game of Thrones."
Jeff Rubenstein: Clotted cream and clotted blood.
Graeme Boyd: Ew.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ew.
Laura Massey: Ew.
Larry Hryb: And annual holi- annual leave. There you go. (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Um, yeah, so that was good, and I'm still mucking around with Forza Horizon 3.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, well of course.
Jeff Rubenstein: Good.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, that's what I played over Christmas a lot actually. Because Blizzard Mountain felt very uh, appropriate.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: And that game's just huge and amazing and beautiful and I just love everything that um, Playground Games do there. And then the other one we can maybe talk about later, was I got the chance to play Sea of Thieves.
Larry Hryb: Yeah let's talk about that later.
Laura Massey: So jealous.
Larry Hryb: Because I know you were up to Rare and Jeff was up-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I was there uh [crosstalk 07:13]
Larry Hryb: So we'll talk about that later in the show.
Graeme Boyd: Okay cool. So that's it yeah.
Larry Hryb: Laura what about yourself? What are you uh, I know one of the games you're playing.
Laura Massey: Did you see me sign into Live?
Larry Hryb: Yes, yes I did.
Laura Massey: (laughs) So of course I still- I'm playing Mini Metro like constantly.
Larry Hryb: Right. Have you- are you playing this?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah okay so-
Graeme Boyd: I played it a little over Christmas, I haven't been so much lately, but I heard you talking about it, what two weeks ago in the podcast, and that put it back in mind, so may- I'm flying home today.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Oh perfect.
Graeme Boyd: It'll be good for the plane, yeah.
Laura Massey: Perfect plane ride game. I finally unlocked more maps, so-
Larry Hryb: Like Amsterdam and Hong Kong and beyond right? Buenos Aires.
Laura Massey: Yes, keeping going on that it's super fun.
Larry Hryb: I don't know what-
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs) You're just naming cities.
Larry Hryb: I'm just pulling-
Jeff Rubenstein: Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Larry Hryb: Melbourne. I know Melbourne was in there.
Laura Massey: Yeah it's in there.
Larry Hryb: That's right, that's right.
Laura Massey: And I've always picked back up on The Turing Test. Is that what you wanted me to play?
Larry Hryb: Yes. Well no that wasn't the one I- the one I was uh, referring to was you were playing, I saw you playing Overcooked.
Laura Massey: Yes, I tried that out too.
Larry Hryb: (laughs) But Turing Test, I thought you had finished that one.
Laura Massey: I have not finished it yet. I just finished third chapter, I'm probably half way through the third chapter. Am I almost done, you think?
Larry Hryb: I don't- I don't really remember.
Laura Massey: Can you remember how many chapters there were?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I don't really remember, but it's fun puzzles though aren't they? Have you played it Graeme?
Graeme Boyd: I haven't. I feel really bad about it actually,q because I went up to see the guys at the Bulkhead who made that game.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: Just before it came out and did some video with them, and I've never actually got around to playing it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I finished that one, the whole thing.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Because it was just one of those things where you sit down and rip through it. Jeff did you play it at all?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I need to pick up. It just came out on- well not just, but on Windows 10 as well.
Graeme Boyd: Oh okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: With the cheevos.
Laura Massey: Yeah, so I'm having some fun that.
Larry Hryb: Started playing that.
Laura Massey: And I also tried out Overcooked.
Larry Hryb: Yes, as we discussed.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: It's so much fun.
Laura Massey: Uh, if you haven't seen this one, it's a- it's in the vein of Dine or Dash you know, on phones, but it's on Xbox and it's built to be a multiplayer game, which is to play with you and some friends on the couch.
Larry Hryb: Should we stream it sometime?
Graeme Boyd: You totally should. It's so fun.
Laura Massey: There is some opportunities for some chaos.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: It is definitely a team dysfunction game.
Larry Hryb: Chaos.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: I tried to play it by myself and it turns out it's not that fun by yourself, because what you just do is instead of doing everything in parallel, you just do things in serial.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: You can swap between the different cooks, and you know go over here chop some steak, go over here fry the steak, and then switch to another chef and you know-
Larry Hryb: You know that's, you have to play it.
Laura Massey: But the game is meant for-
Larry Hryb: It's couch co-op.
Laura Massey: Couch co-op, and it's really fun.
Larry Hryb: Are you playing it at all at home?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, I played with Fin my son-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Graeme Boyd: Quite a lot around Christmas time, and yeah, we had so much fun with it. I find it's one of those games where you can go- you know, because you're sitting next to each other on the couch, you can go from laughing hysterically about what's happening, it's so funny, to very quickly shouting at each other because the process dissolves and the kitchen goes on fire and-
Laura Massey: The kitchen's on fire.
Graeme Boyd: So it swings very quickly from you know, joy to anger.
Laura Massey: Yeah, it's probably one of the funniest moments in the game is if you let something cook to long, it'll catch on fire, and that fire will spread and spread and spread, and you have to go find the fire extinguisher and extinguish it, exactly.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: And it spirals, doesn't it? Once one thing goes wrong, it's just a downward spiral of doom but it's brilliant.
Laura Massey: Yeah, it's really fun.
Larry Hryb: Good, so that's what you're playing.
Laura Massey: Yep, that's me.
Larry Hryb: All right. Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, uh, so I've- I've finally broken the shackles temporarily of Overwatch. Overwatch is so good that you kind of don't want to play anything else, Larry, looking at you. Um, so-
Larry Hryb: Oh?
Jeff Rubenstein: I- I- I had couple of friends that were playing Titanfall 2, the other night, multiplayer.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: Now I played through the campaign when it first came out, I loved it, one of the best shooter campaigns of the generation for sure. Didn't play, since they had a beta at some point, which I played but no- no multiplayer games, so we jumped in, it is really, really good. Not that this is like a shock to anyone.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: But it came out in such a crowded period where it was something where it just- it- it didn't happen for me, and so we played the last few nights and it's- it's really exceptionally good. A few tweaks, a few things different from Titanfall 1, but the pilots feel like uh, it just- they know what they're doing. That team is just right on it, so Respawn, well done, we're gonna keep playing that. And with Halo Wars 2 coming out, that was one of- the original one came out when I was working somewhere else, and never really got around to playing the original.
Laura Massey: No, I played that game so much.
Larry Hryb: Which one?
Laura Massey: Halo Wars.
Jeff Rubenstein: Halo Wars, the original.
Larry Hryb: Where were you working?
Jeff Rubenstein: I wa- it was 2009, I was at Sony.
Larry Hryb: Okay. I didn't know if- no I didn't know if this was- I guess yeah, you were off the couch by then.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, what?
Larry Hryb: (laughs) Remember you said you had that- that bad year, you were on the couch? Whenever was that, 2005 or 6?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, well ... (laughs)
Larry Hryb: I'm sorry.
Jeff Rubenstein: I've had a lot of bad years. (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, but during that- yeah, it was- that was one of the games where I looked over and I was like, "Oh, that would be really cool, but I don't have time to play it, or hook up for that matter." Um, so Halo Wars Definitive Edition, I've been playing it on my Windows 10 laptop, it's really good.
Laura Massey: It is really good, I played the entire campaign and multiplayer for months.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I'm sorry I missed it, but you know what, it holds up really well, and it's pretty challenging. I'm not really good at RTS's kind of like you, like I liked- well because I played those Command & Conquer days, I liked to build up a huge base and then steam roll.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And you kind of can't do that, you know normally, because if you take too long, they're just gonna you know, like some giant uh, you know, machine's gonna come out and just vaporize you. So there's some interesting scenarios in the campaign. So it's really pushed me to become, I think, a better player. I'm sure that when I play multiplayer in Halo Wars 2 I'll still get spanked, but it's been really fun. So definitely check that out, Halo Wars Definitive Edition. And I got back into Minecraft as well.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I see you- I see you playing [inaudible 00:12:26]
Jeff Rubenstein: So the e- have you played with the elytra like with Fin? The elytra's the wings.
Graeme Boyd: No, we haven't been playing it much lately.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I'm sure you've played creative mode.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And you can hover and you can do whatever, but there's things wings called elytra or something like that, that let you legitimately fly, not float, but like move really fast.
Graeme Boyd: In survival?
Jeff Rubenstein: In survival or in creative mode.
Graeme Boyd: Oh okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: And what you can do then, is we've been setting up like checkpoints and doing races, because you go really really fast, it's the fastest you've ever moved in Minecraft. And it really changes the game quite a bit. So it's really fun, and so I've been jumping in on that and also cashing in a few achievements on the Windows 10 edition that I hadn't gotten to before.
Last game I want to call out is Pit People.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: So Pit People, made by The Behemoth, you know them from Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater, Alien Hominid. So uh, this is a sort of like a strategy RPG, um but with like, I would say very like stripped down more basic controls. But like, a lot of character. More character than like most, most of the genre, because it's like very funny looking and I'm- you can switch your weapons out and I'm attacking my- instead of throwing daggers, one guy's throwing carrots and the other one's bashing people with a giant piece of broccoli. It's really ...
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Sounds like Overcooked.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah exactly.
Laura Massey: It does.
Jeff Rubenstein: But the narrator is really good and is constantly taunting you and um, so definitely check that out. It's in game preview right now, part of preview program, but you can get achievements from it, which uh you know some games not until they're further along. It's really good, so uh, definitely check that out.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: And uh, yeah, so that's what I'm playing.
Graeme Boyd: Nice. [crosstalk 14:02] Pit People.
Larry Hryb: I guess it's my turn now, aye?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Uh, I'm- I- you know, Jeff made the slight backhanded comment about Overwatch, yes I'm playing that. I reached level 100, I have my star now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wow, nice.
Laura Massey: Congratulations.
Graeme Boyd: Did you get any Lunar New Year's skins?
Larry Hryb: Oh, I got a bunch of them.
Graeme Boyd: Did you? I didn't get any.
Larry Hryb: I got a- I got a bunch of them. So, um-
Jeff Rubenstein: Do you want the D.Va one?
Larry Hryb: I may, I may not have spent some money to open new boxes so-
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: I spent my first money to try and get some and- and- and stuck out so-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I got the D.Va one, I got a whole bunch of stuff there, so I'm playing that, uh, playing Candleman. Have you seen Candleman? It came out this week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: No, what's that?
Larry Hryb: So you play as a candle, a man who's a candle.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: And you have to solve the puzzles as your candle burns down.
Laura Massey: Cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: What's interesting, this game was made in China. And which- so, not a of- of games that came over here are made in China, so it's one of the first to come out of like uh, some sort of program there.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: So it's kind of interesting.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: I've been reading good things about it.
Larry Hryb: A lot of fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Checking that, I've been- I've been- I can't really so too much about it, but I'm in the Gwent, the Witcher cardgame pre- uh, beta, so I'm playing that, getting my Gwent on.
Laura Massey: Oh nice.
Larry Hryb: Uh, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, um, I ... A- again no spoilers, I have been playing probably, in fact I can tell you right now, I have been playing I think I want to say 15 hours.
Graeme Boyd: Woah.
Larry Hryb: Let me just double check here, I'm looking at how long I've been playing it up on the- on the Xbox app. I've been playing it about 15 hours, I got stuck at this particular boss battle with a chainsaw, that's all I'm gonna say.
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: It was- it was infuriating.
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness. Are you playing it in proper Resident Evil style, with the lights turned down?
Larry Hryb: Well-
Laura Massey: All the doors shut.
Larry Hryb: No.
Graeme Boyd: Headphones on.
Laura Massey: Headphones on, yeah. (laughs)
Larry Hryb: That stuff- that stuff doesn't really scare me.
Laura Massey: It doesn't? What?
Larry Hryb: No, in fact, maybe it's because like I brought- I was playing and I brought it into the office and I was showing somebody and I had the brightness turned way up because I don't- I don't fall for any of that, I'm like, "I want to- When I walk into a room, no surprises." I want to see what's going on.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: So um, I just kind of ... Anyway, I actually, I also found the combat, and this isn't because I'm queasy, you can actually go into the options and turn the blood down.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: You can't turn it off, but you can turn it down.
Graeme Boyd: Oh, okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, so it's not scary when you have the lights on in your house, you turn the brightness all the way up in the game and you turn the blood off, got it.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: Not scary at all, it's-
Laura Massey: That's how I'll play (laughs)
Larry Hryb: And then unicorns show up, it was delightful.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: So I'm playing that, uh what else am I playing? Uh, I'm playing of course, uh, the Witcher. I started the D- finally, I finished the game of course but-
Jeff Rubenstein: What'd you think?
Larry Hryb: I love the game.
Jeff Rubenstein: All right, can we talk about- I don't know maybe at the ... I want to know what ending you got. Because there's a lot of variation on the endings.
Larry Hryb: I think it's okay, the game's been out for a while, and I don't know, have you guys finished? I know Laura, you haven't.
Graeme Boyd: Not even close.
Larry Hryb: Okay, so I'll- I'll ... Do you wa- Can I say it?
Jeff Rubenstein: I-
Larry Hryb: All right, if you don't want to know, I'm gonna say it, here it is, all right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Let's give it 10 seconds right?
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: For station identification, on the Major Nelson Radio Network.
Larry Hryb: Please stand by. I got the ending where Ciri becomes a witcher.
Jeff Rubenstein: We got the same ending.
Larry Hryb: We did?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Where she- where he walks into a bar-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: ... and she's kinda like, she pulls up her head and-
Jeff Rubenstein: So you- did that mean you didn't take the side mission that Sigi, or whatever his name, gives you towards the end about assassinating a certain monarch of a bad country?
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: I don't think that rings true. I'll have to go back. Is there a place I can check in the game of what I did? I think- oh it does.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Yeah you can.
Larry Hryb: I- I don't remember.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Because-
Larry Hryb: Because remember, I've been playing this for about- since it came out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: So I did some of those quests a long time ago.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well that one, that one doesn't come up until very very ... you're already in the end game, you've already started down a path that it's kind of hard to deviate at this point.
Larry Hryb: Right, right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And Sigi- Sigmund, the tall guy, bald guy that works in the bathhouse, he comes to you at some point.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: You can't miss it, and offers you an opportunity to do a side mission.
Larry Hryb: You're talking Dijkstra?
Jeff Rubenstein: Dijkstra. His first name is like Sigismund or something, I don't remember.
Larry Hryb: I don't know, I just know him as Dijkstra.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, yes. So, um, he offers you to do an assassination mission basically.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I was like yeah, I'll come back to this after the game. Turns out, that has a dramatic impact on the ending-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... And I- I think you may have sipped it like me. I told you not to.
Larry Hryb: Yep. So anyway, uh, finished that, lot of fun um, yeah. So that's the-
Jeff Rubenstein: How's the DLC? Are you playing Blood and Wine or you playing the ...
Larry Hryb: Uh, yes. And it's very very very very ver- ... I mean you've been up to CD Projekt right? I haven't been up there.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, I went up to Warsaw, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's-
Graeme Boyd: Brilliant.
Larry Hryb: Those guys are just ... They- they know what they're doing so-
Graeme Boyd: That's a cool studio as well.
Larry Hryb: Is it?
Graeme Boyd: It's one of those places where you go in, you know some studios are a bit soul less actually. That's a studio you go in and you can tell that everyone loves what they're doing, like, has real passion for the game.
Larry Hryb: As if it doesn't come through in the game enough right?
Graeme Boyd: Well exactly, you have to love that game right, if you're working on some monster like that, it's humongous.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's- That's funny because I felt the same thing about Rare.
Graeme Boyd: Yes. Absolutely.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: When we were up there. Like, a lot of studios, like you have an image in your mind, and sometimes you walk in and it's really just people on computers, and maybe they will be like a statue or a lot of posters or whatever but ultimately, doesn't look that much different, you squint and you could be at a you know any other office.
Larry Hryb: I could be looking at an insurance office in Connecticut.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly, but Rare is not like that, at all. I was stunned at 2how amazing that place is.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah. Well it's in an amazing place, first of all isn't it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: It's quite unique, and uh, you're right.
Jeff Rubenstein: I saw a lot of sheep.
Graeme Boyd: It's the perfect example. It's like, it feels magical in there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: There's a real sense of like-
Larry Hryb: Let's talk about that, so that's kind of what I've been planning, I want to segway in, because you said you went up to play Sea of Thieves, and Jeff, you did as well right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah. Same thing.
Larry Hryb: So you guys went out, not together but like a week apart?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah I was a week earlier so-
Jeff Rubenstein: We can't be in the same room for any longer than this once or twice a year.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: I have to know, what are your pirate names?
Graeme Boyd: Oh, uh, so they actually, Rare gave me a pirate name.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: Yeah they gave me one too.
Laura Massey: They gave me one.
Graeme Boyd: I think mine was Man Over Boyd.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's pretty good.
Laura Massey: Oh, very good.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: Really, really good.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mine was Rum Rubenstein.
Laura Massey: Very good.
Graeme Boyd: Okay. Yeah it's fitting.
Larry Hryb: Mine- mine was- mine was Admir- mine-
Graeme Boyd: Depends how you smell.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: It's- it smells good. Rum's a good smelling liquor.
Larry Hryb: Did you get one Laura?
Laura Massey: I did.
Larry Hryb: What- what is yours?
Laura Massey: Mine is Ten Lashes Laura.
Graeme Boyd: I like that.
Larry Hryb: It's- now that's interesting.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs) Hey now.
Graeme Boyd: Why?
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Uh, no it just is, um now it's uh- It's mine is uh, mine is Admiral Nelson.
Graeme Boyd: That's perfect isn't it?
Laura Massey: Oh very good, you got a promotion.
Larry Hryb: Right, so I got a promotion of course.
Graeme Boyd: I like that.
Larry Hryb: Anyway so tell us about, can you ... What can you tell us about what you played?
Graeme Boyd: Uh, I think we can talk about it a bit right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, yeah, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: The alpha build, so they're in tech alpha phase at the moment, so they've got a-
Larry Hryb: Is it different than the beta we- that we played many many months ago? I'm sure it is.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Oh yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: More well developed.
Larry Hryb: That was- that was fun. I didn't know that was being recorded, remember we played that?
Laura Massey: It got recorded and we didn't see it?
Jeff Rubenstein: That was so funny.
Larry Hryb: It was bizarre.
Graeme Boyd: A lot of us didn't know it was being recorded so we were lucky.
Larry Hryb: We were just, and we were just having fun. (laughs)
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness.
Graeme Boyd: Which I think, you know, I think benefited the recording.
Larry Hryb: Remember I was just standing out on the- on the front of the boat just kind of just tossing them back.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, totally.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Well this is the thing about Sea of Thieves right, that the build that was at E3 and Gamescom last year was the same build, and actually it was- it was quite limited in what you could do right?
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Graeme Boyd: You got in with your crew of four, you'd- you could have a drink in the tavern.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: You got in your boat, you sailed around, and you saw another boat and you had a fight.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: That was essentially it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: But, what was amazing about it is that people within that kind of quite constrained number of things you could do, people went off and did all sorts of nonsense.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: And had like so much fun. The build that we played is the tech alpha build so they've added quests.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Graeme Boyd: Right? So you can get a treasure map-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Graeme Boyd: And you go off and find treasure, which is a lot of fun.
Laura Massey: Awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah it's har- fun to figure it out, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: You have to work together to like-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... Decode the map, find the island, navigate to the island, get on the island-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Graeme Boyd: Find the spot that the X marks, and then dig it up.
Jeff Rubenstein: And then- well and then more importantly, bring it back and then bring it back to the quartermaster or the shipwright and- and-
Larry Hryb: Oh I did- I did play that build.
Jeff Rubenstein: And that's when it gets a little harder. Yeah this was a more, it was more polished than that, so it was much smoother and actually it looked, it looked beautiful, this is a beautiful looking game.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, I noticed. Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think in this point in where it's at, I can't believe how good it looks.
Larry Hryb: I remember when we- when I was working with uh, talking to Ken Levine who worked on bio- the original Bioshock.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: I remember him telling me, I don't think we did this on the show, but I remember him telling me in a separate conversation because I'm a SCUBA diver and we were talking about water, he said at one point, I believe they had four or five artists working on just the water alone.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Graeme Boyd: Right.
Larry Hryb: So I wonder if that's the case at Rare, because that water is unbelievable.
Laura Massey: The water is amazing.
Graeme Boyd: Some good water.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I remember Ken Levine, that he- they put out a video. This is- we're going back to like 2007, 6 at this point.
Larry Hryb: You're off the couch.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, exactly. No, no. Almost, almost.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: I was sort of like leaning forward, uh, you gotta rock them back and forth a few times before you get up. Uh, and they did a whole like 10 minute video on the water of uh-
Larry Hryb: Bioshock.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, and- and- I was trying to think of the name of uh ...
Graeme Boyd: Rapture.
Jeff Rubenstein: Rapture, thank you.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: And um, it was amazing. That wa- that got me hooked on the game more than anything, and of course it's one of the greatest games of all time but-
Larry Hryb: Well, I mean I've told this story multiple times is that- the way I got hooked on it was backstage at- Peter Moore at the event we did in Barcelona, were you at that event?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, like X06?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Was it?
Larry Hryb: And we backstage, I was tal- and we were getting- we were rehearsing and I was talking with Peter Moore, and he had his back to the screen and I was talking to him, and all of the ... They were just testing that trailer and I had not seen anything yet, and I was like, "Shh, Peter hold on." I hadn't seen this one and I was like, "Shh." He kept talking.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Because I was so completely in, because I'm a SCUBA diver and I love Art Deco and the s- the swing music and I was all- I was all in, all in, in the first 30 seconds.
Jeff Rubenstein: Were you a big daddy for Halloween that year?
Larry Hryb: You know how I feel about Halloween.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's your favorite holiday, and?
Larry Hryb: A, it's not a holiday.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a day, it's- and I guess it's-
Laura Massey: It is a day.
Graeme Boyd: It's a holiday for me, I always take it off.
Larry Hryb: Yeah I actually- I've actually I think for the past four years, have successfully been out of the country for Halloween every year.
Graeme Boyd: Wow.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Anyway, uh, so you guys have-
Graeme Boyd: You know that X06 was 11 years ago?
Larry Hryb: Yeah thanks for making me feel old.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: How come we never go to- I want to go to Barcelona. Can you spin something out?
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Graeme Boyd: It's a good place. I got engaged in Barcelona to my wife, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: You did?
Laura Massey: Wow, cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: At X06?
Graeme Boyd: It wasn't at X06, no.
Larry Hryb: Was it- was it in front of the big cathedral?
Graeme Boyd: No it was on the balcony of our hotel.
Larry Hryb: Oh, brilliant.
Graeme Boyd: It was quite low key but it was nice.
Larry Hryb: That's nice.
Graeme Boyd: I think it was nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: Look, you're still married, so there's that.
Graeme Boyd: Don't ask my wife.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: It worked.
Larry Hryb: So anyways, so you guys had a good time at Rare, and you talked to Craig.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, it was great. You know the other thing they introduced in the build we played was combat, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Graeme Boyd: Because that was the thing I kind of missed at Gamescom.
Larry Hryb: What do you mean? We- we have combat. We have ship to ship-
Graeme Boyd: Person to person combat, weapons.
Larry Hryb: Oh, blunderbuss.
Graeme Boyd: We had a blunderbuss and a [crosstalk 23:53] pistol.
Jeff Rubenstein: And- and- a- a pistol. Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Do you have a sword?
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I don't think so.
Graeme Boyd: Not yet, not in what we played.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: But that was great because now you can board other pirate ships.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Laura Massey: Take it over. (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: And actually take on the pirate one to one. And then just getting the chest, like the thing that got me, that I wasn't really expecting was that when you add in all those things, and the chests and the weapons, it introduces this real risk-reward.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Graeme Boyd: That I hadn't really thought of before.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Graeme Boyd: So even when you land an island to try and get a chest, you're sort of like, "Should we leave our ship?"
Larry Hryb: Right, what do we do?
Jeff Rubenstein: Right it could get jacked, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Do we need someone to guard the ship?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Because someone, you know, another crew could come along and steal your ship and you'd be stranded in a island, once you've got the chest, you have to put it in your ship.
Larry Hryb: Right, and then-
Jeff Rubenstein: And where in the ship do you put it?
Larry Hryb: And you have to hide it.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, do you want to make it, exactly.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: And then if you, you know remember when Gamescom and that, you would see another ship and you'd go plow in straight into battle, right? Where as now you've got a chest on your ship, you're like, "Should we?"
Jeff Rubenstein: "Did they see me?"
Larry Hryb: Because if I remember correctly, I think Craig mentioned this to me, if you have a chest and you lose your ship, it sinks.
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative) absolutely.
Larry Hryb: And I think the other team can retrieve it.
Graeme Boyd: And the other team can get it, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, at the bottom of the ocean.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, so-
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 24:59] sounds great.
Graeme Boyd: You know, it's like, that prospect for s- like these amazing stories that comes out of all those, that risk-reward and that ebb and flow of how your crew behaves is brilliant.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Like, one of the other crews in our um, play session, stole our chest-
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Graeme Boyd: Um, but there was only one of them left. So one guy had it, and he hid on this little desert island. We knew he was there, so we went and got in a new ship.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: Sailed all the way back to where he was-
Larry Hryb: Because he was stranded, he couldn't get off.
Graeme Boyd: Absolutely, he was waiting for his crew to come back.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Graeme Boyd: So, we managed to kill him and get the chest back.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: And we were like great, mission accomplished, and it was only afterwards he told us that actually, he had two chests with him. And yeah, we got ours back, but he had hidden another one.
Jeff Rubenstein: Ah.
Graeme Boyd: So when he got his crew back and they went back and got the other chest.
Larry Hryb: They got a chest.
Graeme Boyd: And we were like, "Oh if only we would have known, we could've had two chests out of that."
Larry Hryb: That's interesting.
Graeme Boyd: So that was a nice little twist in that-
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so there you go, so I'm uh, I'm ... We're looking forward to that. I don't know when we're gonna see more. Do we know when we're gonna see more of that?
Graeme Boyd: Well they, you know, you can- you can sign up for the insider program, now, through Rare's website.
Larry Hryb: Make sure we put that link in there-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, absolutely.
Graeme Boyd: SeaofTheives.com
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Graeme Boyd: And they're doing tech alpha play tests now and over the next few months. And the one thing I love about what Rare's doing with Sea of Thieves is they're- they've got this amazing connection to the community.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Graeme Boyd: So they're putting out podcasts all the time, and updates and great videos-
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a very- it's very rich.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: For a game that isn't even out yet, they got a lot to talk about.
Jeff Rubenstein: Right, it's just amazing to see like, they've converted the studio like fu-
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And- and- thi- this is, obviously they have a very rich history I'm sure ... If you've played Rare replay, you've seen, you know 30 games that go back in their- in their- in their history. But they- there was like cannons everywhere.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: They've really done it up to the point where I was like has it always been like this? And parts of it have, and parts of it have-
Larry Hryb: Because it's on water right?
Laura Massey: Yeah, they have a lake in the middle.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a little [crosstalk 26:39] in the back.
Larry Hryb: There better be cannons out there.
Laura Massey: There are.
Jeff Rubenstein: There is. Oh, absolutely. Even on-
Laura Massey: On the-
Jeff Rubenstein: There's like these parallel buildings, and they have cannons like, broadside cannons like facing each other.
Laura Massey: And they have shi- what looks like ship windows.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: So they dress their buildings-
Larry Hryb: To look like little ships.
Laura Massey: ... like ships.
Larry Hryb: Oh that's-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Graeme Boyd: It's- it's a strange studio because it is in a really beautiful part of England.
Larry Hryb: But completely remote.
Jeff Rubenstein: Gorgeous.
Graeme Boyd: [crosstalk 26:58] really remote.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sheep like everywhere.
Graeme Boyd: And you- and you would have no idea it was there-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.
Graeme Boyd: ... Because it's kind of, it's up along like, it's almost like a sort of country house drive-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Graeme Boyd: ... you have to go up to get to. And there's loads of nature and it's a beautiful place.
Jeff Rubenstein: And then there's like a gate out of nowhere and it was just like, uh please-
Graeme Boyd: A mysterious gate.
Jeff Rubenstein: Please go up, and the cab- the cabbie was like, "It'll go up, trust me, they know me."
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And then, it did, and in I go.
Larry Hryb: Yeah I- I- I haven't been out there yet, but uh Craig keep- is- was dying to get me out there and I do need to go out there, but apparently there's a shed in the backyard out in the garden, that has a bunch of really interesting history.
Graeme Boyd: Oh.
Larry Hryb: Like Banjo-Kazooie stuff, and GoldenEye stuff, you know from over the years. So obviously the place has been fully pirate-ized, so they've stored it out there. But I'm dying to take a look at that shed.
Graeme Boyd: They've got great statues and-
Laura Massey: They do.
Graeme Boyd: You know, old merch all over the place like-
Laura Massey: And it's in their field as well, back in their recreational fields they have all the statues.
Larry Hryb: Right. Well I ... So there's sheep in the field right?
Jeff Rubenstein: There's sheep-
Graeme Boyd: Oh there's all sorts, there's sheep-
Larry Hryb: See this is what's really bizarre to me, apparently since Microsoft owns Rare and Rare has all that property, technically Microsoft owns sheep.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Great.
Larry Hryb: Because they own the property, they own the sheep. How- what is- what is the term for a bunch of sheep? A q-
Jeff Rubenstein: A flock?
Larry Hryb: Is it a flock?
Jeff Rubenstein: I believe so, there was that Capcom game Flock and it had sheep so um, I think they're experts.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: Listen, I'm from Aberdeen, I know about sheep, trust me.
Larry Hryb: You do? Okay.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, a lot about sheep.
Larry Hryb: Too much maybe?
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs) How much is too much really?
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Any who, we're now in a strange area, uh all right, so we're cooking along, we've kind of talked about what we've played.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: We've got some news this week, uh if you- you know, first of all I want to thank Graeme because by the time this show airs the news will have been out, two things. A, Graeme joined me on This Week on Xbox.
Laura Massey: All right.
Graeme Boyd: A dream come true.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: I must tell you, you haven't seen this yet, but they were putting together an image to promote the show, because one of the other bits of news is and let me see if I have- yeah I do have the notes here, is that Fallout Shelter is coming elusively to Xbox One and Windows 10.
Jeff Rubenstein: Really?
Laura Massey: Very cool.
Larry Hryb: Yeah we announced that on the show, and it's funny, if you watch the video Laura-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: You know because if you played this on your iPad or your Android device, if you watch- did you see the B-roll they sent us Graeme?
Graeme Boyd: No I haven't seen it.
Larry Hryb: All, all the vault dwellers are named Larry.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: And they're just wandering around there, so they sent over this cool ... Thanks to Bethesda for that, so that's gonna be a free download, uh, watch the show for details on that. But in one of the images we were putting together to promote the show was the Fallout- with the Fallout boy and his thumbs up-
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: And they put your face over the Fallout boy.
Graeme Boyd: Oh perfect.
Laura Massey: Oh really?
Larry Hryb: And I don't think it got approved by the powers that be, but I- maybe I'll just kind of put it out there accidentally. You've got to see this.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, well at least send it to me, I really want- wow, that sounds amazing.
Larry Hryb: I think that yeah, they were having a little bit of fun with it, so ... But anyway, but thank you for joining us on the show this week.
Graeme Boyd: Oh it was a pleasure, thank you for asking me.
Larry Hryb: A couple other pieces of news this week, we announced two- two uh, new color of Xbox wireless controllers Graeme.
Laura Massey: Oh awesome.
Graeme Boyd: Yes, love them.
Laura Massey: What colors?
Larry Hryb: These are the Ocean Shadow Special Edition Controller, which is kind of this blue gradient.
Jeff Rubenstein: Teal, it's beautiful.
Graeme Boyd: Teal, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's teal, it's beautiful, and there's the Winter Forces. Uh, which is kind of a you know, it's the grey-white blocky kind of camouflage-esque one.
Laura Massey: Oh okay.
Larry Hryb: So we've got uh, all those are on the show. I think I have them on this, there's this thing called Instagram, Laura do you have an Instagram?
Laura Massey: What's this Instagram you talk about?
Larry Hryb: If you check my Instagram, or as the kids called it, just Insta.
Laura Massey: Insta.
Larry Hryb: Right. How did you know that?
Laura Massey: Makes sense.
Jeff Rubenstein: Because she's a kid.
Laura Massey: No, because it's obvious.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: I- you- I think it's funny. You were- you went from not understanding Instagram to being like a big Instagram you know, influencer really.
Larry Hryb: Well, I just kind of do my own thing over there. Uh-
Jeff Rubenstein: You're verified on Instagram.
Larry Hryb: Right, I am.
Laura Massey: There's a verification process?
Larry Hryb: Apparently. I don't know.
Graeme Boyd: It's got a tick.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm gonna link to your Instagram you've got some good pho- oh, look at that keyboard.
Larry Hryb: Look at the second one in.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, oh yeah. That's uh, from Viva Pinata right?
Larry Hryb: So it's actually from right down the hall.
Graeme Boyd: Is it?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Because I saw that pop up the other day and I thought, "That's an amazing image." Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah it's right there, I'll show you when we're done.
Laura Massey: Wait, what is this image?
Larry Hryb: It's this um, it's this Viva Pinata that's down the- it's this crazy like-
Laura Massey: It's a poster.
Larry Hryb: ... Max Fleischer-esque kind of-
Laura Massey: Is it a poster?
Larry Hryb: Yes it is.
Laura Massey: Okay. A Viva Pinata poser. I love Viva Pinata.
Larry Hryb: I will show you down the hall. But it's actually, it's actually artwork. Anyway ...
Laura Massey: Wow.
Graeme Boyd: Rare re-grammed you the other day on that one.
Larry Hryb: What, did you?
Graeme Boyd: No, Rare did.
Larry Hryb: Oh did they? I didn't know that.
Graeme Boyd: I didn't re-gram you.
Larry Hryb: You can gram me, re-gram Graeme.
Laura Massey: What's a re-gram? It's like retweet.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, like a retweet.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Anyway-
Jeff Rubenstein: Well but Graeme, but Graeme has to do it. He's the only one that can do it.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, Insta-Graeme.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so we have details on that, uh, we also you know, this is a big week um, here in the US because it is the Superbowl. For that other football game.
Graeme Boyd: Oh that's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: The superb owl.
Graeme Boyd: Wrong football, as I like to call it.
Larry Hryb: The wrong football?
Jeff Rubenstein: Look, there's room for both.
Larry Hryb: You can watch- you can watch the Madden Bowl at twitch.tv/madden, that's a big deal. Uh, we got the Witcher game, the- the- Gwent the card game is in, so we've got a whole bunch of stuff you can download or check out This Week on Xbox on YouTube. Gotta get it on Facebook, remember we were talking about it on Twitter?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: It's Facebook we gotta get it on. We gotta get it on the Xbox-
Graeme Boyd: Facebook, okay. I'm taking a note.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we gotta get it there.
Laura Massey: He literally is taking a note.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, he is, he is, he's quite-
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Instagram stories as well.
Larry Hryb: Yeah we should do it there too.
Graeme Boyd: We were just talking about that today about doing something on there with This Week on Xbox, that would be cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: 10 seconds of Larry.
Larry Hryb: So, I don't know if we want that. Uh, but yeah, so you can go ahead and check that out, I put it in the line up square, but thank you Graeme for coming by. In fact, I may have you on the show next week ... I may have you do the show next week because I'm going to New York Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: Happy to do it, we'll have a spike in returns on Xbox one's once again.
Larry Hryb: I will uh- no.
Graeme Boyd: Can you wear another cool football jersey?
Jeff Rubenstein: I can actually, yeah. I'll go, I'll go buy one.
Graeme Boyd: That was my favorite last time you did it.
Larry Hryb: Uh, well uh ... I'm uh, gonna be in New York next week, I'll be at the Microsoft Store on Tuesday evening, we're doing a Halo Wars, kind of a pre-stream I believe.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Cool.
Larry Hryb: So I'll be out there by myself, I'll have a blog post up on that, but just follow me on twitter, you can find out when I'm gonna be there. If you're in the- if you're in the tri-state area, did you have a tri-state area in Texas, Laura?
Laura Massey: Uh-uh (negative)
Larry Hryb: Oh well there's- sorry. It- it's ...
Graeme Boyd: Texas is the size of all the tri-states.
Jeff Rubenstein: There is no other states, there is only Texas.
Larry Hryb: But you know what I'm talking about when I say that right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, oh well so- it's interesting, my tri-state area was Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And then, but yours also would've had New Jersey right?
Larry Hryb: New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're all fighting- I guess, more like South-Jersey, Princeton on down.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Anyway, so I'll be in New York at the Manhattan Microsoft Store Tuesday. I look forward to seeing you and your friends come on by, say hello.
Laura Massey: Are you all right?
Larry Hryb: No, I'm hearing some weird noise and I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's my headphones or ...
Laura Massey: Is it me?
Larry Hryb: No. I- I don't know what's going on. Anyway, we'll just keep- we'll just- we'll just soldier on gang.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: What other headlines you got there Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well uh, since it is a new month, it is February, Games with Gold. New Games with Gold are out. So uh, right now, uh, well as soon as you're done listening to this, download Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. Around this time of year, Valentine's Day coming up, you'll tend to see stories on like, "What are the best couch co-op games of all time?" And Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime absolutely belongs on that list.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jeff Rubenstein: I know we talked about Overcooked.
Larry Hryb: You and I played that didn't we?
Jeff Rubenstein: We did play this game.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Um, and so basically what it is, is two um, it's very cute. But like, two people are in a circular space ship and they have to rescue these little cute things and then escape. The thing is, there's two people but there's like eight or nine stations on this ship, so you can, you know, if you've got someone driving, then no one- then you need someone else to man a gun and they need their shields and then there's uh, a tractorbeam. There's all these different things, and so you really need to coordinate-
Larry Hryb: All the different stations around.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly, and you can't just- it- it- it's you- you have to really coordinate well. And so it's a- like I think- much like Overcooked and really any good couch co-op game, you- there's equal parts yelling and laughing.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And so I definitely highly recommend, and since it's free I really don't feel like I have to try too hard on that one.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: And then also, Monkey Island 2.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Graeme Boyd: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is now available. Uh, that was uh, from XBLA, uh, back in the day and that one is also available for free.
Graeme Boyd: Good preparation for Sea of Thieves as well.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh yeah, pirate themed, yes.
Graeme Boyd: And they um, when I was up there, I was actually on their podcast and they were talking about how Monkey Island ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Influenced?
Graeme Boyd: Was a big influence for them, yeah, how much they loved it, so yeah.
Larry Hryb: Good.
Jeff Rubenstein: So uh, that is ...
Larry Hryb: Those are the headlines for-
Jeff Rubenstein: Well that's the major headline, that and the controllers. And a few games came out, uh-
Larry Hryb: We've got a bunch of games.
Jeff Rubenstein: A lot of indie games coming out this time of year, like a lot.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: So uh, most recently uh, Subject 13.
Larry Hryb: We talked about Candleman.
Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, Candleman, Kill The Bad Guy, and uh, Wells.
Larry Hryb: That's a creative title.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, you know, there's room for everything, and a game called Wells, which seems to have a locomotive in it.
Larry Hryb: Wells.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: All right, we're kind of getting to where we kind of need to wrap things up because I know, you've got a flight to get onto.
Graeme Boyd: Yes.
Larry Hryb: All right so, we're gonna take a break here and do uh, Name the Game.
Laura Massey: Name the Game time?
Larry Hryb: How's that sound?
Laura Massey: Sounds great. Let's do Name the Game.
video game 1: ... I see you ... Run, run as fast as you can, can't catch me I'm the boogey man ...
Laura Massey: So that was name the game from last time, and it was, Wick.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: It's a good game.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: And the winner-
Larry Hryb: Winner.
Laura Massey: Is Adam from Ruskin, Florida.
Larry Hryb: Florida. Do you know where that is Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: Ruskin, Florida? That sounds like west coast.
Laura Massey: That sounds like near Tampa.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. That's what-
Larry Hryb: That sounds like west coast, what is that- how do you know that?
Jeff Rubenstein: It just sounds like we- you know what, and it is.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Laura Massey: All right, well congratulations Adam, we appreciate your entry. Let's tell Adam what he's won.
Larry Hryb: Well, I'll let you tell him what he's won, because you're the one who cleans out my uh, my office.
Laura Massey: (laughs) Got a good load of games here for you Adam.
Larry Hryb: I don't know how you get in there to get that stuff.
Laura Massey: I'm going to give you a copy of Wick, as well as TowerFall Ascension.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: And RWBY: Grimm Eclipse.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Laura Massey: Which is a new game from Rooster Teeth.
Larry Hryb: Our friends at Rooster Teeth.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Also a copy of I Am Bread.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Laura Massey: Which I do want to check out, it looks- it's actually pretty cool. And Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: That's a little nostalgia there, and that's not all-
Larry Hryb: Not all.
Laura Massey: The last thing is the Resident Evil 7: Biohazard season pass.
Larry Hryb: So you can have even more horror.
Graeme Boyd: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: (laughs) You have a season pass to nightmares.
Laura Massey: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Your welcome.
Laura Massey: Your welcome, exactly.
Larry Hryb: Anyway congratulations Adam, from the west coast of Florida as Jeffrey has, is that a-
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which is one of the most impressive bridges you could ever drive over. It's I think, the second highest bridge in the world.
Larry Hryb: That the one in Tampa right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's the one that goes from like uh, Tampa to St. Pete.
Larry Hryb: Wasn't there like an accident or something where somebody went off of it or somebody plowed-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, there was, and I'm sure it's happened more than once but it's really re- like when you see it from a distance you're like, "I ain't driving over that thing." It is, it's like a bridge to nowhere. I think there's in Europe and you might've- in France there's like a really really long bridge there.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, I've seen that one yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's been on like Top Gear a million times.
Larry Hryb: Is it the length or is it the height?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's the height. In this case it's the height, although it's also really really like, several miles long.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's really impressive.
Larry Hryb: Have you been over it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, of course.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Well, I- okay.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: [inaudible 00:38:10] Come on. Uh, but yeah I think it's sec- in height, it's second only to the Golden Gate Bridge but because of just like, it's in the middle of like a very flat area, it stands out.
Graeme Boyd: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: It just looks like, it doesn't even look like it could be real.
Larry Hryb: Should we put a f- want to put a-
Jeff Rubenstein: You know what, I'm gonna put a little bit on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
Larry Hryb: A little Wikipedia link to that. All right, and that way Laura can get ready for her next name the game, you ready?
Laura Massey: Yes, I am ready for name the game for this week ...
video game 2: ... (grunts)
Laura Massey: So that was name the game for this week. If you too would like to win fabulous prizes, it's super easy, all you have to do is send me an email, lollipop@Xbox.com and cc Major@Xbox.com, just tell us what game that is, super easy.
Larry Hryb: People nee- people hit us up on Twitter all the time like, "What's your email address?" And ...
Laura Massey: Right, and yeah we don't take entries over twitter.
Larry Hryb: No.
Laura Massey: Just in email, it's really hard to catalog.
Larry Hryb: We'll say hello over Twitter but it does not count as an official entry Graeme.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: Keep that in mind.
Graeme Boyd: Sorry, I'll stop doing it.
Larry Hryb: Okay stop doing that, so uh, anyway.
Laura Massey: Yep, send us an email.
Larry Hryb: So good luck to everybody who uh, who can guess ... Are you looking at the- you are looking at the Wikipedia page aren't you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. They film a lot of commercials on that.
Laura Massey: He's studying the bridge.
Jeff Rubenstein: Photos do it no justice, but anyway, I like bridges.
Larry Hryb: All right, good to know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah look at this, there was a big accident, like a ship hit it in 1980, like the old one.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah. Like the old one?
Graeme Boyd: It sounds like Quantum Break.
Laura Massey: Yes, it does.
Larry Hryb: All right, so we're wrapping up the show here, we got a few more minutes, Graeme do you want to share us any details on how things are going over in the UK?
Graeme Boyd: It's all going great.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Graeme Boyd: No, we're having a good time just now you know, I think um, it's nice to come out of the craziness of-
Larry Hryb: The holiday.
Graeme Boyd: November and October of last year and try and get caught up on some games.
Larry Hryb: Now I don't know if I've- I tweeted this out and I don't know if it's the same for you, maybe it is for you Laura and Jeffrey but, as the weeks go, on my calendar is filling up more and more with meetings with the subjects line, "Scorpio."
Laura Massey: I saw that tweet.
Larry Hryb: Right? And it was, it's true, I can't say what it- Scorpio what part of it or what's involved, but I'll just say ... Is that, are you finding the same thing Graeme?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, absolutely, I mean it's part of the reason why I'm over here this week.
Larry Hryb: It's delightful.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah it's really exciting, really exciting.
Jeff Rubenstein: See I didn't get- I started here nine day before the Xbox one launched.
Larry Hryb: Did you know that? Did you know he started nine days before the launch?
Laura Massey: I didn't know it was nine days.
Jeff Rubenstein: Nine days. Like literally I came here Monday, you do your training, day two, Larry's like, "Uh, you need to get a Amex card real quick because you need to book a flight to New York because we're going out."
Larry Hryb: We're going to launch. Well here's wh- here's why, because Jeff, when I- when we hired Jeff to join the team, and he and I were working together, um, I knew that he wasn't around for a console launch, he wasn't around for the PlayStation launch.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I missed PS3 by six months-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... And I left like two months before PS4.
Larry Hryb: Right so I was like, I wanted you to experience a console launch.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Because it's having that- because having that, you know when you check that box, you're like, "I've launched a console."
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I've launched a platform. Because this will- Scorpio I was counting will be my 1, 2, 3, I think fourth or fifth platform. It's a big deal.
Graeme Boyd: Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well I- it's- it's really fun to be here now that we're-
Larry Hryb: Planning.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... months and months ahead of it, it's really cool.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so it's- it's a lot of fun as-
Laura Massey: It's very exciting.
Larry Hryb: It's very exciting.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: So, I'm glad you came over Graeme.
Graeme Boyd: I'm glad I was here.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: (laughs)
Larry Hryb: No, you had a good week.
Graeme Boyd: And thank you for asking me in.
Larry Hryb: By the way-
Graeme Boyd: We've seen each other quite a lot.
Larry Hryb: Yeah well this is the second or third time we've seen a- which is- which is not normal. Um, and so when you come back we'll have to-
Graeme Boyd: And you gave me a drive in your car the other day which was fantastic.
Larry Hryb: I was gonna actually have you drive it, but I didn't know, do you- do you- do you- if, you know, if you've ever driven an electric car and would it be okay, because it's on the different of the road and-
Graeme Boyd: I'd be- I think I'd be all right there, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Graeme Boyd: As long as you trust me.
Larry Hryb: Well, maybe we'll jus- maybe in the parking lot to start.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, I get it.
Larry Hryb: Like drivers ed. Uh, but yeah it's uh- we've got a lot going on here as we said, we- we're, the other thing is we've got preview, uh Xbox Preview members, we're shipping that out.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Larry Hryb: We- we did that last week where we have this new concept, you have the build at home right, right Graeme?
Graeme Boyd: Yes, absolutely.
Larry Hryb: And Laura do you have it at home or ...
Laura Massey: I do.
Larry Hryb: Okay, so you're testing out with the one button to guide-
Graeme Boyd: I love that.
Larry Hryb: And we've got Beam integration, which is just stupid easy.
Laura Massey: That's great.
Larry Hryb: You just go, beam, boom you're done. I may or may not have been testing it out for my console over the past week. I can't say that, so ... Uh, so we got that coming out, we're looking forward to that releasing, we got a lot of new features there. Uh, yeah, so a lot going on there and I don't know if we have anything else, we're gonna wrap so you can go and catch your airplane.
Graeme Boyd: Yes, thank you.
Larry Hryb: Because you'll be home, you can spend Friday, are you just gonna go to work tomorrow or are you gonna stay home and sleep?
Graeme Boyd: I might take it off as annual leave tomorrow.
Larry Hryb: (laughs)
Graeme Boyd: I got a few days to burn.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're owning it.
Larry Hryb: A few more? (laughs)
Jeff Rubenstein: You know what, we make fun of you but you're the one doing it right.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Graeme Boyd: No, I will- I will- you know, I think I land about noon Friday, so yeah I'll catch up a little bit and then roll in into the weekend.
Larry Hryb: Yeah that's- and then are you far from the airports? No.
Graeme Boyd: 45 minutes.
Larry Hryb: Did- was it better going to the airport this time? Because I remember last time it was quite dram- remember, your car broke and there was something else?
Graeme Boyd: Yeah that was like the worst day, everything went wrong that could've. It was fine this time, it was nice and smooth so-
Larry Hryb: Now we normally don't, we normally, for obvious reasons, we really don't talk politics on this show but how's the whole Brexit thing going?
Graeme Boyd: Uh, well ... (laughs) do we need to (laughs)
Larry Hryb: Well, we've got our own issues over here.
Graeme Boyd: I wanted to come here and just think about games for an hour as an escape.
Larry Hryb: Well, we've- we've got our hands full over here, we'll just say this.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah, we're all in this together let's just say that.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're at the point where like I want to tweet something about games and I look and I'm like uh, this is not a good time for that.
Graeme Boyd: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Graeme Boyd: Well that's a no, people ... people really need games.
Larry Hryb: And we're here for you.
Graeme Boyd: Possibly more than ever.
Jeff Rubenstein: They do, they do.
Larry Hryb: We are here for you, games are uh, will always be here for you. Great games. A lot of great games coming out. All right gang, we're gonna wrap it up, Graeme again, thank you so much for coming over and I wish you safe travels back to the UK and uh, enjoy your annual leave.
Graeme Boyd: Thank you. Lovely seeing you all.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Laura Massey: Great to see you Graeme.
Larry Hryb: And how can people find you on Twitter?
Graeme Boyd: @AceyBongos, and Instagram as well.
Larry Hryb: Is your- are you just Graeme on Instagram because that would be awesome.
Jeff Rubenstein: Insta Graeme, you gotta- does anyone have that?
Graeme Boyd: Should've gone for Insta Graeme shouldn't I? Yeah, I just went for AceyBongos.
Larry Hryb: Oh, that's fine. And of course you can find Jeff, he's @JeffRubenstein.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's correct.
Larry Hryb: And Laura ...
Laura Massey: @lauralollipop
Larry Hryb: Yeah, and the other two you can just follow, look at me, and you follow them, see there you go. Tah-Tah gang, we'll talk to you guys next week, buh-bye everybody.
Laura Massey: Bye.
Graeme Boyd: Bye.
Jeff Rubenstein: Bye.

Larry Hryb: Hi, it's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. Thank you for downloading the show. It's great to be back, we're all in the studio. Here we are, saying hello to ... hello, E.
Eric Neustadter: Hello.
Larry Hryb: Nice to see you again, as always.
Eric Neustadter: Nice to see you.
Larry Hryb: Sitting, of course, next to you, is Laura. Hello, Laura.
Laura Massey: Hello.
Larry Hryb: And then bringing up the rear, as always-
Stephen Toulous: As always. If I'm not running ahead I'm bringing up the rear.
Larry Hryb: Exactly. Nice to see you guys. It's been quite a week of gaming, hasn't it?
Stephen Toulous: It has.
Larry Hryb: I don't know what ... we usually jump right in with what we're playing, so I figure we'll go in, and gentleman, it would be all right if Laura goes first?
Stephen Toulous: Absolutely.
Eric Neustadter: I know where she's gonna start from. Something I want to talk about.
Laura Massey: Yes!
Larry Hryb: What are you playing now?
Laura Massey: I am obsessed with Mini Metro.
Larry Hryb: Still?
Laura Massey: Yes!
Larry Hryb: This was like ... we talked about this a couple weeks ago.
Laura Massey: We did, and I still can't put it down.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Eric Neustadter: You're welcome.
Laura Massey: Thanks, E.
Larry Hryb: Just to make sure, 'cause I don't know we talked about this. It went from E mentioning it on Twitter, and I was like, "Oh, that's interesting," over Christmas. I picked it up and couldn't put it down, and then the next show when we came in, I said, "Laura, you gotta play this." And she's like, "What is this?" And she downloaded it during the show-
Laura Massey: During the show and started playing it.
Larry Hryb: Have you played it?
Stephen Toulous: I have not. I've seen you guys obsessed with it but I have not played.
Larry Hryb: You should give it a try.
Eric Neustadter: Oh, it's amazing.
Laura Massey: It is so smooth, and just super addicting.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's all of those things.
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness. I just realized I told you this earlier. I just realized there are multiple levels on it.
Eric Neustadter: New York?
Laura Massey: I've been playing New York for weeks.
Eric Neustadter: Oh, really?
Larry Hryb: Was it New York that's the opener or is it ... it's London.
Laura Massey: Well, yes. London.
Larry Hryb: London is the first level.
Laura Massey: The London Metro for weeks.
Eric Neustadter: And they have very different problems to solve-
Laura Massey: They do.
Eric Neustadter: And you have to worry about bridges-
Laura Massey: And tunnels and all kinds of things. I didn't realize there's more to the game so I am super excited right now.
Larry Hryb: Wait a minute there's more?
Eric Neustadter: There's a lot!
Stephen Toulous: Yay!
Larry Hryb: Yeah! Good for you.
Laura Massey: It's super fun.
Larry Hryb: Are you playing any more, as always, Diablo?
Laura Massey: I have been playing that. I think we talked a little bit about it in the last show, where there was Diablo One recreated in Diablo Three.
Eric Neustadter: How is that? I haven't tried it.
Laura Massey: It's good.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Eric Neustadter: It looked good.
Laura Massey: It brings back the memories.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah, right?
Larry Hryb: Does it?
Laura Massey: Yeah, because they recreated the entire thing.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Laura Massey: They have a filter over the screen to make it look like it's old graphics, they rebuilt-
Stephen Toulous: I still remember the-
Larry Hryb: I have ...
Stephen Toulous: My first encounter with the Butcher. Right?
Laura Massey: Yes!
Stephen Toulous: That's the first time, when you're like "Oh my goodness!"
Larry Hryb: What did I get myself into.
Stephen Toulous: It's terrifying!
Laura Massey: Because it's really fun to see the progression of Diablo. From Diablo one, to two and three it's-
Larry Hryb: Now you've played them all?
Laura Massey: Yes. Because in Diablo one, your just in a dungeon and all of a sudden this huge red scary monster comes running after you, and kills you almost in the first hit.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: And, of course, it's very different in two and three as they learned.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: It was a different time I think. That was like the same X-Com time period where they held no qualms with just killing you.
Larry Hryb: Well that's when, we've talked about this frequently on the show, that's back in the day when games were hard.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Remember when there was no, there was no ... You couldn't go to the internet. Laura this is, dating ourselves a little bit, and you're excused, but you couldn't go to the internet. You had to either go down to the game computer store and hang out, right? And ask the guys, or the girls, or look at a magazine, so you just didn't have this instant access to everything. There was just no-
Eric Neustadter: It was just ... Sorry I was just having this conversation with a friend yesterday. We were talking about old Infocom games, and how you used to get stuck for two or three weeks on a puzzle.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Eric Neustadter: And you would take the puzzle to school, and talk about it with your friends, and-
Larry Hryb: Get the graph paper out.
Eric Neustadter: And try to find a solution. And there was nobody you could ask. You couldn't go-
Larry Hryb: Well you could just ask your immediate ... You could only work locally.
Eric Neustadter: Right.
Stephen Toulous: There was a great tweet the other day. I think it was David Willis who tweeted it, and he said, you know, "Back before the internet you used to have to run down to the library, and break the glass, and sneak in, in order to find out who Alf's brother was."
Larry Hryb: Right. Right.
Stephen Toulous: And now we can just click it.
Larry Hryb: In seconds. In seconds.
Stephen Toulous: In seconds.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: The Internet's at your fingertips.
Laura Massey: That's pretty funny.
Larry Hryb: So you're playing Diablo.
Laura Massey: Yeah. I was going to say that I do remember playing Diablo II on the dial up modem. I think that's probably the first multiplayer game-
Stephen Toulous: Mom! Don't pick up the phone!
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Okay!
Eric Neustadter: You didn't have a dedicated line for that?
Larry Hryb: No!
Laura Massey: We did. Eventually.
Larry Hryb: You did!?!
Laura Massey: After yelling at all the family for disconnecting everything.
Larry Hryb: No. No. No.
Laura Massey: It was the upstairs line.
Larry Hryb: No.
Eric Neustadter: I had three lines.
Laura Massey: What?
Larry Hryb: These are-
Eric Neustadter: There was my parents line, there was my line for my modem, then there was the third line for the BBS I was running.
Larry Hryb: So that's what I've got to ask you a question, because, um ... And Laura I don't know if you had this, but I know that at least E and Stepto, you guys, we kind of shared the same upbringing we we're on bulletin boards.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Did you have a name?
Stephen Toulous: I don't want to say my name because it got ... It got co-opted by a certain movie franchise.
Larry Hryb: I see, so you can't really use that?
Stephen Toulous: I was Morpheus for the longest time.
Larry Hryb: Oh? Before the fran-
Stephen Toulous: Like, in the mid '80s.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: From Neil Gaiman's the Sandman.
Larry Hryb: Because I can always, I can always ... How about you E? Did you have one?
Eric Neustadter: (Deep sigh)
Larry Hryb: Okay, you don't have to say it. Because I-
Stephen Toulous: Was it Buttercup? Because the look on his face is like "I really don't want to say this."
Eric Neustadter: I'm trying to remember.
Larry Hryb: Because I know that whenever I meet somebody that's of our age, and we talk about that, that's always my first question. There's always that smile, the stop and the smile. Because they haven't been asked to repeat that phrase in probably 20 or 30 years.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Stephen Toulous: And maybe they wish they'd chosen better.
Larry Hryb: Right. Right.
Eric Neustadter: I remember them being different. Because my Fidonet name was not the same as the name on my BBS.
Stephen Toulous: That's true. My Fidonet name was different too.
Eric Neustadter: Right. And my first ... I have no recollection of what my first internet email address was.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Eric Neustadter: It was a UOregon.edu address.
Laura Massey: Oh, I do.
Stephen Toulous: I do.
Eric Neustadter: But it was ... It had six, seven, eight bangs in it. And I have no idea what was at the end.
Larry Hryb: Bang bang bang.
Stephen Toulous: Mine was a series of numbers, because everything was done through a VAC system at the local community college, and it was a series of numbers that are just meaningless now.
Larry Hryb: Do you still have it?
Stephen Toulous: What a great question. I don't know. Back then-
Laura Massey: You haven't checked it!
Stephen Toulous: Back then we didn't have the same password rules we have today, so I bet I can guarantee [crosstalk 00:06:08]
Larry Hryb: Anyway. I just like to, and I haven't asked you that question, so I remember ... Remember we had him on the show before Jeff? From NASA?
Laura Massey: Right.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah Jeff Norris.
Larry Hryb: Right Jeff Norris. I remember I was someplace with Jeff, and we were sitting next to each other, and we were talking, and I said "So what was yours?" And he broke out in the biggest smile, and he told me. I'm not going to repeat because that's-
Stephen Toulous: He still uses it or he doesn't want to-
Larry Hryb: He's probably still using that. But it was just ... It's always something you can always ... It's kind of like a secret handshake now-a-days right?
Stephen Toulous: Yeah it is.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, I'm sorry Laura. We got completely distracted.
Laura Massey: Oh it's totally fine.
Larry Hryb: As we often do.
Laura Massey: So I'm playing Diablo.
Larry Hryb: You're playing Diablo.
Laura Massey: Yep. I also, weirdly, jumped back into World of Warcraft.
Stephen Toulous: What?
Eric Neustadter: What?
Laura Massey: Yes.
Stephen Toulous: What?
Laura Massey: Just to play it, and give it a try over the weekend. It was like hey, we haven't done this in a while. Let's try that.
Stephen Toulous: You haven't done crack in a while.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. Was there a head wound involved, or?
Laura Massey: No, no head wounds.
Stephen Toulous: I seem to remember this pretty good. But I wonder why I gave it up?
Larry Hryb: Wow. What made you do that? I must ask.
Laura Massey: I don't know. Just wanted to give it a try again.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: See what was new. See what was different. They, of course, continually update that game as well as Diablo.
Stephen Toulous: That's true.
Larry Hryb: Yes, they do.
Laura Massey: And it has been twelve years.
Eric Neustadter: It's not the same game it used to be.
Stephen Toulous: No game can, I think right? In that environment. Like, if you really put a platform down, and you may not think to yourself "Oh it may not be around in 12 years," but once it is you're like "well what do we do now?
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: We have to change it.
Eric Neustadter: It's amazing how much Blizzard has evolved WoW.
Laura Massey: Oh yes. 12 years of all kinds of improvements. And it was pretty fun. I'm only level 10. Probably won't keep up with it. But-
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: It's better now than when I tried it a couple years ago.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: That was the last time I tried it.
Larry Hryb: What ... Was there something that drove you back to it, if I may?
Laura Massey: No. It was just a [crosstalk 00:07:46]-
Larry Hryb: Just a lot of time that you had available?
Laura Massey: Ha ha.
Stephen Toulous: You knew you were going to get mocked for this one, right?
Laura Massey: I did.
Larry Hryb: No no no, that's the ... I was like okay, that' interesting.
Laura Massey: I was debating whether or not I should bring it up.
Larry Hryb: No, it's okay. It's okay.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Anything else?
Laura Massey: Maybe we should move on from me now.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. We'll go ... Stepto what about you? What are you playing?
Stephen Toulous: I'm playing three games. One just briefly is, I went back to Skyrim on the Xbox-S, and turn on the mods.
Larry Hryb: Oh so which one are you playing? So when you turn mods on-
Stephen Toulous: I have nine.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Stephen Toulous: So I have a weather one. I have a texture one. I have a bug fix one.
Larry Hryb: Can you send me the list, and I'll include it in the show notes?
Stephen Toulous: Yeah, absolutely. Basically they're the top ... They're essentially the top nine most stable and work best together. And what I love about the mod menu, is you can immediately see what's the most popular and read the star ratings and stuff.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Right.
Stephen Toulous: So it's like the first nine. There's realistic villagers, where they move in patterns that are a little bit more randomized, and their conversations as they're walking around are a little bit more realistic.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: A lot less arrow to the knee. And it's gorgeous in 4k.
Larry Hryb: Sure it is.
Stephen Toulous: I mean it's not native 4k. It's just up scaled. But it's ... Oh my god it's absolutely stunning.
Larry Hryb: Do you have an HDR television?
Stephen Toulous: I don't. THat's my next big thing is to get an HDR television. I have a 4k TV and it's a big 65 inch too, and it's great. So Skyrim's great, the mods are great. They're super easy to install.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: Two things. They turn off achievements. Know that going in.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, of course.
Stephen Toulous: I'm fine with that because I put 120 hours into Skyrim almost.
Larry Hryb: But to be clear, you can just pull up another save that doesn't have them enabled, and you're back in-
Stephen Toulous: Yes. It won't pollute all you're saves. Yeah. The second thing is watch your load order of your mods. Thankfully most mods have a text file that says "Don't load this before you load this or it will undo"-
Larry Hryb: Stepto's tips: there's a load order.
Stephen Toulous: So those two are-[crosstalk 00:09:35]
Larry Hryb: Much like life.
Eric Neustadter: Do I have to go into config sys, and auto exec, and -
Stephen Toulous: No, not that bad. It's not bad. But it did feel a little like that though. It did feel a little like that.
Eric Neustadter: I don't think I want to do that.
Stephen Toulous: The second thing I've been playing, speaking of Blizzard, I finally, you're going to laugh because it's been so popular, but I finally got into Overwatch.
Laura Massey: All right.
Larry Hryb: Now, I saw you playing the other day. I was going to invite you, but to be honest with you, you were only a level five.
Eric Neustadter: Oh.
Stephen Toulous: Let me tell you this story. Let me tell you, because it's funny. I started playing, and I was playing against ai. And I got to where I like a couple of heroes and I felt confident.
Larry Hryb: Which ones?
Stephen Toulous: Bastion mostly.
Larry Hryb: He's a little OP.
Stephen Toulous: But I sometimes.
Larry Hryb: He's a good starter, he's a good starter.
Stephen Toulous: OP is what's needed for me.
Larry Hryb: Okay, fair point. And what else?
Stephen Toulous: So I started rolling with him, and then I dabbled in Mercy, and a couple of the other ones.
Laura Massey: Mercy's really fun.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Eric Neustadter: D.VA
Stephen Toulous: What I ended up doing was rolling with Bastion, because it fit sort of my ... Plant and tank out sort of thing.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Stephen Toulous: On certain maps. Of course on other maps you can't make it work unless you have the support people with you. So then me and a couple friends got together and started playing the AI. And we were good. Let me tell you something. We were good. We were so good.
Larry Hryb: Oh. Really?
Eric Neustadter: You rolled that AI.
Stephen Toulous: That we decided we were going to play humans. And let me tell you, let me tell you, I'm pretty proud of us. I'm pretty proud. We got wrecked.
Larry Hryb: Yes, you did.
Laura Massey: Oh no!
Stephen Toulous: We got wrecked!
Larry Hryb: How many people were there?
Stephen Toulous: Well, so we had full teams on both sides, but in our squad was three. It was me, Josh, and Usenia, and we ended up ... We weren't doing terribly. It was just you could see we were just so patterned.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: And they would adjust to everything. It was beautiful. The reason I'm proud of is we actually had a great time.
Larry Hryb: Well that the most important thing!
Stephen Toulous: Really watching these people beat us, and seeing clearly how they were doing it. We just couldn't adapt fast enough. They were obviously all communicating. Because they were instant pivots. So I'm having a huge amount of fun with that. I will get better at it. I still like Bastion. I still basically like to plant a turret and just hose everything down.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: That's why it's fun.
Larry Hryb: While he's making all his R2-D2 like sounds.
Stephen Toulous: Exactly, and all the emotes. Which I didn't think I would get into those either, but I-
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah!
Laura Massey: Oh wow.
Larry Hryb: We'll talk about that in the what I'm playing section for me.
Eric Neustadter: Have you run up against a really good Genji yet?
Stephen Toulous: Oh yes. Absolutely.
Eric Neustadter: And you're sitting there planted, and he's in you back.
Larry Hryb: And then he's in your front. And then he's in your back. And then he's in your front.
Stephen Toulous: And then the last game is-
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Stephen Toulous: Civ Six.
Larry Hryb: Oh boy.
Stephen Toulous: Which is more beautiful than it has any reason to be. Every Civ game has been a little cartoonish, with touches of realism that were just perfect. This time they went all out. I was sitting there at one point on the map and I caught myself just ... I was staring at the water. I was watching the sunrise over the water on one of the maps. I must have wasted 60 seconds watching the sun reflect off the water.
Larry Hryb: That's okay.
Stephen Toulous: And I'm just going "This is a beautiful game. Oh I need to get these soldiers moved."
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: So I've been playing that a lot as well. I'm not yet in the "just one more turn" phase because I've been too busy with other stuff.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: But I'm going to get there. Very quickly. That and I'm dabbling in X-Com 2. But not very much. So I won't talk about that one just yet. But it's beautiful as well.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Stephen Toulous: That's it.
Larry Hryb: E. What are you playing? You just got back from a trip?
Eric Neustadter: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Do you want to talk about that now or do you want to talk about it later?
Eric Neustadter: Talk about it later. So, I can echo Mini Metro. Both on iOS, I've got on my iPhone and my iPad, as well as on PC.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Eric Neustadter: We were talking about this just before we started recording, it's actually in my opinion better on PC.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Eric Neustadter: And if you haven't tried it there, and you really like Mini Metro, you should. As you get up into levels and you've got more and more lines running around, you wind up having to get into really dense areas and drag thing around.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Eric Neustadter: And it's kind of hard to grab-
Larry Hryb: More precise.
Eric Neustadter: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Precise dragging, for lack of a better term.
Eric Neustadter: Excuse me, I'm coughing because I'm just getting over a cold.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Eric Neustadter: On PC, with a mouse, you can get in there very precisely and grab this train, or this line, and move it exactly where you want. The extra level of precision is really nice.
Larry Hryb: Either way it's a fun game.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah, it's really [crosstalk 00:13:49]-
Larry Hryb: I mean, because I started playing it on my iPad, played it on computer, and then Laura's just been playing on her phone.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Larry Hryb: So she hasn't really had that bit-
Laura Massey: Yup.
Larry Hryb: Either way it's addicting.
Eric Neustadter: Have you notice from phone to iPad it's easier on the iPad because the screen's bigger.
Larry Hryb: Yeah of course.
Laura Massey: I can imagine.
Stephen Toulous: I don't need another game.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: I have like four I haven't even played!
Eric Neustadter: It was on sale for 99 cents.
Larry Hryb: That's what I paid for it. That's when I picked it up.
Eric Neustadter: The great thing is, it's simple. It's an easy one for if I have a couple of minutes as I'm waiting for my plane.
Larry Hryb: The music is kind of like, it's procedural and it's relaxing.
Stephen Toulous: Ah so it's like the Minecraft music.
Larry Hryb: It's, yeah.
Stephen Toulous: I love the Minecraft music.
Eric Neustadter: That or like, some disaster-piece stuff. Yeah it's really nice.
Larry Hryb: Fun.
Stephen Toulous: Great. Now I've got to get it.
Larry Hryb: So you're playing that.
Stephen Toulous: Ride the ferry.
Eric Neustadter: Yes. Oh yeah, it's a perfect ferry game. I'm playing Civ Six, because Civ.
Larry Hryb: Because Civ.
Eric Neustadter: I had switched to where I was just playing five, I'm not just playing six.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Eric Neustadter: It is ... I mean, they've changed a lot of things. A couple of which I'm still getting used to. The biggest one being builders working differently now. Instead of, you get a worker and they're just forever there doing things to your territory, you build a builder, and then they get three actions. And there are things you can do to let them have more actions, but I think of it so differently now, because you can't just keep cranking them out. Because they're going to do their thing and go poof.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah. That's what stuck me as the odd part of the game. I think they introduced that in Civ Rev, or Civ Four, where you just auto ... Maybe Civ Three? Where you just click and say "Go do whatever needs to be done to this piece of land that is optimized for what I'm doing around that."
Eric Neustadter: Right.
Stephen Toulous: You could just let 20 of them go, and the next thing you know turn 100 you've got irrigation. You've got roads. You've got railroads. You've got everything you need. And this really struck me as ... I think it's a good change. It forced me to pay a lot more attention to my management of my civilization.
Eric Neustadter: Yes. And like, workers don't build roads anymore. Traders build roads.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, see you guys have always been into Civ and I've just, I appreciate it, it just never rang my bell some reason. I don't know why. Right? Laura? What about you?
Laura Massey: Yeah, I think I've only played Civ Rev.
Stephen Toulous: Civ Rev is the perfect distillation of all the things people like about Civ, and then the main games, I think added all the minutiae that you could really dive into. Civ Rev was actually, and Civ Rev Two, brilliant versions of Civilization. They were essentially Civilization Two, and they were really, really well done. But yeah it's a unique taste in a lot of ways. A lot like X-Com can be sometimes.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Eric Neustadter: X-Com, to me, requires a lot more thought.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Eric Neustadter: Like, when I was laying on the couch yesterday, took the day off work just home sick with the dog, and I was like "What am I going to do to pass the time? I can't sleep", got my laptop on the couch and started looking for things to play, and tried a bunch of things, eventually went to Civ because after 20 years of Civ I can play Civ without thinking.
Stephen Toulous: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Eric Neustadter: I can't play X-Com Two without thinking.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah. They changed some things about it too. Which I like, but it's still that very, like every moment ... One moment you're at macro-level, and then you zoom into the actual mission.
Eric Neustadter: And die.
Stephen Toulous: And every choice you make, every single choice you make, could go horribly wrong or horribly right. And when it goes medium, that's the tense part. When it goes somewhere in between that you're like "Oh man I really needed that to go right, I'm glad it didn't go wrong, but now I'm super tense".
Larry Hryb: So, all right. You're playing Civ. What else you got?
Eric Neustadter: And pretty much everything else I'm playing is VR.
Larry Hryb: Oh that's right you've been doing a lot of VR lately.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. So I-
Stephen Toulous: Do you have the Sony? Have you played the Battlefront Rogue One thing?
Eric Neustadter: I do have the PS VR, I have not tried that.
Stephen Toulous: I want that so bad.
Laura Massey: When did that come out?
Eric Neustadter: The thing I want to do-
Stephen Toulous: It's out.
Laura Massey: Really?
Stephen Toulous: Yeah if you have a PS4 or a PS4 pro and VR kit, I think it's free, don't quote me on that.
Larry Hryb: We're not the experts on the PlayStation.
Stephen Toulous: There's a Rogue One mission that is 100% x-wing simulator.
Laura Massey: What?
Stephen Toulous: Go look at the YouTube video. It is everything you could want in an x-wing simulator.
Laura Massey: Oh gosh.
Stephen Toulous: It's a mission that takes place after Rogue One?
Larry Hryb: We'll talk about it a little more later.
Stephen Toulous: Somewhere in the plot.
Eric Neustadter: So I mostly, while I do have a PS VR, I mostly play on PC.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Eric Neustadter: Although I am looking forward to RE 7 in VR on the PS VR, but I bought, or I built, a new gaming PC, and I bought an HTC Vive. And wow. The thing that has really hit me, I had tried seated VR before, like cockpit style stuff, and I was always like "Oh that's pretty cool", you know, it's ... I don't completely get the excitement but this is fun. It's a neat gimmick. Playing FPSs at room scale, where you've got lots of room to move-
Larry Hryb: That's the key. You've got to have that room. You've got to have a lot of room.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah, so I've got-
Larry Hryb: You turned the ... Upstairs in your house right?
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. So my son's old bedroom is now my VR room. I've got about a two and half meter but two and a half meter play space. So lots of room to duck, and dodge, and do all that kind of stuff. And that, to me, really makes it feel like you're in a different environment.
Larry Hryb: Why don't we have any animated GIFs of you running around with your headset on? I've got to talk to your dog.
Eric Neustadter: There's probably some ... There were people over at Christmas who were filming, and they probably were taking video honestly. But there are some fantastic games.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. There's a lot of real new experiences.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. My personal 2016 game of the year was Space Pirate Trainer, which is a $15 game. It requires $2,000 pc and an $800 headset, but the game is only $15.
Larry Hryb: Yeah the price to ... The barrier to entry, and the space, is a little bit steep. But once you get that in order.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. It's too expensive, and most people don't have the space. It's not reasonable for the average person to do this, but if you're lucky enough to be able to?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Eric Neustadter: It's amazing. So Space Pirate Trainer is that game I ... When someone comes over this is what I say "Hey you have to try this to experience it."
Larry Hryb: Have you been over to play Space Pirate Trainer?
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: I haven't been.
Stephen Toulous: I have not either.
Larry Hryb: Who are these people you're inviting over?
Stephen Toulous: In fairness though, I'm across a large body of water.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. You're far away.
Eric Neustadter: You ... I invited you over to play, and you bailed for something.
Larry Hryb: When was this? I don't remember this.
Eric Neustadter: I don't remember.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Eric Neustadter: Anyways. So think back to Star Wars.
Larry Hryb: Which one?
Stephen Toulous: Think back? To Star Wars?
Eric Neustadter: There's only one Star Wars.
Laura Massey: I'm always thinking about Star Wars.
Eric Neustadter: So, the scene where Luke is going through light saber training, and there's the droid.
Larry Hryb: On the Millennium Falcon when they're playing chess in the background.
Eric Neustadter: Right. So it's a little like that. So what happens-
Larry Hryb: With the blast shield down? I just want to make sure I understand. I want to set the scene.
Stephen Toulous: That's the visor part, you can't see anything.
Eric Neustadter: Now that I've established the base of it. So you are a space pirate in training. So you put the VR headset on, you're handed the two vive controllers.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Eric Neustadter: And those are your pistols.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Eric Neustadter: And you're standing with your back to your ship.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Eric Neustadter: So it's a a 180 degree game.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Eric Neustadter: And you are looking over a platform that drops off, and you have big open space in front of you.
Larry Hryb: Where did the pirate part come in?
Stephen Toulous: Yeah?
Eric Neustadter: Uh, there's a spaceship behind you. You're a space pirate in training.
Larry Hryb: Do I look down, do I have pirate boots on?
Eric Neustadter: No.
Larry Hryb: Do ... Do I-
Eric Neustadter: You're obsessing over the wrong thing.
Larry Hryb: Do I look to my left, do I have a space parrot?
Eric Neustadter: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Eric Neustadter: Now, let it go. I knew if I didn't say yes you'd keep asking so.
Larry Hryb: Space pirate.
Eric Neustadter: Um, so-
Larry Hryb: Argh.
Eric Neustadter: Wave one. One droid come floating up-
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Eric Neustadter: This round droid, it's slow, it's dumb. It takes a long time to figure out where it you are to shoot.
Larry Hryb: What do you shoot it with?
Eric Neustadter: You've got your two guns.
Larry Hryb: So they're guns, they're not light sabers, or laser swords?
Eric Neustadter: They're not light sabers or laser swords. However, you can reach them behind your back like you were drawing an arrow from the quiver-
Larry Hryb: Yes?
Eric Neustadter: And pull the trigger and it converts into a shield. So you can have shield and pistol. Plus there are also ... Well there's a default laser pistol shot. You have five other shots you can choose from.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Eric Neustadter: So there's something kind of like a shotgun blast. There's grenades. There's a couple different options. But you shoot this one droid. Okay, wave over. You got 100 points or whatever.
Larry Hryb: Wave over.
Eric Neustadter: Wave two. This time it's three droids, and they're slightly smarter and faster than the last one. And this continues, and it's more and more, and they're getting smarter and smarter, and there's more kinds of droids. When they shoot at you, there's a very distinctive sound, and it goes into what is basically bullet time from the Matrix. And you can ... Everything slows down so you've got room to either get your shield up, or dodge.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Eric Neustadter: And this is room-scale VR so you can really dodge. So you can take two steps to the right, or you can duck under it.
Larry Hryb: How long are you playing this?
Stephen Toulous: I can see myself just throwing myself across the room.
Larry Hryb: Is this one that you get wear-ed out pretty quickly, or? Tell me about that.
Eric Neustadter: I'll play for an hour at a time. Each individual game is usually five to ten minutes.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Eric Neustadter: It's just so much fun. And it is the perfect distillation of what ... Like if you had asked ten year old me, in the '80s, you know, "Hey some day in the future,"-
Larry Hryb: The guy who was trying to figure out Zork?
Eric Neustadter: Yes. You know, "What would you want to be able to play?" This is exactly what I would have designed.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Eric Neustadter: So it's great. I'm playing a ton of other VR games too, I've been ... As they come out and people are like "Oh this is good!" I'm just kind of buying them to try them. Arizona Sunshine is pretty new, and it's kind of a standard Walking Dead zombie adventure. You're walking around. Raw Data is really, really good.
Stephen Toulous: Raw Data is good.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. Raw Data is a multiplayer, room scale shooter. So Justiciar and I have been playing online together, and it's really cool to be able to ... It's a kind of a wave based kind of horde mode style game, but you can see each other. And it's VR so you see their in game avatar. And you're defending yourself, and you look around and go "Hey! Behind you!" And it's really behind them-
Laura Massey: Oh cool.
Eric Neustadter: And they can turn around, and see it, and that kind of stuff is really, really neat. So I've been looking for all the co-op VR stuff I can find.
Larry Hryb: I'll play co-op.
Eric Neustadter: Well you have to get a PC-
Larry Hryb: I have one.
Eric Neustadter: And a Vive.
Larry Hryb: I have one.
Eric Neustadter: What?
Larry Hryb: I've had one. I've had one for about, I don't know, six or eight months.
Eric Neustadter: This is news.
Stephen Toulous: You guys should talk to each other more often.
Eric Neustadter: I guess.
Larry Hryb: Well let's talk about what I'm playing, and then we'll talk about that. I'm sorry, do you have anything else?
Eric Neustadter: No that's it.
Larry Hryb: So I know that, you know, I'm going to offer this up because you guys dropped the ball.
Laura Massey: What?
Larry Hryb: Well I'm just letting you know. We're talking about the-
Eric Neustadter: He didn't mean you, he said you guys.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you guys. Because we were talking about, you know, your Fidonet handles, and the obvious question was what was mine. And the listeners are probably saying "Why didn't you ask him?".
Stephen Toulous: Not interested.
Larry Hryb: Oh, okay.
Stephen Toulous: Not super-
Eric Neustadter: Honestly, didn't care.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Fine. So if you listen to this podcast, and you want to know, hit me up on twitter, and I will tell you.
Eric Neustadter: Laura might want to know.
Larry Hryb: No, I don't think she does.
Laura Massey: I'm curious now.
Stephen Toulous: Laura might want to know.
Laura Massey: I'm curious.
Larry Hryb: Would you like to know?
Laura Massey: I would like to know.
Larry Hryb: RiffRaff.
Laura Massey: Really?
Larry Hryb: Do you know what movie it was from?
Laura Massey: No.
Larry Hryb: Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Stephen Toulous: Yep.
Larry Hryb: You know?
Stephen Toulous: I immediately knew which RiffRaff it was.
Laura Massey: I've seen it but I don't know, I don't recall.
Larry Hryb: It's okay.
Eric Neustadter: Oh, you have seen it.
Laura Massey: I finally saw it.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Anyway, so that was a random thing. So, what am I playing? I am playing Overwatch. The update is out this week. It's the Lunar New Year with the Rooster, you've got a great skin with Bastion with a Rooster up here.
Stephen Toulous: Oh, cool.
Larry Hryb: It's amazing.
Eric Neustadter: Is it a space pirate?
Larry Hryb: There aren't-
Laura Massey: A space parrot?
Larry Hryb: A space parrot. Could be. That's the new game, space parrot. I'm playing Resident Evil 7, Biohazard, of course. That's a play anywhere game between Xbox One and PC.
Eric Neustadter: Oh, that's right!
Larry Hryb: So that's very cool.
Eric Neustadter: How is it?
Larry Hryb: It's great. I mean, I'm not a big Resident Evil guy, because it's just a little too slow for my style.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: But, the other reason is, is I'm actually involved with playing the Halo Wars 2 Blitz Beta.
Laura Massey: Oh yeah that's right, that came out!
Larry Hryb: So that came out. And then I finished up, over the weekend I finished up the Witcher 3 story.
Laura Massey: You finally finished it.
Larry Hryb: Finally. After however many-
Eric Neustadter: How many hours? Did you look?
Larry Hryb: I think I'm over four days.
Eric Neustadter: Oh.
Larry Hryb: And I just ... The problem was I started, when did I start playing? Like three weeks ago? Maybe a month ago?
Laura Massey: Yeah, maybe about a month a go.
Eric Neustadter: Started over from scratch?
Larry Hryb: No no no. I just picked it up again.
Eric Neustadter: Oh okay.
Larry Hryb: I had gotten to one of the areas, and I felt like I was kind of ... It turns out I was only in act two of three, and then I started playing it and I just ... I mean, that game is just so unbelievable with the side quests, and the -
Laura Massey: Yes. Larry gets distracted.
Larry Hryb: I get dis- ... Well the problem is, especially in those ... Have either of you played it?
Stephen Toulous: No.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Have you played it E?
Eric Neustadter: Just barely.
Larry Hryb: Okay. The side quests ... You're like "I'm going to do this side quest in like 15 minutes", two hours later.
Eric Neustadter: Right.
Larry Hryb: It just=
Stephen Toulous: Just like Skyrim.
Larry Hryb: Every side quest is a rabbit hole that does not end.
Eric Neustadter: Right.
Larry Hryb: So, anyways I'm playing that. And then of course like I said Overwatch, we've got to play some Overwatch Stepto. Once you get-
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Because I think I'm-
Stephen Toulous: I think I'm up to 11 now.
Larry Hryb: Okay. I think I'm about 82.
Stephen Toulous: Oh god. Well, okay.
Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:27:25]
Eric Neustadter: It's probably been a month of two since I've played.
Larry Hryb: When did we play around Thanksgiving? Remember we played once?
Eric Neustadter: Thanksgiving, Christmas, something like that.
Larry Hryb: Yeah we played. We had a good time. We had the full crowd in, so we need to do that.
Stephen Toulous: I found that, against these people that we were playing against, certain people who knew they were too low to really be effective were really bullet sponges. We would just serve as bullet sponges.
Larry Hryb: Well the key is, that we play, and we haven't really talked about this, is if we're playing like me and Trite, Lith and I will play, he's DPS and I'm just healing him.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And with Mercy it's just-
Stephen Toulous: That's pretty much what Mercy is.
Larry Hryb: It's the OP combo.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: It's ridiculous.
Eric Neustadter: D.VA's ultimate is so much fun. Sometimes when you get ... I have yet to get a penta, but I've gotten a number of quad kills with it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I think I've gotten four.
Eric Neustadter: Oh. It feels so ... Especially if you can like, launch it up and over a wall. So, they hear it, but they can't see it coming, so they don't know where to run to-
Larry Hryb: Boom.
Eric Neustadter: And all of a sudden it drops in and explodes.
Larry Hryb: Boom. Overwatch. So that's what I'm playing. All right. So, now we need to stop for a minute and tell you what's going on.
Eric Neustadter: What?
Laura Massey: What's going on?
Larry Hryb: So, if you haven't figured it out dear listeners, Stepto and E are back. For this one night only.
Laura Massey: The reunion show. Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Special show. Yeah. I'm sure you started listening to the show and said "Wait a minute, what is going on here?" So=
Stephen Toulous: Did I download the wrong one?
Eric Neustadter: Is this the wrong podcast?
Larry Hryb: Yeah is this 2008?
Stephen Toulous: Why are they talking about Overwatch?
Larry Hryb: What's going on? But, no it's ... I told Stepto, I said "Stepto I want to have you on the show again." And E, we had to have you on the show because last time, you know, we haven't had you on the show since you left the company.
Eric Neustadter: Right.
Larry Hryb: And know you're, where are you now? You're over at ...
Eric Neustadter: The Pokemon Company International.
Larry Hryb: The Pokemon ... So you're responsible for all those kids walking around with their phones stuffed in their faces?
Eric Neustadter: Only partially.
Larry Hryb: So what do you do over there?
Eric Neustadter: I'm the VP of technology.
Larry Hryb: So you're responsible for all the people walking around with their phones stuffed in their faces?
Stephen Toulous: Pretty much.
Eric Neustadter: That's a partnership between us and Niantic.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Eric Neustadter: The tech's Niantic. So.
Larry Hryb: So you're keeping their servers on. So when it doesn't work they can ... Oh wait a minute! When it doesn't work they can tweet you!
Eric Neustadter: It's their servers. Those are not my servers.
Larry Hryb: So, anyways. And that's in Seattle here? You didn't move.
Eric Neustadter: Bellview actually.
Larry Hryb: Bellview. Which is right next to where we're located.
Eric Neustadter: Yes. Very excited.
Larry Hryb: So I was trying to get ... I said I wanted to get you back on the show when you, you know, after you got that cool job, and then I said well let's get Stepto on. Step what are you working on? Let's talk about what you're working on.
Stephen Toulous: I'm a senior security consultant and Leviathan Security Group.
Larry Hryb: What does that mean.
Stephen Toulous: Also here in Seattle, what what we do is-
Larry Hryb: By the way, I've got to tell, I'm sorry to cut you off, but when you were saying that, in my mind I'm seeing Stepto in a suit and tie. Aren't you?
Stephen Toulous: No.
Larry Hryb: He's got this big title.
Stephen Toulous: Okay, I-
Larry Hryb: No and you're not!
Laura Massey: I thought Leviathan [inaudible 00:29:48].
Stephen Toulous: Yeah, no. No ties.
Larry Hryb: I'm sorry, Vandelay industries? Leviathan, okay.
Stephen Toulous: No it's actually fantastic. It's a wonderful opportunity. What we do basically, is we solve hard problems. When people have a security issue, or a security design, and it could be a game company, it could be an online service, it could be a social network, it could be something of that nature, and they need someone to come in and provide outside expertise on "Hey, what are the things we should worry about," or "What are the things we're not seeing," or "What are the technical things that we need to poke around, and make sure that in our rush to grow we haven't overlooked something". That's what Leviathan does, amongst many other things. And it's just a lot of fun. It's a great opportunity to get to work with a lot of different companies, that do completely different things.
Larry Hryb: So, you work a little bit in gaming and also out of gaming, is that right?
Stephen Toulous: Yeah. Exactly. I'm ... Each consultant has several clients that we work directly with. Some have few that they focus all their time with. Some have a lot that they provide advisory roles at.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: But, it's wonderful. It's a really fun opportunity, and I'm super excited to be there.
Eric Neustadter: He's secretly working at Weyland-Yutani.
Larry Hryb: That's what it sounds like.
Stephen Toulous: Oh you can't just, you can't just say that.
Larry Hryb: Now him wearing that shirt makes sense!
Eric Neustadter: Yep.
Larry Hryb: Now it all makes sense!
Eric Neustadter: Good lord.
Larry Hryb: Well yeah, that's kind of why you tuned in and you're trying to figure out why are these people on the show? And Laura's ... So we're recording this in the evening, because you guys have other jobs.
Stephen Toulous: We have day jobs.
Larry Hryb: Right?
Stephen Toulous: You can't just goof off.
Eric Neustadter: Are there numeral [inaudible 00:31:15] who don't know who we are?
Stephen Toulous: Well, man, there might be yeah.
Eric Neustadter: It's been awhile.
Stephen Toulous: Who's this Stepto guy?
Larry Hryb: I've got to tell you this funny story. There's this new guy who works in our market department that I was just telling Laura about.
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Who apparently knows Laura, went to school with Laura.
Eric Neustadter: Oh.
Laura Massey: Supposedly.
Larry Hryb: I've got to dig up his name.
Stephen Toulous: Wait, supposedly?
Eric Neustadter: Well UT is a big school.
Laura Massey: He wouldn't, he didn't remember his name.
Larry Hryb: I don't remember his name, because I just met him once. So I was talking, I saw him earlier today because I was talking, because I wasn't saying that ... I mean obviously I haven't talked on the internet until now that the show's up that you guys are coming in. I said "Hey do you know who I'm going to have on the show tonight? I've got Stepto."
And he's like "Oh my god, I've been listening to the show since it was just you and E. And then Stepto joined, and then Laura joined!" So he knew all of .. He was a big fanboy it was great.
Stephen Toulous: Ah.
Larry Hryb: But it's great to have you guys back, just for a little bit. And you're always welcome to come back on the show, and that's why I figured we'd do a special show this week. I did a show earlier this week, when we released the latest system update, I don't know if you guys saw the news around that, what we did?
Stephen Toulous: Yes.
Eric Neustadter: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Larry Hryb: We had a huge system ... Well it wasn't everybody, it was just going to preview audience, er, I think they call it insiders now. So it's-
Eric Neustadter: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: They made the change one button the guide, and some other cool stuff. I don't know if you guys have had a chance to look at that.
Eric Neustadter: I have not. But one of my consoles is insiders.
Larry Hryb: Oh good.
Stephen Toulous: When I got rid of my other, my regular Xbox ones, and went to Xbox one S, I forgot to rejoin. I need to rejoin.
Larry Hryb: Well if you need that I think we know who can get that stuff. I think that we know the people. Yeah, so I did the show earlier this week, and Jeff of course, Jeff who's not here, you've met Jeff haven't you Stepto?
Stephen Toulous: Of course I have.
Larry Hryb: Right, and of course-
Stephen Toulous: There were a couple of shows, I think, where he was in just before I left.
Larry Hryb: Right, so he um-
Eric Neustadter: I've seen Jeff more recently than I've seen you.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. That's a true story. So he's actually over in London right now doing some work. I think he went to Rare to play Sea of Thieves.
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness.
Stephen Toulous: Ah.
Laura Massey: So jealous.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so I realized he was out of town. You guys are available. That's why I wanted to get, this is the whole reason ... This is exactly what's going on.
Stephen Toulous: It's funny, I wonder how we would be if we did this every week again, because there are so ... One thing I'm noticing when I open the guide and I go to the store-
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Stephen Toulous: There's just so much.
Larry Hryb: There's a ridiculous-
Stephen Toulous: And that's just on the Xbox.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Stephen Toulous: Doesn't even count the peripheral stuff. All the indie games that are out there, all of the top releases, all of the smaller releases, that are what we used to call the little arcade games.
Larry Hryb: Arcade games, yeah.
Stephen Toulous: Are now full blown 12 hour games.
Eric Neustadter: You live more gamer score.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Stephen Toulous: And, I mean, they're beautiful, and they've got huge production value. And, god, when you just mention Seven Seas, I'm like oh that's another thing I'm probably not going to have time to play.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. To you point there's a lot rolling out, and since you guys have moved on to incredible positions working in security, and Pokemon, I'll just Pokemon ... Do you have a Pokemon in your office? Do you have any of that stuff in your office?
Eric Neustadter: I have a lot of them.
Stephen Toulous: When do I get just the guys who has, like when he plays Munchkin, he has like, all the props.
Larry Hryb: Right. You and I have been trying to ... Because Bellview is just like 15 minutes away from the Microsoft campus, I've been trying to come over for dinner, or lunch, and we just haven't figure it out.
Eric Neustadter: We almost went to lunch a couple of weeks ago.
Larry Hryb: And then something happened.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. Come do a tour. There's a lot of Pokemon in my office.
Larry Hryb: I think I know some people over there too.
Eric Neustadter: You know at least a couple of people working there. Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I think I do know a couple of people.
Eric Neustadter: I might have hired a couple of people who used to work here.
Larry Hryb: And you actually just got back from one of my favorite places: Tokyo!
Eric Neustadter: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Now do you understand why? Because you've never been.
Eric Neustadter: This was my second trip.
Larry Hryb: Oh this was you're second trip.
Eric Neustadter: My first one was in Nov- October or November.
Larry Hryb: Okay, but you haven't been since we went, that ... Talk about it on the show, now you understand why I love it.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah, I had a great time. And then this trip I got to make a stop over on the way back. I went direct Seattle to Narita going over, but came back via Seoul. And we stopped off for about 20 hours in Seoul. Met the President of Pokemon Korea.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Eric Neustadter: He took us out Korean barbecue.
Larry Hryb: So you did business. Oh, I saw you're tweet on that.
Stephen Toulous: Oh.
Larry Hryb: When in Korea.
Eric Neustadter: Korean barbecue, in Korea, oh ...
Larry Hryb: Enough said. That's like I'll only do Karaoke, I'll only do that in Japan.
Eric Neustadter: You shouldn't even do it there.
Larry Hryb: Oh I disagree! I can hold my own!
Eric Neustadter: I'm sure you do.
Larry Hryb: Baby baby baby sleep on it. Paradise by the Dashboard Lights is my song!
Stephen Toulous: I don't know, in that shirt I kind of picture more of a Bobby Darren, Beyond the Sea type of thing.
Larry Hryb: Beyond the sea, once more.
Eric Neustadter: So Tokyo was great.
Larry Hryb: I love Tokyo.
Eric Neustadter: Seoul was great.
Larry Hryb: I've never been to Seoul.
Eric Neustadter: Amazingly in Seoul, so, my girlfriend had asked me to bring back some Korean beauty stuff, because she, like a lot of women I know, orders that stuff online, because-
Larry Hryb: What's so different?
Eric Neustadter: It has like, all kinds of weird, stuff in it.
Larry Hryb: Like what? Glitter?
Eric Neustadter: No. But like snail bee extract, and-
Larry Hryb: What does it do?
Eric Neustadter: I don't know.
Stephen Toulous: Snail bee extract?
Eric Neustadter: Seriously there are all kinds of-
Larry Hryb: Do you know about this?
Stephen Toulous: Do they squish them and then put them into ...
Eric Neustadter: I don't know.
Laura Massey: Bees?
Larry Hryb: This asian cosmetic black market? What's going on here?
Eric Neustadter: This is a big, like-
Larry Hryb: I know it is.
Eric Neustadter: A ton of female friends of mine are really into the stuff. And they get face masks, and creams, and all kinds of things.
Laura Massey: I don't know.
Eric Neustadter: So, I had been asked to bring some stuff back. What I discovered when I got over there is in Korea, Pokemon has a licensing deal with one of the high end makeup companies.
Laura Massey: Oh really?
Eric Neustadter: And like, Pikachu face masks, and Squirtle hand cream, and Bulbasaur this and that. And so I came back with a giant bag of Pokemon beauty product.
Stephen Toulous: Pokemon beauty product.
Larry Hryb: Wait a minute, wait a minute. I must ask. Did you walk down the men's aisle?
Stephen Toulous: Yes?
Eric Neustadter: I don't think there was a men's aisle.
Larry Hryb: Oh come on! There was!
Eric Neustadter: I don't think so.
Stephen Toulous: Pikachu, the new scent.
Laura Massey: Yes! I was thinking cologne!
Eric Neustadter: That's disturbing. We do have some new animation that should, no. He only says one thing. He says "Pika."
Larry Hryb: I know.
Eric Neustadter: Unless it's in Detective Pikachu, where he does speak.
Stephen Toulous: I opened a can of worms with that one.
Eric Neustadter: You really did.
Larry Hryb: So you are now the expert when it comes to licensed makeup.
Eric Neustadter: Only for Pokemon in Korea. I am still learning many things about Pokemon. I do not know all +900 Pokemon. I'm still learning many of the evolutions. I did just learn how to properly sex a Pikachu the other day.
Larry Hryb: I'm sorry, what?
Eric Neustadter: It turns out there are male and female Pikachus. Which I did not know.
Larry Hryb: So how to identify, or are they participating in the act of? What does that mean?
Eric Neustadter: How to identify. They don't-
Stephen Toulous: That's a whole other-
Eric Neustadter: There's no participating in the act of.
Stephen Toulous: That's another aisle in the Pokemon shop.
Eric Neustadter: We are an E for Everyone [crosstalk 00:37:53]
Larry Hryb: More so in Japan!
Eric Neustadter: So, when Pikachu breed there is an egg, and you take the egg to the ... I'm blanking on the name. The nest center? Or something like that, where it hatches. But to tell a male from a female Pikachu, look at their tail. A male Pikachu's tale ends in a lightning bolt. A female Pikachu's tail ends in a heart.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Laura Massey: I had no idea. The more you know.
Larry Hryb: Okay, that-
Eric Neustadter: I've learned things.
Stephen Toulous: You are now the Richard Attenborough of Pokemon.
Eric Neustadter: Yes.
Stephen Toulous: Er, David. David Attenborough? Which one, who's the ... I can't remember.
Larry Hryb: Here's an extraordinary moment.
Stephen Toulous: Richard Attenborough's the director. David Attenborough's the [crosstalk 00:38:28]
Larry Hryb: So you are having a good time over there, are you?
Eric Neustadter: I'm loving it over there. Yes.
Larry Hryb: Good so, now do you guys get to work together?
Eric Neustadter: No.
Larry Hryb: Like do you do security on Pokemon, Stepto?
Stephen Toulous: Nope. And if I did, I mean, our client list is confidential.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you, of course, couldn't talk about it. So, maybe he is, maybe he isn't. I don't know.
Stephen Toulous: Who know? It's secretive.
Larry Hryb: Although I did notice there was some, um, Korean cosmetics peaking out of your bag when you walked in so. That may be something entirely different, I don't know.
Stephen Toulous: No, because I would have tweeted about the barbecue for sure.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Eric Neustadter: The barbecue was-
Stephen Toulous: But I do work just a couple of blocks away from Jack's.
Laura Massey: Oh, you do?
Larry Hryb: The barbecue place, that's right.
Stephen Toulous: I work in Seattle so that's right by Jack's and that is a dangerous place to work, because you will eat Jack's all the time.
Eric Neustadter: Yes. Let me tell you, when we were in Tokyo every night was a dinner that was planned with us and our hosts at our parent company, and some of the food was unbelievable.
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah.
Laura Massey: Nice.
Eric Neustadter: Everything from, I mean, we've done simple stuff like ramen and katsu, and Japanese curry, but like some of the fancy shabu-shabu, and other things, like, we did shabu-shabu with beef and spider crab. That was amazing.
Stephen Toulous: Oh that was what you took that picture of. Someone was like "What is that?" I'm like that's crab! Looks amazing!
Eric Neustadter: Just unbelievable. And I ate a few things that I wasn't sure I wanted to.
Larry Hryb: Were they still moving?
Eric Neustadter: No.
Larry Hryb: By the way that is a legitimate question when you're in Japan.
Eric Neustadter: No, it is. It is. I did weird out my hosts a couple of times when I wouldn't eat octopus. They were like "Why not? Octopus is wonderful." And I would explain that I don't like to eat anything that's intelligent enough to use tools. That just feels weird. Octopus are very smart, and they're like "What are you talking about?" And I would have to-
Stephen Toulous: You ruined octopus for them.
Larry Hryb: So did you pull up YouTube and show the octopus getting out of aquariums?
Eric Neustadter: That's exactly what I did. Yes.
Stephen Toulous: And ruined octopus for them.
Eric Neustadter: The one getting out of the mason jar by unscrewing the lid, and I'm ... And see octopus-
Larry Hryb: And 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Eric Neustadter: Are really smart, right. And tat the end of it, I think I just convinced them I was weird. But I didn't eat the octopus. I ate just about everything else. I had fugu. I ate a deep fried fish that had the head on it with the eyeballs still there and-
Laura Massey: Ooh.
Eric Neustadter: Everything.
Laura Massey: That sounds interesting.
Larry Hryb: Well good for you.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Well welcome back.
Eric Neustadter: Thank you.
Larry Hryb: You weren't here Laura because I think you stepped out for a moment when we were getting ready to record, Stepto and you weren't in here yet.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Larry Hryb: My first question to you was "Was I right about the Japanese toilet seats?
Eric Neustadter: And, they're very nice except when they're turned up too high. When they're very warm-
Laura Massey: Oh no. [crosstalk 00:41:03]
Stephen Toulous: Did you burn your bottom?
Larry Hryb: To quote the great Yosemite Sam, that will burn your biscuits.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. Mm-hmm (affirmative)- They are quite fancy
Larry Hryb: They are quite fancy.
Eric Neustadter: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Stephen Toulous: You'd think there'd be a safety, like there'd be a level you'd never wanted it above.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. The weird part, at least the part I thought was weird, was when I checked into the room for the first time, and I walked in there and it's got a proximity sensor? And it opens when you walk near it.
Larry Hryb: That's what mine does.
Eric Neustadter: And I was not expecting that.
Larry Hryb: It's like "Hey let's go? You busy? Let's go! We going to do this?"
Eric Neustadter: No time like now!
Larry Hryb: And what's funny is mine does that, because it springs to life, and then when you don't do anything it kind of (groans) the top goes ... Kind of like "well okay, I'll close the top."
Eric Neustadter: Yes. It's got the little remote there with all the different buttons.
Stephen Toulous: There's a remote. Like that to me is the funniest thing. Everything you need is within your arms reach. Why would you need a remote.
Eric Neustadter: There's a control panel on the wall next to you.
Larry Hryb: Have I tweeted photos of mine?
Stephen Toulous: You have.
Eric Neustadter: It's like an l-carved control panel.
Larry Hryb: That's delightful.
Stephen Toulous: Delightful.
Larry Hryb: It is delightful. There's certain things in life that you must enjoy, and a Japanese toilet seat is one of them.
Stephen Toulous: I just wasn't expecting that there were overheating risks.
Eric Neustadter: Neither was I honestly. I was not prepared.
Stephen Toulous: That yelp must have been funny.
Larry Hryb: Woo. How? You know you can turn down the heat on those right?
Eric Neustadter: Yeah, but you don't know that until you sit down, and then you discover it's too hot.
Laura Massey: The damage is done.
Larry Hryb: Wow. So what happened? Well doctor you won't believe-
Stephen Toulous: Lick the tip of the finger it's like (hissing noise).
Larry Hryb: Ah. Oh. Ow.
Stephen Toulous: Can water bounce on it?
Eric Neustadter: The one in Korea was fine.
Larry Hryb: Did you go to, when you were in Japan, did you go to any of the Japanese spas?
Eric Neustadter: No. I was working.
Larry Hryb: Oh boy. That was one of my most extraordinary experiences I've ever had. It was.
Eric Neustadter: Really?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, because you walk in, it was spa, where was it. It was out near the MeSay Center, anyway, it was a spa and you walk in and it was the old kind, the old school, so it's all male. And you take a shower, and you get into the tub, and you sit in this really hot tub with a washcloth on your head.
Laura Massey: A cold one? To cool you down?
Larry Hryb: No that's what you walk around with if you want to be discreet.
Eric Neustadter: That's how they identify you?
Larry Hryb: Yeah. And then you use it when you get in the shower, so that's really all you have, is you just have what you came into this world with, and a wash cloth. To go through the entire experience. And it was unbelievable, because the hot water, and the whole, I just ... There's something to just unplugging and going in and just taking care of yourself.
Laura Massey: I'll say.
Eric Neustadter: The closest I got to that was "hey I have two hours in between meetings, I haven't had ramen yet, where can I get ramen?
Stephen Toulous: Oh yeah. I hear that's ...
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah.
Eric Neustadter: The ramen is, oh.
Larry Hryb: Did you go into any of the arcades?
Eric Neustadter: There weren't any good ones near where I was.
Larry Hryb: Oh, in Roppongi that's right. There's none.
Eric Neustadter: Next trip I'm going to go longer and go spend a day in Akihabara shopping.
Larry Hryb: Yeah!
Laura Massey: Oh fun.
Larry Hryb: You know who you've got to talk to, is Albert. Because Albert knows all the good places.
Eric Neustadter: Albert, and Chis Coler, and yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. All those guys.
Eric Neustadter: A coworker of mine did go and pick me up something while he was over there.
Larry Hryb: So good.
Eric Neustadter: But I haven't made it yet. So, third trip I'll get to it.
Larry Hryb: All right. A little Xbox news while we're cooking along here. First of all I want to thank you guys again for coming in.
Stephen Toulous: You're welcome.
Eric Neustadter: Thanks for the invite.
Larry Hryb: Always so fun to have you guys in.
Laura Massey: Yeah, it's really fun.
Larry Hryb: And staying late. Games with Gold are out. We've got Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time-
Laura Massey: Fantastic game.
Larry Hryb: Is for Xbox One, and that will be free until ... For the rest of the month. And then, now you've got Project Cars available until March, 15th. And then on Xbox 360, and Xbox One through backward compatibility, You had Monkey Island, now you have Star Wars The Force Unleashed.
Eric Neustadter: Oh.
Laura Massey: Very good.
Eric Neustadter: Okay. That's, is Force Unleashed the one where you can bring down the destroyer?
Stephen Toulous: It had that in the video, I don't remember if that was in the game or not.
Eric Neustadter: I think it was. I seem to remember doing that.
Larry Hryb: All right. By the way, you know, I feel like we should do it now.
Eric Neustadter: Okay.
Larry Hryb: Can we talk about Rogue One? Spoiler cast?
Eric Neustadter: Yes.
Laura Massey: Oh my gosh yes!
Stephen Toulous: I feel like it's about to leave the theaters.
Larry Hryb: It feels like we should, but I know Jeff wants to be a part of it, but he's no here, so let's go. Okay. Hold on a minute. I just want to put a marker here so I know where to put, so if people haven't seen the thing they can stop.
Eric Neustadter: Spoiler warning.
Larry Hryb: All right, so if you're listening now, this is a warning. If you haven't seen Rogue One, we are going to talk a lot about it. So there is going to be spoilers and stuff for the next, probably two or three minutes. So, you have been warned.
Eric Neustadter: Two or three minutes?
Stephen Toulous: We should just all talk at once. Like just pick, like five spoilers and just say them.
Larry Hryb: All right, so, a word-
Eric Neustadter: It's amazing.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Eric Neustadter: Okay. I just had to put that out there.
Larry Hryb: How many times have you seen it E?
Eric Neustadter: Three?
Larry Hryb: Laura you've seen it once?
Laura Massey: Once.
Larry Hryb: Well, it's funny, you had tickets to six different shows at one point.
Laura Massey: I did.
Larry Hryb: I remember, you were texting me when they went on sale. You bought them here, you bough them there, and bought the here-
Laura Massey: Because I had to see them, you know, on opening weekend at least, or the first day.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: And I wanted to make sure I had back ups. Because I have a preferred theater.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Laura Massey: So I bought multiple.
Larry Hryb: And then, because I saw it a few days before it opened-
Laura Massey: You saw it multiple times.
Larry Hryb: I saw it before it opened, and then a couple times after it opened. So three. How many times have you seen it?
Stephen Toulous: Three.
Larry Hryb: Three.
Stephen Toulous: And I saw it at my little theater in Kingston.
Larry Hryb: So let's be clear, you live in a different part ... You live in this interesting ... Can we talk about where you live?
Eric Neustadter: It's another world.
Stephen Toulous: It's funny because I live, I live seven miles as the crow flies, from downtown Seattle. But it's across the water.
Larry Hryb: It's across Puget Sound.
Stephen Toulous: So I have to take a 30 minute ferry to come over, and I live out in a completely rural area. I have got a couple acres of land, and-
Larry Hryb: Internet.
Stephen Toulous: Internet. And the dogs love it, it's great. But the the little town of Kingston is not very large. And so it's movie theater is a converted fire house.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Stephen Toulous: And the guy who had did this-
Larry Hryb: I absolutely love this story.
Stephen Toulous: This is absolutely fantastic. This is a great way to see a movie. So he did redid it with a digital screen, sound system, and it's only got like 100 seats.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Stephen Toulous: I believe it's called Firehouse Theater in Kingston. It's literally sometimes worth going over just to experience it, because here's what they do: the first movie I saw there, was the Martian.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Stephen Toulous: I thought I'll test this place out. I've already read the book. I can always go see the movie somewhere else if I don't have a good experience. I sit in there, not a bad seat in the house. There's even a little balcony.
Laura Massey: Oh fun.
Stephen Toulous: Where there's like five seats up in a little balcony if you want. The previews are running, and then all of a sudden the previews stop, and the owner of the theater comes out. And he says ...
Larry Hryb: What does he say?
Stephen Toulous: "Tonight you're going to be seeing the Martian. It's based off of a book" based by [inaudible 00:47:13] and it's got, er ... Was it [inaudible 00:47:14]? No it was the other guy ...
Laura Massey: Weir. Andy Weir.
Stephen Toulous: Sorry I got the wrong author. But he came out and did an explanation.
Larry Hryb: He sets it up?
Stephen Toulous: He sets it up.
Larry Hryb: What?
Stephen Toulous: He says it's really great, the special effects are fantastic. I saw it last night, I'm really excited about it. I hope you enjoy it-
Larry Hryb: Does he do it for every screening?
Stephen Toulous: On the other screen, he even tells you what's on the other screen, because there's two screens. He says on the other screen we're playing, at that time it was Pan, and here's the cool part: He was like "It's good. It's not super great. I really wasn't super impressed with it,"
Larry Hryb: So he's editorializing?
Stephen Toulous: No. He's "just to let parents know it can get a little dark in certain places, and stuff like that. We'll keep that for another week. We've got some art house films coming in two weeks, and I hope you enjoy it."
Larry Hryb: Wow. This is your new favorite place.
Stephen Toulous: And then he leaves and the movie comes on, and it's just perfect. The sound was great, everything was great. But the real kicker is that when I bought my ticket, I was standing and I ordered popcorn, so I bought my ticket, I ordered popcorn, it's taking forever. And I'm just kind of wandering around, looking at the posters and wondering why it's taking forever. They put real butter on the popcorn! They melt-
Eric Neustadter: No.
Stephen Toulous: Real butter for you and put however much you want on the popcorn!
Larry Hryb: Not that yellow butter flavoring.
Stephen Toulous: Not oil. They take a stick of butter-
Larry Hryb: Oh wow!
Laura Massey: Oh my gosh!
Stephen Toulous: And then they're like ... They cook it over a little thing, and they're like "How much do you want on your popcorn?"
Eric Neustadter: And they layer it, right? They put some [crosstalk 00:48:21]
Stephen Toulous: Oh yeah, oh absolutely.
Laura Massey: Oh.
Larry Hryb: Aw.
Eric Neustadter: Oh wow.
Stephen Toulous: Sold. Small town living.
Larry Hryb: Yeah there's something to be s-
Stephen Toulous: But that's where I saw Rogue One and it was a great experience, and I thought it was amazing. I think one of the things I like most about it is the sound track, I was really scared about, turned out to be fantastic.
Larry Hryb: So I want to point something out. Laura you and I see each other each week.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Larry Hryb: E, you and I text once in a while. I talk to Stepto about two or three times a week.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Like I'll call him and I'll, because we talk a lot, we talk politics, we talk movies.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah. We usually-
Eric Neustadter: What's a call?
Laura Massey: A phone call.
Larry Hryb: He's much more interesting on the phone than you are. You just don't like, you don't like to talk on the phone!
Laura Massey: Neither do I.
Eric Neustadter: Nine times out of ten I can't. I'm multitasking.
Larry Hryb: Yeah that's very true Laura you are not a phone person.
Laura Massey: I'm not a phone person.
Stephen Toulous: No? I'm ...
Larry Hryb: But Stepto and I have, so anyways, we've talked a lot about "Hey, we should talk about"-
Stephen Toulous: A lot about Rogue One.
Larry Hryb: Rogue One. So that's kind of one of the reasons I wanted to bring it up.
Stephen Toulous: It's well shot.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It is.
Stephen Toulous: The cinematography is excellent.
Larry Hryb: Fantastic.
Stephen Toulous: I loved little touches like no Jedi, no real force usage. There's implied force usage.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Stephen Toulous: The acting is fantastic. And the writing was great. I want to see the dark version. I want to see the version that Disney went back and said too dark. Way too dark.
Larry Hryb: Well, you saw the clip of Chewbacca slicing what's his name's ...
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Though that was actually Force Awakes, that's right.
Stephen Toulous: But Disney is definitely keeping a very tight control on over when things go a little too-
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Larry Hryb: Off the reservation.
Eric Neustadter: Yes.
Stephen Toulous: Mature, I guess, for the fantasy-
Larry Hryb: Non theme parky.
Stephen Toulous: Non theme parky. Yeah.
Larry Hryb: For lack of a better term.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah and I think Star Wars, going back and watching, I just showed Rogue One to someone who'd never seen a Star Wars film.
Laura Massey: Really?
Eric Neustadter: Where did you find this person?
Stephen Toulous: There are lots of them actually.
Eric Neustadter: Really?
Stephen Toulous: I was surprised too. But I took her to see it, and then we immediately marathoner the original trilogy right after that.
Eric Neustadter: Okay.
Stephen Toulous: And she was like "Yeah! That's the way to do it!" Because A New Hope starts 20 minutes-
Laura Massey: Pretty much immediately-
Stephen Toulous: After Rogue One.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: And it's like, an immediate continuation. And then the spots in between Empire and Return of the Jedi, feel more weighty. Because you feel like more time has passed.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah. So it was a fascinating experience. I love Rogue One. I love it, love it, love it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I remember when I saw it I called you, because I saw it right before you did!
Stephen Toulous: Yeah you saw it right before I did.
Larry Hryb: And we were like, I didn't want to talk about it because I didn't want to spoil it, and of course Laura you and I talked about it, and of course E we hadn't talked at all because you don't like to talk on the phone.
Eric Neustadter: Right.
Larry Hryb: But we-
Eric Neustadter: Wonderful device. I use it for texting all the time.
Larry Hryb: That texting thing you have in your pocket?
Eric Neustadter: Uh-huh (affirmative)-
Larry Hryb: You know-
Eric Neustadter: It's also a Mini Metro device.
Larry Hryb: Aka Mini Metro device. Well done. But yeah, Laura, you enjoyed the film-
Laura Massey: I did.
Larry Hryb: I mean we just loved everything about it. We like the ... Just everything about the film, it just felt right. You know? And you know Gary, one of the screen writers right?
Stephen Toulous: Yeah. He did the story, and I think a portion of the screen play.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: And, it's funny, he and I had talked about this two years ago?
Larry Hryb: So right before production.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah, and one of his statements was, kind of, he didn't want to give anything away, but he said, you know, what's always kind of ... There are two things that kind of bothered him about A New Hop going into it, was the crawl says "The Rebels have won their first battle."
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: What was that battle? It's never mentioned. And then the second piece that bothered him a little bit was when Vader says they'll be no one to stop us this time.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: He's like "There's got to be something there to that!" And I think that's where the kernel of it started, which I find fascinating.
Larry Hryb: Well I actually, I remember when I came out of it, and you and I talked about this: digital Tarkin.
Stephen Toulous: Oh digital Tarkin! We did we had a great discussion about this!
Larry Hryb: And I just, I had a ... What did you think of digital Tarkin Laura?
Laura Massey: I was not a fan. I felt like they did as good a job as they could've, but I'm not a fan of CG characters, like I'm just not a fan seeing Leia-
Larry Hryb: It was the uncanny valley. It was too much. E what did you think?
Eric Neustadter: I agree with generally not being a fan of CG characters, but to me it mattered that Tarkin was in there. He needed to be.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I mean, once you realize what it was, and I mean, some shots ... It wasn't as bad as, you know, unfortunately, the Princess Leia shot at the end, which a lot of people didn't like.
Stephen Toulous: I don't know how that slipped, like I don't know how they didn't ... Maybe they just couldn't fix it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. But anyway, that's the one part that was ... It just ... Because maybe because I play so many video games, you guys, we're used to digital characters? And it was just, something about this is wrong.
Eric Neustadter: I think, my brain just intentionally doesn't notice it. If I really look for it it's like oh yeah, I can see what everyone is talking about. But as I'm enjoying the movie, none of it registers. I'm just enjoying it, going with the flow.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. I guess, knowing the fact that Peter Cushing's dead that's like, I was like, wait ... I actually when he came on screen I went (gasps) I actually gasped.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah. Well, because you and I had this great discussion, and you had this great point about ... They did a fantastic job until they kept doing it.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Laura Massey: Yeah. It lingered too long.
Stephen Toulous: Less would have been more.
Larry Hryb: Right. Had they done the long shots, or a reflection in the mirror, or ... But there was all these close ups of the face-
Stephen Toulous: Close up arguments.
Larry Hryb: That it gave me all the chance to look up and down his face a million times going "This is not right."
Stephen Toulous: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: So that was where it kind of unwound for me.
Eric Neustadter: Okay.
Larry Hryb: So that's all. Anyway, Laura do you have anything to add?
Laura Massey: Yeah. So I thought this one was really good. I very much enjoyed it. I did notice it was a bit darker, and they took a different tact towards the Rebel Alliance.
Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Laura Massey: Where, they're not all good.
Stephen Toulous: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Eric Neustadter: Yes.
Laura Massey: And I don't know how I felt about that. I was like "What?!?!"
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you hadn't thought about that before.
Laura Massey: What were they doing?
Eric Neustadter: It added a nice level of richness and reality to the universe.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Eric Neustadter: It's not, you know, '70s comic book black and white. There are shades of gray, not everyone on the good side is going to be good. Not everyone on the bad side is going to be bad. You just ... It felt more real because of that, to me.
Stephen Toulous: But, to Laura's point I think, something that I just considered right now, is that maybe this was really their only opportunity to really do that. And so here, they knew from the original trilogy the Rebel Alliance had been set up in a certain way. So maybe with Rogue One, it was their only chance to show the Rebel Alliance going "Ooh, we don't want to be the Empire", and maybe that's why they pivot a little bit more in the next three films.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: Granted it's sort of retconning, but I think, yeah, that really surprised me.
Laura Massey: It surprised me, pretty much-
Stephen Toulous: I don't think it's a good or bad thing but it's definitely noticeable. It's stark.
Laura Massey: Yeah, because in, I didn't think the guy in the beginning that kills the guy that's supposed to be his friend-
Stephen Toulous: Oh god, yes.
Laura Massey: Would be the hero! I mean, I was like (gasps) what? It's a very different take on a Star Wars universe. I thought that was an interesting and refreshing way to do it, but it was a bit darker.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, and I love Mads Mikkelsen. I've been a fan of him since Casino Royale. Right? I mean who couldn't be? I was like, wait a minute, he's always the bad guy. Well he wasn't really a bad guy this time, but he was? Right? They kind of gave him that excuse to be evil, but not be evil. If that makes any sense. Right? Because he was trying to do the right thing.
Stephen Toulous: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Larry Hryb: So it was, uh, (deep sigh) ...
Laura Massey: The other thing I took away from it is, oh, it's a tragedy. The movie is the definition of a tragedy. Everybody dies, at the end.
Stephen Toulous: It occurred to me, when I took the person who hadn't seen any of the Star Wars films, it occurred to me right at the end, a few seconds before all the things happened-
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: That oh, yeah, she's not going to know ... I know of course-
Laura Massey: Yeah, you're not going to see her anymore. Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: All these people have to die. They have to. Because none of them show up anywhere else.
Larry Hryb: Right. Yeah the other, the only other problem I had with it was, and you and I have talked about this, was the end of the film. Where the=
Laura Massey: Vader.
Larry Hryb: Right. Well first of all, Vader was complete-
Stephen Toulous: Beast mode was pretty cool.
Larry Hryb: He was unbelievable. That was another ... My jaw was on the ground. But the fact that he clearly knows the plans are on this ship. So this, you and I talked about this, right? And that was, I don't want to say a plot hole, but that was, that area sagged. In terms of logic.
Stephen Toulous: Did you watch, after Rogue One, did you go back and watch Star Wars?
Laura Massey: No I didn't. But I watched your tweets.
Stephen Toulous: So one of the things I thought was interesting was, going back and immediately watching A New Hope a couple days later, was like, all of a sudden all of Vader's stuff sounds very sarcastic.
Larry Hryb: Right!
Stephen Toulous: And it kind of works. Because he knows like "I know you're not a diplomatic ship!" And before it was like, you thought it was a suspicion, but now you know he knows. And he just kills that guy-
Larry Hryb: Right, exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
Stephen Toulous: And throws him to the ground. And I took it like, that ... When I got a chance to watch A New Hope, I did agree, at the end, that that was weird.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: That was an odd choice. They didn't have to put-
Larry Hryb: Can you talk to Gary about that please?
Stephen Toulous: Sure.
Larry Hryb: Okay. So, anyway. Anyways. It was a lot of fun there, and of course we have another Star Wars film coming up this year. I don't know how I feel about these yearly things.
Stephen Toulous: The Last Jedi.
Eric Neustadter: More importantly, for Stepto, we have the sequel to Prometheus coming up.
Larry Hryb: Did you know that I went, I don't know, I know Laura did because we talked about it on the show, I don't know if you guys know this. I went to New York. To do the movie ... The junket for the Assassin's Creed movie.
Stephen Toulous: Oh right.
Eric Neustadter: Yes.
Stephen Toulous: I did know that.
Eric Neustadter: I missed a screening of that by a couple of hours. I was really kind of ticked.
Larry Hryb: And it was great to talk to, you know, the stars. I mean, I don't want to tell the story again because the listeners have heard it, but just about the run-in, well ... I don't want to say run-in ... What would I say that I had with some of the cast members, who are very nice, and Jeremy Irons was just a delight.
Laura Massey: Yes.
Larry Hryb: He complemented me on my voice.
Laura Massey: Yeah, he paid you the biggest complement.
Larry Hryb: And I was like-
Stephen Toulous: Jeremy Irons complementing you on your voice.
Larry Hryb: Yeah it was an oh my god moment. But it was, anyway, it was just a lot of fun to talk about Prometheus with Michael Fassbender, with Michael.
Stephen Toulous: Oh it's Michael to you?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, he didn't want to talk too much about it because he was there to promote the other movie, and I respect-
Stephen Toulous: He's mister Fassbender to me.
Larry Hryb: He was very nice. We had a great conversation.
Stephen Toulous: Oh no, I imagine. He's always seemed very approachable.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Stephen Toulous: And to be honest he's one of the best parts of the film.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: My problems with it are mostly story.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Stephen Toulous: It's not really the ... The movie is gorgeous.
Eric Neustadter: He plays a big role in Alien Covenant. Apparently. So. I'm very excited for that.
Stephen Toulous: It wouldn't surprise me.
Larry Hryb: Anyway. That's the end of the movie section, actually hold on a minute. Any way, so that's kind of the end of the spoiler part. Jeff is going to be upset that he couldn't, that he couldn't uh ...
Stephen Toulous: Yeah I'd like to hear what he ...
Larry Hryb: So, so-
Stephen Toulous: Hear it in the next show with him. I'd like to hear what he thought.
Larry Hryb: So the bad news is, um, we're out of time. Because I know, Stepto-
Stephen Toulous: It flies so fast.
Larry Hryb: You have to go somewhere. E you've got to get home to your dog. Laura's got a life that she has to get onto, and as do I. But, um-
Eric Neustadter: Wait, why do you and Laura get to have lives.
Larry Hryb: Well I'm just saying is you have previous engagements. We've got stuff that we ... We have life. We have life.
Stephen Toulous: Mine is I'm going to get to play with a friend's chinchilla.
Laura Massey: Cool
Stephen Toulous: When you have the opportunity to play with a chinchilla you should take it.
Larry Hryb: They're really soft.
Stephen Toulous: I hear.
Larry Hryb: They're very soft.
Stephen Toulous: And then of course I have to get across the water to get back to the dogs. So they don't sit at home all day.
Larry Hryb: Why don't you just give them some money to send them to the movies. This guy sounds like he'll watch them.
Eric Neustadter: Yeah. Movie, plus doggie daycare.
Stephen Toulous: Right?
Eric Neustadter: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so I want to thank you guys for coming in. I know it was, especially for you Stepto it was a schlep. I'll have you on again, can you come on again and we'll do it for even longer?
Stephen Toulous: Any time for even longer, sure.
Eric Neustadter: Absolutely.
Larry Hryb: You know, we've talked about doing this ... I've got this device that I talked about off the air that I did a Facebook live stream with that went horrifically wrong.
Laura Massey: Oh no.
Eric Neustadter: It looks like an Amazon Echo with an eyeball.
Stephen Toulous: Yeah, it does.
Larry Hryb: It's the Mivo, but maybe we can do a Facebook live stream-
Stephen Toulous: Yeah that'd be fun.
Larry Hryb: Google hangouts, we used to do those all the time. But I want to have you guys back on again, I really appreciate you guys coming in.
Eric Neustadter: We need to play some co=op. Let's go do some horde mode or something.
Larry Hryb: We can do Overwatch! I'll show you guys how to ... E and I play that, and Stepto ... Laura!
Laura Massey: I still have some leveling up to do, as well.
Stephen Toulous: Probably not as bad as me. I was ... I'm pretty low.
Larry Hryb: You know what Laura? You can be the healer.
Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:59:54]
Eric Neustadter: Healers in Overwatch are pretty cool, I mained Mercy for awhile.
Larry Hryb: They are cool. They are legit. You haven't seen ... You've seen some of my play of the games right?
Laura Massey: Oh yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so I mean their ... Anyway, so, we should do that, but I want to, seriously Stepto I want to thank you for coming over the water. E for joining us. And I want to congratulate you guys on these awesome gigs that you have.
Eric Neustadter: Thank you.
Larry Hryb: How do they find you on twitter Stepto?
Stephen Toulous: Stepto. S-T-E-P-T-O.
Larry Hryb: And then Laura they find you?
Laura Massey: @LauraLollipop.
Larry Hryb: Yeah I'll put a link in the show notes. Of course E I can find @TheVowel.
Eric Neustadter: That's correct.
Larry Hryb: In fact, it's pretty sweet, we were talking about you a couple of weeks ago.
Laura Massey: We were.
Larry Hryb: About, remember when he was resisting on twitter?
Eric Neustadter: Oh yeah.
Larry Hryb: He thought it was the stupidest thing ever.
Stephen Toulous: Oh, yeah yeah yeah. 2008.
Eric Neustadter: That was ten years ago.
Larry Hryb: He would come in and like flip the table. He's like "it's the stupidest thing ever". So anyway, that's how you find him.
Eric Neustadter: I still think it is, but you can find me there.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so we'll talk to you guys next time, and hit these guys up on twitter. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week with Name the Game, Laura?
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: Jeff will be back next week, and we'll have some other cool stuff, and we'll talk to you guys next time. Goodbye everybody.
Stephen Toulous: Bye-bye everyone.
Eric Neustadter: Bye.
Laura Massey: Bye.